It's bad news for interstellar fashion icons everywhere, as Helldivers 2's creative director confirms that Arrowhead isn't planning to add transmog options to the hit shooter because it just "doesn't make sense."
If you were unfamiliar, transmog – or transmogrification – is an option that lets you wear whatever useful equipment you want for the best abilities and stats, while essentially being able to apply a different outfit over the top that you prefer the look of. There's a solid argument that this gives you the best of both worlds, as you don't have to decide between aesthetics and strength when selecting your outfits – you can just pick your favorites.
Helldivers 2 has a wide variety of armor with differing passive abilities and looks, but creative director Johan Pilestedt has shut down the idea of adding transmog entirely, and it seems like his mind is pretty set.
"We are not doing transmog. It doesn't make sense – equipment looks different because it has different effects," he explains on Twitter. "Swapping one for the other is like having an apple that tastes like bacon or the other way around."
To be fair, considering that Helldivers 2 is a multiplayer game, it is handy to be able to glance at your teammates and know what abilities they're bringing to the table thanks to their getup. Even so, not everyone is thrilled about the lack of flexibility here, and responding to the director, players are also asking for color customization to help alter their outfits without changing their armor entirely.
"Okay, okay, but what about color variants or color customization?" one player suggests.
"Allowing the customization of armor colors could work as an effective compromise then maybe? My main issue is that my best armor and helmet don't look good at all together, and trying to find specific armors to work well with certain capes is a chore at times," another says.
For the foreseeable future, it seems we'll have to continue spreading Managed Democracy in the strongest gear we can, regardless of what it looks like. If it's any consolation, I don't think the Terminids or Automatons are judging us on our fashion sense.
A new Warbond, complete with some fresh new armor, recently got added to Arrowhead's third-person shooter – check out our guide to everything in Helldivers 2's Democratic Detonation Warbond for all the details.
