Armor

Every armor set in Skyrim answers to one gate before anything else: the Smithing level and perk the forge demands before it will make or improve the pieces. That gate is how this guide sorts all 34 armor pages in our Skyrim folder, from Iron, which asks for nothing, up to Daedric at Smithing 90, and then on to the quest and faction sets no forge will ever produce.

The crafting page splits the Smithing tree into two branches. The light branch runs Elven Smithing at 30, Advanced Armors at 50, Glass Smithing at 70 and Dragon Armor at 100. The heavy branch starts at Steel Smithing, then Dwarven at 30, Orcish at 50, Ebony at 80 and Daedric at 90. Every set below sits on one of those rungs, or on none of them.

The ladder at a glance

No perk at all: Iron, Leather and Fur

Iron is the one heavy set the Iron page says carries no Smithing requirement whatsoever. Iron Ingots and Leather Strips make it, an Iron Ingot improves it, and the Banded Iron variant improves with Corundum Ingots instead. Neither benefits from a perk, which is why the page calls Legendary quality on Iron a hard road. Full sets wait in Alvor and Sigrid's house past the bridge and behind the lever-opened sarcophagus in Shroud Hearth Barrow during Lifting the Shroud, while Helgen Keep splits its pieces up: the torture chamber holds the shield and the bear's cave holds the helmet.

Leather is the light-armor twin. The Leather page prices the chest at four Leather and three Leather Strips, the boots at two and two, the bracers at one and two, and the helmet at two and one. The whole set weighs 12 and rates 52. Belethor in Whiterun sells it, bandits drop it, containers hold it at any level, and the Smithing tree has no perk that touches it. The page's recommended alternative is the Creation Club's Scout Leather Armor: available at level 1, rated like Elven, missing only a shield, and guaranteed from Zaharia in Double-Edged.

Fur is the set you cannot make at all. The Fur page confirms no forge recipe exists, though leather improves it at a workbench. It comes in four cuts, a bare torso with or without a shawl and a full body with or without sleeves, and the two bandits at White River Watch are the guaranteed source, with Mzinchaleft a likely second. The leather for all three sets comes from hides processed at a tanning rack.

Steel Smithing: Imperial, Vigil Enforcer, Bonemold and Wolf

The Imperial page puts the chest piece at Smithing 20 with Steel Smithing, costing two Leather, three Leather Strips and four Steel Ingots. The faster route is Joining the Legion, after which Beirand in Solitude hands over a light, studded or heavy set of your choosing. Free pieces turn up wherever the Legion fights: the Imperial Captain at Helgen drops a heavy set with the Officer's Helmet during Unbound, Sulla Trebatius in Alftand drops the armor while his helmet sits in a knapsack in the torture chamber, Horik Halfhand in Dawnstar's White Hall carries a set, and the guards outside Castle Dour give up bracers and boots. New Gnisis Cornerclub keeps a heavy chest and helmet on an upstairs shelf, and Kilkreath Ruins holds the closed helmet.

Anniversary Edition adds Imperial Dragon Armor through Battle of the Champions. A note on a table in The Drunken Huntsman starts it, and Legate Adventus at Castle Dour hands over the Imperial Armory key once you arrive dressed as a legionnaire. The page rates its base defense at 144 and improves it with Steel Ingots.

Vigil Enforcer is a Steel Smithing recipe too, four Steel Ingots, one Iron Ingot and three Leather Strips, but the Vigil Enforcer page locks it behind Unholy Vigil. The quest starts with a letter addressed to Keeper Carcette, found in the Hall of the Vigilant, a building that is destroyed once you pass level 10, so go early or dig the letter out from under a table in the ruins. Azarain's trail runs through Windpeak Inn to Windward Ruins, where a Vigil Veteran's corpse already wears the set, and ends at an altar to Molag Bal hidden in Quicksilver Mine. Finishing unlocks all four variants, Veteran, Enforcer, Corrupted and Silver Hand, each rated 40 at 38 weight and 625 gold.

Bonemold belongs to Dragonborn. The Bonemold page hands you a free set from the dead guard after the Ash Spawn fight beside Captain Veleth outside Raven Rock. The improved set waits until Paid in Full is done, then asks for Smithing 20, Steel Smithing and a recipe of one Iron Ingot, one Void Salts, ten Bone Meal, one Stalhrim, one Netch Jelly and two Netch Leather.

Wolf Armor cannot be crafted at all, but Steel Smithing is the perk that improves it with Steel Ingots. The Wolf page sells it through Eorlund Gray-Mane once Proving Honor is complete, at a base value of 202 gold for the full set. Vilkas and Skjor wear it, and Skjor dies during The Silver Hand, which leaves his pieces free to take.

Smithing 30: Dwarven and Elven

The Dwarven page asks for Smithing 30 and the Dwarven Smithing perk, then Dwarven Metal Ingots, Iron Ingots, Steel Ingots and Leather Strips. The perk doubles workbench improvements made with metal ingots. To loot a set instead, speak to Calcelmo in Understone Keep about his excavation, kill the spider Nimhe, cross into Nchuand-Zel, swim to the Armory and pick the locked door beside the room of Dwarven statues; every piece is inside. Unfathomable Depths adds the Ancient Knowledge effect, which the page puts at 25 percent more armor while a full Dwarven set is worn.

Elven Smithing sits on the same rung. The Elven page lists Iron Ingot, Leather Strips, Quicksilver Ingot and Refined Moonstone as the recipe, with Refined Moonstone for improvements. The set comes in three tiers by character level: Elven Light Armor from level 1, Elven Armor from 12 with enchanted pieces at 13, and Elven Gilded Armor from 27. The Thalmor at Northwatch Keep and inside Understone Keep wear whichever tier your level allows, while the display cases beneath Jorrvaskr hold Elven weapons rather than armor.

Smithing 50: Advanced Armors and Orcish

Steel Plate is the first Advanced Armors set. The Steel Plate page prices the chest at three Steel Ingots, one Iron Ingot and three Leather Strips, and each of the boots, gauntlets and helmet at one Corundum Ingot, two Steel, one Iron and two strips. It starts appearing on Bandit Marauders and the Black-Briar Lodge guards at level 18, with enchanted pieces from 19, and Rigel Strong-Arm in Pinewatch and Atar in Sanuarach Mine can carry whole sets. The level-1 trick is Uthgerd the Unbroken: win the brawl at The Bannered Mare, recruit her, lead her somewhere quiet and take everything but the helmet. The page rates a full Steel Plate set at 87 against Dwarven's 78.

Nordic Carved is Dragonborn's Smithing 50 heavy set, and the Nordic Carved page totals the whole set at 21 Steel Ingots, five Quicksilver Ingots, four Ebony Ingots and ten Leather Strips. From level 25 it shows up on Bandit Chiefs, Reaver Lords and Bandit Marauders, enchanted from 26, and Solstheim's blacksmiths stock it more often than the mainland's.

Orcish Smithing is the heavy-branch perk at 50. Iron Ingots, Leather Strips and Orichalcum Ingots forge it and orichalcum improves it. The Orcish page sends low-level characters to the Orc stronghold southwest of Riverwood: climb the mountain behind it, drop in, and at level 9 nobody stands outside to stop you lifting the full set from the stone altar.

Two sets improve under Advanced Armors without any recipe. The Falmer page uses Chaurus Chitin at the workbench, notes that the perk doubled the improvement until Dawnguard changed it, and gives the helmet no perk at all; the set itself lies beyond an Expert-locked Dwemer door east of the Raldbthar Deep Market entrance, past the Derelict Pumphouse at Blackreach's southern end, and respawns a month later. The Morag Tong page improves its darker Chitin variant with leather, doubled by the same perk; the assassins who wear it come hunting a Dark Brotherhood member on Solstheim once Vendil Ulen's plot is done, and one of them carries the set along with a note explaining why.

Smithing 70: Glass

Glass is the only set on our pages that lands on the 70 rung. The Glass page wants Glass Smithing plus Leather, Leather Strips, Refined Malachite and Refined Moonstone. The world starts offering it at level 36, with better odds from 37: Thalmor soldiers at Northwatch Keep and the Thalmor Embassy wear it, blacksmiths and merchants stock it, and boss chests roll it. The chest rates 38 at a weight of 7, the shield 27.

Smithing 80: Ebony and Madness

The Ebony page sets Smithing 80 and Ebony Smithing as the bar, and lays out the grind: buy iron and leather at Warmaiden's in Whiterun, hammer out iron daggers to climb the skill, then head southeast of Windhelm for ebony, where a room of ingots can be stolen and a cave past the ore carts holds the veins, and smelt the ore back in Whiterun. Unenchanted pieces appear from level 32 and enchanted from 33, and the page rates a full set with shield at 128. The Creation Club's Ebony Plate Armor becomes craftable after Heart of Crimson and has no shield.

Madness Armor stacks a quest on top of the same perk. The Madness page has you finish the Saints and Seducers story, wait for the Note on New Wares, then buy Madness Ore from Ri'saad on the Whiterun to Markarth road or Ahkari between Dawnstar and Riften. Smelt it into ingots, beat Thoron during Restoring Order for the Note on Amber and Madness Ore, travel to Mistwatch in Eastmarch, kill the blacksmith Evethra and read her journal; only then does the forge list the set, which the page rates above both Daedric and Dragonbone.

The Spell Knight page ties its Ebony variant to Ebony Smithing for improvement, with the Steel variant answering to Steel Smithing. How you earn all three variants is in the quest table further down.

Smithing 90: Daedric, Dark Seducer, Ancient Nord and Golden Saint

Daedric Smithing at 90 is the top rung our pages reach. The Daedric page forges each piece from an Ebony Ingot, a Daedra Heart and Leather Strips, and offers two ways around the perk. Read Black Book: Untold Legends in Benkongerike, take the Black Market power, and the Dremora merchant it summons sells Daedric Armor at character levels 48 to 60. Or raise Conjuration to 90, take Phinis Gestor's short quest at the College of Winterhold for a Sigil Stone, and set it on the Atronach Forge.

Dark Seducer, from the Saints and Seducers creation, uses the same perk and the same three ingredients, with Quicksilver Ingots for improvement. The Dark Seducer page finds it on Seducer warriors at the Yogrim Overlook camp, in a chest at the camp's centre, in Solitude's sewer during Balance of Power, and as Dylora's gift after The Helpless Army at Pinnacle Rock.

Ancient Nord is the odd one out. The Ancient Nord page forges it only at the Skyforge, only after the Companions questline, and only with the Daedric Smithing perk, from Iron Ingot, Steel Ingot, Leather and Leather Strips. Looting is far easier: Dragon Cultists in Forelhost drop full sets during Siege on the Dragon Cult, a ghost in Kjenstag Ruins carries it between 8 pm and 4 am, Aela the Huntress wears it in Jorrvaskr, and Bashnag drops it in Southfringe Sanctum. The Ahzidal relics found during Unearthed at Kolbjorn Barrow are its variant: four pieces worn together grant Ahzidal's Genius, and a Dragon Priest mask can stand in as the fourth. The page also warns of a first-person visual glitch whenever a weapon is drawn in the set.

Golden Saint sits one perk further. The Golden Saint page needs Golden Smithing, read from Joften's Notes, which itself requires Daedric Smithing at Smithing 90. The Helpless Army awards the armor and helm for defending Brellach or Pinnacle Rock, and the pieces scale with level: the chest's base armor runs from 24 at levels 1 to 2 up to 45 at level 20 and beyond.

Sets no forge will make

Everything below arrives through a quest, a faction or a Creation Club drop. The Smithing tree still matters, because Arcane Blacksmith is what lets a workbench touch enchanted pieces, and one set demands Smithing 100 just to reach full quality. Our quests guide covers the questlines these sets hang off.

Chest pieces side by side

The figures below are the chest-piece numbers our pages print. Sets whose page gives only a full-set total, Steel Plate at 87 and Leather at 52, or a level-scaled table, Golden Saint and Divine Crusader, are left out rather than guessed.

Frequently asked questions

Which armor needs the highest Smithing skill?

Daedric and Dark Seducer both sit at Daedric Smithing, which the Daedric page places at Smithing 90, and Golden Saint needs Golden Smithing on top of it. The crafting page lists Dragon Armor at 100 as the very top of the light branch, but no set on our armor pages uses it.

Can I wear high-tier armor before my Smithing gets there?

Yes, and the pages are full of shortcuts. The Dremora merchant sells Daedric between levels 48 and 60, the Orc stronghold altar gives up Orcish at level 9, Uthgerd hands over Steel Plate at level 1 if you win a brawl, and Nchuand-Zel holds a complete Dwarven set behind one locked door.

Which sets ignore Smithing perks entirely?

Iron, Leather and Fur take no perk bonus when improved, Forsworn and Nightingale improve only through Arcane Blacksmith, and Skaal cannot be improved at all. Stormcloak Officer is the reverse case: no recipe, yet Smithing 100 before it reaches full quality.

Where do the ingots come from?

The Smithing page and the crafting page cover the tools: ore from veins goes into a smelter for ingots, hides go onto a tanning rack for leather and strips, and Whiterun has every station in one yard. The Ebony page names the ebony source southeast of Windhelm, and the Madness page buys its ore from the Khajiit caravans.

The same perks decide which blades you can make, so read this alongside our weapons guide, and pair it with the Heavy Armor leveling page and the skill notes in our mechanics guide if the plan is to wear what you forge. The smiths and general traders who stock these sets are listed in our characters guide.