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Equipment Overview
Standard Armor 
Std armor
Equipment Type: Equipment 
Critical Slots: 0  


[1][2]


Equipment Overview
Ferro Fibrous Armor 
Ff armor
Equipment Type: Equipment 
Critical Slots: 14  


[3][4]


Overview[ | ]


Armor is the primary defense shield against malevolent forces to your Mech, before a Critical Hit might strike (vital) equipment. Ablative in its nature, it is generally destroyed or blown off when hit; but in the process of doing so, it absorbs enormous energies, protecting the unit it is mounted on. While powerful blows will still rock a vehicle, there will be little, if any, internal damage as long as armor plating still remains. The condition of a BattleMech's Armor is depicted in the Cockpit.

Example[ | ]

  • Damage is done by a hit and shaves off armor:
AC 2 round hits Hunchback's head = 2 damage vs. 18 pts Armor = -2 vs. +18 = 16 pts of armor remaining.
  • If the damage dealt is greater than the armor, then it's completely eliminated. Remaining damage is dealt to now open internals:
AC 20 shell hits Hunchback's head = 20 damage vs. 18 pts of armor = -20 vs. +18 = -2 pts going to internals, like Command Console.

Location Protection[ | ]


Depending on the Mechs tonnage, each of its locations can be protected by a certain amount of armor.


Maximum number of equipable armor-pieces with different Mech weights:

Tonnage Armor
Mech total HD RA + LA RL + LL RT/R CT/R LT/R
20 138 18 12 16 20 24 20
25 178 18 16 24 24 32 24
30 210 18 20 28 28 40 28
35 238 18 24 32 32 44 32
40 274 18 24 40 40 48 40
45 306 18 28 44 44 56 44
50 338 18 32 48 48 64 48
55 370 18 36 52 52 72 52
60 402 18 40 56 56 80 56
65 422 18 40 60 60 84 60
70 434 18 44 60 60 88 60
75 462 18 48 64 64 92 64
80 494 18 52 68 68 100 68
85 526 18 56 72 72 108 72
90 558 18 60 76 76 116 76
95 586 18 64 80 80 120 80
100 614 18 68 84 84 124 84

Note:

  • Each arm and leg can mount the given amount of armor.
  • Each torso location shares the given amount of armor with its rear counterpart.
  • No matter which type of armor is being used, the total amount of pieces can't be exceeded.
With state-of-the-art armor:
A Mechs maximum amount of protection is independent of the used type of armor.
Different types of armor result in a different weight (tons) with equal protection.
The trade-in for weight saving comes in the consumption of Critical Slots.

Armor Types[ | ]


To switch between armor types, go to the Upgrades tab in the MechLab.

Standard Armor[ | ]

Introduced in 2470 by the Terran Hegemony Standard Armor is composed of several layers providing various degrees of protection and support. The first layer is extremely strong steel, the result of crystal alignment and radiation treatment, which is also very brittle. The second layer is a ceramic, cubic boron nitride, which combined with a web of artificial diamond fibers acts as a backstop to the steel layer. These two layers rest atop a titanium alloy honeycomb structure which provides support, and a layer of self-sealing polymer sealant which allows for space and underwater operations.

  • Standard Armor doesn't require any Critical Slot.

Ferro Fibrous Armor[ | ]

Ferro-Fibrous Armor (FF) is an advanced armor technology. Utilizing a weave of ferro-steel, ferro-titanium and diamond weave fibers (which boosts the tensile strength of the plating) it provides more protection per ton than Standard Armor. With the same amount of protection, the material is lighter, but larger, and therefore takes up more space on the mounted vessel.

  • Ferro-Fibrous Armor provides 12% more armor per ton, but takes up more space, or Critical Slots. Inner Sphere Ferro-Fibrous Armor consumes 14 slots, while Clan Ferro-Fibrous is much less bulky, so it consumes 7.

Insights[ | ]


MWO The value for Standard Armor in MWO is double the value for Standard Armor on Tabletop (TT). On Tabletop, a Mech can mount 16 points of armor per ton of weight. In MWO, a Mech can mount 32 points of armor per ton.

Additionally, in MWO, the Head and Legs have additional Armor compared to TT - as a way of balancing out legging and headshots (Since, on Tabletop, a die roll influences hit location, meanwhile in MWO a skilled player may be able to hit those parts more than is reasonable or fair).

Rumors[ | ]

  • Tell about armor-piercing rounds being in an experimental state for certain weapons, but they require a higher technology level, cost more and are luckily nothing more than rumors from the BT-Universe.
  • Further types of armor are known and might find their way into MWO:
Ferro-Lamellor (FL)
Reflective (aka Glazed or Reflec)
Reactive



Changelog[ | ]

  • October 23, 2012: Ferro Fibrous Armor added to the game.

References[ | ]

  1. Piranha Games\MechWarrior Online\Game\GameData.pak\Libs\Items\ItemStats.xml
  2. How screen shake is calculated
  3. Piranha Games\MechWarrior Online\Game\GameData.pak\Libs\Items\ItemStats.xml
  4. How screen shake is calculated
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