Skyrim:Armor

Armor is a type of apparel that is worn on the body to reduce damage from attacks. Armor comes in two varieties, corresponding to the two different skills governing armor usage: Heavy Armor and Light Armor. In addition, there are Shields which provide an additional passive increase to armor rating (active blocking is governed by the Block skill).

Armor comes in several pieces which can be equipped independently of each other, these pieces are:

Helmet: covers your head
Boots: covers your feet and ankles
Gauntlets: covers your hands up to your elbow
Armor: covers your legs, chest and shoulders
Shield: protect and block attacks.

[edit] Armor Materials

Armor appears in several different materials and styles, which determine the quality of the armor. Higher quality armor provides better protection (but is generally heavier). Which quality armor you will find is generally determined based on your character's level.

The following table describes the base level at which an armor type begins to show up randomly for the player. Lower level armor will also randomly appear, but so will higher level armors in certain situations: potentially up to at least 12 levels "early". Enchanted versions of each armor type will begin to appear one level later; see Generic Magic Apparel for more information. See Leveled Lists for details on how these lists are used to determine the probabilities of individual items appearing. Although dragonscale, dragonplate, and daedric armor can all be found in random loot once your level is high enough, the chances of finding any of these armor types is 20 times smaller than other armor types.

Most armor from the list below can be created at Forges, by using the Smithing skill. The ability to make armor is not dependent upon your character's level, but is instead dependent upon which Smithing perks you have unlocked. All standard armor can also be tempered at Workbenches, if you have the necessary auxiliary item. Tempering is twice as effective if you have unlocked the perk necessary to forge that armor. Tempering an enchanted version of the armor (whether custom-enchanted, or generic) is similar to tempering the base version – it requires the same auxiliary item, and is twice as effective if you have unlocked the forging perk – but also requires the Arcane Blacksmith perk to be unlocked.

Level	Light Armor	Perk to Forge	Item for Tempering
1	Fur	N/A	Leather
	Hide	No perk needed	Leather
	Studded	No perk needed	Iron Ingot
8	Leather	No perk needed	Leather
12	Elven	Elven Smithing	Refined Moonstone
19	Scaled	Advanced Armors	Corundum Ingot
27	Elven Gilded	Elven Smithing	Quicksilver Ingot
36	Glass	Glass Smithing	Refined Malachite
46	Dragonscale	Dragon Armor	Dragon Scales

Level	Heavy Armor	Perk to Forge	Item for Tempering
1	Iron	No perk required	Iron Ingot
1	Banded Iron	No perk required	Corundum Ingot
6	Steel	Steel Smithing	Steel Ingot
12	Dwarven	Dwarven Smithing	Dwarven Metal Ingot
18	Steel Plate	Advanced Armors	Corundum Ingot
25	Orcish	Orcish Smithing	Orichalcum Ingot
32	Ebony	Ebony Smithing	Ebony Ingot
40	Dragonplate	Dragon Armor	Dragon Scales or Dragon Bone^†
48	Daedric	Daedric Smithing^‡	Ebony Ingot

^†Dragonplate Cuirasses and Shields are tempered using Dragon Bone; all other Dragonplate armor is improved using Dragon Scales.
^‡All Daedric armor (except the boots, which are bugged) can also be made at the Atronach Forge, in which case the Daedric Smithing perk is not needed, but instead the Sigil Stone must be obtained. Tempering armor created at the Atronach Forge is still augmented by the Daedric Smithing perk.

[edit] Armor Rating

Armor Ratios

For all of the armor listed on this site, the provided armor ratings are the base armor ratings. The actual protection your character will receive from the armor is dependent upon your skill in that armor type and any relevant perks that you have unlocked. The rating can also be improved by using smithing to change the armor's quality to "Fine" , "Superior", "Exquisite", "Flawless", "Epic" or "Legendary".

The armor rating only reduces physical damage, not magical damage.

Approximate formulas:

displayed armor rating = (worn armor rating + item quality) * (1 + 0.4 * (skill + skill effect)/100) *
                          (1 + Custom Fit or Well Fitted + Matching Set) * (1 + Agile Defender or Juggernaut) +
                          (shield armor rating + item quality) * (1 + 0.4 * (skill + skill effect)/100) *
                          (1 + Custom Fit or Well Fitted + Matching Set) + armor effects
 hidden armor rating    = 25 per piece worn
 damage reduction%      = (displayed armor rating + hidden armor rating) * 0.12

Clothes/robes do not benefit from the hidden armor rating bonus.

For NPCs the skill coefficient is 1.5 instead of 0.4.

Note the difference between skill effects (e.g. Fortify Light/Heavy Armor equipment, Ancient Knowledge) and armor effects (e.g. x-flesh spells, Lord Stone).

Your durability against physical attacks (i.e. the amount of raw damage you can sustain) is proportional to 100 / (100 - damage reduction%). This results in hyperbolic growth in your physical durability, up to the cap of 80% damage reduction giving an x5 multiplier to your physical durability. Thus, the more armor rating you have, the more each additional point of armor rating is worth. The graph displayed shows the multiplier to your physical durability relative to no armor based on the displayed armor rating, assuming you are wearing all four pieces of armor (+100 hidden armor rating) and have no other effects.

[edit] Armor Cap

Physical damage reduction is capped at 80%. If you have 100 skill and all relevant armor perks, this requires a tempered armor rating of about 135. You can increase your tempered armor rating by 1 roughly every 2 points of Smithing with the appropriate perk, or every 4 without. Therefore, at 100 Smithing you will need 85 base armor with the appropriate perk, which is not achievable without a shield with Light Armor (though Dragonscale comes close at 82 for the set) and requires at least a Steel Plate set for Heavy Armor. With Fortify Smithing enchanted apparel and Smithing potions you can boost Smithing even further, which can potentially allow any material for which a Smithing perk exists to reach the cap. At the extreme end, you will need about 126 Smithing to make Steel Armor hit the cap, and about 154 Smithing for an Elven set. Unfortunately, Fur, Hide, Studded, Leather, and Iron armors are not affected by any Smithing perks and so cannot be improved as much.

With the aid of enchanting (fortify smithing) and pre-made enchanting and smithing potions, and of course the appropriate armor perks, you can reach the armor cap with any style or type of armor in the game, even hide and iron armor. All without even using a shield.

Shields, spells, and the Lord Stone can reduce the base armor required to hit the cap even further, but these require more management.

[edit] Notes

Clothes, such as robes and other apparel, do not count as armor. They do not benefit from the hidden armor rating bonus.
Custom Fit, Well Fitted, and Matching Set perks are applied to shields if the four pieces of worn armor (armor, helmet, gloves, boots) match appropriately. The shield does not have to be of the same set, or even the same skill.
Shields do not benefit from the 5*20% initial perks in heavy/light armor skills.
Armor rating/damage reduction does not affect the speed at which the skill is trained.
Occasionally, if you drop a piece of armor, usually the main piece in a crowded area, an NPC will run up to you and ask you if you are throwing it away, and if they can have it. Other NPCs may comment on how you are littering, but this usually only happens with Miscellaneous items. Other times they will simply just give it back.
Guards may comment on what kind of armor you're wearing, depending on what faction they belong to and what you're wearing at the time.
You can enhance armor once past Legendary (i.e. you enhance to Legendary then enhance again) with enough Fortify Smithing enchantments and potions. So for Deadric Armor so enhanced Armor=411 Boots=180 Gauntlets=180 Helmet=201 all told an armor rating of 972. The same can be done with weapons.

[edit] Light Armor

[edit] Armor

Name	ID
Fur Armor	0006f393 0010594b 0010594d 0010594f	6	50	23
Hide Armor	00013911	5	50	20
Studded Armor	0001b3a2	6	75	23
Leather Armor	0003619e	6	125	26
Elven Armor	000896a3	4	225	29
Scaled Armor	0001b3a3	6	350	32
Scaled Horn Armor^†	0001b3a4	6	350	32
Elven Gilded Armor	0001392a	4	550	35
Glass Armor	00013939	7	900	38
Dragonscale Armor	0001393e	10	1500	41

^† Scaled Horn Armor cannot be tempered, because it was completely left out of the appropriate list.

[edit] Boots

Name	ID
Fur Shoes	0006f398	2	4	6
Fur Boots	000a6d7f	2	5	5
Hide Boots	00013910	1	10	5
Leather Boots	00013920	2	25	7
Elven Boots	0001391a	1	45	8
Scaled Boots	0001b39f	2	70	9
Glass Boots	00013938	2	190	11
Dragonscale Boots	0001393d	3	300	12

[edit] Gauntlets

Name	ID
Fur Bracers	0006f39b	1	10	6
Fur Gauntlets	000a6d7d	2	5	5
Hide Bracers	00013912	1	10	5
Leather Bracers	00013921	2	25	7
Elven Gauntlets	0001391c	1	45	8
Scaled Bracers	0001b3a0	2	70	9
Glass Gauntlets	0001393a	2	190	11
Dragonscale Gauntlets	0001393f	3	300	12

[edit] Helmets

Name	ID
Fur Helmet	0006f39e	1	23	11
Hide Helmet	00013913	2	25	10
Leather Helmet	00013922	2	60	12
Elven Helmet	0001391d	1	110	13
Scaled Helmet	0001b3a1	2	175	14
Glass Helmet	0001393b	2	450	16
Dragonscale Helmet	00013940	4	750	17

[edit] Shields

Name	ID
Hide Shield	00013914	4	25	15
Elven Shield	0001391e	4	115	21
Glass Shield	0001393c	6	450	27
Dragonscale Shield	00013941	6	750	29

[edit] Heavy Armor

[edit] Armor

Name	ID
Iron Armor	00012e49	30	125	25
Banded Iron Armor	00013948	35	200	28
Steel Armor	00013952 000f6f22	35	275	31
Dwarven Armor	0001394d	45	400	34
Steel Plate Armor	0001395c	38	625	40
Orcish Armor	00013957	35	1000	40
Ebony Armor	00013961	38	1500	43
Dragonplate Armor	00013966	40	2125	46
Daedric Armor	0001396b	50	3200	49

[edit] Boots

Name	ID
Iron Boots	00012e4b	6	25	10
Steel Cuffed Boots	00013951	8	55	12
Steel Shin Boots	000f6f21	8	55	12
Dwarven Boots	0001394c	10	85	13
Steel Plate Boots	0001395b	9	125	14
Orcish Boots	00013956	7	200	15
Ebony Boots	00013960	7	275	16
Dragonplate Boots	00013965	8	425	17
Daedric Boots	0001396a	10	625	18

[edit] Gauntlets

Name	ID
Iron Gauntlets	00012e46	5	25	10
Steel Imperial Gauntlets	000f6f23	4	55	12
Steel Nordic Gauntlets	00013953	4	55	12
Dwarven Gauntlets	0001394e	8	85	13
Steel Plate Gauntlets	0001395d	6	125	14
Orcish Gauntlets	00013958	7	200	15
Ebony Gauntlets	00013962	7	275	16
Dragonplate Gauntlets	00013967	8	425	17
Daedric Gauntlets	0001396c	6	625	18

[edit] Helmets

Name	ID
Iron Helmet	00012e4d	5	60	15
Steel Helmet	00013954	5	125	17
Steel Horned Helmet	000f6f24	5	125	17
Dwarven Helmet	0001394f	12	200	18
Steel Plate Helmet	0001395e	6	300	19
Orcish Helmet	00013959	8	500	20
Ebony Helmet	00013963	10	750	21
Dragonplate Helmet	00013969	8	1050	22
Daedric Helmet	0001396d	15	1600	23

[edit] Shields

Name	ID
Iron Shield	00012eb6	12	60	20
Banded Iron Shield	0001394b	12	100	22
Steel Shield	00013955	12	150	24
Dwarven Shield	00013950	12	225	26
Orcish Shield	00013946	14	500	30
Ebony Shield	00013964	14	750	32
Dragonplate Shield	00013968	15	1050	34
Daedric Shield	0001396e	15	1600	36