INSTALLATION

First, it's important to know that most of the options available in this mod work independent of one another. You don't need to install new arms colors to change the blades, you don't need to change the mechanisms so that you can use different stickers. I definitely recommend using at least some of them together, but if you mostly like the default look and just want to tweak it a bit, you can.

FILE DESCRIPTIONS

I've designed Customizable Mantis Blades to give you all a massive number of options and combinations, but that does mean that installation is slightly more complicated than usual. Instead of packaging everything up into one massive file archive, the mod is divided into five separate downloads to (hopefully) make assembling your new mantis blades a little bit more manageable. All of these files will affect both of V's arms. Here's an explanation of all five files, and what they do:

• Customizable Mantis Blades (#Huginn_MNTSBLD_ArmMesh_) — This is technically designated as the main file, although its really more of a "built-in" dependency for changing arm colors. This is only necessary for Options - Arm Colors, and the other three files work just fine without this one. This contains the modified meshes for the mantis blades that remove your fingernails and change what files the game references for the arm textures, along with new 4K assets for things like texture maps. Without this file, you'll keep your normal skin tone and fingernails. 

•  Arm Colors (#Huginn_MNTSBLD_SkinMat_) — These modify the color and material of V's arms, both when the mantis blades are active and when holstered. When you open up this folder, you'll see eight separate folders; Carbon Fiber, Glossy, Kitsch, Matte, Metallic Paint, Milled Steel, Miscellaneous, & Paisley. These are the available materials you can choose from for your arms, and you can get an idea of what they'll look like in different colors from the uploaded images. This won't function without "Customizable Mantis Blades", so make sure you have both if you want V's fancy new upgrades. If you're missing this file, V's arms are going to turn jet black as the game will have no materials to load.

• Blade Colors (#Huginn_MNTSBLD_BladeMat_) — These modify the actual color of the blades themselves once you've got them deployed, along with part of the metal armature containing the blade to the internal mechanism, which is why I strongly recommend using this with Mechanism Colors even though it isn't required, so that you're not mismatched. There's seven material options for V's standard mantis blades with the standard color options—Brushed Steel, Carbon Fiber, Glossy, Metallic Paint, Militarism, Milled Steel, and Paisley—as well as two variants of Oda's mantis blades with a more limited color palette.

• Mechanism Colors (#Huginn_MNTSBLD_MechMat_) — These change the look of your arm internals, namely the tubing and wires. There's three separate materials for the internals—Copper, Gold, & Steel—that each have the standard color options. This also changes part of the metal armature inside the arm, so again, I strongly recommend using this with Blade Colors even though you don't need to, so that everything matches.

• Sticker Colors (#Huginn_MNTSBLD_Sticker_) — These upscale the metal decals on the arm's exterior to 4K, and change their color. These textures can actually cause a bit of lag when you first deploy your mantis blades after opening the game depending on your computer, but shouldn't cause any problems after that initial load. Stickers are divided into three different groups; Monochrome, Polychrome, & Pride. These also clean up some of the other decals so that your arms look a bit less cluttered.

CYBERPUNK DIRECTORY/UNINSTALLATION

With each category, pick your preferred color/material combination, and then navigate through those folders until you've got an "archive" folder.  You'll want to take that "archive" folder and drag it into your main Cyberpunk 2077 directory (most likely C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Cyberpunk 2077, but your mileage may vary) and that'll install that portion of the mod into your archive\pc\mod folder, or create it if you didn't already have one. Every single file for this mod starts with #Huginn_MNTSBLD, which both places it near the top of your load order and also makes it very easy to search for them if you want to uninstall.

COMPATIBILITY

This mod implements a number of fixes for vanilla bugs with mantis blades, so I recommend uninstalling anything else designed to fix those, such as Cyberarms Patch. As far as I know, there's nothing fixed in that mod (with the mantis blades) that isn't fixed in this, and I've fixed a few things that weren't covered by that as well, so this shouldn't result in any vanilla issues resurfacing.

This mod is designed to be compatible with most body mods, because it'll be placed above them in the load order. If you're using any type of UV or VTK body, it'll just override the relevant files and everything else should work fine. While I really recommend manual installation instead of Vortex, please make sure this mod's files are above UV/VTK files in the load order if you do use Vortex. The files names should place them higher by default, but check this before reporting any problems. This mod is also compatible with the Gymfiend body, although you'll need to install the Gymfiend version of the main file if you want to use any of the arm styles. The Gymfiend version also only contains the files for Male V, but it can be installed with the vanilla version if you still want them for Female V as well.

This mod is also partially compatible with Arasaka Cyberarms, depending on what you've got installed from that. The Blade/Mechanism options will work fine with their arms, and the arms should work with their internals as well. Still, I haven't tested with their stuff at all, so there could be unforeseen issues with combining the two. 

If you previously used anything like Arasaka Cyberarms or Solo Arms, please make sure all files are uninstalled. Some of the leftover files from these mods can cause weird issues like incorrectly rendering your upper arms or making them invisible, not properly displaying new textures, or rendering a second set of arms on top of your arms. This mod only makes changes to V's lower arms, so if you're having any sort of issue with that, you've most likely got a rogue file hanging around that's causing the problem.

OTHER QUESTIONS/CONCERNS

If you've got any problems that aren't covered here or in the FAQ, feel free to leave a comment asking for help. However, just so I know you've at least skimmed this guide, please start your comment with this: "I'm having some trouble with installation, can you help?"

If you don't, I'm going to assume you didn't read this installation guide, so I'm just going to tell you to read this installation guide.