IRON LEGGINGS

An Armorer puts all four pieces of iron armor on his sheet at the same tier, so Leggings are not gated behind anything special. Reach novice with him and the whole set is on the table at once, this piece included.

Iron sits two materials above leather and one below diamond, which makes it the point where armor stops being a placeholder and starts actually protecting you through a normal fight. Crafting a pair costs 7 iron ingots at the anvil-shaped recipe, so buying from the villager only makes sense once you would rather spend emeralds than dig.

Unlike leather, iron armor keeps whatever colour it spawns with. There is no dye step and no biome variation to worry about: an Iron Leggings from one village looks exactly like one from another.

The Armorer is the only source, listing Iron Leggings at novice for 7 emeralds. It is the priciest of the four iron pieces on his sheet, one more emerald than the Helmet or the Boots, since leggings eat more ingots than either.

Iron Leggings sells for as little as 7 emeralds, from the Armorer at the Novice tier, and 7 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 novice tier asks 7 emeralds for iron leggings. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

7 diamonds against 168 paper for the same 7 emeralds, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Farmer at 4.4 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

Set a fresh villager up with a blast furnace or an ordinary furnace to claim the Armorer job, and his novice trades, including this one, are available right away without levelling through an earlier tier first. Buying a pair pays him 1 experience, which matters if you also want his later, pricier trades to open up.

Losing his workstation before he locks into the job resets the profession, so place the furnace somewhere it will not get broken or replaced by accident.

The offer holds 12 uses before it locks up, and a restock takes 2 real minutes. A Minecraft day runs 20 real minutes, long enough for two restocks, which caps one Armorer at 24 pairs of leggings across a full day of trading.

That ceiling rarely matters for a single player buying one set of armor. It starts to matter if you are gearing up several people at once, in which case a second Armorer is faster than waiting out the first one's restock timer.

Sell coal to the same villager to fund the purchase, and cure him if you plan to buy more than one piece: see how curing works for the mechanic. A discounted Armorer makes gearing up the whole set noticeably cheaper.

While his sheet is open, check for Iron Boots, Iron Helmet, Iron Chestplate, spare Iron Ingot and even a Bell on the same list. If iron does not appeal at all, an Armorer at a higher tier eventually reaches Chainmail Leggings too, though that one he only sells, never crafts.

Leggings cost seven ingots, the most of any iron piece, and give the second most protection. That makes them the piece people put off making and the one a villager's offer is most often actually worth taking.

Iron sits between chainmail, which cannot be crafted at all, and diamond, which costs a mine. For a player who is not ready to spend diamonds, a full iron set bought over a few restocks is the fastest route to being properly armoured.

Swift Sneak only exists on leggings, cannot be got from an enchanting table, and comes from ancient city chests. It makes sneaking almost as fast as walking, which is the difference between crossing a deep dark and living in one.

That single enchantment is why a spare pair of leggings is worth keeping even after you have better armour: the book goes on whatever you are wearing.

Otherwise leggings take the same Protection and Unbreaking as everything else, and they are the second most protective piece, which makes them worth more than the order people buy armour in suggests.