Second strongest armour in game? (DLC Included)

[Fivzie🌕]

Well, what is it?

I know the Remnants armour is the strongest, and I'm using the Gannon Family armor (because it's easier to repair since it counts as medium for some reason).

But kind got me wondering what the strongest one is? I'm guessing it's the T-51 yea?

[Smiling Jack]

Yeah probably T-51 is the second strongest armor

[Empyreo]

I like the Scorched Sierra Power Armor.

[TrapperKeeper]

The T-51B armor has a DT of 25, three points less than the Remnant's power armor.

Funfact: The Gannon family power armor is classified as medium armor, meaning you have the strongest armor in both heavy and the medium-weight categories.

[Empyreo]

For medium, Elite Riot Gear

[Fivzie🌕]

Originally posted by Revenge of the Chotu:

The T-51B armor has a DT of 25, three points less than the Remnant's power armor.

Funfact: The Gannon family power armor is classified as medium armor, meaning you have the strongest armor in both heavy and the medium-weight categories.

Strongest in Medium also? Wasn't that elite ranger outfit from Lonesome Road suppo- wait yea. It is when we're not talking POWER ARMOR, silly me

[The Boominator]

Disclaimer: I'm about to drop a lot of analysis. If you want my concise recommendations, scroll to the bottom.

It depends on your playstyle and your priorities. Gannon Family Tesla Armor and Remnants power armor are both very strong, but not very durable (400 hp). Compared to the T-51B, which has 5x the durability, it's hard to say which is truly better. The T-51B also provides better rad resistance and a boost to charisma, whereas the Remnants power armor penalizes charisma. Depending on your character build, the charisma boost could be seen as offsetting the armor's slightly inferior protection as the charisma boost will buff your companions.

The Scorched Sierra power armor is another strong contender. Though it is slightly weaker in terms of both protection and durability to T-51B power armor and provides no protection from radiation, it does give a passive regenerative ability that can prove useful in protracted combat. It also reduces the need for healing items and food between fights, which could free up inventory space. It's also the best armor against fire weapons, but that's kinda niche.

If you don't want power armor for whatever reason, you have two primary choices: The Armor of the 87th Tribe and Elite Riot Gear. Both provide the same protection, though their are major discrepancies in weight and durability. The Armor of the 87th tribe weighs 12 more pounds, but has over 2000 more points of durability. I believe it is the most durable armor in the game, but I may be mistaken. This advantage in durability can be mitigated with jury rigging, as the Elite Riot Gear is a medium armor, which is easier to find than heavy armor. Both armors give a +1 buff to charisma, but they're clearly designed for different characters. The Armor of the 87th Tribe is clearly designed for VATS, as it boosts AP by 10 and critical chance by 3%. The Elite Riot Gear, on the other hand, provides a larger boost to critical chance (+5%) and guns (+10), though this may be negligible in the late game. It does free up some skill points, though, and is great for guns builds. The Elite Riot Gear helmet also gives +5 to speech and +2 to perception, as well as the "sneak sight" effect, which varies in usefulness from "annoying" to "awesome night vision." The Elite Riot Gear Helmet also has a DT of 6, which is on par with a T-51B helmet, but it has one major advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that it can be paired with the space helmet from the "Come Fly With Me Quest" to boost your DT by a further 4 points. This 10 DT combination is the highest for any headware in the game, though it does look a bit silly.The disadvantage is that it is unique "heavy" headware, so only merchants can repair it. The Armor of the 87th Tribe has no specific headware associated with it, so you could technically wear whatever headware/combination of headware you want with it, if you disregard immersion. The same could be said of the Scorched Sierra Power Armor, too.

However, some characters prefer light armor for stealth and critical hit purposes. Certain perks only benefit light armor and as such, some players only want light armor. Depending on your priorities, there are a number of light armor sets you may want to use.

The most protective light armor is the Reinforced Sierra Madre Armor, with a DT of 18. However, it provides no stat boosts.

The Assassin suit is a bit less protective with a DT of 14, but it provides a +10 boost to sneak. Both of the above armors have a durability of 500, which is actually better than Remnants Power Armor (400) and Gannon Family Tesla Armor (400). However, it is inferior to every other armor listed on this list so far.

If you are going the sneak route, though, the Stealth Suit from Old World Blues is probably a superior choice. It has better stat boosts and other effects, while providing the same protection and durability. It's only drawback is that it is a medium armor, so it doesn't benefit from some light armor perks that critical builds tend to favor.

For a general combat build for light armor, I would recommend the various Courier Dusters that you receive at the end of Lonesome Road. Specifically, three of them. Ulysses' Duster is good for critical builds, giving a 5% boost to crit chance, and +1 charisma on top of that. If you like melee weapons, get the Legion variant "Fighting Chance," which gives +1 to strength and +15 AP. And if you're a general packrat or you're playing hardcore, I recommend the NCR variant, "The Great Bear." It provides +1 endurance, as well as +25 to your carry weight limit. Given that the armor itself weighs 3 pounds, it effectively weighs -22 pounds. Or just view it as a weightless buff of 22 pounds to your carry weight, +1 buff to your endurance, and +13 buff to your DT.

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Armor Sets

If you only care about DT, use Remnants Power Armor, the Elite Riot Gear Helmet, and the space suit helmet. This looks incredibly dumb, but it does give the highest DT for any combination of armors in the game (38).

If you care only about critical chance, use Ulysses' Duster and the 1st Recon Beret. Yes, there are other sets of armor that provide equal critical chance boosts, but this is the single-best light armor for crit chance. And this, combined with the "Light Touch" perk, make it effectively a +10% critical chance boost, which is unparalleled by any other armor.

If you have any other priorities or role-playing elements, like VATS or a specific weapon type, it will come down to your specific build and play-style. Generally, though, I don't compromise on DT or stat boosts for skill boosts. I.E. If you're a melee character, don't choose a Marked Mask (+3 to melee weapons) and Marked Tribal Armor (+10 to melee) over another beneficial melee armor like the Armor of the 87th Tribe, which doesn't directly boost your Melee skill, but has much higher DT and can indirectly improve your performance in melee combat.

My personal favorite general purpose set of armor is the T-51B power armor. It provides excellent protection from all forms of damage, plus provides a good deal of radiation resistance. It boosts my companions (+1 Charisma) and almost never needs to be repaired (2000 durability). It looks cool and it gets the job done.

[The Boominator]

^My above comment concerned the "Best" Armor in the game. In terms of raw DT and engaging only complete "sets" of armor (no Elite Riot Gear Helmet exploit), it is the Gannon Family Tesla Armor. The Gannon set has a total DT of 32, which is less than the set of Remnants power armor (36), but more than the set of T-51B power armor (31).

However, it's not necessarily "the best." As I explained above, that will depend on your playstyle.
And even if you're a straight-up combat character that prioritizes DT above-all, you're probably not a DT absolutist. Comparing the Gannon Family Tesla Armor to the T-51B, it has +1 DT and weighs 4 less pounds (the suit is 5 pounds less, the helmet is one pound more). It also provides +10 to energy weapons. However, the suit has 5 times less durability (400 vs. 2000), and 13 less rad resistance. Additionally, there is a 2 charisma gap in the armors, as the GFTA helmet gives -1 charisma, whereas the T-51B helmet gives +1 charisma. This charisma gap effectively amounts to -10% damage and damage threshold for your companion(s). This also amounts to a 4 skill point gap in speech.

GFTA may be better for energy weapons characters, but if you're a max skills character or a non-energy weapons character, I doubt the difference of 1 DT and 4 extra pounds of inventory space justifies choosing it over the T-51B.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Elite Rioter Gear from the dlc. I've seen vids and have experienced it for myself, being able to tank deathclaws for a couple of seconds.

[Vassago Rain]

Elite riot gear is the most powerful, efficient, and overall useful armor on its own in the game, but you only get it at the end of lonesome road. The desert ranger combat armor from honest hearts has 1 less DT total, and 1 less weight (power armor protection, for much less weight and movement penalities), but lacks all the bonuses from elite riot gear. It also doesn't have the night vision.

All the heavy armor is actually really awful. They slow you down, consume too much weight for the defense they give, lack the more useful stat bonuses, and there are no perks that improve them. Remnant's power armor also has one incredibly major problem in its low durability, which will plague you endlessly in lonesome road, against deathclaws, and other enemies with enough attack to properly get through your DT. Playing with power armor makes the game significantly more difficult, which I guess isn't saying much, but if you want more of a challenge, use any of the power armor variants.

Light armor has a lot of perks that make it MUCH more useful than it has any right to be, and many light armors have great effects. Gecko-backed reinforced leather, Ulysses' duster, all-purpose science suit (1 pound weight with pack rat), all the courier dusters, are all top picks.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Elite riot gear is the most powerful, efficient, and overall useful armor on its own in the game, but you only get it at the end of lonesome road. The desert ranger combat armor from honest hearts has 1 less DT total, and 1 less weight (power armor protection, for much less weight and movement penalities), but lacks all the bonuses from elite riot gear. It also doesn't have the night vision.

All the heavy armor is actually really awful. They slow you down, consume too much weight for the defense they give, lack the more useful stat bonuses, and there are no perks that improve them. Remnant's power armor also has one incredibly major problem in its low durability, which will plague you endlessly in lonesome road, against deathclaws, and other enemies with enough attack to properly get through your DT. Playing with power armor makes the game significantly more difficult, which I guess isn't saying much, but if you want more of a challenge, use any of the power armor variants.

Light armor has a lot of perks that make it MUCH more useful than it has any right to be, and many light armors have great effects. Gecko-backed reinforced leather, Ulysses' duster, all-purpose science suit (1 pound weight with pack rat), all the courier dusters, are all top picks.

heavy armors actually do have a perk (that reflecting armor ♥♥♥♥) to inc. DT. Sadly it's a completely broken perk that doesn't work, but if it did it would sure as hell make the heavy power armors and metal armors much much MUCH more useful.

but huge agree

also armor doesn't mean ♥♥♥♥ if you do certain builds (for sure stealth builds light armors are you go to, melee or unarmed builds medium armors would be your go to to not lower your agility or take up too much space (especially in hardcore). Light armors would still be useful tbh since you can carry more ♥♥♥♥ and be slightly more silent.


probably the only real use i'd see heavy armors would be with an explosives build since you'd take a ton of close ranged self-damage early on.

[Vassago Rain]

Explosive self-damage is better tanked through stacked chem usage. You can survive pointblank fat mines with enough special sauce in your system.

Source: me. I use them for close combat purposes against deathclaws.