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Expanded Citizens is the safest starting point for visual variety: it activates more than 1,500 unused clothing, color, and appearance references without adding crowd actors. Nova Crowds is for players who want runtime controls, randomized swap pools, modded-character support, and optional density changes, but it requires Cyber Engine Tweaks and a settings interface. No More Duplicate NPCs focuses on repeated faces and outfits by randomizing garments into more than 10,000 combinations while leaving quest, gang, and police NPCs out of its swaps.
There is no standardized FPS benchmark for these mods. Performance advice below separates documented design behavior from user reports, so you can choose and troubleshoot without treating anecdotal results as laboratory measurements.
Quick comparison
| Mod | Primary purpose | Effect on crowd count | Dependencies and compatibility | Performance guidance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expanded Citizens | Unlocks unused clothing, colors, and appearance references | Does not increase the number of NPCs | Check for conflicts with other appearance archives | Usually little impact because it changes references rather than population |
| Nova Crowds | Runtime NPC replacement with configurable pools and randomization | Can change composition and, with optional settings, density | Cyber Engine Tweaks required; Native Settings UI used by the main version; main and customizable files cannot coexist | More Swap Cycles increase loading time and crash risk; the customizable build is described as more stable |
| No More Duplicate NPCs | Randomizes garments to reduce repeated appearances | Does not target quest, gang, or police NPCs | Check game-version requirements and avoid overlapping appearance-restoration systems | Users report stutter or high-density crashes on already-loaded systems; tune Strategy Frequency |
| Crowd E3 2018 Restored | Restores earlier appearance data | Adds appearance variety | Potentially redundant or conflicting with No More Duplicate NPCs | Do not assume stacking improves variety |
How NPC restoration mods work
Cyberpunk 2077 stores many clothing, color, and character-appearance references that ordinary crowds do not always use. Restoration mods can expose those references, replace an NPC at runtime, or randomize parts of an outfit. Those are different operations even when the result looks similar on the street.
Reference activation versus runtime replacement
Expanded Citizens works primarily by activating references already present in the game. It does not create additional crowd actors, so the engine is not asked to simulate a larger population. Nova Crowds makes decisions while the game is running: it selects replacement candidates from pools and can expose controls for categories, randomization, and density. No More Duplicate NPCs changes garment combinations to make repeated civilians less obvious, while deliberately excluding protected NPC groups.
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Why crowd count matters
Adding more visual alternatives is not the same as adding more people. A reference-only mod can improve variety with little population overhead. A runtime replacer that also changes density can increase work during spawning and streaming. This is why a mod with fewer files can still be heavier in a busy market or during a scripted crowd event.
Expanded Citizens: the appearance-first choice
What it adds
Vortex Gaming describes Expanded Citizens as activating unused clothing, color, and appearance references. Its published total is more than 1,500 appearance variations (Vortex Gaming, 2025). The practical effect is broader visual rotation among ordinary citizens without asking the game to increase the number of actors.
Compatibility and performance
Because the mod changes appearance references, its main risk is an archive conflict with another mod that edits the same appearance data. Install it as a single appearance layer first, then add other crowd systems only after confirming that civilians still load correctly. The available description characterizes performance impact as little because population size is unchanged; it is not a measured FPS guarantee.
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Who should choose it
- Choose Expanded Citizens when clothing and color variety matter more than menu-driven control.
- Use it as a low-risk first test on a system that already runs crowded areas acceptably.
- Do not expect it to remove every duplicate face or outfit; it broadens the pool rather than enforcing a duplicate-avoidance strategy.
Nova Crowds: runtime control and modded-character support
Features and release details
The official Nexus page lists version 1.0.9-cv, updated 17 January 2025. It describes dynamic crowd replacement that adds new appearances, including support for modded characters. Swap pools can be randomized and organized by category. Optional settings can affect density, making this the most configurable of the three main choices.
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Required frameworks
Cyber Engine Tweaks is required. The main version uses Native Settings UI for its in-game menu; the page also lists optional Game Entity Examiner Tool and Native Settings UI integrations. Keep these frameworks aligned with your installed game build before troubleshooting the crowd mod itself.
Main versus customizable files
The customizable version exposes four tabs for adding or removing NPCs from swap pools by TweakDBID. The page describes that build as more stable. The experimental main version includes additional categories such as androids, children, gang members, sex workers, and Phantom Liberty NPCs. The two file variants are not compatible: perform a full uninstall of one before installing the other.
Stability safeguards and Swap Cycles
The changelog records a 1.5-second initialization delay intended to reduce launch crashes, removal of NPCs with too few alternate appearances, and an android-reaction toggle intended to address a running T-pose bug. It also reduced the maximum Swap Cycles value because higher values “massively increases load times and likelyhood of crashes.” Treat Swap Cycles as a stability control, not a quality slider: raise it only when the current setting is reliable and loading times remain acceptable.
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- Choose it when you want to curate which NPC categories can be swapped.
- Use it when support for modded characters or density experimentation is more important than minimal setup.
- Prefer the customizable build if you value the documented stability guidance over the experimental build’s wider category coverage.
No More Duplicate NPCs: the repetition-focused option
Scope and version
The Nexus page identifies MisterChedda as the author. Version 1.4 was originally uploaded 20 July 2024 and updated 24 March 2025. PCGamesN reports that it randomizes garments into over 10,000 combinations (PCGamesN, 2026).
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Protected NPC groups
The mod excludes quest, gang, and police NPCs, according to that report. This narrower scope helps protect mission presentation and scripted encounters, and it distinguishes the mod from a blanket replacement of every character in the city.
Performance reports and tuning
Available user discussions are anecdotal rather than controlled tests. Players report stutter when the machine is already heavily loaded, crashes in high-density areas, and possible CPU-thread choke. The pinned troubleshooting advice is to lower the Strategy Frequency slider. Discussion also notes that duplicate swaps can still occur at 0% when the setting uses existing appearances, so zeroing the frequency is not a promise of perfect uniqueness.
Who should choose it
Pick No More Duplicate NPCs when seeing the same outfits repeatedly is the main immersion problem and you are willing to tune frequency or remove the mod if dense locations become unstable. Its protected-NPC scope is useful, but it does not make it automatically compatible with every other appearance-restoration archive.
Compatibility: what can be combined safely
No More Duplicate NPCs and Crowd E3 2018 Restored
The No More Duplicate NPCs author gives a direct warning about Crowd E3 2018 Restored: “Yes that mod causes increased duplicates due to how it is architected. CDPR has rearranged NPC entities/appearances a bit” (MisterChedda, Nexus Mods, 2024). The statement means the two systems can overlap in the data they interpret. Treat them as competing layers until current reports for your game build show otherwise; stacking them is not a guaranteed way to obtain more variety.
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Expanded Citizens with runtime replacers
Expanded Citizens can be a useful baseline, but shared appearance archives can still conflict with Nova Crowds or another restoration package. Add one layer at a time and verify civilian spawning, scripted scenes, and save loading before introducing the next layer.
Nova Crowds variants
Never install the main and customizable Nova Crowds files together. Switching requires a full uninstall, not simply copying the other archive over the first one. Leaving both variants present can produce ambiguous scripts, settings, or asset loads.
Installation and maintenance checklist
- Confirm the installed Cyberpunk 2077 build against each mod’s current Nexus requirements before updating the game or the mod.
- Install Nova Crowds through Vortex or by manually extracting its files into the Cyberpunk 2077 root folder. Install Cyber Engine Tweaks and, for the main build’s menu, Native Settings UI first.
- Choose either the Nova Crowds main file or the customizable file; uninstall the current variant completely before switching.
- Add only one appearance or crowd layer initially. Launch a save, visit a dense district, and check ordinary civilians plus a scripted encounter.
- Keep framework dependencies current, especially Cyber Engine Tweaks and any settings UI integration required by your selected build.
- Back up saves and retain a copy of the previously working mod files before changing several archives at once.
Performance troubleshooting by symptom
| Symptom | Likely contributor | First adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Longer loading or launch crashes after installing Nova Crowds | Swap Cycles set too high or both variants present | Lower Swap Cycles and verify that only one variant is installed |
| Running T-pose on android characters | Android reaction behavior | Enable the changelog’s android-reaction toggle and retest |
| Stutter in already busy areas with No More Duplicate NPCs | High Strategy Frequency or an already saturated CPU | Lower Strategy Frequency; if necessary, use existing appearances or remove overlapping layers |
| Crashes only in very dense locations | Population or swap workload exceeding available CPU headroom | Reduce swap frequency or density settings and test the same location again |
| Duplicate civilians remain | Existing-appearance mode or overlapping appearance data | Review the selected strategy and remove competing restoration archives |
None of these adjustments is a substitute for a benchmark. The published material does not establish a universal FPS loss, minimum CPU, or required graphics card for any of the mods.
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Which mod should you install?
For the least disruptive visual upgrade
Start with Expanded Citizens. It addresses the largest number of appearance references in the available descriptions while leaving crowd count unchanged.
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For menus and granular control
Use Nova Crowds, preferably its customizable build if stability is your priority. Plan for dependency maintenance and test Swap Cycles and density settings in the areas where you normally play.
For repeated outfits and faces
Use No More Duplicate NPCs, then tune Strategy Frequency if stutter or high-density crashes appear. Keep the protected-NPC behavior in mind: it improves ordinary crowds, not every character in Night City.
For an existing Crowd E3 2018 Restored setup
Do not add No More Duplicate NPCs automatically. The author’s compatibility comment indicates that the older restoration architecture can increase duplicates after CDPR rearranged NPC entities and appearances. Remove one layer and test before deciding which behavior you prefer.
Bottom line
Expanded Citizens offers the clearest low-overhead path to more visual variety. Nova Crowds offers the deepest runtime control but demands framework management and conservative Swap Cycles settings. No More Duplicate NPCs is the most direct response to repeated civilian outfits, with anecdotal performance caveats that make frequency tuning essential. Install one layer at a time, keep variants separate, and judge stability in your own densest areas rather than relying on an unverified FPS promise.
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