The Elder Scrolls Online has kicked off its inaugural season, titled ‘Season One: Return of the Thieves’ Guild across PC, Xbox and PlayStation consoles, beginning a run of free seasonal content that will continue until 21 October.
The season begins with the Thieves Guild returning to the spotlight for its first new ESO story content since 2016. Set in High Rock’s Glenumbra zone, the new storyline builds on the original Thieves Guild narrative, with players who completed the earlier questline gaining access to additional options and unique dialogue choices. The original Thieves Guild DLC was also made free earlier this year for all players who own ESO.
Also available from launch are Favors, a new daily quest style found through Freerunner’s Post Boards in each alliance. These quests will send players across Tamriel as they reconnect with characters through ongoing stories, with a special reward attached to the completion of each story arc.
Dynamic Encounters have also been added as part of today’s update. These story driven, multi stage events can be discovered naturally while travelling through Tamriel, with players able to join simply by moving close enough to an active Encounter. Rather than focusing only on waves of enemies, these events are designed to offer a broader range of situations.
Season One will continue expanding through several content drops over the coming months. On 29 July, Sheogorath will lead players through a new adventure across Tamriel as the Daedric Prince of Madness attempts to experience life as a mortal. As expected, the update will include chaos, strange situations and cheese.
Further additions will arrive on 21 September, including the Nowhere Vault, which was previously known as Sage’s Vault. Connected to the Thieves Guild storyline, the Nowhere Vault is described as a space between realms that protects valuable artefacts. It will also introduce a playable area built around puzzle and traversal challenges that have not appeared in ESO before. The same date will also bring Rumors, a new narrative scavenger hunt feature hidden across Tamriel. These quests will ask players to follow clues without relying on UI guidance or map markers, taking inspiration from the style of classic questing seen in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Alongside Rumors and the Nowhere Vault, ESO will add a new 12-player trial called the Crimson Veldt, as well as more quality of life updates, including improvements to the Antiquities system.
The season will close with the High Seas of Tamriel event, running from 30 September to 14 October on the Gold Coast. This experimental event introduces naval combat and underwater exploration to ESO, asking players to adapt to new forms of traversal and survival as they explore a different side of Tamriel.
