Mushroom Armor
Set bonus: Permanent night vision. At night, stats on the armor pieces are tripled. (Baseline 355HP, 55 +Def. Nighttime 1065 HP, 165 +Def)
Pros: Cheap and scales well with the content. You can use this all the way up to magma if you want.
Cons: Worse than lapis during daytime. Low +Def rating.
Really solid beginner armor set, and easy to obtain.
Make your way to the farm area and get to farming 5. After that, take the launch pad to the Mushroom Desert, where you will find red mushrooms at the back of the island.
If you enchant it with Growth V later, it's almost as good as lapis. 10/10 for lazy people.
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Diamond Armor
Set bonus: None. (Baseline 100 +Def)
Pros: Gives better +Def than the mushroom armor.
Cons: Will very quickly become useless. Not even worth enchanting.
After you get the quest to go down the different levels in the Deep Caverns area, you will eventually make it to the Diamond Reserve (the level below redstone). Here, you can quickly mine up enough diamonds to craft an armor set, but you will more than likely die a few times in the attempt. You keep your inventory on death, so just keep trying till you get enough.
If you didn't choose to get mushroom armor, use diamond only until you have gotten a set of lapis armor. After that you can junk it.
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Lapis Armor
Set bonus: Increases the wearer's maximum health by 60. (Baseline 300HP, 160 +Def)
Pros: Arguably the best set for early through mid game for all-around purposes.
Cons: Not as good +Def as other armors; not as much health bonus as mushroom armor at night.
➤ IF you are using
diamond armor, you need to get lapis. Like, now.
➤ IF you're using
armor, you can skip lapis and go straight to miner's armor, BUT you need to put growth enchants on all your gear right now or you're gonna have a bad time.
This armor has a 1% chance to drop from lapis zombies. You can improve your odds by using a Luck V Undead Sword, which I will cover further down in the swords section.
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Miner Armor
Set bonus: Regenerate 5% of your max health every second if you've been out of combat for 8 seconds. (Baseline 300HP, 50 +Def)
Pros: Hands down the best set for mining on the lower levels of Deep Caverns. If you spend a lot of time there, get this.
Cons: Not that great anywhere outside the mines. Use lapis/mushroom when not in the mines.
NOTE: There is a difference between miner ARMOR and miner's OUTFIT. The outfit (from cobblestone collection VII) gives haste 2 and is gray leather. The armor, which I'm talking about, is diamond and gives crazy def while in the mines.
➤ IF
you want to eventually enchant this armor yourself, go to the Diamond Reserve to grind it. Those mobs drop clean (unenchanted) set pieces.
➤ IF
and just want the set, you can kill mobs on the Obsidian Sanctum floor. They hit way harder though, and you better not even try unless your current gear is full Growth V. The mobs here drop miner armor with Prot II.
Use a Luck V Undead Sword to increase your odds of getting a drop.
After you get miner armor and fully enchant it, you can basically just facetank whatever you want while in the mines. Nothing even matters.
You still need either lapis OR mushroom armor for while you're outside the mines, though. Pick one, make sure it has Growth V enchants, and let's go to the Blazing Fortress.
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Other Reasonable Choices
Hey, don't get mad at me because I didn't list your cactus armor. It's right here in this section.
These are armors you can use instead of mushroom/diamond/lapis if you want. You have to make the call for yourself on what is best suited to your needs and goals. As always, if you're gonna use it as your main armor, get Growth V on it.
➤ Golem Armor: 105HP, 250 +Def
Good health and defense rating.
Obtained from Iron VI.
➤ Cactus Armor: 35 HP, 65 +Def
Rebounds 33% of the damage you take back at your attacker.
Obtained from Cactus II.
➤ Miner's Outfit: 100 +Def
Permanent Haste II while in the mines.
Obtained from Cobblestone VII.
➤ Growth Armor: 280HP, 145 +Def
Heals you for 1% of your health every time you kill a monster, and increases the health bonus of a piece of armor (25 max).
Obtained from Dark Oak VIII.
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