In Sons of the Forest enemies are brutal. Without a form of defense against the enemy, you will find yourself dead in no time. Fortunately, armor can help relieve that pressure. But not all armor's importance is equal to its stats. Special characteristics make different armors better in a pinch. These are my top five taking all of those aspects into consideration.
Without proper defense you will probably see this screen more often than you want.
5. Bone Armor
It’s also last place in the category of morality.
In terms of acquiring early-game armor, bone armor should be your main priority. I do suggest getting the leaf armor first–because it is slightly easier to get than the bone armor–but that is only so that you can equip it while you are trying to get the bone armor.
While the hide armor does keep you warm during the winter, that can also easily be deterred with a torch, making the accessibility of the bone armor more convenient. It’s more time consuming trying to find a wild animal than the hide armor is worth (which is why the hide armor is the only armor I’m not including in this list).
The bone armor still isn’t really that convenient though. It’s easier to find and kill a cannibal than an animal, but having to wait for fire to burn the skin off of their bones is still time consuming in an obnoxious way.
4. Leaf Armor
Be careful that you don’t run out of materials…
The leaf armor is the weakest armor in the game; however, it has some advantages that make it better than the bone and hide armor in terms of its overall use. I still do not suggest it outside of the beginning of the game.
The leaf armor gives the wearer a major stealth boost. When wearing the leaf armor you don’t have to worry about making any noise so long as you don’t use a firearm. So, while it may not protect your body all that well, it can avoid an attack altogether if you don’t want to be a part of confrontation.
The other advantage of leaf armor is how easy it is to make. It only consists of one cloth and ten leaves. Ten leaves may sound like a lot, but you automatically obtain leaves any time you cut any sort of vegetation, so you quickly end up with a huge amount. On top of that, if you are wearing a full set of leaf armor you can still hold a full set of leaf armor in your inventory. Since leaf armor can be crafted in the inventory mid-battle, this means that you can technically have two full sets of leaf armor plus as many additional parts that are craftable based on the amount of cloth you have.
While I would rather wear a set of bone armor than leaf armor, the leaf armor’s overall usefulness surpasses that of the bone armor because of how much you can have in excess at any given time.
3. Creepy Armor
This is what I got most of my creepy armor off of. This is an official image by Obelisk Studios.
The creepy armor is the first armor I really had any respect for. It has significantly more defensive capabilities than previous armors and is pretty easy to obtain so long as you have already gotten into the groove of how you’re best at winning combat situations. Early game you are most likely to only find it inside caverns and bunkers (and you will only find it off of the corpses of some of the more difficult enemies); however, in the late game you will frequently find creepy monsters scattered around the overworld map.
In terms of acquiring it, the armor's convenience is based on whether or not you are above or below ground. Above ground you may go large expanses without running into enemies at all, and even then they may not be creepy enemies, making finding a full set a nightmare. Underground, wherever you are, you are likely to find a creepy enemy if you can just manage to survive just a little bit further down the cave.
2. Tech Armor
Statistically, the tech armor is the armor with the best defensive capabilities. There is nothing more important than tech armor in a truly precarious scenario. Especially on the harder difficulties, it can be the only thing stopping you from one or two hit kills.
Conveniently, if you know where to go, the tech armor is available from the beginning of the game by only quickly running between two semi-close areas on the map. Using the save/reload method you can quickly build a full set of tech armor using the same ingredient locations. Inconveniently, it does cost a very large amount of technological materials, so if you aren’t near a base that caters to its requirements you’re going to have a bad day.
Most ingredients are farmable; however, there is an ingredient called “tech mesh” that can only be printed with a 3D printer present if you have printer ink. There are a lot of 3D printers in the game, as well as a lot of places to find 3D printer ink; however, they are still some of the rarer things in the game. Look closely any time you are in a bunker for a 3D printer and ink.
1. Golden Armor
I’d make a joke about Power Rangers if they weren’t national heroes.
The golden armor is unquestionably the best armor in the game despite it not having the greatest defense numeric. It has a lower defensive number than other armor, but it also has a specific numeric reduction to the player’s HP. If that sounds confusing to you my response is “Yes, I know.”
The golden armor can give significant defense against a specific type of enemy end-game, but that is not the reason I’m choosing it for number one. The golden armor takes the cake because once you have it you have it. No matter how great the other armors are in the game, when they break they break. The golden armor is the only armor that can not be destroyed.
At the time of this writing, it can be found inside a spaceship in the massive cave that expands below the snowy mountain with multiple entrances. Unfortunately, its location has been changed numerous times during the pre-release; previously located inside a creepy altar and… some couch. We will see where it finds its permanent home with the release of Sons of the Forest in less than a month.
