Chestplate

Chestplates are a type of armor that covers the upper body of the player. There are five types of chestplates - Leather Tunic, Chain Chestplate, Iron Chestplate, Diamond Chestplate and Gold Chestplate. Chestplates can be placed in the 2nd armor slot of a player's inventory for activation. Zombies, skeletons and zombie pigmen can spawn wearing chestplates in Normal or Hard.

From mobs
If a zombie, zombie pigman or skeleton is wearing armor, there is a chance that the mob will drop a chestplate upon death.

From villages
Iron chestplates can be found in village chests.

From trading
Emeralds can be traded with villagers in exchange for helmets.

Defense points
Defense points are each signified by half of a shirt of mail in the armor bar above the health bar. Each defense point will reduce any damage dealt to the player which is absorbed by armor by 4%, increasing additively with the number of defense points. Different materials and combinations of armor provide different levels of defense.

The following table shows the amount of defense points added by chestplates.

The following table shows the number of defense points per unit of material.

Durability
The following table shows the amount of damage each piece of armor can absorb before being destroyed.

Any "hit" from a damage source that can be blocked by armor will remove one point of durability from each piece of armor worn. Damage taken that armor doesn't protect (such as falling or drowning) will not damage the armor, even if it is enchanted to protect against that type of damage. The following chart displays how many hits chest plates can endure.