While playing Gray Zone Warfare, you are going to need strong protection to protect yourself from all the dangers you will face in the open world. Equipping armor is one way to accomplish it, but it is more complicated than in other shooter games. That is why, we are going to explain everything you need to do about armor in this complete Gray Zone Warfare Armor Guide. Let’s take a look at how to understand if an armor is good or not.
Complete Armor Guide
There are a couple of things you need to consider before equipping an armor in Gray Zone Warfare. These are:
- Protection Level
- Plates
We are going to talk about these features individually, so make sure to keep reading to find out more.
Protection Levels
The armor in Gray Zone Warfare levels correlates to the actual NIJ (National Institute of Justice) armor protection tiers. Here is a list of every armor tier in Gray Zone Warfare, ranked from weakest to strongest.
- Level IIA
- Level II
- Level IIIA
- Level III
- Level III+
- Level IV
To put it another way, Level IIA is the lowest armor tier and Level IV is the most powerful. For newcomers, this can be extremely difficult, but you will probably get used to it as you play the game and get more armor.
As an example, the IIIA Tier armor will protect you from a 9 mm and some high velocity 45 caliber bullets. But with Tier III you can get protection from 556 mm 855, 762 – 39, and then 762 – 51. So that is the difference between these tiers.
Each Level Explained
| Tier | Explanation |
| IIA & II | These are merely handgun-level armor, so there’s no need to be concerned. |
| IIIA | Armor designed to withstand a.357 sig FMJ Flat nose bullet moving at 448 m/s. Additionally tested at 436 m/s against a.44 magnum semijacketed hollow point. This is essentially the best pistol armor you can get. Anything over 44 will either pierce the armour and cause bruising, blood, or deformity. |
| III | Designed to withstand steel-jacketed 7.62 mm FMJ rounds traveling at 847 m/s. But there are gray spots in this armor. AP bullets are not stopped by this armor. AP bullets can be stopped by level III steel plates, though. Despite the variances in the armor’s material kinds, NIJ falls short in covering every round type that this level can handle. |
| III+ | This level is not one of the real NIJ levels. It is an item that was developed in order to bridge the gap between level III and level IV, outside of the guidelines set by NIJ. This standard is defined as a plate that does not fulfill level IV requirements, but it does exceed level III criteria. The M855 round was the primary cause of this creation. A level III cannot halt every M855 round. A plate will be classified as level III+ if it is able to stop M855, which is above the NIJ level requirements. |
| IV | An armor that has been tested against an 878 m/s armor-piercing bullet in.30 caliber (.30-06 AP). If the armor is incapable of stopping an AP round, it cannot be classified as level IV. After that, it would be demoted to a level III. |
Plates
As a beginner in the game, you might think that equipping an armor will protect you from shots no matter what. Unfortunately, every armor has plates, and these plates determines whether it will protect you or not.
So, if you look here on the top left, you can see that the plates are highlighted in the front and back, rather than the side. This implies that if you are shot from the side, there is nothing there. Aside from some padding and clothing, the bullets will pass through without stopping.
Because of that, the plates are very important in Gray Warfare Zone and you need to make sure to check them out before wearing an armor. If your armor only protects you from the back, it will be completely useless for the attacks from the side and the front.
Therefore, the best option would be getting an armor that will protect you from every side. Including the back, front and sides. One good option for that is the Modular Operator Carrier Gen II armor. You might think that it is not the best armor you can get in the game since its protection level is only IIIA, but it will do a good job protecting you from every side.
Best Armor
So, which one is more important? We leave the answer to your desired gameplay. If you are a beginner, you might want to focus on having an armor that will have all the plates. This is because someone who is not very familiar with the combat aspect of the game could find it challenging to concentrate on the bullet’s direction.
The protection level will be useless if you get shot from a side that is not protected. Thus, it is important to choose at least an armor with front and back qualities. Even for people who are more experienced in the game, choosing an armor that only protects the back or the front would not be a good move.
Because of these reasons, we recommend you to choose the Modular Operator Carrier Gen II or CZ 4M Lancer. As we mentioned, the first option is only IIIA, but protects you from each side, and the second one is a III tier armor that will protect your front and back.
It is not possible to purchase a level III tier armor at the moment, but with a little bit of luck, you will probably find these armor in chests around the world. If you cannot find the exact armor we talked about in this guide, just make sure to check out the qualities of the armor you have before using it.
This is it for our Gray Warfare Zone complete armor guide! This game has a lot of features to be discovered, so make sure to check out our Complete Beginner’s Guide too and do not miss a thing about the game!
