Bear Hide Armor repair with bones instead of bear hides

[DeanF]

Is it just me, or is the Bear Hide Armor too costly to repair?

It may just be me...

But the Bear Hide Armor is very low-tier, with little protection.  Yes, it's meant to be a daily armor that doesn't slow you down or break healing too much.  But in truth it is practically cosmetic.  My daughter likes how it looks but it's just too much of a pain to repair- a bear hide requires quite a bit of effort.  And that's fun the first time, but not over and over.  The Wooden Lamellar Armor is better and only requires firewood to repair.  It seems like the Bear Hide Armor should be repairable with bones instead; especially since that's really where it's protection comes from anyway.  And these low-tier armors should be easy to repair.

Just my $0.02, FWIW.

Edited July 20 by DeanF

[MKMoose]

On 7/20/2026 at 4:45 PM, DeanF said:

My daughter likes how it looks, but it's just too much of a pain to repair- a bear hide requires quite a bit of effort.  And that's fun the first time, but not over and over.  The Wooden Lamellar Armor is better and only requires firewood to repair.  It seems like the Bear Hide Armor should be repairable with bones instead.  That's really where it's protection comes from anyway.  And these low-tier armors should be easy to repair.

Repairing bear hide armor takes much more resources than it should, and it's a quirk of the way that repaired durability is calculated - there is a bug report on it (#9771). I would say addressing that should be the priority.

Making it repairable with bones and possibly also rope is very reasonable either way, though it may conflict with the apparent intent of it being the wild, scavenged armor of sorts. You'd just need to obtain bear hides for the first time, whereas repairs could be easily done with bones from other animals, and I don't know whether that's exactly fitting thematically.

 

On 7/20/2026 at 4:45 PM, DeanF said:

But the Bear Hide Armor is very low-tier, with little protection.  In fact it is practically cosmetic. [...] The Wooden Lamellar Armor is better and only requires firewood to repair.

One of the advantages of bear hide armor is that it has very light penalties, similar to gambeson and only worse than improvised and leather armor. It also provides some warmth, which may give it ever so slightly more value in cold climates.

Edited Tuesday at 09:52 PM by MKMoose

[LadyWYT]

I don't think it should require bones for repair, since I mean...the armor itself is made primarily of hide, and the bones seem to be mainly decorative. Any pelt should work just fine instead, perhaps with the amount repaired accounting for the size of the pelt used for the repairs. I suppose that does potentially lead to the awkward scenario of bear armor technically not being bear armor anymore after a time if other creature pelts are always used for repairs, but eh...that detail could probably be ignored in this particular circumstance.

[Facethief]

5 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I suppose that does potentially lead to the awkward scenario of bear armor technically not being bear armor anymore after a time if other creature pelts are always used for repairs, but eh...that detail could probably be ignored in this particular circumstance.

Theseus’s bear armor, maybe?

[Zaph42nd]

Not sure on bones for repair but agree bear-hide armor is a bit weak as it stands since the cost to get it is pretty high, hides and pelts are good for repair since they are semi-common compared to bear-skins but I digress. Armor rework may fix this, at least assuming bear-hide armor takes the role of either an under-garment or over-garment to existing armor (this makes it more valuable for getting extra warmth from armor that may otherwise not be a great fit for winter or simply add additional buffs for getting an already somewhat difficult armor-set).

[Cedric the Silent]

Rather bones maybe use small pelts, logic they be used as patches sewn unto the bear hide armor.

Edited Tuesday at 03:36 PM by Cedric the Silent
added a ,

[Teh Pizza Lady]

On 7/20/2026 at 10:44 AM, LadyWYT said:

I don't think it should require bones for repair, since I mean...the armor itself is made primarily of hide, and the bones seem to be mainly decorative. Any pelt should work just fine instead, perhaps with the amount repaired accounting for the size of the pelt used for the repairs. I suppose that does potentially lead to the awkward scenario of bear armor technically not being bear armor anymore after a time if other creature pelts are always used for repairs, but eh...that detail could probably be ignored in this particular circumstance.

I was thinking this myself while reading the thread. Time to make a new mod I guess. Armor of Theseus and all that.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Mod created!

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/60780