Fossil Greaves

Nothing gates this armor. No boss has to fall first and no ore bar goes into it, so a ranged character who finds a decent desert can be wearing the complete set within the first hour of a world, well ahead of the usual copper to iron ladder. That timing is the whole appeal, because most sets with real class bonuses attached arrive much later.

Sturdy Fossils do not drop as such. You mine Desert Fossil blocks out of the underground sand and feed them through an Extractinator, which returns them at random, so the number you dig is not the number you end up with. Plan on hauling several hundred blocks back in a single trip rather than making repeat runs, since the odds of covering a full set only tip in your favor somewhere past four hundred. The blocks themselves are everywhere down there. The cost is mining time, not luck with a chest.

The damage boost is modest. The reason to wear it is the chance for a shot to leave its ammunition behind, because early on the arrows and bullets are the actual constraint on a ranged build rather than the weapon. Stretching a stack out means you can afford to use the good ammunition instead of hoarding it, and the effect stacks with the other ammo saving bonuses in the game. Pair it with a Gi if the traveling merchant offers one, since the two together hit surprisingly hard for something you can wear before your first boss. It holds up until Skeletron opens the dungeon and Necro armor takes over.

The set was built for the old throwing class and was rewritten into a ranged one when that class was folded away, which is why the bonus is about conserving what you fire. The amber set into the helmet and chest artwork is a similar leftover, since none of it goes into the crafting.