Problem Linking Separately Exported Armor to Character Rig in Unity

Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling with export issue between Blender and Unity, and I’d appreciate some help.
What I’m Trying to Do:
I’ve created a character and a chest armor piece in Blender. Both are rigged to the same custom skeleton. My goal is to export the armor separately so that it can remain modular in Unity while still deforming correctly with the character’s skeleton during animations.

What Works: When I export the character and armor together in a single FBX file, everything works fine in Unity. The armor deforms correctly, and animations play as expected. The rigging and weight painting in Blender seem fine, as everything behaves correctly when exported as one file.

What I’ve Tried: Exporting only the armor mesh (no skeleton) and manually assigning the character’s skeleton in Unity via the Skinned Mesh Renderer. However, the armor disappears or doesn’t deform correctly. Exporting the armor along with the skeleton but deleting the duplicate skeleton in Unity. This still doesn’t link the armor properly to the character’s skeleton. Checking and confirming the rigging and weight painting in Blender. The armor follows the skeleton correctly in Blender’s Pose Mode. Ensuring the export settings in Blender include transformations and exclude unnecessary elements (e.g., leaf bones).

What I Need Help With: How can I export the armor separately while ensuring Unity links it to the character’s skeleton? Is there a specific workflow I should follow to make modular armor pieces work in Unity without duplicating the skeleton?

Additional Information: I’m not using Mixamo or any pre-made skeletons; this is a custom skeleton created in Blender.

Unity version: 2022.3.5f1 Blender version: 4 Any insights, tips, or detailed workflows would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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