So when trying out the titanium plating upgrade (increases armor durability) for my T-60e model power armor, I noticed something funny about the numbers.

Vanilla T-60e

Limbs: 170 hp

Torso: 680 hp

Titanium Plating T-60e

Limbs: 181 hp

Torso: 724 hp

Percentage increase:

Limbs: 6.5%

Torso: 6.5%

Now lets compare the costs of repairing said pieces and the cost of a negligible upgrade.

T-60e Repair cost

Limbs

6 Steel

1 plastic

1 aluminum

1 circuitry (only for the helmet I think)

Torso

10 Steel

3 plastic

3 aluminum

1 circuitry

T-60e TP Upgrade cost (same for all pieces):

4 Steel

7 Aluminum

5 Adhesive

So, with those resource costs above, I'm going to say it's more expensive to upgrade a piece of power armor to titanium plating. Sure, it uses less steel, especially on the torso because it's a flat upgrade cost, but it requires s a significant investment of aluminum, which is much less common than steel, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb5y0uqZUNw. In fact, when fully repairing a suit of armor, it takes 8 aluminum in the process, while the upgrade cost for one piece of titanium plating is 7. The total aluminum cost to full set of T-60e titanium plating would be 42, while the aluminum cost of repairing that full set of armor is 8. Assuming all other resource costs are covered (steel & plastic are pretty common, you only need a mere 2 circuitry and adhesive can be farmed for an unlimited supply), you can fully repair the armor five times for the price of giving it an extra 6.5% of durability. Sure the repair cost doesn't change after the upgrade, so it could be one of those thing that pay off in the long run after repeated repairs, but frankly the percentage increase is so small for such a steep cost, that unless you are wrecking your armor every other battle, you probably won't break even in the expected service life of your armor before you move on to a newer model.

There are the other models and variations to compare, but if i'm going by the https://youtu.be/nBxGvXp8RpA?t=3m29s, all of the armors are roughly proportional. So yeah, you might want to fix that Bethesda.

Wait till you get an X0-1. Aluminum is everywhere, not hard to come by, and repairs are routine for me. I'm going with Military Paint on my X0-1 for the extra Strength. The bit of Health is not a big deal as you have pointed out.

Is titanium platoon supposed to change the appearance/color scheme of the armor?


I tested out my X-01 with titanium plating and was disappointed that the armor looked exactly the same as before.

From Vault Tec paint on down it's all the same. The Hot Rod Paints, Vault Tec Paint and Military Paint are different.

Bummer, thanks.

I guess I should have worded that better, I didn't mean to come of as complaining about the aluminum cost, though it is still true that it's less common than steel. I just figure the whole point of the upgrade was to make your armor more durable to help you save resources by needing to repair it less often. The initial upgrade price being effectively higher than the repair cost for the same components only for measly 6.5% increase in durability only makes it fail in the resource saving department, which defeats the point of the upgrade if you ask me.

The upgraded armor is less likely to break -during- a quest though, which is the key advantage.

It's barely a 1/15 increase in armor health though. At best, it might be able to take (dependent on enemies, but I'm going to assume hard hitting enemies because that's what you'd wear power armor for) and extra one or two hard hits before it breaks. Considering I try my best to keep my armor above 1/2 hp, and I have yet to run into a mission line that was so long where I completely trash my PA as the mission progresses. I don't really have it fail on quests for me. The gains you get compared to the resource investment just isn't worthwhile.

Maybe not for you, but it is unquestionably worthwhile for me. I play mostly without fast travel and sometimes go for a long period of time before heading back to a settlement. At the point I'm at right now, I might as well have an infinite amount of resources, so the costs vs. gains is absolutely irrelevant to me. It can take more damage. That is the factor that matters to me.

And really, if you think repairing T-60 is bad, wait until you get some X-01. That takes a LOT of materials to repair.

It is best on the low level and companion power armor, both of which gain far more durability relative to their health, and have greater issues with breaking.

I give my companions a mixture of t-45 and raider power armor, and the titanium plating is massively useful on the limbs. which break apart constantly, torso not so much

Xo-1 power armor has 200 at level 6, and it gains like 10 hp from plating, which is basically irrelevant, although the legs could reasonably receive the mod as they are the part with the greatest maintaining issues.

Overall, explosive shielding, I think is better. Simply from the point of view, that the weapons that can take huge chunck's of armour, are missile launchers, mininukes and grenades in general (not counting molotov's tho) Or if you run into a lot of gatling lasers / synths, any of the energy shielding paints (why are there so many of those anyways?) I haven't done any math on it tho, so I could be wrong. But Titanium upgrade sounds rather lackluster.