does landing gear absorb shock?

[gunhammer]

hello again!

now i think i have found a massive flaw in my interplanetary landings and that is that most of my ships dont have any landing gear (im not a noob to the game or anything, it just never really occurred to me). so anyway i have started to use spud-legs for landing and i am wondering if they make a difference on how hard i land. do they work like shock absorbers on a bike or are they just to make ships have a better stand?

thank you.

[softweir]

They do absorb shocks to some extent, and they are tougher than many other rocket parts so won't break quite so easily!

[RocketPilot573]

I don't think the landing legs actually absorb the impact, but they are much stronger than other parts so it is a good idea to use them.

[_Zee]

They definitely do something towards absorbing shock. This can be tested by making a basic lander, launching it say... 50 meters into the air, and then letting it freefall back to Kerbin. If you do this with 4 of the heavy lander legs on your craft you'll notice the legs break, subsequently breaking everything else on your craft. But then if you run this same exact test with 8 of the heavy lander legs, you will see all the legs hold and cause the craft to bounce off the ground for a second and then safely land.

The exact height for 4 legs breaking and 8 legs holding may not be 50 meters, but you get the idea. This translates to helping with bumpy or hard landings on other planets and satellites.