Night City is a place where style is everything. Your appearance can open doors or slam them in your face. When I first launched the game, I spent a good hour in the character creator, only to discover that my V looked wrong under the streets’ neon lights. A familiar story. If you want to touch up your V’s appearance, fix a look that suffered under bad lighting or completely reinvent your character, you’re in the right place.
This guide covers every way to change your appearance in Cyberpunk 2077, from quick adjustments at a mirror to powerful mods that let you rebuild your character from scratch. It’s just one part of my broader Night City chronicle, which you’ll find in my main Cyberpunk 2077 hub.
Changing your appearance in-game: mirrors and ripperdocs
Fortunately, CD Projekt RED added ways to change your appearance without starting over. They’re simple, with a few limitations.
Using mirrors in V’s apartments
The most basic makeover tool is the mirror in V’s apartment and other safehouses. This feature arrived with patch 1.5, and honestly, it was sorely needed. Walk up to the bathroom mirror, interact with it and select “Change Appearance.” It’s free, and you can use it as often as you like.
Here’s what you can change in front of the mirror:
- Hairstyle and hair color
- Makeup (eyes, lips, cheeks)
- Nail color
- Piercings and their color
- Some minor facial details
Ideal for quick adjustments: trying a new hair color before a major mission, or removing lipstick that looked great in the creator but clashes with everything else.
Visiting a ripperdoc for bigger changes
For more extensive work, visit a ripperdoc. These underground surgeons can install chrome and reshape your entire face. Once you’re in the chair, choose the dialogue option for changing your appearance. This opens the full character creation screen from the start of the game, with a few key restrictions.
What ripperdocs can change:
- Everything that is available in the mirror
- Facial structure (jaw, nose, ears, etc.)
- Skin tone and type
- Cyberware appearance
- Scars and other blemishes
What you can’t change, even at a ripperdoc:
- Tattoos. Facial and body tattoos are chosen permanently during character creation.
- Your basic body type and voice.
These restrictions are where the base game draws the line. And while its standard hairstyles are decent, they can start to feel repetitive.
How can you see V in third person?
Fair question. You’ve spent ages adjusting your face, choosing the perfect outfit and installing appearance mods, only to get stuck in first person for 99% of your playtime. Feels like a bit of a waste sometimes, doesn’t it?
Fortunately, the game gives you a few built-in options to admire your work:
- Photo Mode: Your best tool, hands down. It freezes the action and gives you a free camera to rotate around your character, letting you frame the perfect shot from any angle and under any lighting.
- Motorcycles: Riding any motorcycle automatically switches to third person. It’s a great way to see V moving through Night City.
- Inventory screen: A quick and easy way to see the full outfit. The downside is that it’s just a static pose against a boring menu background.
- Mirrors: You can catch your reflection in mirrors around the world, not just in your apartment. A small touch, but it helps with immersion.
These methods work for a quick look, but they’re all temporary. Close the menu or get off the bike, and you’re back to being a floating pair of hands with a gun. That’s a little disappointing when you want to see your character fighting or strolling through Night City’s busy streets. It’s one of the main reasons I went looking for alternatives.
Mods for full character customization
This is where the real fun starts. Cyberpunk 2077’s modding community is incredible, and its tools blow the built-in options out of the water.
Appearance Change Unlocker (ACU)
If you install just one customization mod, make it this one. Appearance Change Unlocker is your key to unlocking the entire character creator anytime, anywhere. It lets you change things the base game permanently locks after the start: your voice, body type and, yes, those annoying tattoos you thought you were stuck with.
It even has a preset manager, a lifesaver when you want to save a favorite look or try someone else’s. You’ll need a few framework mods, such as Cyber Engine Tweaks and Redscript, to run it, but the setup is worth it.
Character Customization Anywhere
As its name suggests, Character Customization Anywhere adds a hotkey that opens the customization menu wherever you are. No fast traveling home or searching for the nearest ripperdoc. It’s a huge quality-of-life improvement, especially if, like me, you spend half your time in Photo Mode trying to get the perfect shot.
One quick keypress, a small adjustment to V’s makeup, and you’re taking photos again. It works perfectly with ACU. My gallery of custom hairstyles for V wouldn’t be the same without this tool’s convenience.
EKT Custom Character Creator — FEMV ONLY
If you play female V, this mod is a game changer. It completely overhauls face creation, adding 21 new base faces that, combined with all the sliders, produce around four million combinations. The author even doubled the face mesh’s polygon count, making facial features smoother and more detailed. A must-have if the default female V faces feel a little… generic.
Advanced V Customization
Always wanted the unique cyberware you see on NPCs? This one’s for you. Advanced V Customization gives your V exclusive NPC augmentations, such as Evelyn Parker’s iconic golden arms or even Ozob Bozo’s ridiculous grenade nose. It adds plenty of new meshes for both male and female V, letting you fully embrace Night City’s cyber-freak aesthetic.
The finishing touches on your Night City legend
Customizing V is more than just playing dress-up; it’s creating a character that feels right for the story you want to experience. Whether you use a simple in-game mirror or a whole set of powerful mods, you have all the tools to create a truly unique mercenary. Vanilla options aren’t bad for minor edits, but for anyone serious about personalization, the real power lies in the modding community.
So get back in that ripperdoc’s chair and create the V you were meant to be. Just remember to back up your saves first. Trust me.
Still here? Let’s answer a few questions
Can I change my tattoos after I start playing?
In the vanilla game, no. Tattoos are permanent. Appearance Change Unlocker (ACU), however, removes that restriction entirely and gives you full control over your ink. If you don’t like mods, the alternative is a save editor such as CyberCAT, but that’s a much more technical process. For a truly distinctive look, combine new tattoos with custom body mods from Nexus.
Why does my V look so different in-game compared with the character creator?
Lighting. The character creator uses flat, neutral lighting that you almost never find in Night City. The city is all harsh neon, deep shadows and atmospheric fog. The result? Your character’s face, skin tone and makeup can look completely different during gameplay. The best advice is to use Photo Mode to check your character under different lighting before settling on a look. Pay attention to the side profile: that’s often where oddities show up.
Can I change my character’s gender or voice?
Again, not in the base game. Your chosen body type and voice are locked in. With ACU, though, you can change them whenever you want. One thing matters here: changing your voice also changes the pronouns NPCs use for you. If you’re far into the story, hearing characters suddenly switch from “he” to “she” or vice versa can be a little jarring. But the option is there if you need it. As with my face mod guide, experimentation is the key to finding what suits your playthrough.
