Most of the equipment pieces in Helldivers 2 come with different bonuses. These bonus effects are either in the form of equipment stats like Stamina and Armor Rating or as Passive effects. Passive effects, like Extra Padding, are those buffs in Helldivers 2 that are always active as long as you are using that armor and don’t need any other input from you.
However, while stats bonuses from Light or Heavy armor, like Armor Rating and Speed, are evident and have numerical values, people aren’t sure of exactly what the Extra Padding passive does. While Helldivers 2 describes Extra Padding as a buff that improves Armor Rating, upon equipping that armor, you won’t see your character’s stats change. So what exactly is Extra Padding buff in Helldivers 2, and is it useful?
What is Extra Padding passive in Helldivers 2?
The Extra Padding passive increases your overall armor rating so that you can absorb more damage. That is what the in-game description states. In reality, though, the Extra Padding passive increases your overall resistance to all types of explosives. They mostly accompany medium and heavy armor types, allowing you to take reduced damage from bombs, explosions, mines, etc in Helldivers 2.
Since Helldivers 2 has friendly fire always on, we were able to test with grenades and explosives from other squad mates that if you have an armor piece with Extra Padding, you take less damage from those explosions based on how far the explosion was.
Extra Padding does not protect you from regular damage from enemies so don’t try to tank bullets from Automatons. It seems to be only designed to reduce incoming explosive damage.
Armors with Extra Padding perk
There are a total of 6 pieces of body armor in Helldivers 2 that have the Extra Padding listed as their passive stat. These will include four variations of the B-01 Tactical body armor, which will be available as default armor at the start of your Galactic War effort, whereas the other two can be purchased later on after you have managed to farm some Super Credits.
These Extra Padding armors will include the following armor options (excluding the variants), along with their armor ratings and the explosive damage they can withstand.
| Armor | Passive | Price (Super Credits) | Armor Rating | Explosive damage taken |
| B-01 Tactical | Extra Padding | – | 100 | 50% dmg (5m away) |
| B-27 Fortified Commando | Extra Padding | 400 | 144 | 80% dmg (3m away), 40% dmg (5m away) |
| B-08 Light Gunner | Extra Padding | 150 | 57 | 90% dmg (3m away) |
The best case scenario here will be to wear the default armor in Helldivers 2 that comes with the Extra Padding buff, clear out the initial missions, and work towards unlocking better armor options.
