How to Make Chain Armor in Minecraft

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: April 25, 2024

Chain armor or chainmail armor cannot be crafted like the other types of armor in Minecraft. To obtain the different pieces of the armor, they can either be found by defeating creatures wearing the armor or they can be earned by trading with a blacksmith villager. Chain armor is obtainable in both survival and creative modes without the use of mods or cheating.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Trading for Chain Mail Armor with a Villager

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1
Earn emeralds to trade. You can purchase chain armor from blacksmiths by exchanging emeralds. Emeralds can be obtained by trading with other villagers or through mining.
- Villagers are also willing to buy items from you by paying you with emeralds. See what other villagers are looking to trade with. For example, a brown robed villager will offer an emerald for a certain amount of wheat.
- Emeralds can be found by mining emerald ore and can usually be found in Extreme Hill biomes. However locating emerald ore is very uncommon and is more time consuming than initiating trades with villagers.
- The price of chain armor pieces vary. A Chain Helmet requires 5-6 emeralds, a Chain Chest plate requires 11-14 emeralds, a pair of Chain Leggings requires 9-10 emeralds and a pair of Chain Boots requires 5-6 emeralds.
These villagers live in a Forge building that features a lava pool on the front porch and can be seen wearing a black colored apron. Only blacksmiths with the armorer job will trade chain armor. ^{[1]
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Research source}

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3
Open the trade GUI window. Right-click on the villager to show the trade graphics user interface (GUI.) This will show what the villager has on offer to trade with. You will need to identify that the blacksmith has the armorer job title which you can see at the top of the trade window. Click the left or right arrows to see what items the villager has to trade with and their requirements to make the trade.
- The blacksmith may have a different occupation such as a Tool Smith or Weapon Smith. These types do not craft chain armor.
- If the village does not contain a blacksmith with the armorer job occupation, try finding another village.
4
Trade with the armorer. The armorer may not have the chain armor available for trade. This depends on their tier rating which determines the different items they have available. In order for the armorer to offer chain armor pieces to trade, you may have to trade it for other items to help it advance in its tier rating.
- If they do not have any chain armor pieces to trade with, trade with the last item they have in their list by clicking on the right arrow to reach the end of the list and initiate the trade. Close the trade GUI screen. There is a chance the armorer will appear with a glow. This means that they have advanced in their tier rating and may potentially have a piece of the chain armor available for trade. Repeat the process until the chain armor pieces become available.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Farming Hostile Mobs for Chain Mail Armor

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Farming is a method that abuses game logic to provide the player with a higher probability of obtaining items. Hunting for hostile mobs specifically requires you to attack hostile mobs in areas they commonly appear at. This involves making an environment that allows you to corral mobs in a central area and provide efficiency of obtaining dropped items.
2
Change the difficulty to a harder mode. The difficulty in Minecraft determines how hostile mobs spawn and how damage is dealt to the player. Changing the difficulty to a harder mode provides a higher chance for enemies to spawn equipped with weapons and armor and in some cases, they can be wearing chain armor. A hostile mob is a type of non player character (NPC) that will attack the player. The only hostile mobs that may spawn with the chain armor are the zombies and skeletons.^{[2]
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Research source} The higher difficulty levels provide a greater chance of finding mobs wearing chain armor.
- If playing in hardcore mode, the game difficulty cannot be changed.
- Changing the difficulty to a harder mode provides a greater chance of being killed by mobs or starvation.
- The difficulty can be changed at any time during the game. Once you find the pieces of armor you can change the difficulty back down.
- Mobs do not wear armor on the Peaceful or Easy difficulty setting.
3
Create traps to farm for hostile mobs. Hostile mob farming involves setting up traps around where they commonly appear or spawn at. An example is creating a canal using water element blocks that transport mobs to a central area or moat, making it easier to attack them without them being able to attack you. Hostile mobs appear in the dark, which will require a dark room for them to appear in which can be made out of blocks in the world or can be made by mining underground.
- Try creating an area where the mob is not able to fight back, such as using slab blocks surrounded by regularly sized blocks that prevent movement. Mobs are not able to crawl under holes which makes it easier to attack them.
- A mob spawner will periodically generate mobs which can provide an advantage through farming techniques as you will know where the mobs appear at directly. Mob spawners for zombies and skeletons appear in underground dungeons.^{[3]
  X
  Research source} To create a trap around mob spawners, light the area with torches around and on the spawner to prevent mobs from appearing due to the light. Once the trap is set, remove the torches to allow the mobs to spawn.
- Skeletons and zombies won't fall from high places. You can use blocks such as signs around edges as they will treat them as blocks to stand on, only to fall below them. Be careful using signs in your traps as they can also act as a barrier for elemental blocks such as water.
4
Kill a mob wearing chain armor. If you find a zombie or skeleton wearing the armor, use your weapons to kill them. There will be a small (~5%) chance that they will drop the armor once defeated. Run over the armor to collect it. If they do not drop the armor, repeat the process until the armor pieces are obtained.
- A sword with a Looting enchantment has a greater chance of the mob to drop chain armor piece.

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Can you tell me how you can find it in all ways?

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Trade with a Blacksmith Villager or loot it in chests you didn't place like a Temple, or those places in mines with mossy stone.

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Why do you need chain armor?

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For protection. It's not as strong as iron armor, but stronger than leather armor. You could say it's like the stone tools of the armor section.

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Can I make chain armor?

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No, you must find a blacksmith to trade with or get armor from mob drops, dungeons, etc.

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The Minecraft chainmail armor can only be acquired by commands, mobs, loot chests, creative mode, or villages.

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To repair any chain armor piece, find an Anvil and place the chain armor piece together with an Iron Ingot.

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The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

Chain armor is stronger than gold armor but is weaker than iron armor. With iron being a common ore, making iron armor is less time consuming than finding chain armor.
You can also find armor in blacksmith chests, but it is less likely.

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