Somewhat related to this question, now that we've established how useless gold is as anything (wow I was such an idiot), what about crystals? For instance, something like the diamond armor from Minecraft.

What if there were a humanoid, mobile, solid lump of crystal - how tough would it be? Would you be able to shatter it with a simple blow from a steel sword? Or would it be completely impervious to harm? Would it matter what kind of crystal it was, i.e. would diamond be tougher than emeralds?

Edit: thanks for all the suggestions in the comments! I think I may have used the word 'crystal' wrongly. I meant something more like precious stones - i.e. Sapphires, rubies, quartz etc. Also, I'm kind of imagining them pre-processed, and not as ores.

Edit #2: Don't think of it as a layer of armor - imagine if it were a solid lump all the way through. These things are completely animated by handwavium.

Somewhat related to this question, now that we've established how useless gold is as anything (wow I was such an idiot), what about crystals? For instance, something like the diamond armor from Minecraft.

What if there were a humanoid, mobile, solid lump of crystal - how tough would it be? Would you be able to shatter it with a simple blow from a steel sword? Or would it be completely impervious to harm? Would it matter what kind of crystal it was, i.e. would diamond be tougher than emeralds?

Edit: thanks for all the suggestions in the comments! I think I may have used the word 'crystal' wrongly. I meant something more like precious stones - i.e. Sapphires, rubies, quartz etc. Also, I'm kind of imagining them pre-processed, and not as ores.

Edit #2: Don't think of it as a layer of armor - imagine if it were a solid lump all the way through. These things are completely animated by handwavium.

Somewhat related to this question, now that we've established how useless gold is as anything (wow I was such an idiot), what about crystals? For instance, something like the diamond armor from Minecraft.

What if there were a humanoid, mobile, solid lump of crystal - how tough would it be? Would you be able to shatter it with a simple blow from a steel sword? Or would it be completely impervious to harm? Would it matter what kind of crystal it was, i.e. would diamond be tougher than emeralds?

Somewhat related to this question, now that we've established how useless gold is as anything (wow I was such an idiot), what about crystals? For instance, something like the diamond armor from Minecraft.

What if there were a humanoid, mobile, solid lump of crystal - how tough would it be? Would you be able to shatter it with a simple blow from a steel sword? Or would it be completely impervious to harm? Would it matter what kind of crystal it was, i.e. would diamond be tougher than emeralds?

Edit: thanks for all the suggestions in the comments! I think I may have used the word 'crystal' wrongly. I meant something more like precious stones - i.e. Sapphires, rubies, quartz etc. Also, I'm kind of imagining them pre-processed, and not as ores.

Edit #2: Don't think of it as a layer of armor - imagine if it were a solid lump all the way through. These things are completely animated by handwavium.