User blog comment:B214/Question and Answers 6/@comment-207.242.44.6-20190124200540/@comment-10330822-20190126232928

I think the armor might just need to be the usual form, because I'm not sure in what context hard scales would even be useful if it was just on a portion of the body. Like, imagine Issei's Boosted Gear only boosted "parts" of his body. If the gear isn't protecting everything, its kind of pointless.

Probably just superior shielding, like either a strong shield or more of them. Remember what made Ladon so hard was the strength of his shields. So, logically, the more you use a Balance Breaker and the closer you get to that level of Ladon, the stronger the shield would be.