Rare's updates to the Outpost Shops in recent memory have been lazy, underwhelming and completely underbaked. This is not a statement, its an objective fact.
As an example, we received only 3 new Jackets to the Gold Shops in 2025 that weren't returning Seasonal Pass cosmetics, those been the Regal Fortune Jacket, Reaper's Bones Jacket and Smuggler Jacket.
Furthermore, we have been drip fed the Arena recolors since August 2023 with the Flaming Jackal Equipment set, with the sets Weapons been added in September 2024. Since then, we have been drip-fed these Arena cosmetics ever so slowly. Even still, the [color] Resolute sets have been slowly released since April 2025, meaning we are nearly reaching the 1-year anniversary of Rare drip feeding such a simple cosmetic set.
Now I want to be clear here, I do not hate the Arena recolors and Resolute sets, they are nice, but you could have condensed their release into 2-3 Gold Shop drops max, plus the Arena recolors don't even come with the new weapon variants (like the Double Barrel Pistol, Throwing Knife, etc), which is just a bizarre choice, especially considering the lack of new weapon variant skins available for gold (when compared to the Emporium)
In-fact, can someone correct me here, but didn't most Gold Shop sets receive a Fishing Rod variant when fishing was added in the 2.0 update? Why hasn't the same been done with the new weapon variants, especially when many many sets are missing their weapon variants. But in saying that, I feel like I'm crossing a fine line, as Rare might use that excuse to add the new weapon variants over the course of 2 years as part of the monthly Gold Shop updates. In-fact I'm worried that once Rare finishes adding the Midnight Prowl set into the Gold Shop with S19 Act 2, they might go back and add Arena recolors for the new weapon variants and continue that Arena recolor train right from the start. That's how little trust I have in Rare when it comes to updating the Gold Shops, isn't that just sad?
I think the saddest part about these Arena recolors is that they drop the weapons in one update, then the equipment in another, there has only been 2 occasions when this routine has been abandoned and all were released at once. 1. When the Destiny 2 collaboration hit the Emporium, that Emporium drop was heavily bloated, so they decided to fill out the Gold Shop drop that one update with not dividing the content 2. When they didn't release the usual Arena Recolors in January's Gold Shop drop, instead dropping a singular Resolute set, which they promised would be followed by a massive Outpost drop in February's Gold Shop Drop... which was just all the Good Boy cosmetics released at once. However that also proves something, that they are fully true and capable to release all the Arena Resolute sets at once (as in both Weapons and Equipment), but they intentionally spread these cosmetic drops out. That is laziness.
Furthermore, the Captaincy sets have been all but forgotten, last time we got a new Captaincy set in the Gold Shop it was with S13, so July 2024.
The Clothing Shop has been fed literally nothing but returning Seasonal Pass cosmetics these past years, with only a cosmetic here and there added for completing a deed or commendation or two. That is not a sign of a healthy cosmetic system in a game, especially for one that's several years old. Hell, there's been quite a few cosmetics that never made it out of the Insider testing for the Gold Shops, like the original Smuggler Boots, the Chef Throwing Knife, or (reportedly) a full Bone Crusher ship-set recolor.
Furthermore, as someone with an interest in the unused content for games, I have dug through the internet finding what remains hidden/unreleased in Sea of Thieves, looking at promotional material and screenshots to find stuff Rare refuses to release. For example, a bunch of unused Jackets can be seen on The Spriters Resource website, including a brown Mercenary set (which has also been featured in promotional material for Sea of Thieves), a brown Mysterious Jacket recolor, a 4th Bone Crusher recolor, and several unique Jacket designs not seen anywhere in the game. Or how about the S13 cosmetics trailer, a pirate is shown using a Bone Crusher Throwing Knife, meaning Rare is most likely sitting on a bunch of recolors for the new Weapon variants. I've seen full cosmetic sets (especially weaponry, there is a mega-tonne of unused weaponry) that are just left in the games code, gathering dust, just doing nothing but filling up megabytes of storage for nothing. If you have seen the 2020 Google Drive Cosmetic Leak or gone onto the Cosmetics/Weapons thread on the Forums, then you'll know how frustrating and annoying it is to have recolors fill the Gold Shops.
This is a Pirate game, yet we haven't received actual Pirate cosmetics. How did we get a Destiny 2 collab and bug antenna hat's before a striped t-shirt?
So my message to Rare is this. You can do better, you've shown us you can release decent Gold Shop drops, in-fact all the Clothing and Weapon cosmetics you could ever need are in the code just laying there, perhaps just needing a name and description. They are there. The people want decent Gold Shop drops. For example, if you released 2 Resolute Shipsets, 2 Arena recolors, plus a decent handful of some of those unused individual cosmetics/one full set that lay in the code, you would have a splendid Gold Shop update. Furthermore, the cosmetics added should try and add to the pirate theme the game has, not stuff like bug antennae hats and spider-themed cosmetics.
If any Rare employee would like to answer why these cosmetics in the code aren't available to the public, please let me know. If you've got your own comments or gripes, please comment below, thanks for reading.
