Top Defensive Items in the Game - Part 4: The Core Trio (Patreon)

When you start looking at the core game monsters for defensive options it becomes clear that they do not provide that many essential defensive items. However there are some and here they are!

Stone Circle

The Stone Circle is an unusual location; it's sort of a generic + part of the Screaming Antelope specific gear (the rest is in the Barber Surgeon); it's been one of my favourite locations and I believe that one of the two major contributions I had to the community at large was getting people to see how powerful the Stone Circle (and the Skyreef Sanctuary) are; for a long time this location was skipped out on - it's become a must have now (mostly because of the 1.5 changes).

Screaming Horns

A survivor wearing the Screaming Horns headpiece is a source of almost unlimited insanity for a hunt party during the showdown. While it is not a massive gain, it is more than sufficient to ensure that no survivor will die during a showdown from brain trauma when fighting most level 1 or level 2 monsters.  It can be easy to forget about this when you are playing, but this ability is absolutely crazy - as I posted about earlier this week, used correctly this item is an essential part of 'easy mode' Butcher kills.

Screaming Bracers

The 1.5 updates to the Screaming Armor were crazy; this armor set during the Kickstarter period was already my #2 armor set and these days it competes with rawhide for being the best armor set in the game (I can't decide which one is actually better, it's close and I change my mind daily). The screaming bracers is a part of that reason, having access to 2 acanthus plants per screaming bracers in every single showdown is honestly ridiculous.  Turning this stuff into Dried Acanthus is a huge benefit, but having access to the tiles every game means that you can spend acanthus during the showdown fights to get a quick heal on whoever needs it without feeling that you're spending a precious resource.

Blue Charm

I ranked this one very highly in the "Top Support Items" portion of these lists. The Blue charm is technically a support item, however for certain high speed builds it can work as an exceptional defensive item, especially when combined with Cycloid Scale Armor (which easily activates charms and provides sharp for weapons without it).  Essentially the blue charm is the friend of 'speed demon' players. 

Blood Paint

I've listed this as my top offensive item before, and it's also on the list for my top defensive items. There are few items in the game that create a whole category of survivor by themselves (spears being the other one) - Blood Paint allows one handed DPS survivors to turn from being pure DPS into 'Bruisers' who are a damage dealing tank hybrid class. The sheer level of flexibility that one handed weapon + shield brings is staggering when you start to think about how you can use the shield before attacking and have a block available during reactions.

Plumery

Bird Bread

This one might not seem like that much when you consider it at first. It's a once per showdown ability, with a pair of moderate bonuses and a 10% chance of killing all your survival. 

However, this is one of the best left green items in the core game, and it's a phoenix based one, so it should not be considered in isolation. It's ideal for activating the Phoenix Placart (see below) and

Bloom Sphere 

This item is amazing for support survivors; it allows you to consider 'running naked' without any form of defense, which means that you can put a lot more support items on your survivor.  It is also very powerful for lightly armored DPS supports. In essence you can use the Bloom Sphere to ensure that the monster keeps its focus on your tank(s) and not on the ones dealing damage.

Phoenix Placart

This single piece of armor has one of the most powerful abilities in the game and I would easily call this one in my top 10 defensive items - no hesitation.  A core part of both Phoenix Armor and Warlord Armor, as long as you are insane the Placart gives you a free "block" every single time you are attacked. Combined with a survivor that has the Screaming Helm (see Stone Circle above) or other insanity gain mechanics (abyssal sadist anyone?) you can ensure that you are always able to ignore the first hit each turn.  The Phoenix Placart is a phenomenal tanking item and it's always a centrepiece of my mongrel tanking sets.

Catarium

Lion Skin Cloak

Let's not beat about the bush, this item is a bad Silk Body Suit (SBS). However, the SBS is one of the most overpowering defensive items in the entire game (early/mid game in particular), is unique and is available only when hunting Spidicules. So it's pretty well gated and locked away in a reasonable fashion (ish). The Lion Skin Cloak is a cheaper and fairer item overall, however it can be hard to find builds for it because it's not part of an armor set (and armor sets are the objective for defense because of the set bonuses).  However, this does work in 'mongrel' sets and it also works very well when combined with Rolling Armor (which does not have any specific locations). LSC is something that you should always remember is available to provide extra tanking in the mid to late game - it's effectively 1 renewable armor on every single location.