I tested ALL ARMOR TYPES and PASSIVES in HELLDIVERS 2 so you don't have to if you don't want to

What do Armor Rating, Speed, and Stamina Regen stats on armor mean exactly? I've spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to translate these values into something meaningful. I have come up with very little in translating these stats into my testing data. However, I have come to understand how durable the armor types are, what the passives provide, how fast and how far they each can sprint, how quickly they recover stamina, and, most importantly, when compared, how they stack up.
PASSIVES TESTED:
Democracy Protects
Electrical Conduit
Engineering Kit
Extra Padding
Fortified
Med-Kit
Scout
Servo-Assisted
ARMORS USED IN TESTING:
CE-74 Breaker - explosions, throwing distance
FS-38 Eradicator - explosions, detection range
SC-30 Trailblazer Scout - combat, speed, stamina, detection range
B-08 Light Gunner - detection range
EX-00 Prototype X - arc damage
CE-35 Trench Engineer - combat, speed, stamina, grenade count (HSO Booster), detection range
CM-09 Bonesnapper - stim usage, stim count (HSO Booster)
TR-9 Cavalier of Democracy - not dying
SA-04 Combat Technician - detection range
B-24 Enforcer - explosions
FS-23 Battle Master - combat, speed, stamina, explosions
TR-62 Knight - throwing distance
B-27 Fortified Commando - explosions, OLD METHOD: combat, speed, stamina
MY DATA COLLECTION VIDEO:
• Helldivers 2 | Armor |...
MY GOOGLE SHEET FOR DATA BREAKDOWN:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
REGINALD'S LASERMAXXING VIDEO:
• A tutorial on the Lase...
UMBRAN'S STEALTH VIDEO:
• Simple Guide To Stealt...
ERAVIN'S STEALTH VIDEO:
• 5 Tips & Tricks for ST...
ERAVIN'S TERMINID DETECTION RANGE VIDEO:
• 5 Useful Tips & Tricks...
WULFRAYNE'S ORIGINAL ARMOR VIDEO:
• Helldivers 2 Armor Rat...
WULFRAYNE'S FOLLOW-UP ARMOR VIDEO:
• Helldivers 2 Armor Rat...
WULFRAYNE'S VITALITY ARMOR VIDEO:
• Helldivers 2 Armor and...
OHDOUGH'S HELMET VIDEO:
• These Helmets are over...
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Overview
00:53 Democracy Protects
01:53 Electrical Conduit
02:43 Engineering Kit
03:52 Extra Padding
04:09 Fortified
06:11 Med-Kit
07:22 Scout
10:58 Servo-Assisted
12:15 Testing Products
13:04 Speed & Stamina
19:33 Combat

[@ManualReplica]

Here is how armor and health actually works: Player base health is 90 HP, the Vitality Enhancer increases player health by 20%, bringing it up to 108 HP (it does nothing else). Limb Health and Limb Injuries have absolutely no relation whatsoever to damage taken, and are entirely separate from your HP. The base damage modifier for Torso is x1.0, Head is x1.5 and Arms and Legs are roughly x0.85 (limb damage modifier wasn't the main scope of our week of testing). Unlike enemies, the player has an Armor Value (AV) of 0, meaning you can be damaged from any source. Instead, players use Damage Resistance (DR) which is a % of damage blocked by incoming damage, and is not represented or conveyed properly at all by the armor "stats". "Armor Rating" (AR) doesn't actually mean anything, it's fake UI element that's purely there to tell you if something has more or less "armor". The actual table for AR translated to DR actually looks like this. AR - DR - BLOCKED - RECIEVED 0 = 0% - x0 - x1.0 50 = 20% - x0.2 - x0.8 75 = 28% - x0.28 - x0.72 100 = 36% - x0.36 - x0.64 125 = 42.4% - x0.424 - x0.576 150 = 48.8% - x.0488 - x0.512 200 = 59.04% - x0.5904 - x0.4096 If you want to calculate damage and health for yourself to compare vs known damage sources, like the MP98 Knight SMG (which does exactly 50 WPN DMG), or to find out how much WPN DMG an enemy attack does you will need to screenshot your HP bar and divide it into 9 segments of 2 blocks each (90 HP total, each block representing 5 HP) for BASE HP. To translate the segmented HP bar into Vitality Enhancement boosted HP, you instead interpret each block as 6 HP (12x9 = 108 HP). You then screenshot your damaged HP bar, overlay it over your segmented bar to get your MISSING HP value (the amount of health LOST) and use it in this formula. MISSING HP / RECIEVED = WPN DMG The RECIEVED value corresponds to how much armor you have, so for the B-27 Fortified Commando, which has 200 AR (59.04% DR) the RECIEVED value will be 0.4096. If you instead already know WPN DMG and want to calculate how much damage it will inflict (ie MISSING HP) value you reverse the formula. WPN DMG x RECIEVED = MISSING HP The JAR-5 Dominator does 200 WPN DMG, so if you shoot a 200 AR player in the Chest you will deal 81.92 damage (MISSING HP). OBSERVE, your Head has 0 AR / 0% DR at all times, you don't have ANY protection on your head and will ALWAYS take 100% damage + Headshot multiplier (x1.5 or higher). Your Cape for that matter also has 0 AR, and no stats of any kind, same as your Helmet. REGARDING CRITS There is no such thing as a "critical hit", not even for explosives. The cause for "crits" is a visual error due to your local game Client having a disagreement with the game Server about the visual for projectiles and animation state for both the Player and the enemy attacking you. What this means is that, on your screen (your Client), it sometimes looks like an enemy shoots or hits you in the Chest for half your HP or more, or as if your character just survived a direct impact from a rocket to the Head, but on the Server side the attack hit elsewhere. The animation state on your Client does not always reflect what the Server sees either, on your end you are looking up or turning around, on the Server end your character is lagging behind and flinching or looking down while reloading or aiming and was just shot in the head. This is also why Bile Spewers and Hulk Scorchers can sometimes instantly vaporize you before their spray/fire even hits you. You can actually recreate this Server-Client disagreement in other ways: 1) Spectating other players while you're dead, which immediately tells you that what you see and other players see is not the same. 2) Piloting a Mech and having another player stand on your mech while you walk around, the pilot will see the surfer float and lag around behind them, but the surfer doesn't. 3) Shoot very precise shots at a stationary player (easier if they do the Hug emote and hold their arms out) right at the edge of their model hitbox, which on the recieving players end visually looks as if they were "hit", with your bullet being stopped and a blood effect playing with no damage taken and on your end looks as if your bullet kept going past them. FORTIFIED/EXPLOSIVE RESISTANCE & DAMAGE Fortified provides 50% Explosive Resistance (x0.5) AFTER your armor DR% has been calculated. Heavy Armor does in fact protect against explosives (but the damage is so high that you often can't tell), but wearing Heavy Armor with Fortified does not give you 98.8% Explosive Resistance. Instead it will first block 48.8% of the damage and then block 50% of the damage NOT blocked by your armor DR%. So if a rocket does 250 WPN DMG (I don't know the exact damage of a rocket), it will deal 122 damage to someone with 150 AR / 48.8% DR, which will kill them. But if they have Fortified, the game then takes that 122 damage and reduces it to 61. Also, rockets and shells have direct impact damage as well (which is not blocked by explosive resistance since it's a non-explosive damage type), which adds to the broad damage variance when being hit with explosives. STAMINA "Stamina Regen" is, just like "Armor Rating" a made up fake stat in the stats UI. Stamina Regen is exactly the same for all armors (3.3 per second), and what it actually means is total Stamina. Stamina Regen is only increased by the Stamina Enhancement booster (by 65%), which also increases your total Stamina by 30%. CLASS - STAMINA - RECHARGE TIME TO FULL Light - 125 - 9s Light-Medium - 115 - 8s Medium - 100 - 7s Medium-Heavy - 75 - 6s Heavy - 50 - 5s Oh yeah also unrelated but brief on weapon AP: Light Armor Penetration = 2 AP Medium Armor Penetration = 3 AP HMG/AMR/Autocannon, etc = 4 AP Recoiless/Quasar, etc = 5 AP Spear = 6 AP Scavenger = 1 AV Warrior = 2 AV Hive Guard/Munitions Cache, etc = 3 AV Scout Strider = 4 AV Charger = 5 AV Fabricator = 6 AV AP < AV - No Damage / Deflection AP = AV - Penetration at x0.5 damage (50%) AP > AV - Penetration at x1 damage (100%) You can deduce the full range of AP/AV values for all enemies and weapons with this, so gg have fun.

[@cashcrop_]

Pinning this comment, but I do have one question. What I'm referring to as crits are for series of attacks where I appear to take slightly more damage than I otherwise would on a bodyshot. A sliver more in damage. This results in taking 5 shots to the body instead of 6, in the case of Medium Armor. I read through what you've provided a couple of times and I don't see a way to account for this. Any thoughts on why this is happening? It's fairly frequent, or rather, the likelihood of taking the maximum number of body shots is very infrequent.

[@Gameout50]

@@cashcrop_ bugs can hs. hitbox thing even on the small guys

[@jasper1883]

REGARDING CRITS -> could just call this desyncing issues globally impacting the entire game.

[@cashcrop_]

@@jasper1883 That doesn't make any sense. I can't explain away 1 extra attack 1/4 of the time by desync issues when coupled with a moving healthbar.

[@cashcrop_]

Unpinning until more clarification is provided on a glaring issue that isn't accounted for in this very matter-of-fact explanation.

[@stevebutters306]

The entire point of the electrical defense armor, besides rumors of Illuminate arc weapons, is for when you finally convince one guy in the friend group to get the game, he plays for a while, then you hear "I just unlocked the arc thrower/tesla tower!" over the mic. Then... you put on your electrical defense armor.

[@cashcrop_]

A fellow green-faced individual. I also like that "butters" is in your name. "Electrical defense" as you said is exactly my thought process on this armor. In the past few hours, I've seen some comments regarding the Electrical Conduit passive acting as a "lightning rod." Gonna test it some tonight. Sounds like a good time. "Hey, shoot at these bugs, but be sure to hit me first!" Sounds dumb, silly, and wonderful.

[@stevebutters306]

@cashcrop_ oh wow that's interesting, there's one guy in my main crew who runs arc thrower on any enemy, any difficulty, he's cracked with it. If that shakes out, it changes the game for us.

[@nemosdadmarlin5916]

@@cashcrop_ You can use a teammate to chain lighting, it's a niche tactic but it helped me and my friend out earlier

[@RiversJ]

What it's really for is frying bot circuits by the thousands. We tested them with a group, four arc throwers, everyone in electricity resist armor, every has smoke callins and some even nades. You literally walk through everything like you are the Storm of the Century, End of the Cycle, Zeus incarnate descended to bring his Wrath upon the worlds!

[@BidenCrashenomics]

I feel like at least 10% of my deaths on Mavelon Creek were from Arc Thrower friendly fire.

[@FusterCluck678]

If a fellow helldiver shoots you with an arc based gun while you are wearing an electrical conduit armor, the arc leaps off from you to the nearest enemy. You literally become a conduit that allows the arc to pass through you, extending the arc's range.

[@thorveim1174]

thats ho w arc weapons fnction normally, the sole difference really is that you will survive this :p

[@excaliber3666]

or you can use the democracy protects trait which means you would survive the arc thrower/blitzer/tesla (and all other immediate sources of instant death) maybe once, but ive also noticed that you can survive MULTIPLE times, if luck favors you (i was getting thrown around by half a dozen chargers in a large pit while on essentially 0 health)

[@jota7000]

I feel like it should also weaken the damage done to the next enemy, seeing as you absorbed so much of it before it passed through you.

[@vincentlee7359]

​@@jota7000 nah

[@Xaiclun]

@@jota7000 Well, it is called "electrical conduit armor", which implies you just redirect the energy instead of absorbing it, so non-reduced Damage is fitting for its way of work.

[@blm2295]

joel watching this ready to change every single stat you gave us here lol

[@cashcrop_]

Feels bad.

[@DivineOrange]

Joel isn’t a developer he’s just a game master 💀

[@kyletrout3828]

@@DivineOrange there are no limits to Joel's power.

[@krodmandoon3479]

Who?

[@hughjaenus2235]

@@krodmandoon3479 Joel Mama

[@Caleb_Cachagee]

Haven't heard "check the hypotenuse of a square" since HS math

[@cashcrop_]

Geometry wrecks!

[@Alticroo]

"I'll never use the pythogerems theorem!"

[@-Arv]

"I wish I was high on some pot-enuse"

[@squidwardtentacle5]

​@@-Arv (saying it louder) I WISH I WAS HIGH ON POTENUSE.

[@yaronakrayis7291]

​@@squidwardtentacle5hahaha! You're so funny!!

[@CharChar2121]

I am loving these very scientific videos. Fuck tier lists. This is the real shit. Gathering data, testing hypothesis, etc. This is good shit. You've earned a subscription.

[@cashcrop_]

Tier lists, to me, are for fun. I like Claysthetics tier list because everything at the top is basically what he likes to use, even if it's not that great. I like digging in to things, and I'm happy that there are others like me. Thanks for the comment. Feels good.

[@tehphoebus]

I want to second this sentiment. Sharing conclusions with data and the testing is excellent. It gives others an opportunity to treat their own ideas or to replicate. 🫡

[@lucafrix66]

100% agree with this. I want to know what effects are happening. These videos are great.

[@gibberishface]

Got my sub for this also

[@danikahicks2210]

Dammit. You're right. I wasn't going to subscribe until I saw your comment and you are so right.

[@OverBlackSands]

I remember the devs talking that they made detection work "as it would in real life" as in the bugs can actually see and somewhat smell you, but the automatons mostly rely on vision as well as sound. They didn't go into specifics, but they made it clear that they had different ways of detecting the Helldivers

[@denzelballestar]

If only line of sight also worked the same on the automatons. I can't see shit in Troost or Draupnir or the Creek but I'll still get oneshot by something i can't see even with an AMR scope or the highest magnifier on the Sickle

[@stevefilms1997]

They can’t smell you, only hear.

[@HolyApplebutter]

It's entirely anecdotal, but I feel I get spotted by bugs a lot more easily than I do with bots. Even with non-scout armor, I can usually pass by a patrol without them noticing me. The bugs on the other hand seem to notice me whenever I get within a 5 mile radius of them.

[@Sovreign071]

On one hand, I kinda hoped the helmets would have their own mini passives. But on the other hand, having all the helmets be entirely aesthetic is probably better. There's no meta build or combination; you just look good!

[@MoeHasubandoAbsolver]

I'm pretty sure the "stamina regen" stat is actually total stamina value, and stamina regens at a base rate. The reason I think so is that stamina regens to full much faster while wearing heavy armor than light armor, and depletes much faster in heavy armor than in light armor.

[@LukeKim197]

I concur; there's a consistent ratio of time spent sprinting vs time spent regenerating. To round to simple numbers, it appears that the stamina bar drains at a rate of 3 per second while sprinting, and regenerates at 10 per second (independent of the actual speed or total distance being covered)

[@MDestron2282]

This is what I've been assuming and how I've been reading it.

[@SariusxX]

Just so you guys know, there's a pinned comment now confirming your theory and explaining a lot more about armor and damage, it's pretty interesting!

[@TruthHunterTeen]

​@@SariusxXit's actually incorrect in places. We have 300 health at base, which myself and a friend tested by accident, then verified. A single headshot from a sickle does 282ishbdepending on range. Without failure that left them with very little health remaining, which also gives us the value roughly for hs increase. Sickle does 55 plus light armor pen, which I presume 100 counts as medium due to the armors themselves. So doing 282 consistently with only very minor differences that we concluded were range based, we have a health of 300, according to the atat screen. Him claiming the devs don't know how their own game works is... More then a little bad. Would be much easier if we had helmets that changed values as well.... But in the meantime this works. So tldr, his math doesn't like up as the base argument is 90 HP, which means the rest of his numbers are also inaccurate

[@SariusxX]

@TruthHunterTeen I'm, of course, taking everything with a grain of salt, which is why I called it interesting and not correct. In the same vein, where are you getting the damage numbers from? He explained a lot of his methodology pretty well, and I don't understand yours quite yet. And yeah, I don't subscribe to his opinions either, but his values seem to make sense.

[@Reginald-sc9tk]

All the details I needed on armor, served up. I've been hype for this video. Glad to see it released so I can watch it.

[@cashcrop_]

Dude, same. I'm tired of it. Time to take back my hard drive.

[@FDgamin]

@@cashcrop_ I hear there is a community of individuals that love liberating space. They will goes the ends of super earth to ensure your hard drive is clean and delivered safely. Anyways, discovered you today. I love the scientific analysis approach you take helldivers and how open you are to criticism. It's hard to find people like you out on a space like this and foster such a wonderful community. Keep up the hard work and I can not wait to see the next video.

[@xander7551]

this video was just really good and well executed, and conveyed the info in a digestible way can't make the video get more attention so here's some gratitude

[@cashcrop_]

I really appreciate the kind gesture. There are many times I felt like I picked too broad of a subject and wanted to break it up into separate videos, but that felt like cheating. It was a bit of a slog. Thank you.

[@clutchbleach2057]

I love how you used other peoples research to create a more accurate video. You also gave everyone credit. Not to mention, there is absolutely no way i could do the math involved in this video. Overall, it was extremely impressive.

[@ddd09ish1]

electrical conduit is most useful in a team LOADED with electrical weapons one arc thrower: not really helpful MAYBE once per mission it will come up, you should have taken another passive 4 arc throwers: you are GOING to be hit by accident at LEAST once per engage ment while you can maintain a fairly regular wall of death, any enemy that closes the distanec will result in someone being zapped. the usefullness is directly proportional to the number of players taking eletrical weapons... which means you probably shouldnt take it in random public games, where you probably arent that coordinated but with friends?? absolutely powerful

[@thorveim1174]

in a random team, it's useful in one sirutation: if you or teammates decide to take a tesla sentry, since these have a hard to define range and are the ont "turret" that will actively target a player that's in range. In that case its a safetu from being instagibbed if you wander too close by mistake

[@ExInfamous]

The usefulness is directly tied to the skill of the handlers. Nobody with a brain should be using it on anything that "crosses the line." That's what your myriad of other weapons are for. Run a breaker and any bugs running amongst your teammates that are less than heavily armored are gone. Sickle handles any bots up to and including the ones in heavy suits with only their heads exposed. There's plenty of ways to kill shit that's close to friendlies without using your arc thrower. Good players can avoid most if not all friendly casualties by maintaining minimal situational awareness.

[@ddd09ish1]

@ExInfamous It's not a good player thing It's an arc behavior thing With a single arc thrower, you're absolutely correct. You should really only ever have a freak accident result in a kill But when there are 4 arc throwers, the opportunity for those freak accidents becomes much more common. A stalker/hunter leaps in when you don't expect it and procs a hit on a teammate Etc

[@VeneficusCubes]

Also - Iluminate have ARC units just For you knowledge

[@Shaabhekh]

@@ExInfamous - This. Ended up getting the Light ARC armour to use last night because so many peopple take it against bugs and seem to be happy to continue using it even when friendlies are going to get hit. Accidentals are fine, lack of common sense and willful ignorance is not.

[@EvalithFoG]

Great video! The CEO responded to someone on Twitter asking about random crits "It's not a random crit. They hit your head. Look up to avoid getting headshot. Or dodge." Don't think random critical hits are a thing

[@cakeyeater7392]

It's possible that this is a "bugs can't fly" instance, but the ministry of truth says it is true, so it must be

[@Eshtian]

Headshots kind of are random, though. Unless there's a consisent mechanix working behind the scenes but I doubt that.

[@cashcrop_]

The instances I'm talking about are the differences between 5 bodyshots to kill in Medium Armor versus 6 bodyshots to kill in Medium Armor. Headshots do like half the healthbar. I think I was talking about "Criticals" during the section of video where I was testing max headshots. That may have not translated well.

[@aurumone_exe]

@@Eshtianseems like enemies aim for the chest then everything else is accounted for then its like sometimes they aim for the head ive been headshotted by a rocket raider but they mostly whiff past my chest or sometimes even shoot at feet, striders height seems to make it seem like theyre trying to snipe your head

[@EvalithFoG]

@@cashcrop_ Yeah I see what you mean now

[@RheaAyase]

"I am not a game designer, I just know what feels bad" - Now that sentence makes you a better game designer than most game designers I met in my lengthy career as a game programmer. Most designers are not even gamers, they don't know what feels good or bad, what's fun or frustrating, etc... It's a bit sad.

[@Muekle]

I love how you are willing to go Super in depth on it all!

[@cashcrop_]

Heh. Thank you. I don't know how to break up videos.

[@overcomemortal2094]

The "critical hits" are not "criticals" they're just headshots. Yes the hit/hurt boxes are that inconsistent and armor (to my testing) does not reduce headshot damage.

[@cashcrop_]

The instances I'm talking about are the differences between 5 bodyshots to kill in Medium Armor versus 6 bodyshots to kill in Medium Armor. Headshots do like half the healthbar. Edit: I think I was talking about Criticals during the section of video where I was testing max headshots. That may have not translated well.

[@ShiningDarknes]

crits are definitely a thing in the game. It is the only thing that could answer the question "why the inconsistencies in relatively controlled testing?" I have done testing of using pods stuck to chargers to kill them, managing to get them stuck and motionless every time and sticking them in the same place, same strat, the pod comes down, hits the same location, sometimes it kills sometimes it doesn't. Crits would account for this discrepancy. The devs/CEO have been fundamentally wrong about information they have told us and several in-game descriptors are lies (like hot and cold effects on heat weapons changing the delay time before cooling, not the trigger time or cooling rate)

[@thomasparker6124]

He goes into headshots in detail from 22:00 onwards.

[@xana3961]

@@cashcrop_ It could be simply that it isn't a critical hit. More like pokemon, its a damage roll where you have a full damage value and the game rolls 1-10. Then reduces the amount of damage that hit does is reduced by 1-10%. So the game automatically does full damage, *then* it rolls how much to reduce the damage by. It is also possible that different parts of the body (such as arm, leg, torso) have different armor values on top of the actual armor value.

[@BackwardsPancake]

@@cashcrop_ I think what's happening here is that the way the game processes damage is just very unusual. My theory is as follows: Basically, for a lot of enemies, every body part has it's own health, and then there are conditions for what happens when you destroy any (combination of) given part(s). Besides that, they also have a "Main health" value, but which actions deal damage to this value is wildly inconsistent. This means that enemies can be killed by both destroying specific parts, or by depleting their main health. Take the Automaton Hulk, for example: You can shoot off its arms, and this will remove it's weapons, but it will never actually kill it. The only way it dies is if you destroy the head, the heat sink on the back, or both the legs at once. Less commonly, you can also wear it down by shooting it in the main body with fully charged railgun shots. For a counter-example, take the Automaton Tank: It does not have any individually destructible components at all - When you deal damage to it (by shooting it anywhere with armor-piercing weapons, or by shooting it in the heat sink with explosives that don't penetrate armor), its heat sink will start to burn and smoke, and eventually the whole tank will explode. Here, seemingly, every instance of damage is done to the main health pool. Or the Automaton Devastators: If you land two shots on the head with the basic pistol, it dies instantly. You can also wear it down by shooting it in the midriff (or the main body, if you have an armor-piercing weapon), until it starts smoking/burning, and then shoot it some more until it dies. Notably, if you bodyshot it until it's burning and then switch to shooting the head, you will still have to land two shots on the head. It's as if the head part only takes damage independently, and does not pass anything on to the main health pool. The weird part comes in when this is applied to the player. Our character also, demonstrably, has individual body parts with individual health pools, and when they're destroyed, we get wounded accordingly. These parts also have individual armor - Your helmet, for example, can even ricochet shots off of it under some circumstances. Obviously, in our case, every bit of damage is also passed on to our main health pool - This is _probably_ what is displayed to us on our UI (But it could also be some really strange average calculation instead). Also, we don't lose our body parts when we take wounds, so unlike a hulk, we _can_ die from just being shot in the arm. I think the weird inconsistencies (like "crits") happen due to the fact that body parts have different multipliers for how they pass on damage to the "main health" pool, and/or enemy hits are registering on several different body parts at once. There may also be weirdness involved with how "destroyed" (wounded) body parts pass on damage to the main health pool. There's also the possibility that maybe the head being destroyed/wounded just instantly kills you, no matter what.

[@billsmith30]

I was doing a bot eradication the other day. I fucked up and wound up directly under a supply pod call in. The thing crushed me, full health wipe out. I stood back up. Democracy Protects indeed.

[@doommeter]

Having so much information available in the description is amazing!

[@juandux1424]

I'm glad to have found this video, you can rarely find a KZbinr doing a full on analysis of Helldivers equipment with this level of commitment and clarity of speech. Subbed!

[@SangTheCryptek]

Earned a subscriber. Learning that the recoil assist applies even when standing is huge. I always avoided that armor because Im always firing on the move, but if it works while standing I'll give it another shot

[@KaiynFallanx]

Damn this breakdown is great. I'm loving the math behind the testing and the hypothesis presented. It as if I'm listening to a research presentation backed by data and testing. Hats off!

[@cashcrop_]

Very kind of you. I appreciate it.

[@Phaevryn]

Awesome stuff, love the detail and obvious effort you put in. Thank you.

[@user-mt1zj9wz4m]

so glad you take the time to do this. thank you for providing the data

[@cammy2point1]

I really apprecicate the depth of analysis and attention to detail you put into this, it must have been a lot of work. Thanks for the info, keep up your great work!

[@cashcrop_]

Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. I appreciate that.

[@syncroe591]

Honestly, the info was SUPER helpful, but that narration and the voice got my sub. Hope to see more of your stuff!

[@cashcrop_]

I appreciate it. I get frequent comments about my voice (sometimes borderline disturbing). I've never really given it much thought, as it's pretty standard fare for me. Thank you for providing feedback, for taking the time out of your day to watch my quite long video, and for subscribing. I really appreciate it. Subs mean less for the YT algorithm these days (from my understanding), but I know that I personally look at subs as a data point in determining if a channel is worth my time.

[@syncroe591]

@@cashcrop_ Well, here's hoping the data holds up, papa Crop. Even if you step away from these info vids for HD2, you should deffo do readings or something. Very easy listening!

[@philliphart6327]

Very impressive findings. The recoil reduction while standing is huge. Thank you for doing the work.

[@kmisialak]

Fantastic methodology and detailed approach presented in not over the top palatable form. Great vid!

[@DestructoMonkey]

I'm really digging the thoroughness of your methodology, your documentation of it, and how you walk us through it. Even your citation of outside sources along with your original research is pretty on point. Good stuff.

[@Folkeregor]

You are a top tier Helldiver content creator doing the most important work a player could ask for. Keep on keeping on!

[@nickrackel7949]

Good video and a ton of work put into it. Definitely bookmarked for future calculations

[@humanhaggis]

This is an extraordinarily well made video, very engaging and helpful to watch. Thank you!

[@batinimagus]

My man used Pythagoras theorem in the middle of the video to calc distances. Had to pause and sub immediately. Awesome video.

[@Reach4God1]

Democracy Protects has saved my life -- and the run -- far too many times for me to consider anything else worth taking. There are too many "you're dead now" moments that happen and can't be accounted for by the player, especially against bots or with careless teammates. Two extra stims won't heal a pile of gore, extra grenades can't kill the tank/bile titan that the game has decided actually exists on top of you now, and limb health doesn't matter much if the body its attached to is dead.

[@RegularBard]

Question for the pop-in spawns (I assume this is what you're referring to) Have you noticed pop-in spawns on your location while playing solo? With friends? My current understanding is that pop-in spawns are meant to be forbidden within 75m of the player, but when players separate, spawns can drop in on one group.

[@ketherga]

I haven't seen any of these spawns since the update, but I can tell you that it is not a case of players splitting up causing it. I have personally experienced this bug when in a match with only 1 other player and when we were both in the vicinity of the same objective. I believe it was an evacuate priority citizens map.

[@cashcrop_]

Where have you been at? I haven't seen you on Discord in a while man! And yeah, Democracy Protects makes for a fun time. 50% of the time, it works...every time.

[@aircraftcarrierwo-class]

My funniest in-game moment to date was thanks to Democracy Protects. We wound up entering the map on top of a derelict Hellbomb, setting it off via the hellpod landings. Entire squad got wiped out except me, prompting me to shout "DEMOCRACY PROTECTS" in voicechat as I stimmed back my health.

[@thegrunch6448]

I'm too unlucky for that bonus. I ran it for a while because of the drip, but I don't even remember the last time it activated. It probably only activated once or twice and definetly not because I was never dying

[@bluicarys732]

Ive got about 78 hours in, a little over 200 missions, and Democracy Protects has consistently been an absolute life saver, and in my opinion and experience with people calling drops on top of us, one of, if not the most useful boons.

[@SilverWindDub]

Very professional and informative video. Thank you for the analysis!

[@_Quint_]

Absolutely smashing it with the quality of these videos.

[@cashcrop_]

Thank you kindly.

[@Gobeldeg00p]

This is your best video yet dude, no question. You should be seriously proud of this.

[@the1Blind]

Thank you for all the work in collecting and presenting this.

[@grandmasterpengu]

Great video brother. Love the effort, editing, and more. Can't wait to see you and your channel grow

[@danielsula4720]

Democracy protects seems to work when drowning, which is both funny AND terrible at the same time. Great video, really appreciate it.

[@cashcrop_]

I need to try this. Thank you.

[@DeusMalleus]

2 days ago, was playing a defensive game against bots on hard. A team mate fell in deep water on the map and his super citizen armor must've stopped the drowning. However, he was physically stuck and frozen in position until the horde of bots killed him. Two of us were dead, so I watched it happen to him and we weren't certain how he glitched out. Unfortunately, I don't have a recording.

[@raspberrian8894]

​@@DeusMalleus it's vitality booster that does it

[@atomiste4312]

had this happen on Troost, thought there was a new mechanic of freezing up in cold water or something cuz i wasn't dead, could spectate and then i got killed by a bot and could finally respawn

[@cashcrop_]

Recently had a teammate stuck under the ice. Bots just standing over him doing nothing. Had to 380 him.

[@diancastillo8289]

great job on the video bro, see you in the front line

[@cashcrop_]

o7

[@sabinsx]

well done! good on you for putting the into out as well for people who are better at the statistics side of things. that's really commendable!

[@Jonesy_Bonez]

Straight forward to the point even tho its 20mins I stuck around for it all good job man! very informative !!

[@cashcrop_]

I must have cut 5 minutes of very peripheral supporting info out of this. I think it turned out well. I really tried to compact it. I also increased my cadence as the video went on to help condense it some.

[@Jonesy_Bonez]

@cashcrop_ honestly it was all great. Most videos try to say to much about the one subject leaving it feeling long, you went in straight in gave the fact, showed the info to back it up, moving on. Love it your work is deffenitly noticed

[@jeffbezos2960]

​​@@cashcrop_ cadance and voice was perfect. id rather pause and rewind then need to slog through slow parts also mic was great and background music was at a great volume

[@cashcrop_]

@@jeffbezos2960 I appreciate that about the background music. It's difficult for me to tell sometimes. I'm partially deaf in my right ear and have tinnitus.

[@julien1er]

You just earned a subscriber. Good work, good format, only pertinent information. I'll see you on the frontlines, Sir.

[@funkyp6534]

I'm watching this after 252 hours of gameplay as of now and I'm impressed. This is a lot of good straight facts. I can tell a lot of work was put into this from what I see and I respect that. Quality video, keep it up. Earned my sub.

[@RagnarMonstruo]

Man, that intro transition between the armours was smooth, props for that idea, loved it

[@natures_guardians]

Bro definitely did not skip math class

[@HuntShowdownLab]

This is an insane amount of effort. well done.

[@xander7551]

this is a gorgeous video brother i adore your follow through

[@jeast9648]

I was asking myself the same questions the other day. Thank you for this. You're a hero.

[@demitreburger707]

I'm not finna check his math, brother is doing democracy's work

[@thatothermainprotagonist4956]

Woo, my boi is back at it again!

[@cashcrop_]

o7

[@PseudoGuido]

Severely underrated video. I can feel the wrinkles forming in my brain.

[@timuch38]

Great writing and editing, great music, usefull knowledge, outstanding research. 10/10

[@TheWileSpice]

Thanks for the dive into the armour! Learnt quite a bit here.

[@cashcrop_]

Thanks, Spice!

[@Alphascrub_77]

Really good points about headshot damage. I guess from datamining sources we know there is a pretty good chance that helmets are getting their own passives eventually. I can only imagine how much more your headshot having armor and effecting headshot damage would skew this. Also I was wondering, does prone and crouched affect normal projectile damage? Melee? Or just explosions? It seems like when I think about it I've survived near soup levels of bullets from going prone but was that just because I was closer to the ground and getting hit less? I also know I've been shot while wearing heavy armor and simply not received damage from bots. Could this be a bug? Maybe lag?

[@cashcrop_]

It could be any number of things. I cut out a lot of grenade testing, and I want to say I could get closer to grenades without dying while prone versus standing. It might just be an explosive thing. Taking no damage as lag wouldn't surprise me. I have some footage of being shot in the crotch by a friend and taking no damage. After blowing myself up, I could see the model had the crotch armor as part of the torso model. Seems odd, but there could be some wonky stuff going on with the armor models and damage zones. I don't know. I guess I could get my friends to shoot me some more.

[@h4xorzist]

​@@cashcrop_ I think they might have programed something in to reward diving / prone for explosions as that would be the thing to do in real life. Many of the devs are conscripts of the Swedish army. But it's not flat dmg mitigation as I've been instant killed from rockets while prone (granted it was likely a headshot without vitality on) This was likely done with grenades, stratagems (500kg) and hellbombs in mind.

[@DannyGiusa]

Outstanding video and work! Love that the community and creators are so in love about the game

[@Cuthawolf]

Wow, thanks for putting in all this time and effort. Very much appreciated.

[@TwizzTasty]

The little attention to detail in this game is awesome. Having weather affect weapon performance and how enemies react is awesome

[@cashcrop_]

It is quite cool. All the volume sliders go to 11. Tribute to "This is Spinal Tap" perhaps?

[@ZCid47]

The arc protection also work to become a literal conduit, you get close to the enemy and you allys shoot at you in order to arc to tve enemies

[@cashcrop_]

Sounds like a fun strategy. Hey, let's bring the new guy! He can help us distribute our lightning. For demARCracy!

[@norrecvizharan1177]

I can also say from experience that the inverse is unfortunately true. Kinda once accidentally wiped out a couple nearby teammates because I got too close to a tesla tower with the armor on, and it basically blitzed through me to kill them. It was certainly incredibly hilarious, but also a lesson about there being more than one way to accidentally troll the team.@@cashcrop_

[@FireFauxes]

This is the best Helldivers 2 video I've seen so far. Amazing work on the testing and the stuff you said at the end perfectly sums up how i feel about the games armor atm. I love this game but damn they have GOT to fix the damage values.

[@MehmedTube]

amazing video my friend. thank you so much for explaining that. is so important understand the armor types how exaxtly works. very good job :)

[@aleco3075]

Dude, this video is nuts. The amount of data you provided is insane. If you ever need a hand in obtaining more data, I would be happy to help.

[@cashcrop_]

discord.gg/hjyKnhKG

[@Marauder623]

I picked mine out of cosmetics

[@that80ssongyoulove84]

I’m glad these videos exist, they seem very helpful for players who are looking to sharpen their skills. I’m not very good at implementing this kind of information, I just play based on how the equipment feels. That said, this is the kind of video, I think, that benefits the community the most as apposed to “what’s the meta?”

[@cashcrop_]

I appreciate that. I "feel it out" as well. I then try to quantify those feelings. Edit: probably introduces bias.

[@garland336]

As a math nerd, you did great work here man. I'm happy to see a dude actually using his brain for once. The stamina stuff was fantastic, really well put together.

[@squidinc4376]

Babe wake up.. New Cashcrop video..

[@cashcrop_]

Gave me a chuckle. Good to see ya, Squid! You playing HD2?

[@WilkersonWhittle]

IMWIDEAWAKE

[@squidinc4376]

Oh, here and there. Mostly when friends see I'm online and invite me. My friend recently got me addicted to Mechwarrior Online, which is basically crack for obsessive build tweakers like me.. so that's been my Darktide Nicotine patch recently. I'll be back in it when we get some new content. Not burnt out, but feeling a bit stale these days. 1,200 hours in, so I guess it's about that time. @@cashcrop_

[@cashcrop_]

Pretty much there with you on DT. The patches coming out of their lengthy hiatus were very underwhelming. Playing some HD2 and having a good time with it. Perhaps I’ll check out Mechwarrior. I remember the tabletop Battletech from many years ago. It was cool.

[@atticlion7648]

I really need them to add a max speed democracy protects light armor.

[@cashcrop_]

GOATed

[@DrunkenShellback]

Great video bro. The information was detailed and to the point and your tone with a sprinkle of humor kept me engaged. Dilly dilly.

[@Vorper]

For all the work and time you put in to this, i've subbed, nice work mate.

[@cashcrop_]

Thank you very much.

[@BrassicaPrime]

videos like this are highly appreciated

[@allison1204]

Cashcrop: "I'm not the best at math..." *Is pretty fckn best at math.

[@DUHRIZEO]

Sounding off the intro to the beat had me hooked immediately. On top of some well tested and thought out data? You rule.

[@fluff0000zz]

Amazing work. Thank you for your efforts helldiver ❤

[@seangallagher9435]

Id have to assume that the fortified perk only affects the damage from the aoe, and that the damage from a direct hit rocket or cannon is a different type of damage and isn’t halved.

[@cashcrop_]

I assume the same.

[@To0t]

i think, direct hit counts as a bullet so if it doesnt hit your head it goes through the armor reduction process and the fortified perk affects the aoe like you said. my conclusion at the end was that it is more likely then not to survive a direct rocket hit wearing heavy-fortified than not. About only 1/4 direct rocket hits kills me in one shot.

[@Reach_of_the_Astronomican]

I'd rather delete all hd2 youtubers to leave you as you are the best. Thank you kindly for a thorough and honest video without any clickbaiting, manipulation, and overexagerrated claims

[@spaceghost4906]

I appreciate people such as you that dedicate the time and effort for usual information like this. Take care!

[@AnonymUser]

Really well made and thorough. Well edited too! It very much looks like you put a lot of time and effort into making this video and it shows. Thanks and congrats!

[@cashcrop_]

Thank you!

[@IndieDenma]

The intro with the beat matching the words sounds like a song intro that sadly didn't turn into a full song. ^^

[@cashcrop_]

Lol, sorry to disappoint. Maybe next time I'll keep going.

[@gabzsy4924]

Instead of removing headshots, perhaps they could give you an invulnerability against other crits for a window of time after you got hit by one and they could also extend the armor rating of your currently equipped armor to your helmet aswell. This way we would have better defined armor roles and better resilience against crits in succession without removing them altogether.

[@cashcrop_]

I'm all for health management and hits that will take your breath away. I think some form of cooldown period, like you're saying, where you can't get the ol 2 tap but you still can't just run around with half health because you know all the damage you take will be of the same value would be good. Dunno. It'll be complicated. I want the game to be challenging and be unforgiving at times. Gotta wait and see, I guess.

[@King_Ekolin]

I can't begin to express my awe at the time and effort put into this video. By far the most helpful I've seen on the subjects covered.

[@cashcrop_]

I appreciate it.

[@brana.1249]

Thanks for putting in the time! Good video.

[@ketherga]

The scout armor is working as advertised, but the game has a hard coded minimum visual detection range (it's 10 meters measured from your driver). For audio signature it only really matters when standing or running and works the same so far as I can tell. So far as I know the only exception to vision range rules is the stalker. Weather effects do alter detection rage so yes, the light rain did effect your testing. The only exception is atmospheric spores which do not effect terminids.

[@cashcrop_]

That is very interesting. So, the 15ish meters I'm seeing would put it close to 14 to 12 for the 3rd person to 1st person shift. Which is close to 10 meters. So, perhaps if weather were present on the map, it would kick it that extra 2 meters.

[@ketherga]

Different weather has different levels of effect, too and as you said it all stacks. So at night, in fog, with the scout armor on, I'm pretty sure (though I haven't tested it) you can get down to that hard cap by crouching All forms of smoke will also immediately reduce enemy detection range down to that minimum regardless of all other factors. I haven't tested if it's exactly the cap, but it feels close to me. Additionally, lights sources on night maps matter. If your not in shadow you don't get the benefits. You can shoot out lights and should avoid fires.

[@octogorb9853]

shooting as well (obviously) for detection. believe its a 20m alert for a gunshot. Same for sprinting i believe.

[@ketherga]

@@octogorb9853 this is effected by the gun. All weapons have an undocumented sound signature stat. Energy weapons and, for some reason, the senator revolver seem to be the quietest.

[@octogorb9853]

@@ketherga right. I like using Diligence since I believe it has a decently low sound profile? Could be wrong but its a good sniper for stealth.

[@guufiplays2681]

5:46 mans is out here replicating Unit 731 experiments on himself.

[@ianconway4711]

Fantastic and impressive breakdown. Much appreciated!

[@necroph1866]

Super nice video, loving the details he goes into, but holy moly I love the scene of the timelapse at 12:15

[@Memealytis]

Science teachers if they were good:

[@cashcrop_]

Aw, man, leave science teachers alone. Funny comment, though.

[@thememingoflife5452]

I loved my science teacher, she was great. Yet I still found this comment amusing.

[@andrewpeli9019]

I run the extra grenades super light armor against everything. Impact nades are pretty much problem eraser. Having 6 instead of 4 is better than anything else offered. Reduced recoil is a decent extra perk. It's better to not get hit than to take less damage when hit.

[@brotein7157]

Great video man, also me and my friends did some testing on our own with the headshots and from what we found different armor ratings don’t actually effect the amount of damage you take to the head. From what we’ve gathered regardless of what you wear they always do the same damage so it probably has something to do with the helmets armor rating and since they’re always the same you always take the same amount of damage

[@sea-drake]

Wonderfully detailed findings! I bought the executioner heavy armor from the shop yesterday and quickly found myself constantly having to stop for a breather. The dramatic differences between sprint range values you showed in the video definitely match my experience. 😂 On the flip side, its explosive resistance seems to be quite effective at reducing accidents with impact nades and autocannon.

[@someguyusa]

Ahem, Democracy Protects is not a dice roll. It's a coin toss. Because Super Earth invests in its soldiers! Great video!

[@cashcrop_]

Too funny! And thanks.

[@Snazzy_Pantz]

Really good and informative video. One thing tho, what everybody seems to get wrong: The vitality enhancement booster DOES NOT give you or your team mate more hp or anything. It only reduces the chances of getting injured while taking damage. Still super usefull obviously, but it works purely by chance.

[@CrixAcguy]

try looking at the data instead of saying this. The description of several mechanics in game are false

[@AyoitsGhosty]

Using the blinking light beacon of those pods to show potential recoil is genius, very nice work

[@MrYdoineedthis]

Always enjoy some quality data. Your efforts are appreciated sir! 🧐

[@cashcrop_]

Thank you.

[@keeblar209]

Loved it tha ks for the time spent making this video brotha

[@rakura]

100% respect to you and those that do these. Would much rather have this than tier list. Learned a lot.

[@tylerschofield]

Thank you for this fellow diver! Its a shame that arrowhead refuses to give us actual stats and detailed info on weapons and equipment, but folks like you save the day!

[@MrVeps1]

That was really nice work, thanks a lot! Really prefer this to the "Always run these strategems and weapons because META"-type of video, although it's easier to spam out ten of those than one of this quality. You've definitely earned yourself my subscription.

[@crayz1978]

Love the in-depth video,👍🏽 great democracy!!