Plate armor

Plate armor is a type of apparel (armor) that functions as low-tech full body armor. It can be crafted out of various materials and inflicts a move speed penalty when worn.
== Acquisition == 
It can also be found on the following raider kinds:
Raider Kind 	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Archer chief 	100% 	Normal 	100%
Berserker chief	100% 	Normal 	100%
Champion 	100% 	Normal 	70-100%
== Summary ==
== Analysis ==
Overall, plate armor is rarely worth it. A non-wood set of plate is a large resource investment in the early game. Wood plate armor offers minimal protection, and still takes a lot of work to create. All sets of plate armor slow the user by -0.8c/s (~17% reduction) - the highest movement penalty in the game, tied with cataphract armor.
Usually, it is worth it to wait until the Flak armor research has completed, as flak vests are much cheaper, much more protective against arrows and bullets, and do not slow the wearer nearly as much. Flak research is not terribly hard to acquire once you've researched Plate armor already. Flak can also be obtained from raiders or through trade, meaning that even tribal colonies can replace plate armor relatively quickly. 
Bioferrite Plate armor in combination with Bioferrite Flak helmet allows to buff psycasts while giving reasonable amount of armor.
=== Compared to flak ===
Flak vests cost , cheaper than a set of steel plate armor, which costs . The vest alone has 100% Sharp and 36% Blunt armor. This is slightly better Blunt and much better Sharp protection than steel plate. Sharp damage is the most common form of damage. 
Vests protect the torso, neck, and vital organs. Unlike plate, vests do not cover the arms or legs. While the limbs are important to pawn function, plate offers much worse protection to the torso - the body part most likely to be hit. In addition, vests offer its superior protection to every vital body part except for the head and brain, which plate won't protect, either. The rare chance of losing a leg is worth the reduced chance of outright dying.
Flak vests can also be worn with flak jackets and flak pants, the full combination being a fair bit more expensive than steel plate ( + + ). Jackets and pants protect the arms / legs, respectively, but are still worse than steel plate. The jacket also protects the torso and neck, for an even larger disparity in those areas. In addition, vests can be worn with dusters of a protective material like devilstrand or thrumbofur for even greater protection for the torso, neck, arms, and legs. In any case, plate still ends up better for limb protection, in part because you can wear regular pants with it.
Steel / plasteel plate armor always has higher Heat armor than the flak combination. However, a devilstrand duster beats any set of plate against Heat. Each piece of flak armor has 200 HP, while the entire set of steel plate has 290 HP. Plate armor also has -0.8c/s movement speed, while each piece of flak armor only gives -0.12c/s.
=== Compared to power armor ===
A set of plasteel plate armor is more expensive in value than recon armor; it protects the same body parts, is worse against Sharp damage, and very slightly better against Blunt / Heat. Its movement penalty is heavier at -0.8c/s, compared to no penalty for recon armor. 
Plasteel plate has 2 advantages: one is that it doesn't require advanced components. The second, is that with 810 hp, it lasts much longer than the recon and marine armor, which have 280 HP or 340 HP respectively. However, these are not usually worth it, unless you have a large surplus on plasteel and are unable to create power armor.
A legendary steel plate armor is equivalent to normal cataphract armor at 1/3 of the market value, while legendary plasteel plate armor is equivalent to excellent cataphract while costing 40 less plasteel to produce. With a Production Specialist and a Genie (or anyone with the Great Crafting gene), masterwork and legendary quality armors can be created from the beginning of the game.
== Protection charts ==
Sharp Armor	Blunt Armor
 	
Sharp Armor	Blunt Armor
 	
== Trivia ==
Every set of plate armor found on an Imperial Champion will be white.
== Version history ==
* 0.19.2009 - Added.
* 1.1.0 - Can now be smelted, except wooden plate armor which is now burnable.
Category:Armor