Armor in Zombie Assault: Resurgence is a full equipment set rather than a single piece, and it is handled separately from weapons. It fills five slots — Helmet, Vest, Gloves, Pants and Boots — and the armor overview panel shows an armor defence rating, a movement speed penalty, separate resistances against each damage type, and a Mod Power budget for the pieces equipped in those slots. The trade-off is always the same: more defence and more resistances cost you movement speed.

What the armor loadout shows

The loadout screen breaks the armor loadout into five slots, and the overview panel next to it tells you what your current set is worth:

  • Armor defence rating for the pieces you have equipped.
  • Movement speed penalty, which is the number that decides whether a heavy set is worth wearing.
  • Separate resistances against Physical, Thermal, Cryo, Energy and Corrosive damage.
  • A Mod Power budget for the pieces equipped in those slots.

Armor pieces come from the same rarity ladder as weapons, from Common up to Legendary, and can be upgraded in the same way: five upgrades, 5% base damage each. All of it slots into the same loadout as your guns and deployables, and the loadout page covers how the whole kit is put together.

Sets, mixing makers and fully upgraded pieces

Sets are tracked, but you are not forced into one:

  • A full set of matching armor is its own tracked goal (the achievement All Eyes on Me).
  • Armor with no matching pieces at all is tracked too (Do I Look Like a Clown?), so mixing manufacturers is allowed and the game keeps track of both.
  • A piece upgraded all the way counts as fully upgraded (Improvement), and a loadout in which everything is fully upgraded counts as Maxxxed.

Armor and its mods are sold by Vendors, and armor is part of what you can earn from Strongboxes, so the supply side is the same as it is for guns. Reputation and stock depth are on the vendors page.

Armor enhancements from Rare quality

Armor mods lean towards survivability, utility and reactive effects, and from Rare quality they can roll an Enhancement of their own:

  • Personal Defence System lets the armor fight back with a passive attack against any zombie that comes too close. It is a reimagining of the Kinetic Burst ability that was cut during the playtests, because the idea was good enough to become armor rather than an active ability.
  • Last Gasp grants three seconds of immortality when you take fatal damage — no healing and no second chances, just enough time to turn the tide.
  • Gloves of Fury gives a chance to instantly reload so you can keep the pressure on.

Weapons roll Enhancements in the same three rarity bands but with different effects, and the weapons page lists those.

Weight is the real constraint

Because heavier equipment slows you down — a fully equipped rifle on the loadout screen shows an equipped movement penalty of -11.00% — the weight of your armor is a real build constraint rather than a cosmetic number. The Core Skill Powerful Build exists specifically to reduce those movement penalties, and its capstone lets you carry more turrets and grenades into a mission. The skills page covers how to spend that point.