Armor Guide : How and when to spend your money on them

Hello everyone !
Armor is a big part of the bannerlord experience, but sometimes investing in a juicy new armor piece can be really disappointing.
So i thought. Why not make a guide to analyse the "optimal" ways to deal with armor management. When to buy one ? When to not buy one ? Which one is worth it ? So here we go guys. My attempt at making a guide about it. Be ready for a huge post !

Also before diving into this guide : It's still a single player game, so feel free to do whatever you want, this guide isn't really one. It's more like an "optimal analysis" that is totally unnecessary for a PvE solo game where you can do what you want at the pace you want. It's for beginners who are looking into buying armor but are about to spend 40k in a piece even tho they haven't invested their money in anything else ! It's also for dumb people like me who like to over analyse things.

Summary

Welcome to this Mount & Blade Bannerlord 2 armor guide !

Armor is very important and you really need to avoid walking around naked. Now, what do we acquire, and when ?

The single most important factor when choosing to buy armor or not, is how much money do you have and do you have anything better to put your money into ?

Buying high price armors is almost always very a bad idea before the very late game.
Why ? Because armor price gets exponantially higher and the "best armors" in the game aren't worth investing your money in until you are rich enough to look for money sinks.

It's more important to buy workshops & get a stable gold income before buying 10k+ armor pieces.
You need armor, but you don't need expensive ones.
There is a pretty noticeable difference when fighting naked/with civilian clothes and having an affordable armor. You'll feel much tankier with a cheap set of armor so having one is your goal early on. Do some arena, recruit a few recruits and kill some bandits and get those low cost pieces !

Even tho it's important to upgrade from your civilian clothes, getting the very best pieces isn't. Between having 25/30 all around armor & 55 all around armor, there's almost no feeling of improvement while the cost of those pieces reach insane numbers.

An also very important point that Consul mentionned in the comment section is to look for the weight of those armor pieces. I forgot to speak about this very important part : Once on foot, it's much better to take a lighter piece of armor, even if it means loosing a few points here & there, to stay very mobile on the battlefield. The better tank tool of Bannerlord is actually avoiding getting hit.

The guide will be divided in 2 parts :

-How to get some stuff quickly early on.

-A deep look into the most cost efficient armor pieces and when to buy them.

Early game. Time to get some cheap stuff !

Here you are with your rusty sword and civilian tunic. You're broke and you have to deal with bandits who happens to have better stuff than you do.

It's now time to make some quick & easy money !
Train yourself in the arena and try to survive till the last oponent. Accumulate gold & skill there. After a few sessions, consider getting some recruits to hunt some bandits.



Now that you made a few bucks, it's time to to optimize your money spent early on !

You gotta look into "specialised pieces" : aim at having higher torso armor & leg armor if you fight mostly on horse (arm can be a little bit important for cav vs cav engagements tho so don't skimp them too much there, on the other hand helmet is close to useless for cav), and higher arm & head armor for infantry (infantry actually get hit more often in the head or the arms than the torso and almost never ever get hit in the legs).


After a few fights in the arena, some dead bandits and a bunch of quests done you should be ready for the next step...

It's TOURNAMENTS TIME.

Okay people. We are at the most important point in your armor acquiring quest.
Most of the pieces you'll acquire there will accompany you and then your companions for a long time, a very long time.

So here we go, in this dirty new set of low cost armor pieces, ready to kick the butt of some lords in shiny expensive armor.

In town, go to your arena section and see if a tournament happens. If no tournament is in your city, you can enter the arena and ask to the tournament master if one is about to happen in a nearby city. It's your new goal for a little while, but a rewarding and fun one. Don't forget to grab some easy quests on the way and kill some bandits too.

Once you find your tournament, go there, focus and get those juicy pieces !

It will take some time, but your renown will increase (which is always good), your money will increase if you bet on yourself and win consistently (once you get the hang of tournaments they become pretty easy). Use the money to invest in workshops (buy a brewery in a city surrounded by small towns that produces grain for example.). Buy as much workshops as your clan tier allows you to.

Travel the world, speak to lords to know them and acquire loot from multiple areas !
It actually won't take this long to travel the whole map, and it's recommanded anyway.
If you get companions, get them some stuff from tournaments too (you'll get some shoulder pieces, boots etc.. in double/triple/.. anyway)

After a bunch of hours, you'll be rocking an amazing new look and be ready to kick asses and start your rise in Calradia ! After this, getting armour will be all about acquiring large amount of money &/or being lucky with war loot !

What pieces should we get ? And when ?

First of, you need to buy the good enough but not too costly armours.

Early on (pre tournaments), buy what you can afford at the cheapest price.

Vlandian & Imperial Gambesons are a pretty good deal overall. Their price go from 600 to 1400 denars. I recommand buying the cheapest ones, start some tournaments, then once you get the hang of them to win, start betting on yourself.
After a few winning bets, buy the most costly gambesons and then save up for the juicy 2000 to 3000 armors like the leather armor piece at around 2300 denars.

Once you have those, keep your money for workshops. The next armors will just provide a few extra points of defense that won't change anything on how quick you'll die on the battlefield. Especially if you focus on tournaments where any contestant has blunt weapons and basically 2 to 3 shots anyone, heavy armor or not.

After this, with multiple workshops running... you can finally look into optimizing the pieces :

We spoke earlier about specialising pieces, start getting some higher price boots and chestpieces for your cavalry companions and some higher price helmets and shoulderpieces for your infantry companions. Stuff yourself before them of course !
I recommand buying better shoulders/gloves and boots before diving into chestpieces, the head & arm armor are more important than the torso armor for infantry while the boots are more important than arm & head armor for cavalry.

Upgrade those helmets, shoulders and gloves on your infantry, then upgrade to high price torso after all that. Boots come last (i'll mention a specific pair of boots later that are the way to go with all infantry companions).
For cavalry, upgrade boots then torso. You can almost ignore head armor and let them keep tournament helmets until everyone else is fully suited.

Now back to torso armors, I highly recommand to save your denars and buy the 8 to 20k chest pieces that actually are real significant upgrade over the previous pieces and to not spend them in 3 to 6k pieces : it's not worth it.

Focus on getting those pieces while finding ways to improve your income :
Wars with other factions or blacksmithing are the best ways to acquire denars at this 1.7 stage of the game. Also wars can provide very good armor pieces and save you a lot of money.

An other important and easy way to acquire a strong full set of armor is to marry a noble. Look for potential husband/wife who are rocking cool armor (look mostly at the chestpiece & helmet, since they are the pricey pieces). It's a one time thing but it's really worth it. Also in campaign mode, you can marry your brother & sisters to nobles too, making it possible to acquire easily 4 free set of armors.
In sandbox, gotta wait for your kids to be old enough so you can find them a partner (you should already be filthy rich by then)

Once you're stuffed with those pricey chestpiece and some upgrade accessories, you can start to look into those 40k+ armor pieces. It's the last stage before the cost of chestpieces and helmets skyrocket to the 100k+. Get those for yourself. It's way less cost efficient than the previous stage, but it's still a bit worth it. Everything else above is really just a money sink that won't bring much improvement.
On the right, here's an oriental theme set made of those cost efficient pieces acquired through tournaments and with 40k+ chestpiece & helmet.
With this, it's probably the timing when you'll feel the tankiest, while not exceeding 100k for the whole set. It's also a pretty light set.


And speaking of money sink : The best of the best armor, helmets etc.. have such a high price that I highly recommand to buy them once you get real confortable with your money (you're sitting on gold and are wondering where to spend it).
Buy the best pieces once you're filthy rich.

In the end, the timing when you feel your armor has been your best investment is right when you finished your tournament cycle and are rocking that 3K chestpiece + tournaments accessories. Or rocking a 10k chestpiece + 40k helmet with tournament shoulders/gloves & boots.

The ultra lategame armors are just here for the extra stats on paper. Peasants will scratch you, but beware of their rocks ! Also beware of arrows, spears, 2 handed weapons, javelins... But who cares ? You will look amazing ! (Chestpiece found in Empire territory. I usually find it in Epicrotea or Myzea)

The most cost efficient helmets !

Don't forget, early game you really shouldn't buy any and wait to get them with tournaments, free 25 to 28 head armor, what more could we ask at the beginning ? Especially since the price gets really high above that !

-Cheap ones are like padded cap. Don't put more than 300 early on it's not worth it.

-If you really want a decent helmet that isn't a padded cap, you can buy the Steel Cap (sturgian helmet) for 18 armor at 800ish denars.

Once you get tournaments helmets, upgrading them is gonna cost you, helmet is the worst cost efficient armorpiece to buy yet the most important one for infantry characters so it's even more important to spend your money upgrading them before considering the highest priced armor pieces. Also look out for their weight too, if you have a choice between an helmet that weights 2.0 with 38 armor and an other that weights 3.5 for 39 armor, pick the lightest one !

-The Steel Nasal Cap ! Once again we have a Sturgian Cap that is worth acquiring. cost 10k and gives 35 armor. It's a good upgrade if you really can't handle the look of your tournament helmet.

-Kettle Helmets you get in Vlandia and the Empire are the most cost effective helmets overall after the tournament helmet &/or the Steel Nasal Cap.
-The imperial Spangenhelm line of helmets is also a good line of helmets to consider.

You then have 2 options for your next helmets. Those helmets give 45 armor at 40k denars and are the best "cost effective" helmets available by far (at this price range) :

-The Knight Helmet with Bronze Faceguard & Closed Knight Helmet (rare in Vlandian territory). Light and high protection. Anything above cost 20 to 30k more gold.

-The Mameluke Helmet with Mail (visible in previous guide section on the oriental 40k armor set screenshot). Lightweight too (a little bit heavier) and high protection for the same price as the knight helmets. This one isn't rare and can easily be found in Aserai shops.


Everything else is extra costly and are to consider once you have your "gold empire". You pick the strongest helmets you find the best looking and that's it, at this stage of the game who cares about their cost effectiveness. Maybe just avoid the pieces that are too heavy.

The most cost efficient shoulder/neckpieces !

Like the helmet, avoid buying too much thing here, especially early on. You can get some of the most toptier shoulder pieces in tournaments !

Here are a few options before tournament pieces that are cheap but also not too heavy :

-Stitched Leather Shoulders at 210ish denars for 7 body armor (khuzait or aserait territory)

-Woven Leather Shoulders at 350 denars for 6/4 body/arm armor (khuzait or aserai territory, maybe
can appear in empire ones)

-Reinforced Leather Pauldrons at 420 denars for 8/3 body/arm armor (khuzait territory)

-Padded leather shoulders at 500 denars for 8/4 (vlandian & empire territory)

-Legionary Padded Straps at 600 denars for 9/4 (empire territory)

-Leather Lamellar Shoulder guards at 1000 denars for 12/3 (khuzait)

-Reinforced Studded Neckguard at 1300 for 17 body armor (khuzait/aserai)

-Cured Studded Leather Armor at 1800 for 13/6 (khuzait, probably aserai & maybe empire territory too)

Those are cost efficient but not needed, overall stick to those at 600 or bellow and get better shoulder pieces from tournaments (you can get those legionary pieces there). Also look out for their weight, some can have 3 times the weight of the other. The best shoulder pieces you get for free in tournaments are :

-The legionary cloak for 16/4 armor that usually cost 3700+ denars. Get it for free in empire tournaments. Not very common as a reward tho

-The Rough bearskin for 16/4 armor that usually cost 3200ish denars. Get it for free in battanian tournaments. The best tournament shoulder piece as it is lighter than the legionary cloak and it's a very common reward there !


Above those, consider very few pieces that are worthwile upgrades :

-Heavy Lamellar Pouldrons at 9200ish denars for 17/9. Look sexy & big upgrade for arm armor. Empire territory. A bit heavy so make sure your other pieces are light.

-Reinforced Scale Pouldrons at 9200ish denars for 18/8. Sexy and big upgrade too. Khuzait/Aserai territory. Maybe in Sturgia too. Very heavy tho, so consider it if you have very light armor elsewhere.

Everything else cost more than twice the price of those so consider them in very lategame once you upgrade your whole stuff (maybe before buying 100k+ chestpieces tho)

The most cost efficient gloves !

Buy a bunch of cheap one, but as usual you can get those in tournaments too

Here are a few options before tournaments pieces (all the pieces at 300ish cost for 9 armor) :

-Rough Tied Braces (Khuzait territory)

-Padded mittens (Vlandian & empire territory)

-Guarded padded Vambraces (Vlandian & empire territory)

But mostly, in tournaments you'll get pieces that give 18 to 22 armor for free, so don't spend too much money on gauntlets.

Here are the most cost effective gloves :

-Lordly Padded mittens for 18 armor. You can buy them in empire & vlandian city for 1400ish and are the most cost effective of the bunch. (winnable in tournaments)

-Mail mittens at 2400 for 20 armor. Vlandian & Sturgian cities. (winnable in tournaments)

-Plated striped gauntlets for 22 armor at 3200. Don't remember where you get them. (winnable in tournaments)

-Bronze bracers for 22 armor at 3400. You get them in Aserai & Khuzait territory.

Everything above cost 1000 to 2000 more denars for 1 or 2 points.

So overall interesting to buy those pieces if you don't get them in tournament, but ideally just get them all in tournaments.
Luckily gloves are pretty cheap and the stronger they are the lighter they get so there's no tradeoff upgrading them.

The most cost efficient boots !

You can buy a bunch of cheap one early on, but as usual, just wait for free good tournament boots.

They can be a bit rarer in tournaments so it's less of a waste to buy them early on.

Here are the few bunch that are worth it to get before tournaments :

-Woodland leg wrappins for 8 armor at 250 denars. Acquired in Battania

-Folded Leather boots for 9 armor at 300 denars. Acquired in Battania

-Mail Cavalier boots for 12 armor 500 denars. Acquired in Vlandia

Since you have less boots as a reward for tournaments, consider buying them before buying helmets, gloves & shoulders.
The boots you get as tournament reward usually have between 18 to 20 armor.
Consider buying these anyways :

-Mail Chausses for 22 armor at 2700ish denars. You get them in sturgia.

-Strapped Mail chausses for 23 armor at 3300ish denars. You also get them in sturgia. The best above those cost more than twice this price !

!!! WARNING very BEST BOOTS INCOMING !!!

There's so few "cost efficient boots" recommandations because of these :

-The Reinforced Suede shoes : For 1750ish denars, get 20 armor with those sexy boots. Ultra cost efficient, rocking a high armor stat for such a light pair of boots. Some shoes are heavier with less armor and yet cost more than those. You buy them in Khuzait territory.
Those boots are perfect for infantry type companions. Equip them all with these, anything else above isn't worth the cost & weight increase.

The most efficient chestpieces !

Here's the big boy coming. You can get a few interesting pieces in tournaments, but here are the best cost efficient pieces at all price ranges. Since they are rarer rewards, tournaments aren't a reliable source to get them (especially if you wanna equip multiple companions). Also try to avoid the heavier pieces, for 1 or 2 points a piece can suddenly weight 4 times the weight of the other.

-Old Fur Armor at 350 for a very cheap cav chestpiece (Battania)

-Ring Mail at 420ish for a decent early infantry chestpiece (Aserai)

-Aketon for at 470ish for a decent early infantry chestpiece (Vlandia)

-Fur armor at 480ish for a decent early infantry chestpiece (Battania)

-Rugged Gambeson at 660ish for a decent early cav chestpiece (Empire/Vlandia)

-Mirrored Leather Armor at 770ish for a decent early cav chest piece (Aserai/Khuzait)

-Padded Sleeveless short coat (same stats as above, Vlandia)

-Padded Short Coat at 770ish for a decent early infantry chest piece (Vlandia)

-Woodland garments at 820ish for a decent allrounder (Battania)

-All imperial infantryman gambesons. All have a very good cost effectiveness and fit all kind of role. Cost from 900 to 1450ish denars. (Empire)

-All imperial auxiliary armors. Same as gambesons. From 1200 to 1450ish denars. (Empire)

-Light padded armor good all around armor at 1300ish denars. (location not sure)

-Sleeveless padded Coat : The very best cav chestpiece for this price range. Cost 1300ish denars (Vlandia/Battania)

-Leather armor with irons plates : Best all around chestpiece, especially if you have shoulderpieces that traded some armor in the torso for more in armor in the arms. 1500ish (Sturgia/Khuzait). Heavier than previous armours, be sure to have decent athletics a/or every other pieces of armor that are very light.

-Leather armor : Slightly better than the previous piece, and lighter, but the cost has bumped to 2300ish. Still worth it (Empire)

-Reinforced Leather armor. For cavalry, it's much better than the classical leather armor with more torso armor & leg but less arm armor. Same price at 2300ish price range. (Empire/Khuzait, not sure). A bit heavier but still worth it.

-Rugged scale armor at 3500ish price range. Very good cav armor. No arm armor tho so get some good shoulders to protect them ! (Battania/Sturgia). Also heavier but still worth considering.

-Heavy Mail Vest at 3500ish price range. Also very good cav armor. Trade a lil bit of torso armor (compared to Rugged Scale armor) for a lil bit more leg & arm armor. (Battania)


From there you need to hold onto those pieces till you are fully suited in tournament helmet/gloves/boots. Once you have one of these armors + tournaments helmet/shoulders/gauntlets/boots + a decent daily income with workshop, craft etc.. you can finally start considering good all around armors at 10k to 20k denars. Upgrade them one by one from time to time, it's not an urgent buy but a confortable one. You can even keep your companions with previously listed armors + tournament stuff for a long time, it'll be more worth it to upgrade yourself even more before looking into them.

-Bronze lamellar Vest over Gambeson : The best cost efficient cavalry chestpiece of this price range. good leg armor and very high torso armor for 8700ish denars. Also very light (Aserai & maybe Sturgia)

-Banded Leather Over mail : Very good all arounder for 8900ish price range (Vlandia). Pretty nice for a while and good to keep on companions.

-Leather strips over Padded Robe for 9600ish denars. Very good for infantry. Also best armor you can get as a civilian outfit. (Khuzait/Aserai)

-Mail shirt at 10kish denars. Very good all arounder if you have a shoulder piece that increase mostly chest armor. (vlandia)

-Ranger mail at 11kish denars. Very good all arounder. This sexy piece is a really good jack of all trades piece and a piece to look into when you want to compare other pieces of this pricerange (Battania). A bit heavier than the previous pieces, but still not too heavy.

-Infantryman Mail vest 12kish denars. The improved mail shirt. (Empire)

-Gambeson over Mail Armor 16kish denars. One of the very best cavalry chestpiece of this price range. Decent chest armor and very high leg armor. Also very light. (Aserai & Sturgia)

-Heavy Mail shirt with Wide belt at 17kish denars. Very good all arounder even tho it's best as a cav chestpiece. (Battanian). The heavier piece for the moment so don't pick it if you have very low athletics at this point, but worth considering if you have decent athletics.

-Heavy Lamellar Vest at 20k denars. The very best cavalry chestpiece of this price range. You take the Bronze variant and add 10 armor to the legs. (Sturgian)

So here are those armors you can look into for you and your companions. You're gonna stick around with those for a while, but your companions will probably keep those until the very ultra lategame where you are filthy rich. You really don't need and shouldn't upgrade them further before you're fully kitted out yourself.
Speaking about yourself, at a slightly higher cost than the previous one, you can look into getting some pieces that are stronger all around (beware, from now one there's kind of an increase in the weight of the armors, so only pick them once you have decent athletics :

-The Red & White Tabard over Mail Hauberk at 25k. For this price range, it's the best all rounder you can get your hands on. (Vlandia). Not too heavy for these stats, still need decent athletics tho.

-The Aserai Chain Mail at 35k. Not as cost efficient as the previous one, but if you prefer this look, you'll lose a bit of torso armor for more arm & leg armor. (Aserai) Beware, it starts to get quite a bit heavier

-Rough scale Mail at 35k. Like the Aserai Chain Mail, an alternative if you enjoy it, but not as cost efficient as the Hauberk. (Battania/Sturgia). Not as heavy as the Aserai chain mail so can be pretty interesting.

-Mirror Brigandine Armor at 45k. That's a straight upgrade over the Tabard. Way less cost effective and it gets quite heavy so avoid it if you feel that it's too much.

-Stitched Leather over Mail. Exactly the same as the Mirror Brigandine Armor, but it's lighter. So it's the real & best upgrade of the Tabard over Mail Hauberk. (Khuzait)

There is also a very specialised piece of armor that happens to be so freaking good for it's pricerange. Consider getting it for yourself or your favorite companions if you/they are on foot :

-the Light Lamellar Armor : No leg armor (so it's a total nope for cav) but trade this for a HUGE amount of body armor and high armount of arm armor. Even tho this chestpiece has so much upper armor, it stays kind of "light" for this stat range (still a bit heavy so beware) . At 40k denars it's ultra worth it to buy it. (Found in Sturgia/Aserai settlements)



Anything above these armors become the ultra lategame armors you should consider once you become filthy rich and you need money sinks. They also gets much heavier overall.
So none of them are cost efficient.
When you are at the point where you can afford them without gimping your economy, cost efficience won't be something you'll be thinking about. What you'll be thinking about is your athletic stat...

Conclusion

So here we are guys !

In the end, since having the best armor doesn't really improve your survival against the highest damage types (blunt & piercing), they aren't really worth investing that much into them.
Mostly watch out for their low price/cost efficience and their weight.

You get the best out of armors by acquiring the pieces in tournaments and on the battlefield instead of buying them. Still, if you really wanna change your look &/or get a matching set of armor, go ahead !

Don't forget this guide is here to "guide" people into choosing their armor pieces, but not to force them into it. It's a solo PVE game, so who cares about optimizing the run ? In the end we're all free to do what we want.

Also this guide is "A guide", not "The guide", so you can approach and optimize your armor acquisition differently !

I hope this guide will still help some people, &/or attract some people like me : those who are madly in love with "deep analysis of stats & stuff".

Feel free to point out mistakes you found in this guide, especially since english isn't my native language.

Good luck on the battlefields of Calradia !

[Agroplode]

Coming back for release. I find most of the heavy armor is ugly, and when I try to look handsome, looters smack me for 49 damage. So I set down damage taken, only way to enjoy game without looking like iron robot. I tried some of the armor you mention here. I played with civilian armor and with the leather armor and the auxiliary armor, you show here. Lot more fun. Thanks for guide. PS. Aserai T4 infantry got armor that work both as battle and civilian. Its good for Town fights. Can be found in Aserai Towns or Battle loot.

[Trifler]

@Veolfen
Appreciate the quick fix. Have a great rest of the week. :)

[Veolfen]

Thanks for the info, fixed it ! Since it's not my native tongue that's the kind of mistake i usually do.

[Trifler]

Nice guide! Just FYI, grammatically, "Armors are a big part" should be "Armor is a big part"

[Sudo Modding]

Nice, thanks!

[Veolfen]

There you go :)
Check all empire territories. I usually find it in Epicrotea.

[Sudo Modding]

Could you add where can we find the chad armor below "You will look amazing !" please ?
I think I tried all cities 2 times and still didn't find it.
I'm talking about the chest piece.

[Veolfen]

You're actually right. Tho many got nerfed some still have amazing armors that you can acquire indeed. I didn't plan to cite all the ways to acquire them but i could have put it in the guide indeed. Thanks for pointing that up.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

On how to avoid spending much on armour, yes good point on tournaments, but you could also mention marriage. Some potential spouses have truly great armour, some of the best in the game.

[Veolfen]

hat's actually a pretty good point Consul.
Since armors doesn't protect that well it's way better to look at the lighter pieces. It's a much better deal to loose a few points of armor for extra mobility.
I added multiple parts about it in the guide and creditted you in the summary for that. I wrote so much i forgot to mention such an important par so thank you !