Though Stardew Valley is a family-friendly farming simulator, you will occasionally end up in fights with monsters. The Mines and the various dungeons with necessary ores and minerals are full of them, so you will need to defeat them.
As we know from various RPGs, good armor is the difference between losing and winning, so most of us will likely want to get the best possible pieces of equipment to survive any encounter.
Recommended Read: What Is the Best Farm to Start With in Stardew Valley
Though Stardew Valley doesn’t have the classic plate armor to proudly wear around like a knight, there are various items, such as Boots and Rings, that can make you a lot more powerful than you would normally be.
In this guide, we will list all of the Boots and Rings with gameplay attributes, as well as present which one of them makes the best armor to use in Stardew Valley to win every fight. Usually, the best Boots to use in Stardew Valley are the Cinderclown Shoes, and the best ring combination is the Slime Charmer Ring with the Lucky Ring.
Table of Contents
- Do Clothing and Hats Do Anything in Stardew Valley?
- How Armor Works
- All Boots
- All Rings
- Best Armor to Use (Boots and Rings) in Stardew Valley
Do Clothing and Hats Do Anything in Stardew Valley?
One of the first things you will probably wonder as you play Stardew Valley is if clothing and hats can have any defensive attributes. Unfortunately, all clothing and hats are purely cosmetic.
There is no shirt or hat you can craft in Stardew Valley that will provide any kind of defense or even improvements.
You can generally wear whatever you want since it doesn’t matter, and it won’t affect your gameplay whatsoever.
How Armor Works
In Stardew Valley, the only equipment that works like armor in other games are Boots and Rings. All of the other items, such as clothing and hats, are completely useless and purely cosmetic.
Boots are the main source of armor in Stardew Valley since Rings are mostly used to get useful buffs and skills. Boots will generally have two stats: Defense and Immunity.
Defense is a flat defensive stat that will decrease the amount of damage you get from enemy attacks. For example, if you have 1 Defense and you get hit with an attack that should deal 5 damage, you will only lose 4 HP.
The minimum amount of damage you can take is 1, so this means that even with 100 Defense, you will still lose 1 HP from attacks.
Immunity is your chance to avoid getting debuffed from enemy attacks. Every point in Immunity is a -10% chance that you will get debuffed from an enemy attack.
For example, if you get hit, and you have 8 Immunity, then you will only have a 20% chance to get debuffed.
As opposed to Defense, you can actually become completely immune to debuffs if you have 10 Immunity.
You can increase your total Defense using Boots, the Crabshell Ring, Weapons, and Food. On the other hand, you can only increase your Immunity using Boots and the Immunity Band.
All Boots
Here is a full list of all the Boots in Stardew Valley, ordered by their total defensive stat value:
- Sneakers – Defense +1
- Rubber Boots – Immunity +1
- Leather Boots – Defense +1, Immunity +1
- Work Boots – Defense +2
- Combat Boots – Defense +3
- Tundra Boots – Defense +2, Immunity +1
- Leprechaun Shoes – Defense +2, Immunity +1
- Thermal Boots – Defense +1, Immunity +2
- Cowboy Boots – Defense +2, Immunity +2
- Dark Boots – Defense +4, Immunity +2
- Firewalker Boots – Defense +3, Immunity +3
- Genie Shoes – Defense +1, Immunity +6
- Dragonscale Boots – Defense +7
- Space Boots – Defense +4, Immunity +4
- Emily’s Magic Boots – Defense +4, Immunity +4
- Crystal Shoes – Defense +3, Immunity +5
- Cinderclown Shoes – Defense +6, Immunity +5
- Mermaid Boots – Defense +5, Immunity +8
All Rings
Here is a list of all the Rings in Stardew Valley, along with what they can do:
- Amethyst Ring – Knockback +10%
- Aquamarine Ring – Critical Strike chance +10%
- Burglar’s Ring – Loot +200%
- Crabshell Ring – Defense +5
- Emerald Ring – Weapon Speed +10%
- Glow Ring – Emits a 10 tile circle of light. Stacks.
- Glowstone Ring – Emits 10 tile circle of light and Magnetism +2 tiles.
- Hot Java Ring – All monsters can drop Coffee (25% chance) and Triple Shot Espresso (10%).
- Immunity Band – Immunity +4
- Iridium Band – Combines the effects of the Glow Ring, the Magnet Ring, and the Ruby Ring.
- Jade Ring – Critical Strike Power +10%
- Lucky Ring – Luck +1
- Magnet Ring – Magnetism +2 tiles. Stacks.
- Napalm Ring – Monsters explode when defeated. Does not damage player.
- Phoenix Ring – Restore 50% health after being knocked out once per day.
- Protection Ring – Invincibility time after taking damage +0.4 seconds
- Ring of Yoba – Chance to become invincible. The lower your health and the higher your luck, the higher the chance.
- Ruby Ring – Attack +10%.
- Savage Ring – Speed +2 after slaying a monster for 3 seconds.
- Slime Charmer Ring – Prevents damage from Slimes and prevents the Slimed Buff.
- Small Glow Ring – Emits 5 tile circle of light. Stacks.
- Small Magnet Ring – Magnetism +1 tile. Stacks.
- Soul Sapper Ring – +4 Energy after slaying a monster.
- Sturdy Ring – The duration of Debuffs is cut in half.
- Thorns Ring – Monsters take damage equal to the unmitigated damage done to the player.
- Topaz Ring – Decreases the chance that a strike will cause no damage by 10% while equipped.
- Vampire Ring – +2 HP after slaying a monster.
- Warrior Ring – Chance to get +10 Attack after slaying a monster.
Best Armor to Use (Boots and Rings) in Stardew Valley
Best Boots
When it comes to Boots, there are three choices that could be considered the best in Stardew Valley:
- Mermaid Boots
- Cinderclown Shoes
- Dragonscale Boots
The Mermaid Boots have the highest Immunity in Stardew Valley and have 5 Defense, which puts them in the top three even in that category.
To get the Mermaid Boots, you will have to open rare treasure chests in the Volcano Dungeon.
They are the most expensive in terms of selling price, which means that ConcernedApe considers them the best ones out there.
However, if you want a bit more Defense and also get some extra Immunity, the Cinderclown Shoes are there for you.
Not only do they have 6 Defense and 5 Immunity, but they can also be obtained much easier than the other two since you just need 100 Cinder Shards to buy them at the Volcano Dungeon Shop.
The Dragonscale Boots don’t have any Immunity, but they have the highest Defense stat in Stardew Valley, with 7 Defense.
Though they are the best in terms of raw Defense, their price is lower than the other two, which means that the developer didn’t think they stack up to them.
In general, if you think that Debuffs aren’t that annoying, then the Dragonscale Boots are the best Boots in Stardew Valley. Mermaid Boots are the best against Debuffs, and the Cinderclown Shoes provide the best of both worlds.
Best Rings
There are a lot of powerful rings in Stardew Valley, but the best ones are:
- Burglar’s Ring
- Iridium Band
- Lucky Ring
- Napalm Ring
- Phoenix Ring
- Slime Charmer Ring
- Vampire Ring
Burglar’s Ring
The Burglar’s Ring will make the game roll twice when a monster dies to get loot from them. This means that, on average, you will likely get double the loot from a single enemy.
This is extremely powerful for someone in search of resources in the dungeons.
To get the ring you will need to defeat 500 Dust Sprites and report back to the Adventurer’s Guild.
Iridium Band
The Iridium Band will create a relatively large area of light around you, it will attract loot toward you from 2 tiles further, and it will increase your Attack by 10%.
It is the best ring in Stardew Valley for beginners, and it will make every dungeon run much more entertaining.
To get the Iridium Band, you will need to reach level 9 Combat and craft it using Iridium Bars x5, Solar Essence x50, and Void Essence x50.
You also have a chance to find it in Fishing Treasure Chests, but it is an extremely low chance (0.12%).
Lucky Ring
Though it might seem like a minor thing when you first start playing Stardew Valley, Luck is probably the most important stat in the game.
Though it won’t help you a lot with Combat, it will increase your chances of getting what you want from loot runs.
The Lucky Ring does a very simple thing, and that is to just increase your Luck by 1. You can get the Lucky Ring in the Skull Cavern by accident when you defeat monsters.
Napalm Ring
If you want to quickly go through dungeons then the Napalm Ring is the best one for you in Stardew Valley.
This ring will instantly explode enemies when they are defeated, damaging enemies and items around without touching you.
This is great for breaking rocks in dungeons and advancing faster since you can use enemies to quickly get through the floors.
To get the Napalm Ring you will need to defeat 250 Serpents and talk to Gil at the Adventurer’s Guild.
Phoenix Ring
If you are someone who faints very often while fighting in the dungeons of Stardew Valley, then the Phoenix Ring is the perfect one for you.
The Phoenix Ring will revive you once per day if you fall down while fighting with 50% health.
To get this ring in Stardew Valley, you will need to open treasure chests in the Volcano Dungeon. It is relatively hard to get, but it can be very useful when you fight all the monsters in there.
Slime Charmer Ring
Slimes are the most common enemy in Stardew Valley. The Slime Charmer Ring, which you get by defeating 1,000 Slimes, will make you immune to all Slime attacks and debuffs.
This is incredibly useful and will allow you to quickly go through most dungeons without any problems.
Vampire Ring
The Vampire Ring is considered by many players very good but it is very useful for Combat-oriented beginners.
Health is a big problem in the dungeons of Stardew Valley, and most players carry a lot of food with them to fix this problem.
However, with the Vampire Ring, you will make sure that you always have HP, and nobody will be able to take you down, considering you don’t take too much damage.
To get the Vampire Ring you will just have to defeat 200 Bats and report back to the Adventurer’s Guild.
Best Ring Combination in Stardew Valley
Depending on what you want to do, there are a couple of Ring combinations you can use to get the best results in Stardew Valley:
- Looting – Burglar’s Ring/Slime Charmer Ring + Lucky Ring
- Exploring – Vampire Ring + Phoenix Ring
- Mining – Napalm Ring + Lucky Ring
- Combat – Napalm Ring + Vampire Ring/Phoenix Ring
- Beginner – Iridium Band + Lucky Ring
As you can see from most of these combinations, the Lucky Ring is probably the most useful ring in Stardew Valley, since it gives you an overall better experience when you want to get resources in the dungeons.
The Iridium Band isn’t an incredible ring for experienced players, but it will make everything a million times easier if you don’t have a lot of playthroughs down.
When it comes to pure Combat, the Napalm Ring with the Vampire Ring or Phoenix Ring will make you undefeatable.
With explosions in every direction and healing for every defeated enemy, you will be close to invincible.
If you also learn how to quickly switch out rings, you can put on the Phoenix Ring when you see that your HP has gone low enough for the fight to be risky.
That’s everything you need to know about the best armor (Boots and Rings) to use in Stardew Valley!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
