Plate armor
Plate armor
Overlapping solid plates of armor covering the entire body from neck to feet.
Base Stats
Apparel
- Insulation Factor - Cold
- 1.0×
- Insulation Factor - Heat
- 0.0×
- Armor Factor - Sharp
- 0.73
- Armor Factor - Blunt
- 0.73
- Armor Factor - Heat
- 0.73
- Coverage
- Torso, Neck, Left Shoulder, Left Arm, Right Shoulder, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg
- Layer
- Middle, Outer
Creation
- Required Research
- Plate armor
- Skill Required
- Crafting 7
- Work To Make
- 38,000 ticks (10.56 mins)
- Stuff Tags
- Metallic, Woody
- thingCategories
- ApparelArmor
- thingSetMakerTags
- RewardStandardLowFreq, RewardStandardQualitySuper
- defaultOutfitTags
- Soldier
- tags
- MedievalMilitary
Plate armor is a type of apparel (armor) that functions as low-tech full body armor. It can be crafted out of various materials.
It has a heavy move speed penalty of -0.8 c/s when worn. As such, it may be wise to leave it in a stockpile until entering combat.
Acquisition
Plate armor can be crafted at a Fueled smithy or Electric smithy once the Plate armor research project has been completed. They require 170 Stuff (Metallic/Woody, 1700 for SMVs), 38,000 ticks (10.56 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 7.
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% |
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 - the highest movement penalty in the game, tied with cataphract armor.
Usually, it is worth it to wait until the Flak vests 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.
Compared to flak
Flak vests cost 60 Steel, 30 Cloth, 1 Component, cheaper than a set of steel plate armor, at 170. 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, while plate also covers the arms and 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. Flak vests cover every vital body part except for the head and brain, which plate armor doesn't protect either.
Flak vests can also be worn with flak jackets and flak pants, the full combination being a fair bit more expensive than steel plate ( 190 + 110 + 3). 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 area. 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. Plate armor also has -0.8c/s movement speed, while each piece of flak armor only gives -0.12c/s. Each piece of flak armor has 200 HP, while the entire set of steel plate has 290 HP.
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.
Material table
Material | Sharp | Blunt | Heat | Item HP | Insulation - Cold | Insulation - Heat | Market Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wooden Plate armor | 39.42% | 39.42% | 29.2% | 188.5 | -8 °C (-14.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 300 |
Bioferrite Plate armor | 80.3% | 36.5% | 36.5% | 580 | -2.5 °C (-4.5 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 470 |
Golden Plate armor | 52.56% | 26.28% | 26.28% | 174 | -3 °C (-5.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 17125 |
Plasteel Plate armor | 83.22% | 40.15% | 47.45% | 812 | -3 °C (-5.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 1830 |
Silver Plate armor | 52.56% | 26.28% | 26.28% | 203 | -3 °C (-5.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 1835 |
Steel Plate armor | 65.7% | 32.85% | 43.8% | 290 | -3 °C (-5.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 460 |
Uranium Plate armor | 78.84% | 39.42% | 47.45% | 725 | -3 °C (-5.4 °F) | +0 °C (0 °F) | 1280 |
Assuming Normal quality, for the effect of other qualities, see Quality.
Protection Charts
Sharp Armor | Blunt Armor |
---|---|
Sharp Armor | Blunt Armor |
---|---|
Trivia
Every set of plate armor found on an Imperial Champion will be white.