Armor in Starfield can be a real lifesaver, and having the right setup for the job can be a real difference-maker. A lot of it can also look pretty cool (hello, Vanguard set), but really, it’s about trying to survive some of the harsh circumstances that will come your way on your many adventures.
All Armor Stats in Starfield and what they mean
There are three different pieces of armor in Starfield that you can use that will give you some kind of protection: your spacesuit, helmet, and your pack. You can also gain stats from your apparel, the standard clothes you wear beneath your armor.
Main Stats
You have three main stats on your armor that will cover your resistance to most of the major weapon types in the game.
- PHYS – physical resistance to ballistic damage and most standard melee attacks.
- ENGY – resistance to laser and energy weapons.
- EM – resistance to electromagnetic weapons.
Secondary Stats
The secondary stats for your armor are the ones that protect against certain elemental values.
- Thermal – the amount of protection you will receive from any heat source.
- Airborne – this protects you against airborne elements that might damage you.
- Corrosive – this protects you against things like acid rain.
- Radiation – protects you against radiation from any source.
Tertiary Stats
These final stats are important but do not impact armor effectiveness at all.
- Mass – how much your armor weighs. This is really important when carrying spare armor or picking up armor off enemies, as it can be very heavy. It should also be noted that wearing armor will mean that the mass of the armor is used against the mass you are capable of carrying.
- Value – as always, this is Bethesda-economics. You will never get the value of the piece from vendors, but it can be impacted by various things like the Commerce perk.
All Armor Sets
All the different factions have different armor, based on the type of weapons they use and the types of threats that they face. We will keep this list updated as we find more, but there are many different types of armor in the game.
- Constellation Armor
- Beast Hunter Armor
- Explorer Armor
- Deep Mining Armor
- Ground Crew Armor
- Pirate Armor
- Mercenary Armor
- Navigator Armor
- Space Trucker Armor
- Shocktroop Armor
Understanding Affix Armor
While the sets themselves are pretty standard, you can find armor with affixes that will offer additional protection. These will be quite select explanatory, often been called Anti-Ballistic, Anti-Corrosive, etc. There is no real way to farm them, as they appear to be randomly generated when you create loot.
So, if you kill an enemy, the loot is created at that moment, the same as opening a safe or lockbox. There are certainly static items in the game that can be found in specific locations, but affix armor seems to be quite random. You should try to keep sets of affix armor that deal with specific damage types, as it can be very useful when fighting factions that tend to use certain types of weapons.