Armor not only affects how much damage an enemy can do, but also affects your evasion and speed. There are four types of armor: body, head, arms, and shields. Each character class can equip a different set of armor:
- Warriors and Knights use heavy body armor and helmets, and can equip large shields.
- Thieves and Ninjas use lighter, but can still equip helmets and small shields.
- Monks and Masters use only the lightest equipment and no shields.
- Red Mages and Wizards can use most of the same equipment as Thieves and Ninjas
- White and Black Mages/Wizards can use very little armor, and no shields.
Combat mechanics
Each character has an absorb and evade rating. Up to four pieces of armor may be equipped, each adding to the absorb rating and decreasing the evade rating. Thus higher absorb ratings are better while lower evade ratings are preferred.
The base absorb rating of a character is 0, except for unarmored monks/masters which have absorb equal to their level. A bug in the NES version causes the monk/master to have their absorb reset to the unarmored level on leveling up, until the armor page is visited again to correctly set it.
The base evade rating of all characters is 48 plus their agility rating. Every extra point of evade generally decreases the character's chance to be hit by 0.5%. The strongest monsters will have high to-hit ratings however and will rarely be dodged, so absorb is more important than evade.
Armor types
Body
Body armor comes in several flavors. Heavy mail offers high protection at the small cost of reduced evasion, but can only be used by a few classes. Shirts or robes generally offer poor protection, and are intended for use by mages and wizards. Armlets offer varying levels of protection with good evasion and can be used by all classes, but at high cost.
Head
Helmets add more protection than body armor alone, but only the Warrior, Knight, and Ninja classes can equip more than the most basic helmet. The most worthwhile headgear in the game is the ribbon, which offers little physical protections, but makes the wearer immune to all status effects.
Arms
As with headgear, arm protection adds a small amount of defense, but only a few classes can equip the best kinds. The most useful piece is the protect ring which blocks instant death attacks (except Petrification).
Hand
Off-hand items, generally shields, not only give protection, but they can randomly block a physical attack, resulting in no damage to the wearer. Equip a character with shield if possible, no matter how weak it is since a block absorbs all damage. Since the protect cloak technically isn't a shield, it can be equiped by most characters that cannot use shields.
Armor details
See the class details chart below for a more detailed list of which classes can equip each piece of armor, and note that some armors have further explanation in the special weapons section.
Name | NES Name | Type | Value | Absorb | Evade% | Users | Buy | Find | Strong vs | Casts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Black Robe | Black Shirt | Body | 2 | 24 | 2 | B | - | Flying Fortress | Ice2 | |
Chain Mail | Chain Armor | Body | 80 | 15 | 15 | fKNrR | Cornelia, Pravoka | - | ||
Clothes | Shirt | Body | 10 | 1 | 2 | all | Cornelia | several | ||
Diamond Armor | Opal Armor | Body | 60000 | 42 | 10 | K | - | Sunken Shrine | ||
Dragon Mail | Dragon Armor | Body | 60000 | 42 | 10 | K | - | Tower of Mirage | ||
Flame Armor | Flame Armor | Body | 30000 | 34 | 10 | fKN | - | Mt. Gulg | ice | |
Ice Armor | Ice Armor | Body | 30000 | 34 | 10 | fKN | - | Ice Cavern | fire | |
Knight's Armor | Steel Armor | Body | 45000 | 34 | 33 | fK | Melmond | - | ||
Leather Armor | Wooden Armor | Body | 50 | 4 | 8 | fKtNmMrR | Cornelia, Pravoka | - | ||
Mythril Mail | Silver Armor | Body | 7500 | 18 | 8 | fKNrR | Crescent Lake | Mt. Gulg | ||
Steel Plate | Iron Armor | Body | 800 | 24 | 23 | fKN | Pravoka, Elfheim | Marsh Cave, Cornelia Castle | ||
White Robe | White Shirt | Body | 2 | 24 | 2 | W | - | Flying Fortress | Invs2 | |
Copper Armlet | Copper Bracelet | Body | 1000 | 4 | 1 | all | Elfheim | Marsh Cave | ||
Diamond Armlet | Opal Bracelet | Body | 65000 | 34 | 1 | all | - | Sunken Shrine | ||
Ruby Armlet | Gold Bracelet | Body | 50000 | 24 | 1 | all | Gaia | Citadel of Trials | ||
Silver Armlet | Silver Bracelet | Body | 5000 | 15 | 1 | all | Melmond | Marsh Cave | ||
Diamond Helm | Opal Helmet | Head | 1000 | 8 | 3 | K | - | Sunken Shrine | ||
Grand Helm | Iron Helmet | Head | 450 | 5 | 5 | fKN | Melmond | Mt. Duergar | ||
Healing Helm | Heal Helmet | Head | 10000 | 6 | 3 | KN | - | Tower of Mirage, Flying Fortress | Heal1 | |
Helmet | Wooden Helmet | Head | 100 | 3 | 3 | fKN | Elfheim | Mt. Duergar | ||
Leather Cap | Cap | Head | 80 | 1 | 1 | all | Elfheim | Temple of Chaos | ||
Mythril Helm | Silver Helmet | Head | 2500 | 6 | 3 | fKN | Crescent Lake | Mt. Gulg, Flying Fortress | ||
Ribbon | Ribbon | Head | 2 | 1 | 1 | all | - | Sunken Shrine, Waterfall Cave, Flying Fortress | all | |
Bronze Gloves | Copper Gauntlets | Arms | 200 | 2 | 3 | fKN | Melmond | Elfheim Castle|Elfheim Castle | ||
Diamond Gloves | Opal Gauntlets | Arms | 20000 | 8 | 3 | K | - | Sunken Shrine, Flying Fortress | ||
Gauntlets | Zeus Gauntlets | Arms | - | 6 | 3 | KNR | - | Citadel of Trials | Bolt2 | |
Giant's Gloves | Power Gauntlets | Arms | 10000 | 6 | 3 | fKNR | - | Sunken Shrine | Saber | |
Leather Gloves | Gloves | Arms | 60 | 1 | 1 | all | Pravoka | - | ||
Mythril Gloves | Silver Gauntlets | Arms | 2500 | 6 | 3 | fKN | Crescent Lake | Mt. Gulg, Ice Cavern | ||
Protect Ring | ProRing | Arms | 20000 | 8 | 1 | all | Gaia | Flying Fortress, Temple of Chaos | insta-kill | |
Steel Gloves | Iron Gauntlets | Arms | 750 | 4 | 5 | fKN | Melmond | Western Keep|Western Keep, Citadel of Trials | ||
Aegis Shield | Aegis Shield | Hand | 40000 | 16 | 0 | K | - | Tower of Mirage | Stoning | |
Buckler | Buckler | Hand | 2500 | 2 | 0 | fKtNrR | Crescent Lake | - | ||
Diamond Shield | Opal Shield | Hand | 15000 | 16 | 0 | K | - | Sunken Shrine, Flying Fortress | ||
Flame Shield | Flame Shield | Hand | 10000 | 12 | 0 | fKN | - | Mt. Gulg | ice | |
Ice Shield | Ice Shield | Hand | 10000 | 12 | 0 | fKN | - | Ice Cavern | fire | |
Iron Shield | Iron Shield | Hand | 100 | 4 | 0 | fKN | Pravoka, Elfheim | - | ||
Leather Shield | Wooden Shield | Hand | 15 | 2 | 0 | fKN | Pravoka | Terra Cave | ||
Mythril Shield | Silver Shield | Hand | 2500 | 8 | 0 | fKN | Crescent Lake | Terra Cave, Mt. Gulg | ||
Protect Cloak | ProCape | Hand | 20000 | 8 | 2 | all but mM | - | Flying Fortress, Temple of Chaos |
Class details
Armor | Warrior | Knight | Thief | Ninja | Monk | Master | R. Mage | R. Wiz | W. Mage | W. Wiz | B. Mage | B. Wiz |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aegis Shield | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Black Robe | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Bronze Gloves | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Buckler | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Chain Mail | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Clothes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Copper Armlet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Diamond Armlet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Diamond Armor | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Diamond Gloves | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Diamond Helm | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Diamond Shield | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Dragon Mail | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Flame Armor | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Flame Shield | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Gauntlets | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Giant's Gloves | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Grand Helm | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Healing Helm | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Helmet | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Ice Armor | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Ice Shield | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Iron Shield | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Knight's Armor | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Leather Armor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Leather Cap | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Leather Gloves | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Leather Shield | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Mythril Gloves | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Mythril Helm | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Mythril Mail | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Mythril Shield | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Protect Cloak | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Protect Ring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Ribbon | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Ruby Armlet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Silver Armlet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Steel Gloves | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Steel Plate | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
White Robe | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |