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Cosmetics and Currencies
August 20, 2026 at 03:12 AM
Created page covering the no-battle-pass model, Coins and Iron, cosmetic categories, rarity tiers, shop rules and the three pay-only exceptions
Customisation in Gears of War: E-Day runs on an old-school model that the studio states plainly: no battle pass, no tour of duty, no gimmicks. Nearly every item in the game can be earned by playing, whether it is a Legendary character skin, an Epic weapon skin set or a Rare pose.
Path | How it works |
|---|---|
Direct | Items unlocked by completing seasonal and event challenges, unlocking achievements, and earning medals. See Progression and Medals |
Indirect | Everything else. Play matches, earn Coins, then spend them on the specific items you want in the Barracks. |
Coins are the free grind currency, spent in the Barracks on specific individual items. There are three ways to earn them.
Playing: Coins are paid at the end of a match based on performance and score, in either multiplayer mode.
Levelling up: a batch of Coins arrives every ten Player Levels.
Earning medals: many medals award Coins, and higher-tier medals pay more.
Only Coins earned from match completion carry a weekly cap, and the stated size of that cap is more than enough for a Legendary character skin with change left over. Coins from medals and from Player Level are not capped at all. The tuning goal the studio describes is that earning Coins should not feel like an arduous grind.
Iron is the premium currency. It is purchased rather than earned, and spent on individual items in the Barracks or on featured offers in the shop. It is positioned as an optional shortcut for a specific item rather than as the only route to anything, which lets a player save their Coins for something else.
The in-game shop rotates weekly, showing one high-value bundle plus a handful of discounted individual items. Because those items carry a discount, shop offers are Iron-only. Two rules distinguish it from the usual pattern.
Rule | Effect |
|---|---|
No shop exclusives | Nothing appears in the shop that is not already available individually in the Barracks for Coins or Iron. When a bundle rotates out, its contents stay available. |
Complete-the-set pricing | If you already own one or more items in a weekly bundle, the bundle price drops in proportion to how many you own, so you are not charged twice for the same item. |
Three categories of item cannot be earned through play.
Exception | Detail |
|---|---|
Premium Edition content | Everything in the Premium Edition or Premium Edition Upgrade, including the contents of all five Seasonal Customization Packs. Itemised on Editions and Pre-Order Bonuses |
Charity offers | Pay-only charity bundles in the in-game shop, including a 2026 Never Fight Alone bundle. All proceeds go to the charity partner Crisis Text Line for suicide prevention work. |
Partnership items | A small set of collaboration items that must be acquired through the partnership or purchased. The named example is a Legendary Ride the Lightning weapon skin set made with Metallica. |
Category | What it is |
|---|---|
Characters | Over 60 character skins at launch across COG and Locust characters. Every major character and skin appearing in the campaign is unlockable on day one, with more added each season. |
Weapon Skin Sets | Every weapon skin unlock includes the full set, so a skin never has to be re-acquired per weapon. Once owned it applies to any customisable weapon. |
Poses | Stances applied to your character in the Horde Siege and Versus lobbies and on match intro and outro screens. Poses are not emotes and cannot be triggered during gameplay. |
Banners | Shown beside your character on intro and outro screens, and also placed in-game during Horde Siege missions to mark where your squad completed an objective and claimed a reward. |
Emblems | The background graphic behind your gamertag or Steam name in lobbies, intros, outros and scoreboards. Up to three earned medals can be displayed on it. |
Icons | Single-colour graphics shown above your player emblem in lobbies. Your equipped icon is also the marker displayed when you mark an enemy or object in multiplayer. |
Titles | Short equippable text strings below your name on your player emblem. Titles are earn-only. |
Menu Music | Equippable tracks or playlists that change the music in the main menu and in the Horde Siege and Versus lobbies. Four pieces at launch, including a special instrumental version of For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica. |
Skins, weapon skin sets and poses run on a Legendary, Epic and Rare hierarchy. The stated design brief for cosmetics is gritty and grounded, drawing on the series' own characters and world rather than on outside properties, and the studio says it skipped promotional crossovers and IP partnerships for skins apart from the small named set. Legendary items are the exception to the grounded rule and are described as more over-the-top and imaginative.
One caveat matters for anyone reading skin descriptions as lore: the developers state that multiplayer cosmetics are not always considered canon, even though many skins draw on the setting's themes and events. Character detail on Bravo Squad and the individual character pages is kept to material from the campaign and developer commentary rather than skin copy.
Five themed post-launch seasons are committed, beginning with Season 1: Emergence, each adding maps, modes, characters, skins, Horde Siege classes and limited time events. Only the first season name has been published. See Seasons and Post-Launch Content.
