Is armor worth using?

[cmcm]

I do not see much difference between using armor or not using it. Once in a blue moon I get shot and I do not die.

[Elegant Caveman]

Depends which armor, and why you want it.

Early armors are pretty useless at stopping bullets, but they can still be worth it for other things, especially rad protection.

They might be of interest to protect against melee and/or anomalies, but it's probably better to learn how to avoid those things instead of relying on armor.

Higher level armor can be quite good at stopping bullets, but always keep in mind fragility and durability.

The way armor works is confusing, but it's worth learning.

[espritcrafter]

Originally posted by cmcm:

I do not see much difference between using armor or not using it. Once in a blue moon I get shot and I do not die.

At armor level 4, you will notice a difference. At armor levels 5+ there is definitely a huge difference, such as maybe surviving a surprise mag dump from a bandit. The caveat in using higher level armor is that higher armor levels degrade in durability very quickly. They are definitely worth it if you've got a good amount of experience in the game and generally do not get shot often.

IMO, level 4 armor is where you want to be if you tend to get hit more often by bandits and hunters. It has high protection vs bandits and will maintain its durability well enough to last one run before repairs.

Once you find yourself killing green and red soldiers, you'll want to move to level 5 armor to try to offset their more powerful weapons. I assume that you're skilled enough by now, at avoiding bullets, that the armor's durability is not too much of an issue. At this point, it is more important to survive the occasional high damage mistake your make rather than having armor that has a longer lifespan/durability that is good for many low-mid damage mistakes.

Level 6 armor is the best you can get right now, but it melts pretty quick. It's great if you rarely get shot, but the repair cost per trip could be around 20k.

[BootlegZoke]

I've taken to using the seva suit late game and carrying an armor repair kit on me, I'm considering taking a big repair kit into the raid with me, I'm using the bulk backpack with sprinter, so as long as I'm focusing on lootables and not hauling massive ammounts of weapons I have weight to spare. The patching up on the seva is huge for survivability through out a run, sometimes you just get surprised. The kits are quite easy to make with a daily trip to MR junk.

The seva is so frail though I've considered using "Gear Lover" on it to keep the durability up higher on it... need to try some runs to see if the lost damage maters at all for what I can/Can't one tap with the skop.

I'm also pretty late game and just trying to justify using my money in some way, and earning less money for a higher survivability chance is worth it for me.

EDIT: On gear lover, You need to switch to an N10 to make the one tap break point on green army soldiers. Something to considier, but you can get really good one tap potential on a 450 fire rate weapon, and have much improved armor fragility