Best thermal protection without pelts?

[Ghoul Slayer]

I just killed my first elk, so I have a whopping grand total of 11 pelts. It's a pain going into the snow biome without hide armor. I have my fortitude up to 24 and climbing but that still only leaves me about 10-15 minutes in the biome before I start to die. I have full chitin and full flak armor. Which one is better for the time being until I can get enough pelts to make hide armor?

[Fluff❽]

If memory serves, I think the hide offers more Hypothermal protection than flak and chitin. This would do you until you get pelt for the fur. Check the stats for each of your armour. Also, one of the recipies (the chilli one I think), if you have that, will help in snow biomes too.

[Ghoul Slayer]

I guess the real question is how do you read hypothermal vs. hyperthermal?

[White, the Loiterer]

Hypothermal is cold, hyperthermal is heat.

[Nuke2099]

Cloth helps against the heat and a little bit against the cold, hide helps against the cold but its not what you want to wear when its hot. Fur is better than hide against the cold but its even worse than hide when its hot.

Chitin and flak are purely for combat and are horrible for any protection against the elements.

[White, the Loiterer]

Originally posted by Nuke2099:

Cloth helps against the heat and a little bit against the cold, hide helps against the cold but its not what you want to wear when its hot. Fur is better than hide against the cold but its even worse than hide when its hot.

Also Fur does not protect from cold when swimming.

[irondune]

bare: Nope
cloth: little bit better for heat and cold
hide: upgraded cloth
chitin: better than cloth against cold, but very bad when it is hot outside
flak: makes cold and heat even worse than being bare, so....
fur: can make heat worse, but is best against cold
scuba gear: on land it's useless, in water is great against cold.

[Nuke2099]

Originally posted by irondune:

bare: Nope
cloth: little bit better for heat and cold
hide: upgraded cloth
chitin: better than cloth against cold, but very bad when it is hot outside
flak: makes cold and heat even worse than being bare, so....
fur: can make heat worse, but is best against cold
scuba gear: on land it's useless, in water is great against cold.

Chitin and Flak are only for combat, they're bad for both elements. Hide is only better than cloth concerning the cold but horrible with the heat.

[Attack Kitty]

some of the info in this thread is wrong or a bit off.

cloth: gives much more heat protection than it does cold protection or armor. I keep a few journeyman's cloth items for exploring lava cave, etc.

Hide: gives good cold protection, twice the armor of cloth, but gives a small penalty to heat effects.

Chitin: has twice the armor of hide. it has very minor cold protection, and a small heat penalty.

Flac: gives twice the armor of chitin, and 'some' cold protection (less than hide, more than cloth), has a small heat penalty. This is your main endgame gear item, but it won't see you through all climates.

Fur: has some armor (similar to hide), has very high cold protection, and a very large heat penalty. Fur armor is extremely heavy.
* Also worth noting: fur hood and gloves give the most thermal insulation "per weight", the boots give somewhat less insulation "per weight", and the chest/pants have the highest weight per point of insulation.


Cloth, Hide, Chitin, and Flac can be found in crates as items or blueprints... so those items you can get at ramshackle, apprentice, etc. while Fur is currently crafted-primitive only.

I was using a flac/fur combo, but now I prefer Journeyman's Hide over fur items, as they have about the same thermal insulation, are much lighter, and have a milder heat penalty.


In heat, you can often do ok by taking off armor that gives a penalty, and just going armorless or partially armorless. or swapping a few cloth items on. For example, cloth hat/feet/gloves with flac chest & pants would give you decent heat resistance and good armor.

Similarly, in cold, you can wear a flack chest with a fur hood, etc. Although at midnight in the snow biome, if you can't build a fire, you may want full fur.

Points spent in fortitude give you more leeway with temperatures. And while cold tends to be more brutal than heat, hand torches/standing torches/fireplaces/etc. help with cold. A group of people using hand torches huddled together can stay warm rather easily.