ZeniMax Online Studios released Update 40 patch notes for The Elder Scrolls Online, available for PC and Mac, with the console update arriving later.
First Published November 28, 2023, 08:08
Developer ZeniMax Online Studios quarterly launches game updates that bring a wealth of new content and balance changes to The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). As such, the forthcoming update will arrive in-game as players can begin testing the new content currently available on the Public Test Servers (PTS).
Additionally, they have detailed all the content, adjustments, and bug fixes in their latest patch notes, for which the final launch day patch notes will be made available later. We've detailed all the upcoming game content and balance changes featured in the latest patch notes for ESO.
28th November 2023 Update: We've updated this guide to reflect new bug fixes that were addressed in v9.2.5 (Update 40), available for The Elder Scrolls Online on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Mac. The original article continues below.
The Elder Scrolls Online Update 40 Patch Notes: All New Game Content
Developer ZeniMax Online Studios has released the first wave of the final update for The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) of the year on 30th October 2023. This update is now available for PC and Mac, with its console release happening on 14th November 2023 for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
This update, which is available for free to all players, does not require any additional game packs or expansions to play, as this content only requires the base game. As such, Update 40 adds a new dungeon-like activity, the Endless Archive, along with the bountiful of mechanics, boss encounters, merchants, and rewards for players to claim.
Additionally, the Group Finder gets a rework, adding new features and Quality-of-Life (QoL) improvements, making it accessible for players to find players to participate in grouped activities across Tamriel. The Grand Master Crafting Stations are a new furnishing station that's being added and will have great significance to the game's endgame content.
Jewelry crafting gained a rebalance, which the developer hopes will now "align its costs with the game’s other crafting disciplines." This sees crafting gains and conversion being removed while total boosters have been increased to help players upgrade their jewelry.
Finally, quest XP and Gold Standardization have been applied to most base game quests, especially those linked with prologues, main story questlines, Guild questlines, game zones, Dailies, and more. This ensures that players are getting adequately rewarded based on the "complexity or length" of these quests in-game.
The Elder Scrolls Online Update 40 Patch Notes: All Adjustments & Bug Fixes
Aside from the new content players can playtest for a limited time, there are several bug fixes and adjustments. These include changes to combat and gameplay, itemization and item sets, companions, and more, which we've listed below:
The Elder Scrolls Online Update 40 Patch Notes: All General Adjustments & Bug Fixes
Combat & Abilities:
General:
- Fixed an issue where some tooltips would fail to appear properly while the Gamepad UI was active.
- Fixed a rare issue where you could become unable to Light or Heavy Attack and would instead rapidly twitch as if you had more caffeine than your mortal form, or any Daedric entity for that matter, could handle.
- Fixed an issue where the damage from siege weaponry could trigger many conditional requirements, such as Vicious Death when you killed an enemy.
- Fixed an issue where activating some movement abilities, such as Critical Charge, could disable your ability to jump for prolonged periods.
- Abilities that override other abilities in particular situations may now differentiate their tooltips based on the state that the ability is in.
- For example, Stonefist now has separate tooltips for its initial Area of Effect cast and single target charge casts. These distinctions can only be seen when you hover over the ability on your ability bar. The base abilities seen in your skill book will always describe as much behavior as the ability does between all versions, similar to before.
- Fixed an issue where some player-sourced effects that visually disappeared could remain activated after their caster died.
- Fixed an issue where certain attacks would only Deal Damage to six enemies, rather than hitting all enemies in the area but only applying their secondary effects to up to six enemies.
- Adjusted a few more Area of Effect under the hood setups to improve their performance.
- Fixed an issue where some synergies were considered to be class abilities while others were not. They will now only be considered synergies and will not inherit specific bonuses or interact with class abilities or class skill lines.
- Updated many ally and group-targeted player abilities to no longer target pets under the following conditions:
- When Stamina, Magicka, or Ultimate is granted to a target, pets cannot benefit from these effects.
- When a bonus stat or buff is granted, the pet would naturally inherit from their parent, such as Major or Minor Berserk.
- Ultimate abilities that target allies now always ignore pets.
- All item sets that target allies now ignore pets unless the set intentionally calls out pet interactions.
- Adjusted the following Ultimate abilities to affect up to 12 targets rather than six:
- Absorption Fields’ heal
- Consuming Darkness and morphs’ Major Protection
- Gibbering Shelter’s damage shield
- Magma Shell’s damage shield
- Rite of Passage and morphs’ heal
- Secluded Grove and morphs heal over time
- Sleet Storm and morphs’ Major Protection
- Soul Siphon’s heal
- Vitalizing Glyph and morphs heal
- Fixed a not-so-synergistic issue where some abilities that applied synergies, such as the Imperfect Ring, could temporarily remove other effects from targets such as passives, Mundus Stones, or even ESO+.
- Fixed an issue where some effects that required a target to be under a certain health threshold could still apply when they should not have, such as Honor the Dead or Cleansing Revival.
Buffs and Debuffs:
- Minor Mangle: Fixed an issue where Dragons could be affected by this debuff, unlike other boss-type enemies.
Arcanist:
- Curative Runeforms:
- Chakram Shields: Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs could be applied to hazardous plants and other trap-like objects in the world.
- Vitalizing Glyphic
- Resonating Glyphic (morph): This morph now requires you to be in combat to activate the Ultimate
- Herald of the Tome:
- Abyssal Impact
- Cephaliarch’s Flail (morph): Fixed an issue where this morph was not properly marked as an execute to certain bonuses or conditional requirements, like Sheer Venom.
- Abyssal Impact
- Soldier of Apocrypha:
- Gibbering Shield
- Gibbering Shelter (morph): This morph’s ally-targeted shield can now trigger once every four seconds rather than once every second.
- Gibbering Shield
- Rune of Eldritch Horror:
- This ability and its morphs now properly display a debuff on enemy targets to warn them of the incoming crowd-controlling effects.
- Fixed an issue where these abilities could not be purged to prevent their effects.
- Improved how these abilities complete their delay timers to be more uniform with other delays, such as Rune Prison, to make them feel more fluid and responsive to break free or react to.
Dragonknight:
- Ardent Flame
- Inferno: This ability and its morphs’ passive slotted bonuses now persist through bar swap.
- Lava Whip
- Molten Whip (morph): The Seething Fury stacking bonus from this morph now operates as a slotted passive bonus that persists through bars swap rather than only on the bar that the ability is slotted on. Seething Fury now requires you to be in combat to gain stacks to mitigate pre-buffing and burst potential.
- Draconic Power
- Dragon Leap
- Ferocious Leap (morph): The damage shield granted from this Ultimate will now replace itself similarly to other shields rather than stack if you manage to cast the Ultimate again that quickly.
- Earthen Heart
- Magma Armor
- Corrosive Armor (morph): This morph now disables Ultimate generation while the ability is active
- Magma Armor
Necromancer:
- Bone Tyrant
- Bone armor: Fixed an issue where the corpse generated from this ability and its morphs had a chevron appear above it as if it were a living entity. But don’t give up the skeleton; the corpse will continue to function for your typical nefarious deeds.
Sorcerer:
- Dark Magic
- Crystal Shard
- Crystal Fragments (morph): This ability’s special activation now properly applies the Crystal Weaver bonus after activating.
- Crystal Shard
- Daedric Summoning
- Summon Unstable Familiar
- Summon Unstable Clannfear (morph): Reduced the cost of this ability’s active cast to 4320, down from 4500.
- Summon Unstable Familiar
- Summon Winged Twilight:
- Fixed an issue where some attacks from this ability and its morphs could not be dodged.
- Fixed an issue where the special active from this ability and the Twilight Matriarch morph were not consistently labeled as healing abilities.
Templar:
- Dawn’s Wrath
- Radiant Destruction
- Radiant Glory (morph): This morph now also grants Magicka restore when it deals damage, which is based on the missing health of the enemy, up to a maximum of 480 per tick.
- Restoring Light
- Restoring Aura: This ability and its morphs’ passive slotted bonuses now persist through bar swap.
- Radiant Destruction
Warden:
- Winter’s Embrace
- Frozen Gate: Fixed an issue where the teleport for this ability and its morphs could pull enemies through some walls.
- Sleet Storm
- Permafrost (morph): Reduced the damage per tick of this morph by approximately 60% to make up for the Glacial Presence passive buffing Chilled as this morph, despite its existing damage reductions, still did more damage than Northern Storm.
Weapons:
- Destruction Staff
- Impulse
- Pulsar (morph): Fixed an issue where the Flame and Frost versions of this morph would fail to properly damage enemies that were also immune to the Minor Mangle the abilities applied. The damage now properly applies to all targets in their radii, similar to Storm Pulsar
- Impulse
- Restoration Staff
- Blessing of Protection: This ability and its morphs no longer attempt to heal pets in order to prevent them from taking the named buff effects that play a huge role in why the abilities are run.
Guild:
- Fighters Guild
- Dawnbreaker: Increased the cone size of this Ultimate and its morphs to 135 degrees, up from 120, to help them land slightly more consistently to closer enemies and better align to their visual effects.
- Undaunted
- Radiate: Reduced the damage done by this synergy by 20% to ensure its power is more in line with other synergies.
- Trapping Webs:
- Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs could be dodged.
- Fixed an issue where the synergy from these abilities could be used on enemies, not inside the Area of Effect.
Champion System:
Craft:
- Plentiful Harvest: Fixed an issue where the first stage of this node did not properly grant a 10% chance to harvest double resources.
- War Mount: Fixed an issue where your Stamina would drain when dismounting in some situations while this node was slotted.
Itemization And Item Sets:
Consumables:
- Updated many siege tooltips to be more in line with other ability tooltips to improve clarity on what they do.
Crafted Sets:
- Coldharbour’s Favorite: Fixed a rare issue where this set could go on cooldown, even if Honor failed to appear, which wasn’t very honorable.
Dungeon & Arena Sets:
- Aegis Caller: Changed this set’s 3-piece bonus from Stamina Recovery to Critical Chance to better facilitate its proc requirements.
- Azureblight Reaper: Fixed an issue where this set could generate stacks off some direct damage attacks, such as Daedric Mines.
- Pillar of Nirn:
- Reduced the total damage of this set’s proc by approximately 22%.
- Adjusted the 2-piece bonus to 657 Critical Chance rather than 1096 Max Stamina.
Mythic Items:
Overland Sets:
- Ranger’s Gait: Fixed an issue where this set’s bonus to snare effectiveness reduction was not working properly.
Trial Sets:
- Eye of Nahviintaas and Twilight Remedy:
- Updated these sets’ tooltips to describe their conditional requirements better to gain their effects. They now clearly state the sets only activate on allies who activate a synergy you have granted them within a duration of that synergy being made available to the ally.
- Increased the window of opportunity for allies to activate the sets to ten seconds, up from five.
Companions:
General:
- Fixed an issue where Azandar could appear again in some spots after recruiting him.
- Fixed an issue where Companions would sometimes not trigger their idle voiceover lines if they were summoned but had not yet moved.
Rapport:
- Bastian now correctly grants rapport for visiting both Eyvea and Artaeum every day.
The Elder Scrolls Online Update 40 Patch Notes: All Base Game & DLC Adjustments & Bug Fixes
ESO Blackwood Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- The Emperor's Secret: Fixed an issue where knocking on Renna's door was exceedingly difficult unless you smashed your face up against it.
ESO Clockwork City Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- To the Clockwork City: Divayth Fyr's assistant no longer spawns when accepting this quest from the Collections interface while within PvP-enabled world spaces.
ESO Dragonhold Fixes & Improvements:
Monsters & NPCs:
- General:
- Fixed an issue where some New Moon Dreadnaughts could not be killed by the Blade of Woe or vampire feeding.
Quests & Zones:
- Quests:
- The Pride of Alkosh: You can no longer leave the instance without taking the Mask of Alkosh.
ESO Elsweyr Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests:
- Descendant of the Potentate: Fixed an issue where grouped players could block one another on the steps to solve the riddle or the elemental puzzle.
- Home Sweet Home: Saevus can no longer be murdered with the Blade of Woe.
ESO Firesong Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests:
- Guardian of Y'ffelon: Fixed some issues where steps in the back half of this quest didn't direct you properly on the map or compass.
- The Ivy Throne: This quest now has proper "zone story" pins on the map and compass.
- The Dream of Kasorayn:
- The back half of the quest no longer tries to direct you out of the Shrine on the map, even though all of the action takes place in the Shrine chamber.
- Elder Verline now has a dagger and does not perform a certain dagger-necessary action with his imagination.
ESO High Isle Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- Blood, Books, and Steel: Fixed an issue where you might be backtracked through the lower sanctum when told to find the upper sanctum.
- The All Flags Curse: Fixed an issue where you wouldn't be properly directed into the Monument Inn on the step to talk to Janne Emerie.
- The Hidden Lord: This quest now uses proper zone story icons and pins in the Journal.
Tales of Tribute:
- General:
- Hear ye, hear ye, cardsharps and forumites! Sorinne Gerard, the Tribute herald, is now only present in Wayrest's Cloudy Dregs Inn and won't yell at you until you get reasonably close to her.
- Adjusted the difficulty of Novice Tribute AI to make it a bit easier.
- Proficient AI now has access to the fully upgraded Almalexia Deck, and Expert AI has access to the un-upgraded Hermaeus Mora Deck.
- Updated the help entries for Tribute to use the correct icon for Draw.
- Screen effects will no longer persist during Tribute matches.
- Gameplay:
- Almalexia Deck:
- Festival of Forbearance: Decreased cost from 4 to 3.
- Bardic Veneration: Decreased cost from 4 to 3.
- Mornhold Clergy: Decreased cost from 6 to 5.
- The Lesson of Ayem: Decreased cost from 5 to 4.
- The Druid King Deck:
- Wispcaller Totem: Changed the 3 Coin on Combo 3 to 2 Coin Combo.
- Draoife Ritecaller & Eldertide Fenwitch: Removed the 1 Coin on Play.
- St. Pelin Deck:
- Armory: Moved the +1 Coin from Play to Combo 2.
- Rally: Moved 1 Power from Play to Combo 2.
- Sorceror-King Orgnum Deck:
- Patron Ability:
- Favored: Changed the card created from “Maormer Boarding Party” to “Summerset Sacking”.
- Neutral: Reduce cost from 3 Coin to 2.
- Unfavored: Reduce cost from 2 Coin to 1.
- Serpentguard Rider: Added +1 Power to Combo 2.
- Storm Shark Wavecaller: Increased Power of base effect from 1 to 2.
- Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu Deck:
- Customs Seizure: Increased Acquire from 5 to 6.
- Psijic Loremaster Cellerus Deck:
- Psijics Insight & Cephorah’s Insight: Changed on Play Replace 1 to +2 Coin on Play.
- Time Mastery: Increased Toss 4 on Play to 5.
- Rajhin, the Purring Liar:
- Jeering & Prowling Shadow: Increase HP from 1 to 2.
- Shadow’s Slumber & Jarring Lullaby: Moved 1 Coin from Combo 2 to Play.
- Almalexia Deck:
- Rewards:
- Increased the daily first PvP win of the day from Purple to Gold. Previously, this was only obtainable by completing all 3 stages of Muranji’s Daily Challenge.
- New tapestry furnishings of Seeker Aspirant and Chromatic Reservoir can be discovered in Tribute Reward purses.
- UI
- Deck Fragments for The Druid King deck now have a unique icon.
ESO Imperial City Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests:
- Speaking for the Dead: Fixed an issue where grouped players could multiply credit on the step to stuff geodes into skeletons like some kind of reverse piñata.
ESO Markarth Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- Reachwind Depths: Fixed an issue where taking the lift to the Servants' Quarters would despawn Companions and Assistants.
ESO Murkwire Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- The Sounds of Home: This quest's pins no longer look as if it is part of the zone story.
ESO Necrom Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Public Dungeons
- The Underweave: Fixed an issue where this public dungeon's group event didn't increment Endeavors, asking you to complete a public dungeon group event.
UI:
- General:
- The Event Exchange map pin is now properly centered in Necrom.
- Necrom item sets can now be found in their own section in both the Set Items Collections menu and Grand Master Crafting Stations.
ESO Orsinium Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- Invitation to Orsinium:
- Stuga has been re-recorded and has new voice acting. Her lines also received some revision as a result of getting a new actor in the studio!
- Stuga is now relegated only to the stables in Shornhelm. Nothing personal, Stuga.
- Invitation to Orsinium:
ESO Summerset Fixes & Improvements:
Quests & Zones:
- Quests
- Manor of Masques: There is no longer an invisible Alchemy nameplate hanging out near the desk by the stage.
ESO Base Game Fixes & Improvements:
Alliance War & PvP:
- General:
- Reduced the range of death notifications triggered by player enemy deaths in Cyrodiil from 600 meters to 300 meters to help reduce the number of messages displayed in chat.
- Quests:
- The following quests’ goals are now group-shared:
- Abominations
- Black Dagger Supplies
- The following quests’ goals are now group-shared:
Art & Animation:
- General:
- Fixed an issue where trying to move while previewing Outfit Styles at a vendor could cause your character to be rotated incorrectly.
- Animations:
- Fixed several dozen animation issues with conversations and postures across the game.
- Dyeing a weapon in the Outfit Station no longer plays the unsheathe animation each time.
- Visual Effects:
- Fixed an issue where some mounts could briefly show effects at an incorrect location in character selection when leaving the appearance change screen.
Audio:
- General:
- Fixed an issue where the wrong sound effect would play when making a purchase with Event Tickets.
Crown Store & Crown Crates:
- General:
- Crowns for players residing in Japan will now expire within 6 months from acquisition. Please see our Terms of Service for more details.
- Quickly previewing different mounts in the Crown Store will no longer cause visual glitches where your character is clipping through the ground.
- Dismounting from a Hollowjack mount will no longer cause your character to pop up and down.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Housing Editor to open instead of a newly purchased Crown Crate when making said purchase while in a house.
Dungeons & Group Content:
- General:
- The Trial leaderboard UI will no longer omit the personal best scores from some trials.
Events & Celebrations:
- General:
- The Aurora Firepot assembly instructions and Hide Shoulder collectible are no longer hidden on Philius Dormier's store if you already own them.
Exploration & Itemization:
- General
- Reduced the prices of the wares from the Golden Vendor, Adhazabi Aba-daro. Please note there will be a pricing discrepancy for her wares between console and PC players until Update 40 launches for consoles on November 14.
- Overland Jewelry will now cost 125,000 gold, or 225,000 AP.
- Dungeon Jewelry will now cost 200,000 gold, or 375,000 AP.
- Masks and Shoulders will remain the same.
- Removed the non-existent "Shroomtender Robe" from the collections menu.
- Itemization:
- Fixed an issue where the Cartographer costume would preview as the Mannimarco costume.
Housing:
- Furnishings:
- Fixed an issue with the furnishings “Log, Fallen Laurel” and “Tree, Sturdy Poplar,” where the textures were stretched in unintended ways.
- Fixed an issue with the furnishing “Mushrooms, Volcanic Cluster,” where you could see through the base of the furnishing.
- Fixed an issue with the furnishings “Alinor Sconce, Candles” and “Alinor Sconce, Candles Tall,” where they did not properly align to surfaces when the align feature was used in the housing editor.
- Fixed an issue with the furnishing "Indoril Streetlight, Full Stone," where its idle animation did not play.
- Fixed a missing “Animated” tag from the furnishings "Deeproot's Undying Bloom" and “Khajiit Lantern, Hanging”.
- Fixed an issue when previewing the furnishing "Statue of the Mother", the statue would face away from the camera.
- Adjusted the names of the following furnishings so they follow our naming conventions for Bookcases and Bookshelves. Bookcases being shelving units that are freestanding and do not require a wall, while bookshelves are wall-mounted shelves and generally are not freestanding and require a wall.
Miscellaneous:
- General
- Fixed an issue where you could not log in to some characters if you had too many outgoing gifts. Gifts are now limited to 500 at a time.
- Fixed an issue where you could not move your character for a couple of seconds after using a Wayshrine while having a polymorph equipped.
- Fixed an issue where skipping the tutorial after creating a new character and before logging in to another character after purchasing a new DLC would not place you in the most recently purchased DLC starting area.
- Fixed an issue where your mount speed could go above 60 in some rare cases.
- Former leaders of deleted guilds that were listed on the Guild Finder will no longer receive excessive mail about their guild listing being removed.
- Fixed an issue if you had Ancient Grains and Platings in your inventory; you could occasionally have difficulty loading into a zone.
- Fixed a rare crash that could occur when saving camera settings.
Monsters & NPCs:
- Monsters:
- Dragons are no longer affected by Minor Mangle procs from Hemorrhage.
- Dark Aeon Senche-raht nameplates are no longer incorrectly offset from the monster.
- Several Werewolf Behemoth monsters no longer have tiny weapons in their paws after transforming.
Quests & Zones:
- General:
- Fixed a number of typos across conversations, books, and responses throughout the game.
- Adjusted yet another few hundred clipping, floating, or inaccessible creatures, resource nodes, books, and monsters.
- Added error messaging to indicate why you cannot use a booster for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, or Undaunted.
- Bangkorai:
- Raiders at the Crossing: Nightseer now has a proper nameplate over her head.
- Betnikh:
- Improved the accuracy of your character’s position on the map while inside Bloodthorn Lair.
- Craglorn:
- Moved the Star-Gazer Herald somewhat closer to Craglorn proper; it is now outside of Hallin's Stand in Bangkorai.
- Fixed an issue where the Exalted Viper encounter could repeatedly repeat again and again, repetitiously.
- Deshaan:
- Fixed an issue with Falvis Raram in Mournhold, who was not properly acting as a navigator with the quest pin system when connecting from Mournhold to either Wayrest or Elden Root.
- Main Quest:
- Soul Shriven in Coldharbour:
- This quest now uses proper "main story" icons on its Journal entry, compass pins, and map pins.
- Fixed an issue in Bleakrock Isle where you could hug a wall and despawn the Prophet after escaping Coldharbour.
- Soul Shriven in Coldharbour:
- Rivenspire:
- Shornhelm Divided: Fixed an issue where killing Juberic and Orlozag did not advance their respective hint conditions.
- Shadowfen:
- Of Dubious Value: Fixed an issue where the cart examination would not let you read the details if it is the last thing you investigate.
- Blackguard enemies now properly drop zone loot in Chid-Moska ruins.
UI:
- General
- Updated the OTP messaging to indicate you may not have received an OTP email due to an incorrect UserID.
- Added the option to reveal your password on the login screen.
- Fixed a number of issues with off-centered maps in various spaces.
- Added some error messages to a number of doors across the game to explain why they are uninteractable.
- Fixed an issue where invisible NPCs would sometimes display a nameplate over their heads.
- Loot stream entries from different bonus drop sources no longer merge into a single entry.
- Stolen items will now display the correct value in your inventory after using a fence, specifically in the Keyboard UI.
- Fixed an issue where opening a dialog directly from a right-click context menu in the sort filter list could cause the highlight of the sort filter list selection to become stuck.
- Fixed an issue where entering combat would not close the Companion outfit screen.
- Fixed an issue where keybinds could display incorrectly in various help and tutorial text.
- Accessibility Mode:
- Removed a reference to screen narration from the initial Accessibility Mode prompt.
- Gamepad Mode:
- Removed reference to a "Change Email" button from the “Resend Email Verification” tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where the sort header selection for level in the group menu was being narrated as "L-V-L" instead of "level".
- Help & Tutorials:
- Added information in the Champion Point help entries with a reminder that the points can be spent on any character on that account, including sub-level-50 characters.
- Updated the help entry for gifting with the current gifting qualifications.
- Screen Narration:
- Fixed an issue where the invalid name tooltip in the armory settings dialog was not narrating.
- Target Markers:
- Target Markers will now be removed from player characters in a group when they enter a Battleground or Cyrodill.
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