Metal armor reasonablity

[Slam]

There’s a summery for lazy people at the bottom.

Recently have an wolf bait emoji in my game, and spent a solid hour running back to my stuff that’s like 1500-2000 blocks away just to die to a wolf 5 times (useless wood lamellar), and I just wanted some salt and lime form a trader (only got salt)

I heard from videos that making metal armor takes an insane amount much work, I know leather and gambeson exist, which would be perfect for me, however I currently need all my linen for boat (got bless with a seemly big ocean with 97.5% land cover, and WHY 21 LININ) and my lime supplies are a little lacking because of lazy ass trader (who’s not surrounded by wolfs and not gillzen blocks away) not restocking it

now with my third option, making metal armor is reasonable, as requires less leather, however because no windmill, it will take a lot of work, even for brigandine. Is it more reasonable, even at the Iron Age, asides a helmet, to just grind up some recourses to make lamellar, and maybe hopefully find other ore (namely for building) while I’m at it, or just blood sweat and teir some make some brigandine with iron I already have.

I can make chain armor, which makes more senses for my needs, but like I said, I’m going to use all my linen for a boat, and hopefully a tiny windmill, pls my flax is still growing. Also, after making metal for a distillery in a previous world, I’d rather do not do triple the work of that, then turn it into chains, rather then just double that work for brigandine, and get to spend that time spend making the incomplete base less ass (that recent Victorian green house post is motivating)

Summery

Is it worth making metal armor without a windmill with iron, or just be lazy and prospect for stuff for bronze and make lamellar (which may grant me knowledge of other useful/decorative ore)

Edited November 29, 2025 by Slam
Badly worded sentances (this post took like 40 minutes to make bruh)

[Vexxvididu]

I'm not sure your question has an easy answer.  Iron chainmail is great but is a lot of work....  and much more so if you don't have a helve hammer setup.  If you really need the linen for things other than windmill sails you might consider just sticking with leather armor or bronze Lamellar for the time being.  I also think tailored gambeson is great but that is also a ton of flax fibers that won't be usable for sails or a boat....

It's a big trade off that is very subjective.  I'd also advise that it's okay to take your time and not rush things too much.  Give yourself time to grow the flax for everything!

[LadyWYT]

8 hours ago, Slam said:

Is it worth making metal armor without a windmill with iron, or just be lazy and prospect for stuff for bronze and make lamellar (which may grant me knowledge of other useful/decorative ore)

Absolutely! Yes, making iron armor without the aid of a helve hammer will be a lot of work, however, keep in mind that iron is quite durable, and withstands tier 3 attacks and below. In other words, it's a lot of work up front, but unless you're regularly brawling lots of high tier enemies, you're not going to need to repair it very often.

However, if you'd rather wait for a windmill, bronze lamellar is a solid option, since that doesn't require forging. If you have flax to spare, or like to utilize trading, there's also gambeson, which offers the same tier protection as bronze but with better overall stats.

I will also note that depending on what you are doing, forgoing armor is also an option. Unless you're delving into caves or dangerous ruins(story content), or fighting through temporal storms, it's usually fairly easy to avoid threats or kill/soften them up at range before dealing with them in melee. You do have to be a lot more attentive to your surroundings if you go this route though, as it's a lot easier to die from mistakes.

[Professor Dragon]

In addition to the good advice above, consider saving up a lot of Rusty Gears and finding a Clothing Trader to buy Gambeson.
And a Wooden Shield. And a black bronze weapon if the budget can spare it.

It handles most surface stuff reasonably well except for "surprise bear to the face" - but that's a challenge for anything.

You're still early game, relatively, so probably that seems as big a challenge as iron. However, I find it much easier to obtain via farming and trading.

It lets you save your other resources and not feel rushed into the other parts of the game.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Slam]

Oh no, I have all the iron.

[Maelstrom]

On 11/29/2025 at 9:40 AM, LadyWYT said:

Absolutely! Yes, making iron armor without the aid of a helve hammer will be a lot of work, however, keep in mind that iron is quite durable, and withstands tier 3 attacks and below.

If the material for steel furnaces has been found just a little bit more work yields steel chain armor offering tier 4 protection and even more durability.

[Slam]

1 hour ago, Maelstrom said:

If the material for steel furnaces has been found just a little bit more work yields steel chain armor offering tier 4 protection and even more durability.

I’m lazy, and the armor mainly so I don’t get ganked by wolves and maybe a teir 4 enemies every now and then. The nearby teleporter sends me to y14, basalt though, maybe some ore. That boat will still be useful.

[Zane Mordien]

The boat is definitely not high on my priority list. The windmill and helve are the first place my flax goes for making armor. 

 

Chain is woth it if you want to spend time manually beat it out. You can do that at night to not waste time.

[Slam]

1 minute ago, Zane Mordien said:

The boat is definitely not high on my priority list. The windmill and helve are the first place my flax goes for making armor. 

 

Chain is woth it if you want to spend time manually beat it out. You can do that at night to not waste time.

I don’t feel like walking place, it seems to cover thousands of blocks, which could be full of line, traders , and it isn’t a time thing, it’s a “I am lazy” thing.

[Zane Mordien]

On 12/2/2025 at 4:24 PM, Slam said:

I don’t feel like walking place, it seems to cover thousands of blocks, which could be full of line, traders , and it isn’t a time thing, it’s a “I am lazy” thing.

The only world it would have made sense for me was a playthrough I did with 70% landmass. Did you set up a low landmass world? Even then I'd probably still do the windmill first myself and use the raft until the second growing season. 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Zane Mordien

[Slam]

97.5%  landmass, but I live next to a fairly large ocean, and with plans to make a trading post, moving materials to and from a couple thousand blocks would be equally as convenient as automated grain, and I already have most of my armor done. Brigandine chest, leather helmet and legging, till it gets replaced by gambeson. Leather rn because no downsides, and your less likely to get hit in the head and legs (I can’t remember and can’t find the %chance, though I know it 50% chest, then 30% and 20%)

but thank you everyone for your recommendations, I appreciate it. 

[LadyWYT]

My friend and I play with 80% landmass. While land-based travel is still dominant, the sailboat still comes in handy in certain cases, provided it's not wintertime. If there's an ocean nearby, it's a lot more efficient to sail to various points for exploration and resource collection(which you can stuff into boat storage for easier transport).

[Zane Mordien]

8 hours ago, Slam said:

97.5%  landmass, but I live next to a fairly large ocean, and with plans to make a trading post, moving materials to and from a couple thousand blocks would be equally as convenient as automated grain, and I already have most of my armor done. Brigandine chest, leather helmet and legging, till it gets replaced by gambeson. Leather rn because no downsides, and your less likely to get hit in the head and legs (I can’t remember and can’t find the %chance, though I know it 50% chest, then 30% and 20%)

but thank you everyone for your recommendations, I appreciate it. 

Okay, that makes more sense. The ocean generation is still weird in Vanilla. Either you are right next to one or you travel around thousands of blocks and don't see one.

[labtop 215]

Personally, I find anything below iron chainmail or alternatively flax gambeson to be a waste of time and resources.  Gambeson is the cheapest tier 2 protection and provides decent protection against wolves (giving you 5 or 6 hits before you die) but does little against bears.  Iron chainmail or better gives you 7 or 8 hits from a bear before you die, which is often enough to kill said bear if your armed and actively fighting back.

This is important because armor slows you down, especially if it isn't chain-mail.  This means you wont be able to outrun the bear if it decides it wants to eat you, whereas without armor, you can usually outrun said bear if you get him to clip into different obstacles or if you are a hunter.  Leather armor doesn't slow you down, but it's also tier 1 protection, which means little to a wolf and nothing to a bear.