Armor is easy enough to come by in Skyrim. At the beginning of the game though it can be a bit trickier. Depending on your playstyle you may not want to dive into dungeons or take on a bandit camp to get yourself some gear right away. Here’s an easy way to grab a full set of Heavy Armor before ever leaving Riverwood.
Make Sure You Start With Hadvar
While this isn’t a necessity to get this free armor, it does make it that much easier. To start, follow Hadvar into Helgen Keep after creating your character. From there proceed through the Keep until you reach the torture chamber a few levels down. Here is where you grab your first piece to your armor set.
In the caged room to the right of the torture chamber there is an iron shield placed directly beside a weapons rack. This is the first of five pieces you’ll need to collect to get your free armor. Pick it up and head onward through the beginning of the game.
Heading To Riverwood
On your way out of the cave there is a sequence in which Hadvar will give you a bow and some arrows to sneak attack a sleeping bear (make sure to kill and loot this bear). Before you take the bear out, immediately to your right there is a cart filled with some wine and a bag of gold. Take the gold for some free money, and then look to the ground in front of the cart. There lies your second piece of armor. A free Iron Helmet sits there ripe for the plucking.
Make your way through the rest of the cave and all the way to the first default destination in Skyrim, Riverwood. Here you can grab the rest of your armor with ease. Follow Hadvar to his uncle’s house and become acquainted with the old blacksmith as he is the key to the rest of the set.
Your Best Pal Alvar
Once you finish the necessary dialogue with Alvar and he returns to his forge, you can finish collecting the rest of your gear. First check his table next to the tanning rack, you can’t take all of the items, but the Iron Boots and Iron Gauntlets you need for this set are right there. Once again, just free for the taking.
Finally to get your free armor, all you have to do is take the iron ingots located under Alvar’s workbench. As long as you looted the bear from earlier you can use the tanning rack to make some leather strips. Once you have your strips and iron, head to the forge and make yourself a pair of Iron Armor. That completes the set with piece number five.
There You Have It
Just like that you are the owner of a brand-new, shiny set of Iron Heavy Armor. Note that this armor is the weakest of the heavy armors in-game, and it quickly becomes obsolete. If you want to avoid early game conflict and time-consuming searching then this method is for you. Grab yourself a free set of armor and prepare for the battles to come!
Did you already know about these easy iron armor pieces? Do you find this tip useful or not? Let us know in the comments below and happy gaming!
