Does armor protections stack?

[goblin]

For instance if you have a helmet with 10 fire protection and a body armor with 30, would your total fire protection be 40? Or does the 10 apply only to the head?

If they do stack that makes head + body gear superior to combined armors like the Bulat.

Would be nice to have a definitive answer to this.

[danmak27]

One is for the upper body and one is for the head, so no, I doubt they stack for both.
Why would they?

[dbond1]

Does not stack like this. Head and body protection are separate. Artifact bonuses stack though. Like you can carry two Whirlwinds and have the equivalent of one medium physical protection artifact.

[ImHelping]

as far as anyone's educated guess goes.
Status protection: Stacks.
ARMOR protection: Specific to head damage. (don't underestimate a seemingly trash optician's mask for splash damage I guess. "Oh boy, a more valuable helmet!... with no radiation protection, and as good/worse armor...).

Guesswork towards this is furthered by the combat you can enter where you lost body armor durability with 100% mask durability remaining. While a near miss grenade will ding it. This means the majority of your helmet repairs will be from anomaly damage, explosions, or "Oh I guess that was a headshot?"

Of note, MOST (not all) integrated helmet suits have better armor than an individual helmets do. Also with the loss of vision modes, advanced helmets now lack the main appeal of getting them in past games/main downside of integrated helmets on suits with no nightvision or infrared ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[atrox]

Missing an stats overwiew. As of now you'll never know if helmet+vest or an entire suit gives you better protection on what and where.