The fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is financially a tough place for everyone; with our tips for crafting and trading, you’ll get through the first dry spell and out of the red.
We present you with a variety of tips and hints that you can customize to your personal play style.
1. Be frugal
TESO is merciless, especially in the low-level area. Teleporting to a Wayshrine costs gold – and quite a lot. Teleporting from Wayshrine to Wayshrine is free. Also, the repair costs that occur after each death quickly add up to multiple times what a quest provides. And those are the main source of income for players, especially at the beginning. So: Port less, die less.
2. Don’t buy from the vendor
Unlike other games, NPC vendors in TESO can be quite tempting. They offer green and blue items, which are then hidden behind a gate in a legendary “go for broke” manner (Okay, in a backpack). The advantage: There can’t be a zonk inside. The disadvantage: The prices are steep.
Moreover, a weapon in TESO is not special just because it is “blue.” You need to change your mindset and become familiar with the item system. Because many “blue” items in The Elder Scrolls Online are not “rares” or special “uniques” like in other games, but simply items with arbitrary stats and a slightly larger budget. The same goes for epics.
There are also items with their own names – but they often drop from farmable named mobs – and are not as rare as one might think. Since the average cave boss in The Elder Scrolls Online drops loot for ten players upon each death, there is a chance that their preferred blue item will drop.
3. Don’t sell everything to the vendor
Blue items or set items yield much more gold when you sell them to other players. You should join guilds for that. Then you have access to a sort of auction house. In the low-level range, green items sell for 150 gold, blue for 400 gold, and epics already reach around 1500 gold. That’s much more than a vendor offers. However, if you’ve improved your crafting skills, it may be more profitable to dismantle the items yourself – although the G-factor, luck, plays a role here.
Typical items sold to the vendor are low-level potions, processed materials that you can’t use, of course the loot items, and also white and green armor and weapons, although there can sometimes be a market for those, especially if they have certain traits.
4. Limit your collecting frenzy
Hand on heart: How many of you started collecting sets, firmly convinced you would use them for the next twink? Almost all of you, right? That’s not very productive.
Set items are plentiful in the mid-range. If you don’t plan to use them, it’s better to dispose of the items and get rid of them. You might still make a profit now, as other players are eager to complete sets. Over time, prices will go down, and anyone who really wants a set that grants special bonuses for a twink will easily be able to buy the items. For now, it’s best to exploit those who think they’re playing WoW or Diablo 3.
5. The money lies in crafting, but not like in other games
Crafting in TESO is vastly different from that in other games. The actual raw materials are not the key here. With a stack of planks, only white items can be crafted, which are worse than found items.
The trick is that you can upgrade an item in TESO to the next higher quality level (white->green->blue->purple->yellow). For this, you’ll need special upgrade materials, which are gained from refining raw materials or dismantling items. Naturally, each level gain is more difficult and each additional upgrade material is rarer and more expensive. And the process can also go horribly wrong if the player gambles and doesn’t use enough upgrade materials to guarantee a success. Then both the item and the upgrade materials are wasted … that’s a real gold sink.
“Upgrade” items bring in money on the open market. Ideally, you should skill in crafting the skills that promise higher yields when dismantling items.
Please be careful about which traits you research. It’s not worthwhile investing time into researching completely pointless traits in items, as each researched trait doubles the time for the next.
The advantage of crafting is that you can create tailored items that have certain traits and – through enchanting – also have selected effects. However, when leveling, it is not worth making the items yourself; found items work just as well.
For now, it remains to be seen whether set items, which can only be crafted at special workstations in the world, will become as valuable as some think. Whether they can take the market by storm will only be revealed when many players reach the endgame. For most players, crafting is currently a loss-making business.
6. Twinks are in
Twinks in The Elder Scrolls Online are not just mules with cheap storage space; they can also become regular item suppliers with minimal effort. After the starter island, you simply send the characters a few items to dismantle, which increases their crafting skills. Skill points then go into the apprentice skill. This guarantees a regular supply of raw materials.
With 8 chars on one account receiving resource packages every day, you can accumulate quite a bit over time. Rumor has it that these resource packages can indeed contain real treasures.
7. Become a vampire and sell the bite for a high price
This is a piece of advice that speaks for itself. Currently, the bite is traded for between 20,000 and 40,000 gold. Vampires can pass on the bite once a week. If you want to get it without the help of another player, you face a quest – spawn points vary depending on faction. Our YouTuber Darion has already addressed the topic of vampirism.
8. Dance in multiple guilds
You can join up to 5 guilds. You should ensure that they are all active and engaging in trade. If the guilds refrain from tearing each other apart or exchanging resentment over national differences, that’s a nice bonus.
Depending on the guild, you can sell different things. In general, green items sell well because other players like to dismantle them for higher skill gains and a chance at upgrade items. Many players are addicted to runes, wanting to skill enchanting. Raw materials are more lucrative than already processed resources. In many cases, they can simply be sold to vendors.
9. AE-farming
Already in the first weeks, early levelers uncovered and disclosed special farming spots. We could name them too; it would just be of little use, as they would then be overcrowded. Additionally, they are constantly changing, a bit like the location for illegal street races … at least if you believe the educational films of the Fast-and-the-Furious series.
They are always veteran areas with packs of low HP mobs and quick respawn times. Most farmers work in teams of 2 or more people. The more, the merrier. For such farming tours, a pack horse is also recommended. However, it probably won’t be worthwhile before veteran rank 1.
10. Farm raw materials
In The Elder Scrolls Online, anyone can pick up anything; no special skills are required. It helps immensely to invest a point in the tracking abilities. Then the plants and ore veins will glow white and are hardly overlooked.
However, a certain skill level is required to further process the items. Whether one wants to pursue that with the main char and in how many professions remains up to each person. TESO not only means the return of bank-twinks but also a revival of craft-twinks.
11. Maintain contacts
The Elder Scrolls Online rewards contacts between players. If you want to increase your blacksmithing, you can of course craft eight daggers and then dismantle them. But that doesn’t help. Someone else could dismantle those eight daggers and benefit much more from that; they trade other daggers or items, which you then dismantle with pleasure and inspiration. Win-win.
Perhaps you have wool that you can’t use, and a contact has raw ore lying around – a field where you’ve heavily invested points and can generally pull more upgrade items from it. Such partnerships should be maintained.
But beware of guilds: They are not like in other games, a gathering of friends or partners. Especially in trading guilds, the atmosphere can often be rough. Players tend to try to outsmart each other or argue about trading methods. You should only trust most guild members as far as you can throw them.
12. Take your time
I know many players currently find it hard to cope with the trading system in The Elder Scrolls Online. After the automated mechanisms in other games, it feels almost like stepping back to the Stone Age – especially without add-ons. However, it’s worthwhile to observe the market closely and engage with the desires of customers (i.e., other players).
The same rules apply as in our first article about gold in MMORPGs. Observe the market, observe your behavior, and ask yourself where the profit lies. And then grab it!
How does the profit wolf do? Aoowwwww. Rhetorical question: He does nothing. His mouth is full of all the innocent sheep and lambs and their retirement plans!
13. Farm the cave bosses
Yes, I know, we already listed it as a thing that urgently needs fixing in a column.
The fact is: Cave bosses with a fast respawn timer are farmed for a good reason: It’s worth it. When you see 5 people standing in a spot and not moving an inch, that’s a wink from the karma gods to step aside and beat the boss until something blue drops. While this may not be innovative gameplay, it works.
The game and the market are still in a volatile state. This means much of what has been discussed here can still change if either the game mechanics are adjusted or the market develops differently.
What do you think? Have you made any observations on how to go from being a poor schlucker to a TESO millionaire? Then you probably won’t share!
