GROUND BRANCH Armor System Guide (V1.0): Plates, Soft Armor & the HUD

GROUND BRANCH V1.0 introduced a proper armor system — one of the biggest gameplay changes in the July 16, 2026 launch build. It changes how firefights play out: plates can now save your life, but only where they cover, and getting hit throws off your aim. Here’s how hard armor, soft armor and the Armor HUD work, so you can build a loadout that actually survives contact.

Hard armor (plates)

Hard armor means ballistic ceramic inserts — the “plates” you carry in a plate carrier. They can stop up to a few full-sized caliber rounds, such as 7.62 NATO (fired by many of the battle and precision rifles in the game), before being depleted.

• Plates are carried in plate-carrier-type platforms. The two in V1.0 are the Plate Carrier (JPC) and Plate Carrier (MPC), both fitted with plates by default. (Note: an old saved loadout for these items won’t have plates — re-add them.)
• Plate Carrier (MPC): 4 plates — front, back, and one on each side.
• Plate Carrier (JPC): 2 plates — front and back only.
• To add or remove individual plates, click the gear icon (⚙️) on the item and use the Armor Inserts section on the left of the screen.

Coverage is the catch: hard armor only protects the exact area equivalent to the plates. Every other part of your upper body stays fully vulnerable — a round to an unplated side or shoulder does full damage.

Weight trade-off: each front/chest or back plate adds 2.85 kg to your loadout; each side plate adds 1 kg. A fully-plated MPC is real weight, so balance protection against mobility and stamina.

Soft armor

Soft armor refers to Kevlar-like materials used in bulletproof vests and helmets. It’s mostly effective against pistol rounds (from handguns or SMGs), but unlike hard armor it protects almost the entire area of the item.

• All helmets now offer limited protection against pistol rounds. Protection scales with coverage — a fuller helmet like the MICH protects a greater area than a high-cut helmet.
• The Body Armor platform (renamed from “Bulletproof Vest”) absorbs a limited number of pistol impacts across most of the torso. It can also be worn under either plate carrier for layered protection.
• Soft armor is active automatically once equipped — nothing to toggle.

The Armor HUD

The Armor HUD sits next to the Stance Indicator (bottom-right by default). Hard armor shows the status of each individual plate; soft armor shows a single icon for helmet and/or vest.

• White — the armor is intact.
• Yellow + crack — damaged but still functional.
• Red + diagonal line — depleted (no longer protecting).

For hard armor, each icon carries a letter for the plate position: F (front/chest), B (back), L (left side) and R (right side). You can hide the HUD in Settings › HUD › Character Status › Show Armor.

Hit reactions

Tied to the armor update is a new hit reaction system: being shot now makes your character flinch, which can throw off your aim. Combined with armor coverage gaps, this rewards seeing the enemy first — a trade of shots is now much riskier than landing the opening round.

What this means for your loadout

• Plates are best against rifle fire but add weight and only cover their footprint — angle your body to keep plated areas toward threats.
• Layer Body Armor under a plate carrier for extra pistol-round coverage in the gaps.
• In tight CQB, lighter setups keep you faster; in open, long-range fights, more plates pay off.

Test your loadouts on your own server

The best way to learn the armor system is to run drills and co-op with your squad on a dedicated server that’s always online. XGamingServer’s GROUND BRANCH server hosting runs on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X hardware with instant setup, a visual config panel and one-click updates — spin one up in minutes and dial in AI count and difficulty to practice against. New to hosting? See our server configuration guide.

Read more

• GROUND BRANCH 1.0: Everything New
• GROUND BRANCH V1.0 New Weapons
• GROUND BRANCH Extraction Mode Guide