What armor should one wear in Zelda BOTW?
We assume (radically) that you have every armor available (except Of The Wild), fully upgraded, as well as plentiful food buffs and elixirs.
For everyday wear, just exploring, incorporate stealth, because that allows collecting critters and avoiding enemies. Normally this would be the Stealth set. However, if you are spending a long time in a harsh environment, use an environment-appropriate set and eat stealth food. This is marginally better than wearing the stealth set and eating environment-appropriate food because the defense on the stealth set is low.
Obviously, for specific missions one should wear armor suited for the mission.
Some of the mutually exclusive choices for combat: the Ancient set with (farmed) guardian++ weapons with level 3 attack food is the most potent. Shock-proof (Rubber set), fire-proof (Flamebreaker set), unfreezable (Snowquill set) are useful against specific enemies. The Thunder helm might be a good alternative to the Rubber set, but I haven't investigated it.
If you are doing combat in a harsh environment (heat, cold, fire), it still might be better to go with the ancient set for its attack potency, and replace your hearts lost to the environment with food or other means. Though fire removes hearts very quickly, so maybe not.
If food buffs are not plentiful, then consider eating a long food buff suited for the large scale environment or mission and switching among different armor for small scale tasks.
Stealth, either via the Stealth set or via food, is useful for sneakstrike (8x attack multiplier).
Is the Barbarian set useful for anything? It seems one can always do better with some other set with more defense and an attack buff from food. (And get further stacking attack from Ancient proficiency, or Bone attack up.) What situations is its set bonus, decreased stamina needed for a charge attack, useful?
I've seen the Phantom armor set (DLC), similar in Attack boost as Barbarian, used to good effect in the All Kilton Medals speedrun: no time to cook, and you are constantly on speed buff anyway.
Here is a nice video analyzing the Climbing set. It turns out climbing gear is only good for the impatient or when you are in a hurry: it doesn't let you climb further; it's all about faster (which includes climbing jumps). The first piece, easily available at Ree Dahee shrine early in the game, gets you most of the speed up for normal climbing. I kind of regret the effort I expended for getting the other two pieces, which are kind of difficult.
For farming, speed is probably important -- no need to explore; you've seen this scenery many times already. Stealth set offers night speed up, but night also has stal enemies who might slow things down, though daytime analogously has chuchus. The Climbing set also offers speed ups as mentioned above.
Interacting with NPCs while "naked" is interesting. Link's shorts/underwear aesthetically match the Zora set. Perhaps there is soap opera about Mipha gifting Link intimate apparel ahead of the marriage-proposal Zora Armor, or more practically, he wears the Underwear of Resurrection (infused with Mipha's Grace) in the Shrine of Resurrection.
It would have been interesting (or frustrating) if armor also had durability.
Easiest armor (subjectively) to acquire and upgrade to level 4 to achieve maximum defense possible (88):
- amber earrings (28 defense)
10 amber to buy ; (level 1) 5 amber, 3 flint ; (level 2) 10 amber, 3 flint ; (level 3) 20 amber, 3 flint ; (level 4) 30 amber, 3 flint.
total: 75 amber, 12 flint - champion's tunic (the only item with 32 defense)
3 silent princess ; 3 silent princess, 2 farosh horn ; 3 silent princess, 2 naydra horn ; 3 silent princess, 2 dinraal horn.
total: 12 silent princess, 2 of each dragon horn - soldier's greaves (which surprisingly don't attract electricity) (28 defense)
5 chuchu jelly, 3 bokoblin guts ; 3 keese eyeball, 3 moblin guts ; 3 lizalfos tail, 1 hinox guts ; 4 lynel hoof, 2 lynel guts.
The other 28 defense leggings are in the Of The Wild and Ancient sets.
Diamond circlet is a head gear also which has 28 defense, and additionally adds guardian resistance. 22 diamond, 6 flint, and 2 star fragment to fully upgrade, so it could be done without combat. It can initially be gotten for free from a treasure chest, or purchased. Purchase requires 3 additional diamond, so 25 total.
I'm not sure when you would ever want max defense; it seems always better to attack (with attack-boosting armor) to remove the threat: offense is the best defense. Maybe it's fun wandering around with max defense armor combined with a max defense buff from food. Maybe for a self-imposed policy of using up (typically weak) weapons instead of throwing them away.
Some good armor sets to upgrade to level 4, because they tend to be used during combat:
ancient
parts are ancient parts, except for star fragment.
helm: 20 gear, 5 shaft, 3 core to buy ; 5 screw, 5 spring ; 15 spring, 10 gear ; 15 shaft, 5 core ; 1 star fragment, 2 giant core.
cuirass: 20 gear, 5 screw, 3 core to buy ; upgrades same as helm.
greaves: 20 gear, 5 spring, 3 core to buy ; upgrades same as helm.
buy + level 1 + 2: 90 gear, 5 shaft, 20 screw, 65 spring, 9 core.
level 3 + 4: 45 shaft, 15 core, 6 giant core, 3 star fragment.
totals: 90 gear, 50 shaft, 20 screw, 65 spring, 25 core, 6 giant core, 3 star fragment.
barbarian
parts are lynel parts, except for dragon horn.
upgrades per piece: 1 horn ; 3 horn, 2 hoof ; 4 hoof, 1 guts ; 2 guts, 1 dragon horn.
dragon horn: (dinraal, farosh, naydra) for (helm, armor, leg wraps) respectively.
level 1 + 2: 12 horn, 6 hoof.
level 3 + 4: 12 hoof, 9 guts, 1 of each dragon horn.
total: 12 horn, 18 hoof, 9 guts, 1 of each dragon horn.
flamebreaker (fire)
upgrades per piece: 1 fireproof lizard, 2 moblin horn ; 3 moblin horn, 4 moblin fang ; 3 smotherwing butterfly, 3 moblin guts ; 5 smotherwing butterfly, 2 hinox guts.
level 1 + 2: 3 fireproof lizard, 15 moblin horn, 12 moblin fang.
level 3 + 4: 24 smotherwing butterfly, 9 moblin guts, 6 hinox guts.
radiant (bone)
per piece: 3 luminous stone to buy ; 5 luminous stone, 3 bokoblin guts ; 8 luminous stone, 3 moblin guts ; 10 luminous stones, 2 molduga guts ; 20 luminous stones, 1 lynel guts.
buy + level 1 + 2: 48 luminous stone, 9 bokoblin guts, 9 moblin guts.
level 3 + 4: 90 luminous stone, 6 molduga guts, 3 lynel guts.
total: 138 luminous stone, non-overlapping guts.
rubber
upgrades per piece: 3 yellow chuchu jelly ; 5 yellow chuchu jelly, 5 voltfruit ; 5 zapshroom, 5 yellow lizalfos tail ; 10 yellow lizalfos tail, 10 topaz.
level 1 + 2: 24 yellow chuchu jelly, 15 voltfruit.
level 3 + 4: 15 zapshroom, 45 yellow lizalfos tail, 30 topaz.
We include the flamebreaker set among those to upgrade to the max because many tough enemies (e.g., lynel) have fire attacks or set the environment on fire (guardian lasers), so you may wish to engage in combat wearing it.
We don't include the snowquill set in the above list because not too many tough enemies involve cold, though maybe we should consider windblight ganon and frost talus. Other enemies with cold attacks can be one-shotted with a fire weapon, so we don't expect to sustain extended damage from them.
Materials needed to upgrade other armor sets to level 2 just to get their set bonus:
snowquill
per piece: 3 red chuchu jelly ; 5 red chuchu jelly, 3 warm safflina.
level 1 + 2: 24 red chuchu jelly, 9 warm safflina.
sheikah (stealth)
per piece: 3 blue nightshade ; 5 blue nightshade, 5 sunset butterfly.
level 1 + 2: 24 blue nightshade, 15 sunset butterfly.
climbing
per piece: 3 keese wing, 3 rushroom ; 5 electric keese wing, 5 hightail lizard.
level 1 + 2: 9 keese wing, 9 rushroom ; 15 electric keese wing, 15 hightail lizard.
desert voe
per piece: 3 white chuchu jelly ; 5 white chuchu jelly, 3 ice keese wing.
level 1 + 2: 24 white chuchu jelly, 9 ice keese wing.
zora
per piece: 3 lizalfos horn ; 5 lizalfos talon, 5 hyrule bass.
level 1 + 2: 9 lizalfos horn ; 15 lizalfos talon, 15 hyrule bass.
of the wild
dragon parts: (farosh, naydra, dinraal) for (cap, tunic, trousers) respectively .
per piece: 10 acorn, 2 dragon scale ; 5 courser bee honey, 2 dragon claw.
level 1 + 2: 30 acorn, 15 courser bee honey, 2 of each dragon scale, 2 of each dragon claw.
To do: sum everything and alphabetize.
These are the dragons, their corresponding spring (corresponding to goddesses), and the armors they upgrade:
- Naydra, wisdom, tunic of the wild, barbarian leg wraps
- Farosh, courage, cap of the wild, barbarian armor
- Dinraal, power, trousers of the wild, barbarian helm
However, these associations do not correspond very well with body organs, the armor needed to protect them, and what the organs typically symbolize:
- brain, head protection, wisdom
- heart, chest protection, courage
- penis, leg protection, power (maybe)
Perhaps the barbarian thinks wisely with his dick, has courage in his heart, and headbutts for power as the best use of his head.
Perhaps the woodland hero has courage in his head, power in his loins, and somehow has wisdom in his torso (appetite?).
No one has wisdom in their head.
Which compensation should you choose after completing the Tools of the Trade side quest: the sapphire circlet, ruby circlet, or topaz earrings? Possible answers, comparing them to other head armor:
Get the sapphire circlet and resell it, because it resells for the highest price of the three. None of the three jewelry pieces are especially useful compared to better armor.
Get and keep the sapphire circlet for its heat resistance if you don't have the desert voe headband (not too difficult to get). The Gerudo set, only when wearing the full set, also provides heat resistance, but it has poor combat defense.
Get the topaz earrings if you don't have the rubber helm yet, but that is easy to get.
Get the ruby circlet if you don't have the snowquill headdress (kind of expensive, 1000 rupees). The combination of ruby circlet and warm doublet provides level 2 cold protection on the cheap, but it doesn't provide a path toward snowquill's unfreezable set bonus. Perhaps add snow boots to complete the alternative cold-weather set.
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