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AVA Armor and Items Guide

Alliance of Valiant Arms Armor and Items Guide by trainer771

Guide to Armor and Items

Interactive Table of Contents
Introduction
Types of Armor and Items
Chest Armor
Other Armor and Items
Some advice on armor
Class-related Armor
Guns with High Penetration
Prices
Conclusion

Introduction

Armor is a crucial part of a serious gamer’s career – it can stop a TPG shot or keep the Ppsh from killing you long enough for you to return fire. Though many consider it to be a waste of money and do not use it often, it still plays a role where survival counts – namely, demolition, clan wars, and tournaments. Additional items, while they may be expensive, may also enhance a player’s performance and give him the edge over his opponents on the battlefield.

Types of Armor and Items

Supply Vest / Standard Kevlar
Large caliber armor / EA08
Anti-charge armor / AA07
SA09

Default helmet
Large caliber helmet / EH08 (?)
Anti-charge helmet / AH07 (?)
SH09

EG08
EB08
EP08
SG09
SB09
SP09
MC12
CB105
DU50724 (anti-flash goggles)
CU686 (hit marker goggles)
Ghostgear Supply Kit
Camouflage A1
SD09

Kevlar defense +5% / Kevlar defense +5
+Ammo
Mobility +2%
Grenade slots
Radar +20%
Helmet defense +10%
Infection backpack items

Chest Armor

Supply Vest (aka Standard Kevlar) is a weak middle ground between defence against damage and ROF. It is a free item that comes with approximately every other supply case. When a user is hit with a bullet, the armor will absorb a percentage of the damage and its defense rating (the armor bar) will go down and the health bar will absorb the rest. The armor absorbs roughly 20% of a shot when it is at maximum defense. A high-ROF gun will rapidly take down the armor and make it ineffective, while a high-damage gun will make quick kills without having a lot of damage absorbed by the armor. It usually wears out in 2 or 3 shots, depending on the gun. Nevertheless, it is much better than no armor at all.

Large-Caliber armor behaves like an add-on to your health. It “extends” your health by 30 percent (so that would be 60hp + 18 hp). Once the armor is depleted, health will start going down with no armor to soften additional blows. This armor is ideal for snipers and riflemen who often face high-damage bullets since it allows them to tank TPGs. When attacked with a high-ROF gun, the armor will absorb the first hit or two but will be completely depleted, leaving the user unprotected against additional shots. It is a good value for its price and is used a lot for its all-around practicality.

EA08 armor is simply an advanced version of the Large Caliber. It appears to be a Large caliber armor that give 35% or 40% more armor instead of 30%. It is renown for tanking sniper shots at an alarmingly high rate, but it appears to have a negligible advantage over the Large Caliber when fighting rifles. It is obtainable when you purchase a capsule from the capsule shop; therefore, it is regarded as very expensive and impractical.

Anti-charge armor is a long-lasting but weak defense. It absorbs approximately 15% of a weak bullet’s damage and is less absorbent against high-damage or high-penetration weapons. Its defense rating degrades very slowly, allowing it to perform very well even after multiple hits. There is often 30% of the armor left when a player has died. Therefore, this armor is best used against low-damage high-ROF guns or shotguns. It is also the armor of choice for Free For All, since the players need a long-lasting armor.

AA07 is an advanced version of the Anti-charge armor. It can take submachine gunners as many as 3 or 4 extra shots to kill. It degrades slower; therefore it absorbs more damage from each shot and less is wasted. It is available at the shop for a higher price. This is the best all-around armor because it can stand a chance against high-damage weapons and low-damage weapons alike. If you are rich and you scrim a lot, I highly recommend this.

SA09 is considered to be the most OP’d armor available. One may consider it to be like wearing both an EA08 and an AA07. It is devastatingly absorbent and effective against all low-penetration guns. It must be countered with high-penetration guns like the Para, TPG, and Veresk.

Summary of chest armor:

Large-caliber and EA08 act as a shield. They will absorb 100% of damage for as long as they last, but when they run out, you are left unarmored. They are best used against high-damage or high-penetration guns.

Anti-charge and AA07 act as a damage divider. Every shot that hits you loses a small percentage of its damage; this effect is greatest on weak bullets. The armor degrades very slowly so it stays effective for long. They are best used against low-damage high-rof guns or shotguns.

SA09 is like AA07 + EA08. Super OP’d.

Other Armor and Items

Helmets:

Default helmet is the free helmet that everyone has. If you chose not to equip a helmet, this will automatically be equipped. It serves as basic defense; it will absorb 90% of the damage from one or two weak hits before flying off the user’s head. Most people are content with this helmet. It blocks approximately 15 to 18 points of damage, so any bullet that strikes the head with at least 30 damage upon impact will result in a one-hit headshot.

Large-caliber helmet is the optimal choice for many. It can deflect high-damage bullets. It will fall off in 1 to 3 hits, depending on the damage. It is most effective against extreme guns like the M14, SA58, and other high-damage weapons. It is ineffective against sniper rifles.

EH08 is simply an advanced version of the large-caliber helmet. It can deflect bigger bullets and will stay on for an extra shot at most.

Anti-charge helmet is a specialized CQC helmet. It is capable of repeatedly deflecting many weak bullets from pointman-type guns. It is long-lasting and will not fall off unless hit by many weak bullets or a few strong bullets.

AH07 is simply a better version of the anti-charge helmet. It can resist more small-caliber bullets.

SH09 is the most OP’d helmet. It can tank multiple RM bullets or even multiple Desert Eagle bullets at close range.

Other Armor:

EG08 are one of the most beneficial non-chest armor. I myself use it a lot and highly recommend it. Though they are expensive, they give many benefits. The player receives a noticeable increase in moveshot accuracy. This is essential for people who use weapons with low accuracy who like to run and gun. Players can also swap weapons faster, helping snipers to deal with surprise attacks. They also give sniper rifles increased accuracy by taking away a half bar of instability at all times. They also provide the +1% lucky shot chance. However, the tremendous cost makes it impractical in pub unless you are very rich.

EB08 are very controversial. While they grant people increased mobility and defense against high drops as well as a +1% lucky shot bonus, pointmen and riflemen will experience a slight shaking of the crosshairs as they fire and strafe. These are not recommended for the run-and-gun players with guns like the Kriss, F2000, and other mobile weapons but may help crouch-and-tap players to move from spot to spot.

EP08 are useless to many; they provide a small defense bonus to the knees and elbows, a small extra mobility boost, and a +2% lucky shot bonus. It also supposedly decreases damage from grenades (I’ve heard this a lot) but this has not been tested yet. The cost is too high for the small benefits it has.

SG09 provide an excellent accuracy boost as well as giving faster quickswitch ability to snipers than soccer gloves. This is better than the EG08 by far.

SB09 give increased mobility to users with little or no moveshot penalty. They also appear to absorb fall damage.

SP09 increase your defense against bullets and explosions as well as increasing your mobility.

MC12 are gloves that don’t do much. If you want an accuracy buff, buy the EG08.

CB105 are boots that help defend against high drops. This is essential for users who play maps with high drops, especially when they have very little health and cannot afford to take much damage.

DU50724 goggles are pretty useless. They can only prevent flashes when the MK3A2 or flash grenade is behind the user. They cannot block out flashes from the front.

CU686 goggles are given to every trainee and will expire. These goggles are very helpful to snipers and pointmen alike, since they will indicate a hit with a purple dot and a kill with a number. Therefore, people use these in all sorts of situations like fighting in the dark or wallbanging. On a side note, some beginning players may wonder why the purple dots stop appearing after levelling up several times; this is because your goggles have expired and need to be repurchased.

Ghostgear supply kit provide a small boost for all the classes to supplement their weak parts. PM, who wear light armor, get a small armor boost. This greatly increases a competitive PM’s chances of survival. RM get a radar boost. Snipers, who are slow, get a mobility boost.

Camouflage A1 appear to be fore pure aesthetics. No one knows what they do, really.

SD09 increase your protection against melee and explosions, making them extremely useful in co-op or soccer.

Backpack items:

Kevlar defense +5% increase the armor’s defense rating by 5% and are regarded as useless. They will give large-caliber users approximately +1 “health” points, and anti-charge users will see their armor degrade less and absorb more by a few pixels’ worth. As Karbonik once said, “It’ll block the damage of a P226 at 30 meters.” Generally, these are only for the extremely rich.

+Ammo is a handy item for people who go on extensive kill streaks. The primary ammo +1 or +2 items often helps snipers who survive for a long period of time while firing off many bullets. It also helps pointmen and riflemen with ammo-guzzling weapons like the Kriss, Veresk, or M4. It is not necessary in short-length games like demo but will help a lot in FFA or escort. The secondary ammo item is generally useless.

Mobility +2% is considered to be a waste of euro. The player may find themselves moving slightly faster, but it is too small of a difference to truly appreciate. If you really want to use it, it is best used as pointman with a high-mobility gun so the mobility bonus will be greatest.

Grenade slots are no longer sold since the 3-grenade update.

Radar +20% will make the HUD radar zoom out by 1.2x zoom. It is generally considered to be useless since a player may hold Tab to view the whole map.

Helmet Defense +10% increases your helmet’s damage-absorbing ability by 10%. These are regarded as useless unless the player is killed excessively by headshots.

Infection backpack items. Click here to see more info on the items.

Some advice on armor

Many novices wonder which chest armor should you use – anti-charge type armor or large-caliber type armor? My recommendation is that if you are strictly pointmen and get hit by guns with less than 33 damage, the anti-charge armor would be the best option. If you are a rifleman but you tend to fight CQC and go against pointmen, anti-charge is a risky but profitable option. Riflemen who fight long-range against higher-damage guns should use large-caliber armor to counter high-range high-damage weaponry. Snipers should always wear large-caliber armor since they are often attacked by riflemen or other snipers. If you are undecided, it is best to wear the large-caliber armor since it is very good all-around and 100% effective.

Interestingly enough, penetration guns like the Veresk and MP7 are weaker vs large-cal than anti-charge, while shotguns are weaker vs anti-charge.

Other people may chose to use the 5 shot cutline. If a user is bombarded with guns that kill in 4 hits or fewer, the large-caliber armor is best. If they are bombarded with guns that kill in 5 hits or more, the anti-charge armor may be more practical.

Though helmets may be helpful, I personally do not use them and can get along fine, albeit with a slightly higher death rate from headshots. I find that there is no match where I get killed so many times by headshots that I regret not equipping one. The default helmet is still a great option, since it deflects a few bullets. However, if you have an excessive amount of euros to spend, the large-caliber helmet is simply the best. This is because you rarely get struck in the head consecutive times by weak guns. In addition, only low-rof high-damage guns are ideal for headshots, and the large-caliber can stop these types of guns.

Later on, as the first few pieces of gear (Large cal, Anti Charge, EG08, CU686) given to beginners wear away, most people wonder if they should repurchase the items. Considering the staggering cost of these items as well as the slow income accumulated from the Supply points system, it would be unprofitable to use any equipment outside of the default helmet and supply vests. If you have a lot of gcoins to use, I would still stick with cheap armor configurations and avoid purchasing helmets, since headshots do not account for a considerable percentage of deaths.

To see a thread with damage tests on EA08 vs AA07, click here. (Thread made by zjh199863)

Class-related Armor

Riflemen have an unusually high amount of armor. As a player levels up a rifleman’s armor skill, the armor they wear will absorb more damage, making them effective at tanking sniper shots.

Snipers have a disadvantage in the field of armor that many accurate users exploit. While most snipers’ chests are heavily fortified by a large-caliber armor, snipers do not wear helmets. Therefore, they can be shot at the head with no armor to reliably deflect the shot.

Pointmen are a good source of protein. Um… They have average armor. In real life, pointmen wear little armor so they can move quickly. The idea is the same in AVA. So they have pretty much less armor then RM or possibly even snipers.

All classes only wear chest armor (that is, if you have any equipped.) There is no armor on the arms, legs, or stomach. Therefore, it is a common tactic for people with weak sniper rifles (WA2000, Knights SR25, MSG90, AWM) to aim for the guts in order to ensure a very high OHK rate. People with accurate and weak low-penetration guns (such as Kriss, K1A1, M4A1, F2000) can aim at the stomach to ignore any armor that the enemy may be wearing with no damage divider (the stomach has a x1.0 damage multiplier). If you have a high-penetration gun, it is better to aim for the chest and to take advantage of the good multiplier there.

Guns with High Penetration

To learn more about the “penetration” stat and how it applies to armor, click here for my guide to penetration.

G3A3*
XCR*
PGM*
PP2000*** (only with penetration mod)
MP7***
AKs-74u***
Veresk***
Sidewinder**
Groza*** (not released yet)
M14***
SA58***
AWM***
Knight SR25**
TPG1***
These guns have high penetration, meaning armor hardly affects their damage. Therefore, these guns are useful in armor-intensive games like demolition. The best way to counter high-penetration guns is to use large-caliber type armor, not anti-charge armor.

Prices

Meh, might as well add this section.

Amor vest: