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Elemental Crafting: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Mithrilvest.jpg|link=The Lord of the Rings (
[[As You Know|As we all know]], Iron is stronger than Bronze is stronger than Copper, so therefore all weapons and armor made of Iron must be better! Well, not necessarily. In [[Real Life]], other factors come into it, including design (a well-made bronze tool is superior to a low-end iron tool), the maker's skill, available forging techniques (bronze is actually stronger than wrought iron, and pure iron is more or less useless), facilities, time, the quality of the raw material, and alloy composition. Some metals are likewise better suited to cutting, resisting damage, or being light enough to carry. They will frequently be used by the [[Ultimate Blacksmith]].
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** For those who use it, cloth has a hierarchy all its own, ranging from cotton to silk to explicitly magical material.
** Sometimes the creators, for a change, [[Shown Their Work|did do the research]], so padded armor or a gambeson is present. Made of quilted cloth, but still better than nothing if you cannot afford something to make yourself feel less disposable.
** Technically, ballistic nylon and Kevlar count as cloth. However, the kinds of role playing games with ballistic armors (''[[
* ''Leather'' - Usually made from tanned leather or animal hides, this is typically one of the first forms of "real" armor you'll find.
** Here, the armor grades depend on the animal the hide came from. Expect things like real world animals to give way to magical and increasingly powerful critters like Wyvern, Hydra, Dragon [[Our Dragons Are Different|(various kinds)]], but never [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Moogle]]. This is especially true when some classes can't wear anything lower down the list.
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== [[Film]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Iron Man (
** Then again, titanium itself is often used as a 'always better than steel' metal in modern fiction, despite having some very real drawbacks. Iron Man's armor is quite thin, and while titanium is stronger than steel per kilogram/pound, it is not stronger per cm/inch thickness.
* The same thing goes for [[Blade (
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In [[The Legend of Zelda:
* ''[[
** Which is better explained in ''[[
** The name of the frying pan weapon you can make using Rainbow Shell strongly implies that Rainbow Shell is in turn made of diamond, which is known for cutting well, but is so brittle that, as a weapon, it would shatter to pieces from the force of the first blow.
*** Well, it's got 'C6' in it (the silver version has Ag47). Make of that what you will.
** It also swaps a few things in this list: it goes from bone items to bronze/copper, then iron/steel, then silver/mithril, then stone, and finally prism/rainbow/special.
* Any of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games prior to FF7. Steel equipment beats Iron equipment, but aren't as good as Gold equipment. Despite the fact that gold is a soft metal that's heavy like you wouldn't believe.
** Subverted in ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* Mostly averted in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]''. The general rule of thumb that "Adamantine>Steel>Iron>Bronze>Copper>Wood/Leather" still holds, but silver weapons are ranked alongside wooden ones, being next to useless for edged weapons. Material properties such as density are factored in, meaning that conversely, adamantine is near-useless for blunt weapons, while a silver hammer is actually relatively damaging due to its density (greater than iron). However, quality factors into weapons too, meaning that a "Masterful" or artifact iron sword is far preferable than a plain steel sword, although both are inferior to any admantine, which is ridiculously strong for edged weapons.
** Wood (and silver) weapons are useful as training weapons, much like how they would be used in real life, because of the fact that they suck and are thus much less likely to cause serious sparring accidents.
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* The most common and weakest weapons in ''[[Avernum]] 1'' and ''2'' are made out of stone. Anything made out of iron or steel is rarer (and hence better). Justified in-game as Avernum not having the proper resources to mine, smelt, and forge all the metal they need. Magic items are even rarer still. Any metal or enchanted weapon was either smuggled down from the surface or made by someone very skilled.
** Similarly, in the Exile games, of which the Avernum games are an updated version, it went stone, bronze, iron, steel, magic.
* Averted in ''[[Mabinogi (
** The only non-magical exceptions are the practice sword, the great mallet, the club, the stick, and the broad stick; all of which are wood, the last two also being crude clubs. They are also the weakest weapons in the game; although like almost all weapons, they can be magically enhanced.
** All other examples are magically crafted from a variety of improbable materials. These are typically quest-related or event-only items; and often have a limited lifespan, or are single-use.
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* Averted for the most part in the ''[[Total War]]'' series, where the armor of any particular unit is determined by two things: the basic equipment and purchasing power of the troops (i.e. nobles and merchant militia can afford better arms and armor than commoner soldiers, who can afford/are outfitted with better gear than peasant militias) and also by the facilities you build in a particular settlement. In order to fully equip a unit you'll need to upgrade to leather tanners, then blacksmiths, then armorers, and so on. Thus, materials are generally irrelevant to how well-armored your troops are.
* Used in ''[[Castlevania]]'' generally, but played with in ''[[Order of Ecclesia]]''. The Blacksmith in it needs gold ore to make his best armour, but says this is because armour needs to be able to take hits and the gold allows for flexibility.
* ''[[Diablo]]'' has this in a slightly unusual form; they have a rather standard set of metals and gems, but mechanically they're treated like any other magical item power, so an "Iron Short Sword" or "Bronze Dagger" is considered a magic item by the game. In the original Diablo, the useful metals are Bronze < Iron < Steel < Silver < Gold < Platinum < Mithril < [[Thunderbolt Iron|Meteoric]]; the negative ones are Tin and Brass. Gems provide elemental resistances; Topaz < Amber < Jade < Obsidian < Emerald give across-the-board resistance to everything. The specific resistances are ''colors'' (Red and Crimson for fire, White for magic, Blue for lightning, etc.) at the lower levels, but become gems when more powerful; Pearl < Ivory < Crystal < Diamond for resistance to general 'magic', Garnet < Ruby for [[Playing
** Diablo 2 adds even more (and changes the meaning of some of them, the 'blue' series (Lapis, Sapphire etc) become [[An Ice Person|cold]] resistance, as that [[Elemental Powers|element]] was added for Diablo 2; as generic "magic" resistance was removed, Amber becomes Lightning resistance, and Jade and Emerald become Poison resistance ([[Universal Poison|poison as an elemental damage type]] is also a Diablo 2 addition).
* Played straight in [[Minecraft]], where you can make tools out of Wood, Stone, Iron, Gold, or Diamond and armor out of Leather, Iron, Gold, or Diamond; except that [[Reality Ensues|Gold is soft and lasts no better than Wood]]. However, gold tools are faster even than diamond as of a recent update, though still rarely used due to gold's other uses and the low durability.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Happens with star metal in ''[[The Order of the Stick
** In fact the blacksmith specifically points out that a blade of pure starmetal would be too heavy to lift and would require every piece of starmetal ever discovered.
* [http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=12 Lance daydreams] about diamond armor from [[Gold Coin Comics]].
* [[
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