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Armorc

Armor classes. From left (weakest) to right (strongest): no armor, leather, golden, chain, iron, and diamond.

Armor is a category of items that provide players and certain mobs with varying levels of protection from common damage types, and appear graphically on the wearer. These items include several different classes of helmets, chestplates, leggings, and boots, which can each be placed in designated armor slots of a player's inventory for use.

Obtaining

Crafting

It takes 24 units of a given material to make a full set of armor. Chain armor cannot be crafted.

Armor can be repaired by placing two pieces of the same type (e.g., iron helmets) in a crafting grid. The resulting item will have slightly more durability left than the original items combined, but any enchantments will be lost. Repairing armor with an anvil will preserve and combine the enchantments. Chain armor can be repaired with anvils by combining iron ingots with it.

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
Helmet Leather or
Gold Ingot or
Iron Ingot or
Diamond

Chestplate Leather or
Gold Ingot or
Iron Ingot or
Diamond

Leggings Leather or
Gold Ingot or
Iron Ingot or
Diamond

Boots Leather or
Gold Ingot or
Iron Ingot or
Diamond

Turtle Shell Scute


Drops

Zombies and skeletons that spawn with armor have a small chance to drop their armor when killed by the player. Zombies, skeletons, zombie pigmen and wither skeletons upon death will always drop armor that they picked up and equipped.

Trading

Leather pants and enchanted leather tunics can be bought from leatherworker villagers.

Iron helmets, iron chestplates, enchanted diamond chestplates, chainmail helmets, chainmail chestplates, chainmail leggings and chainmail boots can be bought from armorer villagers.

Natural generation

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Iron Helmet Stronghold Altar chest 1 12%
Village Armorer's chest 1 31.8%
Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%
Bedrock Edition
Iron Helmet Stronghold Altar chest 1 11.6%
Village Armorer's chest 1 31.8%
Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%


Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Iron Chestplate Stronghold Altar chest 1 12%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%
Bedrock Edition
Iron Chestplate Stronghold Altar chest 1 11.6%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%


Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Iron Leggings Stronghold Altar chest 1 12%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%
Bedrock Edition
Iron Leggings Stronghold Altar chest 1 11.6%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%


Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Iron Boots Stronghold Altar chest 1 12%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%
Bedrock Edition
Iron Boots Stronghold Altar chest 1 11.6%
Village Weaponsmith's chest 1 25.6%


Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Golden Chestplate Bastion remnant Generic chest 1 9.8%
Nether fortress Chest 1 19%
Bedrock Edition
Golden Chestplate Bastion remnant Generic chest 1 9.8%
Nether fortress Chest 1 19%

Unknown item enchanted-iron-helmet.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-iron-chestplate.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-iron-leggings.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-iron-boots.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-diamond-helmet.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-diamond-chestplate.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-diamond-leggings.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Unknown item enchanted-diamond-boots.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

[upcoming]

Usage

Chestplates provide the most protection per unit of material, followed by leggings. For leather, iron, and diamond armor, boots are followed by helmets, but for chainmail and gold, the helmet is more efficient. However, boots are always the most durable.

Duplicate armor pieces are not stackable in inventory slots.

Tiers

File:Armour.png

The armor section in Pocket Edition

Armor classes include (from weakest/least durable to strongest/most durable):

Other

Pumpkins can be worn as a helmet. This will not provide any protection, and it will partially block the player's view, but it does prevent endermen from becoming aggressive when players look at them. Mob heads can also be worn as a helmet. They are merely for cosmetic use and have no other functions.

Mechanics

Whenever a piece of armor absorbs damage for the player, the armor itself is damaged, reducing its durability. After taking enough damage, the armor piece is destroyed.

Damage types

The following types of damage are reduced by armor and, consequently, damage the armor itself:

The following types of damage are not reduced by armor and have no effect on the armor itself:

All sources of damage will damage all armor pieces worn in Pocket Edition, however.

Defense points

🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡

The armor bar as shown in game

The player's current protection level is represented visually by the armor bar. Each defense point (1 (🛡)) represent 4% damage reduction. With all 20 shown full, the player has a total of 80% damage reduction. The armor meter is affected by the particular pieces that are worn, as well as the tier of the armor. Different combinations of armor provide different levels of defense.

The following table shows the amount of defense points added by each individual piece of armor, as well as the total points added by a full set of armor for each material.

Material Full set Helmet Chestplate Leggings Boots
Leather 7 (🛡🛡🛡🛡) 1 (🛡) 3 (🛡🛡) 2 (🛡) 1 (🛡)
Golden 11 (🛡 × 5.5) 2 (🛡) 5 (🛡🛡🛡) 3 (🛡🛡) 1 (🛡)
Chain 12 (🛡 × 6) 2 (🛡) 5 (🛡🛡🛡) 4 (🛡🛡) 1 (🛡)
Iron 15 (🛡 × 7.5) 2 (🛡) 6 (🛡🛡🛡) 5 (🛡🛡🛡) 2 (🛡)
Diamond 20 (🛡 × 10) 3 (🛡🛡) 8 (🛡🛡🛡🛡) 6 (🛡🛡🛡) 3 (🛡🛡)

Enchantments

See also: Enchanting

Armor can be enchanted to provide various enchantments. Enchantments can provide more protection or allow armors to protect certain types of damage that armor doesn't normally protect against, such as fall damage or fire. Damage reduction from enchantments do not decrease the armor's durability. Armor enchantments do not appear on the armor bar.

An armor's material determines how enchantable it is. The higher a material's enchantability, the greater the chances of getting multiple and high-level enchantments (see enchantment mechanics for details).

Leather Golden Chain Iron Diamond
15 25 12 9 10

As with several enchantments, several different levels of protection are possible. The maximum level of a protection enchantment is currently IV (4). Protection enchantments from multiple pieces of armor stack together, up to a calculated maximum.

Each protection enchantment protects against specific types of damage. The amount of damage reduction depends on the Enchantment Protection Factor (EPF) provided by that enchantment.[1]

Enchantment Damage reduced for Type Modifier EPF
Level I
EPF
Level II
EPF
Level III
EPF
Level IV
Protection All 0.75 1 2 3 5
Fire Protection Fire, lava, and blaze fireballs 1.25 2 4 6 9
Blast Protection Explosions 1.5 3 5 7 11
Projectile Protection Arrows, ghast and blaze fireballs 1.5 3 5 7 11
Feather Falling Fall damage (including ender pearls) 2.5 5 8 12 18

The EPFs for each enchantment and level are the result of the following formula:

floor ( (6 + level^2) * TypeModifier / 3 )

When a player or mob wearing armor is subjected to damage, the EPFs of all applicable enchantments are added together, capped at 25, multiplied by a random value between 50% and 100%, rounded up, and capped again at 20. The damage is then reduced by 4% per point of total effective EPF (for example, a total effective EPF of 20 reduces damage by 80%).

Because of the caps in the calculation, it's possible to max out protection against specific types of damage with only three pieces of armor. For example, two pieces of armor with Blast Protection IV (EPF 11 each) and a single piece with Protection III (EPF 3) would give a total EPF of 25 versus explosions (before the remainder of the calculation). Any additional EPF would be wasted against explosions (but might be useful against other types of damage, if applicable).

If the damage is of a type that armor protects against normally, this reduction applies only to the damage that got through the armor. For example, a full suit of diamond armor reduces damage from attacks by 80% -- if each piece of armor also had a Protection IV enchantment (EPF 5 each), the enchantments would further reduce damage by 40% to 80% each time, for a total damage reduction of 88% to 96% (i.e., 80%, plus 40%-80% of the remaining 20%).

It is possible, using the /give command, to obtain armor with an enchantment level higher than what is normally obtainable via normal survival. Using this method, a player could give themselves, for example, a full set of diamond armor with a Protection V enchantment on every piece. Following the algorithm above, we find that, since Protection V has an EPF of 7, only 3 pieces of the armor need to have Protection V in order to reach the maximum 25 EPF for all types of damage (with 3 pieces of armor with Protection V and one piece with Protection IV, one's EPF is still 26, but the step between Protection IV and Protection V is 2 EPF, so the cap would not be reached without the third piece of Protection V armor). Any higher Protection enchantments could be used to allow the cap to be reached with only one enchantment, rather than having a full set of enchanted armor, but would be wasted if all pieces shared the same level enchantment.

To calculate the average amount of extra protection given by a set of armor, use the following formula:

(100-(total defense points of armor set * 4))*(Total EPF of Armor Set)*(4%)*(0.0075)

To find the total protection of the armor set, simply add the extra protection to the standard percentage.

Durability

Any hit from a damage source that can be blocked by armor will remove one point of durability from each piece of armor worn, except with explosions.The following chart displays how many hits each piece of armor can endure.

Material Helmet Chestplate Leggings Boots
Leather 56 81 76 66
Golden 78 113 106 92
Chain/Iron 166 241 226 196
Diamond 364 529 496 430

The chart below shows the durability per unit of material for each piece of armor, compared to that of the boots. Note that the durability per unit does not depend on the tier of the armor.

Helmet Chestplate Leggings Boots
Durability/Unit 68% 61% 66% 100%

This means that for the same number of leather/iron ingots/gold ingots/chain/diamond, boots can take 1.5 more damage than leggings. Thus, chestplate and leggings offer more defense points per unit, but have a less durability per unit.

Upcoming changes

In 1.9,‌[upcoming] protection given by armor and armor enchantments has changed.

Armor defense points are now controlled by an attribute, generic.armor.

Damage taken now depends on both the number of defense points and the strength of the attack. The damage formula is damage = damage * ( 1 - ( defensePoints - damage / 2 ) / 30 ). In tabular form, damages are:

Armor Attack damage
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
1 0.98 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
2 0.95 1.93 2.95 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
3 0.92 1.87 2.85 3.87 4.92 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
4 0.88 1.80 2.75 3.73 4.75 5.80 6.88 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
5 0.85 1.73 2.65 3.60 4.58 5.60 6.65 7.73 8.85 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
6 0.82 1.67 2.55 3.47 4.42 5.40 6.42 7.47 8.55 9.67 10.82 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
7 0.78 1.60 2.45 3.33 4.25 5.20 6.18 7.20 8.25 9.33 10.45 11.60 12.78 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
8 0.75 1.53 2.35 3.20 4.08 5.00 5.95 6.93 7.95 9.00 10.08 11.20 12.35 13.53 14.75 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00
9 0.72 1.47 2.25 3.07 3.92 4.80 5.72 6.67 7.65 8.67 9.72 10.80 11.92 13.07 14.25 15.47 16.72 18.00 19.00 20.00
10 0.68 1.40 2.15 2.93 3.75 4.60 5.48 6.40 7.35 8.33 9.35 10.40 11.48 12.60 13.75 14.93 16.15 17.40 18.68 20.00
11 0.65 1.33 2.05 2.80 3.58 4.40 5.25 6.13 7.05 8.00 8.98 10.00 11.05 12.13 13.25 14.40 15.58 16.80 18.05 19.33
12 0.62 1.27 1.95 2.67 3.42 4.20 5.02 5.87 6.75 7.67 8.62 9.60 10.62 11.67 12.75 13.87 15.02 16.20 17.42 18.67
13 0.58 1.20 1.85 2.53 3.25 4.00 4.78 5.60 6.45 7.33 8.25 9.20 10.18 11.20 12.25 13.33 14.45 15.60 16.78 18.00
14 0.55 1.13 1.75 2.40 3.08 3.80 4.55 5.33 6.15 7.00 7.88 8.80 9.75 10.73 11.75 12.80 13.88 15.00 16.15 17.33
15 0.52 1.07 1.65 2.27 2.92 3.60 4.32 5.07 5.85 6.67 7.52 8.40 9.32 10.27 11.25 12.27 13.32 14.40 15.52 16.67
16 0.48 1.00 1.55 2.13 2.75 3.40 4.08 4.80 5.55 6.33 7.15 8.00 8.88 9.80 10.75 11.73 12.75 13.80 14.88 16.00
17 0.45 0.93 1.45 2.00 2.58 3.20 3.85 4.53 5.25 6.00 6.78 7.60 8.45 9.33 10.25 11.20 12.18 13.20 14.25 15.33
18 0.42 0.87 1.35 1.87 2.42 3.00 3.62 4.27 4.95 5.67 6.42 7.20 8.02 8.87 9.75 10.67 11.62 12.60 13.62 14.67
19 0.38 0.80 1.25 1.73 2.25 2.80 3.38 4.00 4.65 5.33 6.05 6.80 7.58 8.40 9.25 10.13 11.05 12.00 12.98 14.00
20 0.35 0.73 1.15 1.60 2.08 2.60 3.15 3.73 4.35 5.00 5.68 6.40 7.15 7.93 8.75 9.60 10.48 11.40 12.35 13.33

Effacy of the various protection enchantments has also changed:

Enchantment Damage reduced for Type Modifier EPF
Level I
EPF
Level II
EPF
Level III
EPF
Level IV
Protection All 1 1 2 3 4
Fire Protection Fire, lava, and blaze fireballs 2 2 4 6 8
Blast Protection Explosions 2 2 4 6 8
Projectile Protection Arrows, ghast and blaze fireballs 2 2 4 6 8
Feather Falling Fall damage (including ender pearls) 3 3 6 9 12

The EPFs of all applicable enchantments are added together and capped at 20. The damage is reduced as damage = damage * ( 1 - cappedEPF / 30 ), giving a maximum reduction of 66% at EPF 20.

Mob armor

File:ZombieIron.png

Zombie equipped with iron armor

Certain mobs can spawn equipped with random armor pieces. Some mobs also spawn with the ability to pick up armor on the ground and equip them. The probability of mobs spawning equipped with armor, whether the armor is enchanted, how high level of enchantment the armor has, and how many pieces of armor a mob spawns with are dependent on the difficulty; if a mob spawns with armor, the tier of armor(leather, gold, etc.) has a fixed probability:

Armor Type Chance
Leather 37.06%
Gold 48.73%
Chain 12.90%
Iron 1.27%
Diamond 0.04%

Armor protects mobs the same way to players, and likewise with armor enchantments.

The following mobs can spawn with armor:

The following do not naturally spawn with armor, but will pick up any dropped pieces:

These mobs cannot wear armor through survival-mode means, but if equipped with commands, their armor will be visible:

Helmets can protect mobs from burning in sunlight, depleting its durability as it takes up the damage. Eventually, the helmet will lose all its durability and break. Pumpkins and mob heads also protect mobs from burning in sunlight.

Horse armor

Main article: Horse armor

Horse armor can be equipped on horses to protect them from damage.

Special mob armor

Other mobs do have armor values built in, but they do not provide damage protection and are used instead for aesthetics or other purposes.

  • Sheep's wool is considered as armor.
  • Pigs, horses, donkeys, and mules can wear saddles, which is considered as armor.
  • Snow golems have pumpkins worn on their heads as helmets.
  • Charged creepers have an electric glow around them, which is actually an armor value.
  • The wither develops a shield right during its initial stage. It will develop another shield when it is at low health, which deflects arrows.
  • A tamed wolf's collar is considered as armor.

Data values

Armor/ID

Achievements

Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS4)
PS4 Other
Iron ManWear a full suit of Iron Armor.15GBronze

Video

Armor/video

History

c
0.24_01Notch tested with armor models. Only chestplates and helmets were available. They were merely aesthetic at the time and had no effect on gameplay.
0.24_02Armor models were tested with zombies and skeletons.
?Armor was later removed from zombies and skeletons.
indev
?Studded armor can be seen in the texture files.
February 9, 2010Notch revealed new models for armor, which included leggings and boots.
February 18, 2010Added tiers for armor (cloth (wool), gold, chain, iron, and diamond).
File:Leather cap pre 1.4.png File:Leather tunic pre 1.4.png File:Leather pants pre 1.4.png File:Leather boots pre 1.4.png Cloth armor (later called leather) was given the textures from one of Notch's previous games, Legend of the Chambered
Armor can be crafted and worn.
Armor now functions. All helmets give 3 (🛡🛡), all chestplates give 8 (🛡🛡🛡🛡), all leggings give 6 (🛡🛡🛡), and all boots give 3 (🛡🛡). Armors have limited durability, with lower tier armors less durable than higher tier armors.
Alpha
1.0.8Renamed wool armor to leather armor.
Leather armor is now crafted with leather instead of wool.
r
1.0.0Beta 1.9-pre1Each tier now provide different amounts of protection.
Beta 1.9-pre4Armor can be enchanted.
1.1Iron armor naturally generates in village chests.
1.2.112w06aZombies drop iron helmets on rare occasions, and zombie pigmen drop golden helmets.
1.3.112w15a⇧ Shift+clicking can now be used to wear armor.
12w21aChain armor can now be obtained legitimately in survival mode through trading.
1.4.212w32aMob armor is reintroduced. A partial or full set of any armor is sometimes worn by zombies, skeletons and zombie pigman, with the likelihood increasing with difficulty.
August 17, 2012Jeb and Dinnerbone tweeted pictures of dyeable leather armor.
12w34aLeather armor can now be dyed by crafting a leather armor piece with dyes. Dyes can be removed by using dyed leather armor on a cauldron with water.
File:Leather cap 12w34a.png File:Leather tunic 12w34a.png File:Leather pants 12w34a.png File:Leather boots 12w34a.png Default leather armor texture is slightly darker.
12w34bLeather and diamond armor models were altered. Leather tunics have buttons and longer sleeves, and leather caps no longer have a central, narrow protrusion. Diamond chestplates have notches under the shoulders.
12w36aDyed leather armor are more saturated and have a slight tint of tan in respect to the default armor color.
Wither skeletons can spawn with random armor.
12w37aFile:Grid Leather Cap.png File:Grid Leather Tunic.png File:Grid Leather Pants.png File:Grid Leather Boots.pngLeather armor now has non-dyed parts. This was implemented so that players can distinguish between other types of armor and similarly colored leather armor.
1.4.612w50aThe Thorns enchantment can be enchanted on chestplates.
1.513w04aArmor in your hand can be equipped by right-clicking.
Dispensers can equip nearby players with armor.
1.7.213w36aLeather boots can be obtained as one of the "junk" items by fishing.
1.814w05aArmor no longer turns red when mobs/players are hurt.
14w06aGiants can wear armor.
14w25aChain armor cannot be crafted anymore due to the item form of fire being removed.
u
1.915w34bArmor durability now affects armor value.
15w36aArmor and armor enchantment calculations changed.
15w36dArmor durability affecting value removed.
Armor now has an attribute controlling the defense points.
pa
0.6.0Added armor.
0.8.0Changed leather armor sprites to that of the PC version, but its armor model remains that of older versions.
0.9.0build 1Iron armor naturally generates in village chests.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1Added armor.
TU5Added chain armor.
Added a quick equip for armor to the inventory interface.
TU12Changed the texture for leather armor.
TU14Leather armor can be dyed.
Item repair can repair armors.
TU25Armor now has the quick equip functionality.


Issues

Issues relating to "Armor" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

  • Despite being equipped in the chestplate slot, the Elytra, ‌[upcoming] is not considered armor, and cannot be seen when the player is invisible.

Gallery

References


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