Originally published April 30, 2020. The original article can be found here.
What is the Antiquities system?
The Antiquities system is a new in-game activity included with the Greymoor Chapter. It allows you to scry the location of Tamriel’s hidden relics and treasures, and then excavate them.
By participating in the Antiquities system, you can earn rewards including collectibles (furnishings, mounts, and more) and riches, plus you can even uncover the region’s secret histories and lore.
Which zones have antiquities?
Almost all of them! With the release of the new system, Western Skyrim and nearly all of ESO’s previous base game, Chapter, and DLC zones (including some you might not expect) have antiquities for you to locate and dig up. Note that the regions of Cyrodiil, Imperial City, and Blackreach will not have antiquities at this time (although you might be able to find leads there). In the future, we plan to add additional antiquities to all new zone releases.
How do I get started with Antiquities?
To begin your journey into Tamriel’s hidden histories, visit the Antiquarians Circle in the city of Solitude in Western Skyrim (right next to the Bards College) and speak to Verita Numida. She’ll give you the Antiquarian's Eye tool, a tutorial quest, and some basic leads. We recommend you do both quests available from Verita to get a complete idea as to how the new system works, but you can begin to find antiquities as soon as you’ve finished the first quest.
LeadsEdit
What are leads?
Leads are hints, tips, or clues that allow you to begin searching for a new antiquity in a certain zone. You can find your leads via your Journal, within the Antiquities Codex section. There, you can see what leads you have for antiquities within almost all of the game’s zones.
How do I get leads?
When you join the Antiquarians Circle, you’ll receive a bunch of leads automatically for antiquities all over Tamriel. However, you will also find leads via many activities as you explore and quest, including as drops from monsters, treasure chests, and even from vendors.
Note that almost every zone will have a basic antiquity that does not require a lead, giving you something to search for immediately! Finally, the leads you acquire via in-game activities will expire 30 days after first acquiring them. The trail might have gone cold, but you can always try to pick up that lead again in the future.
Where do I find and use my leads?
You can access your leads from the Antiquities Codex section of your Journal. From there, you can navigate your leads for the various zones and select which ones you’d like to scry based on its location, rewards, or difficulty.
Can I obtain leads if I don't have the Antiquities system or the Greymoor Chapter unlocked?
Yes. You can obtain leads before you get the Greymoor Chapter, but you will not be able to use them until you own the Chapter and complete the first Antiquarians Circle quest.
Can I trade leads with other players?
No. You cannot trade leads with other players at this time.
ScryingEdit
What is scrying?
One of the Antiquity system’s two mini-games, scrying is the process of unlocking the secrets hidden within a lead, allowing you to discover antiquities dig sites in a zone.
When scrying, you use a mysterious relic (given to you when you join the Circle) called the Antiquarian's Eye to ascertain the true location of an antiquity.
How do I scry a lead?
You can scry a lead by accessing your Antiquities Codex menu (via your Journal or zone map) and then completing the mini-game. You can only scry a lead if you are within its zone.
When scrying a lead, you use the Antiquarian's Eye to expand your consciousness across a board to claim facets and eventually encompass the glowing cells, called foci. You begin in the bottom center of the board, and by selecting adjacent cells (called facets) you expand your control. If the facet you select has other adjacent facets of the same type (indicated with unique markings), you’ll claim them, too!
Your goal is to move across the board and claim all of the foci to lock down the location of an antiquity’s dig site. As you capture foci, the amount of false dig site locations on your map will reduce, allowing you to limit the amount of trekking required to find the right location.
However, this is no easy task, as you have a limited amount of moves you can make, and the board can vary in size, too! Don’t worry, you can more easily navigate the board as you play by using abilities and leveling up your Scrying Skill Line, detailed below.
What does the Scrying Skill Line do?
As you dig up antiquities and complete related Achievements, you’ll progress the Scrying Skill Line, found within the World category. This allows you to spend Skill Points in various passives, including some that allow you to scry harder leads, unlock special scrying abilities, or broadly make the scrying process easier.
What are my Scrying abilities?
With the Scrying Skill Line, you can unlock and improve three unique abilities that you can use when scrying:
- Coalescence—(Unlockable) Converts a hexagonal cluster of facets to match the central facet
- Dilation—(Unlockable) Claims all facets of the select type that touch your area of control and any matching adjacent facets
- Farsight—(Unlockable) Claims a line of facets, stretching out from your area of control
Note that these abilities do not consume one of your limited turns, and claiming foci generates half a charge for your abilities, allowing you to charge up and use them again! Once you start unlocking and using these abilities, you’ll quickly discover them to be powerful tools of divination.
What happens if I don’t completely scry a lead?
If you are unable to claim all of the foci by the time you run out of turns, that’s OK. As long as you capture at least once foci, you can begin to search that antiquity’s possible dig sites. Because you didn’t unlock all the foci, you might encounter some false positives, but no treasure is denied to the most dedicated antiquarians!
Of course, if you’d like to scry more foci, you can always just try again. Your Antiquities Codex will show you how many foci you’ve unlocked from a lead.
ExcavationEdit
What is excavation?
Once you have located an antiquity’s dig site, you can begin excavating it and uncover its long-hidden riches. You’ll now see that certain areas of the zone are highlighted on your map. These are the possible dig sites for the antiquity.
Note that only one of these locations will contain the antiquity. The rest are false-positives, although you might still find some treasure there.
How do I excavate a dig site?
Once you’ve traveled to a possible dig site, look for a glowing mound and use it to begin excavation. While within a dig site, if you quickslot the Antiquarian’s Eye and use it, it will point you toward the spot you need to excavate—handy! Note that you can use this tool only once every 30 seconds, so you’ll still need to look around and explore a little to find the right spot.
When excavating, numerous tools can help you uncover the hidden treasures. You start with the Antiquarian’s Eye and Hand Brush that you can use to sense rewards and move dirt, but you can unlock more tools later.
Note that you have only a limited amount of actions when excavating an antiquity, and you will fail if you reach your limit before digging up the item. Also, the antiquity itself isn’t the only item you can find in dig sites, and you might uncover bonus loot if you’re careful and quick enough.
What tool you use to excavate is completely up to you, and like scrying, you can improve the effectiveness of these tools and get new ones by leveling up your Excavation Skill Line, detailed below.
What does the Excavation Skill Line do?
As you dig up antiquities and complete Achievements, you’ll level up your Excavation Skill Line, found within the World category. This allows you to spend Skill Points on passive skills, granting you benefits that help you spot dig sites or treasure chests, give you more total actions when digging, and even unlock additional Excavation abilities (detailed below).
What are my Excavation abilities?
With the Excavation Skill Line, you automatically unlock both the Augur ability and Hand Brush tool for use at dig sites. You can also level them up to unlock the additional tools below:
- Augur—Helps you “sense” where in the dirt the item might be
- Hand Brush—Clears away a small amount of dirt and enables you to use the Trowel and Heavy Shovel by generating Intuition
- Trowel—(Unlockable) Clears away whole layers of dirt in a single cell
- Heavy Shovel—(Unlockable) Clears away a small amount of dirt from a large area
What happens if I fail to dig up an item?
If you run out of actions and fail to find the antiquity, that’s OK. You’ll just need to find another dig site within the same area to try again.
RewardsEdit
What kind of rewards can I get from the Antiquities system?
There are a whole world of rewards you can uncover when scrying and excavating antiquities, which include the following:
- Powerful Mythic equipment
- New Markings, Adornments, and Emotes
- Valuables you can sell to vendors worth over 300,000 gold in total!
- Three new Ancestral motifs
- Deadly new siege weapons called Magicka Lances
- A new mount, the Ebon Dwarven Wolf mount
- Tons of new furnishings, including antique maps, a music box, and more!
In addition to these rewards, each time you dig up an item, you also discover some new lore surrounding that item. With the Antiquities system, you not only receive valuable treasures and collectibles as rewards, but also knowledge.
How do I make sure I’ve uncovered every antiquity within a zone?
You can check a zone’s progress from the Antiquities Codex section of your Journal.
Will there be new antiquities added later?
Yes. When the team releases new zones, they will have new antiquities!
Can I trade antiquities with other players?
Most antiquities are not tradeable with other players, with the exception of motif pages and bonus loot runes.
If you’re excited to uncover all of Tamriel’s long-lost treasures, the Antiquarians Circle in Solitude is looking for would-be archaeologists, historians, and seers. The road to exalted title of Master Historian begins with the new Antiquities system, coming with the Greymoor Chapter—great riches and knowledge awaits! Let us know if you’re ready to depart on your next big expedition to discover Tamriel’s hidden histories via @TESOnline, Instagram, or Facebook.
Part of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure, The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor arrives May 26 for PC/Mac and June 9 for Xbox One and PlayStation®4.* Pre-purchase Greymoor now digitally to receive unique bonus rewards and gain immediate access to the Holdbreaker Warhorse in-game mount (digital only—conditions apply). Don't miss out!