In a brutal game like Conan Exiles, where cannibalism and slavery are commonplace, it is doubtless that you will need powerful armor to protect yourself and gain an edge over both the NPCs and players who threaten to take you to task – that is unless you're planning on using cheats to survive.
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Thankfully, what qualifies as "powerful" in Conan Exiles is incredibly complex, since at any time you will need more than just armor points. You need armor that can regulate your temperature, improve your weapon damage, and increase your inventory capacity to survive the harsh conditions of this hostile environment.
10 Khari Raider Armor
The Khari Raider armor is a legendary piece of light armor that balances armor points, carrying capacity, and agility weapon damage to make it one of the best light armors in the game. The 45 percent carrying capacity increase ensures that you can stuff more items in your pockets without worrying about affecting your movement, and the 15 percent Agility weapon damage bonus will make sure that your enemies see you as more than just a mosquito.
You'll have to craft this armor in order to get your mitts on it, which will require Khari Raider Knowledge to unlock its recipe. In order to get this Knowledge, you will either need to try to gain it by putting the Stygian Raider Epic armor into the Delving Bench, or by using the Khari Raider Armor scroll dropped by Thag.
9 Silent Legion Medium Armor
The Silent Legion Medium armor is an extremely versatile piece of armor that is at the top of its class, making it a great pick for any medium armor build. With 551 armor points, it is just above the line at which armor starts to experience diminishing returns — meaning that it gets great defense in addition to its bonus health, stamina, carrying capacity, and weapon damage.
For some Star Metal Bars, Hardened Leather, and Medium Padding (along with a few pieces of Knowledge), this armor can be yours to take care of all your combat needs in the wastes. Don't be afraid to mix and match, either: the pieces of this armor set have enough bonuses that you can use them to lean into any specialization you need.
8 Arena Champion’s Armor
The Arena Champion's armor is a legendary heavy armor set that gives around 1,000 armor in its base form, as well as small Strength weapon damage and stamina bonuses. The main boon of this armor is its high defense score, which even with diminishing returns defends against more than 60 percent of incoming damage.
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To be able to craft this armor, you'll need to gain the Knowledge through a stele found in Warmaker's Sanctuary, in a side area of its arena. On top of this armor's great defense, it also gives great environmental protection from heat and cold alike, making it a great choice in a variety of situations.
7 Armor Of Sobek
The armor of Sobek is a legendary medium armor set that stands out due to its irregular stats for its class: not only is it a bit heavier than your average medium-type armor, but it also provides better defense with no environmental resistances. It additionally gives quite a surplus of bonus health to work with, making you more of a tank than the average medium armor wearer.
If you want to get your hands on this armor, then you'll have to find and fight Aridis, Chosen of Sobek, and farm for the drop. There is currently no other way of obtaining this legendary armor, which makes it a bit of a pain to get since all the pieces aren't guaranteed drops. If you tire of resource gathering, though, this is a fantastic alternative to crafted medium armor sets.
6 Yoggite Skin Armor
The Yoggite Skin armor is a set of hallowed light armor that is not unique for its defense, which is fairly low to mid-tier, but instead for the stat bonuses that it carries. This set of armor provides high bonuses to concussive damage, making it easier for you to utilize thralls, NPCs who need to be concussed in order to be captured for this role.
To make this armor, you're going to have to obtain Bones and harvest Unblemished Human Meat from human bodies using the Yog Cleaver. Other than its use in obtaining thralls, this armor is generally weak for combat and should be switched out for better armor if you plan on fighting.
5 Godbreaker And Chilled Godbreaker Armor
If you're a heavy armor user, the Godbreaker is likely your end goal. With a base armor stat above 1,200, superior cold resistance, and bonuses to stamina, carrying capacity, and weapon damage, this armor earns its name with no contest. The Chilled Godbreaker is just barely less powerful, and boasts superior heat resistance instead of cold resistance.
These armor sets are magical items crafted from Rusted Armor, Dragonpowder, Alchemical Base, and Armor Scraps. The Knowledge required to craft either of these sets is obtained from a stele found in Warkmaker's Sanctuary.
4 Heavy Armor
The Heavy armor is not the most defensive in its class, all things considered, but what it lacks in defense it makes up for with its superior carrying capacity. This set of armor increases your capacity by 75 percent, nearly doubling your inventory space and increasing how quickly you recover stamina. This is particularly helpful before you can get yourself a mount to share the weight of the load.
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Since it's fairly easy to make and resource light, this is a great armor set to use before you move up to more specialized armor sets. It also requires relatively basic Knowledge to craft, which means you don't need to scour the land to get a nice piece of armor.
3 Reinforced Skelos Cultist Armor
The Reinfoced Skelos Cultist armor is a set of medium armor with relatively high defense for its class, and added concussive bonuses to help with obtaining thralls. It also has great cold resistance and passable heat resistance, making it permanent specialist armor for if you like to use thralls and hate to carry around more than one set of armor.
This armor is great if you need all-in-one armor for your specific purposes, but it can be way more expensive than keeping another set of concussive armor as a backup, since it takes a decent amount of resources (like pounds of Raw Ash) and Knowledge to craft. If you like to keep it simple, then this armor is perfect for you.
2 Black Corsair Armor (Variant B)
The Black Corsair is light armor that is specifically useful for its exemplary Agility weapon damage bonus, which is the highest in its class. Since light armor is specifically designed for you to be relatively mobile and avoid damage, the low defense that this set has is less of a downside and more of a consequence of the gameplay style it encourages.
Fittingly, this armor is made with Feline Pelts, as well as Ebony Silk and Light Padding. Since Black Corsair armor is as light as it gets, it also has abysmal resistances against extreme temperatures. If you plan to use this armor for combat, be sure to keep some backup armor around for emergencies.
1 Pride Of Aesir Armor
The Pride of Aesir armor set is a medium set that sacrifices a bit of defense for decent environmental protection, stamina, carrying capacity, health, and Strength weapon damage. While there are stronger pieces of medium armor to use, this one is spread out between combat and environmental protection in a way that makes it perfect all-rounder armor.
If you want to get your hands on this armor set, you'll be needing Star Metal Bars, Black Ice, and Alchemical Base, as well as the Pride of Aesir Knowledge obtained through trading with Thorgar the Blacksmith. If you want a great set of armor that can do it all, try the Pride of Aesir set.
Next: Conan Exiles: Base Building Tips
