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alt title(s): Powered Armour; Power Armor; Power Armour 
Powerful. Fast. Bulletproof. But we're still working on the "icing problem"
"A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are... A suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little - on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in."
Face it, real super powers are way too unbelievable for today's sophisticated readers. Fans want something more realistic - like armor sturdy enough to withstand any force yet lightweight enough to be worn like a leisure suit and collapsed into a briefcase. Now that's realistic. And even better if it comes with big guns.
— Marvel Year in Review 1993
The Knight In Shining Armor's fashionable protective wear does well enough against swords and arrows, but what do you do when one has to face bullets, missiles, and Death Rays - or worse, Big Creepy Crawlies are invading your planet? Power it up, of course! Powered Armor is a Sci Fi version of the iconic medieval plate armor, frequently used by Space Marines.
It's big, it's bulky, it's intimidating, and wearing it, you can wreak havoc on the battlefield. Powered Armor typically amplifies the movements of its wearer, adding its strength to theirs in a sort of purely mechanical Synchronization. As the page quote says, they also tend to be a self-contained environment, allowing the user to exist comfortably in space, underwater, or in other areas that would kill unprotected humans. They can often fly, at least for short distances or via rocket-assisted jumps. If this gives them good mobility and speed then the users often join the Lightning Bruiser camp.
Some versions have other useful gadgets built in as well; too much of this can result in them becoming a sort of wearable Do Anything Robot. With crystals. If it does this with weapons, then it's a wearable Swiss Army Weapon; expect at least one of these to be an Arm Cannon, or possibly a Power Fist. Shoulders Of Doom are almost mandatory. It usually is at least Immune To Bullets or whatever else is used in Five Rounds Rapid in the local 'verse; superior models may mount Deflector Shields allowing it to tank damage well above its apparent weight class.
Compare and contrast Clothes Make The Superman and Humongous Mecha. Powered Armor is distinct from the former in that it is specifically designed for combat and is clearly armour rather than clothing. Distinct from Humongous Mecha in that Powered Armor is a suit worn on the body, while Humongous Mecha are vehicles that are controlled, either from a cockpit or with some Unusual User Interface. There are, however, the occasional mecha that sit on the line between Humongous Mecha and Powered Armor. A really advanced set of powered armor will usually be made of Nano Machines that make the hero into a Chrome Champion. The change may even be Instant.
If the armor cannot be removed, then it is a Clingy Costume.
The usage of Powered Armor in fiction is famous enough for That Other Wiki to have an article on the subject . Currently, the US military is conducting experiments with equipment similar to power armor, perhaps making this a future Truth In Television. I, for one, welcome our new chrome-plated overlords.
Examples
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- Bubblegum Crisis, featuring both the Knight Sabers' "Hardsuits" and the bulkier Battlemover suits other factions use.
- In order to combat fully-cyborg individuals, paramilitary organizations in Ghost In The Shell occasionally requisition Power Armour. They're exceedingly rare, however.
- The Tekkamen from Tekkaman Blade appear to wear powered armor, but in fact become metallic life forms when they transform. However, the Sol Tekkaman units ("Teknosuits" in Teknoman) are actual powered armors.
- The Robes from Mai-Otome, although the designs are so non-armour-ish that they lean more heavily towards Clothes Make The Superman.
- Non-micronised Zentradi in Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its sequels wear Powered Armor the size of a Humongous Mecha. They kind of have to, given that they're the size of Humongous Mecha.
- Macross Frontier, gives us the Debut of the EX-Gear, a powered armour/exoskeletion (with built in jet back and provision for a machine gun) suit for use by VF pilots, granted it's not as well armored as some of the contemporaries (the waist, upper arms, and thighs are somewhat exposed, as poor michel found out...) but you must take into account thats its main function is to serve as a linkup/ejection system for the new line of Variable fighters.
- B-Ko from Project A Ko breaks out a Stripperific mockery of one for her showdown with the titular lead... at least it would be a mockery if it did not enable her to fight a running battle with the Humongous Mecha-wrecking titular lead.
- Chao Lingshen claims the outfit she wore during the festival arc of Mahou Sensei Negima was merely a somewhat upgraded version of a standard battlesuit from her homeland, but even without the built in time-travel device it straddled the line with Clothes Make The Superman.
- Bonta-Kun in Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu is a Theme Park mascot converted into the cutest miniature death machine since Metal Slug by Sousuke Sagara. Oddly enough, he marketed it to various police forces around the world, with limited success.
- The Ranma 1/2 manga presents Do-chan (for dogi, a martial arts uniform, plus an affectionate suffix.) It is an ancient, sentient (and utterly perverted) suit of armor that looks like a puffy Chinese blouse, black leggings, and a yin-yang belt. It can move around independently, has limited senses (sight, hearing, and touch, at least) and can fight to defend itself. It will only accept a female owner, but those who wear it will find that their speed, power, and agility have been increased to match their own ultimate potential. Thus, when Akane wears it, she can punch enormous craters into asphalt, leap over buildings, and generally outclass Ranma to the point of utter humiliation.
- A more straight-up example is the Battle Armor which Gosunkugi purchased off a mail-order ad. It promises amazing strength and incredible combat skills for defeating one's foes... and it certainly delivers, except that it locks into place as soon as you put it on and only activates when said foe comes along. And then, you have a very limited time to defeat him before the suit self-destructs.
- One of the more bizarre powered armors comes from Kemeko Deluxe. The titular Kemeko is a Super Deformed, borderline Gonk-ish power suit that nonetheless provides its wearer, MM, with enhanced battle capabilities. MM herself wears a Latex Space Suit and has to have some form of hammerspace inside that thing - she's bigger than it is.
- Gantz gives its slaves particularly hypertech powered armour that provides superstrength, Roof Hopping jumping powers and apparently some kind of forcefield. In typical Gantz style the big black ball doesn't bother telling anybody these facts, or that the suits' protection does not extend to swords or lasers.
- The Gold Cloths in Saint Seiya certainly qualify. Although Bronze and Silver Cloths, as well as rival gods' distinctive suits of armor, can protect the wearer to a supernatural degree, the Zodiac-based Cloths of Athena's Gold Saints provide notable increases in strength, speed, and defensive power, far beyond any other Cloth, Scale, or Surplice. They can even survive absolute zero and being hit with earth-shattering attacks.
- Also, the anime presented a three-man squad called the Steel Saints, created by the Kido Foundation as assistants to the heroic Bronze Saints. Their "Cloths" are mechanical and crammed with gadgets that can emulate a Saint's supernatural abilities. They were put on a bus as soon as they could...
- In GaoGaiGar, Cyborg Guy has a suit of "Ultimate Armor". He graduates to "ID Armor" when he becomes an Evoluder. It's not clear whether the armor is enhancing his natural strength and speed, enabling it, or is just there to look cool. That said, the ID armor has one important part in it (the GaoBrace and Will Knife), and Evoluder Guy probably at least needs the ID Armor to pilot GaoFar and GaoFighGar.
- The Figures in Figure17 are a kind of sentient powered armor, and Hikaru is an accientally-created Artificial Human derived from a broken Figure, who can still revert to Figure form when necessary. The aliens D.D. and Oldina also use Figures to fight.
- Guyver: Bio-Boosted Armour, a manga from the late 80's, along with a one shot OVA from '86, a twelve part mini-series released by studio L.A. Heroes released from 89 to about 92-93 and also a twenty six episode series that expanded more on the manga than the twelve episode one, that was released in 2005 by FUNimation Studios. This series uses this concept to its fullest extent. It starts out with a high schooler named Sho Fukamchi walking in the woods near the school with his friend Tetsuro Segawa. There they hear and see the aftermath of a huge explosion and see something hurdling through the sky towards them. Sho picks it up to and points put that it's alien looking, when he all of sudden trips and smacks his face against it and it starts to encompass him. Later when Tetsuro is in immediate danger from a secret world goevernment style organization known as Chronos, Sho clad in this "bio" metal armor and destroys the ones troubling Tetsuro. Afterwards he seemingly regains consciousness while still in the armor and notes that it is DEFINITELY alien.
- Appleseed has two classes of Powered Armor: "Protectors", which are fairly standard suits; and "Landmates", which border on being Mini Mecha and suspend the wearer in the torso of the armor. The Landmates' main outer "Slave Arms" follow the movements of the arms of the pilot, placed in smaller, form-fitting armored gauntlets which dangle outside the main body.
- Madox-01
- Steamboy has one of the least impressive examples of Powered Armor on this list. They're basically full-plate armor with steam backpacks (how they're not cooking with that setting, I'm not sure), showing immunity against small arms fire and not much else.
Comic Books
- Tony Stark built his powered armour IN A CAVE. WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS and has made countless upgrades, redesigns and variants to stay ahead in the Powered Armour arms race with villains like Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo. To make matters worse, villains are constantly trying to steal his designs, and the first Spymaster succeeded. His sale of Tony's blueprints on the black market sparked the Armor Wars, a storyline in which Iron Man goes about attacking armored villains and heroes in a fit of paranoia over misuse of his inventions.
- His friend James Rhodes has used Stark armor many times, either taking up the Iron Man mantle while Tony was incapacitated or presumed dead, or working independently as War Machine.
- Dr. Doom. Contrary to its almost medieval-come-industrial revolution aesthetic, being covered in visible rivets and displaying no apparent electronics, it is actually a nuclear-powered, ultra-sophisticated walking tank that stands up next to Tony Stark's best designs. It makes him strong and tough enough to go toe-to-toe with the Thing, discharge an array of devastating energy attacks, enables him to fly and control is vast arsenal of external technological devices. (Some versions even have a device that renders him immune to direct assault by mutant powers.) He can basically beat the tar out of any non-"cosmic" character short of the Hulk, and Squirrel Girl.
- Doom also has on occasion created stronger variants of the armor, powered by draining some of the above-mentioned "cosmic" characters and thus rendering Doom's power almost as God-like as his ego.
- Jubilee and several other depowered mutants started wearing Powered Armor to compensate for their lost abilities in the latest incarnation of the New Warriors.
- Batman in certain incarnations, most notably when Jean Paul Valley took on the role of Batman, he beefed the suit into a virtual war machine not unlike Iron Man. Batman Beyond had the same general concept, but the suit was more slender and less clunky looking than most.
- In Kingdom Come Batman needs an exoskeleton to move at all (thanks to the wounds from a life-time of crimefighting). His actual Batman costume is a Powered Armor. As is the Blue Beetle's and several other heroes.
- In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman uses powered armor (among other things) to fight Superman.
- Steel, a.k.a. John Henry Irons.
- S.T.R.I.P.E.
- Lex Luthor has twice donned a suit of Powered Armor to fight Superman mano a mano: Once in the early '80s, quickly abandoned after Crisis On Infinite Earths; and once in the mid-'00s, during the run-up to Infinite Crisis, when temporal shenanigans were causing Lex to play out his pre-Crisis persona. On neither occasion did it last; he's just a more compelling villain without powers.
- Luthor also gains a sort of Powered Armor in Justice League. It increases his abilities, but its main purpose is to keep his Kryptonite-induced disease in check (shooting Kryptonite rays is just a bonus). The Luthor that shows up in MK vs DC also wears the armor.
- Brianna Diggers of Gold Digger uses a variety of Powered Armor, and even Gina has broken one out one or two times.
- Grendel-Prime of Matt Wagner's Grendel series combines Powered Armor with numerous cyborg parts, making him the apotheosis of Bad Ass in a universe where BadAssery is a requirement for survival.
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the year 2094 wore these during an arc in the Archie comic, based on action figure designs.
- Dan Dreiberg of Watchmen tried making a powered exoskeleton version of his costume. It didn't get past the prototype stage; the first (and only) time he wore it, it broke his arm.
- Aliens, albeit that the powered armor in question was more or less an improvised weapon as Ripley was using a heavy cargo loader which looked a lot like powered armor. It gave her enough protection to avoid some of the Alien Queen's attacks and augmented her physical strength so she could go toe-to-toe with something about ten feet tall. "Get away from her, you BITCH!!!"
- The video game Aliens vs Predator gave us the military version nicknamed Alice. It looks like the aforementioned loader with some weapons strapped on and according to fluff, it could take on an infantry platoon or lightly armoured vehicles. Still, actual armour plating would have been a nice addition...
- Given that Colonial Marines infantry platoons seems to have a generous quantity of anti-tank weaponry, this troper doesn't rate the chances of a twenty foot tall lumbering walker in a firefight.
- In the games the "Alice" or Exo as it is usually referred to by players, was no less agile than a regular infantryman, and on top of it it was capable of jumping to heights multiple times its own size. The pilot is also quite well protected. Except for the exposed head, which gave the whole walker a strong weakness to the aliens headbite attack (which doesn't only kill the wearer but also makes the whole walker fall apart).
- The combat suits of the humans from The Matrix: Revolutions that carried big guns but provided very little protection.
- Word of God has said this is because the Sentinals could easily tear through any armor they put up, making it more efficent to simply leave them unarmored.
- It's been shown in Animatrix that the armored suits go down just as easily as their descendants, and in fact prolong the suffering of the pilot.
- In Batman & Robin Mr. Freeze wears a powered armor that allows him to toss people around. The suit was, of course, powered by diamonds.
- G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra features the "Delta-6 Accelerator suit", a powered armour that allows the wearer to outrun cars, leap over speeding commuter trains in a single bound, dodge missiles and climb buildings like a hyperactive monkey. Oh yes, and it's armed (quite literally) with an on-board Gatling gun and mini-missile launcher.
- In the grand tradition of Aliens, a suit of prawn Powered Armour serves as Chekhovs Gun in District9.
- Starship Troopers quite literally invented the concept (which The Film Of The Book sadly removed entirely).
- Although E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series did it first
- Well, maybe. It's not clear that Galactic Patrol is actually powered, with a single exception in the last book (published 1947-8).
- Starship Troopers came out in 1959; that's a bit beyond "maybe."
- Harry Harrison's Bill The Galactic Hero spared barely a paragraph to mock Heinlein's armored soldiers, showing what happens when one tries to land in a swamp.
- The "living-brain" Martians in H. G. Wells' War Of The Worlds came very close; their war-machines straddle the line between this trope and Humongous Mecha. They also had smaller non-combat work-machines into which they strapped themselves.
- The powered suits in Diane Duane and Peter Morwood's Space Cops books.
- John Ringo's series Legacy of the Aldenata has the main character design and then command units of ACS against the invading Posleen.
- The marines in David Weber's In Fury Born uses powered armour.
- Ditto for Honorverse. It arguably was even earlier.
- And again in Weber's and Ringo's Empire of Man series. Doesn't see a lot of use in the earlier books due to limited supplies but it's there.
- The titular armor from John Steakley's excellent Bug War novel, Armor.
- Joe Haldeman's classic, The Forever War.
- From The Tin Man onwards, some of Dale Brown's books have featured the eponymous armours. They are noted as being resistant to bullets and eventually having limited jumpjet capability and railguns, but vulnerable to knives and missiles.
- Jake Osborn's combat suit from The Lonely Winds.
- In C.J. Cherryh's Alliance/Union science fiction series, the Earth Company Marines (and, presumably, their Union equivalents) wear Powered Armor. The only really detailed description is in Rimrunners where ex-Marine Bet Yeager, late of the carrier Africa, has to repair and recondition a pair of suits and then teach a neophyte to use it.
- Odd subversion in Peter F. Hamilton's Fallen Dragon: Skin suits are largely biological suits powered by the wearer's blood.
- Space and combat suits in the Perry Rhodan universe tend to come with basic comm gear, flight capability and some kind of force field for protection at a minimum; additional sensors, life support, fairly sophisticated built-in computers, and stealth features like invisibility are also found more often than not. Perhaps ironically, one thing that these suits are not primarily intended to function as is actual body armor; that's what the force field is for. Likewise, weapons tend to be external (and frequently hand-held) rather than integrated into the suit.
- Miles ("Mr. Naismith") Vorkosigan was too short to use the average powered armor suits of his universe, but acquired a "petite" size in his first mercenary venture. He had to have the techs adapt the plumbing to fit, though. (It was orginally for a female.)
- Later in his career he's worn powered armor so often that the equipment's left a mark on his forehead.
- In Iain Banks' The Culture novels, powered, intelligent armor features in Matter.
- In Ian Douglas's Heritage/Legacy/Inheritance trilogies, the USMC has these. They start out as glorified spacesuits and end up being a combination starfighter/power armor/drop pod with enough features to make the Mjolnir VI look like a Model T.
Live Action TV
- The Daleks from Doctor Who are basically evil lumps of flesh encased in salt-shaker-shaped personal tanks that function the same way Powered Armor does for humanoids.
- The Cybermen, both the original and the Alternate Universe version in the new series, were originally designed as a suit to increase the vitality and lifespan of the wearer. And then It Got Worse.
- On Stargate Atlantis, the Lost Tribe faction of the Asgard wear humanoid-shaped power armor suits that provide them with mobility, protect them from hazardous environments, and come equipped with blasters and built-in energy shields. They're also designed to automatically adjust to the wearer, so other races that aren't bigger than the armor's maximum size can wear them.
- If a Metal Hero isn't a Hollywood Cyborg or Ridiculously Human Robot, he's a guy in a suit of Powered Armor out to Save The World.
- The same goes for most man-made Kamen Riders, with the prime example being IXA.
- The Borg From Star Trek also have a Powered Armor. In their case however, the energy is used to create shields rather than assist in movement.
- "The Suit" in Super Force. In the first episode, an advanced spacesuit serves this purpose, though by the climax, they've switched to a purpose-built urban assault system based on the space suit.
- MANTIS. Being paraplegic, the suit allowed the dude to walk, let alone be a superhero.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40000 loves Powered Armor. Every species from the Super Soldier (maybe human) Space Marines to the not-quite-as-evil-as-everyone-else Tau Empire to the Church Militant (definitely human) Sisters of Battle to the Spikes Of Villainy-loving Chaos Space Marines turned evil(er) to the Space Fungi Orkz will wear these into battle. However, this armour is generally reserved for the elite forces of the species. Naturally, being Warhammer 40000, the less-fortunate tend to be Cannon Fodder.
- Also naturally, being Warhammer 40000, Powered Armour is merely where it begins, with more extreme versions for everyone. Space Marines have Terminator armour equipped with personal teleporters and weapons including-but-not-limited-to arm-mounted gatling guns and giants hammers that spark lightning with every hit, Tau have suits armed with missile launchers and a pair of enourmous railguns, Chaos Marines have suits fused to their wearer that spontaneously spawns any desired weapon and even its ammunition, while Orkz prefer to simply stick on lotsa pointy bits and give it More Dakka.
- Spryers are ordinary humans who use Powered Armor to achieve Clothes Make The Super Man, and it's hinted that their ancient, possibly alien suits are actually The Symbiote, as they literally grow stronger and more powerful as the wearer gets more used to them.
- WARMACHINE features military commanders wearing technomagical suits called Warcaster Armor. Additionally, the empire of Khador reserves valuable robot cyberbrains for only their largest war robots, with the role of light armor being filled by soldiers sturdy enough to wear Man O' War suits. There's even a soldier wearing this bulky powered armor on horseback.
- Rackham's AT-43 features suits of powered armor for nearly every army (including Space Gorillas).
- Rifts sings "The Girl is Mine" with Warhammer every Saturday on the subject. It also enjoys playing with the trope to a degree usually not seen. Many units that one might classify as powered armor from their size, like the Triax Ulti-Max and Coalition States Terror Trooper, are in fact very small piloted combat robots instead of worn suits, while some worn suits such as the Glitterboy are simply so powerful as to intrude on combat robot territory. The Lunar Colony's VRDS system takes it Up To Eleven by allowing one to wear a combat robot like it was power armor.
- Traveller had "Battle Dress" armor, which was pretty much an Iron Man suit for every G.I. in the Imperial forces. Besides its protective function, the powered armor was the only way to handle the recoil and backblast from the awesome FGMP-15.
- FGMP-14. FGMP-15 was the model with the anti-grav recoil module, which meant you *didn't* have to wear Battle Dress to wield it. However, the FGMP-15 costs almost as much as an FGMP-14 and Battle Dress put together.
- While Battletech is best known for its 'Mechs, there's also Powered Armor down there, ranging from simple suits worn by special-forces troopers, to one-ton monsters capable of taking down a 'Mech in teams and withstanding their weaponry, to two-ton four-legged machines more piloted than worn, with enough firepower to shame an infantry company.
- The Clan genetics program has culminated in the birth of huge humans to pilot their massive Powered Armor; the Elementals. Even one outside of the likewise-named armor can dismember an armored opponent with their bare hands, and the massive brutes top over seven or eight feet tall. Elemental armor fits above into the 'one-ton monster' variety, a sizable fraction being the pilot itself.
- Given Exalted's attitude towards the Rule Of Cool (namely, if the concept exists and is sufficiently awesome, put in the game), it should come as no surprise that there are many, many examples of this to be found in Creation.
- Cyberpunk 2020 introduced an entire subclass of Solo called 'PA Trooper' who's only reason for existence was using various heavily-armed suits of Powered Armor. The supplement 'Maximum Metal' was mostly devoted to their design.
- Pretty much every side in Cthulhu Tech is a big fan of powered armour. Of course, how dangerous they are is entirely dependent on what they're up against. They're basically invincible to infanty level firepower, requiring specialist anti-armour weapons to scratch, while carrying guns which can kill a normal human/Migou/Deep One with a single shot. On the other hand, up against anything larger, they're the a Glass Ninja, who tend to get crippled if they get hit at all.
- The fanmade World Of Darkness game Genius: the Transgression lists this as one possible product of the defensive Prostasia axiom (although you have to use the travel axiom Skafoi to make it fly and the weapons axiom Katastrofi to give it weaponry).
- And the Exelixi axiom for super-strength... a good suit tends to be an expensive investment for a veteran Genius. But oh so worth it.
- Powered Armor characters are common in Champions. One of the most powerful human villains in the official game universe is Doctor Destroyer, who wears a suit of powered armor that lets him take out (spelled "kill") whole teams of superheroes.
- A fair number of powered armor suits survived the Last War in 'Deadlands: Hell on Earth.' The trick isn't so much finding one as getting it to work for more than fifteen minutes in the Scavenger World left After The End.
- GURPS: Ultra-Tech has a slew of them. The most powerful is the TL12 "Warsuit" which, just for starters, is armored with layers hyper dense regenerating metal alloy and multiplies an ordinary person's strength 25 times over. There's also the clever "Exo-Field Belt" which is Powered Armor made out of nothing but forcefields.
- Mutants And Masterminds: while the Device power can be used to represent anything from the hammer Mjolnir to a Green Lantern Ring, the battlesuit is one of the coolest uses. (Especially since there are no restrictions on what you can give a battlesuit save the points available, meaning that it's not impossible to build a suit that lets you warp time.)
Video Games
- Halo's Master Chief is probably the most well-known video game example...
- Halo also has the Arbiter, who wears power armor that's functionally the same as Master Chief's, but with a cloaking device and the added bonus of being a legendary religious artifact.
- The Arbiter's armor, or that worn by any other Elite, doesn't appear to increase his strength or speed in any visible way. It does produce the cloaking field but whether or not it is powered armor is debatable.
- Elite armor is powered simply because it provides shields, same with Brute armor.
- In addition to the Spartan-II's Mjolnir Mrk. IV-VI armor suits Halo features SPI (Semi-Powered Infiltration) armor worn by Spartan-III's and arguably the Cyclops Exoskeleton (though that's designed more for repair and heavy utility work than combat). There's also that suit of armor in the upcoming Halo Legends short "Prototype."
- ...but Metroid's Samus Aran did it a long, long time before he did.
- Half Life's Gordon Freeman has his HEV suit. Subverted just a little since it was originally designed for, well, handling things in hazardous environments rather than the combat situations it's used for in-game.
- Debatable, considering it's built-in ammunition management system.
- Star Craft has several types, most of them Terran. Protoss Zealots get powered armor, too. It does not help. At all.
- Not true. It did help. Humans are supposed to only stand a chance against the Zerg because they are clad in Powered Armor, they only seem squishy in comparison because the Zergs are that strong.
- Protoss troops are (one-on-one) superior to Terran troops because Protoss are, in the backstory, a sort of master race who can survive on moonlight and dewdrops with a lifespan of 1000 years.
- The problem with the Terran infantry armour is that even though it's far bulkier than most other Powered Armor from other fiction, the units wearing them are still individually the weakest units in the game.
- Individually, aren't Zerglings the weakest unit in the game?
- Strangely enough, the apparently unarmored Terran "Civilian" units you get in some campaign missions are nearly as tough as a normal marine. If I recall, they only have 10 less HP.
- An upcoming FPS called Section 8 will have players using Powered Armor - which allows them to 'burn in', that is, rain themselves from 15000 feet in the air to the ground. In five seconds. Among other things.
- Metal Gear Solid. Although in the original the Cyborg Ninja was a cyborg instead of a guy in a Powered Armor, in the sequel it is this way.
- And how does ex-president George Sears AKA Solidus Snake stay limber despite premature aging? Power Armor.
- His Arsenal Tengu goons wore something similar, just without the tentacles and with a gas mask.
- The Beauty and the Beast unit in number 4 counts, too.
- One brief rail shooter scene in MGS4's South America features actual powered armor mooks. They don't show up anywhere else.
- Fallout has power armors, and its sequel Fallout 2 has an advanced model powered by a portable fusion generator.
- The third installment, despite Bethesda's tendency to feature unrealistic armor (such as the stripperiffic Chainmail Bikini armor worn by Raiders), has a less exaggerated Powered Armor, even though they're still following the original design.
- And now the Fallout 3 modding community has made mods to add the Crysis Nanosuit and Warhammer Power Armor.
- Some of the heavy armor in Knights Of The Old Republic qualifies.
- STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl have a full Exoskeleton armor near the end of the game.
- Arcanum Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura had Steam Punk Powered Armor.
- Killzone and Killzone2 give us the Heavy Assault troops (Abrreviated to just "Heavies" in the second game) who wear big bulky Faceless suits of powered armour, often ccarry some of the heavy hitting weaponry, and soak up tonnes of punishment before finally dying (especially in the second game).
- Shining Force's Guntz is a Steam-Powered Armor-dillo.
- Super Robot Wars J and W are unique for the series, in that they also feature series' that use Powered Armor as well as Humongous Mecha, namely Detonator Orgun and the abovementioned Tekkaman Blade.
- But before that, a couple of little-known games called Hero Senki and Super Hero Sakusen combined Tokusatsu heroes like Kamen Rider and Ultraman with Gundam pilots wearing Powered Armor versions of their Mobile Suits, though in Super Hero Sakusen it was implied that the Gundams and original mechs were full-size. Don't think about it too hard.
- Hero Senki also featured the first appearance of one of Banpresto's most wide-ranging original mecha, the Gespenst, in Powered Armor form. It later got upgraded to a Humongous Mecha in Super Robot Wars 4.
- Earthworm Jim has the Ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit, which not only mutates Jim to a strangely large size, but allows him to wage war against various intergalactic nasties. While it's made to be Powered Armor, with a foot-long mutant earthworm sitting in the collar it borders on mecha territory.
- Mass Effect has this, to an extent. Regular armor is still powered, but it can be upgraded with a more powerful exoskeleton that makes increases melee damage. (Especially noticable if they already had something that boosts melee attacks, like the assault training talent.)
- Crysis features Power Armor as an integral part of gameplay. By turns, you can modify your armor for speed, strength, stealth or weapons capability.
- The best (and most expensive) form of armor tech in any turn-based X-Com game is generally this. Flying Armor, Magnetic Ion Armor, X-Com Armor (sic) all apply. The first two even give you unlimited flying, allowing for much more freedom in moving around the battlefield. Sadly, these suits do nothing against any of the game's Demonic Spiders.
- Except for Chryssalids, which can't attack you if you're on air. Advisable not to hover too near them in any case.
- Magnetic Ion Armour only works underwater, that this troper can recall. Terror From The Deep's Tentaculats can 'fly' underwater. Just when you thought you were safe...
- Man-Bot in the Freedom Force series wears a powered exoskeleton that feeds off his energy generation power and bleeds off excesses. He can't take the armour off or his power starts killing people.
- Positron in City Of Heroes has much the same deal, until recently his armour was the only thing stopping him from going boom.
- A functional suit of Magitek power armor (complete with Arm Cannon) is an easter egg in the Baldurs Gate series. One word: Pantaloons.
- In Alone in the Dark 3 (which takes place in the Wild West) the final boss fights you wearing a 19th century power armor suit (which even has an Arm Cannon).
- The Riot Guards in Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and R.E.V.6.s from F.E.A.R. fall somewhere between Powered Armor and Humongous Mecha, being soldiers wearing robotic suits similar to a compact version of the Aliens Power Loader example.
- In Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, an enemy roughly analogous to Riot Guards return in the form of Athena Mechs. However, Revas dons a suit that plays this trope completely straight for the final boss fight.
- Magitek Armor in Final Fantasy VI also treads the line between Humongous Mecha and Powered Armor.
- The Alpha Sections in Beyond Good And Evil wear enormous, bulky suits of power armor, equipped with a huge arsenal of lasers, grenades, personal force fields, and really huge hammers for dealing with intruders. Too bad about the whole "turns-you-into-an-alien-mutant-when-you-wear-it" thing. The armor worn by the regular soliders looks... more traditional, but is still totally impervious to lasers, and it comes with auxillary life support systems.
- The Nova Suit in Keith Courage in Alpha Zones.
- The Command And Conquer universe features several examples of powered armor:
- Most of the units from Tiberian Sun and Tiberium Wars, particularly the GDI Commando and Zone Trooper units from Tiberium Wars.
- Soviet Tesla Troopers from Red Alert 2 and 3.
- With the most recent expansion pack in the series, Cryo Legionarres as well. Their suits are noted as making tesla troopers' look downright primitive, and give them vastly increased speed and the ability to walk on water in addition to the usual protection.
- These show up as the top armour in the RPG Wasteland; only five suits are available late in the game (for a part that can max at seven), until you reach The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Sadly, until I knew better I thought 'power' was not how it ran, but what it was made of... then again, that would make the Good Looking Privates easier on the eyes.
- According to what is All There In The Manual, the Alto Angelo enemies from Devil May Cry 4 are what happens when demon-ascended members of the Order of the Sword use the Bianco Angelo Animated Armor suits as Powered Armor, although this does not fully explain the different capabilities of the former. Then again, demons and magic.
- One of Mei-Fang's supers has her pulling out a Powered Armor from... somewhere and shoulder-tackling her opponent while wearing it. If Mei-Fang has enough for a second super attack, she could then follow it up with a blast from its shoulder canon.
- Rush turns into several variants in the Mega Man series. In 6, One confers a Power Fist, while the other flies. In 7, the Super Megaman form splits the difference, granting a Rocket Punch and short jet boosts. Treble can also do this for Bass, though his is primarily a flight mode. It's debatable whether Mega Man X's various armors are powered, thought the Ultimate Armor from Command Mission almost certainly is.
- Depending if you consider it powered or not, Bioshock's Big Daddies wear armored diving suits.
- In Star Wars: Jedi Outcast Galak Fyyar wears a huge battle suit with lightsaber resisting cortosis, shield generator and other toys. Not that this poses a problem for Kyle Katarn.
- Jedi Academy adds Hazard Troopers, who are typically armed with one of the game's two BFGs and can smack the player away if they get too close.
- In City Of Heroes this is pretty much the entire idea behind the Technology origin, and the Arachnos Wolfspider Archetype has powers based around giant suits of armor.
- Some enemies start building up robotic armor as well, especially the Longbow and Arachnos soldiers (though the former eventually drop the armor and get superpowers instead.)
- In Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, all members of the hazard team wear highly advanced armor with shielding and regenerative capabilities, as well as lots of fancy electronics. When you pause the game, you can see a diagram of the armor that they use.
- Human ground assault teams (which are not shown in-game, but appear in a splash/loading screen) are supposed to use this in Sword Of The Stars.
- One of the ground troop technologies available in the Master Of Orion series.
- Syphon Filter 2 had the Emergency Defense Squad from the Bio Lab Escape level who can only be killed by explosions. Chance and Rhoemer (from part 3) both wore high-impact kevlar armor.
- System Shock 2 has a notable example in that although the powered armor is the best armor, it - surprise! Requires power and will prove no protection when the power runs out. (Until recharged.)
Web Comics
- The A.N.T from Mechagical Girl Lisa ANT, when used by a human (it was intended as a Humongous Mecha for alien ants).
- Ysengrin from Gunnerkrigg Court. Word Of Tom says that his wooden arms aren't Artificial Limbs, but part of magically-powered shapeshifting armor. Made of wood.
- This suit from Girl Genius could qualify as a very large suit of powered armor bordering on Mecha territory and this one while not armored certainly does all the other things that power armor is supposed to do.
- Tagon's Toughs (and some other military/mercenary groups) all wear powered armor, which can deflect small arms fire, increase strength, and fly. Strangely, the formfitting Latex Space Suit version is much better than the bulky armored suit.
- The old, bulky stuff was Tagon's perverse impulse, the form-fitting stuff is modified Ob'Enn hardware, and the new bulky stuff will protect its wearer from an antimatter annihilation. At the cost of fusing its joints and spot-welding its feet to the deckplate.
- Tessa and the rest of her squad of super soldiers in SSDD are field-testing experimental powered armor that is controlled using Nano Machine implants as of the current arc (which is backstory), she has been seen using the armor in other story arcs that take place later (from her perspective).
- Piffany gets a suit at one point, as an Aliens Shout Out.
- Abigail Primrose in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob owns a suit of Bubblegum Crisis-styled Powered Armor capable of flying into space. It was given to her by space dragons.
Web Original
Western Animation
- As in the comic book continuity, Lex Luthor occasionally donned a Kryptonite-powered battlesuit in the Justice League franchise. Possibly as a friendly Shout Out to Iron Man, it was originally intended to slow the effects of a terminal heart condition (ironically the result of constantly carrying around a piece of Kryptonite).
- Also ironically, it packed Kryptonite rays up the wazoo, making it quite appropriate for battling Superman.
- Granny May from Word Girl has one. In addition, one episode involved the Evil Genius Dr. Two-Brains building one.
- The Earth Corps scientists from Inhumanoids wore Powered Armor designed for subterranean exploration.
- Gargoyles loved this trope:
- Xanatos had several versions: His standard suit which resembled a crimson gargoyle, the bulky iron gargoyle suit that he used to fight Oberon, and a sort of skeletized armor that basically consisted only of a chestplate, powered gauntlets, and a rocket pack.
- Dingo from The Pack in the same series opted for Powered Armor rather than cybernetic upgrades or genetic manipulation like his fellow Pack members.
- The three modern Hunters are also briefly seen using their own variety of Powered Armour.
- Demona had powered armor in the first act of "The Reckoning".
- Subverted in "Leader of the Pack": Coyote appears to be Xanatos in yet another suit of powered armor, but it turned out to be a robot.
- Transformers has a few varieties. The simplest are the exo-suits worn by Spike and Daniel in Generation 1 - these are modified space suits that confer protection and limited transformation ability. Headmasters and Targetmasters in the American continuity are more advanced forms, which grant improved protection and firepower as well as full transformation abilities. In addition, the Autobot Pretenders in Masterforce can summon powered armour as an intermediate form between their Human and Transformers forms.
- The suit from Batman Beyond originally served as an aid to keep the older Bruce Wayne in decent fighting condition, before his heart gave out. The suit was certainly sleeker then most Powered Armors, protective yet still retained a certain fabric-like dexterity. Bruce later showed a more "Iron Man"-like suit he had designed years earlier, which was more powerful and had heavier armor, but also put a lot of strain on the wearer. Of course Bruce later got to wear the suit to help Terry in a jam.
- In The Batman, everyone's favorite vigilante dons a power suit similar to the larger one from Batman Beyond in order to tangle with Bane.
- He later dons a different suit to battle a Mind Controlled Superman, although it doesn't help much aside from providing a distraction.
- The Guyver.
- One of the episodes of the first season had Kim Possible obtaining a power armor that got powered up by the user's stress level. Ironically, despite all the good things that came with the armor, Kim defeated Shego much easier without the armor...
- It's not like she'd be used to using it.
- She later gets a battle suit. Among its features are: defensive shields, self-repair, the ability to capture and redirect energy beams and a physical boost sufficient to let her clumsy boyfriend become a star quarterback.
- Exosquad, while focusing on full-sized Humongous Mecha called "E-frames", also introduced "Ultralight E-frames" (effectively, Powered Armor) for Jumptroopers in the second season.
- The Monarch and his Deaths-Head Panoply from The Venture Brothers. Subverted in that it isn't actually powered. Its just a solid, unmoving suit that fires missiles and rockets about. He can't even move his arms. However this is due to design flaws that haven't been worked out yet.
- In "Gangland", an episode of The Spectacular Spider Man, Silvermane shows off his powered armor, which inexplicably doesn't cover his face. It's the kind of powered armor that hums and whirs with every movement, which makes it very satisfying to this troper, and the noise tips Spidey off about how to defeat him.
- TMNT villains Baxter Stockman and Darius Dun use these when they want to get offensive. The Shredder also takes to these when he wants a power boost, although, given his Utrom-y nature, those may actually count as Humongous Mecha.
- Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command established that Star Command spacesuits were power armor. Would've justified the toy's clunky appearance... except the animation style made the suit sleeker.
Real Life
- Believe it or not, it's coming. Utah-based company Sarcos has already developed a functional powered exoskeleton called "XOS" that increases the strength of the wearer significantly. As one person put it, "From enough grace to gently play ball, to enough super-power to load a missile on an aircraft". And indeed, from the footage, it seems surprisingly mobile. The main problems being that A) Currently, it doesn't have the covering to act as armor, but they fully intend to add an outer shell when the kinks are worked out. And B) they're still working out how to power it as a self-contained unit. The scary part? Sarcos has been bought up by a defense contractor called Raytheon, meaning we may be seeing elite soldiers in these things in a decade or so. Indeed, the US Army plans to run some field tests with the XOS this year ('09).
- You know, that seems like it would have as many (or more) civilian and industrial uses than military ones. Forestry comes immediately to mind.
- Or search and rescue, a lot more dexterous than a crane when it comes it shifting rubble.
- Indeed so; in fact, one of the first serious attempts at powered armor was done by the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. Its intended purpose - cargo handling. Standardized containers later made this less of an issue for ships, so the project as such was never revived.
- The Bear Armor, a mostly-one man project that has been edited dozens of times. It can withstand bullets, fists, baseball bats, cars, and even it's initial purpose: bears. It's also technically fire proof, but the person inside would be cooked alive. All of this started when a bear attacked a man.
- Wasn't that a Simpson's episode?
- One based on a real person.
- The Bear Armor isn't powered, though.
- Similar to the above, is a one man project armor that while not fire proof could have potential use for fighting forest fires.
- Atmospheric Diving Suits, especially the more modern ones, could be seen as a type of Powered Armour.
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