Is Class 4 Armor Worth Using In Tarkov... 

What is your favorite armor to run in escape from tarkov?

Im the type of guy who makes money, Gets a Good Kit for next raid and loose it against a scav.

I love class 4 armor so I can bully scavs before the PMCs bully me

i love how we had 3 days of tier 3 armor being good this wipe.

I only ever use armor as protection from the occasional scav Jesus that’s roaming around out there

My biggest problem with class 4 is that every single bullet that has the mildest degree of armour penetrating capability penetrates it.

Me who got head eyes by a scav 75 meters away using 8.5: what armor.

I love the trooper armour, makes me feel quick and light while still taking a few shots

All of this is irrelevant when the death screen says head eyes, head ears, head jaw and head nape 98% of the time 😬😬

I find when I run class 5 it gives me the occasional chance of surviving an initial surprise spray and I can run for cover.

A week into tarkov and just keeping armor is my main issue, tier 4 I'm ecstatic to have and its definitely helped in a few situations

Me who barely is able to afford class 3 armor: *INTERESTING*

You can’t afford to just run a hex and a team Wendy every raid? Smh

Hell yeah Jessie good video CHANNEL INTERACTION!!!

"Are the same people who spend a few hundred thousand roubles on class 4 helmets" Amen bradr.

I'm super hyped for the new armor plate system they'll be adding into the game. You'll be able to take lightweight carriers like the trooper but load it up with potentially class 6 plates.

I find with class 4 armors, you have to choose your fights wisely, and addition to that, dictate the fight to be in your favor. Even with class 5/6, if you position poorly and make stupid decisions, armor only alleviates those poor decisions up to a point. Case in point; Aqua & KiiNGS in nighttime Shoreline.

My opinion about armor? Armor is there for when you are taken by surprise so that you survive the initial rain of bullets long enough to get in to cover, orient your self and turn the situation over so that you are the one forcing the opponent to react to you instead of the other way around. If you constantly rely on armor to get you through a fight, you are wasting cash, it is supposed to be there for when you screw up, not as a bullet soak. Grab a kedr, go in with only spare mags in your pocket and practice positioning, relocating , ambushing and counter ambushing, not to mention sniper hunting.

In Poland we say that it's a pleasure to listen to smart person. It was awesome to watch this vid from the very beginning till the very end. Awesome content!

my survival rate running with armour level [N]: zero

a trooper vest might not stop 7.62x54 LPS, but it will leave you with a couple hp left on your thorax. So yeah, I like using it. Plus, the amount of 9mm running around makes it soooooo worth it.

“Luck shot from a Scav” ! ? ! Come bro, that was calculated

How about AC3? Kirasa gives abdomen protection cheap (for only 4.1kg), & is readily available via trade. Maybe decent for a mobility strategy geared to maximum yoink, looking mostly to disengage from other players & keep their laser beams at range with a light 5.45 rifle or similar? Edit: watching the rest of the vid, I'm guessing you got the penetration chances from the Battle Buddy app. Now wondering where Veritas got the calculation from, & whether it is public.

I like the tv110. It costs about 70k to craft the items for the trade in.

I almost feel like ap20, 7n1 and .366 ap should have been discussed. Class 4 gets one tapped by people hiding with those calibers, 5 gives you a chance to turn and fight back.

Everyone always skips over the Gen4 HMK 130k for a badass class 5 armor

i say yes, cuz it makes u near invincible vs scavs unless head,eyes or them limb sniping you in a few seconds, BUT the 112k kormund is a real good ''budget'' choice

I was camping yesterday and it took about 45 shots of pp out of a 60 rounder for 5.45 to pin a slick

Great rundown! TL,DR: "Out of previous 10 deaths, how many times would a better class armor save you?" Probably 2/10. Situational awareness, map knowledge, and your own ammo choice would have saved you the other 8/10 deaths.

In B4 this breaks the Trooper economy on the Flea

The difference between the helmets and armours are helmets come with a ricochet chance, Ive seen the class 3 glass faceshield block a M61 round. So the extra price on the helmet is the chance to deflect the damage. With that said, Im on the boat that if you can buy a class 5 armour, go for it, Ive had raids where I survived 4 man teams with BT/BP rounds and M855 with that class bump in protection.

It saved me from a Vector mag dump to the chest and stomach. 0 points left on the armor, blacked out stomach, and 25 left on the thorax. No idea what ammo it was, but it worked, and I lived to see the extraction area! 🖖😀

The point about armor only covering thorax is a amazing take and makes a whole lot of sense

Tier 4 armor pretty good tbh, the chad will ignore anything that you use while the naked will really cry after they see you.

Korund is so soild, repairs super cheap, most people will not steal it due to the size and weight. The biggest issue with it, and something you could mention a little, is that a lot of these armors will not stand up to 2 engagements. Korund's biggest issue over other types of armor, is it will save you on the first guy, but anything beyond that you need new armor.

The last 3 times I died an Altyn would have saved me. Looks like I need to buy more Altyns

Best thing to do with a trooper is barter for a slick. Also why isnt everyone running class 5 AACPC from ragman? 3xAramid, Cordura and Ripstop. 120k!!! Best barter in the game and no one uses it.

Honestly I feel like Trooper armor saves me more than Korund.

Armor doesn’t matter when you dsync and stutter every fight.

I only run level 4 rat rigs or pacas till I quest all the way to crown traders with the best ammo

I feel like armor is a source of frustration for many new players who get their first high end vest and think it should make them bulletproof. Armor is not there to save you when you're not paying attention or playing poorly, armor is there to save you when you and an opponent are on equal footing in terms of skill and circumstance. In cases like the latter, if your armor can handle even just one or two more rounds before breaking down than your opponent's armor can, then it increases your odds of winning the fight dramatically. In cases where you are caught off guard and that opponent gets several seconds to aim and fire before you realize they're even present, it won't matter if they're wearing a PACA and you're wearing a Slick, they will probably still win the fight (provided, of course, that the ammo they're running isn't just complete garbage). With this way of thinking it becomes a lot more apparent that sometimes paying for the best armor in the game isn't the best choice, and in my opinion, it becomes much more obvious that some class four armors are the best value propositions in the game. Also consider that facetaps can happen seemingly randomly or by accident at times. I've been on both sides of a situation where an engagement ends with a poorly geared player panics and spray-and-prays with a cheap 9x19mm handgun loaded with Pst and gets a lucky facetap on a guy wearing a brand new slick or hex.

Well there goes M1 market. Edit: M1 rigs with minimal durability are now 100k 🙃 Btw love the video!

I am glad I ran lvl 5 for the shotgun challenges on Customs. It certainly gave me the edge fighting other PMC's with AP-20.

Paca has saved my life so many times.

Really liked your video and commented just out of respect of how nice you were in your intro, I paused the video just to comment this. Bravo

I only wear a slick and altyn. Theres no reason not to go full meta every raid with how easy it is to make money and how easy it is to get slicks now.

This is a brilliantly put together video, Jesse. Even as someone who has been playing Tarkov for quite a while, to see it concisely in a video like this gets the point across perfectly. Great job!

I dropped 2 people running half health lvl 4 armored rigs with with Ap20 yesterday, took one shot for each them, was super satisfying

There's so much that could be said about armor performance in Tarkov relative to the cost of the armor. For example, the Korund sells from Prapor at 112k, from flea market (without Prapor) for OVER 200k, but a Gen4 HMK can often be bought for as little as 100k, up to maybe 130k. The armored rigs like the AVS or M1 are often extremely cost-effective, because you're essentially getting a class 4 armor and an improved Blackrock in one package, for 100k (or less with barters) - just Blackrocks on their own are 45k. But there's a trade-off, because armored rigs aren't as easy to ditch, since you need to replace it with both an armor and a rig. There's an overwhelming amount of analysis that goes into determining what is the optimal or most cost-effective way to protect yourself for a given scenario, which experienced players take for granted (or they have so much money they don't need to think about it anymore). Great video, as always.

I run level 4 armor rn but I just hit level 3 ragman. However I play solo and have been playing for years so I don’t often get myself ambushed as much as a squad would. I feel like level 5+ armor is extremely useful if you play in a group, because you are much more likely to get ambushed, but much more likely to survive the initial attack while your teammates and you pinpoint the enemy location.

Hey Man, really appreciate you taking the time to make this video. I'm learning mechanics at the moment and when I found POGcast I found you. Visa vi I found these gem videos and it helps me get a better grasp.

As someone that never buys anything but the T3 press armor (because not only is repairability insanely good for its price point, it's insanely cheap to do as well) any time i find class 4 armor i feel like i hit a gold mine, especially the USEC vest with it's absurd amount of HP. The strongest class 4 armor in terms of defense seems to me to be that ceramic green plate with the terrible repairability. It's basically a one-time consumable, but it will block anything but the best ammo in the game. Also, let's be real. PvP is either instant head, eyes or two blacked arms, one blacked leg and an incoming shower of grenades. Also, unless you go to the highest priority loot spots, most players aren't gonna be landing even half their mags on you when they spray and pray. They'll hit maybe five or six bullets unless you're standing still within 20 meters. Any time i have the fortune to loot a USEC vest off another player (or gods forbid, find one in a barrel stash or a weapon box) i know i'm in for one of my best raids since i started playing a couple weeks ago. Most people run cheaper ammo - BT rounds on AKs, 856A1 on ARs - and although these hurt, they don't fully pierce the USEC vest most of the time. Considering those ammo types usually turn into 3-hit kills on lower tier armor, the USEC vest feels like a god-mode armor - it gives me SO many second chances when other players get hits on me that aren't headshots. Now obviously if you only go to high contest areas like resort or labs, this armor isn't going to mean shit. But for pretty much anywhere else, it'll save your life as long as your enemy hits anywhere else than your face. Which let's be honest, they do 90% of the time anyway. Class 4: the only way to reliably survive scav encounters on woods and shoreline, because they can shoot you through bushes and grass where you can't even see a single pixel of them. Class 4: wasted inside interchange and factory where everybody's running meta vectors and M4s that just hip fire spray your head. Class 4: How to turn a rat into a chad on customs. Just don't fucking go to dorms so that you can avoid the duo clashing with the trio in the fucking staircases.

i agree with the stomach part. but with the increase of rats using the KS. covering ur stomach is a legit strat now.

Awesome video! Great info about the armor! I have been running korund recently but I think I will swap to the trooper. Cost benefit just seems better on the trooper

It matters not if I can afford Hex and Altyns', it matters I can afford rounds to make them necessary. Make ammo much more scarce i.e. everyone can get ammo from the dealers but can only get a set amount a day and make people find ammo in raid to supplement. Do that and more people will use less expensive lower grade armors more as less people will have mags full of 5A1's and 7N31's at all times. It will also make the higher grade armor mean more overall then just being the "Standard" run around gear that everyone seems to do right now. Just my two cents

I wish you would reduce the 300-600 hz by 5 dB on your mics input :O

Me, who still uses class 3 armor with a ratnik on lvl 39 and found out, that the VPO with AP is fun to play: "Interesting..."

You're missing an important part, you're assuming that every enemy shot will hit on your armor. If an enemy magdumps me , the chance of him missing or hitting limbs will add up to the chance of the armor protecting you. What i'm saying is that potentially you could survive a magdump with class 5 rather than class 4 just because you can get 2 tapped randomly, and, assuming that noone has a laser shooting your thorax, lining up 6 shots into a moving player at medium to long range is hard....lining 2 shots ? not at all. Of course there's the chance of getting tapped in the head but still...

I'm pretty bad and perpetually behind every wipe cause I have very little time to play. I use level 4 armor mostly (3 if I'm in a pinch) as protection from scavs, and then just try to play smart and move around the map while avoiding other players or spotting them before they can spot me. A lot of the time I won't engage PMCs even when I have the drop on them: there's always a solid chance I whiff or they just tank the shots and then spray me down if they spot me. Easier to just see & avoid them, get quests done, and try to find some loot along the way.

99% of the time class 4 armor seems to let me take 1 more bullet than normal, which can be the difference when moving cover to cover. Naturally if someone has impeccable aim and lead and they have a ammo that is 2 tap to the thorax nothing can be done, but I've often found that the damage reduction it gives even when penetrated can save my thorax or other parts from blacking out right to heal up. Considering the level 4 armored rig goes for 50k, it's not a bad investment especially if you are running even a budget gun.

I typically don't even run helmets... 90% of my deaths tend to be through thorax and if I'm headshot its with a high pen round anyways. Tactecs and AACPC only.

Is any armor worth using when you just got shot in the back by an mp7?

Having even the crappy Paca or other below lvl 4 armor vests has saved me countless times.

I can’t believe how dedicated you are to this game..thanks

PvE protection : 1-4 PvP protection : 5-6 If I got to choose a lvl I would take an TV-110 as an looting rig.

Love these vidios it's a big help it's my first time playing tarkov and playing alone it's been a massive learning curve from cod cheers dude

The thing with the helmets is that you get it for the chance that it ricochets a bullet.

The problem with thorax only armor is that you're still a 1 shot against magnum buck to the stomach.

Troop is actually the best armour against AP9x19, which a lot of people use in their Vector

Basically all armor protects you from the occasional scav but rarely against pmcs.

Can we talk about the importance of range when it comes to armour use? In a close range firefight armour isnt going to make too much of a difference for all the reasons you have pointed out, but at longer ranges your realistically going to land less shots as is your opponent, which means more chances for survival and for the armour to take another shot and less mag dumps at 10 yards. So realistically maps with longer ranges you should be using class 4 or 5 at minimum just for the ability to escape first contact at range or survive a low shot at your head that lands in the thorax. Armor plus range equals longer firefights.

Personally, I run trooper armor with a Ulach more than anything else. In a lot of cases Korund will do less for me than a Trooper due to the durability

The only reason I found to run 5 over 4 is AP-20s one shot 4 to the thorax. I’ve died to that a good amount

Honestly I forget what armour it is but it's lvl 5 sells on flea for around 75k ceramic meanwhile the trooper has been around 100k on flea

At this point in the wipe, I just run armor for scav protection lol. Any decent to half decent player will have the ammo to shred almost anything I'm wearing, not to mention being able to go through almost any helmet like its nothing. I typically go with an armored rig, level 4 or 5, since those have a tendency to come back on insurance, and basically hope that I can outplay the other person (while also using aforementioned good ammo) before they can mag dump my face lol.

Last time i ran altyn and slick interchange. 3 man team was camping my altyn took 1 855a1 in the faceshield saved my life. Killed 1 guy ripped his altyn second altyn also saved me from a 855a1 in then face. Never felt so lucky 1v3d them eventually :)

Here are two scenarios I'd like yall to evaluate and consider 1: I get two tapped to the thorax through fresh Korund lvl 5 with 7.62 BP and die. 2: I shoot an un-armored hatchling in the chest twice with M61 and he doesnt die. 🤔

I only run class 6. Only reason o run a helmet with face shield is for shotgun scavs :)

How to play Tarkov: Leave meds, extra clips, stack of ammo in Gamma; all the way to level 23 when you get max Prapor/Korund for 112k. Congratz. You’ve beat the game.

man trooper is where its at for my "budget" runs personally but if we're talking overall best armor to get, im gonna go with some killa or something to cover my stomach. the majority of players aim for body or anywhere as long as they get shots in. I've personally died more times from my stomach getting zero'd then a headshot also the upper thorax.

I think at this point of the wipe Korundr is still very much worth it since it's cheap and so many players are still running 5.45BT and 7.62PS that you can actually tank a couple of shots. That being said I really wouldn't trust it to stop any more. I actually like the Korundr since as Jesse said on the video, if someone gets a good spray on you, you are basically dead anyways. I can trust the korundr to stop the first 1-3 hits if someone gets a drop on me and tries to tap my thorax, which gives me enough time to get cover. It's mostly useless after that but you should anyways play with the mindset of not getting hit at all. And that 100k just saved your life in a difficult situation. Any armor melts with a good spray or mag dump.

I know im late but it also depends on your playstyle, if you're someone who plays more passive and likes to hide and wait out enemies then lvl 4 armor is perfectly fine for you because you rely on the element of surprise more so than straight up gunfights. If you play more aggressive and have more of a lvndmark style gameplay then lvl 5 and lvl 6 is better for you because you're getting into head on gunfights. lvl 4 armor isnt going to protect you if you're going into reserve and chasing every gunshot you hear. you're just gonna get shredded by 55a1, m61, etc etc. but there's also no point in using a slick or killa armour if you're just chilling and sniping or if you have more of a passive playstyle. With that kinda playstyle you should be relying on the surprise element and getting the first shot off, not tanking ammo.

the Rat rig is/was a go-to whenever I want a relatively cheap kit raid. Level 4 is good enough against scavs and the 50k price point is hard to beat.

you should mention that slick has a great barter for it from ragman. 2 troopers, 2 corduras and 4 aramids. troopers go for 70-90k a piece and the textiles are cheap to craft in the lavatory for yourself. for me there is no reason not to go slick every time since with this barter it's very affordable.

You could make the argument that by the time late wipe comes around the only armor worth using is level 4 only because level 4 will stop all scav rounds and by that time everyone is using top tier ammo which punches holes into slicks easier than poking your finger through the holes in swiss cheese. Then when you do kill that pmc, cause you'll most likely out play him or die in the corner like an armadillo with no shell, you can just take his slick cause he wasnt as smart as you when it came to picking out his armor. Final note: late wipe nobody but scavs and very undergeared and underleveled new players take your tier 4 armor

I buy Trooper armor so that when I get it back and it's fucked I can trade some fabrics with it and get a slick

Very well put together video. Highly enjoyed this as I do all your other vids. “KEEP ‘EM COMIN!”

aacpc is my favorite armor costs give or take 100k rubes for the barter super good

I think “expensive” class 4 armor like the trooper/TV is useless. The Uley and 6B3TM repair horribly but they’re dirt cheap, never get looted, and will save you from a shotgun blast from a scav.

hey man been watching your video's a lot more recently - when i first watched a video of you when i got this game you have like 30k less subs so im glad to see you are getting more subs and more views because i always likes when veritas would upload these kind of helpful game-mechanic video's and while his uploads on that topic are a lot less frequent - you seem to be trying to cover everything you can. Keep the good idea's and the great content up. hopefully you become a wealthy full time gamer and live your life doing what you enjoy to earn a living. take care

Hiding, camping and aiming for the head is more important in tarkov than anything else

lvl4 is just for scavs, and sometimes lv4 isn’t even enough cause scavs have fucking .366 AP which magically one taps lv4

When you repair an armour so it becomes a 30/30 rather than 65/65, does that mean the first shot at 30/30 is equal to 65/65 or 30/65? I would have thought 30/30 would have the same penetration chance as 65/65 but after the first shot the armour then reduces to the same as 20/65 or the equivalent. If the armour value (% chance of pen) doesn't change when repaired what value would you say is the lower limit of repairing armour? Hope that makes sense haha

When you don’t get to the pvp quests every wipe a Korund is perfectly fine.

Commenting before I watch. I treat level 4 armor as an anti-scav measure more than anything. I never really wear sub-5 unless I'm really not warmed up. The way I see it: level 4 body armor is almost like wearing nothing in fights against the majority of players. I use a ton of 7.62 BP and level 4 armor does nothing when fighting against me. People drop so fast. After I watched: I agree with you about a lot of what you say here but being that most the higher quality level 4 armor costs as much as a korund; it's not worth not buying a korund.

6b3tm armored rig is the only class 4 armor worth using. Titan. So it repairs nice and you will get it back from insurance 95% of the time.

Armor typically buys you an extra second to react at distance to real pmcs or to dominate rats and scavs. A korund has saved my bacon from mag dumping ppsh scavs more than a few times

A staple for almost all my raids early wipe is ssh helmet. Comtacs. Face cover, glasses, 6B3TM armored rig berkut/daypack/scavBP. 100% worth it.

If you have max ragman the tv110 barter is great. 4 bleach and 2 shampoo. 50-60k for a huge rig that’s class 4

Every time I wear class 4 or higher I get shot in the face