The Elder Scrolls Online News

Celebrate the absurd during the Jester’s Festival in-game event and you’ll earn wacky new rewards and bonus XP!

[h2]The Silly Season Returns[/h2]
The Jester’s Festival begins Thursday, March 26 at 10:00AM EDT, and revels in the ridiculous until April 2 at 10:00AM EDT. During this frivolous fête, you can earn special event-specific rewards by completing Jester’s Festival quests.

To get started, find the Jester’s Festival pavilions located outside the cities of Ebonheart, Vulkhel Guard, and Daggerfall. If you’re having trouble, pick up the Jester’s Festival starter quest free from the in-game Crown Store for directions.



Visit a Jester’s Festival pavilion to join in the fun!

Strike up a conversation with the jester versions of the Skald-King, Queen Ayrenn, or High King Emeric (we’re reliably informed that the real Alliance leaders don’t mind the ruse) and complete the intro quest to receive the powerful AND delicious Pie of Misrule memento. When you activate this preposterous pastry, you’ll receive a two-hour, 100% XP buff! Note that you don’t need to complete this quest again if you’ve previously done so—just grab the memento from your collections.

During the event, each jester can provide your characters with a unique daily quest, meaning each character can complete three of these quests every 24 hours.

[h2]Labor for Ludicrously Loony Loot[/h2]
Each time you complete a Jester’s Festival quest, you receive a Jester’s Festival Reward Box that can contain goodies such as valuables (to sell to vendors for gold), consumables, recipes, furnishings, and Revelry Pies. Even better, the first time you complete each quest each day, you are rewarded a Stupendous Gift Box instead of the regular reward. This prestigious package has a chance to include:

• Cadwell’s Kitchen Arms Style Pages
• Fragments of two Mementos: the Festive Noise Maker or Jester’s Festival Joke Popper
• Jokey Stealies to sell to vendors
• Runeboxes containing the Cherry Blossom Branch or Jester’s Scintillator mementos
• NEW fragments for the Sovereign Sow pet!
  • Guaranteed drop within the first Stupendous Gift Box you open each day!
  • This is the now the same porcine princess you save in the Jester’s Festival quest “A Noble Guest”

Some animals are more equal than others

If you’ve earned all three Stupendous Gift Boxes, don’t worry, you can keep earning regular reward boxes with your other characters, so keep the party going!

Take note, the Revelry Pies make for especially mirthful missiles, and should you add them to your Quickbar, you can gleefully cover all of Tamriel with sticky dessert! Fellow players, NPCs, guards (trust us, they won’t mind), or even the rulers of Tamriel themselves—all fear your delicious right arm during the Jester’s Festival.

As you cover all of Tamriel in pie, you’ll earn special event-specific Achievements:

• The Three Fillings War—Throw 10 Pies at players that are in a different Alliance
• The Upper Crust—Throw a pie at each of the Alliance Leaders
• More Than You Can Chew—Throw 10 Pies at Guards
• Dessert Domination—Complete the above Achievements
• Messy Business—Kill 10 players while they are covered in pie in Cyrodiil

By completing these absurd Achievements, you can earn special rewards, including the “Tin Soldier” and “Empieror” titles and the Obnoxious Mute Face Paint head marking! However, that’s not all, since you can also earn the Crown of Misrule hat and Lord / Lady of Misrule title by completing each of the three daily quests or the Royal Jester title and some furnishings by completing every Jester’s Festival achievement. Check your journal for everything!
[h2]Event Tickets[/h2]
The first time you complete a Jester’s Festival quest each day, you’ll earn three Event Tickets per account, allowing you to earn up to 24 tickets total throughout the event period. During the event, the Impresario will stock the following goods:

• All four Indrik Feathers
• All four Spectral Indrik Berries
• The Spectral Indrik pet
• Sovereign Sow fragments
• Jester’s Scintillator runebox
• Cherry Blossom Branch runebox
• NEW Group Repair Kits
  • Allows you to repair worn gear for group members in your zone
    

This is your chance to acquire the final berries needed to evolve your Nascent Indrik into the ghostly Spectral Indrik mount!


Spooky yet majestic!

[h2]A Festival of Fun![/h2]
Beset by war, monsters, Dragons, and Necromancers, the world of The Elder Scrolls Online is serious business, but each year, the people of Tamriel get together for an all-too-short period of frivolity and fun. With bonus XP, unique collectibles, and a whole lot of pie, there’s a ridiculous amount of reasons to celebrate the Jester’s Festival. Are you excited to take part in this year’s most foolish fête? Let us know on @TESOnline, Instagram, and Facebook!

The Jester’s Festival begins on Thursday, March 26 at 10:00AM EDT and will run until April 2 at 10:00AM EDT.

Tune in to ESO Live this Friday, March 13, as the community team recruits Dungeon Lead Mike Finnigan and Stream Team member GNARLY_NATE for a Harrowstorm dungeon run!


Kicking off this Friday at 6PM EDT, join Jessica Folsom and Gina Bruno from the ESO community team as they host ZOS’ Dungeon Lead Mike Finnigan and special guest GNARLY_NATE for a Harrowstorm dungeon run of your choosing. You can tell us which dungeon you’d like to see the team tackle via this tweet.

Which dungeon do you want to see the team run on ESO Live this week? Vote now to choose!

Will our brave adventurers explore the frigid home of the Icereach Coven? Or will they help the Pyre Watch expel invaders from the Unhallowed Grave? Vote now!


Throughout the show, there’s sure to be tons of laughs, mostly unavoidable deaths, and kazoos (!?) in addition to giveaways and Twitch Drops (don’t forget to link your accounts).

This ESO Live begins Friday at 6:00PM EDT, March 13, on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and Steam.

See you there!

[h3]Not sure what to expect when downloading Update 25?
Check out our FAQ here![/h3]

The Harrowstorm DLC game pack and Update 25 brings a host of new challenges, adventures, rewards, and improvements to ESO, including:

• Two new four-player dungeons: Icereach and Unhallowed Grave
• The start of the year-long Dark Heart of Skyrim storyline
• New rewards, including unique achievements and collectibles
• All-new PvP collectibles
• New performance improvements
• And more!

This DLC is free for all current ESO Plus™ members or available for purchase with crowns from the in-game Crown Store. You can read the patch notes for both Harrowstorm and Update 25 on our official forums.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Harrowstorm DLC Game Pack[/h2]
The Elder Scrolls Online: Harrowstorm features two exciting new dungeons for four-player groups: Icereach and Unhallowed Grave. These new PvE challenges also kick off your Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure, beginning a story that will take you to the upcoming Greymoor Chapter and more throughout the entirety of 2020.

Icereach

A supernatural storm lashes Skyrim’s northern coast, threatening the longboats and livelihoods of the local Nords. You and your party must investigate the mysterious origin of this storm: the barren island of Icereach. There, you must find the first lost expedition, confront the witches of the Icereach Coven, and put a stop to their terrible ritual before all of Skyrim is lost.


Confront the witches of Icereach

Unhallowed Grave

Deep beneath the sands of Bangkorai, the ancient remnants of a long-forgotten evil lies buried—forgotten to all but the crypt’s last guardians. Now, a gruesome band of Necromancers and monsters has looted the tomb for an unknown purpose. You and your allies must storm the Unhallowed Grave, repulse the mercenaries, and discover the dark secret at the heart of their invasion.


Explore the Unhallowed Grave

Both dungeons challenge you and your teammates with cunning enemies and monstrous boss battles, and you can attempt both Icereach and Unhallowed Grave in Normal and Veteran difficulties, with a Veteran Hard Mode option available if you wish to truly challenge yourselves. Finally, you can discover new rewards in both dungeons, including new item sets, Achievements, collectibles, and more.

For more information on these two dungeons, check out our previews of both Icereach and Unhallowed Grave.

[h2]How to Get Harrowstorm[/h2]
The Harrowstorm DLC game pack is free for all ESO Plus members and available for purchase for 1,500 crowns from the in-game Crown Store (listed under DLC).

Note that if your ESO Plus membership lapses, you lose access to the DLC dungeons until you renew or purchase the DLC with crowns. You won’t lose any items or rewards you earned while you had access.

Harrowstorm Collector’s Bundle

The Harrowstorm Collector’s Bundle is also available for 4,000 crowns. This includes access to the DLC game pack, the Hallin's Jackal Pet, the Pyre Watch Jackal Mount, and five Crown Experience Scrolls. You can find and purchase the Harrowstorm Collector’s Bundle from the Featured section of the in-game Crown Store.


The Harrowstorm Collector’s Bundle

[h2]Discover Harrowstorm & Earn a Unique Emote[/h2]
Once you have access to the Harrowstorm dungeons, you can begin your Dark Heart of Skyrim adventure by the following methods:

• By teleporting directly into the two dungeons from your map
• By using the Dungeon Finder tool
• By walking up to the dungeon entrances in the Bangkorai (Unhallowed Grave) and northern Wrothgar (Icereach)

Finally, simply by entering one of these two dungeons, you’ll earn the Wickerman Mishap emote!


Watch your fingers!

[h2]Update 25’s New Rewards & Performance Improvements[/h2]
Releasing in tandem with the new DLC, Update 25 provides a host of new features and improvements for all ESO players, completely free. In particular, this update continues the performance work that began last year with a major Patching Overhaul and introduces new, unique rewards for PvP.

Patching Overhaul & Performance Improvements

The biggest change arriving with Update 25 is the Patching Overhaul. This update completely changes how the ESO game client is downloaded, patched, and stored on local hard drives. Because of this change, ALL ESO players are required to re-download the game client. Once complete, you will see improvements to the game’s load time and reductions in hard drive space requirements for future updates. You can learn more about this major overhaul in this article. There’s a free pet to be snatched up, too!

Additional performance updates associated with this patch include improvements to frame rates, the loading of fixtures and characters, and more, so don’t hesitate to check out our performance improvements timeline or Update 25’s patch notes on the official forums for everything you need to know.

New PvP Rewards

If you enjoy battling your fellow players in Cyrodiil, Update 25 introduces new rewards for PvP players: The Knight of the Circle Armor and Weapon Outfit Styles. You can obtain these new styles by purchasing a Knight’s Resolve or Knight’s Rebuke from a War Researcher in Cyrodiil.

• Combine Knight's Resolve with 20 Arena Gladiator Proofs to generate a random style page for armor in the Knight of the Circle style.
• Combine Knight's Rebuke with 40 Arena Gladiator Proofs to generate a random style page for a weapon in the Knight of the Circle style.

Show your valor with the Knight of the Circle styles!

Don’t forget, you need to complete Conquest daily quests in Cyrodiil to receive Arena Gladiator Proofs—no easy task! Finally, because the new style pages are not bound, you can trade them with other players.

[h2]The Dark Heart of Skyrim [/h2]
With Harrowstorm, your next big year-long adventure begins, leading you into Skyrim’s dark heart with The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor and continuing throughout all of 2020. Are you ready to begin this exciting new storyline and delve into the frigid island of Icereach and the bone-laden halls of Unhallowed Grave? Let us know on @TESOnline, Instagram, and Facebook!

Part of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure, the Harrowstorm DLC game pack is now live for PC/Mac and coming March 10 for Xbox One and PlayStation®4. This new DLC game pack arrives in tandem with Update 25, a free base-game update for all ESO players.
Harrowstorm Dark Heart of Skyrim Announcements Update 25

Learn about what makes Update 25 and the Patching Overhaul so important and the special pet we’re giving away in thanks!

[h3]EDIT: Questions about how this patch works on Steam? View our FAQ![/h3]

[h2]What is the Patching Overhaul?[/h2]

The Patching Overhaul is a massive part of the Update 25 base-game patch (arriving February 24 for PC/Mac and March 10 for PlayStation®4 and Xbox One) that completely overhauls how the ESO game client is downloaded, patched, and stored on local hard drives.


What are the benefits of this update?

Once this update is complete, you will see major improvements to the game’s load time and the speed at which assets are loaded into the world.

Most notably, this change dramatically reduces the patch sizes for all future updates, and it results in a major reduction of space taken up by the client on your machine’s hard drive. Our console players will feel this improvement most strongly, and PC/Mac players also benefit from this change.


What do I need to do?

ALL ESO players are required to completely re-download the game client upon the launch of Update 25. For the most part, this should not require any additional effort on your part; the ESO Launcher for PC/Mac or your console will begin the download automatically once the update goes live, so just let it run on its own. You shouldn’t notice any other changes to the launcher or download process, and your user settings and add-ons should remain untouched (although it never hurts to back them up!).

Unfortunately, it is not possible to begin the download for Update 25 early (nor simply use the files from the PTS)—it will begin the morning of the update’s launch. Once the download has begun, it’s simply a matter of waiting for it to complete and launching the game as normal. Easy!


Did I hear something about a free pet?

Yes! As a “thank you” to the ESO community for completing the re-download, we’re adding the Crimson Torchbug Pet to the Crown Store, completely free. This glowing gift can be found under the Pets category of the Crown Store and is available only for two weeks after Update 25’s launch. This means PC/Mac players can grab their pets from February 24 until March 9, and console players can get theirs from March 10 until March 24. Plenty of time to complete the re-download!



Look at that little red butt!


[h2]Update 25 Brings Improvements for All![/h2]
Releasing in tandem with the Harrowstorm DLC game pack, the Update 25 base-game patch brings a host of performance fixes that all of ESO’s players can enjoy. In addition to this patching overhaul, you’ll experience better load times, frame rates, and more To stay up to date on all the performance improvements we are making to ESO this year and beyond, keep an eye on this article for its monthly updates!

Are you ready for the patching overhaul and re-download that is coming with Update 25? More importantly, are you ready for the adorably bright Crimson Torchbug pet? Let us know via @TESOnline, Instagram, and Facebook!
Development Update 25 Harrowstorm

Check out two new homes with Systems Designer Cullen Lee and enjoy a new “Life at ZOS” interview with Writer Taylor Cyr!

Tune in to ESO Live this Friday at 5PM EST/10PM GMT (slightly earlier than normal!) to see Systems Designer Cullen Lee showcase two new homes (Forgemaster Falls and Thieves’ Oasis) and discuss the creation process.

In addition to this, the community team will also interview Writer Taylor Cyr as part of the returning “Life at ZOS” series. They’ll talk about Taylor’s journey to ZOS and what it’s like to be part of the content team, and her most recent work.

There will be giveaways, Twitch Drops (don’t forget to ensure your accounts are linked!), and a Valentine’s Day surprise! It’s going to be an amazing show, so join us at 5:00PM EST/10:00PM GMT this Friday, February 14, on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and Steam.

Be sure to stick around after the show as our Australian office will be running a special charity stream to raise funds for the Australian Red Cross, supporting those affected by the bush fires.