The Best Armor in Fallout 4: Automatron, Far Harbor, and Nuka-World

In Fallout 4, there are many different types and kinds of regular armor, and it's easy to miss an interesting piece. In this guide, we will tell you where to get the best regular armor through quests, find or buy it, what properties it has, and how to properly upgrade it to counter most types of damage. This text contains many spoilers for the game and its expansions.

Any armor in Fallout 4 absorbs up to three types of damage:

Like weapons, armor has so-called legendary properties, such as increasing the SPECIAL characteristics of the character, reducing damage from enemies, from radiation or electricity, simplifying lockpicking, slowing down time, and so on.

Legendary properties affect the character overall and are cumulative with other elements of armor. Such armor drops from legendary enemies, but the best samples can only be bought or found in the Commonwealth.

The main character of Fallout 4 can be dressed in various ways and given different armor. The game has a lot of content, but there is a certain disorganization, so we will try to explain in as much detail as possible about the types of clothing and armor, and what the difference is between them:

Does not allow wearing a full set of armor or its elements on top, nor clothing or underarmor underneath. Some armored outfits are additionally modifiable, some are not.

Some models come with headgear, others do not. There are options with 1-2 legendary properties or SPECIAL points. Often, an armored outfit can be mistaken for clothing, to be sure, check in the Pip-Boy for the possibility of modification at the workbench.

In the base game, you can find the following armor sets: leather, raider, metal, combat, synth, and Brotherhood of Steel. With the Automatron expansion, robot armor is added, in Far Harbor there's pre-war marine armor and trapper armor, and in Nuka-World there's Disciples, Operators, and Pack armor.

Different limbs can be equipped with different elements, with no restrictions. From level 20, on enemy corpses, in safes, and from vendors, elements with 1-2 legendary properties or SPECIAL points will start to appear. All modifications for identical elements are the same, regardless of their source.

Wearing a set by itself does not provide additional bonuses; you can pull the most suitable elements from different sets to match your playstyle and create your own. Or you can wear 2-3 different sets and receive all effects and properties. The effects will also stack with underarmor. Unique armor can be found in a cache, awarded for completing a quest, or purchased, and such items are significantly more expensive than regular armor elements.

You can enter it regardless of whether you are wearing underarmor or piece armor.

We have also written important guides on Fallout 4 power armor; in this material, we will not return to this topic:

To make the difference between underarmor, armored outfit, and piece armor clearer, here is how they differ in PipBoy:

Let's list the most useful legendary armor properties in descending order:

Despite the variety of armor types and upgrades for it, all truly valuable pieces are locked behind quests and hidden in expansions. Relying on luck to get something worthwhile from enemies is also not advisable. Therefore, until level 40, you will be wearing regular upgraded armor, starting from level 20 legendary properties will start to appear, do not ignore them.

In Fallout 4, all armor sets are divided into three tiers: standard, sturdy, and heavy, which are tied to the enemy's level, the higher it is, the better quality armor the enemy wears. Here's what it looks like:

Now let's arrange the heavy faction armor sets by the ratio of protective properties/weight, the further, the better:

To identify the level of piece armor, carefully read the titles, they should start with Sturdy or Heavy, although for Disciples, armor levels are divided into spikes-wrap-metal.

Modified armor starts with words like armored, protected, reinforced, lightweight, has good stats, but this does not yet mean it is high level. The stock variant of the next level is better than the modified previous one.

Important! Armor set modifications are the same for all three levels, which should be used to upgrade an advanced version at the expense of a simple one, without having the required perk level, by simply swapping them. For example, we assemble an asbestos lining modification for standard armor (requires 1st Gun Nut), remove it and put it on heavy armor (requires 3rd Gun Nut).

In any case, you always have to look individually, since everything drops randomly, there are very many end combinations, especially when legendary properties are added. It's impossible to advise something specific from the generally available content. Here are our tips for choosing armor for the playthrough:

The game has several pieces of under armor that allow you to wear a full set of armor on top and provide good protection by themselves. This combination is the most important, all other clothes at high difficulty will not provide sufficient protection without additional armor. Let's list them:

In the game, you will find many items from this category, some resemble traditional clothing, others are like the creations of mad inventors. Remember, using them will remove your underarmor or equipped armor sets. Let's list the best power armor options:

Silver Shroud Armor and Hat

A unique silver-gray cloak with its own backstory, which is told in a separate quest:

If the player chooses it, the Survivor, companions, and encountered NPCs will have additional lines and comments. It can be obtained during the Silver Shroud quest. The original is somewhat weak, so talk to Kent Connolly, who will offer three modifications for the silver cloak at levels 25, 35, and 45 of the Survivor. Just don't forget to continue the main storyline, starting with the Reunions quest. This armor can only be worn by the main character. Legendary property: +2 Perception, +1 Agility.

An old cloak that is given to the Survivor as the general of the Minutemen, but can be worn by another character. The uniform can be picked up from the inventory of the dead General McGann in the tunnels of the Castle:

The character first finds themselves near the Castle through Preston Garvey's Old Guns story quest. The armor has good defense ratings against physical and energy damage. Property: +1 to Charisma.

Standard armor of the Hunters, which can be picked up from a synth's corpse if you are playing against the Institute, obtained through a quest from Tinker Tom of the Railroad, found within the Institute, or bought there from a synth vendor:

When upgraded with a bulletproof layer to class 5, it provides protection of 140 against physical, 125 against energy, and 15 against radiation damage. Property: +1 Endurance, +1 Perception. The head remains free, so think about what to protect it with.

Requires the Nuka-World add-on. By installing a bulletproof layer of the fifth level on the tuxedo, you can get excellent protection of 122 against physical and 127 against energy damage. Properties: +1 to Endurance, +1 to Charisma, 15% damage reduction from humans. Also, there is a top hat with 2/2 protection, with the property of +1 to Perception, +1 to Charisma, and increased movement speed by 10%.

The tuxedo and top hat can be obtained during the Magic Kingdom quest, by killing Oswald and searching his corpse.

Another full-body armor, so it can't be worn simultaneously with an armor set or underarmor. It can only be obtained by taking it off the corpses of Railroad fighters. If you end Fallout 4 with this faction, then during the Battle of Bunker Hill mission, several Railroad fighters will die, search their bodies.

In Fallout 4, there are 6 variants of this power armor, the higher the level, the higher the class of protection. At maximum, you can get protection of 93 against physical damage, 150 against energy damage, and 10 against radiation. None of the armor levels can be modified at a workbench, nor do they have legendary properties. It also does not come with a helmet.

Despite its scruffy appearance, this is one of the most protective power armors. By installing a bulletproof layer of level 5, you can get more protection than a Railroad Armored Coat of class 5, with less weight. The protection is 160 against physical damage and 110 against energy damage. Property: +1 to Perception.

To obtain the coat, you will have to kill Maxson. This is only possible if you have not joined the Brotherhood of Steel (before the Mass Fusion quest). However, it's possible to kill Maxson without starting the final quest line, for this you will need a harpoon gun and fully upgraded Commando and Ninja perks. Just make 2-3 unnoticed headshots on Maxson in VATS mode.

Requires the Automatron add-on. By installing a bulletproof layer of level 5, you can get excellent protection of 182 against both physical and energy damage. Properties: +1 to Endurance, 15% damage reduction from robots. There is also a helmet with 13/13 protection, with properties of +1 to Charisma and +1 to Intelligence. Together, the two items provide superb protection of 201/201:

The suit and helmet can be obtained by successfully completing the final quest of the Automatron add-on, Restoring Order.

Other unique variants of underarmor, power armors, and headgear that can be obtained through quests or found in the Commonwealth. Each can be upgraded to class 5 and get 110 protection against physical damage, 110 against energy damage, and 0 against radiation:

The Far Harbor DLC is required. This is heavy pre-war armor used by the US Navy SEALs. The full set is perhaps the most effective armor in the game, especially in terms of protection/weight ratio. Only power armor offers better protection for the character. When combined with under-armor clothing, like military fatigues, one can achieve the maximum protection levels for the Survivor:

The armor can be acquired through the main quest of Far Harbor, Best Left Forgotten, which is given by DiMA at The Nucleus. At the very end, once you decrypt all five of DiMA's memory tapes and return them to him, he will drop the coordinates for the marine assault armor (a search mission will appear in the Misc section).

Head to the point, eliminate a whole squad of mutants, and find the armor in barrels. After that, you can upgrade the armor to your liking.

In Far Harbor, you can also purchase Zealot's marine armor:

Its stats are half as potent, but it's useful if you don't want to finish the game siding with the Institute, the synth rebels, or the local settlers. The set is sold by Brother Kane in The Nucleus, and depending on the Survivor's perks, it will cost around 50,000 caps.

Upon completing the Reformation quest, High Confessor Tektus will gift you a piece of the Armor of Atom (either a chest piece or armor for the right arm). It increases resistance to ballistic and energy damage (up to +35) as the character's radiation level increases.

A legendary version of the assault variant, however, it is intentionally made incomplete. This set includes:

Besides the legendary properties, the armor features a unique engraving. Unfortunately, we only had enough money for the right arm, as each piece costs around 15,000 caps:

Consists of two pieces from the metal armor series, providing solid base protection, available for 10,000 caps:

Champion's Set

Consists of three pieces from the metal armor series, offering decent base protection, available for 15,000 caps:

Consists of five pieces from the combat armor series, offering decent base protection, available for 25,000 caps:

Consists of two pieces from the combat armor series, offers good base protection, available for 10,000 caps:

Now let's list individual synth armor pieces that cannot be looted from enemies, but can only be purchased (from 2,500 to 5,000) from a synth vendor in the Institute or obtained as quest rewards. Each piece provides good protection and comes with a host of bonuses:

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We hope our guide helps you decide on your armor choice in Fallout 4. If you want to add to the guide or find an inaccuracy, be sure to write about it in the comments!