RPGMemes

In short, the armor is designed to be cheap, light and imposing. It protects them from the environment but not a direct hit from a weapon.

It's a form of ablative armor. The laser blast vaporizes and explodes the clamshell which crucially sits away from the body glove. It will burn the wearer and knock them out on military grade weapons fire, but does improve survivability considerably. Much like modern military body armor.