https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-elder-scrolls-blades/
Here is a nice introduction to the game with plenty of information.
https://guides.gamepressure.com/the-elder-scrolls-blades/
Here's The Level Codex link, full of collected information from the game. It's more detailed but not being updated now (August 2019) as far as I can tell.
https://www.levelcodex.com/elder-scrolls-blades/
The Elder Scrolls Wiki is built by players. (This is not the IGN one.) It's just now starting to have enough information to be useful for Blades. It is much more helpful for older editions of the game.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Blades:Blades
JIBS has a nice collection of strategy articles plus a few quest tips. I like their tips on combat but there is also information about monetization of the game.
https://jibsentertainment.com/2019/03/31/the-elder-scrolls-blades-collection-of-guides-and-strategies/
By the way, during early access only the Town and Abyss parts of the game are available. Arena isn't open for play yet although there are Player versus Player (PvP) Jobs available where you fight against NPCs. UPDATE: The December 2019 update opened PvP for players Level Five and above.
If you are having problems logging in, read these articles:
https://solommo.blogspot.com/2019/06/elder-scrolls-blades-beta-login-issues.html
Updates and Patch Notes:
You can read a summary of the various changes made to the game at the link below. Only the latest update is described at the bottom of this section.
https://solommo.blogspot.com/2020/07/elder-scrolls-blades-updates-and-patch.html
Error messages, login problems and possible fixes are now listed in a separate article that you can find here—
https://solommo.blogspot.com/2020/06/elder-scrolls-blades-error-messages-and.html
Updates and Patch Notes:
You can read a summary of the various changes made to the game at the link below. Only the latest update is described at the bottom of this section.
https://solommo.blogspot.com/2020/07/elder-scrolls-blades-updates-and-patch.html
Error messages, login problems and possible fixes are now listed in a separate article that you can find here—
https://solommo.blogspot.com/2020/06/elder-scrolls-blades-error-messages-and.html
********************************
Patch 1.20 arrived Jan. 20, 2022. Snow has melted and winter ended.
Patch 1.19 arrived December 7, 2021. The "Longest Night" on December 25 will have a new boss, a powerful orge and his helpers. The towns now have winter scenery and there will be special fundles and free decoration in the store coming December 17. Some event quests have been rebalanced; see the patch notes on the Blades website for more information.
Patch 1.18 arrived November 10, 2021. This patch returns the daylight version of your town along with the Warrior's Festival (November 20-29) which has themed quests and special store items. The new Feats of Strength quest with increasingly deadlier combatants also starts Nov. 20. In the Sigil shop the Golden Hammer (a new Ultimate Item) will be available starting Nov. 13.
Version 1.23 of Elder Scrolls Blades arrived May 11, 2022. It's described as a "technical update."
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Tips:
I'm not going to talk about guilds or the Arena PvP here. I play only casually and there just isn't enough time to cover everything. Besides, this is the SOLO MMO, fter all. Interacting with others online isn't my thing.
Don't worry too much about which character you create. If you decide you want to redo your character, talk to Theodor Gorlash who mostly stands in front of Lea Jeanne's Alchemy Laboratory, although he's by the gate where you respawn at first—talking to him there opens access to the Abyss section of the game. It appears to cost 50 gems. TouchTapPlay has a discussion of the various race/class bonuses you get with each character to help you pick the best character for your play style.
https://www.touchtapplay.com/elder-scrolls-blades-best-class-race-in-the-game-guide-to-classes/
If you take advantage of the free reset of your character tree October 10-13, 2019, do a quest before logging out. I had to reset the tree all over again after doing it once, then logging out of the game without doing anything else.
Hoarding your gems is a good idea. I spent a lot of mine on regenerating my health (the red bar in the User Interface, or UI) as I battled through quests early on and now I regret it. I think it is better to start over on a quest than to revive yourself by spending gems once you run out of the two revival scrolls you are given when you start of the game. Save the gems to upgrade your chest and item inventories (which can also be upgraded via your skills tree—see below).
Visit the Smith after each job or quest to repair your equipment. JIBS thinks that very damaged equipment is cheaper to repair than only slightly damaged equipment, although the higher quality the equipment, the more it costs to fix.
https://jibsentertainment.com/2019/03/31/the-elder-scrolls-blades-collection-of-guides-and-strategies/#repair-analysis
You may also temper equipment to improve its stats at the blacksmith's Smithy. Once you are able to buy an enchanter's tower, you can enchant equipment via the Enchanter. (A smithy and an alchemist store are provided at the beginning of the game but you have to buy the enchanter's tower. You can have up to two shops of each of the three types.) The Alchemist sells potions and poisons and will craft them for a fee and/or ingredients. The Workshop crafter sells limestone and lumber and copper and iron, necessary items to repair and upgrade your buildings and walls, as well as various decorations. Each type of store restocks approximately twice a day so you may have to wait to be able to buy something you need.
Your town level must be increased before you can upgrade the shops, though. You will be constantly grinding, trying to get enough gold and supplies to upgrade the town so you can upgrade the shops so you can upgrade your equipment or buy potions/poisons/health so you can get through quests to get more gold to upgrade the town, etc. I recommend you leave one type of shop at the basic level and upgrade the second copy of that as much as you can. That way you have access to basic supplies you will need but also can buy or craft better items available only in an upgraded shop. I've started to upgrade both my Alchemist stores now that I am Level 46, though, just so I can buy the ingredients I need for health potions and poisons. I've never upgraded my second Workshop or my duplicate Smithy or Enchanter.
You can decorate your town and will want do so whether you care about the town's looks or not, since decorations add Prestige to the town. Repairing the various ruined houses and walls also adds quite a bit of Prestige. A certain level of Prestige is necessary in order to upgrade the town level so you can upgrade your shops to access better stuff. As your town is rebuilt, it accumulates Prestige which allows you to upgrade your shops for better items but it also means that the houses and shops become more expensive to build or upgrade. Therefore, do as much rebuilding as soon as you can. Later on the walls and gates seem much less expensive, so stop adding houses and work on the walls and gates to add Prestige so you can upgrade your shops. You also will get some Prestige from decorations you can purchase or pay to have crafted.
Decorations come in three sizes--small, medium and large--and are purchased or crafted via the workshop. (There are occasional decorative gifts from the game as well as major quest rewards, plus you can buy decorative items with real money or gems in the game store.) They are placed in small, medium or large spots throughout the town. Each spot is enclosed with a stone circle and has one, two or three tree icons on it to indicate what size it is. After you purchase and place something, you can change your mind and remove it. It goes back into your inventory and can be put somewhere else. (Yes! You can move your outhouse around to create a more pleasing effect. LOL) You can sell a decoration back to a vendor if you accidentally buy too many Imperial Banners, decide you need all skull banners, don't like that old well after all, etc. You can also
Here is a map of the decoration locations. It's not totally accurate. There is a spot to the left of the Jobs Board—your left as you face the Jobs Board--for a small decoration that is missing from the map, for example.
https://rankedboost.com/the-elder-scrolls-blades/town/
Here's a list of the items you can craft or purchase at the Workshop.
http://www.gamersheroes.com/game-guides/the-elder-scrolls-blades-decoration-unlock-guide/
Note you can sell unwanted gear, herbs, metals, jewels, etc. to the shopkeepers, but they have a limited amount of gold on hand to buy your items (listed at the top in the Shop area), so pick what you want to sell with that amount in mind. Otherwise you will sell at a loss. If you accidentally sell something you didn't mean to, you can buy it back but act fast. That option lasts less than 5-30 minutes and if you log out before the time, it's gone for good.
Upgrade the Smithy as soon as you can--that gives you access to new weapons which you can buy--or allows you to temper your old gear with materials you've gathered to make it better. You can also salvage material from unwanted gear. (You will be able to enchant gear once you are able to purchase an Enchanter's Tower.) I ended up with two Alchemy Laboratories because you can buy health potions there. I visit both shops each day and load up if I can afford it. I also have two Smithys so that one can temper/craft while I use the other to repair weapons and armor after each job or quest. I upgraded the various shops as soon as I have the gold so I can access better items. (Although I haven't upgraded my duplicate Workshop, Smithy or Enchanter.) All the shops will buy any items you don't want or need up to the limit of gold they have on hand for purchases. Doesn't matter what type of shop it is or gear they sell, they'll buy anything. For a limited time you can buy back items you've sold but the stock available to repurchase clears out after an unknown but fairly short period of time.
Keep an eye on your inventories. You have two: a chest inventory (10 chests max) and a regular inventory. The regular inventory allows you to carry one piece or armor, a weapon or piece of jewel per slot. However, 10 potion items fill one slot. If you have 12 health potions, they will be listed as 10 health and 2 health in the inventory. Miscellaneous items like limestone or garlic seem to stack endlessly so that you can have thirty-five greater soul gems in one slot. You can spend gems and gold to enlarge your inventory. I consider this a wise investment. I've also discovered Load Bearer among the Perks of your character, which increases your inventory. Note that the chest inventory has been eliminated as of the December 2019 patch.
The 7/13/19 patch allows you to sort quickly through Miscellaneous items in your Inventory to look at All, Construction, Smithing, Alchemy, Enchanting and Quest items. This will help you find out if you have enough of something such as lumber for construction, and also help you avoid accidentally selling a Quest item. (Although for a short while you can buy back anything you sell to a vendor.)
Food that restores your health is hidden throughout the game (except not in the Abyss where there is no food available—there are no chests or jars or glowing gold skeletons with loot to find, either, so you have to rely on your potions and scrolls to renew health and have to progress to get rewards instead of stumbling across them). Mushrooms often grow on the back or sides of pillars in various rooms during Quests and Jobs. You can also occasionally find meat roasting on spits in outdoor areas to boost health and some of the halls have mushrooms on the hall walls. I've discovered that the game developers have made some food hard to see, so turn around and look behind you occasionally. You may see food you have overlooked.
Chests come in various types. The most common are wooden and silver chests. They all open on a timer: 5 seconds, one hour, six hours, twelve hours, etc. (The timers are removed with the December 2019 patch.) Be careful touching the timer to start. If you accidentally touch it twice, you will forfeit gems to open it immediately. Open your wooden chests before the higher level ones. Once you click on the timer on a silver chest, the wooden chests that are unopened will cost one gem to open until the silver chest's timer runs out. Before you click the silver chest timer, they are free. Also if you win a wooden chest after starting the timer on a silver one, it will cost one gem to open the wooden chest until the silver's timer runs out. Note that you can only have 10 unopened chests max as mentioned above. I tend to open wooden chests as soon as I find them in game, just to keep the chest inventory low. All chests have loot, but some of the glowing gold skeletons and the jars may not have anything. Note that very occasionally when you find a secret area with loot a monster will jump out at you, so be ready. I've also seen an enemy NPC enter a secret area after I opened it.
Jobs and Quests are rated as to their difficulty according to a 1-5 skull rating. HOWEVER, this is a bit flaky. I've found that at first any job with gem rewards is harder than jobs without, regardless of the skull rating. You'll also find that the number of skulls change according to the gear your character is wearing. (Note that if the skull rating is low but you are being killed mercilessly, try different types of weapons and/or add potions and poisons to them to overcome your foe.) Switch to a different blade, axe or hammer or better armor, and the difficulty may change. Once you finish a quest, you can continue to explore instead of quitting the quest. I always continue in order to pick up excess loot. Often a quest has a food item to boost health near the exit so look there first, then back track through areas you haven't explored.
There are also Challenges, which are things like Defeat 10 Dremora or Deal So Many Points of Shock Damage. Since the Dremora are not available at first, you can see that it takes a while to complete certain challenges. They are not rated as to difficulty. Some Quests have secret areas to find where there are chests and sometimes other items like health food. Check the Quest Details to see if there's any secret room before you finish a quest. Note that very occasionally a monster will be lurking in the secret space. Be ready.
The Store offers a free item each day, as well as selling chests, gems and unique decorations. There are also periodic sales on items. Don't miss picking these freebies up daily. Any chest you are given opens immediately. The free items appear to be on a set schedule but I think the number of items can vary except in the case of the chests. You only get one free chest.
Sunday - one golden chest
Monday - Potion of Extreme Heals (variable amounts)
Tuesday - copper (variable amounts)
Wednesday - one silver chest
Thursday - limestone (variable amounts)
Friday - Scroll of Revival (variable amounts)
Saturday - exceptional soul gems (variable amounts) or rubies or sapphires (occasional drops)
7/31/19 UPDATE: This game update has added what are called Rare Challenges to the regular Challenges. My first Rare Challenge was to find 10 food items. Not exactly rare, is it? It appears there are also Uncommon, Epic and Legendary Challenges, all of which have gem rewards.
There is a Daily Job and a Weekly Job and often several PvP Jobs where you fight opponents. Watch the timers to make sure you do a timed Job before it's too late. If you find a job too hard and bail, it disappears from the list, although I suspect it may turn up again. I've seen jobs that I remember from earlier reappear—at least I think I have seen this. With only a limited number of dungeons available, you will see the same area appear again and again, but with different items you need to collect or enemies you need to defeat. This makes it hard to know if Jobs repeat unless you keep a list (and who has time for that?!). 7/31/19 UPDATE: This update adds new PvP Job opponents, some quite hard to defeat. I think these opponents show up over and over again. Watch for their weaknesses and quickly switch gear to take advantage of that. I think these PvP matches are a good time to try out using potions and poisons to boost yourself and damage your opponent. I am starting to add the PvP opponents to the Enemies Summary Spreadsheet linked to below in the Enemies section (in red).
The Abyss is a good place to get gold and materials and learn to fight with the tools at your command. It has no hidden rewards and no health food. You simply go through each level (each of which appears to have 3-5 creatures to fight although I did find a level with only one Lich and one with one dragon to kill and after the 1.3 update there seem to be a variety of enemies or even one exceptionally powerful one per level) until your health runs out and you are killed. The game will suggest you start a few levels below where you were killed last time. That is a sensible way to proceed because starting where you left off dumps you into a boss battle right away without any chance to pick up much loot. Try to space out the battles so that your blue and green bars (Magicka is blue on left side of screen and green on the right side is Stamina) are full again before you start a fight. You don't want to have to fight two critters in quick succession. Make sure you add the Magicka spell Absorb to your skill tree and upgrade it as much as possible given your character level. This sucks energy from your opponent and restores your health somewhat. (Ditto Adrenaline Dodge in Ability/Stamina although it doesn't appear to add much health when your character is lower level. Still, something is better than nothing when you are battling for your life! It improves with time and more points in your skill tree, however.)
Fighting is all about timing. Keep your shield or weapon up (touch the shield icon), wait to touch Absorb or Adrenaline Dodge until you have at least some health damage so as not to waste it, and try to hit the enemy with a weapon or spell when they are not in defensive mode with their shields or weapons up. Hit spell casters before they blast you with a spell if possible. Once you are ready, touch the enemy and wait for the red circle to turn fully yellow. Release the touch and then put your weapon or shield up. I try to counter-punch so the enemy doesn't have their shield up. (And of course better weapons help greatly.) You don't have to swipe your finger to get damage. In fact, I think swiping is less effective than just a fingertip touch you hold until the red circle turns gold. (Some folks think swiping--as long as you don't lift a finger--works better, though.) You can touch on alternate sides of the enemy to get combo damage. Note that after the 7/31/19 update Henrik the Old Bladesmaster does tutorials on blocking, critical hits and combos early in the game. He dies during a quest so make sure you do those in early on. After the 8/30/19 update, Staki is available to practice various fighting techniques. She is found at the gate on your left from where you spawn upon entering the game. It looks like if you accidentally kill Staki in the arena, you get her bag of gold but she respawns as if nothing has happened in the same spot afterwards. Staki is a better tutorial than Henrik in my opinion.
Weapons come in various types (heavy and light plus what this site below calls versatile) and deal three different types of damage: cleaving, slashing and bashing. This chart will help you figure out what sort of weapons you have. This is necessary because some enemies are vulnerable to bashing damage, and you need to know if an axe is considered cleaving or bashing, for example. Repeat after me: axes cleave, hammers bash, swords and daggers slash.
https://www.gamezebo.com/2019/04/12/elder-scrolls-blades-weapons-list-all-weapons-damage-and-cost/
GamesHedge has a nice general summary of the various beginner weapons.
https://www.gameshedge.com/elder-scrolls-blades-weapons/
Note that there are some weapons called Artifacts that are found in chests in the regular game or in the Abyss. These cannot be crafted or tempered, but they are special drops. Mehrune's Razor is an example.
https://www.levelcodex.com/elder-scrolls-blades/weapons/7-mehrune-s-razor/
I've just discovered a rare weapon that is locked until you reach a certain level. This is the first time I've seen this. See the red lock icon?
Legendary weapons use a lot of Magicka to wield. I think the only way to use them is to boost your Magicka as you level. I'm not sure about this, though. Stay tuned until the next time I level up.
You'll find as you play the game that you never have quite the right weapon to fight the current monster. You'll have a sword with shock, not a sword with fire, etc. With the inventory limits, it's not possible to carry all the combinations you might want. I started out figuring out what would kill trolls and goblins, then enchanted or tempered those type weapons. Later on in the game (I'm at level 38) it seems to me that if you are fighting a dragon (which is susceptible to slashing and frost) and you have both a sword (slashing) with fire and a hammer (bashing) with frost, choose the sword. In other words, choose the weapon type instead of the element type when going up against varmints if you don't have the perfect weapon in your inventory. So far this seems to be working well. Of course there are enemies that are just vulnerable to fire, etc., so pull out that flaming sword or hot dagger and whack at them. I've also seen (at Level 46) that if you are fighting an enemy vulnerable to a frost hammer but you also have a very high level frost sword, the sword works better than the frost hammer if there are at least 5 levels separating the two.
Armor can be confusing. Games Radar has the best explanation I've read. The second link below goes into detail. Note that there is a Perk in your skill tree called Matching Set that boosts your armor rating if you are wearing a matching set of armor, helmet, boots and gauntlets.
https://www.gamesradar.com/elder-scrolls-blades-armor/
https://www.gamezebo.com/2019/04/14/elder-scrolls-blades-armour-list-a-list-of-all-armour-and-how-to-get-it/
Per the 7/31/19 update, you can now make your helmet invisible if you prefer seeing your face instead of having it covered by a tin can on the Character menu. Go to Character Menu and click on the helmet icon in the upper right corner. This toggles helmet invisibility on and off in your character picture.
Here is an alphabetical list of the armor I've seen—
Charus armor
Chitin armor resists Poison and regenerates Magicka
Daedric armor
Dragonbone armor
Dragonscale resists Poison and reduces Cleaving damage
Dwarven armor
Ebony armor
Elven armor regenerates Magicka
Glass armor regenerates Stamina and reduces Shock damage
Hide armor regenerates Stamina
Iron armor
Leather armor resists Bashing and Shock damage
Orcish armor resists Fire and reduces Cleaving damage
Silver armor
Stahlrim armor resists Frost and reduces Bashing damage
Steel armor
Quicksilver armor
Pocket Gamer has a short section on Jewelry with information that I haven't seen anywhere else. Looks like you can wear two rings and one necklace at a time. Necklaces appear to be common rewards in the game early on but be careful of collecting too many as each takes up one slot in inventory. I keep the best one to wear and sell the rest myself as they are valuable.
https://www.pocketgamer.com/articles/080480/the-elder-scrolls-blades-cheats-tips-everything-to-know-about-jewelry/
This article by Elder Scrolls Fandom Wiki lists enemy strengths and weaknesses with images of the various races. Note that occasionally you can sneak past NPC enemies. Watch their routine and wait until they are out of sight or at least out of range of your DPS to grab loot or items that you need to fulfill the quest (unless of course the quest is kill X number of enemies which means you have to fight them). Repeat after me: axes cleave, hammers bash, swords slash.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Blades:_Characters
An even more complete summary of enemy strengths and weaknesses is Gamepedia's listing which lists weaknesses in both weapons and magic categories and links to a color coded table from Reddit. (Color key below the table.) Be careful, though. I've found errors on the list.
https://elderscrollsblades.gamepedia.com/Enemies
Here's a very nice summary of enemy weaknesses, attacks and damage that was updated as of December 2019, courtesy of karmakahana.
https://i.redd.it/k89wvuxm4v641.jpg
Spreadsheet with enemy information—this is being checked and updated as I discover new info and correct the old.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fzar-1hK8JsfTF3QxPQMqQq-l5RIYJRVuHkgwgAF2ag/edit#gid=0
7/31/19 UPDATE: This update added enemy information on the screen when a fight begins. You'll see an icon that tells you one-two weaknesses the opponent has (a skull, say, that shows they are vulnerable to poison, or a sword and flame that says they are weak when it comes to flaming swords). When you see Resist on the screen during a fight, that means the opponent is resisting whatever spell or weapon you are using. This is a good time to switch out weapons, etc. When you hit the blue, green or red bars, the game pauses while you add potions or poisons, switch from a sword to a hammer, put on different armor, etc.
Using Skills and Stats:
This is something I'm just beginning to explore. There isn't much info out there about how it all works, so I'll write something. Note that I am discovering how this works as I go along, so this isn't necessarily 100% accurate.
Skills has three parts: Spells, Perks and Abilities. As you advance in the game, your character is given points you can use to customize your character to your playing style in a skill tree. (However, at least at first you are mostly a melee player who can use occasional spells, potions and poisons. The potions and poisons become more important later on when the bosses become more dangerous and harder to survive or kill.) To see what each Spell, Perk or Ability is like, touch the icon for it and then select Details by touching that. To add that item to your skill tree, click on Unlock if you have enough points to add it to the skill tree you are building. To boost it, click on Upgrade. Many items cannot be unlocked or upgraded until your character reaches a certain level. The most important spell to get in my opinion is Absorb since using it allows you to regenerate a bit of health. The most important Ability is Adrenaline Dodge since it also regenerates your health. If you don't want to die constantly, especially at first, pick up these at the first opportunity and learn to use them. I spent a lot of time in the Abyss learning to restore my health during a fight with these. You can have three Spells enabled and ready to use (they are on the blue Magicka bar on the left side of your User Interface, or UI) at any one time. The order they appear in is seems random, but might be sort by the order you enabled them.
Perks appear to be tied to how you use your equipment: Scout adds damage every time you use a light weapon such as a dagger. I don't think Perks appears anywhere in the UI since it is tied to specific weapon types. I imagine any time you use your dagger, Scout will automatically deal more damage than if you didn't have Scout in your skill tree. Note that Load Bearer among the Perks increases your inventory. Advanced Tempering increases your Smithy level by six up to Level Ten, so it's a good one to load points in to. How much the smithy or inventory size increase depends on how many points you put in this perk. Like Spells and Abilities, you have to be at a certain level before you can upgrade to some things. Here is an article that talks about the best Perks.
https://segmentnext.com/2019/04/23/the-elder-scrolls-blades-perks-guide/
Abilities are shown on the green Stamina bar on the right side. Health is the red bar. Spells (blue bar) and Abilities can only be triggered periodically but you can purchase or brew potions at an alchemy lab that boost your Magic and Stamina, enabling you to use Spells and Abilities more often. When you are in combat and either Health, Magicka or Stamina are running low, the red/blue/green bottle icon will appear if you have boosting potions for them in your character inventory. I am not certain what will be chosen for you, however. It's best to pick yourself instead of letting the game use up all your high level health potions first.
You can reset your skill tree if you discover you made a mistake early on, or you decide to play your character differently. Go to Skills on your character menu, then the Reset button will be in the upper left corner. I don't know if it resets everything or just the page (Spells, Perks, Abilities) you are on since I haven't tried it yet. It costs gems. I'm cheap so I may never test this out. UPDATE: Reset resets Spells, Perks and Abilities simultaneously.
An even more complete summary of enemy strengths and weaknesses is Gamepedia's listing which lists weaknesses in both weapons and magic categories and links to a color coded table from Reddit. (Color key below the table.) Be careful, though. I've found errors on the list.
https://elderscrollsblades.gamepedia.com/Enemies
Here's a very nice summary of enemy weaknesses, attacks and damage that was updated as of December 2019, courtesy of karmakahana.
https://i.redd.it/k89wvuxm4v641.jpg
Spreadsheet with enemy information—this is being checked and updated as I discover new info and correct the old.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fzar-1hK8JsfTF3QxPQMqQq-l5RIYJRVuHkgwgAF2ag/edit#gid=0
7/31/19 UPDATE: This update added enemy information on the screen when a fight begins. You'll see an icon that tells you one-two weaknesses the opponent has (a skull, say, that shows they are vulnerable to poison, or a sword and flame that says they are weak when it comes to flaming swords). When you see Resist on the screen during a fight, that means the opponent is resisting whatever spell or weapon you are using. This is a good time to switch out weapons, etc. When you hit the blue, green or red bars, the game pauses while you add potions or poisons, switch from a sword to a hammer, put on different armor, etc.
Using Skills and Stats:
This is something I'm just beginning to explore. There isn't much info out there about how it all works, so I'll write something. Note that I am discovering how this works as I go along, so this isn't necessarily 100% accurate.
Skills has three parts: Spells, Perks and Abilities. As you advance in the game, your character is given points you can use to customize your character to your playing style in a skill tree. (However, at least at first you are mostly a melee player who can use occasional spells, potions and poisons. The potions and poisons become more important later on when the bosses become more dangerous and harder to survive or kill.) To see what each Spell, Perk or Ability is like, touch the icon for it and then select Details by touching that. To add that item to your skill tree, click on Unlock if you have enough points to add it to the skill tree you are building. To boost it, click on Upgrade. Many items cannot be unlocked or upgraded until your character reaches a certain level. The most important spell to get in my opinion is Absorb since using it allows you to regenerate a bit of health. The most important Ability is Adrenaline Dodge since it also regenerates your health. If you don't want to die constantly, especially at first, pick up these at the first opportunity and learn to use them. I spent a lot of time in the Abyss learning to restore my health during a fight with these. You can have three Spells enabled and ready to use (they are on the blue Magicka bar on the left side of your User Interface, or UI) at any one time. The order they appear in is seems random, but might be sort by the order you enabled them.
Perks appear to be tied to how you use your equipment: Scout adds damage every time you use a light weapon such as a dagger. I don't think Perks appears anywhere in the UI since it is tied to specific weapon types. I imagine any time you use your dagger, Scout will automatically deal more damage than if you didn't have Scout in your skill tree. Note that Load Bearer among the Perks increases your inventory. Advanced Tempering increases your Smithy level by six up to Level Ten, so it's a good one to load points in to. How much the smithy or inventory size increase depends on how many points you put in this perk. Like Spells and Abilities, you have to be at a certain level before you can upgrade to some things. Here is an article that talks about the best Perks.
https://segmentnext.com/2019/04/23/the-elder-scrolls-blades-perks-guide/
Abilities are shown on the green Stamina bar on the right side. Health is the red bar. Spells (blue bar) and Abilities can only be triggered periodically but you can purchase or brew potions at an alchemy lab that boost your Magic and Stamina, enabling you to use Spells and Abilities more often. When you are in combat and either Health, Magicka or Stamina are running low, the red/blue/green bottle icon will appear if you have boosting potions for them in your character inventory. I am not certain what will be chosen for you, however. It's best to pick yourself instead of letting the game use up all your high level health potions first.
You can reset your skill tree if you discover you made a mistake early on, or you decide to play your character differently. Go to Skills on your character menu, then the Reset button will be in the upper left corner. I don't know if it resets everything or just the page (Spells, Perks, Abilities) you are on since I haven't tried it yet. It costs gems. I'm cheap so I may never test this out. UPDATE: Reset resets Spells, Perks and Abilities simultaneously.
Stats are just a summary of your character. It's a useful place to check what weaknesses you have before you start on a big quest.
The enemies have Spells, Perks and Abilities, too. Check what each type is like before you go on a quest involving them so you can select the best offenses and defenses for this type. Trolls and Wisps are the most difficult so far. Fortunately they both are vulnerable to fire, so I avoided quests with these as much as possible until I had fire enchantments on my gear. I also added a Frost Aversion potion to my character before fighting a bunch of Wisps. I treat Wisps like spiders or wolves or the rats and wait for them to rush me before I hit at them. Note that the Wispmother attacks like other enemies instead of pouncing like a spider or a Wisp. 7/31/19 UPDATE: This update added enemy information on the screen when a fight begins. You'll see an icon that tells you a weakness the opponent has (a skull, say, that shows they are vulnerable to poison, or a sword and flame that says flaming swords will be their downfall) and sometimes the weapon type it is most vulnerable to. The game also explained that when you see Resist on the screen during a fight, that means the opponent is resisting whatever spell or weapon you are using. This is a good time to switch out weapons, etc. When you hit the blue, green or red bars, the game pauses while you add potions or poisons, switch from a sword to a hammer, put on different armor, etc. But be quick to push the bars. I like to whack the NPC before I go to one of my bars to change out items.
To use potions and poisons, they must be applied to your weapons, drunk to protect you against certain types of damage, or drunk to restore your health, stamina or magicka. You do this by clicking on your red health bar. This accesses the potions/poisons area. Drinking a potion immediately delivers the effect to your character. Applying a poison to your weapon means the poison will be delivered to the enemy at your next blow. According to the ? Tips in your character menu "each poison can be delivered three times." I'm guessing that means you can only whack an enemy with a poison on your weapon three times while doing a quest or dungeon run before it is gone. The poison you've applied doesn't expire when you switch weapons but it does expire when you return to town. Any potion or poison or enchantment applied to a weapon gives it a special effect on screen but some of these wear off as explained above.
After the July 31, 2019 update, items on your in-game green and blue bars that are currently unavailable are grayed out until you can use them again. It looks like enemies can cast spells that make these unusable for a while. I'd like to gather more information about enemy weaknesses and the potions and poisons to use against them for the Enemies Spreadsheet but it is hard to do that without being killed.
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| Boss Battle Incoming |
Check Reddit if your problem quest or job isn't listed at these places:
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Blades:_Quests
https://www.levelcodex.com/elder-scrolls-blades/quests/
I'll write up quests that aren't listed as I go through them.
Bethesda posted these tips for defeating the dragon in the Ayleid Crown quest (Level 31):
Use a mace, hammer or warhammer, preferably enchanted with fire using the Aversion to Fire poison. Cast Fireballs and Consuming Inferno if you are able. Also wear rings with bonuses. Up your shock and frost resistance before the battle. The Resist Elements spell also helps. And of course take health potions.
The quest to fight the Redguard Azzin is very frustrating as Redguards are tanks that regenerate health. It took me four attempts to settle on an effective strategy to defeat him. Because Redguards are vulnerable to shock, I used a weapon that deals shocks and added Healing Poison to the weapon 4-5 times until I got his health down enough for him to surrender. Healing Poison retards health regeneration so using it on a shocking axe did the trick finally. Apparently someone else used a shock dagger plus Healing Poison.
The Wrath of the Sorcerer-King is a major quest that has you fighting the Ayleid Lich in an arena-like setting. This is a Level 36 quest according to the quest details page. As soon as he hits you, you will lose access to health boosts on the blue/green bars, so come prepared with multiple health potions. Looks like he is vulnerable to swords and fire. I tackled this at Level 37, using a Magnificent Glass Great Sword of Arcing (shock) with Major Healing Poison applied to my weapon (twice) plus Major Vigor Poison applied to the sword once to help take him down. It would have been better to have a fire sword but I used what I had. which is why I waited until I was Level 37. You'll probably need a Scroll of Revival since it only takes 3-4 whacks for the Sorcerer-King Lich to kill you. I also used two Potions of Plentiful Healing to get through the battle.
Gabrielle's Treasure is one of a series of quests where you escort Gabrielle and her apprentice Sabina Clovia or Gabrielle and the Bloodfall Queen on explorations of dangerous areas. (After the 10/9/19 update, the recommended player level is 47. There was none before.) First you go to the cave, then you have to find the Bloodfall Queen. There isn't any health food laying around in the cave, so take plenty of health potions. There are two secret areas with treasure. The first is guarded by a Troll near the beginning of the cave. The second is [I'll add this when I find it; I'm level 42 currently and this is a very difficult quest at this level. I keep dying so I have to grind to get more health and try again later].
There is a barred entrance in the cave. The switch that opens it is on the right side down low. It can be hard to see. Back up and turn around until you see it glowing gold. There's a side room to the left (the quest glow line leads you to the right) with the Murzog to fight. He is vulnerable to poison just like the Mercenaries you've been fighting since you got out of the cave.
One of the boss battles you have to fight is with Gabrielle immediately after you have to fight two Storm Atronachs. She is vulnerable to frost and swords/daggers so I'll add aversion to frost potions to my sword before fighting her and make sure my health is at 100% and that I have plenty of potions to add after she whacks me once. Each of her strikes causes major damage.
Looks like the River Snake's weapon is a battle axe called the Headman's Cleaver. I haven't finished this quest yet as it is too high level for me right now. Stay tuned.
Deadly Neighbor is recommended for Level 41 players although I get the warning about the quest being dangerous even though I am Level 46. At first you will fight Spriggens with your flaming axe. There are dead tree trunks with loot hidden in the early section, so keep an eye out for them. Once you get inside the town gate, you will be attacked by multiple Wisps that are fought with fire.
There are three secret areas. The first secret area is triggered by a skull on a pole lever inside the first gate. Once you go through the second gate, there are more Wisps and Wisp Mothers. Ditto the third gate. All three areas have health food hidden in them to help survive. Just inside the fourth gate you will see a Spriggan (and a Wisp Mother) again but also health foods. Another secret area is in an old building you can see just beyond a rock blocking the path. A Spriggan guards it, so wait until the Spirggan walks away and trigger the door to open using the skull on a pole to the right of the old building. When you come to a narrow area with sunlight flooding the trail, stop and drink a health potion if you are low on health as the Spriggan you are about to face appears to deal poison damage. The next area is the cave entrance, guarded by a Wisp Mother. Wisps are inside the cave. The last secret area can be seen in the back of the cave. The tunnel bends to the left and continues, though. At the end is where you will have the boss battle. The major boss is a huge troll called the Beast of Gorrham that does major damage with each hit it lands. Use Vigor, Healing and Recovery poisons on your weapon as well as Aversion to Fire. Keep your health up. I think I used 3-4 health potions during the battle. I also picked up as much loot before the battle as possible, just in case I got killed, so I'd have as much as possible. Note that if you repeat a major quest you left before finishing, the chests you found don't re-spawn. The skeletons and jars do re-spawn, however, as do the various items you find scattered in your path like imp stools and crystals.
New Version 1.7 Quests
Vilified (Level 16) - find a man accused of murder in his hideout. One hidden place in the second village you come to, mercenaries you have to fight with poison, spiders that are killed by axes and frost, a sprigging killed by fire, lots of imp stools and health food. Once you enter the cave you must kill a mercenary to get a key to get through a locked door. This quest has lots of loot and trunks. Finishing this quest leads you to the Villains quest (Level 26).
Villains (Level 26) - defeat the gang leader who framed the innocent man and his three lieutenants. There are two hidden places in this quest. You have to open two secret areas to find the first hidden place. Each lieutenant you defeat drops a key, so make sure you pick those up to go to the next area. The second secret area lever is revealed after you defeat the gang leader. There are lots of chests in this quest and if you defeat the gang leader you'll receive the Redoran Watchman's Helm which allows you to run around looking as if you have a red mushroom for a head.
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| Mushroom Head - Dang! I look GOOD (not really) |
The Heretic (Level 20) - Speak to the Orc Chief, then rescue his daughter. There are two hidden places in this quest. There are lots of health foods scattered around, some not obvious. The first hidden area is near the first cave bear you encounter. I accidentally finished the quest before finding the second. The quest has two endings I think.
The Wizard's Challenge (Level 12) - Return to Brold's ghost filled tower - reach the final room. There are a dozen hidden areas in this quest. Don't end the quest when you get through the first door. Make the ghost reveal the hidden door and continue to explore. Ghosts must be fought with poison. When you get to the room with four ghosts, talk to the center ghost first, then the ghost on the right, the ghost on the left, and the center ghost again, right ghost and finally the center ghost to get both doors open to proceed. Make sure you don't miss breaking any treasure jars. Once you make it to the dead end room, backtrack down three sets of stairs and find the locked door. By now you will have the key to open it. Make sure you break open all the treasure pots in the room with three Guardian Skeletons (fight with poison) as there is a key to open the next door in one of them. The answer to how many staircases is five, by the way. The elements that are useless against ghosts are poison and frost. If you don't make it all the way throught, you'll be given a chance to run it over again.
Tournament Trials (obtained by talking to Noura, these four qualifier matches apparently are only handed out occasionally, report to her after each match and then watch for the diamond above her head to have an exclamation point to pick up the next trial; use Explore to make sure any dropped loot is claimed before exiting):
Connelain of the Reach (Level 10) — Fight with Fire
Najeepa Swims-in-Blood (Level 11) - Fight with Poison
Rakhad (Level 11) - Fight with Frost
Tasha (Level 13) - Fight with Frost
Exhibition Fight:
This follows the Tournament Trials.
Dire Wolves (Level 17) Fight three wolves at a time with Sword + Shock
Tournament:
Garzul gro-Durgoth (Level 18) - Fight with Shock
Aragoth (Level 17) - Fight with Poison
Severa Calvina (Level 19) - Fight with Poison
Tournament - Round 1 Finals:
Wanum, the Queen's envoy (Level 22) - Fight with Shock
A Question of Murder (Level 29) - Investigate Volusianus' murder by talking to three other tournament combatants.
Exhibition Fight:
This follows the Tournament Round 1 Finals.
Cave Bears (Level 24) Fight two cave bears - Fight with Sword + Shock. Make sure you pick up the drops after you kill both bears.
Tournament - Round 2:
Molriel (Level 26) - Fight with Poison
Dalan Silver-Skin (Level 27) - Fight with Poison
Tournament - Round 2 Finals:
Malanwen (Level 33) - Fight with Poison
Three Flame Atronachs (Level 32) - Fight with Cleaving Frost weapons and Resist Fire potions
A Few More Questions (Level 37) - Interrogate four other combatants about murders of Arena participants.
Tournament - Round 3:
Dalsa Veleth (Level ?) - Fight with Fire
Arielle Themond (Lever 33) - Fight with Fire
Tournament - Round 3 Finals:
Queen Urzoga gra-Batul (Level 39) - Fight with Frost
Exhibition Fight -
This follows the Round 3 Finals.
Enchanted Troll Statues (Level 38) - there are two - Fight with Hammer and Shock
Tournament - Round 4:
Dinahan-Al-Rihad (Level 39) - Fight with Frost
Thorjold (Level 40) - Fight with Poison
The Message Quest:
Boregis gives you a document. Talk to two town NPCs to find out more.
Tournament - Round 4 Finals:
Campanus Tetius (Level 45) - Fight with Poison - Win Elder Chest
A Visit to Blackridge Quest (Level 47) - Investigate Martius Silius' murky past - Follow Boregis but don't rush, pick up all the loot along the way.
The Long Shadow of the Past Quest (Level 41) - Talk to Martius Silius - Don't miss the loot at the exit. Either get it first before you talk to Silius or don't hit Complete until you do.
Grand Invitational Tournament Final Round:
Brynhildur War-Wind (Level 45) - Fight with Shock
Garen Bethalas (Level 45) - Fight with Frost
Tournament - Round 5 Finals:
Angarion the Bold (Level 47) - Fight with Shock
Tournament Championship:
Martius Silius (Level 51) - Fight with Frost
Icons:
There are a ton of different icons that are a visual for the various attributes a piece or armor or weapon has. I've started a list which is already twenty-two items long and I'm sure there are many more. However, the basic icons are weapons ones (sword/dagger, axe, hammer), the health icon, and the damage ones (fire, poison, frost, shock). There are a ton of variations of the damage icons and also icons about the various ranks of perks and abilities. Click on the magnifying glass icon to study what's available on various pieces of armor, jewelry, etc. Here's a quick visual tutorial for new players:
Things I'd like changed:
The store constantly alerts you to new items, which are generally the same specials that only change occasionally. I'd prefer that there only be an alert when something new is added or when it is about to expire, not every time you log in or go to the main menu page.
When you put on a necklace, you don't see it on top of your armor. I want to see that sapphire and gold necklace I worked so hard to pay for! Ditto the rings which aren't visible under your gauntlets.
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| Note Chest Number in Upper Left Corner |
The chest count is sometimes wonky. I have had 0 as the number of chests waiting to be opened when the actual chest count was much higher. Click on the first chest to start the timer and suddenly you have more!
If you are considering whether to sell jewelry in the Sell and Salvage area, it is difficult to see the little icons that describe the effects each necklace or ring has. This makes it hard to decide what to sell. I usually end up going to the Character Menu and look at jewelry there. The icons are easier to see.
I absolutely hate the new look of the Wispmothers. Instead of being totally white and wispy, now there are pink skin and breasts underneath the outer white wisps. Ugly. Some variations have green skin apparently. Still ugly. Don't like.
I'd like it if the shop upgrade page would list the amount of Prestige you will get by purchasing the upgrade. That would make it easier to compare upgrades of the various shops to decide which I want to do.
Since I play on an iPad Air, turning my device won't switch me from vertical mode into horizontal. I choose vertical at the beginning and am locked into that. Bummer. FIX: I discovered that during an iOS update the screen lock was turned on by default without my knowledge. Here's the fix (link below). Note that if you have updated your Apple tablet to the Sept. 2019 iPad OS, the control center is accessed by sweeping down from the upper right corner now. You can tell if the screen is locked by looking for the lock inside an arrow in a circle icon near the battery indicator in the upper right corner of the screen.
https://www.lifewire.com/my-iphone-screen-wont-rotate-2000283
I'd love to be able to name my second potions maker, blacksmith, etc. The original shops you are given in the game plus the first enchanter shop you buy have names but the others don't. Seems a shame. I really NEED Patty the Potions Maker, don't you?
What the heck do the different sparkle ball colors mean when you open a treasure chest? I've seen white, green, blue, pink and gold.
Waiting for ingredients I want to turn up in the alchemists' shops drives me nuts.
The fighting tutorial provided by Henrik is not as good as the one provided by Staki if you want to practice various fighting techniques. Henrik is the only choice at first. Later on Staki replaces him.
The NPCs still say "What a lovely day" even after the 10/9/19 update turns the entire game to night. I want them to say "It was a dark and stormy night" now! Come ON, Bethesda!
The quest-giving NPCs often park themselves in front of areas I need to get to and you will find yourself having to talk to them by mistake. I'd love them to be moved to less visited areas!
The second part of the Redguard Azzin quest has a funny swirling sparkling blue anomaly toward the end of the quest. (See photos below.) I found this anomaly at the exit of the tunnel just before you catch up with Azzin toward the end of the quest. Clicking on it does nothing. The photos were taken after exiting the cave, looking back into the cave tunnel. By the way, this appeared briefly in another quest but vanished. Probably a bug.
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