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Armor Is Useless: Difference between revisions

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Armor Is Useless (view source)

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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'', a character's protection depends more on his skill with armor class rather than the armor itself, though despite that NPCs are almost always armored appropriately. This includes the existence of "Battlemage" profession, military mages wearing heavy armor. NPCs will occasionally [[Lampshade Hanging|reference this trope]] if the player asks them for advice. You're warned not to judge how tough a fight will be based on the amount or quality of your opponents armor or weapons, as the really powerful characters don't need these things to kill you.
** Another thing is that normal armour is useless against magic damage, as are basic shield spells.
* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' 2. Yes, you are wearing a suit that can withstand pressure at the bottom of the ocean. No, that won't help against a gun. Or a wrench. Or fire. Or anything else, for that matter.
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* Played straight in ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', with the fully power-armored [[Space Marine]] Nicole being just as vulnerable to punches and kicks as the more [[Stripperiffic]]ally-dressed women.
* In ''[[Drakengard]]'', there is no amount of armor you can be wearing, damaged or undamaged, that changes how much damage you take. And in cutscenes, we're shown it works the same way for [[The Evil Army]], although that's possibly because the protagonist is a [[Badass Normal]].
* The ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins]]''/''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins|Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]'' series has Arthur, who starts in full plate armour: however, it just takes [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|one hit]] and your armor goes flying off, leaving you to fight beasties in his [[Goofy Print Underwear|pretty underpants]]. Another hit in that state, and he's dead.
** Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins has a variety of armors, most of which can take more than one hit. The trouble happens when you ''need'' a certain armor that can take only one hit to get past a certain point (especially the Angel Armor), meaning that once you lose the armor, you're hosed. Two ways, in fact.
* In the anime-themed PC game ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]'', the enemies come in many varieties, some sporting basic uniforms, others power armor, and still others ten foot tall mini-mechas. The difference that makes in their durability is negligible: 100, 125 and 150 health points. All forms die to a single shotgun blast or a short burst from an assault rifle.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' doesn't actualyactually include armor as a mechanic (except for [[Fire Emblem Gaiden|the 2nd game and its remake]] where shields existed). Defense is based entirely on character growths and class based caps, rather than what armor a character is physically wearing. For example in the 10th game, full plate wearing Meg's defense growth is lower than Edward's, whose only armor consists of single leather shoulder pad (although Meg has a higher def cap, but her growths are so bad she will never reach it).
* While armor ''is'' quite important and tends to provide benefits other than sheer protection in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', these values don't necessarily correlate with the ''amount'' of armor. [[Breast Plate|Females get away with much less armor in general]], and an Eyepatch provides just as much protection as a full plate helmet, as long as it's given the same armor class. Another weird instance is the druid's bear form, which, despite not showing any armor whatsoever, magically ''quintuples'' the armor rating of his equipment, enabling the usually rather fragile, leather-wearing class to be a very capable tank which outranks full plate warriors and paladins in terms of sheer physical damage reduction (however, they can't use shields to block or weapons to parry, and have a rather limited array of abilities).
** In addition, Armor Is Useless when fighting elemental enemies whose elemental damage ignores armor, as do spells. Which kinda makes sense to some extent; getting hit by a fireball will probably melt you the same regardless of the thickness of what you're wearing—it may even be worse with metal armor if it's hot enough—but considering how the fire came from a flaming boulder, and therefore part of the damage is blunt force trauma, there's many types of magic for which you must scour your brain for the reasoning of how it damages someone, in that you'll survive a fireball from someone around the same level around you, despite how it's hot enough to ''set a boulder on fire'', which makes it kind of like a meteor...
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* Golden Armor in ''[[Minecraft]]'' looks spiffy, but it really doesn't do anything. Clearly not worth the 24 blocks of gold you have to find in order to craft it. It actually has ''half'' the durability of Iron Armor, and iron is a lot easier to find.
* One unlockable you can get in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain]]'' is the Gray XOF, a flack-jacket set for Quiet. For those who are not fans of the game, the reason Quiet usually [[Stripperific| wears only a bikini]] is because surgery has altered her so she breathes through her skin [[Sex Sells| (yeah, yeah, we know that's not the real reason)]] meaning wearing such armor would cause her to suffocate. It doesn't, but then again, it doesn't help her at all, being nothing but a skin. So why would the developer change the already-established rules? Hard to say.
* There's your typical [[Chainmail Bikini]], and then there's Shahdee from ''[[Prince of Persia: Warrior Within]]''. [https://princeofpersia.fandom.com/wiki/Shahdee Is this even armor?] It's metal, yes, but it almost looks painful to wear, and Shahdee doesn't seem to be the type who'd benefit from it anyway, being more of Persia's answer to a ninja assassin than a more martial fighter.
* Mordessa's armor, from ''[[Enclave (video game)|Enclave]]''. [https://brettneufeld.tumblr.com/image/120577520250 This armor] - with no eyeholes in the helmet and horns that would likely get in the way during a fight - would actually be detrimental to the wearer, as her cleavage is exposed, making it the most obvious target. Maybe she had intimidation in mind, but she doesn't succeed ''there'' either, seeing as it's hard to even ''look'' at her without laughing.
* In ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'', Dirk's chainmail doesn't help him in any way whatsoever, seeing as he's a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] who can (and will) be killed by anything if the player fails [[Press X to Not Die| to respond to the button-prompt in time]]; then again, the same is true of his foes, even the Black Knight, who wears ''plate armor''.
* Armor gives you a ''little'' bit of a defense in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' (meaning some foes might take two or three attacks to flatten you instead of just one), but it also impairs your ability to dodge, which isn't an even trade -off for a game like this. Most players just forego armor entirely. Some armors, like the Symbol of Avarice, the Xanthous Crown, and the Catarina Armor (aka [[Fan Nickname| Armor of the Onion Knight]]) not only impair your ability, they look ''utterly'' ridiculous.
* Similar to Hilde and Siegfried mentioned above, the [[SNK]] games have Janne infrom ''[[World Heroes]]'' has plate armor, but it offers no more defense than characters who wear regular clothing.and Charlotte from ''[[Samurai Shodown]]''. isBoth similar,fight a fighter within plate armor, but it offers no realmore benefitdefense fromthan itcharacters who wear regular clothing.
* Subverted in ''[[NetHack]]'' - a full set of armor is usually vital to increasing your AC (armor class) enough if you plan to survive anywhere beyond the early game. The subversion is that AC can also be provided from other sources: the spell of protection, donating money to a temple's priest, rings of protection, etc.
** [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Nudist runs]] in general play this trope straight by definition, as they will have to seek out their AC from sources such as the above.
** Also subverted for many of the monsters, who will put on armor when possible to augment their own AC (which may already be naturally high).
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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