The Elder Scrolls Steam Guide: Essential Tips for New

Welcome, aspiring adventurer, to the vast and ever-expanding world of Tamriel! If you're diving into The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) via Steam, you're about to embark on an epic journey filled with quests, dungeons, crafting, and endless exploration. This Elder Scrolls Steam guide is designed to help new players navigate their first steps, offering essential tips and insights to make your initial hours in ESO enjoyable and productive.

ESO is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game that respects your playstyle, allowing you to tackle content at your own pace. Whether you're a seasoned MMO veteran or new to the genre, understanding the core mechanics will set you up for success.

Starting Your Journey in Tamriel

Your adventure begins with character creation, a pivotal moment where you define your hero. Don't stress too much about making perfect choices; ESO is very flexible.

Choosing Your Champion

You'll select from three factions and various races. Faction choice primarily affects the main storyline and open-world PvP in Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, where you can only group with your chosen faction. For Battlegrounds, dungeons, and other content, factions don't restrict grouping. While races offer minor passive bonuses, especially early on, it's best to pick what looks most fun to you. You can change race or faction later via the in-game store if you wish.

Next, you'll choose your class. Each class has unique base skill abilities, but ESO doesn't restrict weapon or armor usage based on your class. This means a Sorcerer can wield a two-handed sword, or a Dragonknight can heal. This flexibility allows for diverse builds, so again, choose what sparks your interest. Remember, while you can change your race and faction later, your class is permanent.

Factions and Their Impact

The three main factions are:

• Aldmeri Dominion: Bosmer (Wood Elf), Khajiit, Altmer (High Elf)
• Daggerfall Covenant: Breton, Redguard, Orc
• Ebonheart Pact: Nord, Argonian, Dunmer (Dark Elf)

If you plan on engaging in faction-based PvP with friends, ensure you choose the same faction. Otherwise, feel free to pick based on aesthetic or lore preference.

Mastering Skills and Progression

As you explore, quest, and defeat enemies, you'll gain experience and unlock new abilities. ESO's progression system is deep but forgiving.

Understanding Skill Lines

Skills in ESO are tied to several categories:

• Class Skills: Unique to your chosen class, with three distinct lines.
• Weapon Skills: Gained by equipping and using different weapon types (e.g., Two Handed, Destruction Staff).
• Armor Skills: Developed by wearing light, medium, or heavy armor.
• Guild Skills: From joining guilds like the Fighters Guild or Mages Guild.
• Race Skills: Passives unique to your chosen race.

Skills only level up when they are equipped on your active skill bar. You'll start with one skill bar (5 skills + 1 ultimate) and unlock a second at level 15, allowing you to swap between two sets of weapons and skills. Skill points, earned from leveling, quests, and Skyshards (found throughout the world), are used to unlock and upgrade skills. While you'll need to be selective early on, there are more than enough skill points in the game to unlock virtually everything. If you make a mistake, you can reallocate skill points and attributes for a small in-game gold fee.

From Leveling to Champion Points

You'll reach the base level cap of 50 fairly quickly. At this point, your character transitions to the Champion Point (CP) system. Champion Points start at CP 1 and currently cap at CP 3600. These points allow you to further fine-tune your character with passive bonuses like increased critical damage or reduced dodge roll cost.

The best part about Champion Points is that they are account-wide. Once your first character reaches level 50 and starts earning CPs, any subsequent characters you make will automatically benefit from your cumulative CP total once they hit level 50. New characters can even use existing CPs immediately, making them more powerful from the start. While you can participate in all content by level 50, some veteran content will require higher CP levels.

Equipping Your Adventurer

Gear plays a crucial role in your character's effectiveness. Understanding how it scales and when to focus on specific sets is key.

Gear Progression and Set Bonuses

All gear you acquire scales to your character's level when it drops. However, armor stops scaling once you hit Champion Point 160. This is known as the "gear cap." Before CP 160, you should regularly replace your gear with higher-level drops. Do not hoard gear before CP 160, as it will quickly become outdated. Once you hit CP 160, you can start collecting and keeping specific armor and weapon sets, as their stats will no longer be outleveled. Many items come with powerful set bonuses when multiple pieces are equipped, allowing for unique build customization.

ESO also features a collection system. Once an item is bound to your character, its "look" is unlocked, allowing you to recreate it at outfit stations. This is incredibly useful for maintaining your desired aesthetic across multiple characters or builds.

Dive into Crafting

ESO boasts a deep crafting system, covering everything from weapons and armor to food, potions, jewelry, and even furniture for player housing. Each crafting skill has its own skill line, leveled by crafting items, deconstructing found gear, or gathering materials. You can unlock crafting writs (daily quests) to accelerate your crafting progression.

Initially, it's wise to focus on one or two crafting or gathering professions due to limited skill points. You can always expand later. Note that jewelry crafting requires the Summerset DLC and character level 11.

Mounts and Personalization

Mounts are essential for traversing Tamriel efficiently. You can purchase basic mounts from stable masters or earn them through various in-game activities and events. Most unique mounts are found in the Crown Store. Crucially, you can level up your mount once per day at any stable master. This improves its speed, stamina, and carrying capacity, affecting all your mounts on that character. Make this a daily ritual!

The outfit system allows for extensive visual customization. You collect "motifs" (crafting styles) and dyes (unlocked via achievements) to change the appearance of your gear without altering its stats. While you can make a sword look like an axe, you can't transform a two-handed weapon into a one-handed dagger.

Exploring Tamriel's Vast Content

ESO offers an overwhelming amount of content. The beauty is you can engage with what you enjoy most.

Questing and Exploration

The game world is truly open. After the tutorial, you're free to go anywhere. Quests are abundant and provide experience, skill points, and lore. The main questline begins when a hooded figure approaches you and rewards a skill point for each completed quest. Additionally, each zone has its own self-contained story questline. You can tackle these in any order, though following them linearly in a zone provides a cohesive narrative.

Beyond quests, you'll find delves (solo dungeons), public dungeons (for groups), and world bosses scattered across the map. Every three Skyshards you discover will grant you a skill point.

Group Content and PvP

• Dungeons: At level 10, you unlock access to 4-player dungeons via the Group Activity Finder. These offer challenging combat, unique loot, and often a skill point for completing their associated quest.
• Battlegrounds: Also unlocked at level 10, these are team-based PvP arenas where faction choice doesn't matter.
• Cyrodiil & Imperial City: These are large-scale, faction-versus-faction PvP zones where your chosen faction truly matters. Here, you'll fight to control keeps and resources, earning unique gear and developing dedicated PvP skill lines.

Guilds and Unique Skill Lines

Beyond the main story, ESO features iconic guilds with their own questlines and skill lines:

• Fighters Guild & Mages Guild: Accessible from the moment you hit the open world by visiting their halls in your faction's starter city.
• Thieves Guild & Dark Brotherhood: These require their respective DLCs (or an ESO Plus subscription) and are unlocked by visiting their zones and starting their introductory quests.

These guilds offer unique abilities and rewards that can significantly enhance your character.

Beyond the Main Adventure

ESO continuously adds new and engaging side content:

• Tales of Tribute: Introduced with the High Isle expansion, this in-game card game offers its own progression, daily quests, and competitive play against NPCs and other players.
• Antiquities System: Arriving with the Greymoor expansion, this archaeology-like skill line allows you to excavate and scry for special items, furniture, mounts, pets, and even powerful Mythic items.

These systems provide hundreds of hours of unique gameplay and are well worth exploring once you've grasped the basics.

Embracing the Endgame and ESO Plus

While ESO focuses on the journey, there's plenty of challenging content waiting for you at the endgame.

Tackling Veteran Challenges

Once you're comfortable with the game mechanics and have reached higher Champion Point levels, you can dive into veteran content. This includes:

• Veteran Dungeons: More difficult versions of standard dungeons, offering better rewards.
• Trials: These are 12-player, mechanic-driven PvE challenges that are among the toughest content in the game, rewarding exclusive armor sets and achievements.
• Solo Arenas: Such as the Maelstrom Arena or Vateshran Hollows, offer extremely difficult solo content with powerful weapon rewards.

The Value of ESO Plus

ESO Plus is an optional subscription that offers numerous benefits:

• Access to all DLCs: This unlocks all story content, zones, and features (excluding the latest Chapter release) for the duration of your subscription.
• Craft Bag: An infinite storage bag specifically for crafting materials, a massive quality-of-life improvement that frees up inventory space. Many players subscribe just for this.
• Double Bank Space: More room for all your items.
• Increased Gold and Experience Gains: Helps with progression.
• Exclusive Crown Store Deals: Discounts on cosmetic items and services.

While not strictly necessary to enjoy the game, ESO Plus significantly enhances the experience, especially for crafters or those who want to explore all available content. You can find more details on the official Elder Scrolls Online Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/306130/the_elder_scrolls_online/

The Elder Scrolls Online is a game designed for exploration and personal pacing. Don't feel pressured to rush; instead, savor the leveling process, learn your class, and discover what parts of Tamriel you enjoy most. With consistent updates and expansions, you'll find an endless supply of activities to keep you engaged.

FAQ

What should I focus on first as a new player in The Elder Scrolls Online?

As a new player, focus on completing the tutorial, then explore your chosen starting zone. Follow quests to gain experience and skill points, and don't be afraid to experiment with different weapon and skill lines. The main goal is to have fun and learn at your own pace.

Can I change my character's class or race in ESO?

You can change your character's race and faction using tokens purchased from the in-game Crown Store. However, your chosen class is permanent and cannot be changed after character creation. This is an important consideration when creating your character for The Elder Scrolls Steam guide.

When should I start collecting gear sets in The Elder Scrolls Online?

It's recommended to start collecting specific gear sets once your character reaches Champion Point 160. Before this point, gear quickly becomes outdated as you level up. After CP 160, gear stats stabilize, allowing you to focus on obtaining optimal sets for your build.

Is ESO Plus worth it for new players?

ESO Plus offers significant benefits, particularly the Craft Bag and access to all DLCs (excluding the latest Chapter). For new players, it can greatly enhance the experience by expanding content options and reducing inventory management headaches, making it a valuable addition to your Elder Scrolls Steam guide journey.