Leather armor, reinforced

The leather armor, reinforced is a piece of armor in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
Its appearance varies from normal leather armor in that both of its shoulder pads about the same size and appear to be made of or plated with metal. The armor also looks the same on both male and female, as opposed to the regular leather armor which has different skins. It is significantly darker in color. It is only used by the best mercenaries, or those who can afford it.

Significantly, reinforced leather armor has nearly the highest damage threshold of any non-faction light armor. Vault 34 security armor, Joshua Graham's Armor and the Chinese stealth armor are also non-faction with higher DT, yet reinforced leather armor has substantially more health than those armors and can still be repaired with common leather armor, making it far easier to keep in good condition. This makes it very useful for Sneak based characters or players who value movement speed (especially with the Travel Light perk), since heavier equipped armor increases the chance of enemy detection (unless the player has the Silent Running perk) and reduces movement speed.

Variants

 * Leather armor
 * Gladiator armor
 * Gecko-backed leather armor, reinforced

Locations

 * Horowitz farmstead - it can be found on the Viper Leader in the barn.
 * Bison Steve Hotel, Primm - can sometimes be found on the 2nd floor.
 * Camp Searchlight - it can be looted on one of the prospectors.
 * Mojave Outpost - the Travelling Merchant who hangs outside can have it for sale sometimes.
 * Nipton Hall, Nipton - it can sometimes be found on a dead prospector's body.
 * Old nuclear test site - can also be found on the corpse of Trash inside the shack.
 * Prospector's Den - can sometimes be looted from a corpse inside, located southeast of Primm and southwest of the Emergency Service Railyard.
 * Vikki and Vance Casino, Primm - given to the player as a gift for earning 1,875+ chips.
 * Vault 19 - most Powder Gangers wears a set.
 * The armor can be obtained from Decanus Severus as part of the unmarked quest Arizona Scavenger for 20 NCR dogtags.
 * Reinforced leather armor can be bought from many merchants (including the Gun Runners and at 188 Trading Post) at mid to high levels. It can also be found on Viper gang leaders at lower levels, and on regular Vipers at mid to high levels.

Bugs

 * A glitch exists when changing into this armor from a Caesar's Legion armor. The faction will stick from the armor even after removing the leather armor, reinforced. The only way to make the incorrect faction association disappear is to re-equip Caesar's Legion armor, change into another armor, and then change back into leather armor, reinforced. Otherwise the NCR will be permanently hostile towards you. On the bright side, abusing this glitch can allow for easy kills against members of the Legion.

Behind the scenes
The armor is very similar to the armor worn by ‘Mad Max’, a recurring factor in the development of the Fallout series.