Assassin's Creed Valhalla - change gender: Let the Animus choose explained, and how to change between male and female Eivor appearances at any time
How to change Eivor's appearance throughout the game.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla follows Odyssey's lead in allowing you to change your playable lead.
While Odyssey allows you to choose between two different characters at the start of the game, Valhalla features just the one, Eivor, with male and female versions available.
This is justified in-game with the Animus memory stream featuring both options, and for the player, it provides a welcome opportunity to customise their experience.
There's also a combination of the two as part of Let the Animus choose - a more mysterious option with outcomes which aren't apparent from the outset.
Though you have to make this choice early in the game, the good news is it isn't permanent - and you can change it whenever you please.
This page explains how to change gender in Assassin's Creed Valhalla between male and female Eivors, and what the Let the Animus choose option means (if you don't mind some spoilers, of course).
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For more help with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, we have pages on returning to Norway with the Atlas, flyting tips and a complete best Valhalla skills list.
How to change gender to male or female Eivor in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
You'll have to make a decision between male, female or both versions of Eivor pretty much from the start of the game, after the prologue - but as mentioned, none of these choices are fixed, and you can change between them on the fly at any time.
To change Eivor's appearance in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, you need to access the Animus.
This can be done in the Inventory part of the menu. From there, press Up on the D-Pad - as suggested in the lower right corner.
From here, you have three appearance options - Female Eivor, Male Eivor, or Let the Animus choose. Whatever you decide, this happens straight away, as shown in the character preview on the Inventory screen, meaning you can change it as much as you want.
If you're not entirely sure about your choice for a particular cutscene ahead, remember you can manually save at any time, allowing you to play a cutscene, then load it back up and try it with another if you so choose.
The new DLC is here - and we explain how to start The Siege of Paris, as well as new romance options and Treasure Hoard locations. If you're after end game activities in the full game, we can explain how to get Nodens' Arc, Excalibur, Thor gear and other Valhalla armour sets, Power Level and how to get XP fast, Order of the Ancients locations and all Assassin's Creed Valhalla story choices. If you're looking for things to collect and upgrade, we have lists on best skills and Book of Knowledge locations.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's 'Let the Animus choose' appearance option explained
While male and female are fairly obvious in what they do, the Let the Animus choose choice isn't entirely clear from the outset, despite the game describing it as the 'default' choice.
In-game, it describes it as: "The Animus will represent the stronger Female or Male memory-stream, depending on its current strength".
It's a little vague - but the reason is to preserve a small surprise at a certain story moment. Warning of some story spoilers ahead for those who want to find out naturally during the course of the game.
Okay - consider this your final spoiler warning for Let the Animus choose option!
If you decide on Let the Animus choose, you'll play as female Eivor, and will change to male Eivor during certain sections of the story.
Specifically, this is when you visit the mythical worlds of the game, where you are represented as male Eivor as part of a wider plot around your relationship with Odin.
Otherwise - choosing female Eivor or male Eivor will have you as those characters across all areas of the game.
As Let the Animus choose is the default option, this suggests female Eivor is the canonical choice for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, as Let the Animus choose will opt for female Eivor for the 'real world' sections - which is the bulk of the game.