Best armor setup ?

[gandalf]

How do I get best overall armor sharp,blunt,heat (the stat I see when looking at gear) ?

I see if I wear plate armor I miss out on flak vest and flak pants I think it is. Is it better to wear (strong) leather/fur type cloths to get all slots worn from helm,shirt,jacket, flak vest and pants. Or is it better to use plate armor ?

[CaptainGeek]

Cataphrate. Make lot of drug, sell them to empire and stuff easy your team. In middle difficulty, i have 10 people with full cataphrate and plasma gun and they still dont have electricity ^^

[Astasia]

The best armor is cataphract armor. Before that it is situational, it depends on what materials you have to work with and what kind of protection you need. A flak vest is better than plate armor, but the vest doesn't cover the legs or arms (unless they are bionic/prosthetic arms). Flak jackets and pants are better than cloth dusters and pants, and better than most leathers, but devilstrand, hyperweave and thrumbofur dusters are better than flak jackets. Recon, marine and cataphract armor are generally better than any clothes or flak, but it depends on quality.

[James]

Button down shirts and pants are also something you'll probably still wear no matter what game stage you are at. Might invest into at least devilstrand for those late game.

[Seal Enthusiast]

My go to standard issue was always a devilstrand duster, flak vest, simple helmet (or if you have the resources, flak helmet), button down shirts (usually of cotton, but the better the material you can afford the better) and Devilstrand pants. With this, most shots from your regular enemies will be reliably dampened to be no issue, while not really affecting movement speed.

Of course, the power armors are the best you can get, but generally unless you are really late game, the above loadout will get you far.

[James]

Originally posted by Seal Enthusiast:

My go to standard issue was always a devilstrand duster, flak vest, simple helmet (or if you have the resources, flak helmet), button down shirts (usually of cotton, but the better the material you can afford the better) and Devilstrand pants. With this, most shots from your regular enemies will be reliably dampened to be no issue.

Of course, the power armors are the best you can get, but generally unless you are really late game, the above loadout will get you far.

a solid flak vest should keep fatalities down. The only weakness of duster/flak vest combo is weaker limb protection. It is very economical and I tend to use it into later game than I should since I am unreasonably put off from making expensive armor due to the fact you can't repair items.

[Seal Enthusiast]

Originally posted by James:

a solid flak vest should keep fatalities down. The only weakness of duster/flak vest combo is weaker limb protection. It is very economical and I tend to use it into later game than I should since I am unreasonably put off from making expensive armor due to the fact you can't repair items.

Exactly. I find that flak armor is just too expensive to be useful. Late game, you need steel and components for everything, so I always just do the vest to protect vitals so I can skimp on steel to get everyone a better gun.

[James]

Originally posted by Seal Enthusiast:

Originally posted by James:

a solid flak vest should keep fatalities down. The only weakness of duster/flak vest combo is weaker limb protection. It is very economical and I tend to use it into later game than I should since I am unreasonably put off from making expensive armor due to the fact you can't repair items.

Exactly. I find that flak armor is just too expensive to be useful. Late game, you need steel and components for everything, so I always just do the vest to protect vitals so I can skimp on steel to get everyone a better gun.

by more expensive armor I meant like... marine and cata. Is the flak armor even worth it? I think dusters/flak vest are actually just better than flak armor.

EDIT: forgot it was flak jacket (not armor)... the wiki has this to say

"With low resource costs, accessible research, and the ability to be worn over flak vests, flak jackets can provide useful protection in the early game. However once sufficient devilstrand is available, typically by mid-late game, devilstrand dusters are almost strictly superior, with their only statistical downside being a tiny decrease in cold insulation. Devilstrand dusters cover the legs, provide slightly more sharp and blunt protection, significantly more heat insulation as well as excellent heat protection, and eliminate the movement speed penalty. "

[Seal Enthusiast]

Originally posted by James:

by more expensive armor I meant like... marine and cata. Is the flak armor even worth it? I think dusters/flak vest are actually just better than flak armor.

EDIT: forgot it was flak jacket (not armor)... the wiki has this to say

"With low resource costs, accessible research, and the ability to be worn over flak vests, flak jackets can provide useful protection in the early game. However once sufficient devilstrand is available, typically by mid-late game, devilstrand dusters are almost strictly superior, with their only statistical downside being a tiny decrease in cold insulation. Devilstrand dusters cover the legs, provide slightly more sharp and blunt protection, significantly more heat insulation as well as excellent heat protection, and eliminate the movement speed penalty. "

Well I was referring to the flak suite in general. I always thought it was better to skip everything but the vest and just wait for the more advanced armors. The only one I would also consider would be the flak helmet, but even then a good simple helmet is often good enough.

[Grishnerf]

cataphract armors + shield belt for melees
marine armors for my ranged soldiers
flak vests for my normal colonists

+ all in devilstrand dusters,buttondownshirts and pants if wearable.

[Feyda]

Personally I use locust armor on my ranged soldiers and a smattering of psychic lances and lowshield packs to deal with high level threats. Melee get cataphract armor and jump jets. Shield belts are an option too but I love the shock and awe tactic. Jump them into the middle of some enemies and undraft and they go nuts. Can also jump out of danger or catch up with fleeing pawns.

[PolecatEZ]

Button down shirts and pants made of devilstrand or thrumbofur for everyone.

Then best armor you can get for the rest of the body. If you can't make flak or marine-type armor, then use broadwrap + mask for the head and devilstrand/thrumbo duster for the body. You can get a flak jacket on top of all that when you find one.

[zig158]

Don't forget Skin Hardening glands. They effectively add another layer of armor under everything else.

[Wantoomany]

Originally posted by zig158:

Don't forget Skin Hardening glands. They effectively add another layer of armor under everything else.

Honestly with all the new genes, I waiting for someone to test how effective a pawn can be with just a tough trait, a skin gland, cata helmet, flak vest, bandolier, minigun and shooting expert. Extreme daka might prove better then armor.

[Fyredrakon]

Originally posted by Wantoomany:

Originally posted by zig158:

Don't forget Skin Hardening glands. They effectively add another layer of armor under everything else.

Honestly with all the new genes, I waiting for someone to test how effective a pawn can be with just a tough trait, a skin gland, cata helmet, flak vest, bandolier, minigun and shooting expert. Extreme daka might prove better then armor.

I have a pawn with the trait and gene. Thats a 38% incoming damage multiplier, enough to save your pawn from a raw charge lance shot to the heart (something not possible before) which accounts for 23% of charge lance insta-kills. The brain still remains vulnerable, but with tough and robust, you reduce raw charge lance instakills from 8.6% to .86%. Thats without armor.

[Fyredrakon]

I just did some in depth calculations on armor. Abstractly: heavy armor that occupies two layers is preferable to layering with vests and dusters. Still layer when you can with skin hardening and shirt/pants.

Best armor rating possible: best powered armor you can get(quality and tier), best shirt and pants you can get (Thrumbo>Hyperweave>Devilstrand>anything else w/best quality), best skin hardening you can afford. Further reduce damage with tough trait(luck based) and robust gene(not luck based, but can be tricky to get it).

In depth: Cataphract is the best, even compared against the best layered loadout: all legendary thrumbo button down, pants, duster and flak vest. Just because so many more bullets are deflected by the first layer, other layers won't have to do nearly the same amount of work. Taken damage average for legendary cataphract (~10%) vs duster and vest (~30%). The most important thing is getting an armor piece with the highest rating (armor %) to deflect as many bullets as possible. As long as that number is higher than 145% covering the instakill parts (covers torso, neck, head), you are never going to take full damage, always less than half. 45 AP is the best AP available from charge lances btw, therefore 145% - 45 AP = 100% effective armor for calculation.


Conclusion: two layered pieces of medium armor is less effective than heavy armor.


The caveats:
Move speed cost: armor speed offset is taken before multipliers like movement boosts from limbs, drugs, etc. A jogger can offset up to .4 movement speed, and bionic legs(or 125% movement) can offset cataphract speed. You are still giving up speed, but if they can keep up with your normal colonists, you probably don't care too much.

Manufacture cost: powered armor is expensive to make and 'rare' to buy (only 1-2 per trader), clothing can be easier to get, but the apparel I used for best values is also incredibly hard to get (thrumbos and quality).

Time spent giving a ****: point in case


Flak gear: spend components instead of thrumbofur/hyperweave for similar armor value with the duster and pants. The vest is a unique piece, so get it unless you have powered armors, plate armor is worse than the vest in every way.


Invincible pawn?
With genes, you can pull off some amazing things. Short answer yes: with a cataphract helmet on a tough sanguophage, you will survive 99.99% of encounters. The only way they die is multiple shots to the same critical part (brain, neck, heart, liver), which just isn't going to happen under any circumstances, since the most lethal shots only do about 6 damage after making it through the helmet.