• Is cool
• Has higher durability than most armor
• Has very high DT (obviously)

Almost every variant of power armor requires the Power Armor Training perk. Otherwise, it's useless to you. You will also need the Jury-Rigging perk long term but I will cover that in the last chapter.

There are two ways. The first is by joining the Brotherhood of Steel after completing their questline, which also gets you a suit of power armor in low condition.

The second is a more complicated, but easier, and it's by doing Arcade Gannon's quest, For Auld Lang Syne. In this quest you reunite the Enclave Remnants who give you a suit of Remnants armor and training. There are some downsides to doing it this way, and the first is that you usually cannot start this quest until about halfway through the main questline and cannot start it at all as a Legion character. After completing it, Arcade can no longer be taken as a companion for the rest of the game.

NCR Salvaged
24 DT (these stats include both the helmet and the torso)
1075 HP
This is the only one that doesn't require the training perk. Otherwise it has the worst stats and disguises you as NCR. One is given in the NCR safehouse, and if you don't mind your reputation soldiers who wear it are present at most important NCR locations.

T-45d
27 DT
1075 HP
This is the most common kind but also the least protecting. 2 sets are given if you join the Brotherhood, and more sets (which respawn, unlike the 1 T-51 you can buy) can sometimes be bought from the Great Khan armorer, Knight Torres in Hidden Valley, and Quartermaster Bardon at Hoover Dam. A few sets can be stolen from the bunker too.

T-51b
31 DT
2100 HP
These are much rarer than t-45. Only 3 sets exist in the base game, with a 4th added in Lonesome Road. You get 2 by joining the Brotherhood, (1 in the safehouse, 1 bought from Knight Torres), can find 1 in the Deathclaw Promontory, and the last is in the Courier's Mile. Overall the best, because it has a good middle ground between durability (2000, more than any other kind) and defense. and looks the coolest

Remnants
36 DT
475 HP
These are even rarer than T-51, and only 2 sets exist. It has the highest DT of all kinds but this comes at the big cost of breaking very fast. It has only 400 hp, which is 1/5th of T-51. The first set you can get in a couple different ways during Arcade Gannon's quest. A torso can be found in the same place as the T-51 suit at the Deathclaw Promontory, and the helmet is on the other side of the map in Silver Peak mine behind many cazadores. Be prepared because both will be tough fights.


Most power armor suits in the game are the BOS versions of the first 2 kinds. They have identical stats to their counterparts but are considered faction armor. (except the T-45, because of bugs) Everyone hates the Brotherhood so most factions (especially NCR and the Legion) will shoot you on sight if you wear them.

Brotherhood T-45d
This is the buggiest one. It was meant to be the most common one but there's a bug that replaces it with BOS T-51. Because of this there's only 1 in the game, found in Dead Wind Cavern behind lots of Deathclaws. This suit has an identical appearance to T-45 and because of another bug, will not actually disguise you as a Brotherhood soldier. So basically it's the same as T-45 but has a different name.

Brotherhood T-51b
The most common. Over a dozen can be found between dead patrols and the soldiers killed during Veronica's quest.


Gannon Family Tesla
32 DT
500 HP
A unique version of the Remnants armor, which you can get during Arcade Gannon's quest depending on your choices. It gives a boost to energy weapons and has higher radiation resistance. The real advantage, though, is that it's the only suit classified as Medium armor instead of Heavy. This makes it way easier to repair (which is something I get into later)

Scorched Sierra T-45d
24 DT
1600 HP
The only DLC exclusive suit, which you can get by nuking the NCR at the end of Lonesome Road. It's between T-45 and T-51 in defense but has the second highest durability (1600). It also gives slow health regen and fire resistance.

Almost all power armor will be at low condition when you get it. The cost of paying to repair a full set from low durability can range from 10000-16000 caps, so unless you're the richest mailman in the Mojave this won't work long term.

The same way we deal with everything else; Jury-Rigging. With jury rigging, all power armor can be repaired with any Heavy armor. Don’t worry about the helmets, because they’re all classified as Light armor and trivial to repair. Most Heavy armor is power armor, but the exception to this is Metal Armor.
Metal armor is a godsend for power armor builds. Repairing these from low durability will only cost 2000 caps at the maximum, and with 100 repair, a single suit (in full condition!) is all you need to fully repair any power armor torso.The easiest ways to get these are:

• Kill all the Powder Gangers in Vault 19. About 1/3 to 1/2 of them spawn with a suit, and 6-7 can be obtained.
  
• Kill the Jackals at Nipton Road Pit Stop and the Vipers at Raided Farmstead After killing them, they will respawn in 1 week. Metal Armor is not guaranteed, but 1-2 of them at each location may carry it. These are the only ones on this list who respawn.
  
• All of the NCR mercenaries who harass Jacobstown during the quest Unfriendly Persuasion wear a set. Killing them will give you NCR infamy.
  
• The Vendortron at the Gun Runners will usually have one set, in full condition, on sale for 2-3000 caps.