NetherRealm Studios confirmed that Mortal Kombat 11 gear will only feature visual changes and no bonuses will be added with new pieces of gear. This is great news for those looking for fair fights without grinding for gear bonuses.

NetherRealm Studios' fighting games proved to be successful thus far, and for good reasons. They had several modes available, amazing storylines and satisfying combat mechanics. Not everything is perfect though and NetherRealm indulged in a few problematic practices in the past, such as the progression system.

I Injustice 2, players could get alternate gear for their characters, which was a cool idea on paper, but in practice, it was a major headache for anyone who wanted a casual and fair game online. Decked out characters were significantly stronger and that potentially ruined experience for undergeared players.

Fans were worried this would be the case in Mortal Kombat 11 as well, but as it turns out, the gear in this game will be purely cosmetic. Trevor Traub, Producer for the Core Technology Group at NetherRealm, was recently by Xbox Wire.

The progression system came up among other questions, where he confirmed that "the gear itself has no stats" which kicked off the rollercoaster ride. Immediately after that, Traub stated there will still be gameplay altering loot, called augments. It will change some character behaviour but will apparently still not offer stat changes.

In just a few sentences, he basically gave fans hope that online matches would be played on equal ground because gear offers no stats, then shot the hopes down by bringing up the augments and immediatelly afterwards let a little hope back in because even the augments don't have raw stat changes. They probably just alter some moves.

WarnerBros. Kano skin

This can still potentially offer advantage to any players who unlocked those augments, but it remains to be seen how well it will be balanced. Mortal Kombat 11 is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch on 23 April 2019.