Conan Exiles Armor Plating Guide - Conan Fanatics (2024)

A Conan Exiles Armor Plating guide will help you increase the armor rating of your gear. Armor will protect you against many attacks, with armor penetration being the primary way to hurt you.

But even then, the higher the armor, the less damage you will take. Whenever I reinforce my armor, I almost always choose Armor Plating unless I’m making a specific set for a certain purpose, such as a pack-mule set.

Armor Plating Overview

• Armor Plating increases the armor rating of gear
• It does not affect any other stats aside from a decrease in durability
• Bulked Armor Plating is the only kind that does not decrease durability
• Not all upgrades are called plating; other armor upgrades affect non-armor stats
• The only way to learn equipment upgrades is in the base knowledges or at Warmaker’s Sanctuary

Types of Armor Plating in Conan Exiles

Armor Plating is an item in Conan Exiles. But that’s only one of the five types of armor plating you can use to add armor to your gear. In general, it’s a tier system you can slowly start upgrading with.

Thin Armor Plating

• Knowledge – Apprentice Armorsmith (lvl 26)
• Ingredients – 10 Plant Fiber, 5 Twine
• Armor Increase – 4
• Durability Decrease – 25% reduction

Armor Plating

• Knowledge – Armorsmith (lvl 38)
• Ingredients – 10 Leather, 5 Twine
• Armor Increase – 8
• Durability Decrease – 25% reduction

Thick Armor Plating

• Knowledge – Master Armorsmith (lvl 51)
• Ingredients – 10 Thick Leather, 5 Twine
• Armor Increase – 12
• Durability Decrease – 25% reduction

Master Armor Plating

• Knowledge – Grandmaster Armorsmith (lvl 0)
• Ingredients – 7 Star Metal Bars, 15 Layered Fur
• Armor Increase – 15
• Durability Decrease – 25% reduction

This is so good. To learn the knowledge, you have to go to The Warmaker’s Sanctuary, which you may notice is a common trend in top-tier equipment upgrades. No other stele teaches them.

Bulked Armor Plating

• Knowledge – Grandmaster Armorsmith (lvl 0)
• Ingredients – 7 Star Metal Bars, 15 Layered Fur
• Armor Increase – 25
• Durability Decrease – 0%
• Weight Increase – 3

You can learn this from The Warmaker’s Sanctuary as well. It cost the same but has different stats. It is much better overall but does add weight to each piece. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you add one to each armor piece, that’s 15 extra weight.

I still think it’s worth it because an extra 125 armor without any durability decrease is insane.

Steps to Making Armor Plating

Making Armor Plating is easy, but it took me a while to learn how because I didn’t look it up. I had to learn the knowledge, which showed me where to make it. From there, I unlocked the appropriate bench.

Tinkerer’s Bench

• Materials – 100 Wood, 25 Iron Bars
• Required Knowledge – Armorer, Blacksmith, Iron Tools

The Tinkerer’s Bench is where you will make all equipment upgrades and repair/patch kits. So you should make one even if you don’t plan on upgrading because, with a Temperwright, you can repair your Legendary Armor and Weapons.

Knowledge (Armorsmith)

The first three Armor Plating knowledges can be learned in your standard knowledge after you’re the right level. You do have to learn them in order because the previous tier is required for the next one.

For the first one though, you need Armorer, which you need Weaver and Stone Tools for. So it’s all pretty basic, but it’s not an instant learn if you don’t have the knowledge points for all of these.

For the top two tiers, you have to head to the Warmaker’s Sancutary and interact with the stele to the left of the exit in the Champion of the Warmaker’s room.

Crafting Armor Plating

To craft armor plating, just open up your Tinker’s Bench and get to work. You don’t need a thrall for any equipment upgrades, so you should just make it yourself. You only need a thrall for tier 5; all of the upgrades are tier 4 and below. It will take 10 to 30 seconds per upgrade.

Other Types of Equipment Upgrades

If you don’t want to increase your armor but still want better gear, there are plenty of options in Conan Exiles. These items are all made in the Tinker’s Bench and are known as Equipment Upgrades.

Equipment Upgrades will increase a stat in either armor or weapons and can be attached to the gear by dragging the upgrade onto the item as if loading arrows onto a bow. It will have a small icon of the upgrade when it is attached.

Damage

Damage only works for weapons because you can’t add damage to your armor; it doesn’t make sense unless it’s reflective damage, which would be cool but it is not a Conan Exiles specialty.

Unfortunately, they don’t work on percentages, so these kits are only useful early on. Some of the kits are super straightforward and need no further context than the information below; damage is one of them.

Simple Weapon Damage Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Iron Bars, 5 Oil
• Knowledge – Apprentice Weaponsmith
• Increase – 2
• Durability – 25% reduction

Weapon Damage Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Steel Bars, 10 Oil
• Knowledge – Weaponsmith
• Increase – 4
• Durability – 25% reduction

Advanced Weapon Damage Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Increase – 6
• Durability – 32.5% reduction

Fencer Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 8 Star Metal Bars
• Knowledge – Grandmaster Weaponsmith
• Increase – 10
• Durability – 25% reduction

Concussive

Concussive damage affects how easy it is to knock someone out. So when you use a truncheon, adding concussive damage will ensure it takes fewer hits to knock out thralls you are trying to capture. You can add these fittings to weapons that didn’t do concussive damage previously.

Simple Blunted Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 10 Iron Bars
• Knowledge – Apprentice Weaponsmith
• Increase – 10 light attacks, 20 heavy
• Durability – 25% reduction

To put this into perspective, the basic truncheon does 15 light concussive damage and 20 heavy concussive damage. So adding this will double the concussive damage making knocking enemies out twice as fast.

Blunted Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 10 Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Weaponsmith
• Increase – 20 light, 40 heavy
• Durability – 25% reduction

This will add around the same amount of concussive damage to a weapon as the Iron Trunceon has, only with even more heavy concussive damage. So it’s perfect for adding to any truncheon.

Advanced Blunted Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Increase – 30 light, 60 heavy
• Durability – 25% reduction

Advanced Blunted Weapon Fittings add around the same concussive damage as a light steel truncheon attack and more heavy concussive damage than any truncheon in the game. So yeah, it’s overpowered.

Penetration

Master Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 8 Star Metal Bars
• Knowledge – Grandmaster Weaponsmith
• Increase – 12%
• Durability – 50% reduction

Not only does this increase armor penetration, but it also increases damage with regular weapons by 5, making it between the Weapon Damage Kit and Advanced Weapon Damage Kit in power.

Spiked Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Increase – 10%
• Durability – 25% reduction

Spiked Weapon Fittings are an easy option for increasing armor penetration. However, I only recommend adding armor penetration if you are fighting a specific armored enemy, otherwise, I’d go with another upgrade.

These are for tools alone, increasing the number of resources you gain per swing. A common problem with these is that people use them on non-repaired tools, which will not work. So repair your tools first.

Simple Tool Upgrade Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Iron Bars
• Knowledge – Apprentice Weaponsmith
• Increase – 1
• Durability – 25% reduction

Tool Upgrade Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Weaponsmith
• Increase – 2
• Durability – 25% reduction

Advanced Tool Upgrade Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Increase – 3
• Durability – 25% reduction

Stamina Reduction

Stamina Reduction will decrease the amount of stamina you use. Depending on the item, they can be used on armor or weapons to make you able to use the weapon longer or climb further.

Simple Armor Flexibility Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Iron Bars, 10 Plant Fiber
• Knowledge – Apprentice Armorsmith
• Increase – 5% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

Using this on heavy armor would be pointless because it makes climbing easier, but not as easy as taking the armor off. Of course, it won’t make up for the elements, but it’s not worth it when you could use a better upgrade.

Armor Flexibility Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Steel Bars, 10 Leather
• Knowledge – Armorsmith
• Increase – 10% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

This can work for any type of armor with a maximum of 50% stamina reduction when used for all pieces. Again, I don’t recommend it, but if you have light armor and want to climb the highest peak, it can work.

Advanced Armor Flexibility Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars, 10 Thick Leather
• Knowledge – Master Armorsmith
• Increase – 15% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

Advanced Armor Flexibility Kits can have a max reduction of 75% for all armor pieces together. This is finally significant and is worth it on even medium armor, though I still don’t like stamina reduction upgrades.

Gliding Joints

• Ingredients – 6 Star Metal Bars, 15 Layered Fur
• Knowledge – Grandmaster Armorsmith
• Increase – 40% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

Gliding Joints must be learned via the stele at Warmaker’s Sanctuary. Because there is a stamina reduction cap of 90%, only two pieces are worth it. Otherwise, you’re wasting an upgrade.

Balanced Weapon Fitting

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Increase – 30% reduction per swing
• Durability – 25% reduction

Balanced Weapon Fitting is the only upgrade that you can use to decrease stamina use for weapons. So it’s not a bad choice since you only need one and is my number one recommendation for tools.

Weight

Reducing the weight of your armor will increase how much you can carry in your inventory. This is super useful when you go to gather materials or raid an easy dungeon that may have a lot of gear.

Armor Reduction Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Plant Fiber, 5 Twine
• Knowledge – Apprentice Armorsmith
• Increase – 60% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

Armor Reduction Kit is the best way to reduce the weight of your armor. For light armor, this is quite useless, but for heavy armor, you can free up over 100 carry weight for a set.

Paring Blade

• Ingredients – 10 Stone, 5 Oil
• Knowledge – Apprentice Weaponsmith
• Increase – 40% reduction
• Durability – 25% reduction

The Parid Blade equipment upgrade is the way to make your weapons lighter rather than your armor, like the Armor Reduction Kit. Weapons aren’t usually that heavy, but for strength weapons, it can come in handy.

Durability

Most Equipment Upgrades reduce the durability of armor and weapons. But there are a select few that actually increase the durability.

Simple Reinforcement Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Iron Bars
• Knowledge – Apprentice Weaponsmith
• Durability – 50

Simple Weapon Reinforcement Kits increase the durability of an item substantially for a tier 1 upgrade. However, I don’t find them worth it unless they are cheaper than repairing the gear.

Reinforcement Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Weaponsmith
• Durability – 100

Another good choice if you are level 39 and have excess steel. Thankfully, these kits can be used for both, armor and weapons, so you don’t have to make separate items for each.

Advanced Reinforcement Kit

• Ingredients – 10 Hardened Steel Bars
• Knowledge – Master Weaponsmith
• Durability – 150

I actually prefer the regular Reinforcement Kits to these because of the difference between steel and hardened steel compared to the durability increase. But if you’re up in the snow already, then go for it.

Master Reinforcement Kit

• Ingredients – 8 Star Metal Bars
• Knowledge – Grandmaster Weaponsmith
• Durability – 100%

Master Reinforcement Kit can be learned at Warmaker’s Sanctuary. It works differently than the other kits because it increases by percentage rather than set number, so the durability must be at least 150 to be worth it. It also increases the weight of the item by 150%.

FAQs

To Plate or Not to Plate in Conan Exiles

Because plating your armor is cheap, I recommend it, even if you don’t have the ideal set yet. Increasing armor value by the simple four via the level 26 Apprentice Armorsmith set is worth it.

Once you get the best armor set you’re going to get, put Thick Armor Plating on each piece for an insane amount of extra armor. I think it’s worth it, even with the reduced durability.

Related Read

• Conan Exiles Silent Legion Armor
• Conan Exiles Godbreaker Armor Guide: Not Champion’s Armor, But Still Pretty Darn Good.
• Conan Exiles Sandstorm Mask Guide: Using Your N95
• Conan Exiles Iron Cleaver Guide