Cloth Pants

Lore & Background

The Halcyon was designed as a transport vessel, not a home. Its crew of miners, engineers, and scientists lived in narrow bunks for what was supposed to be a short transit to the colony world below. When the signal went silent and the ship's AI locked them in, those months stretched into something unnameable. Cloth Pants—stiff, unbleached, smelling faintly of industrial dye—became the uniform of that interminable wait. They were issued from the ship's supply lockers in quantities that assumed a two-week journey, not the years that actually passed.

By the time the player arrives to find the Halcyon drifting in the void, the crew is long gone, scattered across the Halcyon system in a dozen small settlements. The Cloth Pants you find in a locker or buy from a shopkeeper on a dusty colony world are relics of that original, desperate era. They carry no brand, no serial number, no luxury. They are the pants of people who were told they were going somewhere and then weren't.

In the broader economy of the Halcyon system, where vendors sell everything from salvaged plasma sidearms to hand-stitched leather jackets, Cloth Pants sit at the very bottom of the clothing hierarchy. They are the default, the fallback, the thing you wear before you can afford something better. And in a game where your outfit is as much a statement as your weapon loadout, choosing to keep them on is its own quiet kind of defiance.

In Their Own Story

The locker on Deck 4 was rusted shut. You pried it open with a flathead screwdriver you'd found in the galley, and the door groaned on hinges that hadn't turned in who knows how long. Inside: a folded pair of Cloth Pants, a tin of something that might have been coffee, and a small photograph of a woman and a child standing in front of a house with a red door. The pants were stiff. The dye had bled a little at the cuffs, leaving faint orange streaks. You tucked the photo into your jacket pocket, folded the pants back in, and closed the locker. Some things you don't need. Some things you just carry.

Reader's Guide

Item: Cloth Pants Type: Clothing (Pants slot) Tier: Basic / Starting tier

Stat block: These are a non-combat clothing item. They provide no damage output. Weight is minimal (light class). Any mechanical bonus is negligible or absent—they function primarily as a cosmetic default for the pants slot. There is no special effect, no elemental resistance, and no crafting requirement.

Acquisition: Cloth Pants are typically available as part of the starting wardrobe or can be purchased from early-game general goods vendors on the Halcyon ship or on the first colony world you visit. They are not quest-gated and not DLC-exclusive; they are a baseline item available from the very beginning of the playthrough.

Flavor / Easter eggs: The item description in-game is deliberately plain and slightly weary, fitting the tone of the Halcyon's long, silent voyage. The visual design—simple woven fabric, no embellishment, a slightly faded waistband—contrasts sharply with the more elaborate outfits available later, reinforcing the game's theme of a colony that never quite got the life it was promised. Wearing them into a high-level encounter is a popular player choice as a low-key flex or a nod to the crew's original hardship.

Tip: If you're roleplaying a scrappy survivor or simply want a clean, no-frills look before you start collecting better gear, Cloth Pants are the honest choice. They won't save your life, but they'll keep you from getting a comment from the NPCs.

Did You Know?

• Cloth Pants represent the kind of utilitarian gear the Halcyon's crew would have worn during their years trapped aboard the ship, long before the player's arrival.
• In The Outer Worlds, clothing items are purely cosmetic and minor-stat modifiers—they never deal damage or function as weapons, so Cloth Pants are as safe to wear in combat as any other outfit.
• The game's distinctive retro-futuristic aesthetic means even the most basic item like Cloth Pants is rendered with a slightly worn, analog feel rather than a sleek sci-fi look, reinforcing the 'stuck in a time capsule' t
• Choosing to keep basic starting gear like Cloth Pants while wielding endgame weapons is a well-known player expression of the game's deadpan humor and the Captain's unflappable personality.