Best Armor in Skyrim

73 armor sets ranked

Every armor set ranked by its base armor rating, pulled straight from the game data. Ratings shown are the unenchanted chest piece (cuirass) before any Smithing improvement or the Armor skill — the relative order is what matters.

Best Heavy Armor

Heavy armor offers the highest raw protection. Daedric is the best in the game, though Dragonplate and Stalhrim are close and far lighter to wear.

#	Armor	Rating	Weight	Value
1	Daedric Armor	49	38	640
2	Dragonplate Armor	46	40	2,125
3	Stalhrim ArmorDragonborn	46	38	2,200
4	Ebony Mail	45	28	5,000
5	Blades Armor	44	45	400
6	Ebony Armor	43	38	1,500
7	Falmer Heavy ArmorDawnguard	43	35	1,200
8	Nordic Carved ArmorDragonborn	43	37	1,600
9	Orcish Armor	40	35	1,000
10	Steel Plate Armor	40	35	625
11	Chitin Heavy ArmorDragonborn	40	35	650
12	Improved Bonemold ArmorDragonborn	35	43	290
13	Dwarven Armor	34	45	400
14	Dawnguard Heavy ArmorDawnguard	34	42	425
15	Falmer Hardened ArmorDawnguard	34	40	250
16	Bonemold Pauldron ArmorDragonborn	33	36	290
17	Bonemold ArmorDragonborn	32	34	290
18	Bonemold Guard ArmorDragonborn	32	34	290
19	Falmer Armor	31	20	275
20	Steel Armor	31	35	275
21	Wolf Armor	31	20	55
22	Banded Iron Armor	28	35	200
23	Ancient Nord Armor	25	28	125
24	Imperial Armor	25	35	100
25	Iron Armor	25	30	125
26	Dawnguard ArmorDawnguard	25	28	125

Best Light Armor

Light armor weighs less and trains the Light Armor skill. Dragonscale is the best, with Glass the strongest you can craft early.

#	Armor	Rating	Weight	Value
1	Dragonscale Armor	41	10	1,500
2	Deathbrand ArmorDragonborn	39	7	1,000
3	Stalhrim Light ArmorDragonborn	39	7	925
4	Glass Armor	38	7	900
5	Guild Master's Armor	38	10	300
6	Ancient Falmer CuirassDawnguard	38	7	50
7	Elven Gilded Armor	35	4	550
8	Nightingale Armor	34	12	900
9	Ancient Shrouded Armor	33	5	300
10	Blackguard's ArmorDragonborn	33	7	600
11	Scaled Armor	32	6	350
12	Scaled Horn Armor	32	6	350
13	Linwe's Armor	31	8	250
14	Chitin ArmorDragonborn	30	4	240
15	Vampire Royal ArmorDawnguard	30	9	250
16	Elven Armor	29	4	225
17	Karliah's Armor	29	0	0
18	Shrouded Armor	29	7	225
19	Summerset Shadows Armor	29	7	125
20	Thieves Guild Armor	29	7	125
21	Thieves Guild Variant Armor	29	0	0
22	Tsun's Armor	29	0	0
23	Stormcloak Officer Armor	27	8	35
24	Elven Light Armor	26	4	125
25	Forsworn Armor	26	6	100
26	Leather Armor	26	6	125
27	Savior's Hide	26	6	2,000
28	Morag Tong ArmorDragonborn	26	5	150
29	Skaal CoatDragonborn	26	5	100
30	Vampire ArmorDawnguard	25	5	175
31	Falkreath Guard's Armor	23	6	75
32	Fur Armor	23	6	50
33	Hjaalmarch Guard's Armor	23	6	75
34	Imperial Light Armor	23	6	75
35	Markarth Guard's Armor	23	6	75
36	Pale Guard's Armor	23	6	75
37	Penitus Oculatus Armor	23	6	75
38	Riften Guard's Armor	23	6	75
39	Solitude Guard's Armor	23	6	75
40	Studded Armor	23	6	75
41	Studded Imperial Armor	23	6	125
42	Whiterun Guard's Armor	23	6	75
43	Winterhold Guard's Armor	23	6	75
44	Word ChestDragonborn	23	6	50
45	Stormcloak Cuirass	21	8	25
46	Hide Armor	20	5	50
47	Worn Shrouded Armor	20	6	80

How we rank Skyrim armor

Straight from the game files. Every rating is read directly out of Skyrim's armor records in Skyrim.esm and the official add-ons — nothing is hand-typed or copied from another site.
We compare the cuirass. A set's protection is split across the chest, helmet, gauntlets and boots. To rank sets fairly we use the body piece (the cuirass) — the single biggest contributor — so every set is measured the same way.
Base values, before buffs. Numbers are the unenchanted, un-tempered piece with no Smithing improvement, Armor skill or perks applied. Enchanted “… of …” variants and Bethesda's internal test armor are filtered out.
Heavy vs. light is the game's call. Each set is sorted into Heavy or Light using the armor's own keyword in the record, not our judgement — then ranked high to low by that base rating.

One caveat on reading the order: with high enough Smithing, both light and heavy armor can reach the 567 armor cap, so weight, perks and set bonuses often matter more than the base rating once you're maxed out.