Armor

From Vintage Story Wiki

Armor is used to protect the player from damage. There are many different kinds of armor that can be made of many different materials, from wood, all the way to iron plates. Each kind of armor gives small, or not so small, debuffs to things like movement speed or hunger rate. While each material provides increased protection and resistance.

Obtaining

All armor is accessible via crafting. Most metal armors have components made by smithing, except lamellae are cast. Three armor types: Improvised (from grass and wood), Leather (from twine and leather) and Gambeson (from linen cloth) do not require metal.

Basic Armor Mechanics

The purpose of armor is protection. However, the armor model in Vintage Story is somewhat complex, with armor and damage tiers, relative and flat damage protection, and relative and flat damage loss by tier.

  1. Armor does not protect players from damage taken outside of combat, i.e. from falling or starving.
  2. When a combat attack on a player is made, the armor slot receiving the damage is selected. Each slot has a different chance to be selected (head = 20%, body = 50%, legs = 30%.) If the player has not equipped armor in the slot selected for damage, then the play received full damage.
  3. Armor tier and weapon/attack damage tier are compared. If the damage tier of the weapon (or mob) is higher than the armor tier, different sets of losses are chosen.
  4. The damage losses are applied based on the damage tier. If the damage tier is high enough, all protection from the armor could be negated.
  5. When calculating damage, Flat damage reduction is applied first. Then relative reduction is applied based on percent protection from the armor type.

Protection

It's important to understand how armor values function. Each type of armor (Improvised, Gambeson, Chain, Plate) have base stat modifiers. A full set of iron plate slows you down just as much as a full set of copper plate, but iron armor has more durability so it lasts longer than copper armor. Secondly, iron is "more protective" because a metal of a higher tier has a higher "Flat Damage Reduction" and a higher "Relative Protection" reduction percentage. Also, armor constructed from higher tier materials protects more effectively against powerful attacks from higher tier weapons. Generally, rarer and higher tier metals make better armor, iron is better than black bronze which is better than copper. So it's worth your resources to make good armor.

Types of Armor

When it comes to armor, plate is the most protective and has the highest flat damage reduction, and the most expensive, as it requires plates on top of chainmail, which is added to a leather jerkin. Please note, the leather jerkin is a component for Brigandine, Chain, Scale and Plate armors, while the Leather armor is a "finished armor". Both items can be worn as armor, but they offer very different protective values.

Armor Type Flat Damage Reduction (HP) Relative Protection (%) Healing Rate Hunger Rate Ranged Accuracy Ranged Charge Movement Rate High Damage?
Leather Jerkin 0.25 40% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% No
Improvised (Wood) 0 55% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% No
Leather Armor 0.6 60% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% No
Lamellar (Wood) 0.5 65% -10% +8% -3% -7% -3% No
Gambeson (Cloth) 0.75 75% -17% +3% 0% 0% -2% Yes
Lamellar (Metal) 0.5-1.1 75%-80% -10% +8% -3% -7% -3% No
Brigandine 1.0-1.3 78%-84% -17% +12% -7% -14% -5% No
Chain 1.1-1.4 80%-86% -10% +7% -3% -6% -3% No
Scale 1.3-1.6 84%-90% -17% +12% -10% -20% -7% No
Plate 1.5-1.8 90%-97% -33% +24% -10% -20% -17% Yes

Armor Tiers and Durability

Non-Metal Armors

Armor Material Protection Tier Durability
Improvised Wood + Grass 0 75
Wood Lamellar Pelt, Resin, Wood 0 200
Leather Jerkin Leather only 1 250
Leather Armor Leather + Twine 1 700
Gambeson (Cloth) Linen Cloth 2 1000

Metal Armors

Different materials may be made into different types of armors. The materials used affects the durability of the armor. So even if you don't have the material you're looking for at the moment, you can choose an armor type that matches the material resources you've acquired.

Armor Material Tier Lamellar Brigandine Chain Scale Plate
Copper 1 300 900 600 800 500
Gold 1 N/A N/A 400 N/A 500
Bismuth Bronze 2 350 1050 650 1150 900
Black Bronze 2 450 1200 750 1350 1200
Tin Bronze 2 400 1100 700 1200 1000
Silver 2 N/A N/A 500 N/A 1000
Iron 3 N/A 1300 800 1400 2200
Steel 4 N/A 1500 900 1600 3000