How to Change Gender in Rust

One would expect advanced character customization options from a multiplayer open-world survival game like Rust. At the very least, gender or race customization options. Unfortunately, things aren’t as simple as in most modern videogames.

Once you’ve created your Rust character, it’s tied to your Steam account ID. The game doesn’t prompt you to select your avatar’s gender or race. And once you get the character, that’s it. No do-overs on that Steam ID. It’s clear how this can be frustrating – you’d at least want a choice for choosing your avatar’s gender, right?

In this article, we’re going to see if we can help you change your character’s gender, race, and other features.

How to Change Your Gender in Rust

Officially, there is no way to change your character’s gender inside the game. In fact, you don’t even get to customize your character at the beginning. This is not a part of the developer’s mistake; it’s a deliberate choice. The game creators’ goal was to create a randomly generated, wholly balanced player crowd. And this is the most politically correct way to go about things.

Naturally, this decision has brought frustration to many players, some of whom have even completely given up on the game. Some have just decided to go with the flow, some don’t mind this decision at all, while others have started digging around the game’s code with the goal of finding a way to influence the player’s character appearance.

The most straightforward way to change your character’s gender is to use multiple Steam accounts. Seeing as how your Rust avatar is generated for your Steam ID and directly associated with it, you may have to create new Steam accounts over and over again until you’ve struck a combination that you like. Things are even worse if you are looking for a particular gender, race, genitalia/breast size, haircut, etc.

If you’re using the Steam Family Share feature, and none of the members of your Family Share account are playing Rust, you may get a few more attempts at landing an avatar that you’ll find aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, you have very little control over your character creation in Rust. Nailing the perfect set of features is downright impossible.

How to Hack Your Gender in Rust

To “hack” your Rust gender, do the following:

1. Make sure that there’s a copy of Rust inside your Steam library.
2. Go to your Steam Profile.
   
3. Navigate to Edit Profile.
   
4. Select the My Privacy Settings tab. If your Steam profile isn’t public already, change it.
   
5. Make sure that Rust is running in Administrator mode. Once you’ve set everything up, go to the Steam library.
   
6. Right-click on Rust and select Properties.
   
7. Go to launch options.
   

It is here where you’ll be changing the gender, color, genitalia/breast size, and hairstyle settings. These are the four appearance categories that you can change. However, if you happen to use two codes in the same category, the game will most likely crash. Here are the available codes.

Gender:

• Female: -gdr20f
• Male: -gdr20m

Color:

• Asian: -rc_asn
• Heavy Black: -rcB_high
• Low Black: -rcB_low
• Heavy White: -rcW_high
• Low White: -rcW_low

Genitalia/Breast Size:

• Size 3 (large): -sz6l
• Size 2 (medium): –sz6m
• Size 1 (smallest): -sz6s

Hairstyle:

• Hair style1: -rcH_1
• Hair style2: -rcH_2
• Hair style3: -rcH_3
• Hair style4: -rcH_4
• Hair style5: -rcH_5

Although many users have confirmed this method, there is no guarantee that it will work for you.

Until recently, you could manipulate the Rust launch settings and influence your avatar’s traits. You may stumble upon various online tutorials advising you to make such changes. But the game developers have patched this so it doesn’t work anymore.

Back when they introduced the female avatars (the point where half the characters inside the game suddenly switched to a female), a console variable “dev.gender” appeared, which server admins and moderators used to have access to. This option has also been removed.

How to Mod Your Gender in Rust

Various games, especially the multiplayer open-world ones, enjoy the benefits of a variety of plugins and mods. So, is there a mod/plugin that allows the user to change their avatar’s gender inside the game? Pay a visit to any popular modding community and search for a Rust mod thread. You’re bound to see multiple ones – all dead-ends.

Your Rust character’s appearance is tied to your Steam ID, and no third-party plugin or mod can change this. Allowing modders access to Steam IDs would lead to much bigger problems than Rust’s avatar gender and appearance.

How to Change Your Race in Rust

Race is one of the four appearance categories in Rust. It’s generally referred to as “Color.” Your character’s race is assigned to you just like the gender – entirely randomly. The only way to change your Rust avatar’s race is to use the method mentioned above that outlines the codes for each available race color. If the above method doesn’t work, you’re going to have to keep creating new Steam IDs until you’ve reached a satisfactory appearance.

If you can live with a character appearance that doesn’t fit your aesthetic preferences, we suggest you do so. Messing around with the game’s code can break the game, and creating multiple Steam IDs for Rust’s avatar’s appearance won’t change your gaming experience all that much.

Additional FAQs

1. Can you be a girl in Rust?

Yes, a character can be female in Rust. The problem is in the lack of player customization options– the characters are assigned randomly, so there’s a 50% chance that your character will be of the gender that’s not to your preference.

2. Can I change my character in Rust?

Unfortunately, you can’t have multiple characters in Rust on a single Steam ID. You can’t even delete it and create a new one. If you’re using a family account on Steam, and none of the other members plan on playing Rust, you can try your luck with their accounts.

But keep in mind that Rust avatars are linked to the player’s Steam ID, and there is no deleting them. To change a character by creating a new one, you have to create a brand-new Steam ID and start from scratch, and not many players are prepared to do this.

3. How do you change genders in recruitment in Rust?

The only viable way to change your avatar’s gender in Rust is using the code options mentioned earlier. The only other way to use a character of a different gender would be to create a brand-new one by creating a new Steam ID.

4. Is it worth buying Rust 2020?

If you enjoy PvP gaming environments that are also based on crafting, construction, and survival, you’re going to love Rust. If you don’t care about your character’s appearance, all the better, since Rust randomizes your appearance from gender to hairstyle. So, yes, Rust was worth buying in 2020, and it’s still worth your money in 2021.

5. Does rust have a single player?

Rust doesn’t have a single-player mode because this is a survival game based on PvP interactions. There is a limited PvE mode used as a practice option for people running the game for the first time. However, Rust is all about multiplayer and doesn’t pay too much attention to solo play.

6. Is Rust still popular?

You might not be aware of it, but Rust was first released for Early Access back in 2013. However, thanks to a few high-profile streamers having picked up the game, Rust has soared in popularity and increased interest in the gaming community. So, not only is Rust still popular, but it has spiked in popularity as of recently.

7. Is Rust a hard game?

Rust is a difficult and unforgiving game by design. Playing with mates or in clans is encouraged here. The game rewards collaboration and pack-forming much more than it does solo play. In every sense, Rust is a hard multiplayer survival game.

Gender and Physical Aesthetics in Rust

Changing your character’s appearance in Rust is much more complicated than you might’ve thought. In fact, you aren’t meant to have any say here. However, using the code method we’ve outlined above, may be your only option to create a character that fits your preferences.

The reality is that you’re best off completely disregarding the physical appearance aspect of the game. The devs don’t support character customization and your avatar is tied to your Steam ID, so no plugins or mods can help here. Focus on what truly matters in the game – the actual gameplay.

We hope that we’ve helped you learn how to change your Rust avatar’s appearance. If you have any other questions regarding the game or anything else to add, the comment section below awaits.