How to import a custom tattoo replacer back into the game

This guide will show you how to install the custom tattoo replacer.

This guide was originally written by Halk and imported with their permission. You can find the original here.

This is just to import a custom tattoo into the game, in order to actually make your tattoo, you can use and follow the Night City Tattoos guide on Nexus as it’s still pretty relevant and handy on how to make your first replacers.

This will help you from Step 6 and forward from NCT’s guide.

With WolvenKit

After your tattoo is where you want it, and you’ve turned off all the other layers, flip your file vertically - do not just rotate, you gotta use the Flip Canvas Vertical option. Save your file as a .png on a transparent background. From: To:
Open WKit and create a new project, name it as you want your mod’s .archive to look like in the mod folder. Or not, I’m not your dad. Do not save your WKit projects in the Cyberpunk folder.
Your Project Explorer tab will look different, this is just how I like to organize my tattoo making by putting all my files in the same place. (Anything you put in the RAW folder will not make it to the game mod!) I’m replacing a Masc V body tattoo, so I need the original .xbm file of it to make my import. This is where the “Help with file Names” document from NCT’s guide comes handy. I’m replacing the Tattoo 1 in the Character Creator. The guide tells me that the name of its file is tattoo_body__customisation_01. Since it’s for Masc V, I need the _d01 variant. As you can see, I already have the file I need extracted and ready to use down there. Assuming you don’t, head over to the Asset Browser and look for the file you need. Again, refer to the document in NCT’s guide. Double click to add it to your project. Your Project Explorer tab will now look like this!

Once everything is correctly set up, just click Install on the upper menu so it packs and installs your replacement to the game, then test it! (I am not sure if you need to do anything else to use it as a REDmod, but I don’t use REDmod so I won’t guarantee it works if you just use “Install as REDmod”.)

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Last updated 8 months ago

With WolvenKit

After your tattoo is where you want it, and you’ve turned off all the other layers, flip your file vertically - do not just rotate, you gotta use the Flip Canvas Vertical option. Save your file as a .png on a transparent background. From: To:

Open WKit and create a new project, name it as you want your mod’s .archive to look like in the mod folder. Or not, I’m not your dad. Do not save your WKit projects in the Cyberpunk folder.

Your Project Explorer tab will look different, this is just how I like to organize my tattoo making by putting all my files in the same place. (Anything you put in the RAW folder will not make it to the game mod!) I’m replacing a Masc V body tattoo, so I need the original .xbm file of it to make my import. This is where the “Help with file Names” document from NCT’s guide comes handy. I’m replacing the Tattoo 1 in the Character Creator. The guide tells me that the name of its file is tattoo_body__customisation_01. Since it’s for Masc V, I need the _d01 variant. As you can see, I already have the file I need extracted and ready to use down there. Assuming you don’t, head over to the Asset Browser and look for the file you need. Again, refer to the document in NCT’s guide. Double click to add it to your project. Your Project Explorer tab will now look like this!

After you have the .xbm you need, replicate the EXACT SAME PATHING in the Raw folder. Put your edited .png there and rename it to match the .xbm of the tattoo you’re replacing. As such, for me, it’ll look like this:

Head over to the Import/Export Tool window and make sure you’re in the Import tab. Find the .png you just renamed, select it, then click “Process Selected”. If everything went right, you will get a toast message from WKit informing you of that, and the Log tab will also say that the process was done. Still, you can double click on the .xbm of the Archive in the File Explorer, then head over to Texture Preview and check if your tattoo imported correctly. If it did, it’ll be flipped back to the original orientation of the NCT guide you first worked on before flipping on Step 1.

Once everything is correctly set up, just click Install on the upper menu so it packs and installs your replacement to the game, then test it! (I am not sure if you need to do anything else to use it as a REDmod, but I don’t use REDmod so I won’t guarantee it works if you just use “Install as REDmod”.)