How to craft the best armour in Terraria

Looking to get the best Terraria armor? If you’ve been playing for a while, you probably have a good idea of what kind of armour you like, as well as what style of play suits you. Instead of a stat-based class system, Terraria's RPG mechanics are entirely built around what you’re wearing. It’s a very literal take “Clothes maketh the man”. 

Because Terraria has four character classes, this means there are technically four best armour sets. This best armor in Terraria guide explains what each armour set does, as well as how to get it.

Terraria armor guide: Honorable mentions

Firstly, it would be remiss not to mention the Valhalla Knight’s Breastplate. While it’s preferable to wear a full armour set due to the bonuses it confers, sometimes staying alive is more important. This is especially true of those classes with a lower defence. For those classes, the VKB provides a massive boost to life regeneration and can keep you in fights far longer than normal. You can purchase it from the Tavernkeep NPC using Defender Medals earned during the Old One’s Army event. 

To craft the armour sets themselves, each one requires the use of Luminite Bars in the crafting process. You acquire these by combining four pieces of Luminite inside an Ancient Manipulator. You get Luminite by defeating Moon Lord, and you can get the Ancient Manipulator by defeating the Lunar Cultist. Acquiring all this is very much an endgame pursuit, but it can help you complete Expert Mode if you’ve played on normal mode first.

Best Terraria melee armor

Melee users are defined by their high defence and great strength. The best set of melee armour is the Solar Flare Armour, which can be crafted using 36 Luminite Bars and 45 Solar Fragments. You earn the latter by defeating the Solar Pillar. The full set gives you: 

• 22 percent more melee damage.
• 17 percent more critical hit chance with melee attacks.
• 15 percent increased movement and melee speed.
• Increased likelihood that enemies will attack you.
• A special solar shield that protects you. You can consume this to dash into enemies and damage them. 

Best Terraria ranged armor

Ranged fighters, as the name suggests, fight from range, putting distance between them and their foes. The best ranged armour is the Vortex Armour, which can be crafted with 36 Luminite Bars and 45 Vortex Fragments. You can earn the fragments by destroying the Vortex Pillar. The set grants you: 

• 36 percent more ranged damage.
• 27 percent increased critical hit chance with ranged attacks.
• An extra 10 percent movement speed.
• A 25 percent chance not to consume ammo.
• The ability to go into stealth. This increases your ranged abilities and makes it less likely that you’ll be targeted, but you’ll move slower. 

Best Terraria Summoner armor

Summoners prefer to outsource their fighting, to relying on minions to deal damage for them. The best summoner armour is the Stardust Armour, which can be crafted with 36 Luminite Bars and 45 Stardust fragments. You can acquire the fragments by destroying the Stardust Pillar. The full set of armour grants you: 

• An extra 66 percent minion damage. 
• +5 to your minion capacity. 
• A Stardust Guardian that can be set down like a turret. 

Best Terraria magic armor

Finally, we have the mage. Mages like to show-off with an array of spectacular magic spells. The best Mage armour is the Nebula Armour, which can be crafted with 36 Luminite Bars and 45 Nebula Fragments. You can probably see where this is going, but you get the fragments by destroying the Nebula Pillar. With the full set equipped you get: 

• An extra 26 percent magic damage. 
• 16 percent higher chance of critical hits with magic. 
• An increases maximum mana of 60.
• A reduction in mana consumption of 15 percent. 
• A chance for buffs to drop whenever you hurt an enemy. Pink drops will boost your damage, orange will boost your health regen, and blue will boost your mana regen.