History Main / ShedArmorGainSpeed

A subtrope of MultiformBalance, this is where a combatant sheds his armor for the sake of speed. Unencumbered by his weighty armor, he's less resilient, but much faster. This usually turns him from a MightyGlacier into a FragileSpeedster. In cases of extreme power level or where ArmorIsUseless, this can lead to the armor effectively being a PowerLimiter and[=/=]or invoking the BishonenLine. The ActionDressRip is related, in that they're both sacrificing clothing for mobility, though the circumstances are usually fairly different.

Compare DidntNeedThoseAnyway, which often overlaps with this trope when it comes to video game enemies. If it happens to a boss, it's probably a sign that he [[TurnsRed Turned Red]].

** The Doolittle Raid took this UpToEleven, stripping most of the weapons, armor and bombs out of the B-25 to allow an army bomber to fly off a navy carrier.
* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarI battlecruisers were literally an attempt to do this, keeping the heavy guns of proper dreadnaughts while sacrificing armor in order to have the speed of heavy cruisers. At Jutland it didn't exactly work well. Amusingly the later [[LightningBruiser USS Iowa]] managed to completely avert this, being able to occasionally outpace its destroyer escorts.
** Having apparently not learned the lesson, American tank designers in World War II did the exact same thing. The Sherman tank was much faster and more mechanically reliable than its German counterparts and thus was extremely effective when given room to maneuver properly. Unfortunately if ever corner it generally meant dead American tankers. This logic was even worse with tank destroyers, which generally had heavier guns and even less armor, most even lacking a roof. Though the M18 Hellcat could reach 55 mph on roads.

* A Spartan saying admonished soldiers to "come back with or on your shield," averting this trope. Spartan shields were large and sturdy enough to carry a human body, and thus they were extremely cumbersome; to run at full speed (i.e. to retreat from a battle), a soldier would have to throw away his shield. Hence the command to "come back with your shield," i.e. victorious, "or on it," i.e. dead.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'', the NT-1 "Alex" is outfitted with a special Chobam Armor which makes it incredible resilient, but kills its mobility. Once it's ejected, the suit is much faster. However, as it was made for Newtype Amuro Ray, the very Oldtype Christina McKenzie is out of her league with it.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E08ColdWar Cold War]]" Skaldak sneaks out of his Ice Warrior armor, gaining not just speed but more importantly maneuverability and stealth, allowing him to crawl around in ducts and attack people unexpectedly.

** If you trade a Shelmet for a certain other Pokemon, when the trade is concluded the other Pokemon will have his shell-helmet and Shelmet will evolve into Accelgor, who has insane speed but lower defensive stats.

A subtrope of MultiformBalance, this is where a combatant sheds his armor for the sake of speed. Unencumbered by his weighty armor, he's less resilient, but much faster. This usually turns him from a MightyGlacier into a FragileSpeedster. In cases of extreme power level or where ArmorIsUseless, this can lead to the armor effectively being a PowerLimiter. The ActionDressRip is related, in that they're both sacrificing clothing for mobility, though the circumstances are usually fairly different.

* A power limiter example rather than a simple speed boost, but in one episode of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Joey talks about how his card "Gearfried the iron knight" really wears its armor to control its own power, before removing that armor with a spell card to transform it into the powerful "Gearfried the Swordmaster."

* In ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', Accel's Trial SuperMode has sleeker and less bulky armor to go with its SuperSpeed ability.

* Wild Wuerger from ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration''. It can shed its armor to perform its finishing attack, which is to expand its wings and slice the enemy with it by flying into them at high speed. Note that normally it's closer to a (relatively fast, mind you) MightyGlacier.

A subtrope of MultiFormBalance, this is where a combatant sheds his armor for the sake of speed. Unencumbered by his weighty armor, he's less resilient, but much faster. This usually turns him from a MightyGlacier into a FragileSpeedster. In cases of extreme power level or where ArmorIsUseless, this can lead to the armor effectively being a PowerLimiter. The ActionDressRip is related, in that they're both sacrificing clothing for mobility, though the circumstances are usually fairly different.

* The prototype Stark Jagen from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack''-MSV (basically canon mecha designs that didn't make it to the screen) had additional armor and armaments that it could eject in order to increase its speed.

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': During the battle with the Juppongatana, Hiko Seijuurou tells the giant Fuji to lose the armor because, though it protects him, it restricts his movements. Hiko {{curbstomp|Battle}}s him anyway.

[[AC:Film (Live Action)]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live Action Television]]

[[AC:Toys]]
* A variant in ''Franchise/{{BIONICLE}}'': During the Bohrok arc, the Toa discovered armor suits called "Exo-Toa" that boosted their durablity and physical strength. However, they soon discovered this came at the cost of reduced elemental powers, and ended up shedding the armor in order to defeat the Bahrag queens.

[[AC:Video Games]]

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' and the next game, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', once you remove all of a Darknut's armor, it casts aside its {{BFS}} and draws a longsword, making both its movement and attack speed much higher.

** The ability Weak Armor represents this similarly. Every time a Pokemon is hit with a physical attack, its defense drops a stage, but its Speed increases one. Its Japanese name Broken Armor makes it even more apparant.

* ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl'': Samus sheds her PoweredArmor and wears a skin-tight suit. Zero Suit Samus, as she is thus called, is much faster and lighter.

* ''LittleFighter2'': Louis, who wears full body armor, is one of the slowest characters in game. However, by executing a specific key combination he will eject his armor off his body and become Louis EX, ''the fastest'' character in game.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Royal Air Force mounted an AirstrikeImpossible on several dams in Germany, codenamed Operation Chastise, which was later made into the book and film ''Film/TheDamBusters''. The preparations for the raid included removing armor plating and the amidships dorsal gun turret from the Avro Lancaster bombers used in the raid, in order to save weight and gain back some of the speed they'd lose by carrying the raid's purpose-built 10-ton bomb underneath.
** Similar changes were made to the "Silverplate" B-29s that were designed to drop the first atomic bombs.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', heavy-class armor is clearly better at protecting, but is cumbersome and loud. It's not uncommon for players to don armor in close combat and then stash it away when moving across the landscape or sneaking.

A subtrope of MultiFormBalance, this is where a combatant sheds his armor for the sake of speed. Unencumbered by his weighty armor, he's less resilient, but much faster. This usually turns him from a StoneWall or MightyGlacier into a FragileSpeedster. In cases of extreme power level or where ArmorIsUseless, this can lead to the armor effectively being a PowerLimiter. The ActionDressRip is related, in that they're both sacrificing clothing for mobility, though the circumstances are usually fairly different.

** ''Videogame/TheLegendofZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' and ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' have a milder example, with Iron Knuckles gaining movement speed after losing their armor, but not attack speed.

A subtrope of MultiFormBalance, this is where a combatant sheds their armor for the sake of speed. Unencumbered by their weighty armor, they're less resilient, but much faster. This usually this turns them from a StoneWall or MightyGlacier into a FragileSpeedster. In cases of extreme power level or where ArmorIsUseless, this can lead to the armor effectively being a PowerLimiter. The ActionDressRip is related, in that they're both sacrificing clothing for mobility, though the circumstances are usually fairly different.

* In ''Anime/GunXSword'' Priscilla does this in her introductory episode when she sheds her HumongousMecha's armor to increase its speed and mobility in a battle with the protagonist.

* A variant in ''{{Franchise/BIONICLE}}'': During the Bohrok arc, the Toa discovered armor suits called "Exo-Toa" that boosted their durablity and physical strength. However, they soon discovered this came at the cost of reduced elemental powers, and ended up shedding the armor in order to defeat the Bahrag queens.

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Royal Air Force mounted an AirstrikeImpossible on several dams in Germany, codenamed Operation Chastise, which was later made into the book and film ''Film/TheDamBusters''. The preparations for the raid included removing armor plating and the amidships dorsal gun turret from the Avro Lancaster bombers used in the raid, in order to save weight and gain back some of the speed they'd lose by carrying the raid's purpose-built 10 ton bomb underneath.

** Similar changes were made to the "Silverplate" runs of B-29s that were designed to drop the first atomic bombs.