How to Protect Yourself with Armor in Minecraft - For Dummies

Armor protects you from hostile mobs (and other players) and from other items in Minecraft, such as chicken eggs, falling anvils, lightning, cacti, and explosions. However, armor does not protect you in situations such as falling into the void, suffocating, or drowning (except in certain situations where the armor is enchanted, such as the respiration enchantment that enchants your helmet to allow you to stay underwater longer).

On the inventory display screen, the armor slots appear in the upper left corner. You have a slot for each of these items:

• Helmet

• Chestplate

• Leggings

• Boots

  

Like the quality rating for swords, armor comes in tiers, from least effective to most effective:

1. Leather

2. Golden

3. Chain

4. Iron

5. Diamond

You cannot craft chain armor but can obtain it from mob drops or by trading with villagers. When it loses durability, you can repair it on a crafting table with iron ingots or on an anvil. You can also enchant chain armor.

Leather

Leather is the least durable, but most common beginning armor material. It is normally acquired by killing cows, but it can also be crafted from rabbit hide. To craft, place 4 rabbit hides into a square shape in the crafting grid yielding one piece of leather.

Though leather and golden armor are the least desirable materials for protection, they are the easiest to enchant. Also, leather armor can be dyed.

Like the pickaxe and sword, armor loses durability over time. (See the durability bar to learn how much durability you have left.) You repair armor in a crafting grid or on an anvil.

When you repair enchanted armor on the crafting grid, your repaired item has slightly more durability but loses any enchantments. However, if you repair the armor on an anvil, the armor remains enchanted.

Not all pieces of armor need to be made of the same material. For example, a player can wear a leather helmet with a diamond chestplate and iron leggings. As rare ingredients become available, such as diamond, improving a single piece of armor is extremely beneficial.

Armor provides defense points, shown as half a shirt of armor on the Armor bar above the Health bar. The higher the number of defense points, the lower amount of damage is dealt to the player in an attack. Many players craft or obtain a full set of armor early in the game to maximize their defense points.

Donning your helmet

A helmet (or cap, when it’s made of leather) protects your avatar’s head in an attack. The helmet provides better protection than boots because the helmet provides more defense points generally. A leather helmet provides only 1 defense point (represented by half a shirt), and a diamond helmet provides 3.

When enchanted with the respiration enchantment, a helmet can extend your underwater breathing time. When enchanted with the aqua affinity enchantment, a helmet can increase the underwater mining rate.

To craft a helmet, place 5 matching items into a crafting grid in a helmet formation. That is, place 3 pieces on top and 1 piece below on either side.

Pounding your chestplate

The chestplate (or tunic, when it’s in leather form) is stored in the second inventory slot and provides protection for the upper body.

A chestplate provides significantly more protection than a helmet due to the increased defense points the chestplate gives you. So, craft your chestplate first if you have sufficient ingredients and upgrade to a stronger material as soon as possible.

To craft, you place 8 identical items into a crafting grid. Notice how the recipe is shaped roughly like a shirt in the crafting grid.

Putting on leggings

Leggings (or pants), which are stored in the third inventory slot, provide the second-highest level of protection.

You should craft this piece of armor early in the game and upgrade it whenever materials become available.

The recipe for leggings requires 7 identical items to be placed in an arch shape that looks like pants.

Walking in boots

The least effective piece of armor, and the one stored at the bottom of the inventory screen, is boots. But don’t be fooled into thinking that boots are not a vital part of armor. They offer defense points, and they can be enchanted for additional properties. Boots that are enchanted with a depth strider enchantment increase underwater speed; boots enchanted with a feather falling enchantment reduce fall damage.

To craft a pair of boots, you need only these four items.

Though all items can be enchanted with various abilities, helmets and boots have unique enchantments that make them particularly important pieces of armor despite the low number of defense points they provide.

Armor Stand

The magnificent armor stand is a true marvel. In Survival mode you can only currently place armor and mob heads on to armor stands. In Creative mode, customizing the NBT tag will allow you to add arms; rotate the head arms and legs; take away the bottom plate; make the armor stand invisible; make it not have gravity; and even make a mini one!

Just right-click the armor stand to put on and take off armor. Another cool feature about the armor stand is that it is an entity. That means it has gravity, can be picked up with minecarts, and can even be moved with pistons.

At the bottom of an armor stand is a stone slab plate. The legs are two sticks, which extend all the way to the shoulders. The waist is one horizontal stick, along with the shoulders. The head is one vertical stick.

To craft, place a stone slab at the bottom middle, then place two sticks above that slab. Finally place sticks in the four corners of the crafting table.