Tears of the Kingdom: 11 Best Armor Sets To Loot ASAP

Link’s a pretty fashionable guy. But he also has a number of needs from his threads beyond just looking great: increased defenses, the ability to withstand extreme temperatures, and now that he’s taken to jumpin’ off islands in the sky like a madman, having increased aerial maneuvers is pretty important too.

So which threads are the best for meeting these needs and where you can find them? We’ve taken a look at a variety of different scenarios you’re likely to encounter in Tears of the Kingdom and have selected the best sets to gather for certain uses. As Tears of the Kingdom is a game with a lot of freedom in how you play it, you might find different sets more useful than others, but these are all reliable, go-to sets for their purposes.

For Better Flying: Glide Armor Set

Sky Islands are everywhere in Hyrule these days. And Link’s back with his paraglider from Breath of the Wild. Leaping off of islands and getting shot up through skyview towers means you’ll be spending a fair bit of time in the air. That’s all the more reason you should grab the Glide armor set.

We have a full guide dedicated to finding the glide set. Once you assemble all the pieces, your stamina will decrease at a slower rate while paragliding, and you’ll have dramatically better aerial maneuverability.

For Better Sneaking: Stealth Set

For the foxiest of the foxes, you’ll want to consider picking up the Stealth armor set. These pieces will boost your stealth and if you max out the armor upgrades, you’ll move faster at night.

You’ll find the Stealth set for sale in Kakariko Village. We have a full guide on how to get to Kakariko while making the most of your trip. The stealth set is available at the armor shop…but it’s kinda pricey. Like, 5,000 rupees pricey.

But there’s a reason for this dramatic markup. Turns out the owner’s grandmother is sick with the Gloom-borne Illness. Head on over to the east side of the village to speak with Lasli (she’s seated near a fire) to start the “Gloom-borne Illness” quest. Finishing that quest will lower the price of the Stealth armor down to 500 for the mask, 600 for the tights, and 600 for the shirt.

For great defenses and sword beams: Champion’s Leathers

While the Champion’s Leathers don’t have the same ability to reveal enemy HP numbers that they did in Breath of the Wild, they’re still worth your seeking out for high defenses—particularly once you upgrade them. We have a full guide on where to find this set here

The Champion’s Tunic starts out with a solid five in defense, but that’s far from all you can get out of it. Upgrading the armor will scale it up to eight, 14, 22, and finally 23 for 500 rupees, 10 Silent Princesses, 2 Light Dragon’s Horns, and 20 Sundelions.

But that’s not all. Once equipped, the Champion’s Leathers give Link the ability to shoot sword beams with the Master Sword even if he doesn’t have full health.

For Stronger Attacks: Barbarian Armor Set

What if you just want to up your damage? I mean, those bokoblins aren’t gonna slaughter themselves, ya know. Worry not, the Barbarian Armor set is an excellent way to up your attack power, and you can get the chest piece pretty darn early on in the game.

To snag it, head on over to the Crenel Hills Cave, which is across the river northeast of Lookout Landing. Watch out for the Stone Talus inside, though using your powers, you’d be surprised at how easy you can defeat them.

Venture further into the cave, looking for a chunk of glowing ore lodged into a high part of the far wall from where you came in. Destroy it with a bomb-fruit-fused arrow, then climb on up to get the Barbarian Armor.

To grab the Barbarian Helm, head southeast of Kakariko Village.You’re looking for Robred Dropoff Cave. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see a bunch of spooky-lookin’ statues. Enter the cave and take your first right. Then as you enter the next area, smash through the rock wall to your left. It’s in between the open path and another rock wall. Continue forward and you’ll get into a fight with some bokoblins. Take ‘em out and then blow up the rock floor in the center of this chamber. Jump through into the lake below, then proceed down the path until you arrive at three platforms with statues. Choose the rightmost one and ascend to the top. You’ll arrive in the chamber with the helm.

For the Barbarian Leg Wraps, head to the Walnot Mountain Cave in East Necluda. The cave is just gently southeast of the Retsam Forest, on the bottom of the southwest side of Walnot Mountain, and it has two entrances, one north, one south. Once inside, get to the upper level. Around midway through the cave, you’ll spot an Ice Like hanging from the ceiling, and just beyond that you’ll see an alcove. Jump up to this area and you’’ll find the leg wraps just behind some frozen ice. Use anything explosive or hot to deal with it.

To Glow in the Dark: Miner’s Armor

The Miner’s Armor is pretty essential for voyaging into the depths of Hyrule. It makes you glow, after all. And if you upgrade the armor, you’ll essentially leave glowing footprints behind you.

This is one of the armor sets you can find treasure maps for. These will mark an X on your map, leading you directly to find each piece. To acquire the first map, head on up to the West Hebra Sky Archipelago, to the set of islands with the Ijo-o Shrine. An easy way to get there is to launch yourself from the Rospro Pass Skyview Tower and look to the islands just barely northwest. You’ll find all the maps in treasure chests. The first is found on the north-most square-shaped mini isle.

The second part of the map is found after defeating a Flux Construct 1 just south of where you found the map for the first part. Strictly speaking, all you need to do is dislodge the chest from the boss to grab this map.

Finally, go to the northwest-most extension from Rising Island Chain. This Sky Island hovers just above Hevra Peak. You can get there either by launching yourself from the Rospro Pass Skyview Tower or the Pikida Stonegrove Skyview Tower. Once you land on this island, head just beyond the Kahatanaum shrine, and you’ll find the final map.

Each of these maps will send you down into the depths, so be prepared for some spelunking.

To climb wet surfaces: Froggy Set

The Froggy Armor set is particularly handy for climbing in the rain, as it’ll prevent you from slipping. You’llearn this set as a part of the Lucky Clover Gazette sidequest, which we have a full guide for

This is a particularly useful quest to wrap up as it will unlock the Great Fairies, who can boost your armor sets to make them more effective. You’ll need to visit every stable in Hyrule and complete each portion of the Lucky Clover Gazette quest to acquire the full set of armor, but you’ll earn pieces bit by bit, getting one each after your fourth, ninth, and 12th adventures.

To not freeze to death: Snowquill Armor

Have you been to Rito Village lately? Place is getting hit by some unusually chilly weather. But that’s no sweat for you if you’ve got the Snowquill Armor.

Sure, you absolutely can just cook up some peppers and continue to eat those to power through the cold, but the Snowquill Armor, purchasable in Rito Village, makes all of that irrelevant. Just toss it on and go stomping around in the snow.

We recommend going to the Wind Temple first for the main quests, which necessitates heading to Rito Village. Just head on up to the armor shop there and you’ll be able to buy the shirt for 500 rupees, the headdress for 650, and the trousers for 1,000.

To not die of a heat stroke: Desert Voe Armor

In Link’s journey across Hyrule, he’ll come across some particularly sweaty environments. It pays to find some armor that will help you chill out a bit in those brutally hot climates.

To start, head to the Kara Kara Bazaar in Gerudo, all the way to the southwest region of the map. Here you can get the Desert Voe Headband for 450 rupees. Then you’ll need to get to Gerudo Town which, given the sandstorm, might be a little tricky.

If you haven’t found Gerudo Town yet, it’s at the very end of the path leading southwest. If you have the Glide armor, one way to get there is to get yourself some height via a nearby Sky Tower or by jumping from a Sky Island close by. Paraglide or use some other fancy trick like a Zonai Wingor that Air Bike everyone loves, to get to Gerudo Town much easier.

The Gerudo Town just ahead is easy to get to if you glide in. Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

Once you’re in town, watch out for the creepy gibdos that’ll attack you (they can be tough if you’re not particularly well equipped). Then look for a hole in the ground on the east side of town. Jump down there and on your left you’ll find some smashable rocks. Use a rock-fused weapon or some other method to start smashing your way through. The hallway will extend toward a bend to the left, followed by an elevated area you’ll need to climb. Hop up there, smash through the rocks, and then after another bend left, you’ll find some stone pillars. Use Ascend here to enter the Gerudo Secret Club.

Once inside the club, you’ll be able to purchase the Desert Voe Spaulder for 1300 and the Desert Voe Trousers for 650.

To be the best swimmer: The Zora Armor

While you’ll get the Zora Armor chest piece, which lets you swim up waterfalls, during the “Sidon of the Zora” main quest, you’ll need to search for the remaining pieces. These will improve your swimming abilities and give you the ability to attack while in the water.

Once you complete “Sidon of the Zora,” which is one of the main temple quests, go back and speak to Yona, who originally made the chest piece for you. This will kick off the “Token of Friendship” quest, which will send you to the Ancient Zora Waterworks (which you visited during the “Sidon of the Zora” quest). You can find Yona in Zora’s Domain this time.

Venture through the Waterworks (dive on in through the whirlpool just as you did during the “Sidon of the Zora” quest), and down there you’ll find a massive hole in the ground. Enter there and get ready for a fight with a Stone Talus. Strictly speaking, you don’t have to fight it. Just head for the waterfall and behind it you’ll find a chest with the Zora Greaves.

To get the helm, you’ll need to go back to the fish-shaped Sky Island you visited during “Sidon of the Zora.” At the southeast corner of the island, you can spot a hole in the side; jump over and paraglide into it to get the helm.

To climb like no other Hylian: Climbing Armor

That boy sure does love to climb. Since you’ll spend quite a bit of time pulling yourself up mountains and cliffs and the like, why not consider grabbing an armor set that’ll boost Link’s climbing abilities? Climber’s Armor will do just that.

To get this armor, first go to the Upland Zorana Byroad cave to the west of Zora’s Domain. Inside, stick to the right-most path. You’ll need to blow through the vines with a bomb-fruit-fused arrow. Beyond the vines, you’ll find a room you can flood by lifting a door on the opposite side. Look for the archway underneath the staircase. In there, you’ll find the Climbing Boots.

For the Bandana, head to the Ploymus Mountain cave. It’ll be east of Zora’s Domain, but West of Mipha Court. Explore the cave to find the bandana (I recommend having the Froggy armor equipped as surfaces in here can be rather slippery).

For the Climbing Gear shirt, head to the North Hyrule Plain Cave, which is southeast of New Serenne Stable. Fight your way through the Horriblins and Like Likes. Push through, bearing left until you spot a waterfall spilling into a tiny lake. Jump in and swim across, go past the waterfall and you’ll find the Climbing Gear.

To take on the most damage: Soldier’s Armor Set

So how about boosting your defense? Well, the Soldier’s Armor is one of the best in the game for that very purpose. Head on over to Hyrule Castle to get started piecing it together. But make sure you bring as many explosives and rock-fused weapons as you can, because we’re gonna need to dig.

Pass the gate and start walking up the ramp until you get to a doorway with dead trees on either side. Ultrahand the two gates inside to get through, then turn right. The next room will feature two Horriblins. Fight them or just move into the room to the right, up a flight of stairs to the Observation Room. Open the grate with Ultrahand and drop down.

Go down the spiral staircase and clear out the rockwall at the bottom. Push forward till you get to a dead end with glowing ore. Destroy that ore and drop down.

Ignore the Like Like here if you’d…like. And smash through the rock wall to the south of this room (if you see a Bubbulfrog on your way, you’re going in the wrong direction). Once you’re through here, push forward until you drop down to find two rock walls, one orange, the other blue. Destroy the orange one and push into a jail cell where you’ll fight some bokoblin skeletons.

Then, move the boulder in one of the cells with Ultrahand and drop down. Ascend just before the hole in the ceiling to get into the locked cell with the bokoblin skeleton. Kill them and open the chest to get the Soldier’s Armor.

But we’re not done yet. Go back the way you came to that wall of blue rubble. Clear through it with a rock weapon, then push through to clear yet another blue rubble wall the same way. Once in this large chamber, swim to your left and clear out the rocks blocking the archway. Here you’ll find another jail cell, this time with an Ice Like. Kill it and grab the Soldier’s helm from a chest to the left.

Finally, the greaves. Leave the chamber with the helm and swim to your left. Keep following the path as it bends left and you reach more blue rocks to clear out. Destroy these and move across a land bridge where a skeleton moblin and bokoblin will be waiting to greet you. Deal with them as you please and then clear out yet another (tired of this yet?) blue rock wall.

You’ll come to a chamber with two small stone taluses. Kill them and, yup, clear out more rocks. This time it’s a big pile to your right as you walk in. This will take you to another prison cell with a small stone talus and on the left, a Like Like. Fight them or just grab the chest in the leftmost room with the greaves and ascend out of there if you don’t want to deal with the nonsense. And voila, you’ll have all of the pieces of the Soldier’s Armor.

There are many different sets of armor in Tears of the Kingdom, but by covering the basics and searching out ones that’ll aid you in the things you do most, you’ll find yourself equipped for almost any situation.

Update: June 15, 2023 9:20 ET: This guide has been updated to accurately reflect the Champion’s Leathers stats in Tears of the Kingdom.