Starfield players rocked by fashion crisis as one of the best early armor sets looks like trash

Starfield crew seated in ship cockpit
(Image credit: Bethesda)

I'm a devout Warlock main in Destiny 2, and my fellow robe enthusiasts and I have a running gag that low-rarity Warlock helmets all look like a diaper strapped to your face, optionally with the class-mandated vertical visor down the middle. I mention this because I'm getting a worryingly similar vibe from Starfield's Mantis armor, which is by far one of the strongest early-game armor sets you can find, but its impressive stats come at the cost of egregious fashion crimes. 

I was first alerted to this crisis of fashion by a buddy of mine, who explained that you "won't catch me wearing that ugly ass suit" in one of his regular group chat Starfield diary logs. I hadn't actually seen the armor at this point, so I thought maybe my friend was just being his usual picky self. Alas, I turned to the Starfield Reddit community, saw the armor for myself, and lo and behold, a whole lot of folks agree that it is, at the very least, "aesthetically unpleasing." 

Does anyone else feel that this armor is.... aesthetically unpleasing from r/Starfield

Unpleasing is putting it mildly. To put it less mildly, the Mantis armor looks like a green onesie paired with an oversized lobster bib and topped off by the aforementioned Warlock diaper helmet. If you like the way the Mantis armor looks, I'm happy for you. I'm worried about you! But I'm also happy for you. If you don't like it, well, the Starfield community has cooked up a helpful tip for making it more palatable. 

"The key to making this armor less atrocious is to stay in first-person," writes Professional_Goat746. 

OK, maybe that doesn't actually help. The good news is that the Mantis armor is eclipsed by many other Legendary armor sets, so it won't be your best-in-slot for long. Maybe you can instead numb the pain with the best Mantis roasts I've found so far:

  • "I was so psyched to take up the mantle of the Mantis and then I find out I gotta be a walking Capri-Sun pouch." - flipitninja 
  • "A paper bag would've looked better." - also flipitninja 
  • "I looted it, looked at the clearly superior stats, and put it into my safe in the Lodge. Forever." - LITF  
  • "Looks like a marshmallow mated with a Stormtrooper." - u_MrBear_u 
  • "Looks like a dental nurse wearing Adidas." - sac_boy 

Here's how to solve the Starfield Mantis puzzle so you, too, can be ugly.  

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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