Outfits are simply PlanetSide’s version of clans or guilds. Outfits help players with similar interests to organize and socialize. Outfits have their own chat and ranking system, as well as infantry and vehicle decals, which are also displayed on bases captured by that outfit. Outfit members have tags of up to four letters near their name.

How to join an outfit?

The easiest way to join an outfit is to visit the Outfit Browser in the Outfit tab of the Social Menu. You will see the list of actively recruiting outfits. 

However, the Outfit Browser is historically buggy, and has questionable priorities when it comes to sorting the list of outfits. So if you want to join a decent outfit, you should ask around in the community outside of the game. Remember to mention your character name, or at least your server and faction, as well as preferred language.

There are as many different outfits as there are different people. Since PlanetSide 2 has so much variety, different outfits will focus on different things, and they will require various amount of commitment from their recruits. 

More serious outfits will usually require you to fill out an application on a forum and/or participate in a short voice chat interview.

Casual outfits will not require anything from you; often they just spam outfit invites left and right. Conversely, you should not expect much from outfits like that.

Why join an outfit?

When you join a competitive, tactical outfit with experienced officers, you will be rid of the the most frustrating elements of PlanetSide 2. As you will focus more on the task at hand – defend or capture the objective – you will become less concerned with your own performance, kills and deaths. Which will make you a better player in the end, because the less you worry, the better you play.

You will always have access to medics, engineers, vehicle support, transportation. You will always have backup, and thus will have a much easier time doing a meaningful impact to the battlefield.