Delve Deeper into Update 46’s Base Game Additions with ESO’s Developers
ESO’s Developers discuss some of the big additions included in the Update 46 base-game patch.
The Update 46 base-game patch introduces a huge host of new features and adventures for ESO’s players. This includes the unlocking of the Western Solstice zone and story for 2025 Content Pass owners in addition to the new Subclassing system. However, these are far from the only new features and improvements included in the free update. A new Furnishing Vault comes to ESO Plus™ to alleviate storage issues, returning players can join the action faster with Hero’s Return, add-ons arrive for console players, and more!
[h2]A First Time for the Hero’s Return[/h2]
If you’ve ever come back to ESO after a lengthy absence, you might have found getting back into the swing of things took time and energy you’d rather have spent on your adventures. That’s why the Hero’s Return feature was created.
“We often see players overwhelmed when deciding what to do first when returning to the bustling land of Tamriel,” says Systems Designer Carlos Ruiz. “With Hero's Return, we guide players across a handful of key activities while helping showcase the fun and value of doing them on their own.”
Make your Hero’s Return
“Many of us have taken a break from a game and returned to it and asked ourselves, 'What are the controls, how do I catch up, what can I do currently?'” says Ruiz. “We saw Hero’s Return as our opportunity to help answer those questions and get players back into the fun of the game with ease!”
Hero's Return begins with a 10-15 minute quest that refreshes you on key combat mechanics. Afterward, you receive helpful bonus login rewards as you keep playing and a series of short Hero's Return Golden Pursuits designed to get you back into your Tamrielic groove. It keeps things simple—get reacquainted with the game and receive handy rewards for doing so!
[h2]Unpacking the Furnishing Vault[/h2]
The Furnishing Vault is a new addition to the ESO Plus benefits. If you have a membership, you can claim the Furnishing Vault for free in the Crown Store as soon as Update 46 is live on your platform of choice. Once claimed, it can store up to 500 stacks of furnishing items, freeing up bank and housing space dramatically.
“Player requests and interests over the years for housing storage were certainly a main motivator for the creation of the Furnishing Vault,” says Systems Designer Lyndsay Beaver. “We also have a strong desire to ease inventory pressure where we can, coupled with finding ways to improve the quality of life for all housing players.”
Store your spare furnishings easily!
For the team, when designing the vault, they had some clear goals in mind.
“Essentially, we want to make decorating a house, much less multiple houses, a bit more seamless. And again, working to ease inventory bloat for players who have a lot of furnishings,” adds Senior UI Engineer James Sammartino. “No more having to carry furnishings from one place to another in your inventory or having a house that’s just full of unplaced furniture.”
As you might expect, this new storage option had its own technical hurdles, too, which in turn led to greater Housing functionality.
“In building the vault, we needed to tackle a particular technical hurdle: providing players with a way to choose where to store retrieved furnishings,” explains Sammartino. “To address this, we have added a new Retrieve To option to the Housing Editor's Retrieve tab, allowing you to choose to send retrieved furnishings to your inventory, bank, storage chests, and, of course, the Furnishing Vault.”
[h2]Adding Add-Ons on Console[/h2]
Since ESO’s initial launch in 2014, players have customized their time in Tamriel with add-ons—on PC at least. Now, the option to customize your game experience through add-ons is coming to consoles (Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5) on June 23.
“We've wanted console add-ons since we first launched on consoles,” notes Lead UI Engineer Dan Batson. “Originally it was simply something first-party didn't really have a process for. That eventually changed, but things were always moving so fast that the timing was never right to get the resources. Lately, we've had a bigger focus on shoring up player experiences and closing gaps, so we pushed to make console add-ons a priority.”
Of course, the work itself was no simple matter, and it led to some limitations, but also learnings, for the team.
“The biggest challenge is that consoles have incredibly strict memory limits,” explains Batson. “This is why we support add-ons only on next gen consoles. Beyond that, we had to provide a built-in process not just for using add-ons but hosting and acquiring them. Caveat emptor still applies as it always has, but being responsible for this part of the process means a heightened level of deliberateness and scrutiny.”
As a result, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 players can begin downloading and enjoy add-ons when the functionality turns on starting June 23. Even better, if you’re an add-on creator, you can upload your add-ons to the system now.
[h2]Stacking on Convenience for Crafters[/h2]
How many writs could a master crafter stack, if a master crafter could stack writs? No, that’s not a tongue twister, it’s a question players will soon be able to answer for themselves.*
Master writs have been a vital part of the crafting economy in ESO for many years now, but they’ve been accompanied by the problem of inventory pressure since their inception. As unique items with similarly unique requirements and reward amounts, getting them to take up less space was a challenge for the team, but also an important need.
“With 10 plus years of content, we’re always cognizant of a player’s inventory and how it fills over the course of a game,” says Senior Systems Designer Matthew Bloise. “One of the primary goals of making master writs stackable was to alleviate the bloat in player inventories, so the design needed not to make the problem inadvertently worse down the line. This is why we avoided using something like a container—we know that they don’t stack. So, Engineering had to come up with a way to grant an item, in which the item itself was able to be stacked, while granting a distinct item upon its use.”
Receive and complete writs without filling up your inventory
Even better, the team doesn’t want this work to stop at crafting writs alone.
“As Rich said in the 2025 ESO Direct, we’re now looking to see how this can be applied to other areas of the game to further alleviate inventory pain for players.”
These great additions (almost all of them entirely free!) are just the highlights of the Update 46 base-game patch, which also includes map improvements, UI adjustments, and Champion tree changes. Which of these additions are you most excited to try? Let us know via Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.
*Spoilers, the answer is 200 in a single stack!
The free Update 46 base-game patch is live on PC/Mac and arrives on Xbox and PlayStation consoles on June 18, 2025.
