Tarkov’s Armor & Weapon Repair Kits are Useless

(Intro)

Armor and weapon repair kits are kind of useless in 2025 EFT. From their first introduction, there were used as a means of repairing your gear without spending an exorbitant number of rubles to fix them up. Depending on a number of variables, the cost would either be cheap and reasonable to outright ridiculous. But, in order to survive in Tarkov, it was a necessary evil. Gear isn’t going to last forever. Even before weapon durability became a thing, we were always repairing our armors to make sure they were as durable as possible before going into a raid. But in April of 2022, BSG added two items to help with that process; the humble armor and weapon repair kits. Items that when found in raid, for the longest time, were essentially invaluable to many different players. Allowing you to repair guns and armors without needing to dip into your wallet to do so. And while for over two years their inclusion was a godsend for many, myself included, things changed when BSG dropped the armor rework. Instead of armor just having a flat durability, now, each protective piece of that armor had its own durability. This system has its pros and cons when compared to the previous system, but one thing is for certain: armor and weapons are cheap enough to repair with money, making the kits useless.

(It’s not the kits, but the mechanics around them)

To preface this conversation, the armor and weapon repair kits are an awesome addition to the game. Something that we have to think about when it comes to finding loot out in the world. While they are heavy and take up a large amount of space in your backpack, they provided a simple and straightforward way of repairing the gear that you want to use. Once you had the lavatory upgraded just to level one in your hideout, you were allowed to use the repair kits properly. Which was easy; just click repair and select the repair kit instead of using the traders. The armor kit has 1200 points to use for repairing, while the weapon kit has 1000. Back in 2022, the cost of repairing items was slowly increasing over multiple patches, and especially as you leveled up your loyalty with the traders. Which feels kind of backwards; if my trust with the vendors is going up, you’d think their services would become cheaper, but alas. It’s the opposite. Which is what made the repair kits so useful. I recall repairing level six armors costing upwards of six figures in the past. But now all it takes is a decent chunk of your kit, and you’re good to go. But, overtime and with the addition and alteration of some mechanics in the game, the cost-efficiency of the repair kit has gone down. The insane price hike of repairing armors is no longer around. In large part because armors are much more complicated; with each part that provides protection either a ballistic plate, or soft armor underneath having its own durability now. Many armors that were strong before are now weaker because they are only soft armor. The best example of this is the 6B3TM or the rat rig for short. What used to be an effective and universally loved level four armor all around, is now much more situationally useful. With the front being level four and the back being level 2 protection, all of it being just soft armor. It’s not as safe as running around with ballistic plates covering you, so people have shied away from using it. That and its ease of access is largely gone for the most part.

(The armor rework killed the repair kit usage)

Ultimately what makes these kits so ineffective was the introduction of the armor rework. BSG decided that they wanted to add more zones to each piece of body armor, to expand the available hitboxes on the player and to make taking damage more specific to a certain body part, instead of just painting an entire area with damage. For example, if you get shot in the armpit, before the rework it would just take damage off the thorax and the entire armor. But now, because there are more zones, the game is going to focus the damage on that area specifically. So, instead of the entire armor taking damage and lowering the durability of it, just that part of the armor that soaked up the damage will have its durability lowered. And because of this shake up and added complexity, for some reason, repairing with armor and weapons with money is substantially cheaper than before the changes. I genuinely don’t know the answer as to why this is the case, but it’s been an observation I made shortly after the rework was released. Again, this doesn’t completely remove the effectiveness of either repair kit. But before, using money on certain armors was wasteful if you happened to have a kit in your stash. But now, they feel more like a luxury than anything. On the flea market, they still sell insanely well. Upwards of five-hundred thousand plus rubles for a brand-new armor repair kit, which is an insane amount of money. And like I said before, there was a point in time where that money was well spent, because depending on what armor you would run, the repair costs could exceed that amount if you constantly had to fix up things like slicks and hex grids. Those were not cheap to repair. But now, with those previously powerful armors being not the most ideal forms of protection, people have opted for options with more layers and areas of protection, which means that you’d think repairing those armors like the Osprey’s would be expensive. But unless they are zeroed out (and we’ll talk about that in a second), they are still cheap to repair. Obviously, if you out in a raid, happen to find a repair kit of either kind, and can safely extract with it in tow, you can either save it and use the kit, or sell it and make a ton of money. It’s a win-win regardless of how you view the kits. But their overall usefulness has gone down somewhat and that’s kind of a shame for how impactful they were when first introduced.

(Armor doesn’t zero out anymore)

Another strange component to this entire conversation is that since the armor hitbox rework, I’ve noticed that armor doesn’t really lose durability like it used to. We’ve all been there before; you fight another PMC and it turns into somewhat or a drawn-out arduous fight. But you end up the winner, you go over to his body and the armor he was wearing is zeroed out; completely drained of any protection it once had. But still, maybe it was something like a Gzhel and you need that for your quest. So, you take it and extract. I can’t remember the last time I ever saw any body armor or armored chest rig have any component to it being zeroed out. Even scavs that run around with half durability protection, or armor with no plates in it still have some durability left after they die. It’s a weird phenomenon that perhaps exists just because the armor hitbox changes are working as intended; being more accurate to what is taking damage so instead of the entire armor’s health pool being lowered, only the damaged area is being affected. But because armor isn’t being reduced all the way down to zero, even materials that degrade quickly like armor steel or even more so ceramic, repair kits aren’t being used to their maximum potential. So strange.

(Outro)

The two repair kits currently in EFT were at one point a must have for any player who was trying to engage in PvP or just walk around and tank damage from the scavs. We’ve all been there before where we equip a powerful armor, and then half of the armor’s durability gets eaten up everything except another player. It was nice to have a repair kit in your stash for those circumstances. But now, with the hitbox changes, repairing with rubles costing basically nothing, and the durability of protection truly not being zeroed pretty much ever anymore, these kits while still being useful, they are a shadow of their former glory. There are numerous ways they could change this if they wanted to. But to be honest, I’m not entirely complaining because the option is still there if you want to use it and can find one. But armor costing a couple thousand rubles to fix up these days doesn’t have me complaining. It’s just something I’ve noticed and have been scratching my head as to why this is currently the case. I’m sure overtime things will change, armor will become expensive again to repair and the kits will regain their usefulness, but for the time being, if you don’t have a kit, just use money. It’s pocket change in the grand scheme of things. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on the repair kits in game, how they could become more useful again and be sure to subscribe for more videos about tools and items in the game that were once amazing, but now lack the effectiveness they once had. I hope to see you in future ones.