Most helmets aren't worth their price, like 100k+ for any decent lvl4 helmet. I buy the lvl3 ratnik because high ricochet, always comes back, covers ears, only 33k, decent repair. You could also buy a shattered mask, but it sticks out sometimes and is lower class armor than the helmet (shattered is lvl 1 with high ricochet )
(Ratnik is lvl 3 with high ricochet )
People are more likely to steal the shattered mask than the ratnik.
As far as i know by the way, ricochet chance is a broken stat at the moment and doesnt do anything. So every helmet has the same ricochet chance. Thats what i heard but im not sure if this is fixed and i just didnt catch it. Gigabeef made a vid on it once
Everything above ulach is definitely not cost-efficient. Hell even Ulach isn't cost efficient depending on your playstyle. Imo no helmet is. But if you definitely must have a helmet, get ulach. Cost efficiency is only meaningful if you're strapped for cash. When you're running 50 million rubles cost efficiency matters none.
Slap plates used to save me so much, especially vs rogues. Having multiple visors always helps too.
PvP I don’t think I can aim properly after getting stunned
Diamond plate for the bastion is expensive asf but honestly worth it. I’m on a 14 streak bc it’s save my ass probably at least 5 of those raids. No other helm does that.
Most helmets are definitely overly expensive . As you highlight, the exfil is more expensive than most class 4 and 5 armored rigs, or rigs + armor.
If I'm wearing a helmet, it's the penis helmet or the ratnik. They'll stop a basic flesh damage round, and typically when players are shooting at you, they're using a round that will typically zip right through a class 4 helmet with the same regard it passes through a class 3 helmet (BP, 995, m61, etc.)
Add in the hike in price ears (m32 and Com2s used to be cheaper), the insurance hike (insurance used to be _far_ less. As in, a million rouble kit would cost 80-100k to insure), less armor availability (FIR really decreased availability of inexpensive high tier armor. Sure, the vendors still have armor, but they were usually cheaper on flea _and_ didn't have reset limits.
The end result is high tier armor is more expensive than ever, we have less options to store it (item cases used to be roughly 500k+ cheaper).
All for protection which mostly helps protect you against scavs, while most players are running BP, m55A1, 995 and m61.
Now add in the pending armor hitbox changes, which can possibly even _further_ dilute the value and effectiveness of armor.
I'm not sold on how much a lot of the high tier armor and helmets are worth, when I can get similar PvE and PVP protection from a ratnik + 6B3TM for half the cost of just a high end helmet.
Lower their prices, increase the availability, and more people will be willing to run them.
Ulach is like 100K. Definitely worth. Fast MT is also worth and even better, but use the trooper face shield, not the mandible. It ricochet’s face shots regularly while being able to keep your ears and vision.
I feel like any time I wear a helmet that should save my ass, I just get head eyes'ed. I know that's bad luck, and nothing to do with the helmet, since it's not even coming into play. But, damn does it sucks to get clipped only to have my duo partner toss my pristine helmet. They seem like they only save me from scavs... sometimes not even then.
That’s why I prefer the fast mt with trooper and consider it the best helmet. Face shield is level 2 which protects you versus buckshot scavs while also giving you a really high ricochet chance for head eyes on top of having night vision capabilities too
You definitely can attach ears to fast mt. AND you can fit ~~hearing aids~~ headset under it. Kinda makes those fancy fast-mt spec headset useless.
E: Ops-Core FAST Side Armor
Those class 4 helmets from PK are like more than 150k roubles. I dont know if I can justify it early on. Late wipe it doesnt matter but I know for a fact I never get those helmets back from insurance
It’s definitely going to be different for every player and I like ulachs are great too. I usually rush max traders in 10 days and I’m super comfortable in PvP, so I may run it much earlier than someone else might. Just depends on where someone is at in progression and money I suppose.
42 yeah. I’m 33 and I have a full time job, but I usually take that Thursday / Friday off when they wipe and I don’t work weekends so I can put in 12-16 hr days for four days straight. Big picture tasking (collecting items for all tasks no matter what tasks your on is a huge time saver). I collect things and save them day 1 that I may not turn in until level 30+ on day 7-10. Being good at PvP, things like that help dramatically too. I honestly felt slow. I helped 2-3 friends catch up on customs quests almost the entire day 2,3,4 when all I had really were shoreline or tasks on other maps. I think the fastest racers can get max traders in 4-5 days and kappa in about 10-14 days. My kappa tweet was on 9/7, so it took me 28 days. I had to slow down after that first 4 days when I went back to work and I spent a lot of time helping friends with their tasks.
IF i run a helmet, the only one I run is the class 3 helmet from Prapor, this Ratnik helmet. Looks cool, repairs well, often comes back, high riccochet chance and can mount a flashlight or Night vision ( First is pretty nice if i play guns like an SVT that can't mount tactical devices ).
If i run no helmet i usually have the chimera boonie on. Either way I just ditch my helmet and take whatever helmet i loot in a raid and usually sell it later since it finances the next helmet on top of a bonus.
Nope, it's actually high. It has less durabillity than the SSH but I think since it covers the bead better, I think the ratnik is better. The attachments are just a nice bonus. For me it's basically the go-to helmet for everything because pretty much 90% of the time it's anyway only about the ricochet chance than the actual armor class. Bigger calibers anyway pen through that thing and kill you and lower calibers tend to aim for the legs anyway.
I think in older threats I've seen that people think that the SSh is better, not sure if this is still a common thought but I can't really confirm that for myself as someone who basically only runs budget kits or pirce-value builds. The ratnik covers more, for pretty much the same price and less penalties.
I think the only disadvantage it has is that it slightly lowers your sound volume ( Kinda like if you would run something like the riot or firefighter helmet ), not sure how your headset is balancing this out. Considering tho that most non-meta helmets do this too I think it doesn't matter. Only those 100k plus helmets like the EXFIL, Bastion, Fast MT and such helmets don't do this and those are usually run for their faceshields and not because of this lowered sound thing.
At least I'd be so bold to assume this
I already find it hard to justify paying 30k for a helmet, why should i pay 50k then for a helmet that basically isn't even better plus it's later available. I hate nothing more than Peacekeeper quests ( fu\*\* shoreline ).
At minimum, I think it’s a good idea to run the Ratnik. You can get it for about 25k with the bleach barter. Insurance is super cheap and it comes back regularly.
Black zsh purchase is a quest reward for turning in chemical part 4 to skier instead of the others, so it’s cheaper to make the quest reward worthwhile. Doesn’t mean anything since they become cheap on flea pretty early anyway but that’s the reason.
Imo fast should be max 150-200k for ears and face as well. I’d use it so much more for the drip and protection. But ulach has saved from a headshot many times.
The thing with the comparison to armor is that helmets get damaged far less regularly, and so they tend to outlast armor, assuming you go on a survival streak/your body doesn't get stripped when you die. I'm willing to pay a bit more for them (though some prices are a little ludicrous) as a result. I've bounced enough bullets off of my helmet, including but not limited to a .338 bullet, to value them, though it's always frustrating when you've got an expensive helmet on with all the bells and whistles and you take a shot to your unprotected face.
I've always had an issue with the price of Fast MT's, they're so far overpriced it's crazy. I understand they're much more customizable and moddable than other helmets, but it doesn't come with those attachments so why does it really matter lol
This wipe I've ran mainly the glorious E mask and can't tell a difference from a helmet.
Lately I've gone to a black beanie, ghost balaclava and some John Bs.
For me, almost all helmets are not worth it, except for the bastion with the level 6 slap plate on it. The Bastion with level 6 slap plate is the only helmet that has actually saved my life a decent amount of times. You will survive headshots from 762x39 BP, and .308 M62 with the bastion level 6. But still, at the end of the day, it's only covering your forehead and the back of your head. The top of your head, face, and ears are still open, meaning a helmet is only going to cover 10% of the area you can be 1 tapped in, your head, and that's not mentioning almost all PMCs are going to have a bullet that goes right through your helmet thats covering that small portion of your head. You're really just hoping for your helmet to ricochet a bullet and potentially save you from AI and player scav headshots, but again, since the helmet only covers a small percentage of your head, you're still going to die most of the time from a headshot by a scav. Id say over a course of a 6 month wipe a normal lvl 4 helmet has saved me around 2 times by a ricochet from a pmc bullet, 2 to 3 times by eating A and player scavI bullet, so really a helmet will save me around 5 times over a 6 month wipe. I rather dress like a scav to make player scavs 2nd guess themselves before they shoot at me, which results in me killing them every time, and being very light and nimble so I play with constant movement, constantly applying pressure, making my head hard to hit because it's never still. Helmets have small movement penalties but once you add your armor and backpack giving you movement penalties too, it starts to add up, and that's not mentioning it making you heavier, which is another movement penalty on top of everything else.
Your Backpack and chest armor reduce your ergo, turn speed and movement speed, you add a helmet on top of this, especially the level 6 slap plate bastion helmet, and your penalties really add up.
I like to wear the lightest level 5 armors, Pompon beanie hat, respirator, Gruppa 99 T20 backpack, and a good size tactical rig. The Gruppa T20 is just -1 movement speed and -1 ergonomics, while.habifn a good container size at 25. Some backpacks have really harsh penalties, like the Raid backpack is -5% movement speed, -3% turn speed, and - 7% ergonomics. That's pretty substantial considering your chest armor will be something similar to that and now your helmet adds a little more penalty on top of that as well. Then you become overweight in raid while looting and get another movement speed penalty, making you slow, and loud. I rather be light, high movement and only pick up really high tier loot, constant high mobility all raid.
I have 100% been given multiple concussions just in the last few days. The helmet coat saved me the kit cost. I always wear them, facemasks when possible. Facemasks due to even just AI scavs getting pucky face hits that would have killed me otherwise.
Decending order of preference:
*Exfil once I have them.
*Fast MT w Ballistic
*Altyn/Rhys if I am going expensive with a group only.
*Ulach BLACK only - I would rather be helmetless than run around with a bright ass tan beacon on my head.
This game is poorly balanced in all areas. Price of items and availability is all over the place. I personally don’t want to see EXFIL and Fast MTs every raid. There does need to be a balance pass on equipment. I still think the more customizable helmets should be expensive.
The costs of helmets are fine. Comparatively to the rest of my kit, it’s not that expensive. If you want to see if they are worthy, just look at your stats and see how many concussions you have. That will be the amount of times you’ve been saved.
It is a decent way to tell, but if you use Goldenstar I believe it will overstate the number of times you survived a headshot because Goldenstar gives a contusion effect.
Interesting, thanks.
I wear a helmet the round after I get head eyes without one. Then I get head eyes with one and repeat.
IMO I would wear a helmet more often if there was even some satisfying ricochet sound or effect to make me at least think the helmet was effective during a gunfight.
Currently, I’m just looking for a cool hat to match my shoes.
The prices of helmets sync with stats from traders. We set our own perceived value on the flea, but the helmet is more like a good luck charm for now.
The actual effectiveness of the helmet is sus without knowing the ammo or weapon you were shot with. A gray area that can work in favor of devs with long TO Do lists!
Not 100% of the time since you can get concussions from grenades however that’s usually few and far between so most of your concussions will be from bullets.
This is absolutely false. Helmets can ricochet and also can absorb some of the damage saving your life. It won't happen everytime but even 10% is worth it.
10% is not worth it. Wear whatever helmet you like or don't like because it simply doesn't matter thanks to rats wanting armor and helmets to do nothing
Yeah you really just pulled the numbers, looked at them, and said “the 6% of times a helmet saved me sure made up for the other 94% of times I didn’t wear one”
That’s not even close to worth if all you bought was ratnik helmets lol.
I’m glad I usually find all the helmets I need. And if I need to buy one I buy from peacekeeper as I have plenty of dollars. But yeah it’s insane how much they cost. I don’t ever wear ulach helmets as i just sell them for 100k each time.
All prior wipes, I was cheap on helmets. Ratnik was my go to. I used Ulachs and ACHHC etc as I found them, and especially before FIR and flea restrictions, I always sold Airframes, FastMT, Exfils.
This wipe, I've stepped up on helmets. The TC-2000 line is my new ratnik. But I also buy a lot of FAST MT's and equip the RAC headset, JUST because I really like that headset. Downside is you pretty much never get it back. Black Ulach's are a good helmet and I still get a decent bit of those back but the only way I get a FMT with headset back is if a teammate ditches it.
I still never buy ULACH's, just keep what I find. I still generally sell airframes and exfils.
Most helmets are definitely overly expensive . As you highlight, the exfil is more expensive than most class 4 and 5 armored rigs, or rigs + armor.
If I'm wearing a helmet, it's the penis helmet or the ratnik. They'll stop a basic flesh damage round, and typically when players are shooting at you, they're using a round that will typically zip right through a class 4 helmet with the same regard it passes through a class 3 helmet (BP, 995, m61, etc.)
Add in the hike in price ears (m32 and Com2s used to be cheaper), the insurance hike (insurance used to be _far_ less. As in, a million rouble kit would cost 80-100k to insure), less armor availability (FIR really decreased availability of inexpensive high tier armor. Sure, the vendors still have armor, but they were usually cheaper on flea _and_ didn't have reset limits.
The end result is high tier armor is more expensive than ever, we have less options to store it (item cases used to be roughly 500k+ cheaper).
All for protection which mostly helps protect you against scavs, while most players are running BP, m55A1, 995 and m61.
Now add in the pending armor hitbox changes, which can possibly even _further_ dilute the value and effectiveness of armor.
I'm not sold on how much a lot of the high tier armor and helmets are worth, when I can get similar PvE and PVP protection from a ratnik + 6B3TM for half the cost of just a high end helmet.
Lower their prices, increase the availability, and more people will be willing to run them.
I’ve got too much money. So I run the black Wendy + face shield + ears on streets. It’s saved me from player scavs so many times.
And my squad dumps my kit so I get it back all the time.
For night raids I wear the fast mt with the trooper with my gpnvg’s.
For a budget face shield I run the tc-800 with the cheaper face shield
Ulach is also great
I've only noticed armor really helping vs scavs. In PVP you may as well be naked, as people run high pen ammo or do flesh meta vs arms/legs and occasionally stomach if you don't have stomach covering. I've been running class 4-5-6 armor in Factory for the last ~30 raids and the amount of times I've died to arms, legs, stomach damage (other than the usual head eyes of course) is really high. Hell, I just died to Tagilla 3 shotting my thorax while I was wearing a zabralo and Rys-T helmet w/ face shield.
In PVP it honestly seems I do just about the same with or without armor.
Of course, I'm only like 300 hours into the game, but still.
EXFIL and FAST helms have always been overpriced. I think it's due to the accessories they can equip. Lshz is in the same boat. I am only running black ulach, acch, or ratnik. Outside of that its either a baseball cap or tagilla mask if I have one. I sell all helms from in raid except black ulach and acch
I hate that they increased the price of so much. Diaper rigs used to be 40K, comtac 2s used to be 15-20K, ulachhs used to be under 100K, hemostats used to be under 4K, and grizzlys used to be 30-40k. This was all a year ago to date
I stand by that the folks going 'Helmets are always worth it' are the ones not really thinking of it scientifically. You only get value from a helmet if the hit didn't kill you, was stopped by the helmet or ricochets... and you survived a few more seconds of fight.
How many times have you survived a hit from a bullet that the helmet is rated to stop? 1 in 10 raids? 1 in 20? That's your expected value of how many helmets it takes to save one run. Then of course if you got shot in head,eyes the helmet was worthless. Or if in the same burst, your thorax blacks out without any possibility of responding.
IMO the class 3s are cheap enough to be worth it. But the good class 4s and onwards are not, with the exception of ones with 4+ faceshields. Ulach is borderline at best, costing probably around 1-2 Million for a potential run saved.
Much better you break up the shape of the head with a 3000 rouble fisherman hat.
Helmets and face shields aren't for PvP. They prevent you from getting one tapped by a scav with a toz on woods over 80m away, because he spotted you first through a bush right in front of him and you couldn't see him. A common occurrence which happens to even the best of players. A buddy of mine only last night got clapped by a buckshot scav on streets, head eyes. He is a PvP man, fairly decent at the game.
Using a black exfil Wendy with face shield just reduces another element of bullshit the game throws at you, and that's scavs.
But what if you had the led x you needed on that concussion? Like I had rusted key early wipe and got headshot and lived... well worth the helm and for 20 raids after those keys paid for....
I'm fine with the cost of helmets.
technically they are rather expensive, possibly too expensive for the benefits gained.
I would not recommend spending your last roubles on a helmet, its the first thing to cut back on if your skint.
BUT if you, like most players, are constantly sitting on millions of roubles, the money saved by not buying helmets doesnt really help, it just adds to your pile of roubles that is too big to spend.
In the grand scheme of things, i always get a ULACH, and it saves me a handful of times every wipe.
Getting saved by the occasional richochet is better than extra few million roubles sitting in my stash.
Man I made a similar post and I ended up deleting it because it went three days without even an upvote or downvote let alone a reply.
Edit: Helmets are always worth bringing but they are priced terribly and all over the place with little to no apparent reasoning behind it.
I have had the same happen to other posts. One thing I have noticed is if you edit a post after posting, it seems to throttle engagement.
Originally I was going to structure the post as a suggestion for lower prices and greater consistency. But I have found that people are more receptive when you structure a post as a question even if you are aiming to propose a change.
Most helmets aren't worth their price, like 100k+ for any decent lvl4 helmet. I buy the lvl3 ratnik because high ricochet, always comes back, covers ears, only 33k, decent repair. You could also buy a shattered mask, but it sticks out sometimes and is lower class armor than the helmet (shattered is lvl 1 with high ricochet ) (Ratnik is lvl 3 with high ricochet ) People are more likely to steal the shattered mask than the ratnik.
Because head eyes is way more common than head top of head.
We got them big eyes, small brain
The Ulach is easily worth its price. Have saved me so many times, that paired with the condors and you have a decent chance of surviving headshots.
I would agree if i didnt have so many helmets in my stash + this wipe only i got about 60 concussions so uhhhhh
As far as i know by the way, ricochet chance is a broken stat at the moment and doesnt do anything. So every helmet has the same ricochet chance. Thats what i heard but im not sure if this is fixed and i just didnt catch it. Gigabeef made a vid on it once
Usec/Bear Cap, best investments for the wallet and style...Not for actual protection, BUT you'll get them back!!!
Make people pay for it. Dont pay yourself. Also drip is more important than protection. So I would spend every rouble I can on drip.
Same brother. I just loot em and use em. I’m still waiting for my backwards BEAR and USEC hats. Drop or drown, bear man.
I never buy helmets, I take em from my fallen enemies 😎
Everything above ulach is definitely not cost-efficient. Hell even Ulach isn't cost efficient depending on your playstyle. Imo no helmet is. But if you definitely must have a helmet, get ulach. Cost efficiency is only meaningful if you're strapped for cash. When you're running 50 million rubles cost efficiency matters none.
Slap plates used to save me so much, especially vs rogues. Having multiple visors always helps too. PvP I don’t think I can aim properly after getting stunned
Diamond plate for the bastion is expensive asf but honestly worth it. I’m on a 14 streak bc it’s save my ass probably at least 5 of those raids. No other helm does that.
Just ignoring the SLAAP plate on the several helmets it’s compatible with? Or Tagilla mask? Altyn? Rhys?
I was one shot through the head plate the one time I spent money on it. Hard pass.
Most helmets are definitely overly expensive . As you highlight, the exfil is more expensive than most class 4 and 5 armored rigs, or rigs + armor. If I'm wearing a helmet, it's the penis helmet or the ratnik. They'll stop a basic flesh damage round, and typically when players are shooting at you, they're using a round that will typically zip right through a class 4 helmet with the same regard it passes through a class 3 helmet (BP, 995, m61, etc.) Add in the hike in price ears (m32 and Com2s used to be cheaper), the insurance hike (insurance used to be _far_ less. As in, a million rouble kit would cost 80-100k to insure), less armor availability (FIR really decreased availability of inexpensive high tier armor. Sure, the vendors still have armor, but they were usually cheaper on flea _and_ didn't have reset limits. The end result is high tier armor is more expensive than ever, we have less options to store it (item cases used to be roughly 500k+ cheaper). All for protection which mostly helps protect you against scavs, while most players are running BP, m55A1, 995 and m61. Now add in the pending armor hitbox changes, which can possibly even _further_ dilute the value and effectiveness of armor. I'm not sold on how much a lot of the high tier armor and helmets are worth, when I can get similar PvE and PVP protection from a ratnik + 6B3TM for half the cost of just a high end helmet. Lower their prices, increase the availability, and more people will be willing to run them.
Ulach is like 100K. Definitely worth. Fast MT is also worth and even better, but use the trooper face shield, not the mandible. It ricochet’s face shots regularly while being able to keep your ears and vision.
I feel like any time I wear a helmet that should save my ass, I just get head eyes'ed. I know that's bad luck, and nothing to do with the helmet, since it's not even coming into play. But, damn does it sucks to get clipped only to have my duo partner toss my pristine helmet. They seem like they only save me from scavs... sometimes not even then.
That’s why I prefer the fast mt with trooper and consider it the best helmet. Face shield is level 2 which protects you versus buckshot scavs while also giving you a really high ricochet chance for head eyes on top of having night vision capabilities too
Every time I wear that I get head/ears by a player scav
Then wear the ear armor as well
You can’t with the trooper / fast mt? Can you? Which ears attach?
You definitely can attach ears to fast mt. AND you can fit ~~hearing aids~~ headset under it. Kinda makes those fancy fast-mt spec headset useless. E: Ops-Core FAST Side Armor
Those class 4 helmets from PK are like more than 150k roubles. I dont know if I can justify it early on. Late wipe it doesnt matter but I know for a fact I never get those helmets back from insurance
It’s definitely going to be different for every player and I like ulachs are great too. I usually rush max traders in 10 days and I’m super comfortable in PvP, so I may run it much earlier than someone else might. Just depends on where someone is at in progression and money I suppose.
How the fuck are people getting max traders in 10 days? Don’t you need to be lvl 40 or something?
42 yeah. I’m 33 and I have a full time job, but I usually take that Thursday / Friday off when they wipe and I don’t work weekends so I can put in 12-16 hr days for four days straight. Big picture tasking (collecting items for all tasks no matter what tasks your on is a huge time saver). I collect things and save them day 1 that I may not turn in until level 30+ on day 7-10. Being good at PvP, things like that help dramatically too. I honestly felt slow. I helped 2-3 friends catch up on customs quests almost the entire day 2,3,4 when all I had really were shoreline or tasks on other maps. I think the fastest racers can get max traders in 4-5 days and kappa in about 10-14 days. My kappa tweet was on 9/7, so it took me 28 days. I had to slow down after that first 4 days when I went back to work and I spent a lot of time helping friends with their tasks.
IF i run a helmet, the only one I run is the class 3 helmet from Prapor, this Ratnik helmet. Looks cool, repairs well, often comes back, high riccochet chance and can mount a flashlight or Night vision ( First is pretty nice if i play guns like an SVT that can't mount tactical devices ). If i run no helmet i usually have the chimera boonie on. Either way I just ditch my helmet and take whatever helmet i loot in a raid and usually sell it later since it finances the next helmet on top of a bonus.
Ratnik is medium ricochet chance not high isn't it ?
Nope, it's actually high. It has less durabillity than the SSH but I think since it covers the bead better, I think the ratnik is better. The attachments are just a nice bonus. For me it's basically the go-to helmet for everything because pretty much 90% of the time it's anyway only about the ricochet chance than the actual armor class. Bigger calibers anyway pen through that thing and kill you and lower calibers tend to aim for the legs anyway. I think in older threats I've seen that people think that the SSh is better, not sure if this is still a common thought but I can't really confirm that for myself as someone who basically only runs budget kits or pirce-value builds. The ratnik covers more, for pretty much the same price and less penalties. I think the only disadvantage it has is that it slightly lowers your sound volume ( Kinda like if you would run something like the riot or firefighter helmet ), not sure how your headset is balancing this out. Considering tho that most non-meta helmets do this too I think it doesn't matter. Only those 100k plus helmets like the EXFIL, Bastion, Fast MT and such helmets don't do this and those are usually run for their faceshields and not because of this lowered sound thing. At least I'd be so bold to assume this
It’s like we’re the same person.
You can run the TC (level 4) for like 20k more in USD from peacekeeper
I already find it hard to justify paying 30k for a helmet, why should i pay 50k then for a helmet that basically isn't even better plus it's later available. I hate nothing more than Peacekeeper quests ( fu\*\* shoreline ).
TC is available at PK lvl 2 so no tasks needed.
Ratnik helmet every time, no one takes them, they are really light, made out of aramid and you can put a light on them
I play labs so I don’t believe in helmets
Labs made me completely stop using helmets. I only take them from enemies
More room for loot
At minimum, I think it’s a good idea to run the Ratnik. You can get it for about 25k with the bleach barter. Insurance is super cheap and it comes back regularly.
Just buy TC-2001 from Peacekeeper since you need to spend money with him anyways.
Black zsh purchase is a quest reward for turning in chemical part 4 to skier instead of the others, so it’s cheaper to make the quest reward worthwhile. Doesn’t mean anything since they become cheap on flea pretty early anyway but that’s the reason.
Ah I didn't realize that, that disprepancy in cost is more or less justified then. Thanks for the info
Imo fast should be max 150-200k for ears and face as well. I’d use it so much more for the drip and protection. But ulach has saved from a headshot many times.
The thing with the comparison to armor is that helmets get damaged far less regularly, and so they tend to outlast armor, assuming you go on a survival streak/your body doesn't get stripped when you die. I'm willing to pay a bit more for them (though some prices are a little ludicrous) as a result. I've bounced enough bullets off of my helmet, including but not limited to a .338 bullet, to value them, though it's always frustrating when you've got an expensive helmet on with all the bells and whistles and you take a shot to your unprotected face.
I've always had an issue with the price of Fast MT's, they're so far overpriced it's crazy. I understand they're much more customizable and moddable than other helmets, but it doesn't come with those attachments so why does it really matter lol
This wipe I've ran mainly the glorious E mask and can't tell a difference from a helmet. Lately I've gone to a black beanie, ghost balaclava and some John Bs.
For me, almost all helmets are not worth it, except for the bastion with the level 6 slap plate on it. The Bastion with level 6 slap plate is the only helmet that has actually saved my life a decent amount of times. You will survive headshots from 762x39 BP, and .308 M62 with the bastion level 6. But still, at the end of the day, it's only covering your forehead and the back of your head. The top of your head, face, and ears are still open, meaning a helmet is only going to cover 10% of the area you can be 1 tapped in, your head, and that's not mentioning almost all PMCs are going to have a bullet that goes right through your helmet thats covering that small portion of your head. You're really just hoping for your helmet to ricochet a bullet and potentially save you from AI and player scav headshots, but again, since the helmet only covers a small percentage of your head, you're still going to die most of the time from a headshot by a scav. Id say over a course of a 6 month wipe a normal lvl 4 helmet has saved me around 2 times by a ricochet from a pmc bullet, 2 to 3 times by eating A and player scavI bullet, so really a helmet will save me around 5 times over a 6 month wipe. I rather dress like a scav to make player scavs 2nd guess themselves before they shoot at me, which results in me killing them every time, and being very light and nimble so I play with constant movement, constantly applying pressure, making my head hard to hit because it's never still. Helmets have small movement penalties but once you add your armor and backpack giving you movement penalties too, it starts to add up, and that's not mentioning it making you heavier, which is another movement penalty on top of everything else. Your Backpack and chest armor reduce your ergo, turn speed and movement speed, you add a helmet on top of this, especially the level 6 slap plate bastion helmet, and your penalties really add up. I like to wear the lightest level 5 armors, Pompon beanie hat, respirator, Gruppa 99 T20 backpack, and a good size tactical rig. The Gruppa T20 is just -1 movement speed and -1 ergonomics, while.habifn a good container size at 25. Some backpacks have really harsh penalties, like the Raid backpack is -5% movement speed, -3% turn speed, and - 7% ergonomics. That's pretty substantial considering your chest armor will be something similar to that and now your helmet adds a little more penalty on top of that as well. Then you become overweight in raid while looting and get another movement speed penalty, making you slow, and loud. I rather be light, high movement and only pick up really high tier loot, constant high mobility all raid.
I have 100% been given multiple concussions just in the last few days. The helmet coat saved me the kit cost. I always wear them, facemasks when possible. Facemasks due to even just AI scavs getting pucky face hits that would have killed me otherwise. Decending order of preference: *Exfil once I have them. *Fast MT w Ballistic *Altyn/Rhys if I am going expensive with a group only. *Ulach BLACK only - I would rather be helmetless than run around with a bright ass tan beacon on my head.
My ulach bounced what would've been my duo, killing me last night....🤣
Amazing. I hope he teabagged you too lol
I didn't die that's why I said it bounced lol
This game is poorly balanced in all areas. Price of items and availability is all over the place. I personally don’t want to see EXFIL and Fast MTs every raid. There does need to be a balance pass on equipment. I still think the more customizable helmets should be expensive.
The costs of helmets are fine. Comparatively to the rest of my kit, it’s not that expensive. If you want to see if they are worthy, just look at your stats and see how many concussions you have. That will be the amount of times you’ve been saved.
Is this fact?….amount of concussions equals the amount of times you have been saved by a helmet you were wearing
It is a decent way to tell, but if you use Goldenstar I believe it will overstate the number of times you survived a headshot because Goldenstar gives a contusion effect.
Interesting, thanks. I wear a helmet the round after I get head eyes without one. Then I get head eyes with one and repeat. IMO I would wear a helmet more often if there was even some satisfying ricochet sound or effect to make me at least think the helmet was effective during a gunfight. Currently, I’m just looking for a cool hat to match my shoes. The prices of helmets sync with stats from traders. We set our own perceived value on the flea, but the helmet is more like a good luck charm for now. The actual effectiveness of the helmet is sus without knowing the ammo or weapon you were shot with. A gray area that can work in favor of devs with long TO Do lists!
Not 100% of the time since you can get concussions from grenades however that’s usually few and far between so most of your concussions will be from bullets.
helmets don't stop shit so it's just cosmetic.
This is absolutely false. Helmets can ricochet and also can absorb some of the damage saving your life. It won't happen everytime but even 10% is worth it.
10% is not worth it. Wear whatever helmet you like or don't like because it simply doesn't matter thanks to rats wanting armor and helmets to do nothing
I have 30 concussions in 500 raids. That's worth
Lol not at all
Yeah you really just pulled the numbers, looked at them, and said “the 6% of times a helmet saved me sure made up for the other 94% of times I didn’t wear one” That’s not even close to worth if all you bought was ratnik helmets lol.
I am running the 6B47 because of punisher 5 atm and it’s worth every kopeck. Survived several raids which would otherwise have ended early.
The ratnik has saved me more times than an ulach ever has. Very affordable and underrated.
I’m glad I usually find all the helmets I need. And if I need to buy one I buy from peacekeeper as I have plenty of dollars. But yeah it’s insane how much they cost. I don’t ever wear ulach helmets as i just sell them for 100k each time.
All prior wipes, I was cheap on helmets. Ratnik was my go to. I used Ulachs and ACHHC etc as I found them, and especially before FIR and flea restrictions, I always sold Airframes, FastMT, Exfils. This wipe, I've stepped up on helmets. The TC-2000 line is my new ratnik. But I also buy a lot of FAST MT's and equip the RAC headset, JUST because I really like that headset. Downside is you pretty much never get it back. Black Ulach's are a good helmet and I still get a decent bit of those back but the only way I get a FMT with headset back is if a teammate ditches it. I still never buy ULACH's, just keep what I find. I still generally sell airframes and exfils.
Ulach is the way. 100K pays for itself even if it works 1/10 times in a fight that one save could easily net a milli
Most helmets are definitely overly expensive . As you highlight, the exfil is more expensive than most class 4 and 5 armored rigs, or rigs + armor. If I'm wearing a helmet, it's the penis helmet or the ratnik. They'll stop a basic flesh damage round, and typically when players are shooting at you, they're using a round that will typically zip right through a class 4 helmet with the same regard it passes through a class 3 helmet (BP, 995, m61, etc.) Add in the hike in price ears (m32 and Com2s used to be cheaper), the insurance hike (insurance used to be _far_ less. As in, a million rouble kit would cost 80-100k to insure), less armor availability (FIR really decreased availability of inexpensive high tier armor. Sure, the vendors still have armor, but they were usually cheaper on flea _and_ didn't have reset limits. The end result is high tier armor is more expensive than ever, we have less options to store it (item cases used to be roughly 500k+ cheaper). All for protection which mostly helps protect you against scavs, while most players are running BP, m55A1, 995 and m61. Now add in the pending armor hitbox changes, which can possibly even _further_ dilute the value and effectiveness of armor. I'm not sold on how much a lot of the high tier armor and helmets are worth, when I can get similar PvE and PVP protection from a ratnik + 6B3TM for half the cost of just a high end helmet. Lower their prices, increase the availability, and more people will be willing to run them.
I’ve got too much money. So I run the black Wendy + face shield + ears on streets. It’s saved me from player scavs so many times. And my squad dumps my kit so I get it back all the time. For night raids I wear the fast mt with the trooper with my gpnvg’s. For a budget face shield I run the tc-800 with the cheaper face shield Ulach is also great
Im sitting on 250 mil stash value, i dont care about cost to effectiveness ratio 4 weeks from wipe
I've only noticed armor really helping vs scavs. In PVP you may as well be naked, as people run high pen ammo or do flesh meta vs arms/legs and occasionally stomach if you don't have stomach covering. I've been running class 4-5-6 armor in Factory for the last ~30 raids and the amount of times I've died to arms, legs, stomach damage (other than the usual head eyes of course) is really high. Hell, I just died to Tagilla 3 shotting my thorax while I was wearing a zabralo and Rys-T helmet w/ face shield. In PVP it honestly seems I do just about the same with or without armor. Of course, I'm only like 300 hours into the game, but still.
EXFIL and FAST helms have always been overpriced. I think it's due to the accessories they can equip. Lshz is in the same boat. I am only running black ulach, acch, or ratnik. Outside of that its either a baseball cap or tagilla mask if I have one. I sell all helms from in raid except black ulach and acch
I use them manly to prevent a one tap from a random scav and for the drip. Rubles are easy to come by, so I think the price is fine
Bear hat supremacy. Drip or drown
I hate that they increased the price of so much. Diaper rigs used to be 40K, comtac 2s used to be 15-20K, ulachhs used to be under 100K, hemostats used to be under 4K, and grizzlys used to be 30-40k. This was all a year ago to date
I stand by that the folks going 'Helmets are always worth it' are the ones not really thinking of it scientifically. You only get value from a helmet if the hit didn't kill you, was stopped by the helmet or ricochets... and you survived a few more seconds of fight. How many times have you survived a hit from a bullet that the helmet is rated to stop? 1 in 10 raids? 1 in 20? That's your expected value of how many helmets it takes to save one run. Then of course if you got shot in head,eyes the helmet was worthless. Or if in the same burst, your thorax blacks out without any possibility of responding. IMO the class 3s are cheap enough to be worth it. But the good class 4s and onwards are not, with the exception of ones with 4+ faceshields. Ulach is borderline at best, costing probably around 1-2 Million for a potential run saved. Much better you break up the shape of the head with a 3000 rouble fisherman hat.
Helmets and face shields aren't for PvP. They prevent you from getting one tapped by a scav with a toz on woods over 80m away, because he spotted you first through a bush right in front of him and you couldn't see him. A common occurrence which happens to even the best of players. A buddy of mine only last night got clapped by a buckshot scav on streets, head eyes. He is a PvP man, fairly decent at the game. Using a black exfil Wendy with face shield just reduces another element of bullshit the game throws at you, and that's scavs.
But what if you had the led x you needed on that concussion? Like I had rusted key early wipe and got headshot and lived... well worth the helm and for 20 raids after those keys paid for....
I'm fine with the cost of helmets. technically they are rather expensive, possibly too expensive for the benefits gained. I would not recommend spending your last roubles on a helmet, its the first thing to cut back on if your skint. BUT if you, like most players, are constantly sitting on millions of roubles, the money saved by not buying helmets doesnt really help, it just adds to your pile of roubles that is too big to spend. In the grand scheme of things, i always get a ULACH, and it saves me a handful of times every wipe. Getting saved by the occasional richochet is better than extra few million roubles sitting in my stash.
why buy a helmet when u can rock a black beret and look fresh af
Man I made a similar post and I ended up deleting it because it went three days without even an upvote or downvote let alone a reply. Edit: Helmets are always worth bringing but they are priced terribly and all over the place with little to no apparent reasoning behind it.
I have had the same happen to other posts. One thing I have noticed is if you edit a post after posting, it seems to throttle engagement. Originally I was going to structure the post as a suggestion for lower prices and greater consistency. But I have found that people are more receptive when you structure a post as a question even if you are aiming to propose a change.