Wood Armor Helmet

You are hitting stone nodes along a river on the first afternoon, head down, when someone on the far bank draws a bow. Archers aim high, and a bare head ends that kind of fight fast. Fifteen cloth and 150 wood fix it before you walk out, with no bench needed and nothing to research.

By its own text the helmet gives some basic protection from melee and ranged hits, so think of it as padding, not cover against a rifle. Next to a baseball cap it is still a real step up. The bone helmet is its twin with the same 100 durability, so the choice comes down to whether you hold more bones or more wood. Wood you were chopping for the base anyway.

Its time ends when the first Level 1 workbench goes down. Twenty metal fragments then buy a bucket helmet with twice the durability, and the wooden one goes into the recycler for half its wood back.