I always found the arcanite plate mail from Atavus lightweight, cool. But after developing some leg strength or gaining perma levitation (so I can wear a belt of carrying), I prefer to switch to an adamantine plate mail.
How do I do it as early as on GC1?
It's simple. I stick to my buddy gods - the neutral gods. As You know, Loricatus can harden any iron-family material of any piece of armor that You have, provided You "wield" it. He is almost guaranteed to harden the material if it meets the intelligence requirements as if You were hardening it.
But if You happen to share a flat, be in a frat, hang out on raves, pub-crawl, drag race, sing karaoke, play scrabble or just pray regularly to Loricatus, these limitations apparently do not apply.
Note : In the steps below, I assume You also know Silva (so You can have free munchies and improving relations with Loricatus), and Mellis (for all the extra stuff, and improving relations with Loricatus). I suppose it's best to be used in town.
!!!:
1. Wield the copper/bronze/iron/steel/meteoric steel item You want to harden.
2. Pray to Loricatus and the other gods.
3. Leave town, run around, or wait 3 hours otherwise.
4. Back to step 2, continue until the item of Your choice is hardened enough times to be solid adamantium.
Of course, it may take You a lot of time - the chance of getting an upgrade "beyond intelligence" is small already and favor seems to only slightly increase the probability. Sometimes I had it happen by surprise, sometimes it took me a couple of days to have an adamantine plate mail. But oh, was it all worth it
!
Other fun stuff:
- Pray to different gods, running around and praying is a sure way to make good relations even with "conflicting" gods (I for example like having Nefas + Seges)
- This method is GREAT if You happen to have a goblin in UT4 drop a bronze short sword + 9 or stumble upon an iron plate mail +4!
- Running around while NOT encumbered or bloated will train Agility, the opposite will train Leg Strength
- This post is long and unnatractive.