Armor

Armor adds extra protection via a separate health bar that reaches 10 armor points. Armor can be made with leather, gold, iron, diamonds and fire (fire is unavailable without the use of hacking or modding) and consists of chestplates, helmets, boots and leggings. Each armor point gives 8% damage reduction, with a maximum of 80% damage reduction with 10 armor points.

[edit] Player armor

Player armor

Helmets, chestplates, leggings, and boots can be crafted out of leather, gold, iron, or diamond. Chainmail armor also exists but is not legitimately attainable in Survival mode or Hardcore mode.

While worn, each piece of armor adds to the player's total defense points, which serve to reduce certain kinds of damage to the player. Whenever a piece of armor absorbs damage for the player, the armor itself is damaged. After taking enough damage, the armor piece is destroyed. Each individual combination of armor type and material gives a different amount of defense points and has a different level of durability. Diamond gives the highest defense along with the most durability, and leather gives the least defense and least durability. A full suit of diamond armor will make you immune to zombies, skeletons, and spiders.

When the player takes damage of a sort that is not affected by armor, any armor they are wearing does not take damage. See the effects section below for more information.

Chainmail Armor. Only obtainable by hacking or in creative mode.

In Survival Mode, Chainmail armor can only be hacked into the game, or crafted with edited-in fire blocks. It has the same durability as iron armor. It is available without hacking in Creative Mode.

Players can also wear a Pumpkin as their helmet. Although this will block the player's view and not provide protection from attacks, it will prevent Endermen from attacking the player when the player stops looking at them. The player will still be attacked if they physically attack the Endermen.

[edit] Effects

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

• Direct attacks from mobs
• Direct attacks from other players
• Getting hit with an arrow
• Getting hit with a fireball from a Ghast or Blaze
• Touching a block of fire or lava
• Touching a cactus
• Explosions

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

• Ongoing damage from being on fire
• Suffocating inside a block
• Drowning in water
• Starvation
• Fall damage
• Falling into the Void
• Poisoning; e.g., from a Cave Spider bite or a Potion of Poison
• Instant damage from a Potion of Harm

Protection enchantments protect from types of damage armor without this enchantment doesn't protect, like falling damage. Armor durability still doesn't decrease when protection-enchanted armor takes environmental damage.

[edit] Defense points

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
Gold
Chainmail
Iron
Diamond

[edit] Durability

The following table shows the amount of damage each piece of armor can absorb before being destroyed. Each "hit", regardless of the damage, counts as two points.

[edit] Enchantability

Armor can be enchanted, and the material it's made of determines how enchantable it is, according to the following factors.

Notice that gold armor is highly enchantable, compensating somewhat for its poor defensive properties. See the enchanting page for the exact details of how this works.

[edit] Crafting

It takes 24 units of material to make a full set of armor. Although it is not necessary that all of your armor is the same material, each individual piece must consist of only one material. This means that you could wear a leather cap with an iron chestplate, but you cannot craft a chestplate out of both iron and gold.

Note that chestplates provide the most protection per unit of material, followed by leggings, followed by boots, followed by helmets. The exact ratio varies between different materials, however, and gold helmets are actually more cost-effective than gold boots.

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Helmets	Leather or Gold Ingots or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems or Fire*		Leather Cap gives Gold Helmet gives Iron Helmet gives Diamond Helmet gives Chain Helmet gives
Chestplates	Leather or Gold Ingots or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems or Fire*		Leather Tunic gives Gold Chestplate gives Iron Chestplate gives Diamond Chestplate gives Chain Chestplate gives
Leggings	Leather or Gold Ingots or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems or Fire*		Leather Pants give Gold Leggings give Iron Leggings give Diamond Leggings give Chain Leggings give
Boots	Leather or Gold Ingots or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems or Fire*		Leather Boots give Gold Boots give Iron Boots give Diamond Boots give Chain Boots give

* Fire is only obtainable via inventory hacking.

[edit] Data Values

The following are the data values for each armor piece:

[edit] History

Before Alpha 1.0.8, wool was used instead of leather as the lowest tier of armor.

Before 1.9 Prerelease 1, all helmets gave (0.30 efficiency), all chest armor gave (0.50 efficiency), all leg armor gave (0.43 efficiency), and all boots gave (0.38 efficiency). Armor's effectiveness was linked to durability, with lower tier materials less durable than higher tier materials. Leather armor was as protective as diamond armor when undamaged, but leather armor quickly lost durability to attacks, thus its defense power would more rapidly diminish. Likewise, if you put on almost fully decreased boots when you had other armor on, it lowered your armor protection.

Also before 1.9 Prerelease 1, specific types of damage were reduced by a certain amount based upon the effective armor points of the player. Each point of armor reduced the damage you took by 8%, up to the maximum reduction of 80%. As of 1.1, iron armor naturally generates in NPC villages.

Minecraft 1.0 had a bug that caused all armor to be twice as effective at reducing damage as intended. This was fixed in Minecraft 1.1.

[edit] Mob armor

In Survival Test, certain Zombies and Skeletons could be found wearing armor; a chestplate or a helmet. Zombies had the potential, although extremely unlikely, to wear both a chestplate and a helmet at the same time. Skeletons could also be found wearing armor, albeit extremely infrequently. Mob armor was purely cosmetic; however, although it is possible that it was a planned feature to increase mob difficulty.

[edit] Gallery

• 

  The armor sprite as it appeared in one of Notch's previous project, Legend of Chambered.

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  A Zombie wearing a chestplate.

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  A Zombie wearing a helmet in the Survival Test.

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  A Zombie wearing both a chestplate and a helmet.

Leather armor in HD:

• 

  Leather cap

• 

  Leather tunic

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  Leather pants

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  Leather boots

Iron armor in HD:

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  Iron helmet

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  Iron chestplate

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  Iron leggings

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  Iron boots

Gold armor in HD:

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  Gold helmet

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  Gold chestplate

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  Gold leggings

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  Gold boots

Diamond armor in HD:

• 

  Diamond helmet

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  Diamond chestplate

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  Diamond leggings

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  Diamond boots

Chain armor in HD:

• 

  Chain helmet

• 

  Chain chestplate

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  Chain leggings

• 

  Chain boots

[edit] Bugs

• The armor breaking animation and sounds only play in singleplayer.

[edit] Trivia

• Helmets, chestplates and leggings have different names when they are made of leather than when they are made of other materials. Helmets are named caps, chestplates are called tunics, and leggings are termed pants. Boots are still called boots.
• If you look in the armor folder inside Minecraft.jar, leather armor is still called cloth armor. This is because, as listed above, before the addition of Cows this armor was made from Wool.
• There is a texture file for armor labeled "Power", a indiscernible blue energy used by Creepers when struck by lightning(becoming a charged creeper).
• The chainmail chestplate has slightly longer sleeves than all other chestplates.
• The Leather Armor design comes from an old game Notch never finished "Legend of the Chambered".
• If you are sitting in a minecart with armor leggings on, and press E (for your Inventory), or pressing F5 (for 3rd person view), your legs will be in a sitting position, but your armor will be a standing position. However this can be fixed by removing any bottom piece of armor and then replacing them.
• There was a popular rumor that stated chain mail armor absorbs all damage done (so instead of losing .5 armor and .5 hearts you lose 1.0 armor), but this is not true.
• When in Pirate language, Golden Boots will be called "Buttershoes", a reference to Seananners, a well known YouTube personality that ran a Minecraft series.
• In German, leather pants are actually called Lederhosen.

[edit] References

Items Raw Materials Blaze Rod • Bone • Clay Balls • Coal ( Charcoal) • Diamond Gem • Ender Pearl • Feather • Flint • Ghast Tear • Glowstone Dust • Gold Ingot ( Nugget)  • Gunpowder • Iron Ingot • Leather • Nether Wart • Redstone Dust • Slimeball • String Manufactured Blaze Powder • Book • Bowl • Brick • Eye of Ender • Fermented Spider Eye • Glass Bottle • Glistering Melon • Magma Cream • Paper • Potions ( Splash) • Stick • Sugar Food Bread • Cake • Cookie • Chicken Egg • Melon Slice • Milk • Mushroom Stew • Raw Beef ( Steak) • Raw Chicken ( Cooked) • Raw Fish ( Cooked) • Raw Porkchop ( Cooked) • Red Apple ( Golden) • Rotten Flesh • Spider Eye Plants Seeds ( Wheat • Pumpkin • Melon) • Sugar Cane • Wheat Wool Dyes Bone Meal • Light Gray Dye • Gray Dye • Ink Sac • Pink Dye • Rose Red • Orange Dye • Dandelion Yellow • Lime Dye • Cactus Green • Light Blue Dye • Cyan Dye • Lapis Lazuli Dye • Purple Dye • Magenta Dye • Cocoa Beans Tools Axe • Bucket ( Water • Lava) • Fishing Rod • Flint and Steel • Hoe • Pickaxe • Shears • Shovel Informative Clock • Compass • Map Weapons Bow ( Arrow) • Snowball • Sword Armor Boots • Chestplate • Helmet • Leggings Vehicles Boat • Minecart ( with Furnace • with Chest) Utility Bed • Brewing Stand • Cauldron • Doors • Redstone Repeater • Saddle • Sign Decoration Music Discs • Painting Planned Bottle o' Enchanting • Fire Charge Creative only Chain Armor • Spawn Egg Unimplemented Quiver