If you're just now getting interested in the long-running MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, don't fret; the game's upcoming "Blackwood" chapter aims to offer a fresh start for new players and challenging content for veterans alike. Whatever level you are, you'll join more than 18 million players in exploring the next step in the game's year-long "Gates of Oblivion" event. And we're here to give you a small taste of just what sort of content awaits you in Blackwood and beyond.
Recently, we were invited to a special behind-the-scenes sneak peek at "Blackwood" courtesy of ZeniMax and ESO creative director Rich Lambert. But to know where the game is going, we needed to know where it came from. That led us to a quick look back at "The Dark Heart of Skyrim" arc and its dark Gothic story with vampires and werewolves, told through the Harrowstorm, Greymoor, Stonethorn, and Markarth DLCs. Now, the "Gates of Oblivion" arc is poised to tell a new tale, one that's already started thanks to the global reveal event of Mehrunes Dagon this past January and the currently playable DLC "Flames of Ambition."
If all of that is nothing but gibberish to you, but you're still interested in checking out all that ESO has to offer, don't worry; "Blackwood" has been designed for all players, not just veterans. The new content is described as a Chapter instead of an Expansion because the layout allows players to choose their own path in order to play however you want, whereas Expansions have a tendency to only be for existing players. That's not to say newcomers to ESO who might jump on board with "Blackwood" can't go back and revisit existing content, just that it's not a requirement to do so in order to enjoy the new story.
To that end, the team has included a brand new tutorial for this chapter. Players will be able to learn how to play the game but also choose their own path from among any of the base game starter experiences and any of the chapter starter experiences. Once you finish the basic tutorial, you'll be able to hop to any starter area of the game and get going, including Blackwood.
So where exactly is Blackwood?
After showing us a map of Tamriel, which is rapidly filling in thanks to all of the game's many expansions, we learned a bit more about the title location:
Located amid the Imperial province of Cyrodiil, the Argonian homeland of Black Marsh, and the warm sands of Elsweyr, Blackwood encompasses a colorful and dangerous environment to explore, full of life and the remnants of long-forgotten empires.It's an area defined by a constant conflict of cultures, mainly between Imperial and Argonian. This "familiar yet different" setting features cities like Leyawiin, the major hub in this zone, and other iconic cities from TESIV: Oblivion. The big difference now is that those cities are larger and more accessible, with more docks, shops, and areas. In this timeline, which predates the events of Oblivion but is its own original tale, the swamps have receded. In addition to Leyawiin, there's also Gideon, an "Imperial meets Ayleid" city run by Argonians and featuring a unique mix of cultures; the city was first seen in The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994. Additionally, there are three major biomes in the area: the highland forest of Leyawinn, the bogs of Blackwood zone, and the Gloomire swamps, as well as the village of Border Watch, Undertow Cavern, ruins, and more.
As for the story of "Blackwood"...
The 30+ hours of content all centers on Mehrunes Dagon, the "cornerstone of this Gates of Oblivion storyline"; it's a story about a deal with the devil, "Daedra and Deceit." The timeline is set about 800 years before TESIV: Oblivion. Players will enter into this story upon arriving in Leyawiin to investigate threats to Imperial councilors. These officials used to council the Longhouse Emperors, a group of Reachmen ruling Cyrodiil for 60 years, which ended abruptly about 10-15 years before the events of ESO. How Mehrunes Dagon is involved in all this is up to the player to discover.
Along this journey, you'll meet NPCs like Eveli Sharparrow & Lyranth. Eveli is a Bosmer from Orsinium who wants to be a great hero and an amazing investigator, just like the characters she reads about, like Investigator Vale. She wants to be the Sherlock Holmes of this story. Lyranth, on the other hand, is a Dremora, and the exact opposite of Eveli. She's immortal, yet curious about how mortals work, despite seeing them as lesser creatures; she thinks their situations are humorous and strange. Also returning in this story are Alchemy from Summerset, Stibbons, and more.
Oblivion Portals
Not the same as Oblivion Gates but rather a sort of precursor to them, portals are new and different. They're not shown on the map and will spawn randomly in the zone. Clicking on the portal will open up travel to the Deadlands for an adventurous dungeon romp. These portals will feature multiple starting points upon arrival, so adventures are always going to be a little bit different. Your goal is to reach the end or middle of the zone, defeat the big bad for loot, and return to where you left off.
Storywise, these portals represent Mehrunes Dagon figuring out the tech needed for Oblivion Gates. These are dungeon-sized pieces of the Deadlands--you can explore in there for a while before returning to Blackwood. The fourth-quarter DLC, similar to Clockwork City, will see you venturing into the Deadlands and exploring the region. The "Blackwood" chapter will also be adding in world events which multiple players can participate in through "soft grouping"; these include harrowstorms, dragons, and dark anchors.
One new addition will take place in the town of Rockgrove. Here, Mehrunes Dagon cultists have taken over the Argonian village to summon a grand army from the Deadlands; your mission is to put a stop to their plan. This new 12 player "full" trial features three unique bosses with hard modes. New gear, titles, cosmetics, and a new mount will be your rewards for completing all the achievements. (And as Lambert put it, the team behind the scenes has done something they didn't think was possible with their engine; stay tuned to see what that means!)
Endeavors!
Found in the "Group & Activity Finder" UI, these are new daily/weekly tasks featuring 60+ different individual activities for the list of achievements. You'll earn rewards like XP and coin, but you'll also always get "Seals of Endeavor", a brand-new currency only rewarded for Endeavor tasks. If you accumulate enough Seals, you can purchase anything directly from Crown Crates, making this the first-time ever to use in-game currency to purchase them. Once you buy them, they're yours; there's no dismantling items, but you can save up Seals without fear of penalties, caps, or refreshes. You can find out more at ESO's site.
And if you need a little help along the way, be sure to use the new Companions mechanic described in a separate article below:
Updates & More
When The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood arrives on PC/Mac and Stadia on June 1st, and on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on June 8th, you'll get the base game along with some free updates, like Update #30. Some quality-of-life upgrades include voice chat updates and backend changes, with lots of time put into this for reliability; improved combat performance work; an "Action Duration" reminder (an add-on that helps let players know when abilities need to be recast); a change to allow Perfected & Non-perfected sets to work together; and the ability to choose title music. One small QoL that Lambert singled out:
When doing Master Writs, one of my pet peeves is not being able to know exactly where a station is; we now breadcrumb to those. The extra added bonus of this is, say you have every crafting station in your house or guild, when you go into that area, there will be a quest pip over that sea of crafting stations so you don’t have to pixel-hunt for it.
You'll also get a free upgrade to the console-enhanced versions on Xbox series X/S and PS5, if you already purchased it on Xbox One or PS4; available June 8th. This update features two major modes: Performance mode 60fps at 1440p, or Fidelity of 4K at 30fps (Xbox Series S: Performance is 1080p, and Fidelity is 1440p). That comes with upgrades of high-res textures, screen-space, global illumination, and tons of tech updates available with the new hardware, mainly focused on rendering. An added bonus? They've almost halved the load times! (PC players mainly enjoy all of these updates already, as Lambert answered in the following Q&A.)
Q&A:
Is it more challenging to define zones in Tamriel as the map fills in?
It's getting harder and harder, but one of the things that's the most challenging is making sure the new chapter feels different from the last thing we did. Like going from Elswyr to Skyrim; deserts and Khajiit instead of Skyrim and the Nords. There's nearly an infinite number of Oblivion realms; Daedric princes can weave whatever they want from the fabric of the realm, giving us plenty of options for the future.
Any community-based Endeavors the community can work towards together?
Something we've been thinking about, but what I want to call out about Endeavors, these are personal to the player in that the currency that you get is account-bound. You don't have to worry about doing daily Endeavors on 18 different players, just your account. But the system is not set up to be a globally-based thing, yet.
How do new features interact with older chapters?
No concept of chronological order or time while telling stories; progression is very personal and based on your character, so you can do things out of order. You can go anywhere and explore things in your own way; no level bans to force you down a particular path.
Any significant class-balancing or changes for Blackwood?
A number of interesting and exciting things coming, like Champion Point adjustments, item set adjustments, but nothing major.
Is there a way to make overland content challenging for both beginner and veteran players?
We used to have gold, silver, and bronze challenges, but players hated it and never went past bronze. It wasn't working so we tried to find another way. We decided that the overland is going to be a little bit easier, but if you want to challenge yourself, we have some bosses and world events. Really, trials and dungeons, those are things we use for players to challenge themselves.
Will PC players see any benefits from the console-enhanced editions?
PC gets some, we’re working on some tech that we’re not ready to talk about on PC. They kind of already have this next-gen client; you can run at 4K already at whatever FPS your rig can handle. We do have some new PC tech coming that I can’t wait to talk about.
When will Dremora be playable?
“Playable Dremora” we’ve heard of for a while. It’s a complicated and difficult question to answer, so we just say, Who knows what happens in the future?
The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood arrives on PC/Mac and Stadia on June 1, and on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on June 8.