This tutorial was made during early access on version 1.31 and might not work on other versions of the game. I apologize for any grammar mistakes in this tutorial as English is not my first language.

While reading through the discussion section of this game I noticed that a lot of people want to play this game with more personalization to their soldiers looks and gender. While the best solution would be for the game devs to provide us with option to choose our soldiers appearance and gender by using the appearance presets that are already in the game, that option sadly doesn’t exist as of early access game version 1.31. While I did not found out the method to influence your soldiers appearance, I did discover that you can make your soldiers one gender only* so that you can play with 100% Space Marine/Valkyrie combat crew.

* - You sometimes might get 1-2 random new recruits of other gender than your chosen one (I think they might be some kickstarter people that got their portraits in game), but most of the new recruits should be your chosen gender.

1. Locate human.json file in your installation folder (path should be: Xenonauts2\assets\assets\xenonauts\template\strategy\masters\actor\combatant\human\xenonauts\human.json
   
2. In the file locate “gender” section.
   
3. Change default "gender":"random" to either "gender":"female" for 100% women soldiers or to "gender":"male" for 100% men soldiers and then save file.
   
4. Launch the game.
   
5. Start new game with your preferred settings and tutorial disabled tutorial either on or off(You might get soldiers with diferent gender in tutorial but after tutorial you will get soldiers with your choosen gender).
   
6. Your starting soldiers and potential recruits should be now all be of your chosen gender. I personally choose female gender as you can see on screenshots below.

• Q: Females and Males are equal you bigot/I served in army and there were many females that were as strong as men and could handle heavy weapons without problem/Some stinky 4chan Incel wrote this/Aliens and plasma rifles are ok but seeing female on battlefield breaks your immersion?/etc...
  A: No one questions gender equality in real life, but this is a SINGLE PLAYER OFFLINE VIDEO GAME and some people just want to play their game in a way that they find enjoyable. I personally like to play with 100% female army because I’m a filthy degenerate and thought of underground bunker full of dommy momies turn me on(I can thank old polish comedy movie “Seksmisja” for that fetish). In my opinion the best solution would be for the game devs to provide us with option to choose our soldiers appearance and gender by using the appearance presets that are already in the game, so that all the players could make their secret alien fighting special force to be as diverse (in gender and looks) as they like it to be. You already bought the game(or are thinking about buying it) so having more options to customize your exprience(even as basic as this tutorial) is a good thing.
  
  
• Q: Does tutorial have to be disabled?
  A: I don’t know, I tested it only with the tutorial disabled and it worked. You can test it yourself and then comment your results below and then I will update description. It does not have to be disabled. You might get soldiers with diferent genders in tutorial but in game proper you will get soldiers with your prefered gender.
  
  
• Q: Does it work mid-game?
  A: I don’t know, I tested it on new game only and it worked. You can test it yourself and then comment your results below and then I will update description.
  
  
• Q: I sometimes still get 1-2 random new recruits of other gender?
  A: I think they might be some kickstarter people that got their portraits in game, I don’t know how to disable them yet, but most of the new recruits should be your chosen gender.
  
  
• Q: Does it also affect pilot gender?
  A: This does not affect gender of the pilots.
  
  
• Q: Can you change other characteristics of soldiers like race?
  A: There is a "ethnicity":"random" section in the same file as gender section that we were editing. I personally have not touched it so I don’t know if changing it does anything, but you can give it a try and then post your results below and then I will update description.