Fully upgraded padded armor goes up to 96, a cloak gives +4 up to 100. Padded armor upgrades are fairly cheap so it pays to get them as quickly as possible.

Max armor and high HP is not enough to charge through a fuling camp. They'll still deal respectable damage and brutes will always hit hard. Damage pulls double duty as both the raw hurt and armor penetration value, so any star fulings will be absolutely brutal.

Bonemass is your fuling camp super power and charging in without it is suicide. The up front damage gets cut in half, which makes armor more effective and double dips into taking even less damage. Poke away at some fulings, activate bonemass, and start carving through them one by one. Five minutes is usually enough time to clear the camp, as long as you keep up a decent pace.