To forge dragon armor in Skyrim you must first obtain the necessary items and raise your character's Forging skill to level 100 by creating iron daggers. Once you have completed these preparations, you are ready to create your own dragon armor!
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Complete the Prerequisites
Step 1. Collect as much money as possible
Forging large quantities of items requires a lot of gold - the total cost of the operation approaches 10,000 coins. To reach this impressive figure:
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Complete the first missions related to the main story and the secondary ones.
You will receive cash rewards and items that you can sell.
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Spend as little as possible.
You shouldn't need to buy anything early in the game; you can get the weapons and armor you need from your enemies.
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Collect all the good value items you can carry.
Carry weapons, armor, gems, and so on. If you are approaching the maximum weight limit, you can use the fast travel to the nearest town to get rid of too many items.
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Sell anything you don't need.
You can do this at any general merchant, or sell specific items in specialty stores (for example, weapons and armor from the blacksmith).
Step 2. Kill all the dragons you meet
As your character levels up, dragons become increasingly fearsome opponents; To collect dragon bones and scales without too much effort, and thus obtain the necessary materials to forge the most powerful armor in the game, kill all the dragons you see as soon as possible, while they are still low level.
- To forge the dragon armor (including the shield) you need a total of 12 dragon scales and 6 dragon bones; these quantities increase if you decide to also build weapons or scale armor. You will get 1 to 3 dragon scales and bones from the corpses of these monsters.
- Since one of the first missions in the main story requires you to kill a dragon, complete it.
- Dragons appear randomly as you move around the world, so avoid using fast travel to reach more distant goals.
- Provoke all dragons you see.
- Use ranged attacks to weaken dragons; attacking them directly early in the game is tantamount to suicide.
Step 3. Avoid spending your skill points
They can help you a lot in combat, but your main goal is to reach the maximum level of Blacksmithing in the shortest time possible. For this, you should only use your points in the Blacksmith tree, until you get the "Dragon Armor" feat.
Step 4. Save your game often
Sometimes you will die during your adventures; by saving often, you will avoid losing your progress.
To make the game easier, you can set the difficulty to "Novice" from the "Game" tab in the Settings menu
Part 2 of 4: Raising Smithing to Level 100
Step 1. Learn how to level up Smithing quickly
To do this, you need to build a lot of objects. The cheapest (and fastest) way to do this is to make iron daggers; each dagger requires the following materials:
- An iron ingot.
- A strip of leather.
Step 2. Reach Whiterun
If you haven't already visited this city in the main story, do so now. This center offers some advantages over other villages that you can visit in the early game:
- You will find an easily accessible forge and anvil.
- You can buy a house very close to the blacksmith shop for 5000 gold.
- Whiterun is relatively safe against dragon attacks (especially in the early game).
- The anvil and the forge can be found in a weapons and armor shop that obtains new supplies of iron and leather every 48 hours of play.
- You can purchase a pickaxe and use it to collect iron from the warehouses around Whiterun's outer walls.
Step 3. Get the materials you need to level up
Depending on your character's starting Smithing level, you'll need to craft between 500 and 550 daggers. This means you need to buy as much iron and leather as possible.
- Assuming you want to buy all the iron ingots and leather needed to build 550 daggers, you'll need to spend around 9763 gold. You can reduce this figure by purchasing and smelting raw minerals and mining iron from natural deposits.
- To save money, it is better to buy raw leather and not the individual strips. You can use the tanning station next to the anvil to convert the leather into large quantities of strips.
- Buy both iron ingots and raw ore; you can smelter the ore into ingots using the forge next to the anvil.
- You can buy most of the leather and iron you need from the blacksmith next to the anvil, but remember to visit Belethor's shop as well, which occasionally offers these materials.
- To force the merchant inventory update, you will have to wait (or sleep) for 48 hours within the game. To do this, press the button you assigned to the "Wait" command and move the selector to "24 hours", wait for the countdown to reach the end, then repeat the operation.
- You will find iron deposits all around Whiterun's outer walls; By digging the deposits with a pickaxe you will get some raw minerals that you can then melt. Remember that iron deposits refill every 30 days of play.
- If you have passed the Embershard Mine after completing the Skyrim introductory act (you will find it to the right of the cave you just left), you can use the fast travel to reach it, excavate the existing deposits and collect some leather. This way you will also spend your game time and you will have to wait less before the shops have new supplies.
Step 4. Reach the anvil
You will find it immediately on the left after entering the Whiterun main gate; after using fast travel, just walk forward a few steps and then turn right.
Step 5. Press the action button
Make sure you are facing the anvil; you should notice the option "[Action Button] Use Blacksmith's Forge".
- For example, the action button on Xbox 360 is A.
- If you have purchased rawhide, you can use the tanning station to create leather strips before using the anvil; you will find it to the left of the latter, closer to the road.
Step 6. Select "Iron"
Step 7. Select "Iron Dagger"
Step 8. Press the action button
You will forge an iron dagger; repeat the operation until you have used all the bars you have in your inventory.
- Once you run out of iron supplies, you will have to wait 48 hours inside the game before the shops in the city restock.
- You can sell the iron daggers you created to the shop owner next to the blacksmith tools.
Step 9. Repeat the forging operations
You have to do this until you reach level 100 in Smithing; remember that it takes several hours.
As your Smithing level increases, so will your character's overall level; you will earn a skill point for each level. Don't spend them until you've reached level 100 in Smithing, as you'll likely need them all to unlock the "Dragon Armor" feat
Part 3 of 4: Unlocking the "Dragon Armor" feat
Step 1. Make sure you've reached Smithing level 100
To do this, open your character's menu and select "Skills", then find the "Forging" talent tree. In the tree you should read "Forging 100".
Step 2. Unlock the "Forging of Steel" feat
To do this, press the action button after selecting the corresponding star. To reach "Dragon Armor" you must have 5 or 6 talent points available, the first of which must be invested in "Forging of steel".
If you move along the left side of the talent tree (which contains the skills for forging armor and lighter weapons), you will only need 5 skill points
Step 3. Unlock the following talent
On the left side of the tree is "Elven Forging", on the right side "Dwarven Forging".
While the heavy armor found on the right side of the talent tree might be more useful for your play style, the left side's "Advanced Armor" feat allows you to craft heavier versions of any armor
Step 4. Unlock one of these talent strings:
- Orc, ebony and daedric forging (right side of the tree).
- Advanced Armor and Glass Forging (left side of the tree).
Step 5. Unlock the "Dragon Armor" feat
Once this is done, you will be able to forge dragon armor.
Part 4 of 4: Forge the Dragon Armor
Step 1. Use the Whiterun Forge
You must press the action button when your character is facing the anvil.
Step 2. Select the "Dragon" tab
Step 3. Select "Dragon Plate Armor"
This is the simplest dragon armor, but you can scroll down to lighter dragon scale armor if you prefer.
Step 4. Press the action button
You will forge a dragon armor for your character's chest.
Step 5. Forge the rest of the dragon armor
In the list you will find the boots, gloves, helmet and (optional) dragon plate shield, directly under the dragon plate armor heading.
If you want to forge dragon scale armor, you will need iron ingots in addition to the materials already mentioned
Step 6. Leave the forge
Step 7. Open your character menu
Now that you've created the dragon armor, it's time to put it on!
Step 8. Select "Objects"
It is the entry on the right.
Step 9. Select "Garments"
Step 10. Choose one of the dragon armor pieces
Step 11. Press the action button
This will equip the selected item. You have successfully created and equipped the dragon armor! Repeat this for all parts of the armature.
Advice
- Make sure you save your game often. You can even do this during a battle if you wish, but make sure you have more than one save so you never risk getting stuck in a spot you can't get past.
- It is difficult to complete the advice in this article early in the game, due to the lack of resources and places that can be reached thanks to fast travel. However, by leveling up Smithing when your character is still low, you will receive more skill points (your character will level up faster at the start of the game), increasing the likelihood that you have enough skill points to unlock the "Dragon Armor" feat.
- The greatest difficulty for almost all players is earning the amount necessary to purchase all the raw materials required by the process, especially in the early stages of the game; Fortunately, there are some quick and easy ways to raise money.
