Helldivers 2 Armor Passives: A Comprehensive Guide and Tier List
Helldivers 2 categorizes armor into light, medium, and heavy types, each impacting mobility and defense. However, the real power lies in the armor passives – potent perks significantly altering gameplay. This guide details all passives and provides a tier list to help you optimize your loadouts.
All Armor Passives and Their Effects
The following table lists all 14 armor passives (as of the 1.002.003 game version) and their descriptions. Remember, these passives are tied to body armor only; helmets and capes offer no additional bonuses.
| Armor Passive | Description |
|---|---|
| Acclimated | 50% resistance to acid, electrical, fire, and gas damage. |
| Advanced Filtration | 80% resistance to gas damage. |
| Democracy Protects | 50% chance to survive lethal attacks (like headshots); prevents chest injuries (like internal bleeding). |
| Electrical Conduit | 95% resistance to lightning arc damage. |
| Engineering Kit | +2 grenade capacity; 30% recoil reduction when crouching or prone. |
| Extra Padding | +50 armor rating. |
| Fortified | 50% resistance to explosive damage; 30% recoil reduction when crouching or prone. |
| Inflammable | 75% resistance to fire damage. |
| Med-Kit | +2 stim capacity; +2 seconds additional stim duration. |
| Peak Physique | 100% increased melee damage; improved weapon handling (reduced weapon movement drag). |
| Scout | 30% reduced enemy detection range; map markers generate radar scans revealing nearby enemies. |
| Servo-Assisted | 30% increased throwing range; 50% additional limb health. |
| Siege-Ready | 30% increased primary weapon reload speed; 30% increased primary weapon ammo capacity. |
| Unflinching | 95% reduced recoil flinching. |
Armor Passive Tier List
This tier list (version 1.002.003) ranks passives based on overall value, utility, and effectiveness across various missions and enemy types.
| Tier | Armor Passive | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| S | Engineering Kit | Extra grenades are invaluable for various tasks: closing bug holes, destroying fabricators/warp ships, using thermites, and stunning enemies. |
| Med-Kit | Increased stim capacity and duration drastically improves survivability, especially when combined with the Experimental Infusion booster. | |
| Siege-Ready | Significantly boosts ammo capacity and reload speed for primary weapons, making it easier to handle large enemy groups, particularly with high-ammo weapons. | |
| A | Democracy Protects | Provides a substantial early-game defense boost, increasing survival against lethal attacks. |
| Extra Padding | Offers straightforward, consistent armor rating increase for improved defense against all damage types. | |
| Fortified | Extremely useful overall, but especially effective against Automatons, improving survivability against their explosive attacks. | |
| Servo-Assisted | Particularly beneficial against Terminids; increased throwing range allows safer stratagem deployment and grenade use, while extra limb health mitigates claw attacks. | |
| B | Peak Physique | Less useful as melee combat is generally avoided; the weapon handling improvement is helpful against mobile enemies, but other options often provide better solutions. |
| Inflammable | Ideal for fire-based builds and situations with fire-based hazards (like fire tornadoes); effective against Terminids and Illuminate. | |
| Scout | Useful for revealing enemy positions, but its value is limited by its lack of highlighting points of interest or side objectives. | |
| C | Acclimated | Provides limited value as you rarely face all four elemental damage types in a single mission. |
| Advanced Filtration | Only useful for gas-based builds, and even then, the overall benefits are not substantial. | |
| Electrical Conduit | Primarily useful against the Illuminate, but other passives are often more effective, unless friendly fire is a major concern. | |
| Unflinching | The reduction in recoil flinching provides minimal impact on combat effectiveness. |
