Strategy:Medical Powerarmor

0.9.9.7

This is probably the most underwhelming Unique armor in the game. 4 protection is pretty good, but no resistances at all, a rather hefty -15% movespeed penalty, all on top of no moddability, is a big letdown; 4 protection alone isn't going to put you at ease when dealing with the VMR, Barons, and plasma enemies. Besides every other Unique being better (or in the case of the Cybernetic Armor having some scenarios where it can be really good), every Exotic armor besides the Bullet-proof vest is better at base, has a lot more potential through modding, or has niches where they can excel. Then with the basic armors, the Red armor is better before any modding with its valuable 25% fire resistance, while a Blue armor P-modded will have the same protection with a lesser movement penalty and a 20% plasma resistance. Even the Medical armor, the armor this Unique is supposed to be an "upgraded" form of, is superior, when P-modded it'll have the same stats as the Medical Powerarmor and has the same healing ability, while having resistances the Powerarmor doesn't and farther modding capabilities with Whizkid.

Speaking of healing ability, that is the special ability the Medical Powerarmor has, where if your health drops below 25% while wearing it, it'll regenerate 1 HP at a time per action in exchange for 1% of its durability, until you're back up to 25% or it drops below 21% durability. This ability however is rarely actually useful; generally once you get that low in health it's critical you heal ASAP, as you can easily get outright killed at that point from any one attack or misstep unless you have copious Ironman investment, so you usually can't afford to dawdle around trying to get a few extra HP from this armor's ability before using a Small medkit, and if you're healing with a Large medkit, getting any extra health first from this armor's ability is pointless as you'll instantly go up to 100% regardless. If you got a breather after going below 25% health and you just got Small medkits and Small Health Globes to heal with, you could feasibly use this armor then to get up to 25% before healing with them and thus getting some extra HP, but this scenario will rarely turn up and even less will it get you a substantial amount of extra HP, while in the later game you'll be relying more on health sources that fully heal, which again means healing with this ability first is completely pointless. Then in the scenario where you're below 25% health but completely out of any immediate healing sources, you could use this armor to scrape up to 25%, but in that scenario you're probably screwed either way unless you come across a real healing source very soon. Maybe if the health regeneration limit was at least 50% it would see some actual use, but as is it'll barely move the needle for this armor's usefulness.

Since this armor is a Unique, it also has the ability of being indestructible, but this too is rarely a real plus over other armors, as if the Medical Powerarmor gets low on durability, you're still going to want to switch it out ASAP for fresher armor regardless as its protection still weakens like other armors when it falls below 50% durability. And if its durability reaches 0% it'll lose all its protection, at which point it's worse than being naked since it'll still slow you down with its movespeed penalty. Really all this ability does is if you screwed up really badly and got to the point where your armor ran out of durability but you managed to still survive, you will just get the chance to restore this armor later instead of losing it completely.

Overall the Medical Powerarmor might be an alright third or fourth string armor backup if you're lacking in armor, but it's never going to remotely be any sort of run changer like other Unique and Exotic armors can be, and even with just some Red and/or Blue armors you'll find it hard to justify having this armor take up inventory space. Omega Tyrant (talk) 12:30, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

One more niche of Medical Powerarmor that should be mentioned is its healing ability still works on Angel of Masochism and Archangel of Masochism, being the only way to heal aside from Medical armor's identical healing ability and Vampyre. As covered prior, 25% health is too low to be out of the immediate danger zone, and you have the problem of having to find a safe place to wait out the armor's healing, but some form of healing is better than nothing, no matter how minor it is. As such, this armor is a more valuable find in those challenges, and in the former challenge, it could very well be what keeps you alive long enough to get the next level up to fully restore your health (but if you're knocked to below the 25% range in the latter challenge and aren't near the end of the game, you're probably toast anyway). Omega Tyrant (talk) 14:06, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

0.9.9.8

The Medical Powerarmor has been substantially buffed, with its protection being improved to 6, and its healing threshold has been increased to 50% of your maximum HP. However, with it still having no resistances, this armor is not amazing by any means, and modded Red armor will still outdo it, as just a single Power mod will have Red armor match its protection but with a very handy 25% fire resistance, while an Agility mod in addition to that will have it not slow you down as much too. 6 protection, for no investment and no caveats other than the manageable -15% movement speed, is still nice to have as a backup though to your primary armor, as in standard games you likely much rather be using your limited mods on weapons than on your backup armors and so are unlikely to have three or more armors better than Medical Powerarmor, while even in Angel of 100 games it can take a while before you got a supply of armors that renders the Medical Powerarmor obsolete. Its healing ability also can now actually be rather useful; while it's not comfortable walking around with 50% HP unless you got copious Ironman investment, it's a much more survivable threshold to be healed up to than the measly 25% it capped out at in prior versions. You can more practically take advantage of this ability to get some health back before using a small medkit or Small Health Globe to get left with more health after, in an emergency where you've exhausted all your immediately accessible health sources but got a breather to heal up, or otherwise when wearing the Medical Powerarmor in combat, the threshold of 50% HP means its healing will kick in sooner rather than waiting until you're already on the brink of death. Still not useful enough of an ability to make the Medical Powerarmor worth carrying around if you already got several armors better than it, but nonetheless this gives it an additional utility that other backup armors will lack (and makes it a godsend in Angel of Masochism and Archangel of Masochism). Omega Tyrant (talk) 23:55, 2 August 2024 (UTC)