Armor Lining

Payday 2Payday 3

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This is the list of all available Armor Linings that players can equip and customize in PAYDAY 3.

Armor Frames

• MedTech Frame
• Specialist Frame
• Saboteur Frame
• Mercenary Frame

MedTech Frame	Statistics
	Plates	1
	Max Downs	4
	Plate Regen	0s
	Speed Penalty	None
	Ammo Capacity	-20%
	Consumable Slots	4
	Passive	First Aid Kits replenish an additional 40 health points.
Not the toughest, but the lightest of the bunch—perfect for a field medic. If you want to be quick on your feet and run support for your crew, this is the one for you.

Specialist Frame	Statistics
	Plates	2
	Max Downs	4
	Plate Regen	0s
	Speed Penalty	Light
	Ammo Capacity	+0%
	Consumable Slots	3
	Passive	If you have a tool in your loadout, you start the heist with 1 additional tool of that type. (This is applied before the Extra Pockets skill.)
If you love gadgets, this will give you an edge. Well-adapted and perfectly balanced for the discerning professional.

Sabateur Frame	Statistics
	Plates	3
	Max Downs	4
	Plate Regen	0s
	Speed Penalty	Medium
	Ammo Capacity	+20%
	Consumable Slots	3
	Passive	If you have no throwables for 15 seconds, replenish 1 throwables.
Getting on the heavier side, but your pockets are deep enough for all those throwables and some extra ammo. This armor frame is well adapted for those full-on guns blazing moments.

Mercenary Frame	Statistics
	Plates	4
	Max Downs	4
	Plate Regen	0s
	Speed Penalty	Heavy
	Ammo Capacity	+40%
	Consumable Slots	2
	Passive	Whenever you kill an enemy, restore 1 point of trauma to your armor plate. UNLISTED: Using an Armor Repair Kit or Armor Bag prevents all armor damage for 3 seconds.
Built to carry plenty of ammo and endure the harshest punishment, but it's heavy and slow. However, the amount of armor and ammunition it holds is second to none.

Note: as of current, the description for the Mercenary Frame erroneously does not include the detail of a passive buff that grants full damage immunity upon using an Armor Repair Kit.

Armor Plate Types

• Resistant Plate
• Adaptive Plate
• Impact Plate

Resistant Plate	Statistics
	Max Downs	0
	Plate Regen	1s
	Special Property	% of damage taken is applied as permanent trauma damage
	Interwoven with ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene, this plate offers good ballistic protection.

Adaptive Plate	Statistics
	Max Downs	-1
	Plate Regen	1.5s
	Special Property	Fully regenerates as long as the armor plate doesn't break
	Using a blend of lab-grown liquid Pantheon Silk, this armor utilizes non-Newtonian mechanics to stop and disperse kinetic energy.

Impact Plate	Statistics
	Max Downs	-1
	Plate Regen	3s
	Special Property	Fully regenerates even if the armor plate breaks
	Utilizing lattices of smart metal that feed off kinetic energy, these plates are capable of fully repairing themselves.

Mechanics (Armor 2.0)

Armor value is the amount of damage that can be sustained without draining health. Each armor type has a certain amount of available 'chunks' that serves as individual armor 'health' segments. It blocks direct health damage and, depending on the armor type, provides damage reduction and "trauma damage".

Chunks

Armor functions via a "chunk" system. Essentially, armor have segmented health bars that blocks and absorbs a certain amount of damage and trauma damage before it is broken (applies mostly to Resistant and Adaptive Plates).

A chunk is not consumed until it takes complete trauma damage, which then the chunk will be completely lost and cannot be repaired with a repair kit, requiring the use of armor bags. Trauma damage does not affect Adaptive Plates until the chunk's segment has been fully consumed, and Impact Plates are not affected by trauma damage at all.

Damage Reduction & Trauma damage

Damage reduction is the damage reduced by armor chunks. For resistant plate types, damage reduction is applied before trauma damage and can be regenerated.

Trauma damage on Resistant Plates chunks is the amount and (ambiguous) percentage of damage the armor type will take as 'permanent' damage, being unable to fully regenerate unless repaired by a repair kit or fully replaced with an armor bag.

Once armor is depleted, health will be drained instead. The armor value does not impact the regeneration speed of the armor, and instead is affected by the plate type and armor frame type.

Law enforcers must break players' armor before they are able to damage their health. Similarly to PAYDAY 2's armor system, this leads to a technique called armor-gating where regenerating any value of armor would nullify the full damage. However, such techniques may only apply to Adaptive Plates due to their ability to regenerate fully as long as the chunk is not lost, while Resistant Plates will be unable to nullify the damage entirely due to trauma damage and Impact Plates not being affected by certain skills.

Speed

Speed is the speed at which the player moves. Depending on the movement penalty incurred by the amount of an armor frame's chunks, the penalty can range from None, Light, Medium, and Heavy.

The player's speed can be further penalized or increased depending on circumstances or skills used, such as carrying two bags with Beast of Burden basic, which ordinarily would incur a movement penalty, unless it is aced.

Dodge

A returning feature from PAYDAY 2's iteration introduced in the Skills 2.0 update, Dodge is the probability a hit from a ranged or melee source will deal no damage. Dodge can only be activated if the Ghost tree is active. The value of dodge is determined by a player's armor plate.

Customization

Armor 2.0 allows players to customize their armor 'frames' and 'chunks'. Armor frames provide or subtract the amount of available ammo, grants certain passives and allocates available plate slots (chunks) depending on the frame selected. As such, customization will give players a certain amount of subtracted 'downs' (how many times a player can go down before going into custody; minimum 1 down) and how long their armor will take to regenerate.

Armors (Pre-2.0)

Prior to the May 26th 2025 update, PAYDAY 3 provided the following available armors.

• Light Ballistic Lining
• Medium Ballistic Lining
• Standard Lining
• Adaptive Armor
• Heavy Ballistic Lining

Light Ballistic Lining	Statistics
	Chunks	2
	Chunk Damage Regen	6s
	Max Downs	3
	Damage Reduction	25%
	Speed Penalty	Light
	Trauma Damage	35%
	Unlock	Unlocked by default
Kevlar, combined with ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, gives the wearer some ballistic protection while maintaining a lower overall weight for increased mobility.

Medium Ballistic Lining	Statistics
	Chunks	3
	Chunk Damage Regen	8s
	Max Downs	3
	Damage Reduction	25%
	Speed Penalty	Medium
	Trauma Damage	35%
	Unlock	Level 8
Flexible ceramic lattice Inserts, interwoven with ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. More weight gives the wearer greater ballistic protection but lowers movement speed.

Standard Lining	Statistics
	Chunks	1
	Chunk Damage Regen	3s
	Max Downs	4
	Damage Reduction	25%
	Speed Penalty	None
	Trauma Damage	35%
	Unlock	Level 18
Polyethylene suit lining for a slick, lightweight option. Provides limited ballistic protection, but its low weight enables fastest possible movement speed.

Adaptive Armor	Statistics
	Chunks	2
	Chunk Damage Regen	4.5s
	Max Downs	2
	Damage Reduction	5%
	Speed Penalty	Light
	Trauma Damage	0%
	Unlock	Level 26
By incorporating a proprietary blend of lab-grown liquid Pantheon Silk, this armor utilizes non-Newtonian mechanics to stop and disperse kinetic energy. This enables the armor to minimize any physical damage it might sustain.

Heavy Ballistic Lining	Statistics
	Chunks	4
	Chunk Damage Regen	10s
	Max Downs	2
	Damage Reduction	25%
	Speed Penalty	Heavy
	Trauma Damage	35%
	Unlock	Level 34
Custom steel and ceramic fused with ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. This heavy armor sacrifices movement speed in exchange for maximum protection while maintaining a sharp look.

Trivia

• In the September 2024 Operation Medic Bag development blog announcing Armor 2.0, Impact Plates were originally called Shield Plates.
• Prior to the announcement and release of Armor 2.0, PAYDAY 3's armor system was a major controversy among the PAYDAY community due to its extreme departure from PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2's original armor mechanics. On release and during the Beta Technical Test, PAYDAY 3's armor system exclusively used what is now the Resistant Plate type across all of its available armor types, which proved unpopular as it forced players to rely on armor bags for survival and causing other types of equipment (such as Sentries, Medic Bags and Ammo Bags) to become secondary and borderline obsolete on tougher difficulties due to the importance of armor.

References

• Primary
• Secondary
• Overkill
• Equipment
• Cosmetics