| If you want... | Install this... | |---|---| | Full, vanilla-friendly respec | Appearance (Dynamic Character Customization) | | Immersive, mirror-based changes | Appearance (A Simple Mirror) | | Totally new looks & styles | Human Tops / Human Long Hair | | To become a space-cat mid-playthrough | Felin + Appearance mod | | To change clothes, not body | Magical Dyes + Wardrobe |
Two primary mods solve this, each with different approaches.
First, let’s address the elephant in the warp drive. Unlike games such as Terraria (which has the Dresser) or Skyrim (with the Face Sculptor), Chucklefish’s space sandbox was designed with a "linear" character identity. The game treats your character’s JSON file as a static document. Race, gender, body type, hairstyle, hair color, and eye color are hard-coded at creation.
You can change clothes easily (vanilla armor and dye are robust), but the fundamental biological and stylistic traits? Immutable. This is particularly painful for roleplayers who want their character to age, get a space-haircut, or change their appearance after a lore-friendly "accident." starbound change character appearance mod
Enter the mods.
Most popular and user-friendly.
If you install only one mod from this article, make it this one. Appearance (often called "Dynamic Character Customization" on the Steam Workshop) is the gold standard. | If you want
What it does: This mod adds a new craftable item: the Identity Card Swapper. Craft it at any basic crafting table (costs a few pixels and copper wires). When you activate it, the full character creation screen re-opens. You can change anything: species, gender, hair, shirt color, pants color, even your ship's name and your character's name.
Why it’s essential:
The Caveat: Changing your race via this mod does not change your ship type. If you start as a Floran (plant ship) and change to an Apex (apex sci-fi ship), you’ll still have a plant ship. For that, you’d need a separate ship-changing mod. First, let’s address the elephant in the warp drive
If you refuse to use mods or play on a vanilla-only server, you can edit your character file manually.
How to do it:
Warning: This is extremely fragile. One wrong comma or missing bracket can corrupt your save. Also, changing your race this way will break your ship layout 90% of the time.