If you’ve spent hours rolling a character in Enshrouded only to realize you hate their hairstyle or facial structure 10 hours into your playthrough, you’re not alone. Most of us rush through character creation screens when we’re eager to dive into the game’s vast, mist-covered open world, and we only notice small flaws once we start seeing our survivor in cutscenes or third-person mode. That’s why one of the most common questions new players ask is can you change your appearance in Enshrouded after you’ve already started your save file. The short answer is yes, but there are a few hoops you’ll have to jump through first, and some customization options are locked behind specific progression milestones. We’ve tested every method of editing your survivor’s look across 3 separate playthroughs to break down exactly what you can change, how to unlock it, and what limitations you might run into.
Can You Change Your Appearance in Enshrouded At Any Point?
You won’t have access to appearance edits right when you start a new save file. Unlike many other survival games that let you tweak your look from the pause menu at any time, Enshrouded locks this feature behind a craftable item you can only get after a few hours of early game progression. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck with your initial choices forever, though – you just need to hit a few basic milestones first.
It’s worth noting that not all character choices are editable later, even once you unlock the customization tool. Core choices like your base body type and the origin perk you picked at character creation can’t be adjusted without starting a brand new save. So if you picked the Strength origin for a melee build and later decide you want to play a mage, you won’t be able to swap that perk via appearance edits.
For purely cosmetic changes, though, you can make as many tweaks as you want for free once you have the right tool. I’ve changed my survivor’s hair color 4 times in my current playthrough to match different armor sets, and there’s no limit to how often you can adjust your look.
How to Unlock Appearance Customization Mid-Playthrough
The item you need to edit your appearance after creation is called the Mirror of Remembrance, and you can unlock its recipe very early in the game if you prioritize the right quests. If you’ve been waiting to fix that lopsided nose you accidentally picked at creation, this tool is the answer to your can you change your appearance in Enshrouded question.
To get access to the Mirror recipe, you’ll need to complete the following steps:
I made the mistake of skipping the Carpenter quest my first playthrough, and I spent 20 hours stuck with a neon pink hairstyle I picked on a whim before I realized how to fix it. Don’t make that same mistake – prioritize rescuing the Carpenter within your first 5 hours of play if you care about adjusting your look later. You only need one Mirror, too – you can pick it up and move it to any new base you build as you explore the map, so don’t waste rare resources crafting multiple copies.
What Appearance Features Can You Edit After Character Creation?
The Mirror of Remembrance pulls up the exact same full customization menu you used at the start of the game, so you can adjust almost every cosmetic feature you picked during initial creation. There are only a small handful of locked features that can’t be changed once you confirm your initial character build.
Features you can edit for free as many times as you want include hair style and color, facial hair, eye color, scars, tattoos, makeup, voice tone, and even your survivor’s display name and menu pose. You can also adjust your skin tone and facial structure as much as you want, which is a nice touch many other survival games leave out of post-creation customization.
If you want to change how your equipped armor looks, that’s a separate feature called Armor Transmogrification, which you’ll unlock later when you rescue the Tailor NPC from a mid-game shroud dungeon. Transmog lets you make any equipped armor look like another armor set you’ve already collected, without changing its stats. I usually run heavy armor for the defense bonus, but I transmog it to look like the starting Wanderer set because I prefer the more casual, adventurer aesthetic. It’s a small feature, but it makes a huge difference if you care about your survivor’s vibe more than min-maxing your visible stats.
The only features you can’t edit with the Mirror are your base body type preset, your origin perk, and your class perks once you’ve selected your first class. If you want to change any of those, you’ll need to start a new save file entirely.
Common Appearance Customization Mistakes to Avoid
Even though the customization process is pretty straightforward once you unlock the Mirror, there are a few common pitfalls that catch new players off guard, especially if they’re playing on multiplayer servers. Keeping these tips in mind will save you a lot of frustration later.
First, if you’re playing on a public or friend group server, make sure you have multiplayer building permissions at the base where the Mirror is placed, otherwise you won’t be able to interact with it. Most server owners give all players build access at the main shared base, but if you’re using a Mirror at someone’s private outpost, you might get locked out. You can always craft your own Mirror for your private base if you run into this issue.
Second, remember to toggle on the show custom appearance setting in your multiplayer menu if you want other players to see your edits. A lot of players miss this toggle and wonder why no one can see their new haircut or tattoo. The setting is turned on by default for most players, but it’s worth double-checking if you’re playing with friends.
Third, don’t feel pressured to save every change you make. You can mess around with different hairstyles, tattoos, and makeup looks in the Mirror menu for as long as you want without saving, which is great if you’re feeling indecisive. I usually spend 10 minutes testing different looks after every big story milestone just for fun, and I rarely save most of them.
At the end of the day, it’s totally normal to want to tweak your survivor’s look as you get further into your Enshrouded playthrough and figure out what aesthetic fits your playstyle best. The good news is that you don’t have to be stuck with the choices you made in the first 10 minutes of the game, as long as you take a little time to unlock the right tools. Whether you want to fix a wonky facial feature you didn’t notice at creation, swap your hair color to match your new armor set, or just give your survivor a fun new tattoo to mark a big in-game milestone, the process is quick and painless once you know how it works. If you’ve been asking can you change your appearance in Enshrouded, now you have all the info you need to customize your survivor exactly how you want, no restart required.