Armor and combat in Vintage Story: protection, weapons, and shields

Where the hit lands

Armor is there so a hit arrives weaker. It takes three slots: helmet, body, and legs. Each hit picks one of them. The body comes up about half the time, the legs about three times in ten, the head about two. An empty slot lets that hit through whole.

Percent protection and flat damage reduction apply when something hits you. A fall, hunger, and poison are counted separately, and armor does not reduce them.

Three lines matter. Percent protection takes a share of whatever is left. Flat damage reduction comes off first, as plain health. Protection tier is compared with the weapon's Attack tier. A higher attack tier eats into the flat number and cuts the percent. An attack of the same tier or lower takes only a little off the armor.

Copper body lamellar reads 75% and 0.5, protection tier 1. A tier 0 hit of 4 loses 0.5 first, then three quarters of the rest: less than one health gets through. The same piece, against a hit of 12 at tier 3, lets about 5.7 through. The flat 0.5 is gone by then.

Plate carries the line High damage tier resistant. When the hit is above the armor's tier, the extra loss of protection is only half as much. Leather, gambeson, and bear hide also lose less to a high tier than ordinary metal does.

The penalties are written on each piece: walk speed, hunger rate, healing effectiveness, ranged accuracy, and charge time. Three pieces add three of those numbers. A full set of plate is three times −14% walk speed, three times +24% hunger, and three times −33% healing. A poultice in full plate barely does anything. Take the plate off, heal, and put it back on.

Before the forge

Wood, leather, linen, and hide come first. Improvised body armor covers the torso only. A leather jerkin has no helmet either: the jerkin is what chain and brigandine are built on. Leather body armor is finished armor, with a helmet and leg armor of its own.

The other bears are weaker. Sun bear and panda hide read 45%, 0.4, and 120 durability. Polar hide is the toughest and the warmest, up to 1.5 °C on a piece.

Temperature and seasons in Vintage Story: crops, greenhouses, and survival

Metal

Lamellar is cast. Brigandine, chain, scale, and plate are forged. Chain, scale, and plate are built over a jerkin, and scale and plate go over chain as well. The penalty belongs to the construction, whether the metal is copper or steel. The metal changes the percent, the flat reduction, the protection tier, and the durability.

Each cell below is the percent, flat reduction, protection tier, and durability of one piece. Helmet, body, and legs match.

Bismuth bronze sits beside tin bronze, and black bronze is a little stronger than both. Meteoric iron sits a little above iron: the percent on the piece is often the same, while the flat number and the durability are higher. A copper plate piece protects hard and breaks soon: 500 durability against 2200 for iron. The high-tier line belongs to plate.

Ruins turn up an intact Blackguard cuirass and a Forlorn Hope breastplate. An intact cuirass holds 96% and 1.7 at tier 3, close to iron plate, and lasts 1800. A broken one falls to 40% and 0.25.

What you hit with

A melee swing is the left mouse button. Empty hands deal half a health point, at a very short reach. A spear is thrown with the right button; the hint says Throw. A bow is drawn with the right button; the hint says Charge. A short press lets nothing go. To change your mind, switch the hotbar slot.

A club reaches 2 blocks, a falx 2.5, a spear 3.5. A spear's Attack tier line reads 0, and the thrust is counted that way: it barely gets through armor. The throw has a tier of its own. Iron and meteoric iron throws are tier 1, steel is tier 2, and stone and bronze spears stay at 0.

A falx shows its tier outright. Copper hits for 3.75 at tier 2, iron for 5 at tier 4, steel for 5.25 at tier 5. A meteoric iron falx hits for the same 5.25, at tier 4, with 1100 durability against 2125 for steel.

Every bow has attack tier 0. An arrow adds damage and does not raise that tier. A simple bow gives 3.25, a flint arrow takes 0.5 off, and together they make 2.75. A recurve bow gives 4, a steel arrow adds 2.5, and together they make 6.5, still a tier 0 hit: armor takes its full percent off it. A flint arrow breaks on about a quarter of hits, a steel arrow on about 7%.

A crude bow lasts 180 and aims a little worse. A simple bow lasts 240. A longbow hits for 3.75, lasts 750, and adds 20% accuracy. A recurve bow lasts 600 and adds 30%. The Hunter makes the crude bow and the recurve bow.

The shield

A shield is held in the hand. While it simply hangs there, that is passive use. It rises while Sneak is held and the right mouse button is not. The item has two lines, Melee attack protection and Projectile protection.

A crude shield blocks 90% of the time while raised and 20% while it is only held, and it takes 3 off the hit. Its durability is 80. A wooden round shield has the same 90% and 20%, and takes 4 off a blow and 6 off an arrow. An iron round shield has 90% and 20% again, and takes 5 off a blow and 10 off an arrow. A Blackguard shield takes 5.5 and 12, with 400 durability. The Blackguard makes that shield, and the shortsword with it.

Repair and classes

A damaged piece goes back into the crafting grid with what it was made from: linen for gambeson, leather for leather armor, chain and plates for metal. The grid shows how much durability comes back. The piece that was picked for the hit is the one that loses durability.

Class changes the hit. The Hunter has +20% ranged damage and −15% melee damage. The Blackguard has +30% melee damage, −15% ranged damage, +15% armor durability, and the walk-speed penalty from armor is reduced by 25%. The Clockmaker has +25% damage against mechanicals and −15% melee damage. The Malefactor is also −15% in melee. The Tailor sews the tailored gambeson.

On the wiki, these are the pages Armor, Combat, and Weapons.