The developers of Elder Scrolls Online have detailed the new difficulty levels for the open-world area of the MMORPG and revealed the release date.
What do I need to know about the difficulty levels? They will be available with Update 50 on June 8, 2026, on the live servers of Elder Scrolls Online and are described by the developers as the most requested feature. Officially, the new feature is called “Challenge Difficulty” and allows you to choose between 4 difficulty levels:
- Adventurous: This corresponds to the current difficulty. Everything remains the same here, including the rewards.
- Hardened: You take 100% more damage from NPCs and deal 50% less damage. You receive 50% more gold and 20% more experience from NPCs.
- Masterful: You take 300% more damage from NPCs and deal 65% less damage. You receive 100% more gold and 75% more experience from NPCs.
- Soulless: You take 600% more damage from NPCs and deal 80% less damage. You receive 200% more gold and 100% more experience from NPCs.
You can adjust the difficulty via the character overview and you can switch back and forth at any time. Furthermore, there will be no restrictions for playing together with others, regardless of which difficulty level your companions are using.
The choice of difficulty affects the following content:
- All fights in the open world, such as quest adversaries, world bosses, event enemies
- Story instances for quests
- Enemies in the dungeons of the various regions
- All open dungeons in Tamriel’s regions
The difficulty levels have no influence on dungeons for 4 players, trials, arenas, the Endless Archive, PvP game modes, and the Night Market.
Preview of Update 50
What else is coming with Update 50? The upcoming patch has much more than just the difficulty levels for all ESO fans. Here are the highlights:
- The new PvP veteran system is designed to make PvP more rewarding
- Werewolves will be pleased with updated character models and skill lines
- The skill lines for the new class specializations are making their debut
- The first dynamic world events are coming to Tamriel
- The Golden Initiative “Path to Adventure” aims to ease entry into the MMORPG
- New guild messages will help coordinate guilds more easily
- Many regions will receive new transmutation stations
If you want to check out this content before the release on June 8, you can already do so on the public test server.
As it is known that after the update is before the update, some of the contents that are expected to come with Update 51 and Season 1 are already known. These include the event “Tamriel’s High Seas,” which will let you dive for treasures in the depths of the seas: Elder Scrolls Online makes you a pirate and diver, overcoming weaknesses of underwater zones like Vashj’ir
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