Updates (Online)

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For specific patches to bugs in the game, see Patches (Online).

This page lists the various content updates that The Elder Scrolls Online receives.

Current version

The game is on Update 17, which was released on February 12, 2018. Several incremental patches for the update have come since then, making the game's current version v3.3.5.

Update 1 – The Celestial Army

Main article: Update 1

• Craglorn – Introduction of Craglorn, the game's first Adventure Zone. Many new group dungeons have been added to the game, such as Shada's Tear, in addition to new quests, world bosses, locations and more.
• Trials – Also known as Raids, these 12-player PvE challenges will push players' skill to the limits. Combat challenging bosses and their minions and gain rewards, glory and a spot on the Trial leaderboads.
• Level Cap Increase – Level cap increased to Veteran Rank 12.
• Death Recap – Death Recap allows players to see how they died and how they can improve their proficiency in combat.
• Cyrodiil PvE Adjustments – Monsters in Cyrodiil increased to Veteran Rank 5.
• New PvP campaign – A new 2-week-long campaign – Celarus (removed as of Update 3, replaced with Chillrend).
• Changes to PvP – Scourge campaign removed, class balance tweaks and much more.

Full patch notes here.

Update 2 – The Return of Nerien'eth

Main article: Update 2

• Veteran-mode Crypt of Hearts – Fight mysterious Daedra and the ancient lich Nerien'eth himself to free the Crypt's lost souls in an entirely new content experience.
• FOV Slider – You can now adjust your field of view when in first-person mode.

• Improved Interior Lighting – Windows are brighter and now cast projections, and building interiors have a more "indoor" vibe.
• Light Jerkins – You can now craft Light Jerkins at crafting stations.
• Polishing and Bug Fixing – A massive number of bug fixes and polish improvements.

Full patch notes here.

Update 3 – Guild Extravaganza

Main article: Update 3

• Armor Dyes – You can now dye every piece of armor you own into a different color. However, most colors must be unlocked before being used. They can be unlocked through achievements.
• Guild Revamp – You can now create your own guild logo and display it on an equipable tabard, as well as create public guild stores run by traders in all major cities where players can buy goods sold by players belonging to that guild, guilds can now have 10 different ranks, and unique icons can be assigned to each. Gold can also be deposited into the guild bank.
• New Campaigns – Thornblade, Chillrend, Haderus, Bow of Shadows (replaced by Azura's Star in Update 4) and Blackwater Blade have replaced the existing campaigns, and each have different durations.
• Instant Weapon Swap – Changes to texture caching now allow weapons to be swapped instantly.
• Graphical Updates – Brightness, contrast, and color curves throughout the game are now adjusted via post-processing, creating much more realistic game graphics with little effect on performance.
• Trials Difficult Mode – An optional difficulty mode for Trials has been added. Anyone who successfully completes the Trial on Difficult Mode will get a piece from either the Mage, the Warrior or the Serpent item sets.
• Delve Updates in Coldharbour – Delves in Coldharbour are now larger, and contain more monsters and loot. This is part of an ongoing update to make all delves in the game larger.

Full patch notes here.

Update 4 – Assault on the Scaled Court

Main article: Update 4

• Upper Craglorn – Venture north from the badlands surrounding the city of Belkarth into a bold new territory! With the western rockslide cleared and the Iron Orcs' barricade sundered, the dangerous roads to Dragonstar are now open to travelers. Here, the insidious Scaled Court and their Iron Orc allies prepare a new invasion force for their master, consisting of terrible monsters created using the ancient alchemy and the mysterious magical processes of the long-dead Nedes. From the massive Skyreach complex to the Dragonstar Arena, six new group delves, three new group instances, and the settlement of Dragonstar and its famous arena await you!
• New Trial: Sanctum Ophidia – Enter the heart of the Scaled Court's power and face off against the Celestial Serpent himself. Make your way through the most loyal members of the Scaled Court and fight the monstrous Trolls and other nightmares the Scaled Court command in defense of their lord.
• Dragonstar Arena – In the mountains north of Dragonstar, an abandoned ruin has been repurposed to serve as a blood sport arena by a heretofore unknown champion. Warriors from across Tamriel now flock to compete in the arena games with the promise of great glory and fantastic treasures—if they can survive.
• New Crafting Trait – Nirnhoned, which increases Spell Resistance.
• Level Cap Raised – Level Cap raised to Veteran Rank 14.
• Group Improvements – Fixes to group phasing issues and improvements to group questing.
• Larger Delves – All delves in Bangkorai, Reaper's March and The Rift are now larger, and contain more monsters and loot. This is part of an ongoing effort to make all delves in the game larger.
• PFX Prioritization – In addition to fixing issues where ability FX may not render, this new priority and distance-based culling system will improve overall performance in some PvP scenarios and in Dungeons.

Full patch notes here.

Update 5 – Challenge of the Undaunted

Main article: Update 5

• City of Ash Part 2 – Join an Undaunted expedition to assault the Deadlands, realm of the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon.
• Improved Facial Animations – NPC's mouths will now synchronize with the dialogue they are speaking, as well as utilize more idle animations while in dialogue.
• Veteran Rank Improvements – In preparation for the Champion System, Veteran Ranks are now earned by Experience Points instead of Veteran Points. Additionally, when a Veteran Rank is earned, you will be rewarded with an Attribute Point and a Skill Point, and each rank now requires exactly 1 million XP to advance to the next.
• Undaunted Dungeon Pledges – The Undaunted have established Enclaves near the capitals of each alliance. They invite adventurers to join them in the spoils of dungeon conquest.
• Dungeon Scaling – Dungeons will now scale to the level of the group leader. However, dungeons will not scale below the level they are introduced, do not scale past Veteran Rank 12, and scaling is determined by your level upon entering the instance, and remains there for the session.
• Solo Content Scaling – Solo instances will now scale to your level. This means when you play through the Main Story, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild and other solo content, it will remain a challenge and you can do it on your own time.
• New Item Sets – Many new item sets have been added to the game; Twice-Born Star, Undaunted Unweaver, Undaunted Infiltrator, Undaunted Bastion, Burning Spellweaver, Sunderflame, Embershield, Blood Spawn, Engine Guardian, Nightflame, Spawn of Mephala, Nerien'eth, Valkyn Skoria, Scourge Harvester and Maw of the Infernal.
• Chat Bubbles – Chat bubbles are now available! These are off by default. To turn them on, go to the Settings menu. Scroll to the bottom of the Interface tab, and you'll see different options for chat bubbles.
• Crafting Certification, Writs and Survey Reports – You can now undertake certification to learn the basics of the various tradeskills, as well as to unlock Crafting Writ quests from your respective alliances. Visit the towns of Vulkhel Guard, Davon's Watch or Daggerfall and look for newly hired crafting trainers for certification. To assist in finding them, all Writ Boards will also direct you to these trainers.
• Dwemer Crafting Style – The secrets of crafting Dwemer equipment have begun to be recovered. Those searching Dwemer ruins may find lost chapters detailing the construction of specific types of equipment, and if you are extremely lucky, may find an intact book detailing every aspect of Dwemer armor and weapon construction.

Full patch notes here.

Update 6 – Tamriel Unlimited

Main article: Update 6

• Champion System – The Champion System is a new progression and development system that is designed to allow even more choice in how you build your high-level characters. Champion Points are available once you have at least one Veteran Rank 1 character on your account, and provides significant enhancements to character development while you are progressing through Veteran Ranks. Champion Points are also account-wide. When one Veteran Rank character on an account earns a Champion Point, every character on the account will receive a point to use, regardless of level. Champion Points can only be earned by Veteran Rank characters but can be spent by any character individually, even if they aren't Veteran Level.
• Justice System – Justice has come to Tamriel! The Justice System includes a number of new and exciting features, such as theft, murder, breaking and entering, pickpocketing, Bounties and much more. You may choose to become a notorious outlaw or an upstanding, law-abiding citizen. If you choose to become an outlaw, be sure to avoid being caught! If you are caught, flee to the Outlaw Hideouts beneath towns and cities.
• Provisioning Revamp – Provisioning has been completely overhauled. The number of provisioning ingredients would be cut down to half, but the number of recipes would stay the same or increase, and all of the current provisioning recipes will be changed. Additionally, there will be less randomness involved in getting provisioning ingredients from containers. "What you see is what you get" containers are being added to the game. Clicking on a sack of beans will no longer give you meat, and so on. You can also have both a food and a drink buff active at the same time. Veteran Rank 10 recipes are also now available.
• Many more updates.

Update 7 – The Imperial City

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial City

• New Zones – The Imperial City is open! Battle your way through the fallen capital of Tamriel in an all-new PvP experience. Imperial forces have routed the Daedra back into the city, and are calling all adventurers for aid in battling the threat – but the Three Alliances have also taken interest in the city. The new zones are the Imperial City and its 6 districts, and the enormous, multi-level Imperial Sewers.
• New Dungeons – 2 new dungeons have been added – the White-Gold Tower, the Imperial Prison, and their respective Veteran modes. Each of these dungeons have their own Undaunted pledges, too.
• New Currency – Tel Var Stones are used to purchase legendary gear exclusively in the Imperial City. Tel Var Stones can be earned from a variety of PvE activities in the Imperial City but other players can steal them from you if they defeat you. Tel Var Stone gear will belong to a set so it will take quite a few of them to earn a full 5-piece set.
• Veteran Rank 16 – The Imperial City brings over 20 new item sets and a whole new tier of progression. Because of this new progression tier, the level cap has been raised to Veteran Rank 16.
• Veteran System Changes
  • The amount of XP it takes to earn a Veteran Rank has been lowered to 850,000, down from 1 million.
  • The amount of XP earned from Veteran Quests, including the new Imperial City quests, has been raised by 50%.
  • The amount of XP earned from Veteran Public Dungeons has been doubled.
  • The amount of XP earned from all activities in Craglorn has been raised by 20%.
  • Veteran XP rewards across the board have been improved.
  • Overall, it will take far less longer to earn a Veteran Rank.
• New Item Sets – 23 new item sets have been added to the game, bought exclusively at special vendors in the Imperial City for the new Tel Var Stone currency.
• New Motifs – Glass and Xivkyn – Xivkyn is different as its style material needs 10 Nuggets of Charcoal of Remorse to make, and can only be crafted in the Imperial City.
• Classes, Builds and Itemization Changes – A large number of class changes, balance work, further support to hybrid playstyles and other changes have been put in.
• PvP Improvements
  • Alongside the Imperial City, a whole slew of improvements and changes are being made to PvP. These include changes to campaign assignments, the Emperor system, Scoring, Underdog bonuses, Battle Leveling and campaigns in general.
    • Former Emperor bonuses have been removed. You will still have the title of Former Emperor, but all the buffs will no longer exist.
    • You will no longer have to spend Skill Points on Emperor passives.
    • The cooldown on changing your home campaign has been decreased to 12 hours, down from 3 days, but the cost has increased from 15,000 Alliance Points to 150,000 Alliance Points.
    • The cooldown on changing your guest campaign has been increased to 4 days, up from 3 days.
    • All PvP bonuses will now only apply in PvP areas, eliminating the concept of "Buff Campaigns".
    • Underdog and low-population Alliance Point gains have been increased to 20% extra Alliance Points, up from 10%. Population polling has also been sped up so the bonuses can be applied more often, but this also means they will expire faster.
    • Battle Leveling has been adjusted to include Veteran Ranks. Players that opt into Battle Leveling will be roughly equivalent to a Veteran Rank 14 player in moderate-quality gear. However, Battle Leveling will now include a 50% reduction to overall damage, healing, and damage shields, as a part of the improvements to the feel of combat in PvP situations.
    • "Gate Jumping" has been fixed, and Elder Scrolls may no longer be stolen while their gates are closed.
    • A number of changes have been made to PvP combat so there is more capacity for reaction time and using skills. This means that there will be no more FPS-style kills where you're pretty much screwed if you don't hit first, and overall will make PvP combat feel like more of a tactical system rather than a frantic "button-mashing contest" as some have described it.
    • A number of changes have been made to scoring and keep ownership across all campaigns.
      • Azura's Star: Ownership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 30 days.
      • Blackwater Blade: Ownership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 5 days. (Non-Veterans only.)
      • Chillrend: Keeps, outposts, and resources will generate zero points. Ownership of Elder Scrolls will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.
      • Haderus: Keeps, outposts, and Elder Scrolls will generate zero points. Ownership of resources will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.
      • Thornblade: Resources, outposts, and Elder Scrolls will generate zero points. Ownership of keeps will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.
      • All Console Campaigns: Ownership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 5 days. (Non-Veterans Only)
• Audio Enhancements
  • Combat music has been improved and upgraded. The music in combat is now a dynamic system, and will increase and decrease in intensity based on how many enemies you are facing. For example, if you're facing one lone mudcrab, the music will be less intense, but in, for example, a large-scale PvP situation or at a Dark Anchor the music will be intense and epic. This has been put in place to make combat feel more exciting and make large battles feel more "epic".
  • Some new enhancements to music to indicate when you're at low health or you're fighting a boss.
  • Some brand new soundtracks have been recorded for the Imperial City.
  • New soundtracks have been added to all other zones.

Full Patch Notes here.

Update 8 – Reforging Orsinium

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Orsinium

• New Zone – Wrothgar, a colossal new region situated to the north of Stormhaven in the cold peaks of the Wrothgarian Mountains and containing the great city of Orsinium, capital of the Orcs. Wrothgar is much, much larger than most zones and is focused on story, exploration and solo PvE content.
• New Quests – Orsinium contains over 20 hours of story content that can be done at any level – characters fresh out of the Wailing Prison will be able to do all the content in the zone. The storyline of Orsinium revolves around the rebuilding of Orsinium and the uniting of the Orc clans under one banner so that their mighty city may never fall again – but there are already whispered plots from those who would wish to seize power for themselves.
• New Public Dungeons – Two huge new public dungeons, the ancient Dwemer city of Rkindaleft and the forgotten ruins of Old Orsinium, are located in Wrothgar and are the only multi-level dungeons in the game. They are colossal dungeons – much larger than normal ones and contain new bosses, quests, achievements, Skyshards, and gear.
• Maelstrom Arena – The Maelstrom Arena is a new solo-only combat challenge similar to Dragonstar Arena, with 9 combat rings and 2 difficulty modes – Normal and Veteran. Your progress is tracked on the leaderboards and as you journey through the arena your leaderboard score will increase, potentially granting you some very powerful new gear.
• New Item Sets – 18 new item sets, 3 of which are craftable and 6 new ability-altering weapons, have been added. One such craftable set is Law of Julianos, which is a Magicka-based version of the Hunding's Rage item set.
• New Provisioning Recipes – 4 new food items are available to craft and use for Provisioners, available only in Wrothgar.
• Quality-of-Life Improvements – Several new improvements to the UI and quality of life have been made.
  • Controller Support – Native controller support has been added, and you can now plug in a DualShock 4 or Xbox One controller and play. A controller-friendly UI will automatically appear once you plug the controller in, and text chat with a keyboard is still supported.
  • Group Finder Improvements – You can now group with players from other alliances when using the LFG tool and you can run dungeons with them. In addition, once the LFG tool finds a full group for you, you will be prompted to teleport to the dungeon you chose to group for. A number of other behind-the-scenes improvements have been made to the LFG tool to make finding groups faster and easier.
  • Subtitles – Full subtitles are available for all dialogue in the game and can be enabled via the settings menu.
  • Shield Dyeing – Shields can now be dyed at dye stations to match the colour of your armor.
  • Champion Point cap & catch-up system – Due to the increasing disparity between players with thousands of Champion Points and new players with none, a new system is being placed to allow new players to catch up and veteran players to not dominate the newer players due to their higher number of Champion Points. Starting with Update 8, you will no longer be able to spend more than 501 Champion Points and gaining the first few Champion Points will be much faster, with the XP needed to earn one increasing as you earn more. The cap will change over time as more updates come out.

• New Style Motifs – Akaviri and Ancient Orc. The Ancient Orc motif is only available if you buy the DLC, while Akaviri can be bought with Gold and Alliance Points or simply found in the world.
• Resource Node Scaling – All resource nodes in Wrothgar will scale to the most advanced material your character can use in crafting.

Full Patch Notes here.

Update 9 – Whispers in the Shadows

• New Guild - The Thieves Guild has been added to the game. With it comes a new skill line, Heist missions, guild job quests, and many hours of story content involving an organisation known as the Iron Wheel, who seek to destroy the guild.
• New Zone - Hew's Bane, also known as Khefrem, a desert peninsula in the south of Hammerfell. It contains most notably the port city of Abah's Landing, headquarters of the Thieves Guild. Outside the city is mere wilderness, with ruins strewn around the region.
• New Stealth Mechanics - Hiding spots, stricter trespassing, and other changes have been made to stealth mechanics in certain quests.
• Grouping Improvements - You can now group up for dungeons with players from other alliances, and using the LFG tool for dungeons now gives a loot bag if it is completed.
• Scrolling Combat Text and damage numbers (Enabled in settings menu)
• Combat Improvements
• New Motifs
• Many more changes and improvements

Update 10 – The Sacrament Calls

Update 10 was released on May 29th, 2016

• New Guild - The Dark Brotherhood is now in the game. With it comes a new skill line, repeatable Brotherhood contracts, Black Sacrament missions, and a questline revolving around a war between the Brotherhood and the Order of the Hour, a corrupt cult of Akatosh fanatics led by Primate Artorius.
• New Zone - The Gold Coast, a region in southwestern Cyrodiil by the Abecean Sea not affiliated with the Alliance War. It contains the cities of Anvil and Kvatch, as well as a Brotherhood sanctuary in the northern wilderness.
• Assassination System - Upon joining the Brotherhood, the player is presented with the Blade of Woe. The player is then able to sneak up behind any killable humanoid NPC and assassinate them in one strike - and as long as they aren't spotted, they will receive no bounty for the murder.
• Removal of Veteran Ranks - The Veteran Rank system has been removed from the game, and replaced with Champion Points.
• Poison-Making
• Craft Bags for ESO Plus members
• 2 new motifs
• Revamps to vendors in Cyrodiil
• Quality of Life Improvements:
  • Toggleable Nameplates
  • Character names displayed on console over account name
  • Improvements to grouping, including ready check, vote to kick and updated queue timer.
  • Improvements to Sanctum Ophidia, including scaling, rebalancing and 9 revamped item sets
  • Balance improvements to combat
  • Ongoing improvements to Cyrodiil performance

Update 11 - Shadows of the Hist

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Shadows of the Hist

• 2 new dungeons
• [?]

Update 12 - One Tamriel

• Celestial style and trial item sets returning
• Content of Update 12 will be shown at Gamescom ESO Tavern

Update 13 – Homestead

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Homestead

• Player Housing arrived in Q1 2017

Update 14 – Morrowind

• The First New Chapter, Morrowind –
• New Zone – Vvardenfell
• First New Class – The Warden
• New Trial – Halls of Fabrication
• Battlegrounds –
• Transmog System – Convert existing armor to the Morag Tong style
• New Motifs – Morag Tong, Great Houses

Update 15 – Horns of the reach

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Horns of the Reach

Update 15 arrived in Q3 2017 and contains a dungeon-pack DLC.

• Bloodroot Forge
• Cold-Blood Cavern
• Nordic dungeons

Update 16 – Clockwork City

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Clockwork City

Update 16 arrived in Q4 2017 and will contain a content-based DLC.

• Transmutation Station

Update 17 – Dragon Bones

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Online: Dragon Bones

Update 17 arrived on February 12, 2018 and contains a dungeon-pack DLC and a new type of crafting station.

• New dungeons
  • Fang Lair
  • Scalecaller Peak
• New Battlegrounds
  • Mor Khazgur
  • Deeping Drome
• New Crafting system – Outfit System
• Level Up Advisor
• New collectibles
• New item sets
• General changes, fixes and improvements

Features without confirmed release dates

A number of post-launch inclusions have been confirmed. Currently, these include:

• Murkmire, an upland region in western Black Marsh.
• Spiral Skein, the realm of the Daedric Prince Mephala the Webspinner.
• A new zone in the Summerset Isles, where the next installment of the Daedric War story arch will take place
• The regions of the Colovian Highlands, Khefrem, Thornmarsh, and the Weeping Desert
• Spellcrafting
• Horse Racing

Special Editions

Imperial Edition

The Imperial Edition is a Collector's Edition for The Elder Scrolls Online. The Imperial Edition is available for all three platforms that the game is being released for: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac, in both boxed and digital versions.

Digital Imperial Edition

This edition includes:

• The ability to play as an Imperial.
• A unique Horse, the Imperial Horse.
• The Nibenay Mudcrab, a pet mudcrab.
• The Rings of Mara, granting the ability to Marry other online characters through the Ritual of Mara.
• Cosmetic changes to make armor look Imperial.

Retail Imperial Edition

• All the benefits of the Digital Imperial Edition
• Statue of Molag Bal (not in game)
• Map of Tamriel (not in game)
• "The Emperor's Guide to Tamriel", written by Flaccus Terentius (not in game)

Gold Edition

This edition includes:

• All first four DLCs:
  • Imperial City
  • Orsinium
  • Thieves Guild
  • Dark Brotherhood
• The Palomino Horse mount
• 500

Removed Content

• New in Town – Malareth's quest in Vulkhel Guard. Temporarily disabled.
• Frog Racing – A former quest located in Skywatch. Has since been re-included.
• Mercenaries
• Old pledges

Soul Gems

• Petty Soul Gem - Removed with Update 12, and replaced with just Grand Soul Gems.
• Minor Soul Gem - Replaced with Grand Soul Gems.
• Lesser Soul Gem - Replaced with Grand Soul Gems.
• Common Soul Gem - Replaced with Grand Soul Gems.
• Greater Soul Gem - Replaced with Grand Soul Gems.
• Grand Soul Gem - Replaced with Soul Gem

Note that in each of these, existing soul gems would remain until used.