We provide a brief update to our current efforts in studying shock mitigation using one-dimensional arrays of adjacent metal spheres that may progressively shrink in size. These tapered chains are characterized by the number of spheres, N, the amount of tapering, q, and restitutive losses, ω. Spheres are assumed to interact via the nonlinear Hertz potential, V∞δ5/2, where δ is the amount of overlap of adjacent grains used to emulate compression. To gauge the effectiveness of such chains at absorbing transient pulses, we look at the normalized kinetic energy, KEN, as a function of N,q,ω. Finally the concept for a tapered chain armor panel is reviewed and evaluated.