Salt & Steel: Cosmetic MTX System

Document type: Design — Monetization
Status: Canonical
Last updated: 2026-04
See also: Business Model | Voyage Packs | Pillars | Visual Design

Overview

Salt & Steel's cosmetic shop is the game's primary revenue engine and the clearest expression of its ethical F2P commitment — the place where players who love the game choose to support it, in exchange for beautiful things that make their captain, their ship, and their world look like theirs.

Every item in the shop is purely visual. None affect combat effectiveness, ship capabilities, crew performance, navigation accuracy, or any game system that touches character power. The shop sells expression, not advantage.

What makes Salt & Steel's cosmetic system commercially exceptional is surface area. Path of Exile can dress a humanoid character and decorate a cave hideout. Salt & Steel can dress a captain, dress their crew, paint their ship, furnish their port, theme their navigation interface, replace their spell effects, give them a parrot, and let their crew sing a different shanty while they do all of it. The categories are not incremental improvements on PoE's model. They are new categories that PoE simply cannot have, because PoE has no ships, no crews, and no ports.

The Primary Differentiator: Ship Cosmetics

Before documenting the individual categories, the ship cosmetic system deserves special attention as the single most commercially and creatively distinctive element of Salt & Steel's entire monetization strategy.

No ARPG has sold ship skins. Not because no one thought to — because no ARPG has ships. Salt & Steel is the first ARPG where the player's most prominent, most emotionally significant, most publicly visible object in the game world is a sailing vessel, and that vessel can be completely reimagined through a cosmetic purchase.

A ship skin is not comparable to a character skin. A character skin changes a humanoid model. A ship skin changes an object that is:

40-80 times larger than a character model
Visible to every player in the session when sailing
The player's home, weapon system, and identity expression simultaneously
Customizable at multiple independent levels (hull, sails, figurehead, flag, wake, cannons)
A moving, dynamic environment that the player spends the majority of their sea time inhabiting

When a player buys a premium ship skin, they are not buying a new outfit. They are buying a new vessel with its own visual identity — a ghost ship that trails spectral fire, a coral-grown living hull with glowing bioluminescent veins, a warship of dark iron with red-lit portholes. The emotional impact of a premium ship skin is closer to buying a home skin than a character skin, and the commercial value reflects that.

Ship cosmetics are the largest individual cosmetic category in the shop, the highest single-item price point, and the most distinctive differentiator from every other game in the genre.

Cosmetic Category 1: Ship Cosmetics

Ship cosmetics are modular — a player can mix and match elements from different themes, or purchase a complete ship skin that applies a unified aesthetic across all components simultaneously.

Hull Skins

The ship's outer structure. Hull skins are the most foundational ship cosmetic — they define the silhouette, material language, and overall visual character of the vessel.

Design directions for hull skins:

The Ironclad: Dark iron hull plating with riveted seams, red portholes, industrial maritime aesthetic
The Coral Throne: Living coral growth covering a wooden hull, glowing blue-green at night, trailing micro-organisms in the water
The Ghost Vessel: Semi-translucent hull with spectral texture, visible phantom rigging beneath the physical lines
The Golden Company: Gilded hull with ornate carved reliefs, merchant-prince aesthetic
The Ice Witch: White-blue hull with frost crystal formations growing at the waterline, ice particle trail
The Bone Fleet: Weathered grey-brown hull resembling aged bone, skull motifs carved into the hull planks
The Crimson Tide: Deep crimson-lacquered hull with gold trim, Eastern maritime aesthetic
The Sunken One: Wet, barnacled hull with seaweed growth and the look of a ship recently raised from the deep

Hull skins include consistent treatment of the interior-visible portions (gun deck rails, hatch covers, interior walls visible during boarding) so the aesthetic holds in close-range contexts.

Sail Designs

The ship's sails are the most visible element at distance and the most dramatically transformed by a cosmetic change. Premium sail designs go beyond painted patterns to include animated and particle-enhanced effects.

Design directions for sail designs:

Standard premium sails: High-detail painted designs — faction crests, navigational charts rendered in ink, mythological sea creatures, celestial cartography
Animated sails: Sails that move with their own light source (lanterns sewn into the canvas glowing at night), or that carry perpetual mist effects rising from their surface
The Storm Caller sails: Dark grey-blue with active lightning threading through the fabric, visible from long distance
The Navigator's Chart sails: Detailed hand-drawn nautical chart rendered as a topsail pattern, with accurate navigational markings
The Crimson Fleet sails: Deep red with black trim, a style historically associated with pirates who took no quarter
The Ghost sails: White-translucent with faint spectral pattern, barely visible until the wind fills them
The Bioluminescent sails: Appear standard in daylight; at night glow blue-green from within, lighting the water below

Sail designs can be applied per-sail (individual topsail, mainsail, foresail) or as a complete set.

Figurehead Styles

The carved figure at the ship's prow is one of the most characterful cosmetic elements — heavily traditional in maritime culture and visually dominant from the front aspect.

Figurehead options:

Classical: Carved female figure, Neptune, sea serpent coiled downward — traditional maritime themes at high artistic quality
Faction-aligned: Figureheads reflecting specific regional cultures (an Eastern dragon-prow, a Viking-style beast head, a merchant Caduceus)
Creature-themed: Sea serpent opening jaws forward, kraken tentacle coiling down the hull, giant crab claw as the prow
Mystical: A blindfolded figure with a compass rose where the eyes would be; a skeletal navigator with a sextant; a sea witch with hair streaming in a permanent wind
Abstract: Geometric carved forms, compass rose as direct figurehead shape, stylized wave forms
Animated figureheads: Premium tier — the figurehead moves subtly. A serpent-prow that slowly turns its head. A woman figurehead whose hair flows in the wind with cloth simulation. Eyes that glow during combat.

Flag and Colors

The ship's flag and pennant system. Flags in Salt & Steel are a layered system: the main flag (largest, highest mast), the captain's personal pennant (slimmer, flies alongside), and the hull color scheme (the color of painted trim, the cannon ports, the rope coil colors).

Flag cosmetics:

Full flag designs: Custom imagery — skull and crossbones variations (skeletal hands, hourglasses, crossed weapons), sea creatures, faction symbols, abstract patterns
Animated flags: Flags that shift color in the wind (the fabric itself changes hue across the wave motion), or carry particle effects (sparks trailing from a flame-motif flag)
Personal pennants: The captain's personal standard, smaller and more heraldic — a combination of colors and symbols chosen during purchase

Hull color schemes:

Color-coordinate the painted trim, cannon port liners, and rope accents of the hull without requiring a full hull skin purchase
Mix-and-match with hull skins to create hybrid aesthetics

Wake Effects

The water disturbance pattern the ship leaves behind it. By default, a white foam wake. Premium wake effects replace this with persistent animated water effects.

Standard premium: High-detail foam wake with accurate fluid simulation rendering
Spectral wake: A ghostly blue-white trail that lingers longer than a physical wake and glows faintly at night
Blood wake: Deep red water disturbance — dramatic, unsettling, visible from other ships
Bioluminescent wake: Blue-green glowing disturbance in the water, beautiful at night in open sea
Shadow wake: The water behind the ship appears to darken, as if a shadow lies beneath
Ink wake: Black-tinted water disturbance as if the ship sails through dark ink

Cannon VFX

The visual effects of cannon fire and the cannon barrel appearance. Base cannons fire realistic black powder muzzle flash and smoke. Premium cannon VFX replace this:

Dragon Breath cannons: Fire effect on the muzzle flash, balls trail flame in arc
Storm Cannon: Lightning-crackle muzzle discharge, arcing electrical trail
Ghost Artillery: Semi-transparent blue-white muzzle flash, spectral cannonball trails
Cursed Iron: Green-tinged smoke, the cannonball appears to be an irregular lump of bone and metal
Celestial Shot: Bright white-gold discharge, the cannonball leaves a brief contrail of light points
The Silence: An audio-visual premium effect — black powder blast replaced with a muffled dark implosion, then the ball whispers through the air rather than screaming

Cannon VFX apply uniformly to all cannons on the ship. Mixed cannon aesthetics are not supported (cohesion of ship identity is maintained).

Cosmetic Category 2: Character Cosmetics

The captain's personal appearance. While less commercially distinctive than ship cosmetics, character cosmetics remain a foundational revenue category — the most universal cosmetic purchase because it affects what players see of themselves in first-person contexts and what others see in port and during boarding actions.

Outfit Skins

Complete visual replacement of the captain's clothing and armor appearance. Outfit skins respect the GURPS equipment system — they apply as visual overrides to whatever functional equipment is actually worn, maintaining gameplay mechanics while replacing the look entirely.

Design directions for outfit skins:

Naval Officer: Formal naval coat with gold epaulettes, tricorn hat, white breeches — the look of legitimate military authority
Pirate Sovereign: Layered coats in black and crimson, excessive decorative buckles and belts, worn but clearly expensive
The Privateer: Functional leather and canvas work wear with hidden weapon pockets and a letter-of-marque badge at the breast
Sea Witch: Dark flowing garments with maritime mystical decoration — compass rose embroidery, shell jewelry, ritual paint on the arms
The Merchant Prince: Affluent civilian clothing adapted for sea life — fine linen, embroidered waistcoat, impractical shoes that clearly survive because of hired help
The Corsair: Stripped-down combat attire, minimal decoration, maximum movement — a captain who fights their own boarding actions
The Ghost Captain: A translucent layered appearance, the character appears slightly spectral — for the high-flavor "undead captain" build aesthetic
Sunken Empire Scholar: Expedition-ready clothing with ancient cartography tools, dried seaweed braided into accessories, waterlogged aesthetic that somehow holds together

Outfit skins are sold as complete sets and as individual components (coat separately from boots separately from gloves) allowing mix-and-match construction.

Weapon Skins

Visual replacements for the captain's on-foot weapons. Like PoE's weapon effects, these are applied to the cosmetic layer and do not affect weapon statistics.

Cutlass skins:

Material transformations (ghost-iron, obsidian, coral-grown blade, barnacled hilt)
Effect overlays (perpetual water droplet animation on the blade, flame-trailing edge)
Full replacements (the blade becomes a shaft of condensed sea-light, a shard of ship mast wreathed in spectral flame)

Pistol skins:

Barrel styles (engraved silver flintlock, iron-dark naval pistol, impossible living-wood grip)
Muzzle flash effects (golden spark pattern, blue lightning discharge, smoke color variations)
Shot trail effects (brief visible arc of the ball's path in premium tiers)

Staff and implement skins (for magic-focused builds):

Navigation instruments reimagined as magical tools (a sextant that doubles as a spell focus, a compass that spins with channeled power)
Elemental effects (staff trailing sea-foam as it moves, crackling with ambient storm energy)

Hat and Headgear

Headgear cosmetics are applied as overlays on the character model. They are among the most visible cosmetics in player-to-player encounters, since head height is the primary point of identity at distance.

Categories:

Tricorn hats: In every material, decoration, and wear-state variation imaginable — the fundamental pirate captain image
Naval caps: More formal, officer-coded
Hood and scarf: Lower-profile headgear for the combat-focused or the mysterious captain
Mystic headgear: Antler crowns of coral, blindfolds with navigational instruments, headdresses from specific cultural traditions
No hat: A base option that many players prefer; the cosmetic investment goes to other slots

Headgear cosmetics can include particle effects (aura effects around the brim, smoke rising from a lantern attached to the hat) at premium tiers.

Tattoos and Facial Customization

Cosmetic overlay additions to the captain's visible skin — tattoos, scars, and face paint. These apply to the visible portions of the character (face, hands, forearms, neck).

Tattoo sets:

Nautical traditional: anchors, swallows, compass roses, charts, sextants, ship silhouettes rendered in the traditional sailor tattoo style
Maritime mythological: sea serpents, kraken, mermaid figures, Neptune iconography
Navigation-mystical: star chart fragments as body maps, constellations arranged around personal significance
Faction-aligned: tattoos specific to known faction aesthetics (privateer guild marks, imperial navy brands, pirate brotherhood insignia)
Voyage-exclusive: tattoo sets released with specific Voyages and carrying that Voyage's aesthetic

Scar sets:

Dueling scars (blade work)
Naval combat scars (rigging burns, powder marks)
Sea creature encounter scars (suction-cup pattern from kraken grapple, serpent bite mark)
The "survivor" scar set: tells a visual story of accumulated maritime catastrophe

Face paint:

Battle paint in various cultural traditions
Theatrical mourning paint (for the dramatic captain aesthetic)
Voyage-exclusive face paint designs tied to seasonal themes

Cosmetic Category 3: Ability Effects

Skill effect cosmetics replace the visual presentation of the captain's active abilities while maintaining all hitbox and mechanical timing properties. These are technically complex — the effect must accurately represent the spatial extent of the base ability — and commercially valuable because players use their core abilities thousands of times per session.

Sea Magic Effects

The maritime magical tradition of Salt & Steel includes tide magic, storm channeling, sea-wind summoning, and blood-compass divination. Each magical skill family has a default visual treatment and a range of cosmetic replacements.

Tide magic effect families:

Standard: Blue-green water effects, physical sea-foam aesthetics
Deep Tide: Darker, pressure-heavy — the feeling of the water miles below, not the surface. Indigo-black water with cold light
Blood Tide: Deep red water instead of blue — the sea at sunset taken to an extreme. Dramatic and slightly unsettling
Ghost Tide: White-translucent water effects, the feeling of ocean that has passed through the veil
Coral Tide: Water effects with growing coral animations at the edges of impact zones, warmer color palette

Storm magic effect families:

Standard: Grey-white lightning in natural storm patterns
Tropical Storm: Green-tinted lightning, heavy rain particle effects in the ability zone
Arctic Storm: Ice crystal integration into the lightning — it crackles cold, leaves frost
Infernal Storm: Red-orange lightning with smoke instead of ozone, volcanic lightning aesthetic
Silent Storm: The premium contrast effect — the ability produces no light flash, only deep bass audio and dark-cloud visual geometry

Navigation-mystical effects (compass divination, cartography-based abilities):

Effects that incorporate visible compass needle geometry, celestial map projections, navigational line aesthetics
Different accuracy-mapping themes (star charts, sea charts, constellation geometry)

Combat Skill Effects

On-foot combat abilities — swordsmanship techniques, pistol special shots, brawling power moves — each have a default visual treatment that can be cosmetically replaced.

Swordsmanship effects:

Blade trail colors and styles (flame trails, frost trails, shadow trails, void-black cuts)
Impact flash replacements (spark showers, blood splash, energy burst, water explosion)
Parry and block effects (the visual of a successfully defended attack — shield of light, barrier of water, stone-crumble)

Pistol effects:

Muzzle flash variations (colors, sizes, smoke behavior)
Projectile trail visual (brief arcing line of light, spark, smoke ring)
Impact effects at hit point (explosion styles, sparks, elemental burst)

Maritime special techniques (boarder's rush, rigging swing, bilge trap):

These are Salt & Steel-specific abilities with unique visual language — their cosmetic variations are designed around the pirate combat fantasy (rope swing trails with different glow, boarding pike charge with different weapon-trail, etc.)

Cosmetic Category 4: Crew Cosmetics

Crew cosmetics are a category with no equivalent in any other ARPG. The player's crew — procedurally named individuals with distinct skills and personalities — wear matching attire that can be themed through a crew uniform cosmetic purchase.

Crew Uniform Themes

A crew uniform theme applies a consistent visual design to all crew members simultaneously. Individual crew members' physical appearances (faces, body types, skin tones, hair) remain procedurally varied — the uniform is an overlay that clothing and equipment share, not a skin replacing individual identity.

Crew uniform themes:

Navy Colors: Formal naval uniform in the tradition of the era — white-and-navy, with rank markings that correspond to each crew member's actual role (Gunners wear a different distinction from Navigators)
The Brotherhood: Classic pirate crew aesthetic — mixed dark fabrics, red sashes, mismatched boots, a ragged-but-cohesive look that says "we chose each other"
The Merchant Fleet: Practical working-sea civilian clothing in consistent colors — less romantic than a pirate crew, but clearly organized and professional
The Crimson Company: Unified crimson-and-black, clearly disciplined, military-adjacent but not quite proper navy
The Sunken Expedition: Expedition and research clothing — canvas, leather protective layers, navigation instruments worn as accessories
The Ghost Crew: A premium animated uniform — crew uniforms appear faintly translucent at the edges, and crew member eyes have a slight spectral glow. Functionally the crew appear to be a band of benevolent haunts serving their captain
The Corsair Brotherhood: A specific cultural tradition of maritime raiding, with appropriate dress — bold colors, distinctive headwraps, ornate belt jewelry
Voyage-exclusive uniforms: Each Voyage introduces at least one crew uniform themed to the Voyage aesthetic, available during the Voyage window through the supporter pack or shop

Crew uniform purchases apply to the current crew and persist as all new crew are recruited during the ship's lifetime.

Individual Crew Cosmetic Overrides

Above the team uniform, individual crew members can be given personal cosmetic tokens — a specific hat style, a distinctive accessory — that override the uniform's headgear or accessory slot for that individual. This lets players who form emotional attachments to specific crew members (a veteran navigator who has survived three Voyages) customize their appearance beyond the uniform set.

These individual tokens are lower-price cosmetics than full uniform sets — they are small but personally meaningful purchases for players who narrate their crew's individual histories.

Cosmetic Category 5: Port Hideout

The player's Port serves as their on-shore base of operations between Voyages. Unlike PoE's hideout system (which takes place in a single cave or themed room), the Port Hideout is a fully exterior maritime environment with architectural variety, geographic elements, and dramatic scale.

Base Port Environment

Every captain has a functional Port with:

A dock where their ship rests at anchor
A navigation room (the core interface for Voyage planning)
A tavern common room (crew interaction hub)
A captain's quarters (character sheet, account record access)

These are functional and visually complete in their base form. Premium decoration adds aesthetic depth and personalization; the base is never visually lacking.

Dock Customization

Ship display: Cosmetic dock fixtures that showcase the player's ships in different lighting arrangements — lantern arrays, signal fires, decorative flag lines
Dock architecture: Different dock materials and structures (hardwood vs. stone dock, covered vs. open slip, decorative carved dock posts)
Water effects: Dock-side water has premium options (bioluminescent water, dark deep-water appearance, crystal-clear tropical shallows)

Island Base Environment

Terrain themes: Sandy tropical, rocky sea cliff, fog-shrouded northern shore, verdant jungle beach — complete rethemes of the port geography
Vegetation and ecology: Decorative plants, tide pool creatures, sea bird populations (decorative, not pets — they are ambient atmosphere)
Ruins and architectural features: Weathered stone remnants from previous inhabitants, decorative walls, archways, lighthouse elements

Interior Decoration Packs

Tavern atmosphere packs: Different tavern decor themes (pirate roughhouse, merchant house luxury, naval officer mess, ancient maritime civilisation artifacts)
Captain's quarters themes: From spartan naval discipline to elaborate collected-artifact luxury
Navigation room themes: Chart tables with different map aesthetics, celestial instruments, navigation tool collections

Visitor Atmosphere

The Port Hideout is visible to players who visit (guild members, trade contacts, friends). This social visibility is the cosmetic's full expression — the Port is both personal creation and public statement. Premium decoration is as much a social communication as a personal one.

Navigation cosmetics are interface-layer cosmetics — they change the appearance of the UI elements associated with sailing, exploration, and wayfinding. Players spend a significant portion of their session time looking at these interfaces, making them genuinely valuable visual customization opportunities.

Compass Rose Styles

The ship's compass, visible during sailing and open-sea navigation, can be restyled:

Standard premium: High-detail hand-engraved compass rose with fine typography and gold fill
Celestial compass: A star-chart aesthetic — the compass directions are replaced with astronomical notation, the rose is rendered in constellation-map style
Bone compass: White-carved aesthetic, memento mori design, skull incorporated into the cardinal directions
The Ancient Chart: A worn, aged aesthetic — the compass appears to be a fragment of a much older navigational instrument, partially degraded but functional
The Mystical Instrument: Arcane symbols instead of cardinal directions; the needle is a crystal needle rather than magnetized iron

Map Overlay Themes

The nautical chart interface — the primary navigation tool — can have its visual presentation changed:

Different paper and ink aesthetics (aged vellum, dark maritime chart, illuminated manuscript style)
Different sea-region coloring (depths, shallows, and open water represented in different visual languages)
Different annotation styles (the notations the captain has made on the chart appear in different hand-writing and ink styles)
Animated overlays (weather systems visible on the chart shift like real weather; faction territories pulse with their faction color)

Spyglass Skins

The spyglass — used for scouting distant ships, reading port flags, and examining far coastlines — is a distinct tool with cosmetic variation:

Barrel materials (brass standard, silver, dark iron, carved bone, driftwood-and-coral)
Lens effects (the view through the spyglass has a subtle color treatment — a brass scope gives warm amber tones; a crystal scope gives cold blue clarity)
Decorative engravings visible when the scope is drawn

Cosmetic Category 7: Pets

Non-combat companions that follow the captain on land (in port, during on-foot exploration, in dungeons) and appear on the ship's deck during sailing. Pets have no gameplay function except as visual companions and social identity expression.

Pet Categories

Parrots The most iconic maritime pet. Parrots perch on the captain's shoulder during on-foot scenes and on a dedicated perch on the ship's railing during sailing.

Varied color schemes (natural, exotic, unnaturally vivid magical varieties)
Behavior variations (some parrots are animated to call out enemies during combat; some bob their head to crew shanties; some appear to be reading the nautical chart)
Premium: the Cursed Parrot — a spectral undead parrot that repeats the last thing the captain said in the wrong order

Monkeys More active than parrots — monkeys scramble around the ship's rigging and the captain's person with more animated behavior.

Size variants (small capuchin-style, larger spider monkey style)
Behavior patterns (some monkeys steal small objects and hide them; some monkeys appear to be imitating the captain's poses; some sleep on the captain's hat)

Ship's Cats A maritime tradition. Cats wander the ship independently, appearing in unexpected locations (curled in a coil of rope, perched on the cannon, draped over the chart table).

Varied coat patterns and colors
Behavior variants (a ship's cat that watches enemies during combat with unsettling focus; one that ignores everything; one that specifically sits next to the lowest-health crew member)

Ghost Animals Semi-translucent spectral versions of maritime animals — ghost cats, spectral parrots, translucent ghost monkey. These are premium visual variants with persistent glow effects and slightly other-worldly movement.

Sea Creatures (on-ship companions) Animals that travel with the ship in or near the water:

A dolphin that rides the bow wave
A small sea serpent that follows the wake (not threatening, clearly young and fascinated by the ship)
A luminous jellyfish that bobs alongside in the evening
An otter that rides on the ship's prow and slides into the water at speed

Voyage-Exclusive Pets Each Voyage introduces at least one exclusive pet themed to the Voyage aesthetic. The Voyage of the Sunken Empire might introduce an ancient sea turtle covered in barnacles and glowing runes. The Voyage of the Eternal Storm might introduce a storm petrel that creates small lightning when it lands.

Cosmetic Category 8: Emotes and Shanties

Salt & Steel has a rich tradition of maritime social expression. Emotes and shanties are the social cosmetic category — most visible in port social spaces, during multiplayer Voyages, and in crew-visible moments.

Captain Emotes

Actions the captain performs on command — in port, on the ship deck, or during loading-screen moments between zones.

Functional social emotes:

Greet, wave, bow, salute
Point (useful navigation communication in multiplayer)
Challenge pose (brandishing weapon without attacking)
Sit (takes a seat on available furniture or improvises one)

Flavor emotes:

The Captain's Gaze (produces spyglass, scans the horizon with studied nonchalance)
Check the Chart (pulls out a worn nautical chart, frowns at it, looks up to compare to surroundings)
Pour One Out (a drink appears; the captain pours a portion over the railing or onto the ground in the tradition of honoring the lost)
Count the Gold (a brief coin-sorting gesture, satisfied expression)
Story Time (sits down dramatically, the crew gathers — a social emote that pulls nearby crew NPCs into an animated listening pose)
The Storm Captain (dramatic pose into wind, coat billowing, looking determined rather than terrified)

Premium animated emotes:

Full animation sequences (3-5 seconds) with sound, particle effects, and sometimes crew participation
The Broadside Dance: an absurdist emote where the captain performs a brief shanty-dance and the crew joins in with synchronized movement
The Kraken Survivor: mime performance of an encounter with a sea monster, complete with invisible tentacle combat
The Cartographer: detailed animation of making chart notes with visible ink and quill

Crew Shanties

This is the most unique emote category in any ARPG — one that is only possible because Salt & Steel has a crew.

Shanties are songs that crew members sing during sailing. By default, the crew sings standard maritime work songs appropriate to the current task (hauling shanties when working the rigging, calm evening songs during peaceful sailing, nervous war chants before combat). Premium shanty cosmetics replace these with authored alternatives:

Shanty sets include:

A complete set of 4-6 songs for different sailing conditions (work, calm, storm, combat)
Each song is a unique musical composition in the style of maritime folk music
Songs are performed by the crew's voice lines — the procedurally generated crew sing recognizable lyrics in their individual voices, creating a choir effect

Shanty theme examples:

The Privateer's Ballad: A traditional heroic maritime narrative song cycle
The Ghost Crew Shanties: Minor-key, haunting — appropriate for the ghost aesthetic players
The Storm Hymns: Dramatic, choir-heavy, appropriate for the "surviving catastrophe" sailing conditions
The Comedy Set: A collection of deliberately bawdy, silly, and self-aware shanties — the tone shifts from epic to comic
The Crimson Fleet Chants: Aggressive, rhythmic, less melodic — war chants rather than work songs
Voyage-Exclusive Shanties: Each Voyage releases a shanty set themed to that Voyage's aesthetic and lore, available during the Voyage window

Shanties play during sailing, are audible to players in the same area, and are the most ambient social cosmetic Salt & Steel sells. A player who hears another captain's crew singing an unusual shanty across the water has a genuine social moment — the cosmetic creates connection between players.

Pricing Philosophy

The Core Principle: Premium but Not Predatory

Salt & Steel cosmetics are priced to feel like a fair exchange for genuine creative value. The goal is not to minimize prices to remove the decision — some prices should require thought, because things that require thought feel more valued and chosen. The goal is to ensure that every price point reflects genuine quality and that no pricing mechanic creates artificial psychological pressure to spend.

Pricing specifically avoids:

Urgency manipulation: Countdown timers that pressure immediate purchase (time-limited items exist, but their window is measured in weeks, not hours)
Loot box mechanics: No random-outcome purchases of any kind. Every item is purchasable directly or as part of an explicitly disclosed bundle
Artificial currency obscuring: The in-game currency (Points) is purchased in amounts that are not intentionally misaligned with item prices, making cost calculation clear
"Just one more" psychological engineering: No near-miss mechanics, no "complete the set" bonuses that compel purchasing unwanted items

Price Points by Category

Points are purchased at 100 Points = $1.00 USD (bundles of 1000+ Points provide 10% bonus Points).

Category	Price Range	Notes
Individual emote (simple)	80–150 Points	Straightforward animation, no particle effects
Individual emote (premium)	200–400 Points	Full animation sequence with effects, crew participation
Shanty set (4–6 songs)	300–500 Points	Full musical composition set
Pet (standard)	200–400 Points	Non-animated companion types
Pet (premium animated)	400–700 Points	Elaborate behavior and visual effects
Tattoo / scar set	100–200 Points	Applied to character appearance
Headgear cosmetic	200–400 Points	Hat, hood, headgear style
Weapon skin	200–500 Points	Material change through elaborated effect overlay
Navigation cosmetic (single piece)	150–300 Points	Compass, spyglass, or map individually
Navigation cosmetic (full set)	400–700 Points	All three navigation items at bundle discount
Ability effect (single skill)	150–300 Points	One skill's visual replacement
Ability effect (school pack)	400–700 Points	All skills in one magical discipline
Crew uniform theme	400–700 Points	Full crew visual set
Port decoration pack	300–800 Points	Thematic decoration set for one port area
Port hideout full theme	800–1800 Points	Complete environmental retheme
Character outfit (single piece)	200–400 Points	Individual clothing piece
Character outfit (full set)	600–1200 Points	Complete outfit at bundle discount
Wake effect	200–400 Points	Ship wake visual replacement
Cannon VFX	300–600 Points	Full cannon effect replacement
Flag design	200–400 Points	Ship flag visual
Figurehead	400–800 Points	Ship prow figure
Sail design set	500–1000 Points	Full sail suite replacement
Hull skin	800–1600 Points	Full hull visual replacement
Complete ship skin	1500–3000 Points	Hull + sails + figurehead + flag unified theme

Bundle Strategy

Complete ship skins and complete character outfits are always available as bundles at 15-20% discount over purchasing component pieces individually. Players who love a full theme are rewarded for committing to it. Players who prefer mix-and-match are not penalized — they pay component prices for components.

Seasonal bundles (tied to Voyage themes) offer a curated selection of that Voyage's cosmetics at a moderate bundle discount, creating an accessible entry point for players who want the Voyage aesthetic without purchasing a full supporter pack.

Free Earnable Cosmetics

Not everything beautiful requires a purchase. Salt & Steel commits to a meaningful offering of earnable cosmetics through gameplay:

Voyage completion cosmetics: Completing a Voyage's narrative and challenge milestones earns unique cosmetic items — a tattoo, a flag design, a specific pet — that are not available in the shop. These signal engagement, not spending.
Achievement cosmetics: Rare accomplishments (defeating a sea serpent, completing a Hardcore Voyage) earn permanent account cosmetics.
Leaderboard rewards: Top performers on each Voyage leaderboard earn exclusive title cosmetics for their Account Record.
Referral rewards: Players who bring friends to Salt & Steel earn cosmetic rewards when those friends engage with the game.

Free earnable cosmetics are never as broad as the shop catalog, but they are always genuinely desirable. A player who earns a Voyage completion cosmetic should feel proud to wear it — it should be clearly different from base game aesthetics, clearly a reward, and worth displaying.

The No-Mystery-Box Commitment

Salt & Steel does not sell random-outcome loot boxes of any kind.

Every cosmetic item in the shop is purchasable directly. Bundles are disclosed — their contents are listed before purchase. No item requires a lottery to obtain. This is a direct design response to PoE's mystery box system, which has generated sustained community concern despite disclosure and duplicate protection improvements.

The commercial trade-off is accepted: mystery boxes generate higher revenue per transaction through psychological pressure mechanics. That revenue comes at the cost of player trust, and Salt & Steel's model is built entirely on player trust. The long-term commercial value of being the ARPG that never sold a loot box outweighs any short-term revenue increase from implementing one.

This commitment is stated publicly, before launch, and maintained permanently.

Cross-References

Business Model — commercial philosophy and sustainability
Voyage Packs — Voyage-themed cosmetic bundles
Stash & Convenience — non-cosmetic MTX
Visual Design — art direction standards
Pillars — Pillar 5: Ethical Free-to-Play