Defense

Defense is a player statistic that determines how much damage can be taken per hit. The damage the player takes is reduced by of their defense value. Defense can be increased by equipping armor and accessories, or temporarily boosted by various buffs.

Some forms of damage are impossible to reduce through defense. Damage from health-draining debuffs like Plague or drowning in water are not reduced by defense. Damage taken from lava, however, can be reduced through defense.

Damage Reduction
Damage Reduction (DR) is a stat alongside defense that decreases damage that both the player and other NPCs take based on a percentage. The player can boost their damage reduction with certain accessories, although it scales diminishingly as more damage reduction is gained.

Armor Penetration
Armor penetration is a statistic that reduces the defense of the player's targets. For instance, a Purple Slime normally has 6 defense. If the player has 5 Armor penetration and attacks the slime, then the slime will take damage as if it only had 1 defense instead.

Defense Reduction
Several weapons can permanently lower an enemy's defense on hit. Note that the enemy's defense will be reset if it gets changed by its AI.

Vanilla changes
Defensive accessory modifiers now also increase damage reduction and gain more defense in Hardmode and Post-Moon Lord, with rarer defense modifiers granting a larger bonus.
 * Hard provides 0.25% damage reduction; and increases 2 defense in Hardmode and 3 defense in Post-Moon Lord instead of 1.
 * Guarding provides 0.5% damage reduction; and increases 3 defense in Hardmode and 4 defense in Post-Moon Lord instead of 2.
 * Armored provides 0.75% damage reduction; and increases 4 defense in Hardmode and 6 defense in Post-Moon Lord instead of 3.
 * Warding provides 1% damage reduction; and increases 6 defense in Hardmode and 8 defense in Post-Moon Lord instead of 4.

Several items had their defense values changed.


 * A full set of Gladiator armor now provides 21 defense instead of 7.
 * A full set of Obsidian armor now provides 19 defense instead of 16.
 * The Hallowed Plate Mail now provides 18 defense instead of 15 and the Hallowed Greaves now provide 13 defense instead of 11.
 * A full set of Solar Flare armor now provides 94 defense instead of 78.