The MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online received update 37 on March 13, 2023, the DLC Scribes of Fate and with it two new dungeons. And one of them offers a complete novelty. You can find out what that is here on MeinMMO.
What dungeons are new in Scribes of Fate? With the current DLC, ESO has two new dungeons. These are:
I was allowed to play one of the new dungeons on the PTS with the developers of ESO and of course I asked all kinds of questions.
Who is speaking here? MiezeMelli has been playing The Elder Scrolls Online since beta. She has been streaming ESO on Twitch regularly since early 2018 and has been part of Bethesda’s official ESO Stream Team since late 2020. Since January 2018 she has been creating videos (raid triples, guides, DPS tests) on Youtube. She has a total of over 6900 game hours on 18 maxed characters and 2156 champion points on EU and 534 on NA (as of 03/20/2023). Since May 2021 she has been responsible for everything to do with ESO on MeinMMO, especially guides.
For the try-out session, we chose the dungeon “Bal Sunar”. Like every dungeon in ESO, Bal Sunnar has a story that I want to give you a little bit of information about.
What is the story behind Bal Sunnar? We travel to the new dungeon located in the Stonefalls area. Once there, we see the NPC Saresea in front of us. She is trying to warn the Dark Elves of Bal Sunar of a danger. What that means exactly, we learn in the course of the dungeon.
Saresea speaks of time warps, which prompts us to notice her Psijic Order robes. The Dark Elves are members of the House of Telvanni. What Saresea means by her suspicion, we will see too clearly in the course of the dungeon.
The first dungeon boss convinces with cool animations
After working our way through a few mob groups, we come to a bridge. At the end is a dark elf style tower. In general, the environment reminds me a lot of my first steps in ESO, since I created all my characters in the Covenant and therefore always started in Stonefalls.
How is the first boss? Once we cross the bridge, we enter the tower. The first boss awaits us there: Kovan Giryon. He summons some effigies during battle and lets us admire some brand new animations.
You can tell that the developers have put a lot of attention to detail in the combat animations. The boss fight is therefore definitely a small highlight for graphics nerds. Suitable for the upcoming chapter “Necrom” of course in the color combination black and green.
After beating the first boss we have to exit the building again. Once outside, we slowly realize what the NPC was talking about at the beginning. Because the bridge, which we just crossed without any problems, suddenly doesn’t seem to have been built yet.
This will not be the first time distortion that will confront us. The developers also point out exactly this bridge in order to be able to orientate oneself at least a tiny bit in time and at least to be able to say whether one is in the future or in the past.
But first we have to face the first boss. Which bosses await you in the dungeon?
By the way, with the first boss we already get to see some of the skills that belong to the upcoming arcanist class.
Of course I asked the developers about secret bosses in the new dungeons. They told me that there are secret bosses, but sometimes not in the usual form. Of course, after the PTS run with the developers, I took the opportunity to rummage around in the dungeons on my own on the PTS.
That’s also where I discovered what the developers were hinting at regarding the Secret bosses. There was talk of some kind of puzzle. At first I didn’t know exactly what to imagine by that, but I would soon find out.
The new secret boss is a tricky puzzle
Because the 1st “Secret Boss” is not a person or any other living being with whom I have to compete in battle. The 1st secret task is a riddle!
Anyone who already knows me a little knows that I’m actually not a puzzle fan. But I have to make an exception for this puzzle. And strangely enough, THE idea came to me immediately, which led me directly to the solution.
I usually find that once you understand what the puzzle is asking you, you’ve pretty much won it. And this puzzle is about finding the right sequence of symbols on a large totem.
You want to know how the puzzle works? Then check out this spoiler. However, if you prefer to do the puzzles yourself first, you should skip this spoiler.
In front of you is a small wooden pedestal. On it are 4 ship steering wheels, which you can turn. From there you look directly at a high totem, consisting of 4 building blocks.
The area is surrounded by cages arranged in a circle. If you look past the tall totem, you can spot more totems. There are a total of 3 pieces, each consisting of 2 components.
They will give you the clue to solve the puzzle. But how does it fit together that we have 3 clue totems with 2 building blocks each and the high totem with a total of 4 building blocks? Shouldn’t there be 2 blocks left over?
Actually already. But if you look closely, you will notice that the following hint totem always has 1 of the same building blocks as its predecessor. The fact that this building block is repeated is only intended to show you where you should connect the sequence.
I’ll show you the whole thing with a screenshot:
The next secret boss is, as you already know it from the last dungeons, an opponent that you have to defeat in battle.
But the last secret opponent is again a mystery. This time you have to rotate some reflective surfaces so that the light rays from the light sources all find their way to the center. It’s reminiscent of a similar puzzle in the story of Markarth. To do this, take a close look at the position of the mirrors.
It is possible that we will see the NPC again in the Necrom story
While the Psijic Order itself isn’t supposed to make a comeback in the next chapter, the Psijic Scholar Saresea might come across us again this year.
The developers told me that the dungeons are already seen as a separate story in this way, but still give us more context to the content in 2023 overall.
Will there be 4 dungeons again next year?
At least it can be assumed. Because the plans presented for this year, with a focus on bug fixing and performance instead of another 2 dungeons in Q3, are expressly only for 2023. So in the coming year it could be possible that we get more dungeons again.
Still interested in ESO and the new Chapter? I’m really excited for Necrom. You can find out here why it will be an absolute hit in my eyes.