Baldur’s Gate 3: The 5 best armor sets in BG3 and how to unlock them

Baldur’s Gate 3 offers you the freedom to deck your character out in the best gear possible.

While the game gives you many armor sets to choose from in its 100+ hours of playtime, only a few of them stand above the rest. To make it easier, we have compiled the five best armor sets in Baldur’s Gate 3 and how to acquire them.

Top five best armor sets in Baldur’s Gate 3

Since the best armor sets in Baldur’s Gate 3 are all rare, it will be difficult to find them. There are a few ways to find these pieces of armor.

• Finding them in the overworld during exploration.
• Buying them from various merchants.
• Acquiring them as quest rewards.

Now that you have a general idea about how to acquire them, these are the top five best armor sets ranked in terms of their rarity and utility. Note that these are all items that can be equipped as individual armor since Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have full item sets.

5) Mask of the Shapeshifter

This piece of armor is a special one since you can only acquire it if you purchased the Digital Deluxe edition of Baldur’s Gate 3. But for a few extra bucks, you can have the Mask of the Shapeshifter, a powerful helm item that can be found as early as Act One. Simply head to the Emerald Grove, the place where the Druids reside, and enter camp to pick it up from the Traveler’s Chest.

This legendary helm grants wearers the Shapeshift ability, allowing you to transform your appearance and body to any other character type of your choosing. While this makes for great roleplaying options, it also has its share of utility. For example, you can transform into a Dwarf, Gnome, or Halfling and enter small spaces that bigger character types can not.

For even more shenanigans, you can pair the Mask of the Shapeshifter with the Shapeshifter’s Boon Ring to roleplay as a changeling. Note that transforming into different races will also alter your dialogue choices when it comes to speech checks, so use it at your discretion.

4) Viconia’s Walking Fortress

Undeniably the best shield item for your tank, Viconia’s Walking Fortress is a legendary shield that provides you with a lot of utility. For one, your armor class increases by three when you equip this item. Secondly, it grants you the powerful Rebuke of the Mighty, an ability that allows you to use your reaction when you get hit by a melee attack, dealing force damage and knocking your attacker prone.

Since it is a legendary shield, the abilities don’t stop there. While Rebuke of the Mighty is a great repellant against melee attackers, the Spellguard ability is a powerful anti-caster skill. It grants you a bonus advantage on Saving Throws against spells cast at you, while incoming spells have a disadvantage in their Attack Rolls against you.

This powerful shield also allows you to cast Reflective Spell to bounce back any projectiles aimed toward you. With so many abilities in one armor item, it stands to reason that you acquire this shield much later in the game. You can get Viconia’s Walking Fortress by defeating Viconia in the House of Grief during the final act of Baldur’s Gate 3.

3) Helm of Balduran

The Helm of Balduran is a legendary helm that is found near the end of Act Three. When you begin the quest to find the ancient dragon Ansur, you will need to make your way through a secret passageway under the city of Baldur’s Gate. When you finally traverse the location to its end, solving the puzzles along the way, you will encounter the dragon Ansur himself, or what remains of him.

The remains will then animate and fight you. It is a hard-fought battle but once you take down the dragon, you will gain the Helm of Balduran. This legendary helm item grants you complete immunity to all stun effects while its passive abilities allow you to heal every turn, and gain a bonus to your Armor Class and Saving Throws. Additionally, attackers can’t land critical hits on the wearer.

Since this item is acquired near the end of the game after defeating an optional boss, it is considered to be one of the rarer items to find.

2) Gloves of Soul Catching

The best gloves for anyone running an unarmed build or a Monk, the Gloves of Soul Catching are great for anyone looking to run hands-free, using only their fists as lethal weapons. To this end, they grant the wearer a bonus to their Force damage whenever they land a hit using an unarmed attack. Since this is a passive ability, it provides a flat damage increase to any unarmed fighter.

As great as its offensive capabilities are, its defensive aspects are not to be overlooked. While the gloves grant you a bonus to Constitution by default, its Soul Catching passive ability also allows you to heal each time you land an unarmed attack. If your health is already at its maximum, the gloves also allow you to forego healing and instead gain an advantage on Attack Rolls and Saving Throws.

Since this piece of armor is only great for a specific character archetype, the reason for it taking up the second spot on our list is because of how hard it is to acquire the item itself. The Gloves of Soul Catching and the next set of armor on our list are both found in one of the game’s most notoriously difficult areas to complete.

1) Helldusk Armor

Quite possibly the most sought-after set of armor in the game. The Helldusk Armor is the rarest item on this list and is highly coveted because of how difficult it is to acquire the armor itself. You can only get it at the tail end of Act Three when you break into the House of Hope. Since this is the devil Raphael’s domain, getting out of here alive with the armor is no easy feat.

One major advantage of this armor is that the wearer is considered Proficient with the armor by simply wearing it. This allows any character to wear this with no negative effects. Additionally, when you succeed in a Saving Throw, the enemy caster gains a burning debuff for three turns. Being the armor of the devil himself, you gain resistance to fire and immunity to all burning damage.

All of these bonuses with the ability to Fly once per Long Rest make this the best armor for any character to wear in their final encounter with the Elder Brain.