40d:Armor

Armor is a class of clothing items that your dwarves can wear for protection to keep them alive longer. Armor can range from simple clothing, light weight shell, bone and leather, to heavy chain mail and plate mail.

Making armor

Depending on the type and material, different dwarves with specific skills are needed to make armor. While clothes aren't necessarily armor, they do offer limited protection. Shell and bone armors are made by a bone carver at a craftsdwarf's workshop. Chain mail and plate mail are made by an armorer at a metalsmith's forge. The type of metal used affects the effectiveness of the armor. Leather armors are made at a leather works by a leatherworker. Skilled craftdwarves, leather workers and armorers will produce better quality armor that multiplies the effectiveness of the item.

Quality

Toady has stated that item quality increases its protection (or damage, in the case of weapons), namely, "Quality has a huge effect on damage and damage reduction... Exceptional is almost double damage/damage block."

Symbol	Name	Damage reduction multiplier
Item	Basic armor	x1.0
-Item-	Well-crafted armor	x1.2
+Item+	Finely Crafted armor	x1.4
*Item*	Superior Quality armor	x1.6
≡Item≡	Exceptional armor	x1.8
☼Item☼	Masterful armor	x2.0

Material

Better materials provide better protection, according to the following table:

Material	Modifier %
Adamantine	500
Steel	133
Iron	100
Bronze or Bismuth bronze	75
Copper	66
Other metals/materials (leather, cloth, bone, shell, wood, etc.)	50

Assigning Armor

To tell a dwarf to wear armor in Fortress Mode, view the dwarf, go to preferences, then soldiering. There you can select the highest level of armor he should wear: clothes, leather, chain, or plate. Shield level is selected separately. You can also set the armor level for many dwarves at once on the military screen, under weapons.

Upgrading a civilian dwarf's armor level will not take effect unless they are activated as soldiers. Civilians will not wear armor other than clothing, except for those given the Hunting labor (provided their armor level is set above "clothing"). This will, however, cause them to go out into the wilderness and hunt, which is often undesirable. Hunters do not appear to use bucklers or shields, so it may be advantageous to give them two melee weapons if you do not plan on having them use a crossbow.

Armor Levels

Slot	Leather	Chain	Plate
Head	leather cap and/or helm	metal cap and/or helm	helm
Upper Body	leather armor	chain mail	plate mail
Lower Body	leather leggings	metal/bone/shell leggings	greaves
Foot	leather low/high boot	metal low/high boot	metal low/high boot
Hand	nothing	gauntlet	gauntlet

Size

Beware! Dwarves can not wear any armor that is named 'large', 'narrow' or 'small' (elves', goblins'...) except large rat leather armor ;). The smug traders will not warn you of this.

Requirements

Creating plate mails requires three bars of metal. Chain mails and greaves require two bars. All other metal armors require one bar. Note that making gauntlets or boots will always produce a pair (a left and right gauntlet, or two boots) from one bar of metal. A full suit of leather armor requires five leather pieces to manufacture, a full suit of chain armor requires six metal bars, and a full suit of plate armor requires eight metal bars. This does not include shields.

Shields and Bucklers

Shields and bucklers come in all the same material flavours as armor, but offer a slightly different form of protection. While armor absorbs some of the damage from all successful attacks, a shield provides complete protection from some attacks. In Adventure Mode, a successful block may also grant the defender an immediate free counterattack. Bucklers weigh less than shields, making them useful for more mobile Marksdwarves, but are assumed to provide less protection^[Verify].

Bugs, Caveats and Fun Facts

• Dwarves will not switch to Metal greaves by themselves if they already wear bone greaves.
• Dwarves will not take off leather armor or chain mail when allowed a higher armor class; they will also keep what they wear. They will however switch between leggins and greaves.
• Dwarves feel it's perfectly normal to wear one leather low boot and one steel high boot. If it fits, it fits, right?

Additional information

The armor wiki page for the old (2D) version of the game at http://archive.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Armor contains additional information, much of which may still be valid.