Final Fantasy/Armor

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 strongest monsters will have high to-hit ratings however and will rarely be dodged, so absorb is more important than evade.

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 weight of an armor reduces a character's ability to evade attack. Therefore, a Knight that equips Knight's Armor, the heaviest armor in the game, will be unlikely to avoid many attacks.

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	Weight	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	All Elemental
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