Studded Armor isn’t really a set at all. It’s a single light cuirass: leather armor with iron studs hammered in for extra toughness. There’s no matching helmet, gloves or boots, which makes it a bit of an oddball in the armor lineup. In protection it sits alongside Fur Armor and the Imperial Light Armor cuirass, just under Leather Armor.
How to get it
The standard Studded Armor can be forged with no perk and no Smithing level. Besides leather and leather strips it calls for a single iron ingot, so you’ll need a smelter stop if you’re out of iron. It also turns up as early leveled loot, so you may stumble on one before you ever think about crafting it.
There is a second version, the Studded Imperial Armor, which you can’t craft. According to Fextralife it can be found on soldiers of the Imperial Legion, so it tends to fall into your hands after a skirmish with Legion troops during the civil war or while doing battle quests such as Battle for Whiterun. Both versions share the same armor rating and weight, but the Imperial one is worth more gold.
Is it worth wearing?
At 23 armor rating and 6 weight it’s a perfectly fine early cuirass, but Leather Armor is stronger and just as easy to make. The bigger problem is perks: Matching Set needs a helmet, cuirass, gauntlets and boots from the same set, and Studded Armor simply has nothing to match with. You can still get Custom Fit by wearing it with other light pieces, so it can fill the chest slot of a mixed outfit until something better comes along.
Where it’s handy is Smithing training. Tempering uses iron ingots instead of leather, which are cheap and plentiful, and the recipe itself is low-cost. Roleplayers who want a Legion scout look will also enjoy the Imperial version.
Good to know
- Only the cuirass exists, so it can never benefit from the Matching Set perk.
- Studded Armor is tempered with an iron ingot rather than leather.
- The Studded Imperial Armor variant cannot be crafted and has no tempering recipe listed in the game data.
Set pieces
| Piece | Slot | Armor | Weight | Value | ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studded Armor | Body | 23 | 6 | 75 | 0001B3A2 |
Variants
These versions share the set’s look or slot but are separate items in the game files:
| Piece | Slot | Armor | Weight | Value | ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studded Imperial Armor | Body | 23 | 6 | 125 | 00013ED8 |
Crafting and upgrades
Recipes at the forge – no perk needed:
- Studded Armor: 1 Iron Ingot, 4 Leather, 3 Leather Strips
Improve (temper) the pieces at a workbench with Iron Ingot.
Stats from the Skyrim game files (Skyrim.esm and the official add-ons): base armor rating, weight and value before Smithing improvements and perks. The ID is the item’s form ID for the console.