Hey and welcome back to the Revelleution and a brand new WWE 2K22 piece. Over the weekend I had the awesome opportunity to play a portion of the WWE 2K22 creation suite thanks to 2K which included this year’s edition of create a superstar.
Create a superstar is one of the most popular modes in the WWE 2K series so I couldn’t wait to dive in and try out this year’s suite. In today’s video I’m going to give a rundown on how I go about the creation process, with a few new tips and tricks thrown in as part of WWE 2K22.
If you’re new to create a superstar the best piece of advice I could give is to go into the mode with a creation in mind, maybe it’s yourself, one of your family members, your ideal superstar or the newest superstar to appear on WWE Television. The creation suite is vast and has so many options that going in blind can often be overwhelming so have that vision in mind before you dive in or you could end up spending hours upon hours with something you will only change the next time you look at it, definitely not something I’ve done year after year.
This year I decided instead of creating my own superstar I would instead set myself a challenge and take a fresh approach with something new. With that in mind I decided to take a Wrestling name and persona generator to give me a brief idea of what we would be creating. My generator provided me with Sofia Neidhart who is a babyface superstar who strives to continue her family’s legacy. Thanks to this information I know that ideally I want to create a superstar in the same vein as the likes of Natalya, Bret and Jim the Anvil Neidhart who are all superstars in WWE 2K22. This means I’ll be working with a black and pink palette as well as using attires similar to that of the Hart Family and nothing too flashy, sunglasses, jackets, maybe some leather, the whole shibang.
When starting your WWE 2K22 Creation process you are welcomed with a class selection sceen which includes the Stiker, Technician, Powerhouse and High Flyer classes.
The striker class is your typical balanced superstar who uses quick kicks and punches to dissect their opponent. Superstars in this class excel in striking and Stamina. These are your Asuka’s, Sonya Deville’s and Shayna Baszler’s of the women’s wrestling scene.
The technician class whilst possessing less strength and defence provide more agility and technique to your superstar and are always one step ahead of their opponent. Superstars in this class excel in grappling and technique, think Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair.
The High Flyer class is where the true fun happens with superstars having much more agility, being quick and agile whilst relying on high risk moves from the top rope even at the risk of their own health. These superstars excel in speed and athleticism, these are your superstars like fan favourite Naomi.
Finally we have the powerhouse class who possess the most strength of the classes and are unstoppable forces of nature. The powerhouse superstars perform earth shattering strikes and bone crushing grapples that can mow down any opponent, think Rhea Ripley and Tamina.
With our character in mind I think it’s best we go with the Technician class as we want someone who can take care of themselves in the ring and somewhat of a submission specialist. When you’re done with the class selection you now enter the Persona selection screen which has a whole range of options including Wrestling, Streetwear, Battlewear, Cosplay, Formalwear, Future, Past, Sports, Entertainer and Occupations. When you’ve selected your persona it creates a brand new tab in your creation suite which highlights all of the pieces associated with that persona. So if you select the likes of the cosplay option for example you’re more likely to see pieces inspired by your favourite super heroes or movies.
With our superstar in mind the most fitting persona hands down is the Wrestling persona which will filter in the best attires suited to those focused purely on becoming a WWE Superstar.
Once you’re done with persona’s It’s time to give your superstar a name, in our case the hard work is already done so we simply put in our Sofia details and give her a custom social media handle, which I just had to pair with a pun. Once you’ve selected your name the reigns are pretty much off and you’re free to dive in and do whatever you want.
I personally like to start at the top and customise the face and body of a superstar first as sometimes the attires and features you select for a superstar don’t quite match up with a face you have in mind. Like in previous years WWE 2K22 comes with a variety of face templates to speed up the creation process with a bunch of faces that represent different races and face shapes. I personally like to then jump straight into face photo capture because I know I’ll have to alter the face regardless to best mesh the photo with the face. Usually I would upload a custom face scan but because I’m not connected to community creations I’m going to use one of the templates which now includes Christina Diem Pham. I’m not going to try and create Pham because quite honestly I’m scared she would kick my ass if I didn’t do her justice.
Using a face photo can truly elevate your custom superstar so I highly advise using your own or one of the default photos seen here. You can also select the edges of the photo face texture to provide your characters overall skin tone which best matches the photo you’ve chosen. Once you’ve selected your photo line it up with the existing facial features then hop into the facial structure and facial region options to tidy up any overlapping textures.
One of my favourite things this year is the update to the skin tones tab which comes with four preset skin tones with a range of different shades within those tabs available. Alternatively you can go with something out of this world by selecting absolutely any colour you see fit. From there you can select what teeth you want, the material of your teeth, the colour of teeth you want and how many of said teeth you want. It might seem silly but it can actually be pretty useful when telling custom stories with your character who might have lost a tooth or two after a hard battle. You can also apply blemishes and wrinkles with the option of baggy eyes, crow’s feet and frown lines which can be especially useful when creating older supestars.
Once you’re done editing the face of your superstar it’s time to jump into the body customisation starting with selecting your body type. This time around there is a whole variety of body types and shapes to choose from with Thin, Medium, Large and heavy body types among those available. Each body type tab comes with a variety of options with six packs and abs among the available options. You can also customise the height of your superstar by pressing the x or square button with the shortest available height starting at 5 ft 2. From there you can once again alter your superstars skin tone as well as adding veins to various limbs including arms, the stomach and legs to create a perfectly toned superstar.
Once you’re done customising your superstars face and body it’s time for the attire process! I personally like to start out by removing the entrance attire option and simply copy over my attire later down the customisation process. From here you have the option to import an attire from your favourite WWE Superstars but we’re going to create our very own. From here I like to also hop in and out of the tabs and remove all existing pieces so I can start with a blank canvas, it’s then time to choose your hairstyle, eye colour and eyebrows before moving on to applying lashes, lipstick and makeup.
For Sofia we wanted a hairstyle that was a little edgy that screams I can look good but still kick your ass in the process so we decided to go for this one. Alternatively there’s a whole bunch of hairstyles available including short hairstyles, old school cuts and former WWE Superstar pieces.
Because we’re working with a pink and black theme I decided to change the hair colour to black with the option to change the hair material and shine if I want. With the theme at the forefront of my mind I decided to use the hair dye feature to add in some pink hair dye to the braids on the side of the head to really hone in on the pink and black.
Once you’re done with the hair you can alter you eye colour and eye design with a variety of options available including emoji eyes, teeth eyes and biohazard eyes and the ability to customise or clone individual eyes.
From here we can customise our eyebrows, eyelashes and lipstick which I decided to once again pair with the pink and black theming. There’s also the ability to apply moveable and immovable scars which include cuts, slashes and scars as well as applying face paint and face tattoos. You can also apply scars and tattoos to the upper and lower body of your superstar which include the back and hands of your creation.
When you’re done with the head and body features it’s time for my favourite part, the attires. When creating my superstars I generally like to leave the head portions such as masks and glasses until the final moments as you can get a better understanding of what exactly you want instead of trying to get the remaining pieces to match with your head pieces. I also tend to completely avoid entrance pieces like jackets and hoods until we copy and paste our in-ring attire later on. Obviously this is purely just how I like to create so bare that in mind and create the way you think best suits you.
Jumping in to the upper body attire pieces we have a variety of pieces to choose from including brassieres, tops 1 and top 2 which when combined can create a really sweet look when layered together. We also have jackets and outfits as well as elbow pads, upper and lower arms, hands, nails and fingers which can all be applied to the left or right hand side.Attire pieces can also be mirrored and copied over to the corresponding side to ease the process and save time. There’s also neck, back and torso accessories which include pieces like chokers, necklaces, backpacks and wings that can really elevate your look with those small details.
Thanks to the brand new persona tab we can now filter pieces for our specific theming which in our case was the wrestling persona which showcases pieces that are ideal for wrestling creations.
Sticking with our theme I decided to pick attire pieces that were a little edgy with a bit of flair here and there to make the attire pop in places. I could have easily picked previous Nattie attire parts but quite frankly that would be cheating. Thanks to the variety of options we can select a variety of colour and material options including carbon fibre, metal and plastic which can give a piece a totally different look. You can also apply custom logos, lettering and stitching to elevate pieces with many creators making some seriously awesome attires out of generic tops and outfits. It also allows creators to apply some personality to their attires for example I decided to add to slogan “Feel the Fia” to Sofia’s T-Shirt to make it more custom to her.
Once you’re done with the upper body it’s time for the lower section which covers pieces like underwear, wrestling tights, bottoms and belts. We also have knee pads, socks, kickpads and boots with a whole range of shapes and styles to choose from.
Once you’re done with your in-ring attire you have the option to change up some of the colour palette with the parts colour tab which allows to you tweak some of the colours of your attire if they don’t match up with the rest of your pieces.
When you’ve fully decided on your attire you can either end the process here if you don’t want an entrance attire of you can copy your in-ring attire and begin adding some flourishes to make your custom superstar pop during their entrance.
This is usually the portion when I would apply head pieces and jackets so let’s hop right back in. The head attire parts include Headgear, Hooded Clothing, High Collar Clothing, Head Accessories, Headwear, caps, Masks, glasses, face covers and piercings. The headgear, Head accessories, headwear, masks and face covers offer up some seriously wacky combinations including cat masks, pumpkin heads, unicorn horns and so much more. High collar and hooded clothing on the other hand offer up pieces worn by the likes of Charlotte Flair and former WWE Legends which really help make an entrance look grand. Masks within the creation suite include iconic pieces worn by superstars such as this year’s cover star Rey Mysterio as well as former RAW Women’s Champion Asuka.
One thing the Neidhart family are known for are their iconic jackets and sunglasses so there was absolutely no way I was leaving the creation suite without either piece on Sofia. Speaking of jacket’s now is usually the time I would hop back in to select one of the many awesome jackets in the upper body selection which comes with pieces from Asuka, Bayley, Kay Lee Ray, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks just to name a few.
Once you’re done with the entire creation process it’s time to apply those finishing touches by updating your personal information. This tab includes the name information, your menu pose, heel or face status, hometown, personality trait, crowd signs, custom side plates and the new custom render feature. Not being connected to community creations meant I couldn’t upload my custom render for Sofia but I can’t wait to use and update this feature down the road.
When it comes to your menu pose you have the option to individually position your facial animations, hand signs and body pose or you can simply set all at once with templates from previous WWE 2K games. Whilst it may seem easier to set all at once I advise going for the individually set option as it’s fun to play around with the facial animations and pick the face that best suits your character. If not just make them look stupid, because that’s always fun too. There’s also the option to decide between using your entrance or in-game attire for your headshot if you see fit.
For personality traits like in previous games you can apply points in favour of your superstar being egotistical, prideful, disrespectful, respectful, desperate, perseverant, treacherous, loyal, cowardly, bold, aggressive or disciplined. For our created superstar I decided to make her prideful but respectful, loyal and perseverant, bold with a slight aggressive side. When it comes to custom side plates I decided the most fitting plates were those of Natalya’s and mirrored the plates on either side. Had I wanted I could have applied different plates to the left and right.
Once you’re finished updating all of the personal information you can now enter the new performance tab which provides a quick method to apply entrance and victory scenes, taunts, signatures and finishers in the same method as seen in WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
Whilst it doesn’t provide a full list of available options it does make the creation process somewhat quicker and allows you to dive straight into a match once you’re done.
The final option available is the statistics which showcase paybacks, attributes and superstar classes just in case you want to switch things up. This year’s available paybacks include Resiliency, Low Blow Blow, Poison Mist, Brass Knuckles, Run-In, Move Thief, Blackout and comeback.
The attributes tab allows you really make your superstar unique with points applied to arm and leg power, grapple and running offence, aerial offence and range, power and technical submission offence, strike, grapple and aerial reversal, durability, power and technical submission defence, Pin escape, strength, stamina, agility, speed, recovery, special and finisher. Each attribute point can really make your superstar unique and help determine their specialities. Once all is done you now have the option to upload your custom character or creation to community creations which is something many of us have been asking for for years now.
Well that’s our WWE 2K22 custom character creation tutorial and I really hope you managed to take something away from today’s video especially if you’re new to the series. Thanks again to 2K for giving me this hands- on experience, I honestly can’t wait to see what all the amazing creators come up with this year as I’m forever blown away by their talents. As someone who enjoys create a superstar yet isn’t the best at creating things, I love how simple the creation suite is with tools on hand that are only limited by your own creativity. When WWE 2K22 hits shelves I suggest taking the online name and personality generator and coming up with your very own random superstars to really challenge your creation process and make you work outside your norms.