Elder Scrolls Online Introductory Crafting Guide

Does Research, Trait assignment, Gems, Styles. Runes, Glyphs and Extraction sound alien? Then use our Elder Scrolls Online Introductory Crafting Guide as a brief introduction to the amazing world of crafting in ESO. The Elder Scrolls Online boasts a stream lined crafting system that appeals to both first time MMO players and veterans of the genre. This Elder Scrolls Online Introductory Crafting Guide will offer some basic information and tips so that you can familiarize yourself with the crafting before diving straight in.

This article mainly covers the very basic elements of crafting in The Elder Scrolls Online including the user interface, the using of Crafting Stations, the different types of professions and what they offer, and a few other tidbits on Research and Extraction. If you feel you’re already comfortable with the basics of crafting why not check our more advanced ESO crafting guide


Contributors Captain Camper

ESO Crafting Guide – Introduction

The Elder Scrolls Online Crafting Guide – An Introduction

Unlike many of today’s top MMO games, The Elder Scrolls Online decided to brave the unknown and offer both a hardcore crafting system alongside an easily accessible UI and innovative progression mechanics. In order to craft items you’ll need to find a Craft Station specific to the craft you wish to level. It’s as simple as selecting the recipe/item you wish to create and selecting the “Craft” option, it’s that easy.

Many beta participants expressed a little confusion about the Crafting Stations. You must make sure you’re at the Crafting Station that belongs to the craft you’re trying to use. For example, if you want to create items from the Blacksmith craft, you’ll need a Blacksmith’s Station. Likewise for the other crafts.

There are different main stages to crafting equipment in ESO depending on the craft you’re using. For example a Blacksmith will need to select the item they want to craft then they select a material, the items and materials available depend on level and inventory. The third option is to select the item style (although this is not always present) and the final item is to apply traits, these are applied using Gems. Other professions are slightly more basic.

Style is an area of crafting that seemed to confuse many players during the various beta weekends. Firstly Styling does not impact the equipments quality or performance in any way. Style is simply changing the physical appearance of the item based on the race/alliance style attached to it. New Styles are unlocked through the discovery of Racial Motif Books, these are scattered throughout Tamriel and spawn in random locations. Currently players are able to discover Styles for all races and a few iconic sets from Elder Scrolls. The full list includes Breton, Redguard, Orc, Dunmer, Nord, Argonian, Altmer, Bosmer, Khajit, Ancient Elf, Reach, Primitive, Daedric and Imperial.

ESO Crafting Guide – Gathering Ingredients

An image of a crafter using a Crafting Station after learning where to find ingredients in The Elder Scrolls Online

As will all crafting systems, you’ll first need to gather ingredients before you’re able to make most of the items in your crafting lists. There are many different ways of gathering ingredients in ESO, and many of the methods are adapted versions of previous Elder Scrolls titles. The two simplest methods to gather ingredients is via combat and harvesting/looting. Many enemies in the game world drop ingredients as loot and many items in the environment offer ingredients through interaction – such as searching a crate or picking a flower. The final and more successful method to gathering ingredients is through Extraction.

ESO Crafting Guide – Extraction

A crafter learning how to extract from items in The Elder Scrolls Online

Extracting is a process that allows you to harvest ingredients from items in your inventory. The ingredients and items that are received from Extracting differ from item to item, but there are some in-game prompts to give you a bit of a clue. The materials are generally related to the item, so if you’re Extracting ingredients from a set of Iron Leggings, it’s more likely that you’ll get Iron, Cloth and other ingredients rather than Metals and such not used in the items recipe.

It is worth noting that the quality and amount of ingredients is determined by a couple of factors. Firstly an items current repair state. If it’s unworn you have the best chance of getting more items at a higher quality. The item rarity also plays a big role. The rarer the item, the better the return. White quality will return less than blue and higher than blue returns even more.
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ESO Crafting Guide – Crafting Skills

Details on the Crafting Skills in The Elder Scrolls Online

All players, regardless of starting class, race and Alliance, will be given a few crafting abilities in all the crafts. These offer the most basic of interactions needed in order to level your crafts outside the newbie bracket. Increasing your experience in crafting, through the creation of the available items, unlocks new abilities in the same way as other skill lines.

Extraction is also a great way to earn experience points although it must be invested in via skill points first.

ESO Crafting Guide – Improving Items, Glyphs & Runes

Learn how to improve items in The Elder Scrolls Online

As with many of today’s top MMORPG titles The Elder Scrolls Online features a quality system represented in-game by various colors attached to specific items. The more commonly found items (white) are considered the weakest in terms of quality while Legendary items (yellow) are considered the most powerful. Between those two top and bottom tiers lies Fine (green), Superior (blue) and Epic (purple). Players are able to increase the overall quality level of an item via the usage of Tempers Stones which can be found while mining. They greatly increase your chances of success so stock up whenever you get chance. Upgrading items does have the potential to fail and if that’s the case, the item is destroyed.

Other ways to improve equipment is via using Glyphs and Runes. Runes are scattered across Tamriel and can be discovered in a similar way to Skyshards and other goodies, through exploration. A Glyph provides the foundation for an additional effect or bonus while the Runes control the potency of said improvements. For example, let’s say you found a Glyph of Flame. This is a weapon Glyph that offers the additional effect of Fire Damage. In order to enchant it you’ll first need to create it with Runes. As you have a Glyph of Flame your first item needed will be a Potency Rune. This base Rune basically tells the item what it’s doing, so in this case it’s dealing damage. The second Rune in this scenario would be an Essence Rune as that controls damage type and finally a Aspect Rune that determines the potency of the upgrades. There are many different Runes in each of the 3 Rune types, on many different quality levels. It sounds complex but it’s really rather simple after a couple of minutes with the UI in-game.

ESO Crafting Guide – Research & Traits Traits

Details on how to craft armor sets in Elder Scrolls Online

Traits are one of the most exciting elements of the Elder Scrolls Online crafting system as they allow players to totally customize each of the equipment pieces in their possession. Traits are basically added effects and bonuses that can be applied to any items you can equip assuming you’ve learned the trait previously.

To learn a trait players must first discover or purchase an item that has a trait equipped and then use the Research command on that item. It’s an incredibly time consuming process but one that players can do while exploring. The traits are item specific so if you research X trait from a dagger, you will only be able to use that trait with daggers. The first time you attempt to learn a trait for a specific item it will take 6 hours. Following traits relating to the same item/equipment time double in Research time. For example: If you research a trait for daggers you’ll unlock that trait for daggers. The second trait will then take 12 hours and again can only be applied to a dagger.

Regardless of current crafting experience and traits switching to a different equipment type will result in research time relating to that type. So if you’ve researched 3 traits over 6, 12 and 24 hours for dagger, switching to learn your first trait for a chestplate will see a return in 6 hours. There are 8 available traits for each piece of equipment, totaling 1530 hours without bonuses. With 7 different potential items each with 8 available traits, it would take a total of 10,170 to master the entire crafting system for just Blacksmith. Certain bonuses can come into play including the level 8 Blacksmith skill Metallurgy. At its highest level this can reduce the total Research time needed to learn all traits for one specific item to 2488 hours.

To equip a trait to an item you’ll also need to find the gem tied to that particular trait. These can be purchased from certain vendors, other players or discovered through questing and the harvesting of ingredients.

ESO Crafting Guide – Weapon & Armor Traits

ESO Armor Traits Guide

Trait NameTrait Effects SturdyChance of avoiding decay after death ImpenetrableCritical resistance ReinforcedValue of armor on item TrainingAdditional experience using item’s skill line DivinesAdditional Mundus Stone effect Well-fittedReducing cost for running InfusedAdditional armor enchant effect Exploration Additional exploration experience

ESO Weapon Traits Guide

Trait NameTrait Effects PoweredReduces weapon enchant cooldowns WeightedAdditional attack speed Infused Increases weapon enchant effect Precise Additional Weapon/Spell critical value Training Additional experience using item’s skill line Charged Increases value of enchantment charges SharpenedIncreases spell and armor penetration

ESO Crafting Guide – Hidden Crafting Stations

The Elder Scrolls Online hidden Crafting Stations explained

Hidden Crafting Stations continue to be one of the best kept secrets of The Elder Scrolls Online, and it’s easy to see why. Each of the Hidden Crafting Station offers exciting opportunities to create unique pieces of armor that apply set bonuses for wearing multiple items from the same set. Players must first have learned 2-8 traits on a specific item before crafting and there’s a total of 15 Hidden Crafting Stations for each Alliance. Despite some differences in actual items the set bonuses offered are identical across each Alliance. Some set bonuses also improve in potency alongside character progression, allowing a players equipment to evolve as they increase in power themselves.

We did consider writing a guide and locations for Hidden Crafting Stations but then we stumbled upon ESO Fashion. It’s a slightly different take on the typical MMO hub as instead of hundreds of pages squatting keywords and offering little to no content, ESO Fashion boasts a huge amount of incredibly detailed guides specifically aimed at players who really take their personal appearance seriously. Pfft, who wouldn’t? It’s Elder Scrolls! They’ve got plenty on offer for those who dress to impress so check out the site today.

ESO Crafting Guide – Professions

Images of all the Crafting Stations in The Elder Scrolls Online

Alchemy

(Guide)
Opting to become an Alchemist allows you to create Potions of varying effects. These are consumables and will likely be in high demand due to the popularity of PvP.

Blacksmith

(Guide)
The Blacksmith profession will allow you to create Heavy Armor and Weapons. As you increase in level you’ll be able to use more powerful materials, much like previous Elder Scrolls games.

Clothing

(Guide)
Clothing is very similar to the Blacksmith profession but it offers different weapons and Light Armor. The progression is much the same, better materials with a higher level.

Enchanting

(Guide)
Not a profession in itself like the others list but still a very valuable process. As you increase in levels you’ll be able to Enchant items with more powerful perks.

Provisioning

(Guide)
Another profession that’s likely to be in high demand on the PvP scene. Provisioning unlocks the ability to create meals and food to buff the user.

Woodworking

(Guide)
Woodworking unlocks the ability to crafting using wood. A variety of items are available such as Bows and Shields.

Hopefully you learned a few new things in our ESO crafting guide introduction. If there’s anything you don’t understand leave a comment below and I’ll help you if I can. Don’t forget to check out our other Elder Scrolls Online guides.

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