Grounded is a survival video game filled with terrifying wildlife enemies that can defeat you in only a few hits. With this in mind, it’s important to be wearing armor at all times so that you don’t quickly die to an enemy every time you leave your base.

There are many armor sets in Grounded, and each of them has a different armor rating and set bonus that makes them unique. These are the best armor sets and pieces in Grounded, along with how to obtain them.

Updated April 22, 2022 by Michael Caruso: Gear customization is one of the core concepts of Grounded. There are dozens of armor pieces to collect, some have unique bonuses while others simply offer protection from the dangerous enemies you’ll encounter in the Backyard. There are a couple more armor sets that you be aware of if you wish to take on the more powerful bugs lurking in the tall grass, so here’s a description of each of them.

15 Black Ant Armor Set

  • Armor Rating
  • : 3.5
  • Bonus:
  • Pincushion
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with 12 black ant head, 11 bee fuzz, three black ant parts, two silk rope, and three black ant mandibles

The Black Ant Armor set is one of the stronger gear sets that isn’t too difficult to acquire. The parts that you need to craft it are easy to come by while exploring the Backyard, especially if you usually fight every enemy you come across. Black Ant Armor offers 3.5 protection while you’re wearing a full set, so it’s quite powerful compared to many others.

Additionally, you gain the Pincushion effect while wearing Black Ant Armor, which gives you a chance to deal damage back to any enemy that attacks you. Overall, this is one powerful set of armor.

14 Termite Armor

  • Armor Rating:
  • 3.5
  • Bonus:
  • Extra rock and grass harvest speed
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with three lint rope, four termite king carapace, five termite parts

The Termite Armor is a very fun piece of equipment to use. Not only does it offer a ton of damage resistance, but it also allows you to harvest rocks and grass more quickly. This is useful if you need to harvest a lot of materials in a short period of time.

As you may guess, you need many termite parts to craft the Termite Armor, but it’s much easier to craft than other useful armor sets comparatively. The Termite Armor is a chest piece, so it’s the perfect armor if you only need a shirt to finish your character’s equipment set.

13 Marksman’s Cap

  • Armor Rating:
  • 2.5
  • Bonus:
  • Increases bow damage
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with five silk rope, five berry leather, and three crow feather pieces

The Marksman’s Cap isn’t only a stylish piece of equipment, it’s also one of the strongest types of gear for an archer because it increases the damage you deal while using bows in combat. This single armor piece also grants you 2.5 protection against the dangers of the Backyard, which is quite a lot for only one piece.

The Marksman’s Cap can be difficult to craft since it requires crow feathers, but it’s worth the effort for the extra protection and damage boost, especially if bows are one of your favorite weapons to use.

12 Firefly Head Lamp

  • Armor Rating
  • : 3.5
  • Bonus
  • : Flashlight
  • How To Obtain
  • : Crafted with five bioluminescent goop, three berry leather, and four iridescent scales

The Firefly Head Lamp is incredibly useful at night and in dark areas of the Backyard. It adds a permanent flashlight that you can use while exploring, which means that you won’t have to worry about getting stuck in the dark ever again.

There simply aren’t a lot of other armor pieces useful to the extent of the Firefly Head Lamp, and it’s easy to see why since it offers such a unique feature combined with an armor rating of 3.5. If you like to explore, especially at night, then collecting the Firefly Head Lamp is an absolute must.

11 Bubble Helmet

  • Armor Rating
  • : 0
  • Bonus:
  • Veteran Diver
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with one sunken bone and two eelgrass strand

The Bubble Helmet isn’t good if you’re looking for pure damage resistance, but it’s perfect for adventurers that want to explore underwater locations. This helm grants you an extra 80 seconds underwater without having to come up for air. Unfortunately, the Bubble Helmet doesn’t offer any damage resistance.

Although the Bubble Helmet isn’t an easy piece of armor to acquire since the materials are on the rarer side, it’s still a great helmet that you should strive to get if you like diving underwater to explore the unknown.

10 Clover Armor Set

  • Armor Rating
  • : 0.5
  • Bonus:
  • Moist
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with crude rope, clover leaves, and sprigs

Clover armor is the weakest set in Grounded; however, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a beneficial use for you at certain stages in the game. At the beginning of the game, clover armor is easy to craft, and it grants damage protection that you wouldn’t otherwise have without it.

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Additionally, clover armor grants the set bonus Moist, which makes your thirst meter deplete slower, which means you can drink less often without fear of punishment.

9 Ant Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 0.5
  • Bonus:
  • HumAnt
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with crude rope, mite fuzz, ant part, acid gland, and ant head

The ant armor grants one of the most useful effects in Grounded; it allows you to walk by soldier ants without them turning hostile towards you. Soldier ants are found all over the map, so being capable of walking by them undetected is a useful feature.

Ant armor has the same armor rating as clover armor; however, its effect is more powerful since soldier ants are such a common enemy type.

8 Grub Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 1
  • Bonus:
  • Plump and Juicy
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with grub hide, raw weevil meat, dry grass chunk, grub goop, and mite fuzz

The grub armor is useful for certain situations, particularly situations where you are up in high locations such as large trees because its set bonus grants fall damage protection so you can fall from higher places without dying.

Although fall damage isn’t the most common way to die in Grounded, this armor set has its purpose while you’re traversing certain parts of the map.

7 Acorn Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 1.5
  • Bonus:
  • Uncrackable
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with acorn shell, mite fuzz, cloverleaf, crude rope, and sap.

Acorn armor has a decent armor rating considering how easy it is to obtain; its armor rating is 1.5 for the set.

This armor set also has the Uncrackable effect on it, which means that it’s harder to break it while fighting enemies. If you’re mid-game, then you can’t go wrong with crafting a set of acorn armor, especially since it has such a unique appearance.

6 Ladybug Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 3.5
  • Bonus:
  • Scarlet Embrace
  • How To Obtain
  • : Crafted with berry leather, flower petal, and ladybug part

The ladybug armor set is a step up from the acorn armor because it grants 3.5 damage protection. On top of this high armor rating, the ladybug armor also carries the Scarlet Embrace bonus, which is used to regenerate health passively.

Health is important in Grounded, and it’s relatively hard to restore it, which is why you should craft ladybug armor as soon as possible so you can get the benefit of regenerating health without any items. However, this health regeneration effect is slow.

5 Spider Armor Set

  • Armor Rating
  • : 1.5
  • Bonus:
  • Hunter’s Prowess
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with spider chunk, spider fang, silk rope, and berry leather

Spider armor doesn’t have as high an armor rating as ladybug armor; however, its effect allows you to run faster, which is useful in so many situations. For example, you may need to move faster while fleeing from an enemy that you can’t defeat, and not moving fast enough could mean certain death.

Spider armor is harder to craft than most other armor sets since it requires spider parts; however, it’s worth the effort for the Hunter’s Prowess bonus.

4 Bee Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 2.5
  • Bonus:
  • Pollen Shot
  • How To Obtain:
  • Craft with bee fuzz, bee stinger, web fiber, and berry leather

Archers benefit greatly from wearing bee armor because it has the Pollen Shot effect. This special effect makes you deal more damage with bows, which is useful if you enjoy fighting enemies at a range.

Grounded is a dangerous survival game, and as such, you may want to fight certain enemies from a distance, such as spiders. If this is how you want to play the game, then the bee armor set is perfect for you.

3 Koi Scale Armor Set

  • Armor Rating:
  • 1.5
  • Bonus:
  • Dazzling Riposte
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with lilypad wax, sunken bone, koi fish scale, and eelgrass strand

The koi scale armor set is very powerful because of its unique bonus, but it doesn’t grant a significant amount of damage protection. This effect makes it so that you will reduce an enemy’s defense when you perfect block their attack, which is useful for characters that are familiar with perfect blocking.

The koi scale armor is challenging to craft; however, this set is great for situations where you are in combat with multiple enemies since it will allow you to defeat them quickly after perfect blocking their attacks.

2 Fin Flops

  • Armor Rating:
  • 0
  • Bonus:
  • Faster swim speed
  • How To Obtain:
  • Crafted with eelgrass strand, lilypad wax, water boatman fin

Fin flops are a standalone armor piece that grants faster swim speed. This effect is standalone, which means that you don’t have to have anything more than the fin flops to use it.

Unfortunately, the fin flops have an armor rating of zero, but they’re worthwhile to craft because of the extra swim speed.

1 Mask Of The Mother Demon

Armor Rating: 3.5

Bonus: Poison Coating

How To Obtain: Crafted with silk rope, broodmother chunk, and broodmother fang

The mask of the mother demon is the best standalone armor piece in grounded. It has an armor rating of 3.5 for a single helmet while also granting you the poison coating effect.

Getting the materials to craft the mask of the mother demon is challenging; however, it isn’t too hard for a seasoned Grounded player that has many weapons and armor sets at their disposal. You have to defeat the broodmother boss to obtain the materials. This mask also has a unique appearance, which is another reason to obtain it.

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