CHAINMAIL CHESTPLATE

Unlike most of its family, this piece is not purely a trading item. It can also spawn in chest loot and shows up on a mob's equipment table, so the Armorer at journeyman for 4 emeralds is one route among a few rather than the only one.

Crafting still is not among those routes. No recipe on any workbench produces chainmail, so whether you get one from a villager, a dungeon chest, or off a defeated mob, it always comes from outside the crafting grid.

It covers the chest slot, the single biggest chunk of armor value in the game, so of the four chainmail pieces this is the one where finding an alternate source actually matters most if you would rather not spend the emeralds.

The Armorer sells it at journeyman for 4 emeralds. No other profession stocks chainmail, but this piece has company outside trading too, since it also turns up in loot and on certain mobs.

Chainmail Chestplate sells for as little as 4 emeralds, from the Armorer at the Journeyman tier, and 3 of the other 13 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Armorer will quote you exactly the same.

The Armorer at its journeyman tier asks 4 emeralds for a chainmail chestplate. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

4 diamonds against 104 flint for the same 4 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Shepherd at 2.5 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

A villager needs to trade up past his earliest tiers before reaching journeyman, where this offer can appear. Whatever cheaper trades he sells along the way are worth clearing purely to get him there. Buying it pays him 10 experience, on top of the chestplate itself.

Curing a zombie Armorer resets his trades and offers another shot at the roll, useful here even with loot as a backup since a specific villager is still the most controllable source.

12 purchases clear the offer, and a restock costs 2 real minutes. A 20 minute Minecraft day allows two restocks, putting one Armorer's ceiling at 24 chestplates across a full day.

Since loot and mob drops do not run on any clock at all, players who would rather explore than wait can bypass this timer completely by looting instead.

Keep his furnace fed with a Lava Bucket so the Armorer job sticks while you level him toward this tier.

If you are weighing chainmail against a bigger investment, a Shield and Diamond put you on the path to Enchanted Diamond Leggings, Enchanted Diamond Boots, Enchanted Diamond Helmet and Enchanted Diamond Chestplate, a full tier above chainmail and worth aiming for once you have the resources.

Of the four armour slots, the chestplate carries the most protection, so if you are going to own one piece of chainmail this is the one to own. It cannot be crafted, which puts the armorer and the occasional lucky chest in charge of supply.

Mobs sometimes spawn wearing it, and what they wear is worth checking before you kill them. Armour that drops off a mob usually comes damaged, but it enchants and repairs like any other chestplate.

The one thing chainmail does that iron does not is look like nothing else. The texture is grey rings rather than plate, so it reads differently on an armour stand, which is most of the reason people collect a full set they never intend to fight in.