Minecraft: Best Armor Trim Combinations (2024)

When Minecraft got updated to version 1.20, it brought with it the ability to further customize your looks and experiment with personal styles, all while still being able to be protected from dangerous mobs; as you likely already know, we're talking about armor trims.

If you learned about the formula that calculates maximum possible combinations in statistics class, you might've already figured this out for yourself, but if not, it turns out that Minecraft's armor trims offer over 900 million possible combinations. If the idea of that is too overwhelming, simplify the process by checking out these rad combinations instead.

Updated July 4, 2024 by Jack Pierik: In some ways, the creative endeavors Minecraft allows you to pursue are simply extensions of yourself. From massive builds and complicated Redstone engineering projects, all the way down to your custom skin and the armor you wear, you're showing a piece of yourself, whether you like it or not. Although, this doesn't always come naturally, and if you're struggling to find an armor trim combination that really speaks to you, we've added three more ideas in this update for you to check out. If you're still not satisfied, have the courage to experiment and create a look that is truly yours.

11 Dithered, Monochromatic Gray

When it comes to style, chainmail can be a tricky armor to work with, mainly because a uniform, checkered pattern that gives off a semi-transparent effect isn’t always pleasant to look at. In fact, it can start to fatigue your eyes if you stare long enough.

To offset this problem, adding various armor trims with iron ingots can break up the uniformity of the armor, and provide enough texture to keep a monochromatic color scheme interesting. Feel free to experiment with each piece’s armor trim style.

10 High Contrast, Black And White

When you throw a bunch of dark and bright colors together, you get a nice contrast, and it’s typically what our eyes are drawn to first. If you want to stand out to your friends visually, your best bet is mixing Netherite armor with quartz armor trims.

If this combination is a bit too intense for your taste, you can reduce the effect by either swapping the quartz with iron, which is somewhat duller, or using an armor trim style that creates a shading effect, like Silence.

9 Gold With Iron And Quartz Shading

While it’s cool that gold armor helps protect against explosive damage, and lets you make peace with Piglins in the Nether, when it comes to aesthetics, it can start to feel comically flashy after wearing it for a while.

If you want to break up the largely white and yellow look color palette this armor uses, you can use a mix of subtle armor trims with quartz and iron to create a more realistic, and more importantly, less obnoxious look while still letting yourself shine.

8 Black With Teal, Red, Or Gold

If you need a quick way to look cool, you can't go wrong slapping the Silence armor trim on every piece of gear you're wearing, especially if you put in the effort to get Netherite armor, and have Diamonds, Gold Ingots, or Redstone dust lying around.

However, the downside is that this particular armor trim can be pretty hard to get a hold of, so you've got two options: grind for a while, preferably with friends, or just save yourself some time and spawn the template in.

7 Gold With Red And Black

While there are multiple interpretations you could arrive at when looking at this armor trim combo, it's at the very least opulent and regal, appearing as though you have a big red gem fitted on your golden helmet, and 'executive' black accents on the chest and legs.

This would go perfectly with an armored horse, acting as the king of a castle or the King's Guard. Or, if you view this aesthetic through a more malevolent lens, an evil necromancer's tower who just so happens to have a good fashion sense.

6 Black With Red And Dark Shading

While it's not the flashiest armor trim combo, sometimes less is more. With this style, you're letting every mob in the game, and players too if you happen to be in a PvP environment, know that you mean business; you're not afraid of a fight.

This dark aesthetic looks like something befitting of a heavily armored shock trooper that leads other soldiers, almost as if you plucked a Centurion from an alternate, albeit blockier timeline within the Roman Empire. If you don't prefer centering lore around your style, though, that's cool too.

5 Black With Bright Green

Typically, Emeralds are used for important trades with villagers, or to augment a beacon's effect tier, but if you'd rather use them to augment your armor's appearance, that's completely valid too. Plus, the cost ends up being only four Emeralds, so that's not too bad.

However, if your Emerald supply happens to be particularly dry, we have some good ideas on finding them. When you weigh the costs of everything comparatively, though, you're probably going to have more trouble obtaining each unique armor trim template.

It's a shame you can't shorten your character model by half a block in the vanilla game, since this armor trim combo would be perfect for those of you looking to match the style of some kind of Dwarven guard or soldier.

Since most of this combo uses the Raiser armor trim, you'll have to break a bunch of Suspicious Gravel found in Trail Ruins until it drops, which has an 8.3 percent chance of occurring at any given moment, according to the official Minecraft Wiki.

3 Gold With Black Accents

If you're looking for a more priestly or merchant-like appearance, you can't go wrong with black and gold; there's just something about this color palette that exudes an air of professionalism, trust, and confidence, especially with how the Silence armor trim looks on helmets.

Make sure to go for this armor set later in the game, when you're willing to spend Netherite Ingots on something without an inherent use or function. In other words, craft all the tools and armor you might need beforehand.

2 Teal With A Dark, Subdued Blue

If you're playing on a Realm or server with a bunch of people, this might be the best way to show that you possess an incredible surplus of diamonds; because why else would you make an entire set of Diamond armor, and put diamond trim on it?

Okay well, that doesn't necessarily have to be the reason you go for this armor trim combo. Speaking of diamonds, though, if you want to learn about all the different ways you can obtain this rare resource, we put together some handy tips on finding diamonds quickly.

As if you donned a surprisingly well-kept armor from a long-lost civilization that managed to somehow scrape by in The End, this armor trim combo lets you find another use for an old pair of Iron Armor and any extra amethyst you've already mined.

After all, what colors do you think of when you imagine The End? At least purple and black, hopefully. While Iron Armor isn't the most protective, you can at least take solace in the fact that you'll look stylish in the case of an unfortunate death.