Expanded Armory

Expanded Armory

Full rework of armor and shields that adds crafting recipes for chainmail and wool armor, reworks recipes for chains, iron armor, and gold armor. It also adds 9 new shields in place of the original one to diversify combat.

by
4.0K Downloads
datapackfabricforgeneoforgequiltadventureequipmentgame-mechanics
Rent Server with this Mod

Screenshots

Iron Shield
Shields
Iron Chestplate
Chainmail Chestplate
Chain

About this Mod

Expanded armory is a simple datapack that reworks the armor and shield systems to enhance combat and gameplay variety. For how cheap it is, the shield seemed pretty unbalanced in combat, so this datapack replaces the shield crafting recipe entirely with 10 new types of shields. Similarly, the way armor worked was too one-dimensional for my taste, so armor has been fully reworked, and the crafting recipes of iron and gold armor have also been altered. The recipe for chains has been made less expensive, and golden armor is slightly cheaper. Iron armor recipes are now more expensive, making armor progression slightly more difficult. To compensate for the changes to shields, armors also have a variety of different bonuses besides just armor points and toughness.

Shields:

Material Shields:
All shields besides wooden and ceramic shields will slow you down to varying degrees, with netherite and stone being the two heaviest, and gold and diamond the lightest.

  • There are 6 tiers of materials, wooden, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and netherite.
  • Each tier of shield now has a capped level of damage of different types they can block. They are set to generally follow the same pattern, besides netherite, which has a large boost in strength.
  • In general, shields can block attacks from swords of the same tier, from projectiles that do damage up to twice the same tier swords, and explosion damage 3 higher than sword damage of the same tier
  • Depending on the type of material, they take different amounts of time to ready, so none of them can immediately block attacks.
  • They have 120 degree coverage.
  • Wooden shields have similar durability to regular shields. Other shield tiers all have higher durability.

Magic Shields:

  • Magic Shields are shields that can also block magic damage besides the three other types, which is something vanilla shields could not do. They also have specific damage caps.
  • The three types are amethyst, lapis, and emerald, with each being able to block damage from regular iron swords. Emerald shields can block 2 magic damage. At the cost of some effectiveness against explosion and projectile damage, amethyst shields can block 4 magic damage. At the cost of even more of the other kinds of protection, Lapis shields can block 6 magic damage.
  • They have 120 degree coverage.

Special Shields:

  • The Ceramic Shield is currently the only special shield. It blocks all physical, projectile, and magic damage, at the cost of an extremely low durability. Damage below a certain level won't reduce the durability, but each effective hit on it chunks at minimum 10% of its max durability
  • It has 180 degree coverage.

Armor:

Leather and Wool:

  • Slightly weaker than in vanilla. Each piece increases speed when worn

Chainmail:

  • Same armor values as vanilla. Stronger armor, but without the speed bonus. The chestplate and leggings have armor toughness, but also slightly decrease speed when worn

Gold:

  • Same armor values as vanilla. Around the same tier as chainmail. The armor gives some knockback and explosion knockback resistance, but the chestplate and leggings slightly decrease speed when worn

Iron:

  • Same armor values as vanilla. The armor gives some armor toughness, knockback and explosion knockback resistance, but the each piece moderately decreases movement speed

Diamond:

  • Same armor values as vanilla. The armor gives great armor toughness, knockback and explosion knockback resistance, but the each piece decreases movement speed

Netherite:

  • Same armor values as vanilla. The armor gives the best armor toughness, knockback and explosion knockback resistance, but the each piece strongly decreases movement speed

Usage:

Picking up any item once you load in the world will unlock all the modified and new recipes in the recipe book.

Compatibility:

The way the armor is modified relies on an advancement system that checks when armor is worn and doesn't have a specific tag, so that armor from any source in the world will have the modifiers applied. Any datapack that has custom armor that has different attributes than the base armor item will be overridden. It is compatible with any datapack or mod that uses enchants to modify armor values. If you want to make another datapack compatible, just add this custom_data any custom armors in it: {"qwasdf_armory.ignore" : "1b"}.

Available Versions

1.0 Initial Releaserelease
MC 1.21.5, 1.21.6, 1.21.7, 1.21.8fabric, forge, neoforge, quilt
August 14, 2025
1.0 Initial Releaserelease
MC 1.21.5, 1.21.6, 1.21.7, 1.21.8datapack
August 14, 2025

How to Install Expanded Armory on Your Server

1

Order Server

Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).

2

Set datapack Loader

In the panel under "Egg", select the datapack loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.8).

3

Install Mod

Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Expanded Armory". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.

Compatibility

Mod Loaders

datapackfabricforgeneoforgequilt

Minecraft Versions

1.21.8, 1.21.7, 1.21.6 (+1 more)

Server-side

Required

Recommended RAM

4 GB(min. 3 GB)

Frequently Asked Questions

Expanded Armory server crashes on startup – what to do?

Most common cause: wrong datapack version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.8). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.

Is Expanded Armory compatible with datapack and fabric and forge and neoforge and quilt?

Expanded Armory officially supports datapack, fabric, forge, neoforge, quilt for Minecraft 1.21.8, 1.21.7, 1.21.6. Note: Forge and Fabric mods are NOT cross-compatible – pick one loader and stick with it. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.

Server lagging with Expanded Armory – how to optimize performance?

Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Expanded Armory consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.

Rent Modded Server

Install Expanded Armory with just one click on your server.

Recommended RAM
4 GBab €8/mo
Min. 3 GB | +1 GB pro 8 Spieler
Create Server Now
1-Click Mod Install
NVMe SSD Storage
DDoS Protection included

Details

License
LicenseRef-All-Rights-Reserved
Server-side
Required

Supported Versions

1.21.81.21.71.21.61.21.5