Duraweave. Lighter and more flexible than Kevlar, duraweave reduces the damage by projectile and gyrojet weapons by half. Th elight suit offers 15 points of defense while the heavy suit offers 25.  It is nearly indistinguishable from normal fabric.[1]

Fiber Armor. The primitive forebears of the advanced ballistic fibers used in skeinsuits, Fiber armor suits are still found in use on small or low-tech Frontier colonies, among criminals and pirates, and members of militant cults.  It will reduce damage from projectile and gyrojet weapons by half and will reduce all other inertial damage by one-fourth. The light suit offers 10 points of defense; the medium suit offers 20 points; and the reinforced flak suit provides 30 points of defense.[2]

Flak Armor. Madeof hardened plasti-steel armored pieces, flak armor is more effective against projectiles and explosives than a skeinsuit. It absorbs three-fourths of all inertia damage, up to 60 points, while the wearer only takes one-fourth of the damage.

A reflective coating can be added (at an additional 500 Credit cost) that will act as an albedo suit, absorbing 100 points of laser damage. It may be relayered as needed.[3]

Polyplate Armor, Partial. This armor covers all vital areas with hardened polymer plates, formed and molded to the body. The armor is fitted to the character that wears it, but may be altered in a shop or by a character with a repair machinery skill.

Acting like a combination albedo suit and skeinsuit, partial polyplate absorbs half damage from all beam and physical attacks while the other half gets through to the wearer. Once the suit has absorbed 100 points of damage it stops protecting the wearer.

Because of the restricting nature of the plates, characters wearing partial polyplate Armor have a -5 penalty applied to all Dexterity and Reaction Speed checks.

Polyplate Armor, Full. This armor consists of a hardened polymer carapace designed to protect a combatant from harm. Characters wearing this armor take only one-fourth (round down) the damage that should otherwise be applied to them, if that damage comes from a beam weapon or physical/inertial source.  The armor absorbs the remaining three-fourths of damage.

The armor can take 250 points of damage before it stops protecting the wearer. Much more restrictive tha partial polyplate, characters wearing full polyplate armor have a -10 penalty applied to all Dexterity and Reaction Speed checks.

Shipsuit. Used by spacers, a shipsuit consists of a layer of shock-absorbent gel between two layers of skeinweave integrated into a lightweight exoskeleton. Both the gel layer and the exoskeleton compensate fort he effects of high-gee acceleration, allowing for normal manual dexterity and movement under thrust while helping to negate the adverse effects of acceleration.

The layers of skeinweave protect as a military skeinsuit by absorbing one-half of any inertia damage, while the character takes the other half. It absorbs up to 50 points of damage. The shipsuit's built-in exoskeleton provides no additional benefit other than allowing normal movement under thrust.

In the event of decompression, an inflatable hood of clear skeinweave can be pulled up from the back of the suit collar, over the head and back down to the front and sides of the collar, where it can be zipped securely into place. A tank of compressed air at the rear of the suit provides up to ten hours of breathable oxygen. The suit also has a 50 SEU beltpack and uses 1 SEU/turn of operation.[4]

It also offers minimal radiation protection, with a shield rating of 5/5 (see Radiation Poisoning rules).

Shocksuit, defensive. This defense suit offers protection against electric shocks delivered by stunsticks, electrostunners, shock gloves, electric swords, etc. It will even fully protect a character from the effects of an electrical discharge warhead. If the character is forced to make a Stamina check from an electrical-based stun attack (any attack that lists A-S/Gauss as a defense), that energy gets harmlessly dissipated. Each time the suit protects the wearer, it takes one point of damage. After it takes 10 points of damage it is rendered useless.

Shocksuit, offensive. This acts similar to the defensive shocksuit, but it also is powered by a 20 SEU powerclip allowing the wearer to release a corona of electrical energy around him. Any living being touching the character at this time will need to make a Stamina check or fall unconscious unless they are protected by an anti-shock implant, gauss screen or another shocksuit.[5]

Security Skeinsuit. Designed for function over form, security skeinsuits are not camouflaged like a military suit, nor are theydesigned to conceal their existence, such as a civilian suit. They protect against ballistic and melee attacks, with half of the damage affects the wearer while the suit absorbs the other half. The suit continues to help the wearer until it has absorbed 25 points of inertia damage, then is too ripped up/damaged to continue protecting its wearer. 

Stealthskin. Sometimes direct protection against physical or energy damage isn’t as important as just avoiding detection.  The best defense for an attack is simply not to be attacked. Stealthskins are made of a special fiber that makes no noise when it rubs together.

When wearing a Stealthskin, the wearer is permitted to use the Stealth and Concealment subskills of as if he was a Level 1 Environmentalist.  If the character already has the Environmentalist skill, he receives a bonus of +10 percent to both of these skills.

If a character sustains more than 25 points of personal damage, or is encumbered with gear (carrying more than half his STA score in kilograms) the Stealthskin no longer providest hese bonuses. [6]

Tactical Vest. This vest is designed to hold eight ammunition magazines, helping the character distribute the weight and improving their carrying capacity by 4 kilograms. For example, a character could carry four grenades, two variable timers and one kilogram of Tornadium D-19 with ease.

It also has several straps designed to hang off the bottom of the vest as rigging where pistol-sized weapon holsters can be attached. The back of the vest includes five SEU Power Clips in a network of heavy-duty canvas rigging, all wired together with integrated power routing and buffering to form the equivalent of a standard 100-SEU Power Backpack. 

Built of an extremely durable ballistic material, if worn alone the tactical vest acts as a 25 point skeinsuit, but its effects are not cumulative with a skeinsuit. If worn over another skeinsuit, both of the protective layers will take the same damage. For example: a character is shot for 34 points of damage.  He takes only 17 points, and both his skeinsuit and his tactical vest take 17. 

If worn over an albedo suit, it nullifies the protective nature of that suit.