Armor

This page clarifies the mechanics of body protection in OP-2.2.

## Artifacts

Any incoming damage is first reduced by your artifacts before it even reaches the armor, so both damage and armor deterioration are reduced if you have good artifact protection.

Higher difficulties will restrict your artifact resistances to 60%; lower difficulties will allow more.

## Bullet protection

The bullet protection of the armor shown in the game is **entirely fictional!** It doesn't work like you think it does.

Actual bullet protection is hidden in the game files, and can be represented with three values:

* Minimum damage that the incoming bullet can inflict. Even if you got hit by a very small bullet, it does at least this much damage. This makes shotguns formidable due to the large number of pellets.
* Body armor type; represents incoming damage reduction to the body. Types ranked worst to best:
	+ **Trenchcoat** < **Jacket** < **Vest** < **Outfit** < **Armor** < **Exosuit** < **Scientific**
* Head armor type. Some suits don't have helmets at all. Types ranked worst to best:
	+ **Gas mask** < **Helmet** < **Scientific**

Refer to the item spreadsheet for the difference between armors. Each column is annotated. In particular:

* All exosuits have identical bullet protection, despite having wildly varying numbers displayed in the game
* Exosuits have the lowest minimum damage, and work best against shotguns and smallbore full auto rifles
* SEVA+ and nanosuits have the best damage reduction, and work best against heavy single hits

Other damage types (fire, electricity etc) work as intended, and the resistance shown on the armor is used by the game.

Grazing hits (based on the angle of incidence) can reduce the incoming damage further, refer to Combat tactics#Grazing hits for details.

## Protection zones

Different suits protect different body areas. Some armors don't have helmets, some don't protect legs, etc. This is not indicated anywhere in the game, and the numbers you see are purely nominal for targeted damage (i.e. not area of effect such as radiation or psi).

## Regeneration

Some suits provide health and stamina regeneration. The number shown in the game is not accurate, refer to the item spreadsheet for actual outfit regeneration rates per minute.

Suit regeneration is **way** more impactful than it looks. +2% of health regeneration on a suit is 10x better than +2000% in artifacts! You won't need any stamina or health-related artifacts, ever.

That happens because the base regeneration rate of the actor is 0.0001, that is 0.01% of the full bar per second. Armor regeneration is additive, and if you add 2% to 0.01% you'll get 2.01%, multiplying it by 201! Artifact regeneration is multiplicative, so +2000% will only multiply it by 21.

Suit and artifact regeneration doesn't stack in a useful way, because the artifact multiplier only applies to the base rate. For example, if you have the +2% suit and +2000% in artifacts, the total result will be 0.01% \* 20 + 2%, which is just 2.21%, barely better than the suit alone.

## Silent running

Two suits in the game make your footsteps silent: Hunting Trenchcoat (can be bought from Sidorovich) and Armored Sunrise suit (obtained for Crazy doctor, the final quest of the Controller hunt storyline). Both suits help stealth missions immensely, as you can easily sneak up to enemies as long as you aren't in their view cone. Keep in mind that:

* Telepathic mutants such as Burers, Controllers, or Biomasses still sense your general presence regardless of noise or visibility and become agitated; they won't know your position, but if they alert others, other mutants *will* know where you are.
* You still make noise by opening your inventory, disturbing foliage, etc.

## Closed loop suits

Closed loop suits protect from artifact pickup shock, miasma from decaying bodies, and Plague, which makes them invaluable. Suit durability is still reduced when picking artifacts. All scientific suits and SEVA suits are closed loop.

The Ecologist exoskeleton and Scientific exoskeleton are only partially closed loop - they only reduce artifact pickup shock, and do not protect from airborne plague sources like Parasites or Plagued zombies, as well as the plague inflicted when looting their bodies.

The Black Doctor's exoskeleton and Don Quixote exoskeleton are both fully closed loop exoskeletons.

## Blowout protection

Two suits in the game protect you from the blowouts, letting you survive outside without shelter:

* Gagarin protective suit (obtained in Prototype army armor suit)
* Don Quixote exoskeleton (obtained in the Sniper storyline, during Fenrir's lair at the Dump)

Both of them are also closed-cycle.

## Exosuits

### Availability

Exosuits become generally available after completing Get out of laboratory (i.e. disabling the brain in X-16 during the SoC storyline).

After that, enemies will start dropping them, and Sakharov and other traders will sell batteries. Try avoiding large fights if possible before that point in the plot, as broken exosuits sell for a lot of money at Petrenko and Suslov, or for even better prices at Bourbon after finishing the Shadow of Chernobyl storyline.

### Power source

Exosuits require a power source (battery) to be able to sprint and jump in them. Each type of exosuit has different power draw. There are three types of batteries available:

* Battery. Sold by Sakharov and other traders, and can be found throughout the game.
* Advanced battery, the red one. They are rare and can only be found or rewarded for quests. Can be used in miniguns.
* High capacity battery, the yellow one. They are very lightweight but only fit into Freedom exosuits and Cloaking exoskeletons. Can be used for miniguns. Exceedingly rare.

Each exosuit model has a different power draw; they can differ 2x at most. Jumping uses far more power than anything else, one jump can be equivalent to half a minute of sprinting. Sprinting and running power draw is moderate in comparison.

### Battery recharge

Exosuit batteries can be recharged by certain NPCs after Get out of laboratory. (i.e. after shutting down the brain in X-16 during the SoC storyline).

* Vasily - 7h 20min, 5000RU.
* Petrenko - 6h 50min, 5500RU.
* Skinflint - 6h 30 min, 5700RU.
* Hawaiian - 6h 10 min, 6000RU.

These prices and charging time are for one full charge. They also depend on player's reputation with NPC's faction, and the amount of charge you need. Typically, you need about 6 batteries in rotation: 3 are being recharged while 3 are in use.

You can also use the device called Portable charger; it consumes certain types of artifacts to recharge your batteries, and is convenient in remote locations where technicians aren't available. It can be obtained for completing Lost voltmeter. Refer to Portable battery charger for details.