Helldivers 2 Armor Passives: 11 Key Effects and Armor Costs

Helldivers 2 armor passives are bonuses built into each body armor, separate from the armor’s light, medium or heavy class, and the community wiki’s navigation now lists 31 of them, the newest being Blunt-Force Mitigation from the Ironclad Democracy Warbond (22 September 2026). This reference, checked against live patch 7.1.1 (24 September 2026), gives the effect numbers wherever the wiki or Arrowhead publishes them, explains how class and passive stack, and shows where the armor comes from and what it costs in Medals and Super Credits, each figure listed on its own.

In Arrowhead Game Studios’ co-op shooter, every body armor carries two separate things: its stats (Armor Rating, Speed and Stamina Regen) and its passive, which is a fourth attribute tied to that particular set. Light armor trades protection for mobility, medium balances the two, and heavy gives the most protection at the cost of mobility. As of its latest edit, the wiki counts 30 light, 49 medium and 30 heavy sets. The class decides the stat spread and the passive is layered on top, so the same passive can appear on more than one class. Blunt-Force Mitigation, for example, comes on the light BFM-16 Tanker, the medium BFM-77 Reformer and the heavy BFM-220 Ironclad.

For a worked example, the wiki’s BFM-220 Ironclad page lists that heavy set with armor 175, speed 450 and stamina 50 (community-maintained game data). Any body armor rated above 100 also cuts headshot damage. That comes from the armor rating itself, not from a passive. The wiki doesn’t give per-class averages, but a third-party tier list (u.gg) says heavy is roughly 10% slower than medium and gives about 25% more damage reduction. It cites no Arrowhead document, so treat that as a community estimate.

One common mistake is worth clearing up here: matching helmets don’t strengthen the passive. The Armory calls standard issue equipment “no additional bonuses”, and the wiki notes helmets have no practical effect even though they show 100 for armor, speed and stamina.

There’s a counting conflict to know about. The wiki’s Armor Passives page says there are 30 passives, and its numbered category index stops at 30 without Blunt-Force Mitigation. Blunt-Force Mitigation does have its own page, filed in the same category, and u.gg separately counts 31 unique passives. Our reading is that 31 is current and the summary line hasn’t been updated yet. The table below covers 11 passives with wiki-sourced numbers; 3 of them (Servo-Assisted, Med-Kit, Engineering Kit) are flagged unverified in the Status column.

The other 20 passives on the wiki’s list are Acclimated, Adreno-Defibrillator, Ballistic Padding, Concussive Padding (Grenadier), Concussive Padding (Hazmat), Concussive Padding (Reinforced), Desert Stormer, Feet First, Gunslinger, Integrated Explosives, Kinetic Displacement Mitigation, Oxygenator, Peak Physique, Reduced Signature, Reinforced Epaulettes, Rock Solid, Scout, Siege-Ready, Supplementary Adrenaline and Unflinching. We haven’t verified their effect numbers or which armors carry them, so check each one on the Helldivers Wiki Armor Passives page.

These picks are our reading of the effect numbers above. We didn’t run in-game tests, and each pick only holds under the condition named in its heading.

Illuminate missions with arc hazards: Electrical Conduit

At 95% arc resistance this is the highest single resistance in the table. The wiki specifically ties it to close combat with Watchers and Harvesters and to setting off lightning spires. Arc resistance is the only faction-specific pick we can make here, because it’s the only one whose source names the enemies.

Getting knocked over, or running your own gas and fire: Blunt-Force Mitigation, Advanced Filtration, Inflammable

According to the wiki, Blunt-Force Mitigation stops ragdolling from attacks with a stagger value under 36, such as Devastator punches and Overseer staff swings. It does not stop Cannon Turret shots or Reinforced Scout Strider missiles. Advanced Filtration’s 80% gas resistance, paired with the Vitality Enhancement booster on the heavy variant, nearly removes lingering gas damage. The wiki’s two pages disagree on how far: one says completely immune, the Vitality Enhancement page says virtually immune. We haven’t tested full immunity. We have no per-faction fire or gas damage figures, so our pick for Inflammable is for squads that bring their own fire, such as the G-8 Immolation grenade from Ironclad Democracy.

Support weapon or crouched gunner roles: True Grit, Fortified

True Grit’s +30% support weapon reload speed (and +20 weapon handling, per Arrowhead) settles it if your stratagem loadout is built around a support weapon. Fortified pairs 50% explosive resistance with 30% less recoil while crouching or prone, so it suits a gunner who fires from the ground. We make no faction pick because we have no data on which faction deals the most explosive damage. Our True Grit passive and Kasrkin armor guide covers both True Grit sets in detail.

Most armor comes from one of two places: Warbonds, where you claim items with Medals, or the Superstore, where you buy them with Super Credits. A Premium Warbond like Ironclad Democracy costs 1,000 Super Credits in the Warbonds tab of the Acquisition Center. GamesRadar reports it can also be unlocked with one Warbond Token. Inside a Warbond you pay twice in Medals. First, you have to spend a set amount in that Warbond before the next page opens. In Ironclad Democracy page 2 opens after 135 Medals spent there and page 3 after 225. Then each item has its own Medal price, 2 to 65 Medals on this Warbond (community wiki figures; Arrowhead doesn’t publish them). Castellan’s Creed, which holds the True Grit sets, is a Legendary Warbond at 1,500 Super Credits and doesn’t accept Premium Warbond Tokens (official, per Xbox Wire). Superstore stock rotates, and we didn’t find a rotation date for any of the sets below.

Here’s the real cost. For the BFM-220 you need 1,000 SC or a token, then 135 Medals spent to open page 2, then 55 for the body — at least 190 Medals after you own the Warbond. If you only want the passive, it comes sooner: the light BFM-16 Tanker carries the same Blunt-Force Mitigation on page 1 for 45 Medals (30 more for the helmet, which changes nothing). We don’t have a verified Medals-per-mission rate, so we can’t honestly turn that into hours. The known part is 190 Medals for the BFM-220 or 45 for the BFM-16; the Medal wallet caps at 250 (community-documented), so either fits in one full wallet. Our Warbonds list with SC prices and Medal thresholds has the numbers for other Warbonds.

Sources and Confidence

This table separates what the studio has confirmed and what is not confirmed yet. Each claim below is tied to the post and the game version it describes.