I was excited to get stronger armor, but before you upgrade its practically worthless. The upgrades are heinously expensive and farming grubs (and secondary ingredients to a lesser extent) is slow, tedious, and unplentiful. Then, when you upgrade, it feels barely stronger than it was before .13 at the cost of many hours of effort.
Additionally, the sleek upgrade for the broodmother helm poisons your teammates fighting with you, AS WELL AS YOURSELF. A waste of a lot of effort to upgrade it. And the druability (or repair cost) for the charcoal canteen makes it not worth keeping/using in for our party.
I wanted to get beefier with armor upgrades, not feel like I worked my a** off for nothing of worth. Antlions, Black Ox Beatles, and other bugs still take huge chunks off health bars if you take a hit. I am disappointed.