Defense

is one of the eleven core player statistics. It determines how much Damage reduction the player has.

The more a player has, the less damage is taken from Hostile Mobs. Defense does not reduce True Damage.

Increasing Base Defense
Players do not have any base by default. It can be increased by:
 * Turning in Fairy Souls to Tia the Fairy


 * Leveling the Mining Skill

Increasing Bonus Defense
There are several ways to gain additional bonus.
 * Equipping any type of Armor. (Excluding Mastiff Armor, Tuxedos and most heads)


 * Holding the Golem Sword or Earth Shard


 * Using Accessories (ex: Gravity Talisman)


 * Using the Protection Enchantment on Armor


 * Reforging (ex: Titanic Reforge)


 * Drinking the Resistance Potion


 * Pigman Sword's ability gives +300

Damage Reduction
The more the player has, the less bonus damage reduction the player will get (A player with 123  has 55% damage reduction, but when they reach 246, they will not have 110% damage reduction).

The formula for damage reduction is

$$\frac{Def}{Def + 100}$$ damage reduction. For example, if Defense is 200, the formula is

$$\frac{200}{200+100}$$ or

$$\frac{200}{300}$$ or 2/3 or 67% damage reduction, meaning with 200, the player takes one third of the damage from monsters that would normally be taken with 0 defense.

This leads to a misconception that higher  is useless because the damage reduction only goes up slightly. This is incorrect, for as the difference from 0% to 50% damage reduction may seem more substantial than the jump from 90% to 95%, both are equal in that they double EHP (Effective Health Points) (100-200 vs 1000-2000)

Effective Health
Effective health is the amount of health the player has when defense is factored in. If one has 100 HP and 200 defense, they will be able to take 300 damage, as shown below.

The formula for EHP is

$$HP \times \frac{Def + 100}{100}$$ .

For example, if is 200 and  is 100, the formula is:

$$100 \times \frac{200 + 100}{100}$$ or

$$100 \times \frac{300}{100}$$ or

$$100 \times 3$$ or

300 EHP, meaning with 100 and 200, the player can take as much damage without dying as someone who has 300  and 0  could.

EHP is a useful metric for calculating which armor is better than another armor.

Not to be confused with True Defense.

防御