Power Armor Advice

[jasonbarron]

Hi y'all. Just getting back into playing this game after setting it aside 7 years ago. Pretty much forgot everything about the game during that span, and now that I've dusted it off and gotten rolling again I'm working on a power armor build.

I grabbed two levels of the Armorer perk and modded my starter t-45 to the max of my current capabilities (D). After exploring the city for a while I found an unclaimed t-51 suit and I'm wondering if I should max it out and start using that setup instead?

Resources are probably close to enough to fully upgrade it, but it would clean me out and I'm a little concerned that I'll find something better shortly after spending all the materials.

Is it worth upgrading and making the swap, or should I hold out for something better?

[Zekiran]

You will find dozens of power armors in and out of frames across your wanderings. They are very, very common, and you'll have an entire ware house full of them by the time you're level 50. Don't sweat it.

[momopovich]

Originally posted by jasonbarron:

Hi y'all. Just getting back into playing this game after setting it aside 7 years ago. Pretty much forgot everything about the game during that span, and now that I've dusted it off and gotten rolling again I'm working on a power armor build.

I grabbed two levels of the Armorer perk and modded my starter t-45 to the max of my current capabilities (D). After exploring the city for a while I found an unclaimed t-51 suit and I'm wondering if I should max it out and start using that setup instead?

Resources are probably close to enough to fully upgrade it, but it would clean me out and I'm a little concerned that I'll find something better shortly after spending all the materials.

Is it worth upgrading and making the swap, or should I hold out for something better?

materials are renewable and abundant especially later in the game. Don't worry too much about anything except save file corruption or steam cloud errors (make backups and turn cloud services off).

[jasonbarron]

Ok, thanks fam. I'll just upgrade to the new armor.

[DouglasGrave]

If you're concerned about materials, you'll want to stick with the T-51 for a while because it's the most efficient power armour suit to keep repaired. Repairing it only takes slightly more material than the T-45 (and it's still almost all steel) and has a useful improvement in performance, compared to a more substantial jump in repair resources for the higher models.

[Zekiran]

Also of note: different models will start spawning as you gain levels, so don't hesitate to TAKE them, when you see them, even if it means trudging back to your home base and storing the frame WITHOUT THE POWER CELL (I cannot stress this enough, if there are settlers they WILL steal your power armor if there's a power cell in it) so you can have them for later upgrades.

[B-o-B]

You will have many at some point later and can afford to leave spare armour at settlements with a 1,2 or even 0 percent used core(you can jump out at last seconds and swap out spent cores 99%+) in the Armour, guards love them. Choice is yours.
Hoard at first then distribute.
You can give Companion an almost empty core they can use for ammo for Aternus? instead of a full core. It won't run out. Cait, piper and now Nick have been traded the same weapon and empty core.
Only downside is managing the core swapping. No biggy
If you leave a core in the frame you never have to manage them and accept the risk explained :)

Originally posted by Zekiran:

I cannot stress this enough, if there are settlers they WILL steal your power armor if there's a power cell in it) so you can have them for later upgrades.

yup it can be a messy stressful retrieval business and you can lose more than a frame if you go