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 can be placed in and out of a player character's inventory. A chassis can be claimed by entering one in Appalachia that doesn't belong to another player character. While chassis are not level locked, power armor parts can be leveled and will prevent a lower leveled player character from entering it. Transferring all leveled parts to the player character's inventory will enable the use of the chassis.

A chassis can be stored in a player characters' 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. Power armor parts that are equipped to the chassis will not add any additional weight to your inventory once collected. 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. A deployed chassis will be automatically recalled to inventory in about 2 minutes if the player character does not enter it or place it in inventory before that. Ownership of a chassis can be forfeited by dropping it from the inventory, making it available for any player character to claim.

Power armor chassis have a damage bar slider 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 and reduces their agility. Wearing a chassis also uses fusion cores, although the cores last much longer than in Fallout 4.

Wearing a power armor chassis sets strength to level 11 if the stat is below 11, giving a flat 205 carry capacity. This is far above the 155 carry capacity of a starting player character at 1 Strength. The advantage diminishes as the strength stat increases and disappears when the stat reaches 11. When the strength stat exceeds 11, carry capacity is based on the strength stat in or out of power armor, rising 5 for each additional level.

Wearing a power armor chassis eliminates all fall damage regardless of the height of the fall.