Now that we have covered the offense your Viking needs with the top 10 weapons list (if you haven’t, do check it out), we now turn to the thing that prevents you from being at the receiving end of the enemy’s artillery, armor. While following it up with another top 10 is the logical thing to do, it’s hard considering that there are only 7 armor sets in the game as of now. While in theory, the tiers only bring more damage protection to your character, that isn’t exactly how it works, and that’s why we will list the differences between them here.
As with the last list, this was created using the latest version available at the time of writing (version 0.155.7). The list is ranked worst to best, with figures taken from base numbers so you’ll know the natural progression of your armor upgrades. Will also include shields and capes loosely in this as it also complements the armor you choose, both theme-wise and, in some cases, a gameplay boost. the So strap in and get protected, because we will cover what armor brings to your gameplay and how it affects your run.
7. Rag Tunic and Pants
To be completely honest, this shouldn’t be on the list as it provides almost nothing to your character, but as the description pretty much says, “Better than nothing”. It’s more of a cosmetic piece, that pretty much covers up your character and, for stats people here, gives a total of… wait for it… 2 armor. You’re more likely to rely on your shield more than the armor tanking everything. There won’t be any riches in these rags, so pretty much rush over this asap. If you still want to know how it’s made, then here’s the list.
You can craft it by combining:
Rag Pants:
- 5 Leather Scraps
Rag Tunic:
- 5 Leather Scraps
Will not link any guides as you only need to get leather scraps from killing boars and will take you about a few minutes from the game’s beginning to make.
- Makes you less naked
- You already have ½ of the set immediately
- A freebie if you kill boars for food.
- Again, “better than nothing”
6. Leather Armor Set
While not that substantial still, the leather armor gives you some levels of protection that, when equipped with the wooden shield and some basic weapons (clubs and spears), can give you a bit more protection to traverse the nearer areas of your settlement. Small mobs can still do some damage, like the Neck, Boar, and Greydwarves, but when you get all the parts of the set, it gives 7 armor. You only need 1 leather armor piece to match the full rag set, and that’s saying something.
To make it you’ll need a workbench as well as having bone fragments and deer hide. For the set, you’ll need to have the following pieces:
You can craft it by combining:
Leather Pants:
- 6 Deer Hide
Leather Tunic:
- 6 Deer Hide
Leather Helmet:
- 6 Deer Hide
Deer Cape:
- 4 Deer Hide
- 5 Bone Fragments
Getting the armor itself is the challenge as you need to get deer hide, which comes from the running Bambi’s across the meadows that can get easily spooked, even when barely approached. With that being said, practice your crude bow skills as the drop-off is massive, and that one shot can ruin your chance.
Another challenge is bone fragments, which come from skeletons. Because you only have a rag tunic at best at this point, the skeletons who are equipped with either a bow or a bronze sword and shield can immediately take your life if you aren’t careful, so learn to dance around the undead’s swings and aims and use the terrain to block the arrows from ranged attackers. Do that and you’ll get that sweet Gucci set in the long term.
- A bit more armor than the rag set
- Gives a bit more safety against smaller enemies when food hunting
5. Troll Armor Set
Something a little more surprising is that this hooded costume for Vikings is one of the more substantial armors to have in your inventory. While it may look like a leather set with a blue paint job, it offers something other armors don’t: stealth (sneak).
Sneak is an often overlooked part of the game where you get to ambush any unsuspecting foe (mostly food sources like deer and lox) with bonus damage when you get to backstab using a dagger. It’s the game’s version of the army camo, where we may see it, but the enemies don’t.
As a protection piece on its own, it does a lot compared to the leather set, in that it offers 19 armor, which is quite a huge leap for what it is. As for what you need to complete this Smurf cosplay, here’s the list.
You can craft it by combining:
Leather Pants:
- 5 Troll Hide
Leather Tunic:
- 5 Troll Hide
Leather Helmet:
- 5 Troll Hide
- 3 Bone Fragments
Deer Cape:
- 10 Troll Hide
- 10 Bone Fragments
Arguably, your biggest (literally) challenge is killing the troll itself to obtain the troll hide. They are as massive as the damage they inflict upon you in this stage of the game. Effective kiting (and teamwork) is key to getting him to cough up his skin (and coins too), so play wise and watch your surroundings. Other than that, just get the aforementioned bone fragments and you should be trolling your way to battle. Now get to jumping those rooftops! (actually don’t, you may die from fall damage).
- Decent amounts of armor
- Sneak allows you to get deer and other passive mobs when bow and arrows are unavailable
- Best armor without the movement speed penalty
4. Bronze Armor Set
Now we’re looking at, what I consider the bare minimum armor needed to survive far explorations, and the first of the metal armors, bronze.
Getting to the bronze armor, this brownish set gives out 24 armor at base value which is good when you consider that you may be swarmed with Greydwarves, Trolls, some odd Skeleton spawns, and more when further exploring the world. Making it is a bit different compared to the previous sets as you’ll need a forge for that (due to the bronze), but other than that, deer hide is pretty much what you need.
With that being said, you’ll most likely need the entire set to have that safety secured, and to do that, you’ll need the things below.
You can craft it by combining:
Bronze Plate Leggings:
- 5 Bronze
- 2 Deer Hide
Bronze Plate Cuirass:
- 5 Bronze
- 2 Deer Hide
Bronze Plate Helmet:
- 5 Bronze
- 2 Deer Hide
Now you may have noticed that there's no matching cape for the bronze set because there is no cape that uses bronze as part of the material (I’d also assume it will also make you look as brown as the remains of your meal, so smart part for having none of that here). It’s perfectly fine however as you can just reuse your troll cape if you absolutely must have the look of a Viking superhero (and that 1 armor to add). Partner this with your bronze buckler (shield) and bronze tools, and you can traverse tamer areas with relative ease (albeit with a 10% movement speed penalty, which isn’t too bad honestly).
Overall, it’s a good set that can grant you access to many far away Meadows and Black Forest areas, though as a caution, I wouldn’t use it through the Swamps, as enemies are quite strong, regardless of your matching shield. Mountains and beyond are a straight no-go as they won’t protect you from the elements and being poked to death (or both).
- Good armor for longer exploration runs
- Bronze in itself is great for many small to medium threat mobs.
- Has good weapon sets along with it
3. Iron Armor Set
One negative out the way, this won’t turn us into Tony Stark, but it can help us with many more mobs compared to our bronze counterpart. Being the most vital metal ingot in the game, it also gives us the ability to craft the best weapons accessible, along with the iron shield (named banded shield in case you’re not sure where it is on the forge), it gives a generous 42 armor (14 each piece), and couple that with the Iron weapons you’ll get to forge, and it can get you through almost all the biomes (though the Plains can still give you a hard time). It’s a tedious task to gather this much metal, so mind your time-management and understand the process (and pain) of getting, arguably, Valheim’s most important ingot.
As for the materials necessary for you to survive the biomes, take a look at the list below
You can craft it by combining:
Iron Helmet:
- 20 Iron
- 2 Deer Hide
Iron Scale Mail:
- 20 Iron
- 2 Deer Hide
Iron Greaves:
- 20 Iron
- 2 Deer Hide
As for the cape, you can technically get the Lox cape as you’d be able to traverse the plains for Lox, but I will omit it for now as the threat of the Deathsquito and Fuling. Though base stats are already sizeable enough that the Swamp explorations you plan can give relative safety from a few axe swings from Draugrs (though not poison that’s for sure). To know how far we’ve come since the rag tunic if we were to be attacked by the base, 0-star Graydwarf, we’d take ~16 damage with the tunic, and ~2-3 for Iron, and when you look at the enemies beyond this point, you’ll need all the protection you’ll need.
One thing to note is that you’ll need an upgraded forge for both crafting and upgrading the iron set, though you may want to hold off on that as there are 2 better sets left.
- Great armor for almost all the biomes
- Makes gathering more iron from the Swamp a lot easier when going into crypts
2. Silver Armor Set
A cool armor set if you ask me (pun intended). It’s also a strong, capable armor that protects much better than the iron set as it gives a massive 61 armor (82 if you want it fully upgraded as per the table). It’s a much better-looking iron armor that bulks up the appearance of your Norse friend and it even has a wolf head on the right side (animal rights peeps, don’t yell at me please). Aside from the better stats it gives, it does offer something that makes it a must-have for mountain traversing, frost resistance.
Prepare to scavenge the alps, as you’ll need a whole case cabinet full of silver for one, as listed here.
You can craft it by combining:
Wolf Armor Legs:
- 20 Silver
- 5 Wolf Pelt
- 4 Wolf Fang
Wolf Armor Chest:
- 20 Silver
- 5 Wolf Pelt
- 1 Chain
Drake Helmet:
- 20 Silver
- 2 Wolf Pelt
- 2 Drake Trophy
Wolf Fur Cape:
- 4 Silver
- 6 Wolf Pelt
- 1 Wolf Trophy
The materials in themselves are harder because it involves a bit of luck and a lot of not dying. For one, wolf armor legs need wolf pelt and wolf fang, which is tricky as the wolf, surprisingly, will chunk massive amounts of your already protected (iron armor set) Viking, and those items don’t always guarantee when you slay them. Another is the chain which can be found in the crypts in the Swamp area, which is usually by luck. Lastly, the Drake trophy, for the drake helmet (which is not Wolf Armor, but I guess it is now), is another tough guarantee as you’re likely to get freeze glands off your frozen bird rather than their heads off.
It’s crucial to have frost resistance when you are in the mountains to remove the risk of freezing to death and losing all your crafted items at this point. Bad enough that the elements are against you, but it also doubles down when you fight the creatures above the peaks. Wolves, Drakes, Iron Golems and the rarely encountered Fenrir can clamp down on your flesh with devastating damage numbers, when you don’t block, so having this rushed is an absolute must for future mountaineering ventures. When you complete the set and show the wolf you are part of their family (not really), you’ll be on top of the (generated) world.
Other Silver Capes:
Before we continue with the best armor set in the game, it’s worth pointing out that the capes that are made using silver aren’t just limited to the wolf fur cape. Just for the sake of completeness, here are the other things you can craft.
As you can see, if you don’t have access to the wolf cape, the Lox cape is your cape of choice for getting the survivability needed on the Mountains, but as with this list, the set is just thematically better suited and the most probable choice anyways.
Linen capes are unique in that it’s one of the few things in the game where you can customize the look (or in this case color) of it. It’s a great cosmetic add-on for those who want a bit more color in their Valheim adventure.
- 25% frost resistance when the full set is done, which gives you huge survivability on the Mountains
- When upgraded, it’s a massive boost against the Iron armor set
- Partnered with the silver shield and weapons, it’s a great combat kit for Swamp adventures
- Fashionable wolf head for that extra style
And with that out of the way, we bring on the best armor set Valheim has to offer.
1. Padded Iron Set
Expected Blackmetal now did you? Can’t say that I’m surprised, but given how heavy that is, it’s better to have it done up like this. Anyways back to the armor, it’s without a doubt the best in terms of stats. When at its base value, the Padded Armor set is a hulking 78 armor, with a fully completed armor set giving a perfect 100 armor. To see the difference it makes, I tested both the rag armor and this to see what the basics of the basics enemy, Graydwarf can do.
I don’t have screenshots with me, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, but when I had the bare armor (and by bare I mean, non-existent) in the form of the rag set, I took 13-17 damage on a single swipe (reminding you that you start with 25 health, without food), and with the padded armor set, it can only do 0.2-0.3 damage (which is laughable, when you consider this can kill you when you first start this game). It shares the same resources as the best weapon in Valheim overall, the Porcupine, so making it won’t be much of a hassle.
Speaking of how to make it, here’s the final chart for it.
You can craft it by combining:
Padded Greaves:
- 10 Iron
- 20 Linen Thread
Padded Curiass:
- 10 Iron
- 20 Linen Thread
Padded Helmet:
- 10 Iron
- 15 Linen Thread
Linen Cape (Optional):
- 1 Silver
- 20 Linen Thread
While the linen cape is, by material, part of the set, you’re better off with the aforementioned Wolf or even Lox cape for your explorations as they give the best overall armor set for your character to slay everything with safety. Pair that with the Blackmetal armory you have built up from scouting the offerings needed to slay the last boss, Yagluth and you have the complete set to battle any foe, big or biggest (no small fry to kill us anymore).
You only need to get the Linen thread as the difference as Iron has already been touched on with the standard Iron set and that the process of getting it is included in the workflow to get Blackmetal ingots and weapons.
- 100 armor when maxed, making you durable against strong mobs
- Plains are less scary when having this around
- Partnered with the Blackmetal shield and weapons, you can take on everything around you
- Simply, the best (as of now)
While it may be tough to get the bigger image of how each armor set is different from one another, with this game being in early access, we can have it all changed once again should there be new sets introduced. If you would need a visual of all of the armor sets we discussed in this list, I would refer you to the video below.
With that being said, as it is early days, you’re likely to get help from the community and content creators on how it all stacks up and the changes that go with every release. As for me, I’m just playing a part in helping Viking-kind.
