Need help with Heavy Utility Vest

[tonybe]

Ok, this should be simple, but I've had a really hard time figuring this out. Trying to google the answers just seems to bring more confusion. I am lvl 73 right now, I've bought the Arcade, and started the Casino heist prep, but have not completed my own run yet.

HERE'S WHAT I THINK I KNOW:
- There is a Heavy Utility Vest and a Bulletproof Helmet that will allow your character to take more bullet hits (i.e. increases health rather than armor), but it only works in Heists (some guides say "only in 2015 heists" and I'm not sure what that means), and provides no effect in Freemode
- the Heavy Utility Vest can be purchased from any clothing store, and it costs $20,000
- when worn in a heist, it can slow your running a little bit (i.e. not as much as Heavy Ballistic Equipment which is $500,000), but this effect can be cancelled by wearing a scarf(!?)
- there are a ton of other vests which look like bulletproof vests being sold in the clothing stores (for various prices up to $36,000) that are purely cosmetic and provide no added health protection whatsoever (with names like "Desert Camo Plate Carrier - part of Gunrunning" )
- to confuse matters further, there are a bunch of YouTube videos out there where people try to prove that the Heavy Utility Vest offers no added protection, but they're running all their tests in Freemode where it really doesn't do anything. To counter that - there are a ton of forum posts where people are asking "Why aren't people wearing the Heavy Utility Vest in heists!?" so clearly it's a necessary item that seems to actually work (right?).

HERE'S WHAT'S CONFUSING:
- The clothing stores have way too many options. How can I tell which is the actual Heavy Utility Vest, and which are the cosmetic ones?
- I was able to find what looks like the right item, but it has a lock on it and says "This item is unlocked by wearing during the Diamond Casino heist" - no price is visible. Is there a particular bit of Casino heist prep that I can do to unlock this?

WHAT I NEED
- Can someone please tell me the exact name of the category in the clothing store I should search for, and the exact name of the item I'm looking for?
- Does the store matter? I know if I go into some Ammu Nation stores, they'll only have "Outfits" in the clothing section rather than the full menu of Pants / Tops / Vests, etc.

FINAL GRIPE
This all feels so stupid and over-complicated. I feel like I'm trying to do my taxes or something. I just want to hit a stupid button and play the game, and not spend researching stuff to separate fact from fiction :\

[in]

og heavy vest only works in og apartment heists. casino heist has it's own heavy armor that you can source via prep (need to do every time, or just do without armor).

[tonybe]

Originally posted by in:

og heavy vest only works in og apartment heists. casino heist has it's own heavy armor that you can source via prep (need to do every time, or just do without armor).

Thank you for the clarification. Now, can you please help me figure out which of those vests are "og heavy vests" and where to buy them? How can I separate them from the purely cosmetic items that offer no protection?

Also - if someone else invites me to a heist (apartment, casino, or cayo perico) can I equip a heavy utility vest in my "saved outfits" that will actually give me the health boost I need? I keep dying too quickly :\

[in]

Go to the shop, browse tops, select utility vests and those will be two vests "black heavy utility vest" and "gray heavy utility vest", almost at the bottom (scroll up to find faster). Make outfit with one of those vests and you can use it in apartment heists when hosts enables saved outfits.
I.e. this one is grey one https://imgur.com/a/meo9v6e

[tonybe]

Thank you that helps a lot.

[tonybe]

OK so one last question - so

IF I buy the og "black heavy utility vest" and create the saved outfit etc. and
IF someone else invites me to a casino heist and I equip that outfit

it still won't give me any additional protection?

Will I be able to equip the other Casino heist armor to help someone else with their heist once I complete my own run at the Casino hest? (argh! why is all this so stupidly complicated?)

[in]

This specific vest is only for apartment heists and works only there.
In casino heist you can only use clothes given by heist.
To unlock protective armor in casino heist (which is different) you need to do extra preps. Every single run. Which is not really worth it if you do something like Duggan shipments for aggressive approach and use tunnel entrance. Or stick to silent and sneaky/big con and you don't need anything.

[tonybe]

OK thank you! At least now when I keep dying in other people's casino heists, I know that I've done all I could ;)