[2021] broken arms / broken legs

The way injuries work, The first hit taken after any significant period of no-damage will absolutely 100% not give you an injury; However that first hit tags the players with a hidden debuff.

That hidden debuff allows the player to be injured. And every hit taken after that debuff is applied boosts the chances of any given injury occurring. Armor lowers the chances of recieving an injury by it's Effect Resistance stat; But you can never reach 100% resistance due to the rising chance of injury from repeated hits.

Even in steel armor, You should not be blithely facetanking enemies with no regard to your health. You need to dodge, You need to move, You need to avoid damage for 15-20 seconds every so often. Ideally, even in heavy armor, You should basically never be being hit.

You can absolutely achieve this; Even with fist weapons. I do it all the time as they're my favorite weapon type. In fact, Fist weapons have one of the easiest times doing so due to the myriad of special effects it can trigger on hit, including stuns, staggers, knockdowns, slows, etc.

You can do a full melee playthrough. But you cannot facetank as if damage does not matter. The damage may not; But the injuries do.

Originally posted by Omega Starlight: Still, it just never felt quite right getting a broken limb from a swipe by a meek-looking zombie considering how thick and tough the game's steel armor looks.

I'm sorry, Have you seen what they do to reinforced concrete and steel walls when given the opportunity?

'Meek looking' they may be. But crazy strong they absolutely are.

And if they can claw through solid steel, They can claw through steel plating. Otherwise steel armor would basically be 100% absolute protection and it'd be a no brainer to pick heavy armor 100% of the time.