Starting from zero, learn how to become a full-fledged hero in The Elder Scrolls Online. Find out how to level in ESO, which skills to use, how to select the right gear, and what to do when you get to Level 50 and CP160. Discover the importance of crafting, Mythic Items, and allocating your Champion Points properly. Learn how to test your might in difficult content, stay aware of the meta, and — perhaps most importantly — master ESO’s cosmetics so you both look and feel like the hero you are.

In this guide, I’m going to take my first stab at creating a zero-to-hero guide for ESO. My goal is to provide everything you need to know to take your first character in ESO all the way from its humble origins at Level 1 to the pinnacle of becoming a true hero capable of tackling even the hardest content in the game.

Part 1: Starting from Zero

Let’s get into this complete zero-to-hero guide for ESO, covering three stages: Starting from Zero, The Birth of a Hero, and Becoming Legend.

What is the fastest leveling method in ESO?

The fastest path to Level 50 in The Elder Scrolls Online is to run Dolmens in your favorite zone until you get to Level 10. Then, start doing Daily Random Normal Dungeons.

If your character is capable enough, start jumping into Public Dungeons after that point. There are a couple other methods like Spellscar in Craglorn you should also consider.

How do you choose skills in ESO?

When selecting skills for your character in The Elder Scrolls Online, make sure to choose at least one spammable Class Skill— such as Engulfing Dragonfire, Puncturing Sweep, or Crystal Fragments. From there, just slot at least one skill from each Class Skill Line to ensure they level evenly.

ESO does make this process somewhat easier by providing a Skills Advisor utility. It is located near the top in the skills menu, and it provides five archetypes for each class, recommending skills as you level up.

If you’re truly at a loss, you can just choose one of these archetypes. The top one is going to be the easiest for new characters, but there are also two damage-dealing archetypes and one archetype each for tanking and healing.

The best skills to choose when leveling vary depending on your class. For Templar, for instance, you’re going to want to get the spammable Puncturing Sweep very early on. For Dragonknight, it’s Engulfing Dragonfire. For Sorcerer, it’s Crystal Fragments, etc.

Long story short, choose one of the archetypes located in the Skills Advisor, or follow a build guide to figure out which skills you should snag as you start taking your character in ESO from a zero to a hero.

Which Attribute should I choose in ESO?

In The Elder Scrolls Online, it’s best to invest all of your Attribute Points into a single Attribute — Stamina for melee DPS and Bow builds, Magicka for Destruction and Restoration Staff builds, and Health for tank and PvP builds.

No matter which kind of build you choose, always dump all your points into one Attribute. Diluting them between different Attributes just takes your power down — makes you less effective no matter which role you choose.

Even for healers, you generally invest in Magicka because you’re going to need a lot of that resource to heal your allies.

How do I choose gear in ESO?

In The Elder Scrolls Online, choose Two-Handed or Dual Wield weapons for melee Stamina DPS builds. Choose a Destruction Staff for Magicka DPS builds. Choose One-Handed and Shield for tank builds, and choose a Restoration Staff for healer builds. Medium Armor is generally best for Stamina DPS builds, Light Armor is best for Magicka DPS and healer builds, and Heavy Armor is the top choice for tank builds.

You have a variety of different weapon types to choose from. Two-Handed weapons like Greatswords and Mauls are good for close-range melee combat. There’s also weapons you can Dual Wield like Daggers and Swords. Those are also good for close-range melee builds. They’re also good for stealth and sneaking around.

The other melee weapon archetype you can choose is One-Handed and Shield, which is mainly good for tanking. It’s not really good for anything else.

For Stamina-based ranged characters, you’re going to want to choose a Bow. Bows are excellent for long-range stealth attacks. It’s basically the hit-and-run weapon.

There are three different kinds of damage-dealing Staffs to choose from: Ice, Fire, and Lightning. Lightning is probably the best overall, but sometimes Fire can edge out in damage. The Ice staff is mainly good for applying crowd control effects and protecting yourself from damage.

The last type of staff is the Restoration Staff, and that’s for healing. Only choose the Restoration Staff if you’re making a healer character.

When it comes to which type of gear to choose while you’re leveling, it doesn’t really matter until you get to CP160. Just try to choose gear that’s a higher level than what you currently have on.

You also don’t really need to pay much attention to sets at this point. You should combine set items when possible, but don’t stress about it too much.

The most useful kind of gear when you’re leveling up is Training gear. This improves the rate at which you level up. Generally, you should prefer Training gear over any set items. Just stay in Training gear until you hit Level 50 — and maybe until you hit CP160, actually.

What should I do every day in ESO?

Some of the most important daily activities in The Elder Scrolls Online include upgrading your mount at a Stablemaster, completing NPC guild dailies, completing Daily Crafting Writs, and keeping up with the gear researching process.

The most important daily activities in ESO are covered in my New Character Checklist guide.

That covers what you should do when you’re starting from zero in ESO. Now, it’s time to move on to the next section, the birth of a hero.

Part 2: The Birth of a Hero

By this point in your journey, let’s assume you’ve gotten to level 50. Let’s also assume you’ve gotten to CP160, which is when you can start accessing the best gear in the game.

Is CP160 gear best in ESO?

Yes, CP160 gear is the highest-level gear in The Elder Scrolls Online. For endgame content, you should only use CP160 gear.

As you look at ESO gear, you will see it both has a Level and a CP Level. Gear only reaches its maximum stats when it’s at CP160 — the highest possible level of gear. So, once you get to CP160, you should really start thinking about investing in good sets.

You’re going to want to get your gear all the way to the top quality level of gold or Legendary. That’s usually going to require investing in crafting, which we’ll get to a little bit later.

There’s simply no need to buy or craft expensive sets before you get to CP160. And this is also the point at which you should start looking at a build guide to figure out which sets are best for your character archetype so you can start investing in those sets.

For instance, for the majority of damage dealers, the best sets to slot are Tide-Born and Deadly Strike. But, it really does vary depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Check out one of my build guides to get an idea of which sets are going to work best to utilize the full power of your character.

How do you get Mythic items in ESO?

In The Elder Scrolls Online, you get Mythic Items by unearthing leads using the Scrying system from the Greymoor chapter, which is being added to the base game in 2026. You have to find and dig up all 5 leads associated with a particular Mythic to unlock it.

Check out my full guide to scrying to learn everything you need to know to start unlocking Mythics. Each mythic has five leads that are located in the Journal under the Antiquities Codex.

You’ll need to dig up each of these five leads to craft your Mythic, but once you do, it is reconstructible from a Transmute Station for only 25 Transmute Crystals.

How do I become a crafter in ESO?

To become a capable crafter in The Elder Scrolls Online, you’ll need to get all seven crafting skills to Level 50 and fully research all traits. It’s also important to learn plenty of Crafting Motifs and have a large stockpile of Crafting Materials.

Hopefully, you’ve been researching and deconstructing gear up until this point so that your crafting skill levels are somewhere near Level 50. Altogether, you’re going to need around 120 skill points to fully unlock everything you need to craft effectively.

For more information on this process, check out my full guide to crafting in ESO. You’re not going to want to go much further in your journey without making sure you can craft. It’s the best way to get gear and alter gear you already have.

Joining a good guild or having a friend who’s a crafter does work, but I find it to be more rewarding and easier to be able to craft for yourself.

Is ESO Plus worth it?

Yes, many players of The Elder Scrolls Online find ESO Plus to be worth the subscription cost due to perks like the Craft Bag, increased experience gain, access to all DLCs, and a monthly stipend of 1650 Crowns.

You may have been able to get this far in your hero’s journey without thinking about ESO Plus, but you should know that having ESO Plus increase most types of experience gain by 10%, whether it’s crafting inspiration, normal XP, gaining Alliance Points in PvP, etc.

ESO Plus also gives you access to the Craft Bag, in which you can store an infinite amount of crafting materials, and being subscribed doubles your bank space.

Part 3: Becoming Legend

That’s everything I wanted to cover in the Birth of the Hero section. Now, finally, it’s time to talk about becoming a legitimate hero in The Elder Scrolls Online. The first point to consider is what to do with your Champion Points.

What do I do with Champion Points in ESO?

In The Elder Scrolls Online, you can invest Champion Points into the Craft (green), Warfare (blue), and Fitness (red) Champion Trees, unlocking quality-of-life, damage-dealing, and survivability benefits respectively. You can equip up to four Slottable Champion Nodes from each tree, and each tree also features plenty of passive Champion Nodes that don’t need to be slotted.

I have a full Champion Point guide for ESO, and all of my build guides go into the champion nodes you should unlock as well. Just briefly here, there are three different champion point trees: Warfare, the blue one, Craft, the green one, and Fitness, the red one.

Generally, in the green tree, you’re going to find nodes that optimize your user experience and ability to craft items. In the blue tree, you’re going to find abilities that increase your damage. And in the red tree, you’re going to find abilities that increase your survivability.

Once you get to CP160, you’re going to have quite a few Champion Points to allocate. Understand that one of the key parts of becoming a true hero in ESO is using your champion points wisely.

What is “veteran” PvE content in ESO?

In The Elder Scrolls Online, veteran PvE content generally consists of Veteran Group Dungeons, Veteran Trials, and Veteran Arenas. Any type of overland content in ESO can also now be raised to veteran-level difficulty using the Challenge Difficulty system.

You should be a member of the Undaunted by now, and now is the time to start trying your hand at Normal and even Veteran Undaunted Pledges. Most Veteran Dungeon groups allow you to join at CP160, and this is one of the best ways to start learning the ropes of the game and putting your build to the test.

What type of ESO PvP is best for beginners?

Even for veteran players, Cyrodiil can be overwhelming and confusing. But one easy way to dip your toes into PvP in ESO is to try out Battlegrounds. These are short matches where you’re pitted against other players.

There are various different game types. There’s really nothing better than Battlegrounds for testing to see how far you’ve come — whether you’re truly a hero yet or not.

What is the “meta” in ESO?

Put simply, the meta in The Elder Scrolls Online is just which skills, classes, and sets are currently the best. I don’t recommend religiously chasing the meta, but looking at build guides, patch notes, etc. to figure out what is most powerful right now is one of the key steps to becoming an ESO hero.

Whether you end up just following the meta like a lemming or making your own decisions, understanding what is most powerful right now is one of the best ways to make yourself into a more effective ESO player.

What are the best consumable items in ESO?

The best consumables in The Elder Scrolls Online include tri-stat foods like Bewitched Sugar Skulls and “tri-pot” potions, which restore Magicka, Stamina, and Health.

Even lots of veteran ESO players overlook the importance of food. You’re going to want to be using some kind of food if you want to call yourself a hero.

On top of that, you should have a good potion slotted. For me, the Crown Tri-Restoration Potion works just fine. But, you may want to experiment with potions that restore a certain stat, offer invisibility, etc.

Consumables are an important part of making your power truly hero-status in ESO. Definitely don’t overlook consumables as you undertake your hero’s journey.

Is fashion the real endgame in ESO?

Yes, many players consider fashion to be the “true” endgame in The Elder Scrolls Online, investing endless hours and hundreds of dollars to put together the “perfect drip.”

To truly be a hero in ESO, you’re going to have to look the part. Essentially, you’re going to want to invest in cosmetics from the Crown Store, pick up different crafting motifs throughout the game, and utilize other methods of getting cosmetics.

There are tons and tons of different kinds of drip in The Elder Scrolls Online. The customizability of cosmetics in ESO is one of my favorite parts of the game. And yes, this may be surface-y or kind of vapid, but it is true that if you really want to be a hero, you’re going to have to look like one.

Conclusion

That does it for my zero-to-hero guide. It provides the basic rubric for what you need to do, but for all the details of what you’re going to need to do along your hero’s journey in ESO, check out the links provided throughout the guide.