I joined Subeta in the fall of 2009, and played ACTIVELY for three years before going on a 2-3 year hiatus. I don't think zombie strains were available as wardrobe skins at the time. It never occurred to me to ask until now, because I honestly don't mind regrowing the skins from biting. But while talking to a friend about how I'm a completionist but was putting off getting skins that are low-key triggering for me (not a trauma trigger, but some of them make me feel nauseous/headachey to look at). Two of them are ones I grew from the bites during their year. Eyesore, and Faceworm.

So my question is: Do Subeta staff unlock skins we already earned, before the skin-system existed? Is this something I have to file a ticket about? Or do I just have to get the bite eventually, and avoid looking at my avatar until I finish growing them?

I'm really only worried about those two (and the entire year of 2014, but I've never gotten them, so the question doesn't apply to them), I actually like seeing some of the early stages again, but if old skins can be unlocked, it'd be Eyesore, Faceworm, Heartburn, Bindi Bite, and Lobster Face that I unlocked in the past, but don't have since the current system was implemented while I was on hiatus. I also had Butterfly Bruise back then (I actually kept it for almost the entire year), but that's my favorite strain, and the first one I unlocked after my hiatus. XD (I probably should have used my free claim for one of the skins that bother me, but I thought of this after I already claimed a 2009 skin I've wanted for years.)

You can't get old strains that from having had them back then, and they don't unlock them. There's no way of them even knowing what strain you did get back then. You will have to get bitten.

Wardrobe now has a more complex layering system, and if you like you can completely cover your HA you don't have to look.

If you haven't selected a free unlock for this year yet you could get one of them out of the way now. Otherwise you would have to either hide your HA with items (like mine currently is) or try to avoid it or adblock it temporarily until the strains finish and you can remove them

If you adblock the skin(s) in the wardrobe itself, they'll show your current underlying HA base instead so you wouldn't have to look at them there either, which you may want to do if you're determined to unlock them anyway

Thank you for the answers! I'll have to cover my avatar when I get the ones that bother me. I used the freebie to unlock Virus (which I've wanted since 2010) before I even thought of this question, unfortunately.

You are welcome