Rigging complex character as one mesh

I’m currently working in the Unity Engine (mobile game) and to maximise performance, it is recommended that you have your character rigged as a single mesh to reduce draw calls. I’m wondering what the best approach for rigging is if you have a character with a mix of hard and soft surfaces with various gear attachments.

Can you rig your character up as separate meshes and combine them later? Do you combine all your meshes at the beginning and then move all the gear attachments out the way while you work on the main part of the character? I’m just not sure what approach I should be taking here.

Cheers :slight_smile:

either way works, but personally I start with separate meshes and combine them at the end

So it won’t mess the rig up if I work with separate objects and then CTRL-J them at the end?