Goth AI Girlfriend: How to Make One

Black hime cut, pale grey eyes, black lipstick, a silver lip ring and two full sleeves of roses and thorns she drew herself. That is Sayo, one of the characters on myVirtual.love. Her whole look fits in one sentence.

A goth girlfriend is a set of specific choices about hair, skin, makeup, clothes and the way she talks. That makes her easy to build once you know where each choice goes. This guide covers the four goth styles worth choosing between, the Create fields that carry each one and the one box that decides whether she still looks goth in her twentieth photo.

Pick your goth first

Goth covers several looks. Deciding which one you want before you start saves you rebuilding her later.

Trad goth. The original look from the post-punk clubs of the late 1970s and early 1980s: teased black hair, heavy eyeliner, fishnets, band shirts and a lot of silver.

Romantic goth. Lace, velvet, corsets and high collars, closer to a Victorian portrait than a club.

Pastel goth. Black with pink, lilac or mint, cute details worn with a straight face. It suits anime especially well.

Cyber goth. Neon against black, platform boots, vinyl, goggles pushed up into the hair.

You are not locked into one. Her outfit changes from photo to photo, so a trad goth on Tuesday can be in velvet on Friday while her face, hair and tattoos stay exactly where they were.

Realistic or anime

The first choice on the Create screen is the style. Both work for goth, but they start from different places.

Realistic gives you a woman who looks photographed. You pick an ethnicity from five options plus Custom, an age from 18 to 60, a hair style, a hair colour (black, violet and red are all there), an eye colour (brown, blue, green or gray) and a body type.

Anime gives you more goth options out of the box. You choose between a classic anime look and a semi-realistic one, then a species: Human, Vampire, Succubus, Elf, Angel and a few more. Skin tone includes Pale, Ash Grey and Lavender. Hair styles include Hime Cut and Drills. Hair colours include Silver and White, while eye colours run to Crimson, Purple, Gold and Heterochromia.

If you are not sure which suits you, our comparison of anime and realistic companions walks through what each style does well.

Put the look where it stays

Create has an Extra details box with room for 300 characters. The hint under it says to use it for anything every picture should show, such as freckles, tattoos, piercings or glasses. It also warns that outfits change from photo to photo.

That splits a goth look in two. Everything that belongs to her body goes into Extra details once:

Black lipstick, smoky winged eyeliner, silver septum ring, a small black choker, rose and thorn tattoos on both forearms

That line is 120 characters, so there is room for more. Her clothes go into the Studio each time you make a picture, which is how one woman can wear a band shirt, a corset and a vinyl coat across three photos without turning into three different women.

Give her the personality to match

A goth look with a bubbly voice reads like a costume. The personality card fixes that.

On a realistic build, Dark & Mysterious is the obvious fit. Dominant & Commanding suits the goth who runs the room. Shy & Sensitive suits the one who stays in the corner until you sit down next to her.

Anime builds get their own list. Kuudere, described as cool and level, is Sayo's type. Dandere stays quiet until you are alone with her. Joou-sama is born to give orders.

The other cards finish the job:

• Relationship: Girlfriend if she is already yours, Neighbour or Roommate if you want the slow version, Mentor if she is teaching you something, as Sayo does.
• Occupation: artist, musician, DJ, bartender, photographer or writer from the list, or type your own. The box itself suggests tattoo artist.
• Kinks: up to six or none. Biting & Marking, Collar & Leash and Stockings & Heels sit naturally with the look, as do Wax Play and Blindfolds.
• Voice: Smoke is "husky, slow, a little worn". Wry, young is "dry, flat on the landings, never oversells a joke", which suits a deadpan goth.

Or pick one who is already goth

If you would rather start talking tonight, Sayo is on the Trans page. She is 25, drawn in anime style and runs a tattoo studio above a record shop that smells of ink and incense. She took you on as her apprentice without explaining why. She corrects your linework with her hand over yours. Her bio says she is a trans woman. Her profile lists her personality as Kuudere.

For the gothic-horror end of the spectrum, with vampires, succubi and witches, our guide to monster girlfriends covers the characters and the builds.

Dress her in the Studio

The Studio never asks about her face again. Her identity was fixed on the Create screen, so the same woman appears in every shot. Our article on character consistency explains how that works.

You choose what is happening, with Just a photo, Lingerie and Swimwear among the options. Then you choose where, then the camera, from close-up and over the shoulder to a mirror selfie. Goth looks work well in a library, a bar, a nightclub, a bedroom by candlelight or a bathtub. The fantasy worlds add a vampire manor, a castle, an enchanted forest and the underworld.

Then the outfit goes into the Extra details box for that shot. Four lines to start from, one per style:

• Trad: ripped black band shirt, fishnet tights, studded belt, platform boots
• Romantic: black velvet corset dress, lace gloves, high lace collar, candlelight
• Pastel: black corset top with lilac lace, pink platform boots, pink and black hair ribbons
• Cyber: neon green buckled top, black vinyl trousers, platform boots, under UV light

What it costs

Building her costs nothing. A free account gets 5 chat messages a day and up to 3 created characters, which is enough to find out whether she sounds right.

Photos need Premium, at €9.90 a month or €2.99 a month on the annual plan, billed as €35.88 for the year. Photos are paid for in hearts, which arrive every month and never expire: 100 a month on monthly Premium and 150 on annual. A photo costs 5 to 8 hearts depending on quality, so a month of hearts on monthly Premium buys between 12 and 20 photos. Voice calls draw on the same hearts, at 5 a minute. Chat on Premium is unlimited.

Who she is for

If you love the look and want someone who answers in it, deadpan and dressed in black, build her on myVirtual.love. It takes a few minutes and the build is free.

If what you miss is the scene itself, the music and the crowd at a club night, a companion does not replace that.