Best Armor - Fallout 4 Guide - IGN (2024)

Armor protection is extraordinarily important in Fallout 4, providing resistance to physical, energy, and radiation damage. Fallout 4 body armor comes in two types: complete suits and layered components. Full suits are single-piece plug-and play armors that provide a singular, uniform protection.

Layered armors include an underarmor layer supplemented by arms, leg and chest pieces placed over the base armor layer.

In addition to body armors, head armor is also available and provides stacking supplemental protection.

Beyond head and body armor, Fallout 4 also provides several varieties of Power Armor, a limited resource suit of environmental protection. Power Armor is tremendously durable and allows the wearer to survive radiation and fall without damage, but requires the expenditure of charged Fusion Cores.

• Learn more about Power Armor

Acquiring 220 Defense Layered Ballistic Weave Armor

Among the most effective protection in Fallout 4 is the application of Layered Ballistic Weave Armor. This method of protection can provide a player with defenses in excess of 220 physical and 220 energy.

Acquiring Ballistic Weave is a multi-step process with several prerequisites. In order to develop this armor, you will need:

• Ranks in theArmorer Perk. A rank of 4 is required to develop maximum protection
• Membership in the Railroad, acquired by taking part in the Freedom Road and Tradecraft quests
• Completion of at least one Railroad safe-house quest assigned at the Railroad
• Completion of at least one Jackpot Quest assigned by PAM in the Railroad HQ. Jackpot Quests are a series of fetch quests assigned by PAM at Railroad HQ and generally trigger after completing at least one other Railroad safe house Quest for PAM...thus, a Jackpot quest isusually the second quest offered by the robot.Jackpot quests involve the use of an RF ID item to retrieve a certain piece of data.

Once you've completed these prerequisites, look around Railroad HQ this guy, Tinker Tom, and strike up a friendly conversation. When Tom mentions the Cache you've discovered, he'll offer to let you examine his goods for sale. Do so.

Completing this sequence has the invisible effect of opening up an entirely new modding ability for your character, but the change isn't obvious. You won't even know until you next visit an Armor crafting station, and then only if you're carrying one of several eligible types of cloth-based underarmor.

You'll see a new option for Weave Mods on all eligible armors. If you don't already own an eligible armor, Tinker Tom sells some prefab suits that can be upgraded with better Weave mods. You can also grabArmy Fatigues from Gunners in many areas...these are perfect for Weave augmentation.

Other compatible armor includes:

• Army Fatigues
• Baseball Uniform
• Dirty Army Fatigues
• Green Shirt and Combat Boots
• Military Fatigues
• Minuteman Outfit
• Tattered Rags

Headgear (that can be fully upgraded):

• Battered Fedora
• Green Rag Hat
• Newsboy Cap
• Trilby Hat

To create a new Ballistic Weave, you'll also need Ballistic Fiber as a raw material.

This can be purchased in Goodneighbor at K-L-EO's shop in batches of 25.

Once you've got the Fiber, head to an Armor crafting station Take any suit of eligible armor and construct a Level 5 Ballistic Weave mod.

You now have a 110/110 defense, and as long as you've used an underarmor (like Army Fatigues), you can stack arm, leg, and chest plating on top for further defensive bonuses.

But the fun's not over yet! A very few hats also allow for Ballistic Weave. The only one we've tested so far is the Newsboy Cap, but it's likely a few other caps also apply. The effects of a hat and an underarmor layer stack, bolstering your defenses to an incredible 220/220!

X-01 Power Armor

X-01 Power Armor represents the most powerful variant of the [{Fusion Core]]-fueled protective suits.

You can find a complete X-01 suit at this location. Be warned, it's very well guarded, so bring your best weapons and armor.

Head into the 35 Court building at the location above. There's a laser turret just above the door leading in.

Enter the lobby and immediately head left up the elevator.

At the top of the elevator, take a right up this winding passage. You'll be attacked soon after reaching the top, so prepare some high-powered weaponry and any buffs you might want equipped.

After reaching the rooftop plaza, a pair of doors will iopen revealing an Assaultron and a Sentry Bot. There's very little space on the roof to maneuver, so it may be helpful to expend some high-powered ordinance and clear them out quickly.

Once the two bots are down, enter one of the two newly opened rooms.

Press the red button.

Now enter the second open room and repeat.

The center door will open, revealing a pristine suit of X-01.

Grab the suit and celebrate the fruits of victory.