Rise of the Ronin – how to change appearance and layer armour

Learning how to change your appearance and layer your armour in Rise of the Ronin is crucial to enjoyment in a game oozing with style and beautiful outfits.

There is a glamour system, or layered armour system, in Rise of the Ronin. This lets you wear any piece of gear you have previously collected. This overwrites any gear you’re currently wearing and can be applied to weapons.

Getting started in Rise of the Ronin? Read our tips and tricks guide and our page covering how to unlock more Combat Styles. Now, this is how to change appearance and layer armour in Rise of the Ronin.

How to change appearance in Rise of the Ronin

Changing your appearance in Rise of the Ronin is simple and you can do it at any time, as often as you like. Once you reach Yokohama and get access to your Longhouse, you can go back into the character creator.

To do this, go to any Longhouse in the game and choose the Relax option. From here, go to the Change Appearance tab from the list. This will open the same character creator from the start of the game and can change the appearance of you and your Blade Twin. You can even change your gender if you want to, and this doesn’t affect romantic partners or the story in any way.

Once you’re done changing your appearance, you can save your current form to load again later if you change again. Either way, finalise the changes and you will appear back in your Longhouse looking like a whole new person.

How to layer armour and weapons in Rise of the Ronin

Another option you can use in Rise of the Ronin is visually applying any armour you have acquired over your current equipment. This is effectively like layering your gear – sometimes referred to as transmog if you’re a Monster Hunter vet – and it lets you customise your style. To do this, once again head to your Longhouse.

In the menu, select Relax and then go to Redesign. This will bring up a new menu showing all the customisable options and gear you have to choose from. Some are full outfits while others let you mix and match different pieces. There are tons of options for layering your gear and this also applies to weapons.

To unlock something in the Redesign menu, all you need to do is find it once and you can use its appearance whenever you like. The downside to having layered armour in Rise of the Ronin is you won’t see new gear appear on your character if you change anything you’ve got equipped. You will have to completely revert the appearance to default in the Redesign menu.

That’s it for how to change your appearance and layer weapons and armour in Rise of the Ronin. For more, read our guides covering how to get Foreign Books and how to respec spent skill points.

Rise of the Ronin layered gear FAQs

What is layered armour in Rise of the Ronin?

This is a term that simply means changing the appearance of your gear. This can make your equipment look like any other piece of armour you have.

When do you unlock the Longhouse?

The Longhouse is unlocked during the main Ronin Mission after you complete the quest involving the unlocking camera.