Trying to wrap my head around the armor niches...

[MagpieOAO]

Obvious first;

Improvised - Bare minimum armor

Jerkin - An intermediate product to better armor but can be used

Leather armor - An easily farmed armor...literally. Good for hunting and exploration, easy to maintain if you have livestock.

Gambeson - like leather, but if you enjoy a bit of gardening. Also comes in cooler gambeson flavor with less downsides. 

Plate - Best protection and highest downsides

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What I'm trying to sort out and the wiki doesn't seem to list it all, so going from a bit of memory...

Lamellar- 

Primitive and easy to make armor due to casting, light and low downsides

Chain-

Basically better lamellar but harder to make, not just materials (jerkin and leather) but actually hammering out the chains themselves

Scale-

If I recall this uses hides, making it a somewhat more primitive heavy armor than leather. If it only needs scales to repair, this means it can be made without a tannery, saving you some effort and time. 

Brigandine- 

A kind of manufactured heavy armor due to stamped plates from mechanized helve hammers. It requires only slightly less industry and materials than plate, but is only just a tad more flexible (Fewer downsides). If for whatever reason you wanted to produce a bunch of heavy armor, this would probably be the least effort assuming you have the materials for all of them giving you better protection for the effort than scale or plate, which require more effort and/or materials.

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Lamellar- 

Primitive and easy to make armor due to casting, light and low downsides

Lamellar in a nutshell. The other metal armors will cost you two ingots per unit of metal armor pieces, whereas only one ingot is required to make one unit of lamellar. You also don't need leather to make lamellar armor--you just need a few pelts.

10 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Chain-

Basically better lamellar but harder to make, not just materials (jerkin and leather) but actually hammering out the chains themselves

Chain offers great protection while allowing you to retain more accuracy and healing ability. If you plan on focusing on ranged combat, chain is probably going to be the best armor choice in most cases.

11 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Scale-

If I recall this uses hides, making it a somewhat more primitive heavy armor than leather. If it only needs scales to repair, this means it can be made without a tannery, saving you some effort and time. 

Scale is similar to chain--it offers a bit more protection than chain, but less accuracy and healing as well.

11 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Brigandine- 

A kind of manufactured heavy armor due to stamped plates from mechanized helve hammers. It requires only slightly less industry and materials than plate, but is only just a tad more flexible (Fewer downsides). If for whatever reason you wanted to produce a bunch of heavy armor, this would probably be the least effort assuming you have the materials for all of them giving you better protection for the effort than scale or plate, which require more effort and/or materials.

Brigandine has the worst stats of the late game metal armors, however, the main advantage to brigandine is that it's a lot cheaper to make. If resources are a bit thin, brigandine is a good choice. Personally, brigandine is what I make as soon as I acquire iron since it's cheap but protective, and I upgrade to something better later once I have steel.

 

14 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Gambeson - like leather, but if you enjoy a bit of gardening. Also comes in cooler gambeson flavor with less downsides. 

Gambeson is the best armor for surface exploration and general daily use. It's lightweight, so it won't slow you down or penalize your healing and accuracy much at all. It's also decently tough and protective, being tier 2 armor, so you'll be safe from most threats you encounter, and it'll buy you enough time to escape should you encounter something really nasty.

17 minutes ago, MagpieOAO said:

Leather armor - An easily farmed armor...literally. Good for hunting and exploration, easy to maintain if you have livestock.

I'd really only recommend leather armor or other similar non-metal armor if you really need the protection but don't yet have access to anything better. It's better than nothing, but it's not going to hold up in a fight; it'll just buy you enough time to hopefully escape.

[wildforester]

Chain may make a good cave diving armor. And can confirm on the gambeson, wear it all the time.

[idiomcritter]

has the shield been forgotten?

kinda key to any armor

 

[Maelstrom]

I tend to forget about shield.  And I defer to lightsource over shield when caving.

[Zane Mordien]

On 6/25/2025 at 6:38 PM, MagpieOAO said:

 

Scale-

If I recall this uses hides, making it a somewhat more primitive heavy armor than leather. If it only needs scales to repair, this means it can be made without a tannery, saving you some effort and time. 

Scale doesn't use hides. Its chain armor plus scales. Pre 1.21 it is about the best armor you can make and still heal yourself without taking off your armor. If I cant find blackguard armor it is what I typically use.