Armor

Armor is used in most of the Unreal games to protect the player's health from damage. It is sometimes referred to as "shield".

Unreal and RTNP
All suits in Unreal and Return to Na Pali offer protection against damage, but some suits offer specialized protection. Suits have a durability of 50 points. (Also see: Pickup Items and Inventory Items.)

Unreal 2 and XMP
In Unreal 2 you start with 100 points of rechargeable shielding armor. It can be recharged in three ways: by picking up an Energy pickup, absorbing energy from dead enemies and using energy stations.

Enemies in Unreal 2 use different amounts of shield. Light usually uses 100, medium - 300, and heavy - 500. It was also planned that the player could use different types of armor. Unfortunately, the different armor types didn't officially make it to the game. But it is possible to add the different power suits to unofficial maps. The code is working, but the model is missing.

In XMP the different player classes have different amounts of Shield. The Ranger has 100, the Tech has 300, and the Gunner has 500.

Shield power can be recharged by using Shield stations placed in the map, or by picking up Shield Packs dropped by a Tech.

Unreal Tournament
The UT armor system is a lot less complex than in Unreal. There are three types of regular armor: Thigh Pads and Body Armor, which can be combined, and Shield Belt, which can only be used separately. Picking up the shield belt removes all other armor. Picking up other armor while carrying the shield belt will recharge the shield belt instead of adding other armor. Either way, a player can have up to 150 points of armor.

The fourth type of armor is the Relic of Defense, which was included as mutator in Bonus Pack 1. A player carrying this relic is not allowed to have the shield belt, but can still use thigh pads and body armor.

Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004
In UT2003, shield acts like additional health, absorbing 100% of any damage until all shield is used up.

In UT2004, shields differ a lot from previous games. The small and large shield charge are tracked separately, even though only the combined shield strength is displayed on the HUD. The Shield Pack only adds to the small shield stack, while the Super Shield Pack only adds to the large shield stack. The difference is, that the small shield stack is limited to 50 points, while the large shield stack can have up to 150 points. Both stacks can have a combined size of 150 points as well, so if the player has charge on the small shield stack, the large shield stack isn't used entirely. Also, by picking up the Small Shield, the small shield stack is filled and exceeding shield points are removed from the large stack.

Combined shield points above 100 offer 100% absorption. At 100 or below, the shield offers between 50 and 100 points of 75% absorption depending on whether you picked up the Shield Pack or not. If you did, then the last 50 points of shield offer 50% absorption. However, there is a bug in the game where the small shield stack will not absorb any damage if the large shield stack absorbed damage. Therefore, if you have 50 small shield, 10 large shield and take 90 damage, the shield will only block 10 damage leaving the remaining damage to reduce your health directly.

Note: This is not exactly how the shield system is implemented in the code, but it's easier to explain and understand this way.

In both UT2003 and UT2004, the Booster adrenaline combo, which slowly converts adrenaline to health or shield at a rate of about 4 points per second. (Actually 5 points per 0.9 game seconds.) The booster combo adds its shield points to the large shield stack.

Unreal Tournament 3
The armor system of Unreal Tournament 3 is more similar to the one of Unreal Tournament than any other game of the series. Unlike in UT, the Shield Belt can be combined with the other armor items in UT3. This way, players can stack up to 200 points of armor.

Carrying a Shield Belt has various advantages in vehicle gametypes. Shielded players are automatically ejected from destroyed vehicles instead of getting killed, at the cost of destroying the Shield Belt. Shielded players will not fall off of the Hoverboard when hit by weapon fire, as the Belt absorbs the damage.

The Helmet will reliably absorb all damage from a single headshot, even if only a single point of Helmet armor is left. Like with the Shield Belt, an absorbed headshot does not damage the player and thus will not cause him or her to fall off the Hoverboard. That's why on VCTF maps that include the Helmet it's not always a good idea to go for a headshot on a flag carrier fleeing on the Hoverboard.

Unreal Championship 2
Unreal Championship 2 doesn't include an armor system, but it offers various Adrenaline abilities to defend yourself from different attacks. The Iron Spirit combo is what comes closest to the armor from other Unreal games, it reduces damage from all attacks by half. There are also the Repulse and Blade Shield combos protecting players from explosive weapons. The Energy Shield combo blocks attacks from energy weapons, but it can only be used by bots. Juggernaut characters are able to use the powerful Invulnerability move, which blocks all attacks, but only lasts a short time and takes health away from the player.