Elden Ring - Chest Armor

Chest armor is the heaviest of the four slots and carries most of a build's poise, which makes it the place to decide how much stagger resistance is worth buying with roll speed.

Combat

Pros

• Poise concentrates in this slot. Chest pieces span 0 to 47 poise, and Bull-Goat Armor's 47 is very nearly half of the complete Bull-Goat Set's 100 (Helm 15, Armor 47, Gauntlets 10, Greaves 28), the highest total any single set reaches.
• The thresholds worth buying are known: 51 poise endures 1,727 PvE enemy attacks and 101 endures 2,037, while some attacks stagger regardless of poise. The chest is the cheapest place to buy the step up to 51.
• Top-end damage negation lives here too. Bull-Goat Armor and Verdigris Armor both reach 20.4 physical negation, the slot high, with Fire Prelate Armor next at 19.2; the floor is Deathbed Dress at 0.6.
• A chest can be picked purely on poise-per-weight and paired with a helm, gauntlets and greaves from anywhere. Iron Helmet, Fingerprint Armor (Altered), Crucible Greaves and Gold Bracelets together reach 51 poise at 24.2 weight, against the Knight Set's 51 poise at 25.3.

Cons

• Weight is the whole price, and the heavy-load penalty is a cliff rather than a slope. Bull-Goat Armor's 26.5 weight alone is 43% of 61.4, the most a character can carry and still roll fastest at 99 Endurance with Great-Jar's Arsenal and Erdtree's Favor +2.
• Poise-per-weight collapses at the heavy end. Ascetic's Loincloth returns 3.125 poise per unit of weight, Black Knight Armor 2.044, Verdigris Armor 1.815 and Bull-Goat Armor 1.774, so the two heaviest chest pieces in the game sit near the bottom of the ratio list they top on raw poise.
• Robes buy their resistances with physical negation. Fia's Robe leads all chests on vitality at 108 and Corhyn's Robe on focus at 107, but they sit at 5.3 and 6.1 physical against Bull-Goat Armor's 20.4. Ascetic's Loincloth, the best poise-per-weight piece in the slot, takes only 0.6 against Strike.
• Altering trades resistance and sometimes poise for lighter weight. An altered chest saves 0.2 to 3.1 weight and usually loses a few resistance points; Veteran's Armor gives up 3 poise to save 1.7 weight. The good trades are knight armors such as Godrick Knight Armor and Leyndell Knight Armor, which shed a full 1.0 weight at no poise cost, and Royal Knight Armor (Altered) actually gains poise.

Builds

Pick the poise number first, then find the lightest chest that reaches it.

• A poise of 51 is the threshold that matters for ordinary play, and the cheapest routes there put most of the burden on this slot: Knight Armor at 24 poise for 10.6 weight, sold by the Twin Maiden Husks for 4,500 runes, completes a 51-poise set at 25.3 weight, while swapping in Fingerprint Armor (Altered) at 24 for 10.0 brings the same 51 down to 24.2.
• Above that, each point of poise costs sharply more weight: Crucible Tree Armor buys 33 for 15.5, Tree Sentinel Armor 39 for 18.9, and Bull-Goat Armor 47 for 26.5.
• Casters invert the whole calculation and buy resistance instead of poise: Azur's Glintstone Robe and Lusat's Robe both take 15.4 magic negation, the chest high, for 7.1 weight, while a build that has spent nothing on Endurance can still take 10 poise from Ascetic's Loincloth at 3.2.

Best Chest Armor

Piece	Image	Poise	Weight	Physical	Immunity	Robust.	Focus	Vitality
Bull-Goat Armor		47	26.5	20.4	71	83	46	55
Verdigris Armor		47	25.9	20.4	82	97	32	45
Armor of Solitude		45	24	18.7	60	63	99	50
Crucible Tree Armor		33	15.5	17.7	50	71	35	35
Knight Armor		24	10.6	12.4	28	50	18	18
Fingerprint Armor (Altered)		24	10	13.1	29	54	10	21

Notes

• Equip load turns weight into frames. Light load is 29.9% or under and Medium runs to 69.9%, and both roll with 13 invincibility frames and 8 recovery frames at 30fps; Light load only adds distance and faster backstep recovery. From 70% the roll drops to 12 invincibility frames, recovery doubles to 16, stamina regeneration takes about a 20% penalty and fall damage begins to rise. At 100% rolling and backstepping stop entirely.
• Sets are arithmetic, not bonuses. A full set grants no additional effect, so a four-piece total is exactly the sum of its parts, which is why the Bull-Goat Set lands on 100 poise and the Knight Set on 51, and why a mixed set can beat either on weight.
• Altering is cosmetic first, though it also makes minor adjustments to weight, damage negation and resistances. It is free with Boc the Seamster, or costs 500 runes at a Site of Grace once the Tailoring Tools and Sewing Needle from the Coastal Cave Demi-Human Chief are in hand, and demigod armor requires the Golden Tailoring Tools and Gold Sewing Needle from the Church of Vows.

All Chest Armor

The table below lists all Chest Armor in Elden Ring.