Armor is mandatory in Minecraft, and something you should start getting as soon as you can. It’s what’s going to keep you alive when you’re being attacked by mobs, especially during the night. Currently, there are 6 different tiers of armor in Minecraft.
With all platforms sharing the same Armor, this list will be correct for PC, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Pocket Edition! This list only includes full sets of armor too, and not items like the Turtle Shell.
Below, we’re going to show you all of the armor currently available in Minecraft, listed from worst to best! For more Minecraft Guides and Best-of content, make sure to check out our dedicated area here!
Leather Armor
First up, we have Leather Armor. This is the worst armor you can currently get in Minecraft, but it’s still better than none of course. In total, it offers 7 defence points. Leather Armor is incredibly easy to obtain, all you have to do is find and kill as many cows as possible until you have 24 Leather.
Golden Armor
Next up is Gold Armor. It might surprise you that Golden Armor is worse than Iron, considering Gold Ore is much rare to find. Golden Armor offers 11 defence points, so a slight increase from Leather. The only downside to Golden Armor though is the durability. When wearing Gold, the durability is only a slight increase from Leather, so whether it’s worth smelting your ingots into armor instead of Golden Apples is up for debate.
Chainmail Armor
Chainmail is that armor that most people look over. It offers 12 defence points in total, so just 1 up from wearing Gold, but the Durability increase means it’s always the better option. Chainmail is actually the rarest armor available, as there is no crafting recipe available for it. You can only get it via trading, drops from mobs or chests.
Iron Armor
Surprisingly, Iron Armor is the 4th best in the game, and the set you’re most likely going to use until you can get Diamond. Wearing a full set of Iron Armor will give you 15 defence points, so an extra 3 compared to the previous tier. It’s incredibly easy to obtain in Minecraft, as it’s made out of 24 Iron Ingots which are abundant in the game world.
Diamond Armor
Diamond Armor is currently the best armor you can get in Minecraft. It offers 20 defence points, which is the highest possible amount. You can craft it out of 24 Diamonds, which you can usually find in Minecraft mostly between levels 8 and 10. It’s not worth applying any enchantments onto your armor sets in Minecraft until you have a full set of Diamond.
Netherite Armor
At the time of writing this article, we where at Minecraft 1.15. However, we know that in 1.16, we’re getting a brand new set of armor made out of Netherite, which will replace Diamond as the best armor in the game! So far, what we do know is that Netherite tools and armor will be indestructible to fire.
