Guide:Armor progression

Progression in Terraria is marked by the player gaining access to new weapons, accessories, and armors. While weapons are the main determinant of combat effectiveness, armor also plays an important role by mitigating damage taken and passively boosting damage output. Choosing the ideal armor sets to use at each stage of the game is sometimes straightforward, but not always. This guide will help you decide on which armor sets to use at various points in game progression.

Especially later in the game, bonuses to melee speed, movement speed, and defense are generally not considered as impactful as direct offensive bonuses, making them a lower priority.
 * Melee speed generally only affects projectile velocity and the swing speed of close-ranged weapons. Neither of those are as impactful as direct bonuses to melee damage and critical chance.
 * Direct movement speed bonuses are inferior to Hermes Boots, double-jumps, and dashes when it comes to dodging attacks. Also, movement speed bonuses granted by armor pale in comparison to the +85% movement speed granted by Exquisitely Stuffed, Slice of Cake, and Swiftness Potion. Your actual mobility mainly comes from Wings.
 * Defense provides fixed damage reduction, which scales poorly into endgame (especially in Expert mode). It also has a bad matchup against most enemies, which tend to hit you infrequently for high damage.

The following listings are in rough order of decreasing viability.

Earlygame
At this point, armor serves little purpose other than to boost your defense. You may obtain up to 20 defense with metal armors such as Platinum armor, but the resources required are better spent elsewhere. Therefore, it's perfectly fine to simply wear Ebonwood armor, Shadewood armor, or other basic, easy-to-craft armors until you can get your hands on a real armor set; whatever you wear at the start of the game will be replaced very quickly. More experienced players can save time by completely skipping armor in the early game, potentially even up to the Wall of Flesh battle.

If playing on a drunk world, Moon Lord Legs become the best leg armor piece to use early on.

Late pre-Hardmode
Sets that can be acquired after defeating at least one pre-Hardmode boss.

Early Hardmode
To save resources, it is recommended that you choose one early Hardmode armor set and use it until you defeat your first mechanical boss. Palladium, Orichalcum, and Titanium sets are typically preferred over Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite, but alternatives have been listed for players whose worlds contain Adamantite.

Past this point, enemies start dealing high enough damage that defense becomes mostly irrelevant.

Pre-Plantera
Aside from Hallowed and Chlorophyte Bars, you now have access to the second tier of the Old One's Army, the rewards of which provide welcome upgrades to every class. The lopsided stat distributions of the Tavernkeep's armor sets make them excellent for hybrid sets, making them useful even if not planning to purchase a full set.

Pre-Betsy
While Plantera and Golem provide separate advancements to game progression when defeated, they are treated as one milestone by this guide due to their similar difficulty level. At this point, you would be expected to have defeated Duke Fishron, Martian Madness, and the Pumpkin Moon. The Xeno Staff, Desert Tiger Staff, and Spooky Breastplate in particular provide a noticeable power boost to hybrid summoners.

Those who have stockpiled a large supply of Defender Medals prior to defeating Golem can skip to the next section.

Pre-Lunar Events
With the Old One's Army vanquished and a good supply of Defender Medals in your pocket, you can now purchase the best armor available before challenging the Lunar Events. The most notable of these armor pieces is the Valhalla Knight's Breastplate, which noticeably increases the survivability of all classes; it restores 240 health in 1 minute, which is more than a Super Healing Potion can heal in the same amount of time.

Endgame
All Luminite-tier armors are the best offensive armors for their respective classes (aside from Solar Flare armor, which offers a combination of offense and defense). However, the Valhalla Knight's Breastplate can still be worn by ranged users and summoners, who do not receive any defensive benefits from their respective endgame armors.