Power Armor Chassis

The power armor chassis is the basic exoskeleton unit required for all power armor models in Fallout 76.

Characteristics
The power armor chassis functions much like the power armor frames in Fallout 4. They require fusion cores to move at normal speed and any combination of power armor parts can be equipped onto them. Fusion cores last far longer than in Fallout 4.

Unlike the frames in Fallout 4, owned chassis are bound to the player inventory. An unclaimed chassis in Appalachia may be acquired by activating it, which will either prompt the player to enter the suit or insert a fusion core. While chassis themselves are not level locked, individual power armor parts have level requirements and will prevent a lower-leveled player from entering it. Removing the high level parts will enable the use of the chassis.

A chassis can be moved to the inventory by exiting the armor and pressing the "Collect" button or key when looking at the chassis' inventory. The weight of the chassis in inventory is 10, and any equipped power armor parts will not add any additional weight. The weight of chassis may be reduced by the Portable Power perk, which will also affect any power armor parts loose in the inventory. The chassis can be deployed by selecting it to equip it in the Pip-Boy menu, and then selecting where in front of the player character to place it. Unless collected manually, it will withdrawn to the inventory automatically after 120 seconds. Ownership of a chassis can be forfeited by dropping it from the inventory, making it available for any player to claim. If the chassis held parts with Atomic Shop skins or T-65 or Strangler heart parts, the untradeable items will be destroyed upon deployment. If a chassis is scrapped through a workbench, the attached parts will be automatically moved to the inventory, rather than destroyed.

Power armor chassis have a durability bar when viewing them in inventory but the bar is always full. They do not degrade nor require repair.

There is no level requirement for wearing a chassis. It has damage, energy, and radiation resistances of 60 each. This is higher than any armor available early in the game. Wearing a chassis slows a players movement. Wearing a power armor chassis eliminates all fall damage regardless of the height of the fall. Wearing a power armor chassis sets strength to level 11 if the stat is below 11. The advantage diminishes as the strength stat increases and disappears when the stat reaches 11. When the strength stat exceeds 11, the effect is nullified.

Power armor locations
Power armor chassis may be found at random at set spawning points throughout Appalachia.