Body Armor

A body armor pickup in GTA Vice City.

Make sure you've got armor. Be ready to fight the Aliens!
- in-game website description


Body armor is a pickup in the Grand Theft Auto series that serves primarily to protect the player's health from specific forms of damage, most notably gunfire. In most cases, body armor in the games appears in the form of a protective blue vest.

Description

First introduced in the original Grand Theft Auto, the body armor's primary function is to serve as padding for the player health, in effect extending the player's resilience to damage from gunfire, explosions, and fire.

GTA 1 — GTA 2

In early top-down GTA games, armors in both GTA 1 (as well as Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and Grand Theft Auto: London 1961packs) and GTA 2 serve their intended purpose, adding 10 more hitpoints to the player's existing health, but provides no protection to the player when they fall from great heights, are run over by vehicles, or are beaten up by the police and arrested. Armors are most commonly found spawned in specific locations or crates, and, in the case of GTA 2, can also be acquired by crushing specific cars.

GTA III — GTA Vice City Stories

Body armor continued to be featured between GTA III and GTA Vice City Stories, undergoing several more evolutions. In all its of its appearances, armor now offer nearly the same amount of hitpoints as the player's full health, doubling the player's resistance to damage. The armor hit points stayed the same until GTA San Andreas where the armor is now a bar instead of hitpoints. In addition, armor can now pad injuries from falls, collisions with vehicles on foot, and even melee attacks; the armor in GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City Stories is an exception, providing no protection to the player from falls, while the armor in Grand Theft Auto Advance provides no protection to melee attacks.

In addition to spawning in specific locales, body armor can also be purchased at stores that sell weapons, such as Ammu-Nation, as well as entering the police/SWAT Enforcer trucks. Like the player's health, armor hitpoints between GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories (sans GTA Advance) can typically be increased easily via side-missions (such as "Vigilante"), as well as completion of the game.

The appearance of armor pickups has also changed significantly after GTA III. When included in GTA III, the armor pickup assumed the appearance of a shield icon; in games after, however, the pickup is redesigned as a spinning vest, possibly to avoid confusion with the police bribe pickup.

GTA IV — GTA Chinatown Wars

Map of all body armor spawns in Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Armor in GTA IV has been refashioned to protect the player mainly from bullets. It offers little protection to falls, collisions with vehicles on foot, or melee attacks (including hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons), increasing the player's chances of death from these hazards. Armor in GTA Chinatown Wars appears to revert to pre-GTA IV settings.

Like all pickups, armor can be found lying about in specific points of the city (distinguishable by its red glow) as well as underground weapon dealers in GTA IV or AmmuNation.net in GTA Chinatown Wars. NOOSE Enforcers still provide the player some armor, but only gives the player roughly one third of the maximum amount.

GTA V

Armor in GTA V has been overhauled; now there are 5 levels of armor the player can purchase from Ammu-Nation. Each armor's level of protection depends on its price point. Any armor pickups found throughout San Anderas will always give the player full armor. Body armor in GTA V reverts back to protecting the player from fall damage, but not melee attacks. Tear Gas will also bypass armor and reduce health. At wanted levels of three stars and higher, law enforcement officers wear visible body armor.

Level Price Protection
Super Light $500 20%
Light $1,000 40%
Standard $1,500 60%
Heavy $2,000 80%
Super Heavy $2,500 100%

† – Normal pricing

Gallery

Locations

GTA 1

(To show your coordinates you have to enter a cheat code, use at your own risk)

Liberty CityGangsta Bang:

Liberty City – Heist Almighty:

San AndreasMandarin Mayhem:

These armours are available after Phone 9-12 are attempted:

San Andreas – Tequila Slammer:

Accessible after Phone 17-20 missions are attempted at North Telephone Hill :

  • South East Aye Valley (210,93,5)
  • South East Chinatown (102,155,4)
  • South Richman (102,25,1)
  • South East Richman (197,24,1)
  • South East Sunrise (185,76,5)
  • North East Sunview (176,206,4)
  • South Sunview (89,245,4)
  • Central Telephone Hill (31,52,2)
  • South East Excalibur (104,126,4) – accessible from the beginning of Phone 23 – Part 1
  • South West Marina (22,192,4) – accessible from the beginning of Phone 21 – Part 1

Vice CityBent Cop Blues:

Vice City – Rasta Blasta:

Maps (external links)

Maps of the location of all body armor in:

See also

Source