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Traits are a special property that can appear on weapons, armor and jewelry. Each item can have a single trait, in addition to all other properties an item can carry, though items without any traits are also common.

Traits may be researched in order to craft custom items with the respective properties.

Constructing an item with a specific trait requires a special tertiary material. These ingredients can be retrieved by deconstructing items with traits, or refining raw ore, wood, leather or fibers, or dust. Crafting hirelings for Blacksmithing, Clothing and Woodworking will also commonly send all types of trait materials.

The magnitude of each trait depends on the quality of the item, improving the item will automatically increase the trait's magnitude.

Non-percentage values in the following tables are for Level 50 Champion Points160 items. Lower level items will have smaller values. See the individual trait pages for more complete info.

Weapon TraitsEdit

Weapon traits are available on all weapons - axes, swords, maces, daggers, greatswords, battle axes, mauls, bows, restoration staves and destruction staves.

All traits except Infused and Nirnhoned are twice as powerful on two-handed weapons as they are on one-handed weapons.

Trait Material Description Magnitude
Normal Fine Superior Epic Legendary
Powered   Chysolite Increase healing done by … 1H 2.5% 3% 3.5% 4% 4.5%
2H 5% 6% 7% 8% 9%
Charged   Amethyst Increase your chance to apply status effects by … 1H 97.5% 102.5% 107.5% 112.5% 117.5%
2H 195% 205% 215% 225% 235%
Precise   Ruby Increases Weapon and Spell Critical values by … 1H 1.6% 2.1% 2.6% 3.1% 3.6%
2H 3.2% 4.2% 5.2% 6.2% 7.2%
Infused   Jade Increase weapon enchantment effect by … and reduces enchantment cooldown by 50% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Defending   Turquoise Increases Physical and Spell Resistance by … 1H 1428 1485 1542 1580 1638
2H 2856 2971 3085 3161 3276
Training   Carnelian Increase experience gained from kills by … 1H 2.5% 3% 3.5% 4% 4.5%
2H 5% 6% 7% 8% 9%
Sharpened   Fire Opal Increase Physical and Spell Penetration by … 1H 1428 1485 1542 1580 1638
2H 2856 2971 3085 3161 3276
Decisive   Citrine When you gain Ultimate you have a … chance to gain 1 additional ultimate. 1H 19.1% 21.2% 23.2% 25.4% 27.5%
2H 38.2% 42.4% 46.4% 50.8% 55%
Nirnhoned   Potent Nirncrux Increases Damage of this weapon by … 11% 12% 13% 14% 15%

NotesEdit

Armor TraitsEdit

Armor traits are available on all articles of light, medium and heavy armor, as well on shields.

Trait Material Description Magnitude
Normal Fine Superior Epic Legendary
Sturdy   Quartz Reduce block cost by … 2% 2.5% 3% 3.5% 4%
Impenetrable   Diamond Increase your Critical Resistance by … and this item takes 50% less durability damage. 116 118 121 124 127
Reinforced   Sardonyx Increases this item's armor value by … 12% 13% 14% 15% 16%
Well-fitted   Almandine Reduces the cost of sprinting and Roll Dodging by … 1.2% 2.4% 3.6% 4.8% 6%
Training   Emerald Increase experience gained from kills by … 7% 8% 9% 10% 11%
Infused   Bloodstone Increase armor enchantment effect by … 9% 13% 17% 21% 25%
Invigorating   Garnet Increase Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by … 8 10 12 14 16
Divines   Sapphire Increases Mundus Stone effects by … 5.1% 6.1% 7.1% 8.1% 9.1%
Nirnhoned   Fortified Nirncrux Increases Physical and Spell Resistance by … 220 228 236 244 253

Jewelry TraitsEdit

Jewelry traits are available on all Jewelry, including rings and necklaces/amulets.

Trait Material Material Source Description Magnitude
Normal Fine Superior Epic Legendary
Healthy  Antimony Refining Platinum Dust Increase Maximum Health by … 844 877 910 932 965
Arcane  Cobalt Refining Platinum Dust Increase Maximum Magicka by … 767 797 827 847 877
Robust  Zinc Refining Platinum Dust Increase Maximum Stamina by … 767 797 827 847 877
Bloodthirsty  Slaughterstone Writs, Weekly Trial Rewards Increase Weapon and Spell Damage against enemies under 90% health by up to … 70 140 210 280 350
Harmony  Dibellium Writs, Daily Random Normal Dungeon Rewards Activating a Synergy restores ... Health, Magicka, and Stamina. 770 797 825 852 880
Infused  Aurbic Amber Writs, Psijic Portals Increase the effect of the enchantment by …% 24 33 42 51 60
Triune  Dawn-Prism Writs, War Researchers Increase Maximum Health by …
and Maximum Magicka and Maximum Stamina by …
418 429 451 467 478
380 390 410 425 435
Protective  Titanium Writs, Jewelry Seams Increase Spell Resistance and Physical Resistance by … 1624 1664 1744 1804 1844
Swift  Gilding Wax Writs, Rolis Hlaalu Increase Movement Speed by …% 3 4 5 6 7
  • Deconstructing a piece of jewelry will return jewelry crafting ingredients, including one pulverized version of its trait material, ten of which can be refined into that trait material. However, if the jewelry was reconstructed at a Transmute Station, it will instead return 25 Transmute Crystals only, regardless of quality, trait or number of Transmute Crystals used to create it.

Common TraitsEdit

The following traits are available on both armor, weapons, and as of Update 18, jewelry as well.

They can only be found, but not researched or crafted.

Trait Description Magnitude
Normal Fine Superior Epic Legendary
Ornate This item sells to merchants for …% more. 280% 285% 290% 295% 300%
Intricate Increase inspiration gained from deconstruction of this item by …, and gain additional refined material upon deconstruction of this item. Armor/Weapons 280% 285% 290% 295% 300%
Jewelry 300% 325% 350% 375% 400%

Deprecated TraitsEdit

These traits were removed and replaced in the past.

ResearchEdit

In order to construct an item with a specific trait, it has to first be researched. This can be done at any crafting station:

  • Light and medium armor at Clothing stations
  • Bows, staves and shields at Woodworking stations
  • Heavy armor and metal weapons at Blacksmithing stations
  • Necklaces and rings at Jewelry Crafting stations

Researching a trait will unlock it only for that particular type of item - e.g. researching the Reinforced trait on pauldrons will only allow you to construct reinforced heavy armor shoulders, but not any other heavy armor items like cuirass or sabatons, or any other shoulder slot items like epaulets or arm cops. The only exceptions are robes and jerkins, which are simply two different styles of light armor chest items.

Researching is performed on a per-character basis, i.e., researching a trait on one character does not unlock that trait on any other character on that account.

Constructing item sets requires you to have a certain number of traits researched.

To start the research process, you need to have an item with the desired trait in your inventory or bank. Both found items and items crafted by other players work. Researching a trait will destroy the item.

By default you can only research a single trait at a time per crafting skill, though each crafting skill line has an ability to raise this limit and increase the research speed:

These abilities can increase the research speed by up to 25%, and raise the limit of concurrent research tasks to 3 (with the exception of Lapidary Research, which does not add additional research slots). Note that even with an increased research limit, you still cannot research multiple traits on a single item type at the same time. The highest ability rank limits the research time to 30 days, which is only relevant to the 9th trait on an item, as the others would be below this limit already. Being an ESO Plus Subscriber further reduces research time by 10%, stacking multiplicatively with the above abilities.

The base research time for a trait is 6 hours real time. Each further trait you research for an item type doubles this time - 12 hours for the second trait, 24 hours for the third trait, and so forth. Research time continues to count down while you are not playing the character that is researching (e.g. playing another character or offline). The following table lists the research times for traits:

Trait Duration (no ESO Plus) Duration (w/ESO Plus)
Base Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Base Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4
1st 6h 00m 5h 42m 5h 24m 4h 48m 4h 30m 5h 24m 5h 07m 48s 4h 51m 36s 4h 19m 12s 4h 03m
2nd 12h 00m 11h 24m 10h 48m 9h 36m 9h 00m 10h 48m 10h 15m 36s 9h 43m 12s 8h 38m 24s 8h 06m
3rd 1d 00h 00m 22h 48m 21h 36m 19h 12m 18h 00m 21h 36m 20h 31m 12s 19h 26m 24s 17h 16m 48s 16h 12m
4th 2d 00h 00m 1d 21h 36m 1d 19h 12m 1d 14h 24m 1d 12h 00m 1d 19h 12m 1d 17h 02m 24s 1d 14h 52m 48s 1d 10h 33m 36s 1d 08h 24m
5th 4d 00h 00m 3d 19h 12m 3d 14h 24m 3d 04h 48m 3d 00h 00m 3d 14h 24m 3d 10h 04m 48s 3d 05h 45m 36s 2d 21h 07m 12s 2d 16h 48m
6th 8d 00h 00m 7d 14h 24m 7d 04h 48m 6d 09h 36m 6d 00h 00m 7d 04h 48m 6d 20h 09m 36s 6d 11h 31m 12s 5d 18h 14m 24s 5d 09h 36m
7th 16d 00h 00m 15d 04h 48m 14d 09h 36m 12d 19h 12m 12d 00h 00m 14d 09h 36m 13d 16h 19m 12s 12d 23h 02m 24s 11d 12h 28m 48s 10d 19h 12m
8th 32d 00h 00m 30d 09h 36m 28d 19h 12m 25d 14h 24m 24d 00h 00m 28d 19h 12m 27d 08h 38m 24s 25d 22h 04m 48s 23d 00h 57m 36s 21d 14h 24m
9th 64d 00h 00m 60d 19h 12m 57d 14h 24m 51d 04h 48m 30d 00h 00m 57d 14h 24m 54d 17h 16m 48s 51d 20h 09m 36s 46d 01h 55m 12s 27d 00h 00m
Slots 1 2 2 3 3 1 2 2 3 3
Sum 127d 18h 00m 121d 8h 42m 114d 23h 24m 102d 4h 48m 77d 19h 30m 114d 23h 24m 109d 5h 25m 48s 103d 11h 27m 36s 91d 23h 31m 12s 70d 00h 45m

Using a research scroll will reduce the timers of all items currently being researched in one or more crafts by an amount dependent on the scroll (e.g. an  Instant Blacksmithing Research  scroll will reduce the timers of all current Blacksmithing research items by 1 day). Scrolls obtained from the Crown Store have no cooldown between uses; scrolls purchased from Rolis Hlaalu have a cooldown of 20 hours.

Researching all traits for a single item without scrolls will take between 70 days 45 minutes and 127 days 18 hours, depending on the number of points invested in the appropriate skill and if you have ESO Plus. There are 6 different woodworking item types that can be researched, and 14 different clothing and blacksmithing item types that can be researched. This means that it will take an absolute minimum of 140 days 1 hour and 30 minutes (about four and a half months) to research all woodworking traits, and a minimum of 350 days 3 hours and 45 minutes (due to the last 2 traits having to research in their own with 1 empty slot, just under 1 year) to research all clothing and blacksmithing traits without the use of scrolls.