Eltex helmet

The eltex helmet is, despite the name, an item of clothing added by the Royalty DLC that improves psychic sensitivity and makes psycasters more effective.

It is one of a set of eltex items with similar effects that cover different parts of the body.

Acquisition

Eltex helmets cannot be crafted. Instead, they can only be purchased through trade or received as a quest reward.

They also spawn on Imperial Nobles.

Summary

The eltex helmet is a clothing item that covers the head. It buffs the user's psychic sensitivity, neural heat limit, and neural heat recovery rate. The psychic sensitivity and neural heat offsets scale with item quality, but the neural heat recovery offset offered by this item at any quality is always +0.066/s. However, neural heat recovery will scale with the psylink level of the pawn.

Despite being labelled as a helmet, it offers only weak protection comparable to the cowboy hat or bowler hat. Eltex helmets will satisfy the apparel requirements of nobles.

Analysis

Despite being called a helmet, its protection is comparable to a bowler hat made of low-mid tier materials and almost non-existent. Even at legendary quality, even a normal quality autopistol only has a approximately a 1/150 chance to be stopped by the helmet, and with its low HP, the helmet will rapidly degrade. In fact, the AP of most weapons in the game will completely invalidate the armor of the eltex helmet. So in exchange for the psychic buffs it leaves the wearer's head completely unprotected. Loss of the head is obviously fatal, damage to the eyes significantly impairs effectiveness and damage to the brain is permanent and devastating even when not fatal. Care must be taken to keep the wearer out of harms way and if possible, a shield belt is recommended.

Thus, the eltex helmet is obviously neither a frontline helmet nor utility clothing. Instead it is exclusively focused on one task - buffing a psycaster. However, it is inferior in this role to the eltex skullcap. While the helmet does offer some insulation and armor, as previously established both are basically negligible. With effectively nothing to gain in return, there is little reason to choose the inferior buffs to psychic abilities that the helmet offers. And the disparity is significant - only a legendary quality helmet offers superior a psychic sensitivity to a awful quality skullcap, and its still inferior in neural heat recover rate. However, as neither piece of headwear can be crafted, sometimes only the helmet is available.

Compared to prestige power helmets, the helmet offers somewhat better psychic buffs, while the helmets offer significant protection up to and including the best available in-game. Thus, the role of the particular psycaster is a key factor, with a front-line psycasting fighter preferring the prestige helmets, while the support-oriented psycaster might prefer the helmet. However, unlike the skullcap, the benefit to psychic power is relatively small - a legendary eltex helmet increase the neural heat limit by only 13 more than a prestige helmet of any quality. This is roughly equivalent to the cost of a single first level psycast. Therefore, even the support psycaster may prefer the craftable and much more protective prestige helmets over the eltex helmet.

Stats table

Eltex helmet	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Quality	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Awful	5.4%	5.4%	16.2%	80	-3.2 °C (-5.8 °F)	+0.8 °C (1.4 °F)	250
Poor	7.2%	7.2%	21.6%	80	-3.6 °C (-6.5 °F)	+0.9 °C (1.6 °F)	375
Normal	9%	9%	27%	80	-4 °C (-7.2 °F)	+1 °C (1.8 °F)	500
Good	10.35%	10.35%	31.05%	80	-4.4 °C (-7.9 °F)	+1.1 °C (2 °F)	625
Excellent	11.7%	11.7%	35.1%	80	-4.8 °C (-8.6 °F)	+1.2 °C (2.2 °F)	750
Masterwork	13.05%	13.05%	39.15%	80	-6 °C (-10.8 °F)	+1.5 °C (2.7 °F)	1250
Legendary	16.2%	16.2%	48.6%	80	-7.2 °C (-13 °F)	+1.8 °C (3.2 °F)	2500

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

Quality	Awful	Poor	Normal	Good	Excellent	Masterwork	Legendary
Psychic Sensitivity	+8%	+10%	+12%	+15%	+17%	+20%	+23%
Neural Heat Limit	+6	+8	+10	+12	+14	+16	+18
Base Neural Heat Recovery Rate	+0.066/s	+0.066/s	+0.066/s	+0.066/s	+0.066/s	+0.066/s	+0.066/s
Effective Neural Heat Recovery Rate	+0.107/s	+0.107/s	+0.107/s	+0.107/s	+0.107/s	+0.107/s	+0.107/s

Gallery

Eltex Helmet Variant A
Eltex Helmet Variant B

Version history

Royalty DLC Release - Added.
1.1.2579 - Improved cold insulation.
1.1.2647 - Renamed from Psyfocus helmet to Eltex helmet.
1.2.2719 - Psychic sensitivity now scales with quality.
1.2.2753 - Adjust eltex gear colors to be darker.

Apparel

Torso | Clothing: Button-down shirt • T-shirt (Kid ) • Tribalwear (Kid )
: Corset • Eltex shirt • Eltex vest • Formal vest • Formal shirt
: Slave collar
: Sash • Kid romper
Armor: Flak vest
Legs | Clothing: Pants (Kid )
Armor: Flak pants
Shell | Clothing: Duster • Jacket • Parka (Kid ) • Robe
: Cape • Eltex robe • Prestige robe
: Burka • Slave body strap
: Heavy bandolier
: Lab coat
Armor: Flak jacket • Marine armor (Prestige , Grenadier ) • Plate armor • Recon armor (Prestige , Locust , Mechlord ) • Cataphract armor (Prestige , Phoenix )
Head | Clothing: Bowler hat • Cowboy hat • Hood • Psychic foil helmet • Tuque • Tribal headdress • Veil • War mask
: Beret • Coronet • Crown • Eltex helmet • Eltex skullcap • Ladies hat • Stellic crown • Top hat
: Authority cap • Blindfold • Broadwrap • Flophat • Headwrap • Shadecone • Slicecap • Tailcap • Torture crown • Visage mask
: Airwire headset • Array headset • Gas mask • Face mask
: Ceremonial hood • Ritual mask
Armor: Flak helmet • Marine helmet (Prestige/Samurai helmet ) • Recon helmet (Prestige , Mechlord ) • Simple helmet (Kid ) • Cataphract helmet (Prestige ) • Gunlink • Integrator headset • Mechcommander helmet