Metal Chest Plate

Body shots are most of what you eat in a gunfight, and this plate is how you live through them. Push a team off the Launch Site roof and you catch rounds in the chest on every ladder; the plate is the reason the second burst does not drop you. A hoodie under it and a facemask on your head make the kit most late-wipe fights are decided in.

The bench has to be Level 3, and the recipe wants 18 HQM and eight sewing kits, but the line that stops people is fifty leather. Every plate is a hunting trip. Groups that keep a stack of hides wear plates, the rest make do.

The cheaper option is the road sign jacket: a Level 2 bench, more durability, less against bullets. The heavy plate jacket protects more but takes your sights away, so it stays home for base defence. All three share the chest slot, so you pick one.