Alloy Armor

Not to be confused with Cosmetic Armor.

Armor is an attribute that reduces damage taken to health, but not shields. Not all enemies possess armor: Warframes, most bosses, and all Grineer do, but normal Corpus and Infested enemies do not have any. For your Warframe, its armor value is listed in the Arsenal. Armored enemies have their base armor values listed in the Codex but this value increases when they spawn with higher levels. Enemies with more than zero armor have their health bars displayed yellow instead of red; it is possible to strip away armor value through certain abilities or damage procs, turning those enemies' health bars back to red.

In the Damage 2.0 system, health bars always have a health type (flesh, cloned flesh, etc.) which decrease or increase incoming damage depending on damage type (, , etc.); armored entities have an additional type on their health called their armor type (either ferrite or alloy) that further decreases or increases incoming damage. This additional type is removed if the armor is stripped.

Effects

Ferrite Armor  Impact —  Puncture +50%  Slash -15%  Cold —  Electricity —  Heat —  Toxin —  Blast -25%  Corrosive +75%  Gas —  Magnetic —  Radiation —  Viral —  True N/A  Void —  Tau — Ferrite Armor is an armor class used by a variety of enemies of all factions, most commonly basic Grineer troops such as non-elite Lancers. It has generally greater vulnerabilities and weaker resistances than Alloy Armor. Ferrite Armor is weak to  Puncture and  Corrosive damage, but resists  Slash and  Blast damage. Armor has an effectiveness value based on their level, which always reduces damage regardless of type. The full damage calculation then combines this armor value, as well as both the Cloned Flesh and Ferrite Armor's damage modifiers. Note that damage types effective against Ferrite Armor ignore a corresponding percentage of armor in addition to increasing the base damage against enemies with Ferrite Armor. List of Enemies with Ferrite Armor Bosses Alad V (Mutalist) Exploiter Orb Juggernaut Behemoth Kuva Lich The Sergeant Councilor Vay Hek Phorid Jordas Golem Protea (Specter) Grineer Ballista Butcher Commander Dargyn Dreg Flameblade Ghoul Auger Ghoul Devourer Ghoul Expired Ghoul Rictus Grineer Power Carrier Grineer Warden Heavy Gunner Hellion Hellion Dargyn Hyekka Master Lancer Lancer Dreg Manic Ogma Powerfist Scorch Scorpion Seeker Shield Dargyn Shield-Hellion Dargyn Shield Lancer Temporal Dreg Trooper Zeplen Corpus Carrier (Enemy) Corvette Frigate Gox Locust Drone Oxium Osprey Infested Juggernaut Deimos Tendril Drone Corrupted Corrupted Butcher Corrupted Heavy Gunner Wild Desert Skate Feral Kubrow Sentient Conculyst Condrix Battalyst Mimic Oculyst The Murmur Rogue Arcocanid Rogue Culverin Unaffiliated Saturn Six Fugitive Thrax Centurion Thrax Legatus Trivia Ferrite Armor is composed of Ferrite, which is a scientific term for iron. This could include steel, which is a ferrous and magnetic metal alloy.

Alloy Armor  Impact —  Puncture +15%  Slash -50%  Cold +25%  Electricity -50%  Heat —  Toxin —  Blast —  Corrosive —  Gas —  Magnetic -50%  Radiation +75%  Viral —  True N/A  Void —  Tau — Alloy Armor is an armor class commonly used by heavy units and bosses. Alloy Armor is typically found on Elite Lancers and heavy-armament Grineer troops, such as the Napalm and the Bombard, and Corpus Bursas. It is vulnerable to  Puncture,  Cold, and  Radiation damage, but resistant to  Slash,  Electricity, and  Magnetic damage. Armor has an effectiveness value based on their level, which always reduces damage regardless of type. The full damage calculation then combines this armor value, as well as both the Cloned Flesh/Flesh/Robotic and Alloy Armor's damage modifiers. Note that damage types effective against Alloy Armor ignore a corresponding percentage of armor in addition to increasing the base damage against enemies with Alloy Armor. List of Alloy Armor Enemies Bosses Ambulas Captain Vor Eidolon Teralyst Eidolon Gantulyst Eidolon Hydrolyst Jackal Hyena Pack Kela De Thaym Leekter Lieutenant Lech Kril Profit-Taker Orb Razorback Ropalolyst Shik Tal Stalker Tyl Regor Vem Tabook Zanuka Zanuka Hunter General Sargas Ruk Wolf of Saturn Six Grineer Bailiff Bombard Blite Captain Cutter (Elite) Elite Lancer Eviscerator Flak (Elite) Glacik Commander Gokstad Crewship Kuva Guardian Kuva Trokarian Lektro Commander Napalm Nox Outrider (Elite) Pyr Captain Skold Crewship Taktis (Elite) Tusk Thumper Tusk Thumper Bull Tusk Thumper Doma Corpus Denial Bursa Drover Bursa Isolator Bursa The Brokers Corrupted Corrupted Bombard Corrupted Lancer Necramech (Enemy) The Murmur Rogue Voidrig Unaffiliated Wolf of Saturn Six Void Angel Trivia Presumably, this armor is made from Alloy Plates, as evidenced by the visible Grineer letters () imprinted on the Alloy Plate image that, when translated into English, read "Armor". Prior to Update 27.2 (2020-03-05), the Wolf of Saturn Six and Tusk Thumpers use Alloy Armor both as their health type and as their armor type. In the official patch notes this practice is referred to as "Hulking Armor".

When damage is inflicted to an armored target, there are two related calculations made.

1. The working armor value of the target is increased or decreased based off the damage type, armor type, and health type of the weapons and entities involved.
2. Incoming damage is reduced by the type-modified armor value according to a damage reduction formula.

Armor Type Modifiers

See also: Damage 2.0#Damage Calculation

There are two types of armor, Ferrite and Alloy. Both are strong against damage and weak against . The main difference is in the elemental weaknesses, which are completely different. Ferrite armor is relatively common with low- and mid-level enemies such as Lancers and Troopers, and has generally weaker resistances than the more advanced Alloy Armor, which is used by Bombards, Napalm, and other bosses. Alloy Armor is also the armor type of Tenno.

Damage type modifiers inherently affect armor's effectiveness. They are given by the following equation:

Net Armor = Armor × (1 − Armor Type Modifier)

• Armor is your armor value before considering damage types.
• Armor Type Modifier can be found on the nearby charts.

Apart from this armor value modification, type damage modifiers against the armor and health type of the target also plainly multiply the damage. There is a more accurate total damage calculation further down the page, but this section covers the armor value modification.

Damage Reduction Formula

The damage reduction from armor is as follows:

Damage Reduction = 1 −	300
	300 + Net Armor

A net armor value of 300 will reduce incoming damage by 1 − (300 ÷ 600) = 1 − 0.5 = 50%, so only half of the weapon's damage is inflicted in total. At 600, you receive only 33% of a weapon's outgoing damage. At 900 armor, damage is divided by 4, and so on. 

Effective Health

Effective health is the concept that each single point of health you have actually absorbs more than one point of damage, so you effectively have more hit points than indicated. Therefore, there are two ways that armor functionality can be imagined: either as a reduction to damage, or as an increase of effective health and incoming heals. An alternative way to think of armor transforms the above equation to the following:

	(		Armor	)
Effective Health = Nominal Health ×		1 +
			300

• Nominal Health means "health in name", referring to the Health points in your screen's upper right corner.
• Effective Health becomes your "health in effect", reflecting a "truer" measurement of survivability.

An armor value of 300 will multiply the nominal health with 2, so the effective health will be double the nominal health. At 600 armor, it’s three times the nominal health, and so on. The effective health of a target against a certain damage type is:

Effective Health = Nominal Health × (1 + Armor × (1 − Armor Type Modifier) ÷ 300) ÷ (1 + Armor Type Modifier) ÷ (1 + Health Type Modifier)

The reason it is so important to understand effective health is because it allows you to compare the benefit armor provides to your survivability compared to the benefit that health provides, and it shows you that each additional point of armor increases your time to live by the same amount. While it is common for people to remark that "each point of armor gives you less damage reduction than the previous point", it is not an accurate sentiment—each point of armor confers linear, not diminishing, returns.

Increasing Armor

Currently, the only ways to increase your Warframe's armor involve a single mod and a handful of ability effects.

Mods

File:SteelFiberModU145.png

Steel Fiber is currently the only mod in the game that increases a Warframe’s armor value. As a percentage modifier, Warframes with higher base armor values have a higher benefit from it. Neglecting damage type modifiers, the relative increase in effective health from this mod is:

Effective Health Increase = Steel Fiber Multiplier × (1 −	1		)
	1 +	Armor
		300

• Steel Fiber Multiplier refers to the value on the mod equipped. It is 0.1 unranked, or 1.1 at maximum rank.

For example, for Warframes with the common base armor value of 65, a maxed Steel Fiber increases effective health by only about +19.6%, whereas the benefit of a maxed Vitality at level 30 is +246.7%. Valkyr, at 600 base armor, still only gets +73.3% out of a maxed Steel Fiber. However, the effective health increases from Steel Fiber apply as gains from sources of healing—that is to say, increasing your armor increases the effective healing you receive, whereas simply increasing your max nominal health does not.

Steel Fiber (Sentinel) exists as a mod for sentinels. Kubrows can increase armor via Link Armor, which increases their armor by a percentage of your Warframe's total armor—this means that equipping Steel Fiber on your Warframe directly increases armor on your Kubrow.

Abilities

Warcry

Main article: Warcry

Valkyr's Warcry (2 ) increases the armor of all friendly units within range by 50%, or up to 142% with maximized Power Strength. This bonus is calculated additively with other base armor multipliers, such as Steel Fiber. A Valkyr with a max rank Steel Fiber and unmodified Power Strength increases her armor according to the following equation:

Armor = Base Armor × (1 + Steel Fiber Modifier + Warcry Modifier)

Armor = 600 × (1 + 1.1 + 0.5)

Armor = 1560

Hallowed Ground

Main article: Hallowed Ground

Oberon's 2  is Hallowed Ground, which places down a zone in which, among various other effects, the armor of Warframes is increased. This ability at maximum rank awards a 20% bonus to armor, which can be increased by Power Strength to a 58.6% bonus. This bonus is calculated additively with other base armor multipliers, such as Steel Fiber. An Oberon with a max rank Steel Fiber and unmodified Power Strength standing on Hallowed Ground has armor equaling:

Armor = Base Armor × (1 + Steel Fiber Modifier + Hallowed Ground Modifier)

Armor = 150 × (1 + 1.1 + 0.2)

Armor = 345

Ironclad Charge

Main article: Ironclad Charge

Rhino's Rhino Charge (1 ) can be modified with the Ironclad Charge ability augment, which increases his armor by 50%, or 142% with maximized Power Strength, for each enemy hit. This bonus is calculated additively with other base armor multipliers, such as Steel Fiber. A Rhino with a max rank Steel Fiber and unmodified Power Strength that has charged through 5 enemies increases the armor according to the following equation:

Armor = Base Armor × (1 + Steel Fiber Modifier + Ironclad Modifier × Enemies Struck )

Armor = 190 × (1 + 1.1 + 0.5 × 5 )

Armor = 190 × 4.6

Armor = 874

In the above example, using Ironclad Charge against 5 enemies increases Rhino's damage reduction from 57.08% at 399 armor to 74.45% at 874 armor.

Vex Armor

Main article: Vex Armor

-If, while using Vex Armor and at any time during the effect your shields(at full shields) are COMPLETELY DEPLETED, Chroma's armor is increased by 350%(at Rank 28) with armor brought up to 1250(without Steel Fiber), and with Steel Fiber, up to 1645 Armor.

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Warframe Armor and Effective Health

The armor value of Warframes is always the same for that Warframe, and the armor type is Alloy and their health type is Flesh. Their armor health can never deplete as there are no permanent effects that remove Warframe armor.

While there is no such thing as a general effective health value, since effective health depends on the damage type the health is subjected to, a reasonable benchmark to compare the durability of Warframes is their effective health against equally distributed physical damage, i.e. equal portions of Impact, Puncture and Slash, since the vast majority of enemy damage against players is comprised of these types. Inserting these assumptions into the previous formula, we get:

Effective Health− = Nominal Health × 60 ÷ 53 × (1 + 67 ÷ 60 × Armor ÷ 300)

As a meaningful PvE benchmark. For actual values, see the figure below.

High Nominal Health vs High Mitigation

Although both affect effective health and combine multiplicatively, one may have to decide between increasing nominal health or damage mitigation (i.e. armor or the strength of some damage mitigating abilities) in some builds. There are a few things to consider apart from the total gain in effective health:

• Higher Mitigation will increase the amount of effective health you regain from heals that restore a fixed amount of nominal health points, e.g. red orbs, blue orbs with Equilibrium and life steal from Life Strike or Well Of Life.
• Higher Nominal Health will increase the amount of energy you get out of the depletion of your health pool with the Warframe mod Rage.

Enemy Armor

Enemy armor values are displayed under the codex and infobox, but scale to the enemy's level. Generally, only Grineer and boss enemies have armor, while the Corpus and Infested factions do not have any. When the enemy health bars is yellow, armor is in effect and damage will be reduced and cause it to flicker red.

Scaling of enemy armor values uses the following formula:

Armor = Base Armor × (1 + ((Current Level − Base Level)^1.75 ÷ 200))

• Base Armor: Base armor value for the enemy.
• Current Level: The level of your target enemy.
• Base Level: This is the initial level an enemy can spawn. This is important because certain enemy types, such as Heavy Grineer, will not spawn until certain levels (like level 8 for Heavy Gunners), so while they may be level 30, their armor has only scaled up 22 times.

This graph shows the amount of armor for Grineer Heavy Gunner up to Level 120.

As mentioned before, this formula causes high level Grineer (lets say up from level 50) to be very hard to kill, as you can see in the example of a level 108 Heavy Gunner:

500 × (1 + (((108 − 8)^1.75) / 200))

= 500 × (1 + (3162 / 200))

= 500 × 16.81

= 8405

Damage Received = Attack Damage ÷ (1 + (8405 / 300)) =
Damage Received = Attack Damage × 0.0345

The resulting damage received by the Heavy Gunner is dramatically reduced to ~3.45% of original damage.

Removing Enemy Armor

There are several effects which reduce enemy armor. If a target's armor is reduced to 0, it loses its armor type. As such, damage inflicts significantly more damage to a weakly Ferrite-armored enemy than against one whose armor has ultimately been nullified, since apart from the armor mitigation, the +75% damage bonus is lost.

Corrosive Status Procs

Main article: Damage 2.0/Corrosive Damage#Multiple Corrosion Procs

status effects remove 25% of a target's current armor amount, permanently (except in Duels and Conclave, where it only lasts 8 seconds against other Tenno). As a result, each successive proc on the target removes less armor than the previous hit. Even though the armor value should theoretically never hit 0 like this, it does get removed when armor is reduced to below 1, due to rounding.

Corrosive Projection

Main article: Corrosive Projection

Corrosive Projection is an aura mod of polarity that persistently reduces the armor of all enemies in the mission by 30%. If multiple cell members equip Corrosive Projection, their effects stack additively: 2 auras reduce enemy armor by 60%, 3 auras reduce enemy armor by 90%, and 4 auras completely eliminate armor from every enemy spawned in the mission entirely. There is no benefit beyond redundancy to having more than 4 auras, in the case of Trial missions with more than 4 cell members.

Terrify

Main article: Terrify

-This ability, in addition to causing the affected enemies to flee, also reduces their armor by 20% for the duration of the effect(at max rank).

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Seeking Shuriken

Main article: Seeking Shuriken

-This Ability Augment finds weaknesses in the target's armor, temporarily reducing its armor by 70% for 8 seconds(at max rank)

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Abating Link

Main article: Abating Link

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Fracturing Crush

Main article: Fracturing Crush

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See also

• Warframe Attributes
• Enemy Level Scaling
• Health