How does armour work?

[Arma]

Ok so my friend and I are having a discussion and I'm honestly confused as I believed that it doesn't matter what type of armour you are wearing it only depends on the amount of armour it provides and it's durability so if by some crazy roll you got a cloth chest piece with 600 armour and 1200 dura it would be far better than a flak chest piece with 200 armour and 400 dura. Or in another way if you had a cloth and flak chest piece both with exactly the same armour and dura it wouldn't matter what one you wore (ignoring repair costs ect)

Am I right? Or does the type of armour effect it like because flak is literally metal it lasts longer than cloth even if it's got less dura and armour rating than the cloth piece of gear?

[william_es]

There's a modifier on damage sources, but not on the armor itself. I forgot the term they use for it. But it's like the armor piercing ability of the damage source itself.

Metal armor doesn't inherently have better damage reduction then say cloth armor. The armor system is just not that complicated. In reality, things might bounce off metal armor (like bit of shrapnel or ricochets), but still make a nice hole in cloth (and your body underneath the cloth).

The different armor types have a base armor amount, which gets multiplied by the quality level. Flak armor will always have a higher _possible_ max ceiling then cloth ever could.

But an ascendant level cloth shirt might have more total armor then a base level (player crafted) flak jacket.

At the end of the day, go for the highest possible armor and durability you can find.

[esthergray]

I wore ascendant cloth because it was so easy to repair on the fly. Granted my health was 500, but still it served me well except in the snow. I needed fur for that.

[Saizo]

Riot armor gives more than just protection, it also reduces the torpor you gain, but not from poison.

[Arma]

So yeah ignoring the other effects gear gives all we really care about in the regards of damage reduction from attacks is the amount of armour the gear gives and how much durability it has.

Thanks all

[Alessio]

You can read how damages are computed on official wiki: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Armor

[Arma]

Yeah we looked at those the discussion we had was "Are there hidden values in gear" so for example even if you had a cloth piece with 100 armour rating and 100 dura and a flak with 100 armour rating and dura would the flak be "better" as it's in theory a higher quality item since it's made of metal not cloth or if it didn't make a bit of difference what the gear was made of as all that mattered was the armour rating regardless of where that armour rating came from

[Auftragsmoerder]

Originally posted by Alessio:

You can read how damages are computed on official wiki: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Armor

Or calculate it yourself, it really is a simple formula.

Damage taken is 100 / 100+Armour

Armour 0: 100/100 = 100%
Armour 100: 100/200 = 50%
Armour 200: 100/300 ≈ 33%
Armour 900: 100/1000 = 10%

Same formula goes for saddles. And yes, if you get same armour on different types of armour, take the one cheaper to repair. I cannot say much on durability of different types of armour, but after reading

"All equipped armor pieces on a survivor will lose 1 durability altogether per about 16 damage absorbed."

from the wiki i would assume it is the same no matter what armour you wear exactly.

Originally posted by Arma:

hidden values

To be entirely honest i have never tested those findings in detail, but only long ago and only roughly. I always felt it worked as described above, but is same armour value in different types of armour exactly the same? I would say yes, but in doubt test it yourself a little.

[The Lone Templar]

It really relies on the highest possible armour rating(maximum armour rating based on tier). For example, cloth has a base armour rating of 10 where as flak has a base armour rating of 100, because of that flak has a higher possible armour rating. Sure cloth is cheaper to repair than flak but even ascendant cloth armour is obsolete compared to ascendant flak. Even if they have equal armour rating and durability you should also focus on their different insulation stats(hypothermic and hyperthermic). There's a reason there are different armour sets in the game. Each armour set has a specific purpose like fur is for the snow and desert cloth is for the heat. Cloth is only to help get you started and in fact you can even skip cloth entirely if you feel like it.