How Armor Works in PUBG

Ok so this became a hot topic of discussion last night and I think there are some misconceptions about how armor actually works in the game and wanted to share some info I got via a chat with one of the devs on it not to long ago.

Ok so people tend to see the number on the helmet / body armor and confuse that number (durability) with how much damage it will prevent (dmg reduction)

Here are the basic stats:

Both helmets and body armor reduce the damage taken when shot as follows

None:100% damage taken

lvl 1: 70% damage taken

lvl 2: 60% damage taken

lvl 3: 45% taken

Where it becomes a confusing point is that even if a piece of armor has 1 HP left it will mitigate the damage as above. This is why you see armor disappear and helmets get split off players heads. This is durability at play:

Helmet Durability:

Lvl 1: 80

Lvl 2: 150

Lvl 3: 230

Body armor:

Lvl1: 200

Lvl 2: 220

Lvl 3: 250

If you notice the larger jumps between durability in the helmets vs the body armor it becomes easy to see why it gets confusing. What comes into play is "next fight readiness" . If you will have the opportunity to loot less damaged armor to mitigate degradation of durability (get less damaged gear) however swapping a lvl 1-2 helmet for a damaged LvL 3 is always a good thing no matter when you come across it because of two things 1) the rarity of headshots compared to body shots and 2) the huge jump in durability between lvl 2 and 3.

The same mechanics apply to armor however the durability jump between lvl 2 and lvl 3 is nowhere close to where it is for head armor so early to mid game swapping a highly damaged lvl 3 for a new lvl 2 may be advisable simply because of the next fight readiness but that does not negate the fact that lvl 3 only allows 45% base damage to get to you while lvl 2 allows 60% to affect you so end game picking up that damaged piece of lvl 3 gear that blocks a full 15% more damage may be the difference between a chicken dinner and 2nd place. It's all about timing and the ability / need to replace unserviceable equipment.

TLDR:

ALL armor in PUBG blocks the same percentage of damage. Durability, round stage, and the ability to replace that armor is what should guide you in replacing it .