I have no idea how you can make 5k armor in this game at level 30, Mostly I have 2 mod slots in my clothes and half of them with armor mods. Others mostly crits. and damage. I bought whatever is available from vendors.
And if you watch Fextralife or RPG division builds you realize that at level 30ish they have 1400 armors in most of their builds. The only thing I found that gives armor is ARMADILLO mods.
I would like to see your build and armors and it's mods. So I can understand what I am missing.
Fextralife and RPG Division are good youtubers.
But they always come up with some preset that doesn't really work/aren't the most effective. I noticed this pattern when I was playing Divinity 2. I'm not saying that it's wrong, only stating that this is what they do.
Well, that being said.
Considering that you're not investing in crafting, here's the suggestion: Pay a visit to every shop avaiable to you on the map. If you find some merchant, look for armadillo mod - at least blue quality (which I think is already avaiable from merchants).
If they have none, try to pass time (24 hours), and look again at their inventory (that probably will be refreshed). If they don't spawn any armadillo, try the next vendor.
Get rid of all other clothing mods and only use only Armadillo in your clothing. You should pick your clothing by the number of slots avaiable in it.
Same thing to guns - only use crunch mod in your guns. The damage that you'll squeeze out of them is better than using some critical chance or critical damage boost.
Here is my V. She is a level 46 - with max (20) body and technical ability. She doesn't use any kind of hacking. It's my second run.
All weapons have purple crunch, and all gear is equiped with purple armadillo that I managed to craft 10 level ago, but I'm still tanking enemies around and trampling them in all encounters, even the Valentinos (that are one of the strongest gangs). Same goes for weapons: crafted them 10 levels ago, and they are an overkill.
To make the encounters more interesting, I usually change the shotgun for SMG (BTW, this shotgun is Sovereign - when you aim it fires two cartridges - which is basically one shooting anything, and must be crafted - location:
https://cyberpunk2077.wiki.fextralife.com/Sovereign)
Here is her Attributes:
Perk investments: Basically in three trees: Body - Annihilation (because the building was focused on shotgun), Technical Ability - Crafting, and Cool - Cold Blood. No points on Intelligence or Reflexes - Even without investing points in it, killing enemies with SMGs, Assault Rifles and Katana is very easy.
Well, I hope this can help you. Good Luck.
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