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Scout cruisers were lightly armoured, with variable waterline amour thicknesses on different parts of the hull. Pathfinder had 2-inch-thick vertical armour covering her engine rooms, but the armour did not run the full length of her hull. She had a partial armoured deck ranging from 1.5 inches to 5/8 inch thick. Her conning tower had 3-inch armour.

When she was built, she was fitted out with ten quick firing (QF) 12-pounder guns and eight QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss light naval guns – and as was common with warships of this period, she was fitted with two submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes. Two further QF 12-pounder guns were subsequently fitted and the eight QF 3-pounder guns were replaced with six heavier 6-pounder guns.

In 1911–1912, in the run-up to World War I, her original but by now outdated 12-pounder guns were replaced by nine more powerful faster-loading QF 4-inch guns. A brand new design introduced in 1911, the new QF 4-inch light naval gun would become standard on most Royal Navy and British Empire destroyers during World War I.