Armor

Armour in Elden Ring is worn in four slots, and the first thing to know is what the game does not do: wearing a full set grants no bonus. Every piece is judged on its own, on the negation it gives, the poise it buys and the weight it costs you.

Damage Negation

Negation is a percentage, and it stacks by multiplication rather than addition. Each piece lets through a share of the damage, and the next piece cuts that share again:

total negation = 100% - (100% - piece 1) x (100% - piece 2) x ...

Talismans enter the same product, so a Spelldrake Talisman on top of a light set is multiplied in with the armour rather than added to it.

Every piece lists Physical, which is standard damage, beside Strike, Slash and Pierce, then the four elements: Magic, Fire, Lightning and Holy. A set that shrugs off a sword can still fold to a flame.

Alongside negation sit four resistances, and these are flat points that do add up across the pieces you wear:

Poise

Poise decides how much punishment you take before a hit staggers you out of your own attack. It is the reason heavy armour is worn at all, and it lives mostly in the chest and the legs.

• The thresholds that matter are 11, 51 and 101. 51 is the common target, and the full Knight Set lands on it exactly.
• Player poise does not regenerate. It resets to full only after 30 seconds without being hit, and damage beyond what breaks it never carries into the next bar.
• Your poise is the same whatever you swing. Hyper armour during an attack is a property of the weapon, not of the armour.

Equip Load

Armour is paid for with Equip Load, and three thresholds change how you move:

• Under 30% is Light Load: the longest roll and the quickest backstep.
• 30% to just under 70% is Medium Load: the same invincibility frames and recovery as Light, but a shorter roll.
• 70% to just under 100% is Heavy Load: fewer invincibility frames, double the recovery, and slower stamina regeneration. Fall damage starts to rise here too.
• 100% and over is overloaded, and you cannot roll or backstep at all.

Altering

Armour is never reinforced; its figures are fixed when you find it. What you can do with some helms and chest pieces is alter them, which changes the look and makes small changes to weight and negation.

• Any Site of Grace will do it for 500 runes once you hold the Sewing Needle and the Tailoring Tools, both dropped in Coastal Cave. Demigod armour needs the Gold Sewing Needle.
• Boc the Seamster does it for free once his questline has moved on.
• The altered piece is always lighter and almost always negates a little less. Poise is a different story: it held steady on 13 of the 77 chest pieces that can be altered, which makes those alterations a free weight saving.
• Gauntlets and leg armour cannot be altered.

Armor Sets

Sets are how the game hands armour out, not how it rewards you for wearing it. There is no bonus for completing one, and a few sets carry an effect on every piece that grows with each one worn rather than switching on at four.

So mixing is the default. Take the chest that carries the poise you need, the helm that covers the resistance you are short of, and the lightest gauntlets and greaves that keep you under 70%.

Every set, with its pieces and the totals for wearing all of it, is on Armor Sets.

Armor Categories