The Finals is getting beards: Embark promises facial hair for next season

While Embark Studios keeps working on the next major seasonal update for The Finals, the studio has dropped a promise that many players have been waiting on for a long time, and it has nothing to do with weapons, maps or balance. As reported by The Loadout, the arena shooter will add a feature the community has been asking for in the "next season": facial hair options for customizing contestants. Everything points to the addition arriving with Season 4.

Why does something as seemingly minor as a beard matter? Because in a game where aesthetics are a core part of its identity, where every contestant is practically the star of a televised reality show, customization isn't decoration: it's how each player presents themselves to everyone else. Embark has already offered carefully crafted clothing and outfits, but the face remained unfinished business that the community never stopped reminding the studio about.

What you need to know

• Embark Studios has promised to add a highly requested feature to The Finals next season.
• That feature is facial hair options, such as beards, for customizing contestants.
• According to The Loadout, everything indicates the addition will arrive with Season 4.
• The studio is still working on the next major seasonal update, and full details have not yet been revealed.

Context: fashion as part of the show

The Finals was built from day one on a very clear idea: combat is a show. The destructible arenas, the commentators, the fictional sponsors and the game-show tone turn every match into a kind of televised event. In that setting, your character's look isn't a minor detail, but your calling card in front of opponents and spectators.

Embark has put a lot of care into the wardrobe side. The available outfits and clothing items have been one of the game's draws, and a large part of the community has found in them a way to express themselves both in and out of matches. Face customization, however, had fallen behind, and the lack of facial hair options became one of those recurring requests that pops up again and again on the game's forums and social media.

Who it affects

Competitively, the change does nothing: a beard won't give you an edge in a firefight or change the value of an objective. But it does matter, a lot, to those who treat the game as a platform for identity: content creators who want a recognizable character in their thumbnails and streams, players who want to look like themselves or a specific character, and teams that care about their group image when they queue up together.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz newsroom, we're clear on this: it's good news, but it shouldn't be news at all. The fact that something as basic as facial hair is arriving so many seasons after launch says a lot about development priorities. We understand that gameplay content comes first, but in a game that sells spectacle and style, full character customization should have been part of the package from the start. We're glad Embark is listening, even if it's late.

For content creators, the impact is real. A character with its own identity is instantly recognizable in a clip, a short or a thumbnail, and that translates into a personal brand. The more tools there are to stand out, the easier it is to build your own presence in the scene. For the pure competitive player, on the other hand, this is almost irrelevant: what we really want from Season 4 are balance adjustments, meta shifts and, above all, a more solid competitive ecosystem.

And that's where our criticism comes in: we hope the same responsiveness that brought beards into the game gets applied to the competitive community's requests. If Embark can promise facial hair for next season, it can also communicate just as clearly what its plans are for ranked play and the organized scene. In the meantime, we'll focus on the positive: The Finals keeps taking care of its style, and that's part of its charm too.

What do you think?

Was facial hair a real need or just a cosmetic whim? Do you think Embark should focus on competitive play before aesthetics? Tell us what you expect from Season 4 and what you'd ask the studio for. Are you going to debut a beard in the arena, or would you rather see other changes first? Join us in the team chat and on our Discord to discuss it.