From Hellgatewiki.com

While weapons have received most of the pre-game attention, your character's armor is going to be just as important as her weapon -- perhaps more so, since characters will wear nearly a dozen pieces of armor while wielding just one or two weapons at a time. Armor doesn't kill monsters, but it gives your character the ability to stay alive, and can add a great deal to his/her killing power. We're not ignoring armor, at least not on purpose -- we just don't know as much about it. Compare this page to our weapons info page, which boasts numerous quotes from the designers about weapons. As for armor, they've talked about how it looks...and said almost nothing else.

Contents 1 Armor 2 Paperdoll 2.1 Light Pants and Shirt 3 Shields 4 Armor Appearance 5 Rarer Armor

Armor

Hellgate: London's armor comes in all different types and qualities, with countless varieties of magical modifiers.

"Armor types, such as shields, helms, grieves and body armor were interesting. They provided a mixture of shields and armor. Shields work like the ones in Halo, absorbing 100% of all damage and regenerating after a while of not being hit - if you ever notice in a movie/screenshot a spherical translucent-yellow rune-encrusted globe around a player or monster, it is the shield kicking in taking damage. I thought the effect was possibly a little too distracting. Armor kicks in after the shields are depleted, although I am not sure if they reduce the damage you receive by a %, or if they act as a % chance to take no damage from an attack. At one point I had an interesting item dilemma - do I keep using my 6 armor / 5 shield body armor, or should I swap to the new 18 armor body armor I just found? Peter Hu suggested the 18 armor, so I went with that." --Lanthanide, September 2006, Game Play Report

See our Character Page for more details.

Experimentation will be required to get a full sense of the variety, but here's a useful quote from a recent forum post.

"Right now it looks like there will be six types of armor sets with three major variants within each set. Further, each variant has an innumerable amount of randomized types. Any class may wear any piece of armor. And though they'll share names across classes, the armor will always look different. So, a Templar that picks up and wears our Tech-Heavy-Superior armor will look significantly different than a Cabalist who picks up and wears the same armor. Everything has been designed so that no matter what a player of a certain class picks up and uses, that player will always look like a member of that class." --Ivan Sulic

We know that weapons are arranged in a format somewhat like Diablo II's; there will be tons of base weapons, and every type of weapon will appear at three levels which correspond to Normal, Exceptional, and Elite, in Diablo II terms. It's not known for sure that Hellgate: London's armor will do the same, but it seems likely. In other words, if the basic breast plate has 40 defense, there will be a second level of breast plate with the same graphics but a different name, and around 100 defense. Later in the game, or on a higher difficulty level, you might eventually find a third version of breast plate, with the same graphic and a third name, and 200 defense.

Paperdoll

Equipment slots in Hellgate: London have evolved over time, but the paperdoll has always looked basically the same as it does in every RPG. In the center you see your character in their equipment, surrounded by the item slots. Besides the three weapon switch slots, all characters can equip body armor, helm, gloves, boots, shoulders, legs, and a belt. In addition to those items there are slots for a light shirt or pack, and light pants, though no such items have yet been enabled in the game. Flagship says they will be in there eventually, and that the light shirt slot might include such things as packs with extra storage space, or even rocket packs to enable flight. Belts, incidentally, are just another piece of equipment in Hellgate: London. They do not provide spaces to store potions or scrolls, as they did in Diablo II.

All of the items can be clicked on and viewed individually, and even rotated to see how they look from all angles. Every piece of equipment you put on your character will show up on your character exactly as it looks in the inventory window, and as you dress and undress your character you will see the items appear instantly. You can rotate your character around in the paperdoll display to see how they look from the side or behind.

Light Pants and Shirt

The most recent paperdoll shots, from the GDC show build in March 2007, feature a Templar Guardian and a Templar Blademaster. Interestingly, the Blademaster shot has paperdoll slots for light pants and shirt, while the Guardian shot shows only a slot for a light shirt, with a blank space where the light pants slot should be. It seems an unlikely bug, so the assumption is that this is another difference between the two Templar classes; Blademasters wear the pants in the family?

As for light shirts and pants, none of those items are yet in the game, and it's assumed the light shirt spot will eventually be filled by some kind of backpack; an item earned at higher levels that adds to your character's inventory space. The Hellgate Team has said there will be ways to increase your storage space, however it's not known if that will come from a backpack, or perhaps sacks or boxes that fit into your character's main inventory grid, ala Diablo II's Horadric Cube.

Hopeful rumors about flight-enabling rocket backpacks are still in circulation, but not much believed.

Shields

Shields appeared in numerous early pieces of Templar concept art, but were not in the game for all of 2005. Finally, in mid-2006 Flagship announced that shields were back in, and they've since been seen in numerous screenshots. Shields are Templar-only items, and can be used for defense, as well as various special skill attacks. See the Shields page for more details and imagery.

Armor Appearance

We don't know much about how armor will function, but we do know a lot about how it will look, since that's what the Hellgate Team has talked about when asked about armor. Armor is bold in Hellgate: London. This isn't a midieval era game, with little variety in styles. Most of the armor in Hellgate: London is a mixture of space age and fantasy era, and the results are often surprising.

"Creating a specific look for your character is something that gamers love, so we definitely felt was important enough to address early. We're currently working on a system that allows players to select a face type, hair, skin tone, and additional facial features. Since armor and equipment changes so much in the highly randomized structure of Hellgate: London, we wanted to spend some time and effort on allowing them to create an avatar that expresses the concept of their character."
--Bill Roper, Gamevision Interview, November 18, 2005

"Lee and Tyler are putting in a new color system now, actually. And there's even some argument about how it's going to be handled. The current setup has new pieces of armor coming with a set of colors. When you get a piece of armor with a "Red" set, for instance, you can opt to reconfigure your entire suit to be red like the new piece of armor, or you can force that piece to conform to the existing color you already have. The argument stems from how we're going to dish out new and more exciting colors and whether or not players are going to care or feel like they've accessed something sweet. For example, let's say I get "Blue" after ten hours of play (I already have 50 other color sets from loot I've acquired in the past). It took me ten hours to get Blue, but what if I don't really care about Blue, what if I prefer the Ultra Green I got at the beginning of the game? Where's the reward associated with acquiring Blue then?

Some people argue we should just let the users do what they want with colors... The artists hate that idea because most people will make some truly hideous things that ruin their hard work.

I personally like the idea of discovering new sets of color, but most should also be available for purchase from the beginning. I also think a library should be instituted at this color shop that tracks the ones you've found and own. You could then apply sets at will.

Anyway, the simple answer to your question is yes. Yes, there are different colors. We're working on how to implement it right now, in fact."
--Ivan Sulic, February 2006

"We do have multiple [armor] colors in the game. How they're going to be implemented has not yet been determined, however. For instance, maybe a dye kit could be found as part of some loot, or maybe it could be purchased, or maybe you could accumulate a whole range of dye kits stored in a palette. Maybe each specific type of armor would have a specific color that could apply to your suit... We're still debating which implementation will be best. In any event, there will be different color schemes and we do also have plans to support some form of Guild logo. In what way, we are not yet decided."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006

Q: Most of the community is in full support of the implementation of artist designed color sets, so if they're implemented, how exactly will they work?
A: "Right now we're still toying with the way colors will work. As I understand it, the current popular plan is to provide characters with some sort of accessible library of acquired dye sets they can apply to their suits at will. How specific sets are discovered and added to this library and whether or not the library itself will be contained at a vendor or within the player's inventory is still to be determined. Talk is players will be able to purchase new sets, discover new sets as loot, acquire sets as rewards, and even acquire pieces of color sets attached to specific individual items that can then apply to entire suits. In any event, we're still working on, so it's just not finished yet."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006

Over time the goal became to provide a wide variety of good looks, without making/allowing characters to pick their own colors. Here's how things stood as of late 2006.

Question #11 [streitmonolog]: What happened to dying kits (like choosing your armors colors from a palette)? Are they still in consideration?
Ivan Sulic: "I can't believe you managed to get your paws to form words out of all these fangled keys. Sort of. Right now the color system is like this: Every piece of armor comes with a color. You can opt to apply that color scheme to your entire suit at any time. There is not an easel or anything though. But your entire suit gets that scheme. We don't want clown suits."

None of the characters in screenshots from late 2006 or early 2007 have looked bad, at least in terms of the color scheme of their armor, so it seems like the anti-clown suit initiative is going well.

We have seen quite a variety of snazzy armor looks in screenshots. Check all the shots tagged with "fashion" for some of the best. A few examples.

Rarer Armor

Honestly though, who really cares what color your gear is when everyone else can be the same color, with the same stuff on? To really be original, you'll need to find some equipment not everyone else has. As a plus, this will improve your character, while actually requiring skill. Or at least persistence.

"The player really customizes their character throughout the game. While you pick your basic look at the beginning, the real cool stuff comes in what you find when you're out adventuring. These are the flashy things, like magic helms, crazy new weapons, and those things that really make you stand out as an individual. Anyone can make a brown-haired, dark-skinned Female Templar, but not everyone can have a "Legendary Obsidian Battle Helm". You have to earn that!"
--Max Schaefer, October 14, 2005, Game Banshee Interview

You tell 'em, Max.

Item Navigation
Weapons & Shields	Armor	Mods	Other
Melee Weapons Swords Ranged Weapons Focus Items Pistols Rifles Shields	Belts Boots Gloves Helmets Leg Armor Shoulder Armor Torso Armor	Ammo Mods Battery Mods Fuel Mods Relic Mods Rocket Mods Tech Mods	Crafting & Upgrades Consumables Dye Kits Inventory Modifiers (not mods) Palladium (Gold)

Armor Navigation
Dye kits	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Helmets	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Shoulder Armor	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Torso Armor	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Gloves	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Leg Armor	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner
Boots	Generic	Guardian	Blademaster	Marksman	Engineer	Evoker	Summoner