The Ascent has been one of the pleasant surprises to make its way onto Xbox Game Pass. I recently got into it and put dozens of hours and have emerged from The Ascent with more experience to deliver a guide to the armor available to you in the game.
Veles is full of thugs, cyber junkies and nasties that really wanna just kill you. Luckily for you, there’s enough military grade armor lying around and in the trash to keep you from becoming another body in the gutter. You’ll find some great pieces I encountered in my playthrough in this guide to the best armor in The Ascent.

ED-60 Whisper Heavy Rig Helmet
The best helmet stat-wise I’ve used and finished the game with, It sports at least 50 resistance on all damage types which makes it a good all around helmet to use and has an increase of 5 for the body attribute. Once I’ve gotten this, I’ve never felt the need to change it, unless I wanted to look cool for screenshots and such.
Custom SEC-5 Rig
The SEC-5 Rig is my go-to Torso armor for when I’m using Excessive Heavy Weapons like the MG1000 StrikeBreaker or the Dealbreaker. It looks aesthetically pleasing as well as sporting those large mechanical arms to help carry all that weight.

Custom Flatliner Rig
This is the Torso Armor I’ve paired with the Whisper Helmet, it also sports at least 50 resistance on all damage types with an increase of 3 to Head attributes as well as a boost of 2 to Balance. Another all-rounder type of gear that helped me finish the game with little need to worry about enemy damage types since it’s got it all covered.
Custom MechRhino Helmet
The helmet with the highest physical resistance available for any headgear. It’s great for those niche fights where you know no enemies will be shooting you with energy or digital damage.

E-60 Trackstomper Leg Rig
The best leg armor I’ve ended up using for the most part in my play through, while it doesn’t have a score of 50 for all of its resistances, they are spread out enough to merit use. It also includes a boost of 2 to Vital Signs for more health and 3 to Critical Hit Rate to improve DPS.
P-50 Propulsion Protectors
Another niche armor piece that sports the highest physical resistance for any leg armor piece. I’ve paired this with the MechRhino helmet to improve physical resistances further, but again this comes at the cost of being more vulnerable to other damage types.

Runner Coat & Runner Trousers
To my mind, these two pieces of gear act as a pair . They each have nearly balanced resistances but with a slight increase in Digital resistances. They’re also great because they make you look like you walked off the streets of Blade Runner. Pair it with a HCE9 Flatliner and you’ll be ready to stalk the streets of the Arcology on the hunt for some replicants.
The Ascent is currently available at the Xbox Store for Windows 10 PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It also launched day one on Xbox Game Pass so you can play it now if you have a subscription.