Hide Armor is the very first rung on the light armor ladder in Skyrim: stitched-together animal skins with a bit of leather trim, the kind of outfit a hunter throws on before heading into the woods. It sits at the bottom of the light armor chart, just under Fur Armor and Leather Armor, and you’ll see it everywhere on bandits, hunters and assorted wilderness folk in the early game.
How to get it
The easiest way is to make it yourself. Hide pieces need no Smithing perk and no skill requirement at all, so any brand-new character can stand at a forge and turn out a full set. All you need is leather and leather strips: tan animal pelts into leather at a tanning rack, then cut some of that leather into strips. If you’ve just been chased by a wolf pack outside Riverwood, you probably have the hides already.
Hide gear also turns up constantly as leveled loot in the first hours of play and on the shelves of blacksmiths and general traders such as Belethor in Whiterun. Since bandits love the stuff, clearing a camp or two will usually hand you a few pieces for free.
Is it worth wearing?
Honestly, only for a little while. A full four-piece set adds up to 40 armor rating for just 9 weight units, which is feather-light but also not much protection. Leather Armor needs no perk either and gives noticeably more, so most players swap as soon as they have a few extra hides. The Hide Shield (15 AR) is a decent stopgap for a light-armor sword-and-board build before you find something better.
Where Hide Armor really shines is as Smithing fodder. Because it costs so little, crafting stacks of Hide Bracers or helmets is a classic cheap way to grind early Smithing levels, and tempering pieces with leather is a nice first step towards the Well Fitted bonus later. If you’re running a stealth archer, its low weight also keeps the noise and the stamina cost down, although that becomes less relevant once you unlock Light Armor perks like Custom Fit.
Good to know
- No perk or Smithing level is required to forge any piece of the set.
- All pieces, including the shield, are tempered with plain leather.
- It’s one of the few light sets with its own shield, unlike Leather Armor.
Set pieces
| Piece | Slot | Armor | Weight | Value | ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hide Helmet | Head | 10 | 2 | 25 | 00013913 |
| Hide Armor | Body | 20 | 5 | 50 | 00013911 |
| Hide Bracers | Hands | 5 | 1 | 10 | 00013912 |
| Hide Boots | Feet | 5 | 1 | 10 | 00013910 |
| Hide Shield | Shield | 15 | 4 | 25 | 00013914 |
Full set totals
- Hide Armor – helmet, cuirass, gauntlets and boots: 40 armor, 9 weight, 95 gold; with the Hide Shield: 55 armor, 13 weight.
Crafting and upgrades
Recipes at the forge – no perk needed:
- Hide Helmet: 2 Leather, 1 Leather Strips
- Hide Armor: 4 Leather, 3 Leather Strips
- Hide Bracers: 1 Leather, 2 Leather Strips
- Hide Boots: 2 Leather, 2 Leather Strips
- Hide Shield: 4 Leather, 2 Leather Strips
Improve (temper) the pieces at a workbench with Leather.
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.