This ESO Endless Archive Beginners Guide will outline all of the information required to begin your journey in the newest activity added to Elder Scrolls Online.
The Endless Archive is a new solo or duo activity added to The Elder Scrolls Online Update 40. In this Endless Archive: A Beginners Guide, we will walk you through how to enter rewards, general tips, and tricks for Update 40’s Endless Archive Endless Dungeon.
Beginners Guide to ESO Endless Archive
In ESO, the Endless Archive is the latest challenge put forth to challenge beginners and veterans alike. Below are important details about the new ESO Endless Archive:
- Activity: A never-ending dungeon with a leaderboard ranking systems and rewards.
- Release date: Update 40 launches on October 30 on PC/Mac & November 14 on Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
- New gear sets: 7 New class tree-specific sets designed to buff skill lines to their full potential.
- Rewards: collectible titles, mementos, and even more customizations for your character.
- Death: You will only have 3 total respawns before your run is over.
- Party Composition: This new activity will be able to be played solo, with a companion NPC, or with duo players.
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Where is Endless Archive in ESO?
Endless Archive is an arena located in the Apocrypha zone. Endless Archive can be accessed by opening your map to Apocrypha and porting to it. Even if you do not own the Necrom chapter you will still be able to port directly inside the Endless Archive as it is a base game addition.
Once inside you will find a few NPCs and interactable items. Below is a list of the NPCs and interactable items within ESO Endless Archive:
- Master Malkhest: Quest Giver to start your runs in the Endless Archive.
- Filer Tezurs: Merchant used to spend currency and obtain rewards.
- Filer Ool: Acts like a regular merchant to sell gear to or empty your bags.
- Archival Wings Portal: This is used to enter and leave the Archives. Using the portal while inside the Archive will not reset your run. This portal will spawn at the end of each round should you need to exit to the starting area for any reason.
- Runic Thread Weaver: Interacting with this will release the rest of your threads (lives). This will end your current run in the Archives, allowing you to view your total progress and see your selected buffs.
- Reset Hourglass: Activating this will close the instance and reset it allowing you, even as a solo, to start port back for a new instance.
Make sure to adventure around the starting area before entering the Archival Wings Portal. It’s important to associate yourself with the interactable NPCs and Items to make sure you have a seamless experience as possible. You don’t want to accidentally end your run early because you activated the Runic Thread Weaver, or not spend your reward currency at Filer Tezurs.
Endless Archive Mechanics – ESO Beginners Guide
Endless Archive Progression
The Endless Archives mechanics and progress are based on completing an Arc. An Arc is broken up into Stages, and Cycles. The Endless Archive User Interface shows three icons on the top right that indicate your progression. Working right to left (oddly), you have Stages, Cycles, and Arcs. Below is a list of the Endless Archive progression mechanics:
- Stages: each stage has three fights, two trash enemies, and the final a mini-boss similar to a World Boss.
- Cycles: After you complete 3 Stages, you complete a Cycle, and start the process over until the 5th Cycle you fight Tho’at Replicanum.
- Arcs: After completing 4 Cycles, which are 3 Stages each (12 mini-rounds), you progress to the final phase with Cycle 5, two trash encounters and an Arc boss fight with Tho’at Replicanum.
Below is a table of the one completed Arc progression in the ESO Endless Archive:
| Cycle | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle 1 | Trash | Trash | Mini-Boss |
| Cycle 2 | Trash | Trash | Mini-Boss |
| Cycle 3 | Trash | Trash | Mini-Boss |
| Cycle 4 | Trash | Trash | Mini-Boss |
| Cycle 5 | Trash | Trash | Tho’at Replicanum |
Tho’at Replicanum
The overall progression and pacing are many weak enemy fights, followed by a single target boss fight, and that repeats for many rounds (stages). On the final Cycle, you will encounter Tho’at Replicanum, who is the end boss for completing an Arc. Once this enemy is beaten, you can complete your repeatable quest and earn rewards. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on skill and group composition.
From this point, you can either exit the Endless Archive or continue for glory and further rewards. It’s in most players’ interest to repeat this quest and practice with multiple characters for maximum rewards. Your build will need an emphasis on area damage, resource sustain, and survivability. We will cover this topic in a later section, but for now, that’s how progression works.
Endless Archive Mechanic Overview
Below is a list of mechanics you will experience in ESO Update 40 Endless Archive:
- Verses: Spawn at the end of trash rounds. Selectable buffs that will only carry through to the end of the next round.
- Visions: Spawn at the end of the Boss rounds. Selectable buff that will provide a permanent buff for the remainder of the run.
- Trash Mobs: A random selection of enemies from all throughout Tamriel.
- Bosses: The bosses are random bosses selected from a variety of content in the game from dungeons, arenas, and trials. They have similar mechanics from where they are originally encountered so the more experience you have with them, the better.
One of the major power-ups of the Endless Archives is the Verses. These are powerful buffs that can be the difference in clearing a round or not, however, they only last until the end of the next round. There are a lot of these power-ups available however it’s important to select ones that complement your build or composition.
Also, there are Visions which are even more important as they last your entire run. When selecting a Vision, you should consider which is best for what you are trying to achieve. If you are struggling in one aspect of gameplay or the other, these power-ups can be quite effective at tipping the scales in your favor. Below we will explain some of our favorite visions and verses within the ESO Endless Archive: A Beginners Guide.
Visions and Verses
Within the Endless dungeon, you will need to use Visions and Verses to buff your character and build. Verses are temporary buffs that only last until a completed stage while Visions are permanent buffs until you’ve finished your Endless Archive run. These buffs come in three varieties, offensive, defensive, and utility. Depending if you are playing solo or not, this may determine your selection.
The developers want you to use a lot of synergies, which can be powerful for free damage and resources. This is even more important when playing in a group, providing each other synergies on a 20-second cooldown. However, the solo player may not see the impact and strive for more consistent buffs during their playthrough.
What are the best Visions and Verses?
Below we’ve listed our top 5 Verses for the Elder Scrolls Online Endless Archive:
- Augmented Areas: Your Area of Effect abilities have their damage increased by 50%.
- Rebirth: You have the gift of life! When you die, you instead become immune to damage and negative effects. After 6 seconds you are brought back from the dead, healing or 25288, and radiating out a wave of renewal energy dealing 55538 Magic Damage and stunning enemies for 4 seconds. This can occur only once.
- Head-On Defense: Damage taken from Direct Damage is reduced by 20%.
- Class Embodiment: Your Class Skills have their damage increased by 50%.
- Tomefoolery: You are accompanied by a Tomeshell! Every 20 seconds it begins a flourishing display, granting nearby allies Ultimate after 5 seconds. In addition, the Tomeshell will periodically Mangle nearby enemies.
Below we’ve listed our top 5 Visions for the Elder Scrolls Online Endless Archive:
- Boundless Potential: Your Ultimate costs less! Ultimate Cost reduced by 2% per stack.
- Extended Favor: Your major and minor effects last longer. Major and Minor effect duration increased by 50% per stack.
- Focused Efforts: The chance to apply a status effect increased by 10% and damage done by status effects increased by 200% per stack.
- Lasting Harm: Damage over time effect duration increased by 10% per stack.
- Hearty Vitality: You feel full of life! Max Health increased by 5% per stack.
Endless Archives Rewards
While in the Endless Archives, there is a plethora of obtainable loot from cosmetics, furnishings, materials, and brand-new powerful sets. After each boss round, you will receive a chest with a new currency. This currency is used to purchase new gear sets, cosmetics, and so forth. Here’s a quick breakdown of how the rewards work in The Elder Scrolls Online Endless Archive.
- Muniment Chest: Lootable chest at the end of every boss fight, drops a variety of loot like gold, Archival Fortunes, and Soul Gems
- Archival Fortunes: This is the main currency obtained in Endless Archives. Used to buy rewards from Filer Tezurs like the class skill line specific sets, furnishings, materials, and other rewards.
- Class Skill Line Buff Sets: With the release of Endless Archive, new sets that buff specific class skill trees within each class will be obtainable as rewards. There are multiple ways to obtain these sets, such as drops, curated loot boxes, and random loot boxes.
- Permanent Upgrades: There are upgrades that can be purchased with Archival Fortunes after completing associated achievements. These include extra choices and increased strength on verses and visions, starting with an extra thread on each run, and a movement speed buff will in the Endless Archive.
New ESO Class Sets
Below is a list of all the new item sets coming in Update 40 Endless Archive:
Basalt-Blooded Warrior set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Dragonknight
- Skill Line: Earthen Heart
- 2 items – Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- 3 items – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
- 4 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 5 items – Casting an Earthen Heart ability grants you a Rock Stance buff for 20 seconds, with a 20 second cooldown. While on your Front Bar, you gain Molten Stance, granting you Major Heroism and Minor Heroism, generating 4 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds. While you are on your Back Bar, you gain Obsidian Stance, increasing your Healing Done and Damage Shields by 14%. Bar Swapping will swap your Stance automatically.
Wrathsun set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Templar
- Skill Line: Dawn’s Wrath
- 2 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 3 items – Adds 657 Critical Chance
- 4 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 5 items – When you deal damage with a Dawn’s Wrath ability, gain a stack of Sunlight for 10 seconds, once per attack. You can have 50 stacks max and gain 12 Magicka Recovery per stack. When at max stacks, your Dawn’s Wrath abilities deal 25% bonus damage and a Wrathful Nova is automatically cast on the enemy, but you cannot refresh Sunlight. When Sunlight expires at max stacks, you lose 50% of your current Magicka.
Monolith of Storms set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Sorcerer
- Skill Line: Storm Calling
- 2 items – Adds 657 Critical Chance
- 3 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 4 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 5 items – Dealing damage with a Storm Calling abilities’ initial hit or every 5th tick, creates a Monolith near the enemy for 10 seconds, up to one every 1 second. You may have up to 3 Monoliths at a time. Monoliths link to your other Monoliths within 28 meters of each other, each link dealing 3064 Shock Damage every 2 seconds to enemies between and near them. An enemy can only take damage from this set once every 2 seconds.
Soulcleaver set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Nightblade
- Skill Line: Siphoning
- 2 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 3 items – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
- 4 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 5 items – While in combat and with at least 20 Ultimate, strengthen your Siphoning abilities at the cost of Ultimate: Increase the damage and healing of Siphoning abilities by 17% of your current Ultimate, up to 200 Ultimate, from a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 34%. Reduce the cost of Siphoning abilities by 15%. Casting a Siphoning ability while in combat drains you of 1% of your current Ultimate, with a minimum of 1.
Gardener of the Seasons set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Warden
- Skill Line: Green Balance
- 2 items – Adds 4% Healing Done
- 3 items – Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
- 4 items – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- 5 items – Casting a Green Balance ability grants you Herald of Spring, causing your Green Balance overheals to apply Minor Heroism for 3 seconds. Casting 2 non-Green Balance class abilities within 2 seconds consumes Herald of Spring and grants you Harbinger of Fall for 10 seconds, causing your Green Balance Overheals to create an 8 meter area for 5 seconds, applying Major Maim to enemies and Minor Vitality to allies within. You can only create an area once every 5 seconds. You cannot gain Herald of Spring while Harbinger of Fall is active.
Nobility in Decay set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Necromancer
- Skill Line: Bone Tyrant
- 2 items – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
- 3 items – Adds 4% Healing Taken
- 4 items – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
- 5 items – Casting a Bone Tyrant ability while in combat grants you Beautiful Corpse, Minor Protection, and Minor Resolve for 16 seconds, reducing your damage by 5% and increasing your Armor by 2974. This can proc once every 20 seconds and is reduced by 2 seconds for each slotted Bone Tyrant ability. Casting a corpse consumer ability consumes Beautiful Corpse, treating you as a corpse.
Reawakened Hierophant set features in Elder Scrolls Online:
- Class: Arcanist
- Skill Line: Curative Runeform
- 2 items – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- 3 items – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- 4 items – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
- 5 items – Casting a non-Ultimate Curative Runeform ability grants an effect for 6 seconds to your affected allies based on how many Crux you had. At 1 Crux, allies gain a damage shield that absorbs 3618 damage. At 2 Crux, allies gain Minor Heroism. At 3 Crux, allies gain Major Protection.
Best Builds for Endless Archive
While any build can function in Endless Archive, there are certain classes, stats, and skills you should focus on having to make your runs as smooth as possible. Below are some general suggestions regarding your build choices in ESO Endless Dungeon:
- High Health Pool: Having 24,000 health or high prevents foolish death when missing a block or a dodge.
- Major & Minor Buffs: Slot or activate buffs that give you weapons, spell damage, and critical bonuses.
- Food: Use food that provides recovery and health stat.
- Resource Sustain: If you run out of resources, you are dead, so make sure to have strong sustain.
- Area vs Single Target: Build towards having a variety of damage with an emphasis on an area for trash and a single target for the boss.
- Healing: combine healing over time, with a burst heal, and or a shield for high survivability.
- Goal: Your build should balance self-healing, damage, resource sustain, and mobility.
Some of the best builds available are going to be slightly tanky builds designed around dealing damage and staying alive. Also, you want to pair good AOE damage with good single-target damage to make sure you aren’t handicapped. This way whether you are fighting a single boss or a horde of enemies, you have the proper skills and damage to deal with them. A mix of builds like heavy attack builds, solo arena builds, and strong mythic builds as all great options. It’s important that any build performs well, deals damage, and keeps you alive. We will continue to explain gear sets in the next section of our ESO Endless Archive: A Beginners Guide.
Best Gear Sets for ESO Endless Archive
Self-buff sets and survival sets are crucial to effective combat in the Endless Archives. Mythics, monster sets, and five-piece sets that can increase survivability and damage will be vital over strictly parse sets.
| Mythics | Monster Sets | Five Piece Sets |
|---|---|---|
| Oakensoul | Iceheart | Back-Alley Gourmand |
| Pale Order | Bloodspawn | False God’s |
| Death Dealer’s Fete | Magma Incarnate | Quick Serpent |
| Markyn Ring of Majesty | Roksa the Warped | Ancient Dragonguard |
Design your sets to provide buffs, keep you alive, and generate resources so you don’t need outside assistance. While damage is important and shouldn’t be overlooked, it’s essential to survive in activities like the Endless Archive, where you have a limited number of lives. As the rounds increase and enemies deal more damage, these sets can help you complete a round.
Tips And Tricks for Beginners Guide
These tips and tricks are designed to help your runs go as smoothly as possible and think about some things you may not have stopped and considered.
- Slow Down: It’s important to get through the rounds in a timely manner but don’t try to rush through it and cause yourself early death.
- Use Pulls: Skills and sets like Silver Leash, Beckoning Armor, and Rush of Agony are great for clustering enemies together making them easier to AOE down.
- Major and Minor Expeditions are great for a speed boost to help you maneuver through mechanics or close the gap between you and enemies.
- Pre-buff before a fight and maintaining your buffs are crucial to ensure you are able to stay alive and deal as much damage as possible.
- Verses and Visions that compliment you, your build, or your group composition.
- Group Comp: Find a partner that has the opposite of your build and use skills with strategy for free resource sustain Templar and Arc are great.
- Consuming Trap: this is a universal skill that gives back resources once an enemy dies and is helpful regardless of your playstyle.
- Mystic Orb: An area damage skill that produces synergy when playing with a partner.
- Damage: Use builds that have both great AOE cleave and good single-target damage.
There are multiple ways to improve your overall performance in the Endless Archives. Some of the tips you may have thought of yourself, some you may not have even considered. One or more of these could help you clear out a few more waves and earn you some additional loot.
The Archives are quite the challenge added into the game and require some effort to make it into the later levels. However, with enough patience and practice any player can have success and rewards. Test yourself, test your builds, go face hordes of enemies with a sword and shield, and whatever you do, have some fun.
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