Durability

Item durability is a property to which certain crafted items, including all tools, weapons and armor, as well as certain other usable items, are subject; it represents the number of useful actions an item can perform and depletes upon item use. For tools and weapons, item durability represents the number of available uses before the tool is destroyed (note that bows are exempted from durability). For armour it represents the amount of damage that can be absorbed before the armour is destroyed; in addition, it determines the fraction of damage received the armour will absorb.

The remaining durability of any item can be seen by looking at the item's durability bar on the bottom of the item icon in the inventory and action bar. An item that has not once been used will not display a durability bar. As the item's durability decreases, the bar shortens right to left, changing colour from green to red. When the item has only small number of uses left the durability bar is an empty grey line.

Armor durability
Armor absorbs damage based only on its remaining durability. The material from which armor is made does not affect its damage absorption. However, armor made from lower-grade materials with less durability will degrade more quickly and lose its protective properties sooner than higher-quality armor. A piece of armor loses one durability point every time minimal damage is taken. Damage will decrease the durability of all pieces of armor worn by the same amount; thus more armor does not last longer. It does, however, offer greater damage mitigation.

Consider this example:
 * After 25 hits (of minimal damage), a leather chest-plate has 49% durability remaining (24 points of 49), thus 49% of a chestplate's original damage protection. A diamond chestplate would have 93.5% of its durability left (360 points of 385), and hence 93.5% of its original damage absorption.

Thus it is evident that though the initial maximum damage absorption is the same for all materials, lower-grade armor must be replaced with much greater frequency to be useful.

Each type of armor item has a given maximum absorption, measured analogously to health points. A piece of maximum durability armor in every slot affords maximum protection (10 points). Individual pieces of armor at full durability fill out a number of armor points dependent on the variety of armor (helmet, chest-plate, etc.) only.

''As a note to the player, even the most minor of falling damage will incur a durability loss in armor. Thus the prudent player is advised not to wear his best armor when engaging in activity where some minor falls are likely but serious danger is absent.''

Mixing Armor Materials


The total defense from a full suit of armor is calculated based on the total remaining durability of all pieces worn divided by the total maximum durability for all pieces worn. For example, if you are wearing diamond chestplate, leggings, and boots that are all at full strength, their total durability is 384 + 368 + 320 = 1072 of a possible 1072, and they provide 4 + 3 + 1.5 = 8.5 armor points. If you then add to this a leather cap with only one point of durability left, the total becomes 1073 of a possible 1106 durability, and your defense increases to 9.5 armor points.

This is counterintuitive, since you would expect the leather cap to contribute only one thirty-fourth of its 1.5 defense. Since the game always rounds defense down, this would mean that the leather cap should have no effect whatsoever.

This suggests a strategy of always having one high durability item made of iron or diamond, combined with three leather items at any level of durability. For example, mixing a brand new pair of diamond boots with leather items with only one durability each would give you 323 of a possible 448 durability, which would result in seven shields of defense (and more if the leather items are in any kind of decent condition).

One warning: as soon as one of the items is destroyed, then all of its benefits are gone regardless of the condition of the remaining items. In the example above (diamond boots and everything else leather with 1 durability), taking a single hit would drop your defense from 7 to 1 immediately (since the boots would now have 319 out of 320 durability and would be rounded down to 1 defense instead of 1.5). Use this technique at your own risk.

Another thing to consider is that this can work against you as well. With a leather cap, tunic, and leggings at full strength, you will have 8.5 defense. Adding diamond boots with 1 durability left would drop this to 2.5 defense! This means that the more durability an item has to start with, the less useful (and more harmful) it is when its durability gets low.

Durability tables

 * Below are listed the numbers of uses for each tool and armor type. Armor values stand for the number of minimum-damage hits it can sustain, and tool values stand for how many blocks a tool can break or hits a sword can deal.