What is the best way to create the "beaten up" look on characters(cuts and dirt)?

I have been trying to add realistic wounds and dirt onto the skin of my characters. The effect I am trying to achieve is something like this:

It seems like hard work and requires a lot of skill to make it look like that, but I’m happy with something along the lines of that, you know, as long as it is somewhat realistic.

Thanks for the help

You could use Dynamic Material instances to do that. With the Dynamic Material Instance you can change the material in your BP.
Example when your character is under 50% HP the scars getting activated and the normal map and texture is changed or you can Lerp it with.

Link hope that helps & gets you started.

Awesome, I will trying it out. Thanks!

how is it going?