The MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online received on March 13, 2023, Update 37, the DLC Scribes of Fate, along with two new dungeons. One of them offers a completely new experience. You can find out what that is here on MeinMMO.
Which dungeons are new in Scribes of Fate? With the current DLC, ESO has added two new dungeons. They are:
- Bal Sunnar
- Hall of Scribes
I had the opportunity to play one of the new dungeons on the PTS with the developers of ESO and, of course, ask all kinds of questions.
During the play session, we chose the dungeon “Bal Sunar”. Like every dungeon in ESO, Bal Sunnar has a story, about which I would like to give you a brief overview.
What is the story behind Bal Sunnar? We travel to the new dungeon located in the area of Stonefalls. Upon arrival, we see the NPC Saresea in front of us. She tries to warn the Dark Elves of Bal Sunar of a danger. We will learn what this exactly means as we progress through the dungeon.
Saresea speaks of time distortions, which draws our attention to her attire of the Psijik Order. The Dark Elves are members of House Telvanni. What Saresea means with her suspicion will become evident to us throughout the course of the dungeon.
The first dungeon boss impresses with cool animations
After working through a few mob groups, we reach a bridge. At its end is a tower in Dark Elf style. In general, the environment strongly reminds me of my first steps in ESO, as I created all my characters in the Pact, and thus always started in Stonefalls.
What is the first boss like? As soon as we cross the bridge, we enter the tower. There awaits the first boss: Kovan Giryon. He summons several apparitions during the fight and allows us to admire a few brand new animations.
You can tell that the developers have put a lot of love into the detail of the combat animations. The boss fight is definitely a little highlight for graphics nerds. Fittingly, for the upcoming chapter “Necrom,” of course in the color combination of black and green.
After defeating the first boss, we must leave the building. Once outside, we slowly begin to realize what the NPC at the beginning was talking about. Because the bridge that we just crossed without any problems seems to suddenly not be built at all.
This will not be the first time distortion that we will encounter. The developers also specifically point to this bridge to at least have a tiny bit of orientation in time and to be able to say whether one is in the future or in the past.
But first, we must face the first boss. What bosses can you expect in the dungeon?
- Kovan Giryon
- Urvel Drath
- Matriarch Lladi Telvanni
By the way, we already get to see some of the skills that belong to the upcoming class of the Arcanist with the first boss.
Of course, I asked the developers about secret bosses in the new dungeons. They revealed to me that there are secret bosses, but not always in the usual form. Naturally, I couldn’t resist exploring the dungeons again alone on the PTS after the run with the developers.
There I also discovered what the developers hinted at regarding the secret bosses. There was talk of a kind of puzzle. At first, I didn’t know what to make of that, but would soon find out.
The new secret boss is a tricky puzzle
Because the 1st “Secret Boss” is not a person or any other living being that I must face in combat. The 1st Secret task is indeed a puzzle!
Anyone who knows me a little knows that I’m not really a fan of puzzles. But in this case, I must make an exception. And oddly enough, I immediately had THE idea that led me directly to the solution.
I usually find that you have essentially won a puzzle when you have first understood what it actually wants from you. And in this puzzle, it’s about finding the correct sequence of symbols on a large totem.
You want to know how the puzzle works? Then check out this spoiler. However, if you prefer to solve it yourself first, you should skip this spoiler.
Solution: Bal Sunnar, Secret Totem![]()
In front of you is a small wooden pedestal. On it are 4 ship wheels that you can turn. From there, you look directly at a tall totem, made up of 4 blocks.
The area is surrounded by circularly arranged cages. If you glance past the tall totem, you can discover more totems. There are a total of 3 pieces, each consisting of 2 components.
They give you the hint to solve the puzzle. But how does it fit together that we have 3 hint totems with 2 blocks each and the tall totem has a total of 4 blocks? Shouldn’t there be 2 blocks left over?
Actually yes. But if you look closely, you will notice that the following hint totem always exhibits 1 same block as its predecessor. The repetition of this block is only meant to show you where to connect the sequence.
I’ll just demonstrate this with a screenshot:
In the next secret boss, as you already know from the last dungeons, is an opponent you must defeat in combat.
But the last secret enemy is again a puzzle. This time you need to adjust several reflective surfaces so that the light beams from the light sources all find their way to the center. It reminds me of a similar puzzle in the story of Markarth. Make sure to examine the positions of the mirrors carefully.
It is possible that we will see the NPC again in the story of Necrom
While the Psijik Order is not supposed to make a comeback in the next chapter, the Psijik scholar Saresea could encounter us again this year.
The developers told me that the dungeons can be seen as a separate story, but they still give more context to the content in 2023 overall.
Will there be 4 dungeons again next year?
At least it can be assumed. Because the plans presented for this year, focusing on bug fixing and performance instead of adding 2 more dungeons in Q3, are expressly only for 2023. Thus, it could be possible that we will get more dungeons again next year.
Are you interested in more about ESO and the new chapter? I am already very excited about Necrom. You can find out why I think it will be an absolute hit here.
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