Update 40 is around the corner! It will be free for everyone, and we have an official date: October 30th for PC and Mac, and November 14th for Xbox and PlayStation.
This patch won’t bring a new DLC like usual, instead bringing a new game mode called the Endless Archive, and some major quality of life improvements!
The Endless Archive
The most notable piece of the update is the new content type, the Endless Archive.
This is an endless dungeon, where you can team up or go solo to battle waves of the mobs and bosses that you find all throughout Tamriel in randomly generated encounters.
There is no normal or veteran distinction. Instead, enemies increase in difficulty after each completed stage, and rewards and challenges increase the deeper into the Archive that you go.
Rewards will include an all new currency (called Archival Fortunes) and brand new sets tied to specific classes, with leaderboards that separate between solo and duo groups.
Class Sets
Curated loot rules in the Endless Archive will ensure you find your class’ set items first.
After completing your classes item set, you will get drops from the other classes.
New Group Finder
Now, let’s talk about those quality of life improvements, one of which is a new grouping tool!
The new Group Finder allows you to create groups for almost any activity, including dungeons, arenas, the new Endless Archive, trials, PvP, and more.
You can choose to make a listing to find players to fill out your existing group, or search for an existing group that wants to do the same content that you do. You can even set requirements players must meet to join your group, including things like CP, role, playstyle, and voice chat preferences.
Grandmaster Crafting Stations!
I am also super excited about the next feature! They teased it early in the year, and it’s finally coming in Update 40, the consolidated Grandmaster Crafting Stations!
ESO currently has over 77 craftable sets in the game, with 4 attunable crafting stations for each set, equaling out to over 300 unique stations that take up way too many furnishing slots for guild masters.
With the Grandmaster Crafting Stations, you will only need 4 tables in total! One for each profession. You will unlock specific sets at these Grandmaster Crafting Stations by feeding the attunable tables to them. And the appearance of the tables will also change and upgrade as you feed them more sets!
Each of the Grandmaster Crafting Stations can be purchased for 1,500 Writ Vouchers, but you must have the “Grand Master Crafter” achievement completed to buy them.
As new craftable sets are released, you’ll be able to attune them, and feed them into Grandmaster Crafting Stations, too! This is a massive quality of life improvement for guild masters and master crafters!
Jewelry Crafting Rebalance
There is also a rebalance of Jewelry Crafting to help make its cost comparable to the other professions.
This includes completely removing Jewelry Crafting grains and converting them into platings! Your grains will be converted 1:1 into the new platings, and your platings will be converted 1:10 into the new platings.
Successfully, upgrading to Legendary will cost 8 gold platings with all passives unlocked, also equivalent to the other professions. This will save you a ton of crafting materials in the long run, so try to hang on to those unrefined jewelry materials for a better pay out!
Existing crafting writs will remain unchanged, but new ones will use a rebalanced formula.
Quest XP Standardization
Experience and ESO Gold rewards for quests will be standardized, meaning you will get more consistent rewards for questing based on complexity or length.
Daily quest rewards for Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted have also received a general boost.
More Content
There will also be new antiquities added, and a new patron for the Tales of Tribute card game! Don’t expect a lot of balance changes, though there are some.
ZOS has said they will be collecting data on previous changes for a while longer before they make more tweaks to combat.
Update 40 is now available on the PTS! Make sure to let Zenimax know what you like, and don’t like!
