Grenadier armor

Grenadier armor is a set of power armor added by the Royalty DLC. It can effectively block gunshots, cuts, blunt trauma, or burns while allowing the user to launch frag grenades at the expense of inflicting a move speed penalty. It is a variant of marine armor and forms a full set along with the marine helmet

Acquisition[edit]

Grenadier armor can be crafted at a fabrication bench once the Marine armor research project has been completed. Each requires 100 Plasteel, 20 Uranium, 4 Advanced components, 75 Steel, 4 Components, 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 7.

Alternatively, the armor can be received as a quest reward, purchased from traders, or found on raiders.

Summary[edit]

While less protective against all damage types compared to the base marine armor, the grenadier armor incorporates an integrated frag launcher.

When equipped, a grenadier armor reduces the pawn's base move speed by −0.25 c/s. As offsets such as these apply before multiplicative effects such as from Moving capacity, the actual impact on move speed can be larger or smaller than this value. For example, a pawn with 125% Moving would have their speed decreased by −0.3125 c/s, while a pawn with only 50% Moving would only have their speed decreased by −0.125 c/s. See Move Speed for details.

A grenadier armor has a slave suppression offset of −30%. When worn by a slave, this acts as an offset to the rate at which the slave loses suppression. Note that by default, slaves lose between −5% and −20% suppression per day depending on their current level of suppression. This loss rate stacks additively with all sources of slave suppression offset, with a minimum of 0% loss per day.

Grenadier armor increases the vacuum resistance of its wearer by +30%. Quality does not affect this resistance.

Frag launcher[edit]

Launch grenade gizmo

Grenadier armor contains an integrated grenade launcher with similar stats to frag grenades but which does not prevent the wearer from using another weapon nor a utility item. Up to two grenades can be launched before the launcher must be reloaded at a cost of 25 steel per grenade. The process takes 60 ticks (1 sec). The grenades can be reloaded individually or all at once. The pawn will never automatically use the launcher - instead it must be manually activated by the player similar to Utility items. It is unclear if this restriction also applies to NPCs.^{[Fact Check]}

Unlike frag grenades, grenadier armor has a quality – an awful grenadier armor will deal less damage (90%, 45) than frag grenades (50), while masterwork (125%, 62) and legendary (150%, 75) quality armor has increased damage.

The warmup time before firing the launcher is affected by the Aiming Time stat of the wearer.

Wearing a shield belt prevents firing the grenade launcher.

Analysis[edit]

While less protective than marine armor, it gives the user the ability to launch up to two frag grenades at will before requiring a reload. These weapons are equivalent to the regular thrown variant but do not take up a weapon slot.

Frag launcher analysis[edit]

The integrated frag launcher adds extra flexibility to combat. Like regular frag grenades, the frag launcher can be incredibly effective in a melee block scenario and for destroying structures. It can also be used to clear enemies in cover and to give snipers a close ranged crowd control attack.

Not all pawns need to wear grenadier armor, since a few pawns with frag launchers is generally enough to make an impact. Pawns with Aiming Time reductions, e.g., trigger-happy and shooting specialist pawns, are best suited for the frag launcher due to their reduced cooldown.

Compared to flak vests[edit]

Compared to a flak vest and duster, the grenadier armor offers strictly superior protection to the arms and legs when all items are the same quality, regardless of duster material. The interactions of two layers are dictated by the games Armor Rating calculations, and the result is that grenadier armor provides torso, neck and shoulders protection approximately equivalent to the combination of a devilstrand duster and flak vest, assuming all items are the same quality.

However, replacing the devilstrand with a flak jacket, or a hyperweave or thrumbofur duster results in more protection to those areas. Overall, the impact in combat between bettter limb protection of the grenadier armor vs better torso and neck protection of a flak vest is unclear, but many vital organs are in the torso/neck while limbs can be replaced. In addition, grenadier armor comes with a Move Speed debuff of -0.25 c\s, while a flak vest itself has a penalty of only -0.12c/s meaning there may be a reason to choose the flak vest and duster even with inferior protection.

Even devilstrand dusters + flak vests can be a more practical choice, since the combination is cheaper, easier to roll for higher quality, unlocked much earlier, and devilstrand offers the best Heat armor in the game.

Compared to marine armor[edit]

Grenadier armor is a sidegrade to marine armor. Grenadier armor has −5% Sharp and −5% Blunt armor, before quality. This discrepancy increases at higher quality; at legendary quality, grenadier armor is −9% less protective in both armor categories. The two armors are identical besides the reduced armor, frag launcher, and slightly higher cost of grenadier armor ( 75 steel and 4 components).

Grenadier armor gives colonists the ability to "wield" frag grenades in addition to their main weapon. It is a clear winner in a melee block scenario or for the other uses of frag grenades (see above), but is inferior in a killbox and most other types of defensive settings. Therefore, the choice between the two will vary depending on which of those situations is more threatening to the colony.

Grenadier armor is relatively better with the Anomaly DLC active due to several entities being vulnerable to melee blocking, particularly during the monolith awakening endgame.

Compared to other power armors[edit]

Grenadier armor is a half step below marine armor, the middle tier power armor, in terms of protection. While it is still as or more protective than an equivalent set of recon armor, it only really maintains its superiority against sharp threats. Against secondary threats like blunt and fire, it is largely equivalent. Unlike marine armor, recon armor of 1 higher quality offers superior protection, while for some tiers grenadier armor must be 2 tiers higher than a set of cataphract armor to be more protective.

Stats table

Grenadier armor	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Quality	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Awful	60.6%	24%	29.4%	340	-54.4 °C (-97.9 °F)	+8 °C (14.4 °F)	1,150
Poor	80.8%	32%	39.2%	340	-61.2 °C (-110.2 °F)	+9 °C (16.2 °F)	1,730
Normal	101%	40%	49%	340	-68 °C (-122.4 °F)	+10 °C (18 °F)	2,305
Good	116.15%	46%	56.35%	340	-74.8 °C (-134.6 °F)	+11 °C (19.8 °F)	2,805
Excellent	131.3%	52%	63.7%	340	-81.6 °C (-146.9 °F)	+12 °C (21.6 °F)	3,305
Masterwork	146.45%	58%	71.05%	340	-102 °C (-183.6 °F)	+15 °C (27 °F)	4,305
Legendary	181.8%	72%	88.2%	340	-122.4 °C (-220.3 °F)	+18 °C (32.4 °F)	5,305

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

Attack table

Grenadier armor			DPS (Optimal)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP	DPS (Optimal)	Market value
Awful	45	9%	18	1,150
Poor	50	10%	20	1,730
Normal	50	10%	20	2,305
Good	50	10%	20	2,805
Excellent	50	10%	20	3,305
Masterwork	62.5	12.5%	25	4,305
Legendary	75	15%	30	5,305

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

Trivia[edit]

It appears that this armor was originally meant to be worn by Imperial Grenadiers as implied by the item description. This is further evidenced by the Version 1.3.3066 patch notes which mention that grenadiers were "updated" to spawn with plain marine armor instead of grenadier armor. As 1.3.3066 was the first stable version with grenadiers in the game, added as part of the Breacher raids that update brought, they must have spawned with Grenadier armor in unstable or internal testing versions prior to this.

It is unknown why this was changed. The most obvious theories are:

Ludeon never developed a method for NPC pawns to use the armor's ability and it was therefore incongruous to spawn in it; or
That to fullfil the vision for their role as breachers, they needed more than two grenades but redundantly spawning with both the grenadier armor and frag grenades would be incongrous; or
Some combination of both 1 and 2.

However, without confirmation from Ludeon staff, these remain only theories.

Version history[edit]

1.2.2719 - Added.
1.2.2753 - Icons of spacer armor now display as off-white instead of dark gray. Projectiles are now rendered with a visual arc and ground shadow.
1.3.3066 - Listed as no longer spawning on Imperial Grenadiers, however see Trivia. Wearing a shield belt now prevents firing the grenade launcher. Previously, it could be fired but could only target only adjacent squares (including diagonals), meaning that self-detonation was likely. However, the protection offered by grenadier armor and the delay before detonation meant that, with careful timing, the wearer could escape without injury, making it a dangerous but potentially useful option in emergencies.
1.6.4518 - Move speed debuff reduced from −0.4 c/s to −0.25 c/s. Cold insulation improved from 32 °C (57.6 °F) -> 68 °C (122.4 °F), Heat insulation improved from 9 °C (16.2 °F) -> 10 °C (18 °F).

See also[edit]

Frag grenades - A weapon with similar stats to the integrated launcher.
Marine armor - the base model. Slightly more protective but without the grenade launcher.
Prestige marine armor - a variant of marine armor that both pleases nobles and improves psychic ability.

Apparel