v0.34:Armor

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.13 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Armor is the protective equipment used to reduce/deflect damage during combat. It comes in several pieces, each one protecting a certain area. The purpose of each piece is pretty much self-explanatory. Note that breastplates only protect upper/lower torso areas, while mail shirts also cover the upper arms. Ears, nose, lips and teeth are exposed, even in full armor, whilst robes and capes tend to cover the throat.

The actual effectiveness of a given piece of armor depends on the weapon(s) being used against it.

Keeping in mind the armored enemies you are likely to meet, it is advisable to equip your military dwarves with at least iron armor. Testing in the arena shows that armored dwarves have a huge advantage over the unarmored ones, usually taking no casualties while making short work of their enemies. (But you shouldn't need this wiki to figure that out.)

Armor Skill

It is unclear how the armor user skill affects combat, since the movement speed and armor penetration look the same for legendary armor users and untrained users, yet when testing in the arena, a novice armor user is injured extremely frequently compared a grand master armor user.

Quality Level

Armor gets a deflection bonus based on quality level, but anything less than masterful gets no bonus. See Quality for more information.

Designation	Description	Value Modifier	Weapon To-Hit / Armor Deflect Modifier
Item Name	—	1x	1x
-Item Name-	Well-crafted	2x	unknown
+Item Name+	Finely-crafted	3x	unknown
*Item Name*	Superior quality	4x	unknown
≡Item Name≡	Exceptional	5x	unknown
☼Item Name☼	Masterful	12x	2x
Unique name	Artifact	120x	3x
«Item Name»	Decorated object	Varies	unknown

Materials

(see also: Metal: Armor Quality)

Armor material effectiveness changed recently. Simulation testing is still ongoing, so these results should be considered merely Fine quality, not Masterwork.

It should be noted that armor material is extremely important now. For example, fully iron-armored dwarves with iron short swords stand no chance against steel-equipped ones. A weapon has difficulty piercing armor of the same material (e.g. steel short swords vs. steel armor). However, blunt weapons (such as maces or war hammers) have a much easier time damaging individuals through armor. Testing has shown that even a copper mace is a threat to a dwarf in a steel chain shirt! Breastplates and greaves, being rigid protection, are required to properly protect against blunt weapons.

Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent	Best
Copper	Iron	Bronze	Steel	Adamantine

Layers

The layers are, in order from inner to outer:

• Under
• Over
• Armor
• Cover

Types of Protection

Each garment fits a specific layer on a given body part. It may additionally cover adjoining body parts up to a certain number of 'steps' distant from the body, depending on the garment. Dwarves do not seem to make a distinction between genders when selecting clothing to wear, so don't be startled when you see males running around in dresses.

There is no real difference between armor and clothing, except materials and that only non-clothing garments increase the armor user skill.

Note that the availability of specific articles of clothing varies from civilization to civilization. So, one civilization may not be able to make vests, another may not be able to make togas, still another may not be able to make dresses and cloaks. By the way, cloaks protect the eyes somewhat, according to combat logs. Dresses and Robes may offer superior protection as well.

Note that Dwarves can potentially manufacture items listed in their raws in the file \raw\objects\entity_default.txt, while other items exist which can never be made by un-modded dwarves, such as a head scarf or face veil. As well, some clothing articles may not be crafted in fortresses of a given civilization - only those items marked as 'common' for that civilization may be crafted.

Headgear

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %
Cap	+	1	C,L,M	10	15	Over	50%
Helm[S]	1+	2	L,B,S,M	30	20	Armor	100%
Hood		2	C,L	10	100	Cover	100%
Mask†		2	C,L	20	10	Under	50%
Turban†		2	C,L	20	100	Over	50%
Head Veil†		2	C,L	10	100	Over	50%
Face Veil†		2	C,L	10	100	Under	50%
Headscarf†		2	C,L	10	100	Over	50%

Upper Body

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %	UBSTEP	LBSTEP
Dress		5	C,L	10	50	Under	100%	MAX	MAX
Shirt		3	C,L	10	50	Under	100%	MAX	0
Tunic		3	C,L	10	50	Under	100%	0	1
Toga		5	C,L	30	100	Over	100%	1	1
Vest		2	C,L	10	50	Over	50%	0	0
Robe		6	C,L	20	100	Over	100%	MAX	MAX
Coat		5	C,L	20	50	Over	100%	MAX	1
Leather Armor[S]	1	6	L	20	50	Armor	100%	1	1
Mail Shirt	2	6	M	15	50	Armor	100%	1	1
Breastplate[S]	3	9	M	20	50	Armor	100%	0	0
Cloak		5	C,L	15	150	Cover	100%	MAX	1
Cape†		5	C,L	10	300	Cover	50%	0	0

Quiver and Backpack are also worn on upper body, counting towards layer permit size.

Hands

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %	UPSTEP
Gloves		1	C,L	10	10	Under	100%
Gauntlets[S]	2	2	B,S,M	20	15	Armor	100%	1
Mittens		1	C,L	15	20	Cover	150%

Lower Body

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %	LBSTEP
Trousers		4	C,L	15	30	Over	100%	MAX
Leggings[S]	1+	5	L,B,S,M	15	30	Armor	100%	MAX
Greaves[S]	3	6	B,M	15	30	Armor	100%	MAX
Loincloths†		1	C,L	10	30	Under	50%	0
Thongs†		1	C,L	10	30	Under	25%	0
Skirts (Short)†		2	C,L	10	100	Over	100%	0
Skirts†		2	C,L	10	100	Over	100%	1
Skirts (Long)†		2	C,L	10	100	Over	100%	MAX
Braies		3	C,L	10	30	Under	100%	1

Footwear

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %	UPSTEP
Socks		1	C,L	10	15	Under	100%
Sandals†		1	C,L	25	15	Over	100%
Shoes		1	C,L	20	15	Over	100%
Low Boots	1	1	L,M	25	15	Armor	100%
High Boots	1+	1	L,M	25	15	Armor	100%	1
Chausses (sockmail)†		3	L,M	10	15	Under	100%	MAX

Shield

Clothing Type	Armor Level*	Material Size	Materials	Size	Permit	Layer	Coverage %	UPSTEP
Buckler	1	2	L,M,W	NA	NA	NA		1
Shield	2	4	L,M,W	NA	NA	NA		2

• * = Items without an armor rating are considered clothing. Armor levels 1-3 were referred to as 'leather', 'chain' or 'plate' in earlier versions.
• + = The armor level of an item with a "+" can be increased by one if made from metal.
• † = This article cannot be crafted by dwarves (except for artifacts), but may be purchased in trade.
• [S] = shaped item, max one [S] per body slot (e.g. plate mail cannot be worn with leather armor, but can be worn with chain mail, and greaves and leggings cannot be combined).
• Materials can be Cloth, Leather, Bone, Shell, Metal, or Wood.

Equipping Clothing

Items in Dwarf Fortress must be equipped in a specific order. A dwarf must equip a layer type of Under before he equips a layer of type Over, for example. The complete order goes: Under, Armor, Over, Cover. It is common among civilians to see a dwarf equip pants with no undergarments due to this restriction, even when an undergarment is available. This is typically not an issue with soldiers, however.

There is no restriction on wearing multiple items of the same type (Unless the item is shaped [S]). You can, for example, wear 3 cloaks without penalty.

Process for equipping a new piece of clothing

The following variables will be used in the logic below:

Current Item refers to the specific item being equipped.

Total Size refers to the size of all items equipped on that body part, excluding the item to be equipped (while including those on a different layer).

Permit refers to the maximum allowable size of items equipped on the same or lower level as the item to be equipped.

In order to equip a new item, the dwarf (or other creature) ...

• will determine if he is eligible to wear the item in question (Perhaps the body part is missing/severed).
• must start with the lowest layer first, continuing to the next layer when no other items of that layer need to be equipped
• checks if the item is shaped [S], and will only equip the item if no other shaped items are equipped on that body part.
• will equip items with lowest permit level first. If two items share the same permit value, the highest size item will be equipped first^[Verify].
• then checks if his total size (excluding the current item) is less than the current item's permit.
• If all above logic is true, the dwarf will equip the item.

Equipment process example

Each item is listed in order of being equipped, the primary focus of this example is that the total size must be equal to, or less than the permit size of the item being equipped. Like above, the total size excludes the size of the item being equipped.

Item Type	Size	Permit	Total Size*
Breastplate [S]	20	50	0
Mail Shirt	15	50	20
Mail Shirt	15	50	35
Mail Shirt	15	50	50
Mail Shirt	15	50	65
Cloak	15	150	65
Cloak	15	150	80
Cloak	15	150	95
Cloak	15	150	110
Cloak	15	150	125
Cloak	15	150	140
Cloak	15	150	155

• * = Total Size include the size of all equipped items, but does not include the item being equipped
• Red Text = This item cannot be equipped, because the total size is larger than the item's permitted size.

Size, Permit, and layering armor

The Size and Permit values govern how much clothing or armor can be worn.

Under the old system the lowest "permit" value for any given body part is used: for instance, if a dwarf is wearing a dress (permit value: 50) and a total of 50 or more size worth of clothing on the upper body, it cannot put any more clothing on the upper body. (This explains why the old dungeon masters tend to wear several cloaks: they arrive at the fortress wearing only a cloak on the upper body (permit 150), and can put on a total of 10 of them, at 15 size each.)

Unfortunately, [LAYER:COVER] items are the only items playing by the old rules. This much is certain from testing in arena mode.

• If the item to be add is a [LAYER:COVER] item, add the total item size on the body part, if this sum is less than or equal to the item's permit value then evaluate as true.
• If a [LAYER:ARMOR] item is present or to be added and if the sum of the non [LAYER:COVER] items would be less than the sum of the [LAYER:ARMOR] size+permit values then evaluate as true.
• If one or more items of the same non-[LAYER:COVER] layer as the one being added are present and if the sum of their size values is less than the smallest permit value then evaluate as true.
• If the sum of the size values for all items on the body part are less than or equal to the permit value of the item about to be added then evaluate as true.

The item is allowed if all rules either evaluate to true or are not applicable. This is in addition to the rule allowing only one shaped item on a given body part at a time.

Example: A helm (30 size,20 permit) means you can put on a mask (20,10) or two caps (10,20), but only two head veils (10,100). Any of these configurations can fit 6 additional hoods if desired.

Example: Wearing a cap (10,15) allows only one face veil (10,100), because they are both [LAYER:UNDER], but an additional combined total of up to 9 head veils and hoods is possible.

Note that the armor value of socks and other clothing is unknown under the new system - however, wearing them under "armor" such as boots is recommended for an adventurer.

Adventurer mode follows the arena rules so it is possible to have three chain mail shirts (15,50), a breastplate (20,50), and 25 capes (10,300) on ones upper body plus two caps(or one mask), a helm, and six hoods on ones head. Confirmation is needed to see if fortress mode follows the old rules or the new arena rules. (I tested this and found that Urist McNopants follows a totally different set of rules than either of these. His rules tell him to forget both caps all of the hoods both socks and his trousers, and each sucessive time he gets dressed he feels the need to do it differently.)