Antiquities is a new treasure hunting game mechanic in ESO that challenges players to hunt down and excavate brand new items. Follow Leads and Scry your way through Tamriel to track and collect new gear, furnishing, mythical items, and much more.
Elder Scrolls Online unveiled a new Antiquities system with the Greymoor expansion. For those who want to live life as Indiana Jones does, now is your time! Follow clues, solve puzzles, and track down valuable collectible items only available through the Antiquities system. Those who have purchased Greymoor will have access to present and future artifact additions to the game.
This new system of Antiquities unlocks two new skill lines for your hero to level; Scrying and Excavation. Scrying is essentially the hunting or searching portion of the challenge, completing a scry will unveil the location of the artifact. Excavation skill line helps your hero essentially dig up the treasure more efficiently.
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Getting Started with Antiquities
Greymoor unlocks the Western Skyrim and the famous city, Solitude. Within the city walls of Solitude is where you will find the Antiquarian Circle. Find and speak to Verita Numida to begin your journey. From there you start your Scrying conquests.
Scrying is the act of locating the artifacts in your zone. Technically speaking, you will be Scrying “leads” which are potential locations of an artifact. When Scrying leads you will be using your Antiquarian’s Eye Tool. It will help pin-point on the dig site location. Using the Antiquarian’s Eye tool consists of connecting the similar icons inside the hexagons in order to reach “focus points” that aid in narrowing down the dig site.
For those who are looking for a detailed description of how to Scry check out LovelyNorth. They have done a great job of explaining how exactly to Scry, and what Scrying requires the players to do. Check out the Antiquities Guide by LovelyNorth for pictures, instructions, and tips on how to maximize your scrying abilities.
How to Level Antiquities
To begin, open up your quest journal and find the Antiquities tab (J). Next, make sure you are in the Scryable category tab to the left. This section will display the potential leads that can be found in the zone you are currently in. You are only able to see leads for the zone you are currently in.
Leads are available in tiers; green, blue, purple, gold, and red. Green is the lowest quality, and red being Mythic grade items. Not only will lead colors will determine the quality of the artifact you are excavating, but it will also determine the amount of experience gained from the activity.
In order to level up in the Antiquities skill lines, you will have to scry, excavate, and repeat. Here are a few resources that go into great detail about how to go about leveling in the new Antiquities system in Elder Scrolls Online.
- The Elder Scrolls Online: How to Level Antiquities
- The Elder Scrolls Online – Antiquities Leveling Guide, How to Level Antiquities
Grind Levels 1-10 in Antiquities Quickly
A general consensus is that the fastest route to max level is to grind levels 1 through 3 (or through 5) in a single zone. Specifically, Artaeum. This is because the zone is small, and the dig sites are crammed together.
Dottz Gaming is quite the expert in all things Elder Scrolls Online, and he has created a fantastic quick leveling guide for players who want to level antiquities quickly in ESO. His video is below, and for those who prefer reading over watching visit How to Level Up Antiquities 1-10 Fast.
Another great resource for players who want to get through the Antiquities skill lines quickly and efficiently, check out the Antiquities Grind Guide Scrying & Excavation Leveling.
This guide covers the nitty-gritty details on how to become level 10 antiquarian quickly. ALCASTHQ goes into great detail about the amount of experience gained for scrying different lead levels. As well as which locations offer the most rewards per level.
Another great resource in this guide is the Mythic Item Leads where the author depicts all the locations of the pieces for creating mythic grade items. Once you reach level 7, you will be able to begin hunting the rarest artifacts. These Mythic grade items offer the collector powerful new buffs and passives. To build these mythic items you will need to track down all 5 items required to assemble.
Excavating Mythic Items
Now on to the best part of the new Antiquities system in ESO, all the treasure you uncover! The only real benefit to antiquities apart from the change up in gameplay is the rewards discovered through excavation.
Items vary from gear collectibles that can be worn for additional stat perks, to a new mount, and a bunch of furnishing items that can be displayed in player housing. These items are unique to the antiquities system, and will only drop by scrying leads and hunting them down.
Present and future updates of Elder Scrolls Online aims to introduce new artifacts to the antiquities system. So while you may think it might be a waste of cash to purchase the new Greymoor expansion, it is an expansion that keeps on giving.
Mythic items are created with multiple smaller items that need to also be hunted down throughout Tamriel. In addition to the official Elder Scrolls Mythic Items page, and the WIKI we have found the next best resources that notate the whereabouts of these mythic grade items.
ESO Antiquities Mythic Items is a quick, to the point, table that depicts; the item, the quality, the location, and the source. Source meaning either the location or the boss/activity that drops the item.
The Mythic Items Locations List is a resource that goes into a bit more detail about each fully created mythic item and where to find the mythical pieces to put them together. Happy hunting!
