Armor

Overview
Armor helps to increase the survivability of your militia by lowering and sometimes ignoring the damage that is dealt by enemies. Currently, all armor is crafted by normal crafters such as the Weaver and the Blacksmith.

Alpha 14 added many new pieces of armor, including new shield types and helmets. As new alphas come out and Stonehearth is further developed, it is expected that there will be new armors and defensive options coming.

Armor versus Shield versus Helmet
Armor is equipped on the torso, helmets on the head, and a shield is carried in the off-hand. As such, both should be equipped for maximum protection. While armor and helmets will provide a higher amount of damage reduction, a shield does offer the potential to completely block some attacks.

Equipping Armor
Each piece of armor has a specific item level (also referred to as an 'ilevel'). If a higher item level piece of armor becomes available, then one of your soldiers will run to it and replace their own armor with the stronger piece. As of Alpha 14, there is no way to specify if a particular piece of armor should be used by a particular militia member.

As the only combat class to be implemented as of Alpha 14, the Footman is the only class that can wear armor at this time. It is currently unknown if future classes such as the Archer will be restricted to certain types of armor.