Best PUBG armor and protective gear to find in the wild

(Image credit: PUBG Corporation)

Finding the best PUBG armor will keep you alive and enduring throughout the entirety of the game, able to shrug off damage and push through any firefight. But armor is a little more complicated than a single option, with multiple tiers for both vests and helmets to make use of, so it's important to understand what you're getting into before you have to pick through the bones of clothing scraps that you'll find while exploring PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Here's the best PUBG armor you should pick up, with level two often being more useful than level three - read on to find out why.

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Vests

Vests and helmets actually reduce damage by the same amount, assuming they're of the same tier, but what changes is durability - your vest can take a lot more damage than your hat can. With that in mind, here's the basics of what you should be hunting.

Level 1 Police Vest

Police Vest 200 Durability
30% Damage reduction

With a level one vest, which should be the absolute minimum you have on at all times, you will block around 30% of each shot, which is quite a significant amount. At times, when you are looting a high value area, it can be easy to skip that first level one, thinking you are bound to find a level two before long, but that is a terrible idea, always pick it up.

The key stats for a level one vest are mostly when it comes to 5.56 ARs, SMGs and shotguns. We don’t have official values for anything in PUBG, but a lot of testing from numerous places suggests that a level one vest means it will take four body shots from a 5.56 AR to kill, instead of three without a vest. For SMGs it pushes the bullets to kill number up by two for all but the Tommy Gun and the same goes for shotguns, pushing the S1897 and S686 to a massive six bullets to kill.

Level 2 Police Vest

Police Vest 220 Durability
40% Damage reduction

With just a 10% increase in damage reduction the difference between level one and level two isn’t all that big, so don’t be too concerned if you can’t find one. However, there are a few key weapons that this will protect you from, and of course the extra 10% in general is always good.

A level two will offer better protection against all of the common sniper rifles. A Kar98k goes from just about two shotting you with a level one, to a clear three shot with a level two. While the SKS and Mini 14 will now require four good body shots instead of three, which is much more manageable. It will also just about make the 5.56 ARs five shot you instead of four, but the damage is so close to four shotting that the difference is not all that useful.

Level 3 Military Vest

Military Vest 250 Durability
55% Damage reduction

The Military Vest is of course the dream, with a massive 55% damage reduction that gives you a significant advantage in close range fights.

The level three once again adds one shot to kill on most common snipers, with the Kar98k taking four shots and the Mini 14 a massive six. Although if you let someone get six shots on you with a Mini something has gone wrong. It also makes the Micro Uzi and S12K pretty useless, as both will take 10 bullets to the chest to bring you down.

While 55% damage reduction is great, it is worth remembering that durability is a key factor. Chances are you are going to take multiple shots to the area, and vests will get damaged. If you are rocking a full health level two mid way through the game and then find a quarter health level three on a body, maybe leave that where it is. Chances are that if you take another bullet or two that level three will be destroyed, and you will have 0% damage reduction for the rest of the round. Not an ideal situation.

Helmets

Helmets are their own thing, a separate armor piece that in some cases can do a lot, and in others do nothing at all (which we'll explain momentarily). However, it's better to be behatted than not to be behatted (dehatted?), so go rummaging through loose loot until you see one of the options listed below.

Ballistic Mask

Here’s something a lot of people don’t realise. The Ballistic Mask is purely cosmetic and will not block any incoming damage. Take it if you think it looks cool, but remember it will not help you out at all in any kind of fight.

Level 1 Motorcycle Helmet

80 Durability
30% damage reduction

In terms of damage reduction, the helmets follow the same structure as the vests, just with less durability for each level. However, with headshots being the key to quick kills they are arguably more important, which is why you should never skip over a level one helmet.

Without a helmet, all snipers and ARs, apart from the VSS, will take you down with one headshot. But with a level one hat, all ARs, the SKS and Mini will take two bullets. That is a massive difference, as it gives you some time to react and hide. It also helps out with all the other weapons, generally giving you a second or two more to battle it out.

Level 2 Military Helmet

150 Durability
40% damage reduction

While the level two vest makes some big changes in how many shots it will take to bring you down, the level two helmet is more of a small upgrade in this department. Most things will still be capable of taking you down with just two shots, but the damage reduction means that if a head shot turns into a body shot, you will be able to live a while longer.

Perhaps the key here is the almost double durability. While it may feel like you never manage to hit a headshot yourself, they are actually pretty common and as a result a level one can be gone after just one fight. The level two has a bit more to it, and will last a lot longer. Not having a helmet is pretty disastrous, so keep the durability factor in mind.

Level 3 Spetsnaz Helmet

230 Durability
55% damage reduction

The level three helmet is where things get really fun. Only the AWM is capable of taking you down with one shot now, with the likes of the Kar98k and M24 dropping all the way down to two. Purely for this fact you should always take a level three, because getting one shotted is the most frustrating thing in PUBG. Elsewhere, all the 5.56 weapons drop to three shots to kill, which is quite high, and shotguns become pretty useless, upping to four and five shots to kill. Be warned that the AK is still capable of two shotting you even with a level three.

Once again, the increase durability is a big factor, and of course a brand new level three is what you should be rocking. Where things differ from vests is when you should stop taking a level three. The big difference in durability means that a half damaged level three will still last almost as long as a full level two, and the damage block is massively important. Really, you only want to be dropping or ignoring a level three in favour of a level two when it gets down to say 10 or 15% durability. Even then, some people will take a one durability level three over a level two if they know there is a big sniper or two in the game, as that one durability will be the difference between getting killed with one shot, or two.