FROM NOOB TO VET!
Whether you are Brand New to the game or coming back after being away from ESO for a long time that you barely recognize it, these tips below are here to help you out!
After reading through this list you will be well on your way to becoming an ESO vet in no time!
1: TAKE YOUR TIME DON'T RUSH
Don’t try to rush your Character to Level 50 if it is your first character. If you rush you will not be able to properly invest time into your Class & Race to see if you like it.
If you rush you will also end up skipping things that are intriguing & fun like Main & Side Quests.
There are so many detailed Quests & unlike some other games, most of ESO's Quests are not your typical fetch this Item & Fetch that Item style Quests.
Taking your time will allow you to learn the game properly including the systems involved, your Character & it will allow you to make mistakes and learn from them.
2: UPGRADE YOUR MOUNT SPEED
Start upgrading your Mount Speed straight away. You will obtain your first Mount at level 10, with many others available to discover.
Mount Speed is per Character, meaning you will need to train and upgrade your Mount on each Character separately.
To do this, go to the Stable found in any Major City & Spend 250 Gold to Upgrade every 20 Hours.
Most of the time it is best to invest in Speed first & then focus on Carrying Capacity & Stamina evenly. If you do this every time you Log In to the Game it will save you a lot of pain down the road.
3: DON'T SKIP THE QUESTS
As already mentioned above, Questing is very rewarding in ESO & is worth the time you will spend completing them.
Every Zone has a Zone Specific Questline & many of these Zone Quests will reward you with Skill Points, which are invaluable as you progress through the game. Additionally, each Zone has a ton of Side Quests that will grant you experience and provide an interesting Story while your Levelling up your Character.
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Completing Quests, including Zone Main & Side Quests as well as the Main Quests for the base game, will provide you with not only experience and Skill Points, but you can also earn Achievements, Cosmetics such as dyes for your armour and many other awesome rewards.
4: LEARN THE MAP
Spend some time getting to know the layout of the Map & what the different Icons mean.
One thing that is easily overlooked on the Map is the colours of the icons. Things that you have Discovered or Completed will appear as White Icons & things that you have not yet Discovered or Completed will appear as Black Icons.
Another important thing to note is that you can travel around the map for Free using Wayshrines, either going from one Wayshrine to another or teleporting to another player that is in a Zone you haven’t discovered yet.
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You can do this by finding a Player in your Guild that is Online & in a Zone that you have not yet discovered by clicking on their Name and selecting Travel to Player.
You can also just travel directly to a Wayshrine from almost anywhere in the game, however keep in mind that this will cost Gold. The amount of gold to travel to a Wayshrine will be relatively low if you only do it from time to time, but if you travel somewhere & then try to travel to a different location shortly after that the cost will be much higher.
5: LEARN WHERE TO FIND SKILL POINTS
There are lot of ways to earn those Skill Points even when Power Levelling. Every Dungeon has a quest that will give you a Skill Point the first time you complete it on a Character.
Public Dungeons also have a Group Event that will give you a Skill Point upon completion.
Delves & Public Dungeons are also a good way to pick up Skyshards, & will grant you 1 Skill Point for every 3 Skyshards you collect.
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If you are working on an Alt (Alternate Character) & have all the Skyshards within a zone on another Character, then there will be an option to purchase the Skyshards for that zone in the Crown Store. This costs Crowns, but is another possible way to gain Skill Points quickly on an Alt.
6: UNLOCK SKILLS BEFORE PASSIVES EARLY ON
Skill Point allocation can be tricky at times, but generally if you are taking your time on your first Character & Questing you will have enough skill points to get Skills & Passives with no major problems.
If you are Power Levelling an Alt then this can be more difficult as you may not have those extra Skill Points to allocate.
Try to focus on unlocking Skills first, as those will help you level the Skill Lines faster, and only focus on the Passives after you have gotten the Skills you need for your build.
7: SLOT SKILLS TO LEVEL THEM UP
Skills only gain Levels when they are slotted on your Skill Bar when you gain Experience from kills or turning in Quests.
So if you have a particular Skill that you are trying to level up, then you will need to make sure you have the correct Skill Bar active especially when turning in a Quest.
It can be easy to forget that you switched Skill Bars during a Boss fight in a Dungeon for example, and then when you turn in the Quest for the Dungeon you don’t get the experience gained from it towards the Skill you are trying to Level.
For Class Skill Lines, they each gain a little bit of experience as you level, but having more Skills slotted from a Skill Line will increase this gain by a fair margin.
The same is generally true for Weapon Skill Lines, except that you only gain Experience on the Weapon that you have active.
Early on it is usually a good idea to try & have at least one Skill from each Skill line you want to Level on your Skill Bar so that they all get a small boost regularly & therefore Level fairly evenly.
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For Armour Skill Lines, the more pieces you have on the faster the line levels. So if you are trying to level your Light Armour Skill Line, having 5 pieces of Light Armour equipped will level it much faster than just having 1 piece equipped.
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However most of the time it is advisable to Equip 5 pieces of the Armour type you need for your Class & 1 piece from each of the other two types in order to ensure that you are gaining Experience in all Armour types fairly evenly & are therefore able to take advantage of the Passives available to each line.
8: READ EVERY BOOK
Read every Book Case you come across. throughout your travels through Tamriel. Not only is this a great way to pick up Books for those times where you just want to catch up on Lore (There is a lot of Lore).
Bookcases also have a chance to provide you with a book that will level up one of your Skill Lines. No matter how many points away from the next level on a Skill Line, reading one book for that line will increase it up by a level.
9: JOIN NPC GUILDS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
There are 3 NPC Guilds that you need join right away on any Character. These are the Fighters Guild, the Mages Guild and the Undaunted Guild.
The Fighters Guild & Mages Guild can be unlocked by going to the respective Guild Hall within your Alliances Starter City. For further Lessons on the Undaunted Guild check out the Undaunted Guide.
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To Level the Fighters Guild Skill Line, you will need to kill undead & Daedra and defeat Dolmens. The Mages Guild levels by collecting Lorebooks found throughout the world (Lorebooks Glow Purple) & the Undaunted Skill Line is levelled by completing Dungeons & claiming Dungeon Achievements.
10: DO DAILY DUNGEON RUNS & BATTLEGROUNDS
At Level 10 you can start doing Daily Dungeons & Battlegrounds for a nice Experience Bonus.
You can queue for each of these by going to the Group Page and selecting the Random Daily for both Dungeons & Battlegrounds.
Daily Dungeons & Battlegrounds reset every 20 hours, & you will get some extra items in the Mail as well as the Experience Bonus for completing them.
These Random Dailies are a good way to learn the many different Dungeons, & the Battlegrounds will help you Level up your PvP Skill Lines which will also help in some of the PvE content.
11: CONSIDER ESO+ IF YOU ARE ENJOYING THE GAME
Consider getting ESO Plus for the benefits it gives, such as the Unlimited Capacity Craft Bag & Content access. You can learn more about the benefits of ESO Plus on our ESO Starting Guide
12: CRAFTING & RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT
Spend time working on Crafting with at least one Character. The quickest way to Level Up these lines is by Deconstructing items with the Intricate Trait marked on them.
You will want to focus on Leveling at least the Skills that reduce Research time and allow you to research multiple items at once. Starting your research on a Character as early as possible will pay off in the long run & is needed to be able to Transmute items. More on why this is so important can be found on the Beginner Crafting Guide page.
13: REALLY! RESEARCH IS VERY IMPORTANT
See Tip 12. Research is Extremely important &Â you want to start with any items you collect that have the Magnifying Glass icon on them from the very start of the game. Some items are even given to you in game which are explicitly for Research Purposes, so you should take full advantage of these.
14: ITEMS CAN BE USED FOR CRAFTING & RESEARCH WHILE THEY ARE STORED IN YOUR BANK
While we are on the topic of Crafting & Research, you can Deconstruct, Research & Craft with items that are stored in your Bank, without the need to remove them from your Bank first.
This allows you to store things like Materials & Items in one location to be used & not having to run back and forth to grab items each time you want to use them.
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This is also where ESO+ can come in handy, as the Craft Bag it provides will come in handy when you start collecting materials for Crafting. Whether you have the craft bag or are just using the bank, these inventories are also account wide, so putting something in your bank on one character will allow another character to use it as well.
This is especially nice if you have an Alt as your Main Crafter & need an easy way to get items to them for Research & Crafting or other purposes.
15: KNOW WHERE TO SPEND YOUR GOLD EARLY ON
Making & spending Gold can be difficult early on. The most important things to spend your Gold on early in game are Mount Speed, Bag Space Upgrades & Bank Space Upgrades.
Bag Space Upgrades & the Mount Speed are per Character, however the Bank Space Upgrade is Account based, so all your characters can take advantage of the Bank Space.
Buying gear from Merchants or Guild Traders can be expensive & you will out level the gear quickly and is not considered to be worth the cost.
The best way to Make Gold is to make sure to sell all items with the Ornate Trait icon on them, as these sell for a much higher amount than many other items you will pick up early on.
You also want to sell any items marked as treasure in your inventory as these will fetch a good price. Check out the Beginner Gold Guide for more information.
16: DON'T SPEND GOLD TO BECOME A VAMPIRE OR WEREWOLF
It is possible to spend your Gold on becoming a Vampire or a Werewolf. However it is recommended that you don't do this, because there are plenty of other Players who will be more than happy to give you these afflictions for FREE.
17: LEARN & UNDERSTAND THE CHAMPION POINT SYSTEM
When you reach Level 50 you will stop gaining base levels & will enter into the Champion Points System (CP). This system allows you to continue to Level Up your Character, but instead of gaining a Skill Point for each Level you will gain a Champion Point instead to be applied into one of the 3 Trees.
Each Tree has 3 Sub Trees that are focused on various Skills that will increase things like your damage done or your effectiveness at taking damage.
Once you reach the CP System, it is unlocked for all of your Characters.
This means that if you get your Main Character to CP Level 300, you will have 100 Champion Points in each tree to spend on that Character as well as any Alts you have & any New Characters that you create.
So if you start a New Character, you can use all of those Champion Points straight away on that Character. There is currently no limit to the amount of CP you can earn, but there are limits to what you can use and specific limits on other benefits.
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For example, Gear is capped at CP 160. You will not get any gear higher than that Level, & have no need to keep anything below CP 160 unless you are using it for Research. Up to CP 300 you will get a small bonus to your Magicka, Stamina & Health Pools depending on which tree the champion point for each level goes into.
18: MOST GEAR IS ACCOUNT BOUND, NOT CHARACTER BOUND WHEN EQUIPPED
Gear you Equip is bound to your Account it is not necessarily bound to a Character when equipped.
There are some pieces of gear that become Character bound, but most pieces can be transferred between Characters on your Account to allow for things like Transmuting or running a different Character with a gear set.
Gold gear is not a good investment early on. It is very expensive to get the materials needed to upgrade an item to Gold Level, and this is better reserved for higher levels. End Game sets that you plan on using as part of your final build. The benefits of Gold Gear, even on End Game Sets is not usually worth the cost as the stats are only marginally improved and will not help you with a lower level build as you will out level the gear very quickly.
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The gear that you will get the most benefit from later game is Weapons, & you want those to be at least CP 160. Jewellery is almost never worth the cost of upgrading, as you will Spend between 300K-400K to get it to Gold with the benefits not being worth the price.
19: THE ANTIQUITIES SYSTEM, INTRODUCED IN GREYMOOR IS WORTH LEARNING
If you purchased the Greymoor edition of the game or have access to it through ESO+, then you have access to the Antiquities System. The basic concept of this system is that you pick up Leads throughout the world for Artifacts of varying value.
You can sell some of these for a nice price, some are Housing Items & some are Wearable Items that give you a 1 Piece Set Bonus. Check out the Antiquities Guide for more information on this system.
20: JOIN A PLAYER GUILD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Try & Join a Player Guild if at all possible.
The Shield Fam is our PC-EU Guild Concentrating on Mainly PVE Content & Friendship and we highly Recommend you Joining.
However if you are unable to join us because you play ESO on PC-NA or Console then you should try & find an Active Guild to join to help you link up with players for PVE & PVP Activities & Trading.
The ESO Community overall is one of the most helpful Gaming Communities out there, and you can always pop over to the Shield Fam Discord regardless of which Platform you play on & find people to answer your questions or maybe run a Dungeon with you anytime.
We have Players from all over the World & on multiple platforms & we love to see New Players join the Community that we have built.
21: KEEP LEARNING
Now that you are Set Up & on your way in ESO, head over and Start Learning more about Group Content like Dungeons in our Beginner Dungeon Guide.
