This guide only assumes that you have some basic computer literacy. If you can manage to install mods but have difficulty following this simple guide, it’s probably my problem; give me feedbacks.

1. Download and run BattleTech Save Editor.

Load your save. It is always advised to make a backup/duplicate save before editing.

If you don’t know where your save files are, you can check some online sources like this article on PCGamingWiki.

3. After the save is successfully loaded in BT Save Editor, go to the Pilot Editor window, select the pilot you intend to edit, check “Use Custom Portrait” under Custom Portrait and paste the file name for the portrait of your choice in BATTLETECH\Mods\CommanderPortraitLoader\Portraits.

4. Save and exit BT Save Editor.


A quick demonstration below.

In this new save (running on XAI, hence the commander icon has a different colour) I have edited the appearance of the commander during the initial character creation, and edited two other pilots with the customize button: Medallion (appearance) and Sparrow (name, gender and voice). No edits are made to Radar and Timeline.

After loading CPL and Animechwarrior, you can see that those who went through in-game customization still have vanilla portraits, even the one who received no appearance edit.