How To Make Gold / Money In ESO

This page is a collection of player tips found across various sources on making gold in Elder Scrolls Online. If you have anything to add please comment below.

Gold is important in ESO as it allows for repairing gear, increasing inventory and bank space, buying mounts, purchasing equipment from other players, contributing to a guild and upgrading weapons and armor. Making enough gold for all of these things can be a little tricky at first.

If you complete quests, kill monsters and explore the land you will generate enough income to make your way in Tamriel but there are a lot of things that you can do to ensure that you continuously build up a solid pool of gold for which to spend when you reach the higher levels and might want some fancy new armor.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. Guilds are important to make money through trade. You can buy anything from any Guild Trader however to sell items you must be a member of a Guild. There are several large trading Guilds around which own Guild Traders and sell items to the public. You can sell items to members of you Guild through the Guild Store even if you do not have a public Guild Trader.
2. You can also buy and sell items in Zone Chat (PC) in busy areas however it is important not to spam the chat and it is often more efficient to sell items in a Guild Store or through Guild Chat.
3. Item prices will vary depending on the level and quality of the item, the zone which you are in and the Alliance that you are in. It can be difficult to determine a fair price for an item. You can look in Guild Stores and see if a “general price” can be determined or you ask other players for help. An AddOn called MasterMerchant allows you to track buyers and sellers from your Guild Store to help determine the selling price of an item and this can be helpful.

Quests

Quests often give gold as a reward upon completion. Quests will also lead you to enemies which can drop gold – not to mention treasure chests and containers which can be looted for extra cash. If you complete quests regularly you will generate enough gold for your leveling needs and more if you actively pick up items, search containers and attack enemies.

Slaying Thy Enemies

Enemies, especially human enemies, can drop gold. You may despair at first about the small amount of gold dropped by enemies, however it all adds up over time, especially in the course of a quest or dungeon. This gold will contribute to the costs of repairing your gear and allow some of that other gold that you find to be spent elsewhere. Enemies will also drop equipment, jewelry, glyphs and scraps which can be sold.

Item Loot

This is a large topic as loot is a broad way to earn gold. Loot covers anything which can be picked up in the course of your travels. So items as quest rewards, items picked up from corpses, items found in chests and items found in containers are all loot. These items might not seem like they are worth much especially if they are simply base quality gear, however you can deconstruct these things and then sell the materials. If you don’t want to deconstruct them, or they can’t be deconstructed, you can sell them all to merchants to make a little gold.

Armor and Weapon Drops

While these might not sell for much on their own you can always deconstruct them, gain a little crafting experience, and sell the materials to other players or a merchant.

Glyphs

Glyphs, especially the higher level ones, sell for a reasonable amount, as players buy these to deconstruct so they can level Enchanting.

Exploration

This is another broad topic. Ensure that you keep an eye out when you are out in Tamriel doing what you do for things such as raw materials, chests and containers.

Raw Materials

Raw Materials often sell for more than Refined Materials as other players want to refine the materials themselves for crafting experience and a chance to receive crafting upgrade materials. If you collect all of the materials that you find in your travels you will build up a stock pile which you can sell to other players.

Alchemy Ingredients

Plants, flowers and mushrooms all sell to player who make potions so collect these when you see them. Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower, Lady’s Smock and Corn Flowers are all used in Tri-Pots and so these will always have a market.

Chests

Chests require you to unlock them with a lockpick and often contain gold and some items which can be sold or deconstructed. Some will also contain higher quality items and glyphs. Chests also give a little bit of experience as another bonus.

Containers

Cupboards, nightstands, drawers, pots, jars, desks and other containers could be holding provisioning ingredients, recipes or even a Racial Motif. If you make a habit of doing a little searching then you are likely to come across something valuable. The level 1 – 50 zones contain all of the normal Racial Motifs. The level VR1 to VR5 zones contain the Barbaric and Primal Racial Motifs and the VR 6 – VR10 zones contain the Ancient Elf, Daedric and Imperial Motifs. The rare Motifs can sell for a lot and even the normal ones can go for 100 – 400 gold. Oh and don’t forget the Dwemer Motifs can be found in containers inside Dwemer Ruins in any zone!

Crafting

Crafting is definitely a viable way to earn gold however it is probably best used in combination with everything else. In ESO every player can learn to be pretty self-sufficient in terms of gear, potions, and glyphs, however there is always a market these items from players who either have not levelled crafting at all, have not levelled ALL types of crafting or wish to make a convenience purchase. You can make potions, food, drinks, armor and weapons to sell to other players. Tri-Pots will always have a market due to heavy use in PVP, food and drinks are always needed and high quality armor and weapons, especially Item Sets, are often required by other players. Enchanting is difficult to level but it might end up worth it as players look for glyphs for new armor and weapons. Keep an eye on Zone Chat as people often make specific requests for specific items. You could even consider advertising on Zone or Guild Chat that you can make certain Item Sets, potions or glyphs. Make sure that you don’t spam however.

Trait Items

Just a simple piece of base quality gear with a trait on it can actually sell for a lot to other players looking for something to research. Keep an eye out in Zone Chat for people looking for certain traits or even place a few items with traits in a Guild Store and you could make anywhere from 100 to 1000 gold!

PVP and Cyrodiil

You can make gold in PVP simply by participating in battles and fighting for your Alliance. As you earn Alliance Points you will be sent “rewards for the worthy” which contain an item and some gold. You can deconstruct the item, sell the materials and keep the gold. These rewards also have a chance to contain a Grand Soul Gem which is handy in PVP! You can also do quests in Cyrodiil each day which reward you with a little gold.

Alliance Points

Alliance Points are earned in PVP through battle and these can allow you to save some gold by purchasing certain items in Cyrodiil. You can purchase some base quality materials, such as glyphs, from the merchants in Cyrodiil for Alliance Points, thus saving your precious gold. There are also certain Item Sets and equipment sold from merchants in Cyrodiil which can only be purchased with Alliance Points.

The Justice System

The Justice System is a new way to earn good gold in ESO! You can now, as of Patch 1.6.5, steal from houses and containers and pickpocket the citizens of Tamriel. Stealing and pickpocketing will give you a chance to find different owned items which you can then sell to a Fence for a profit. The items that you can steal vary in quality with base quality items selling for around 50 gold and blue and purple items selling for 300 to 600 gold! You can also find these items by murdering people and looting their corpses.

Be cautious, however, as you will accrue a Bounty from illicit activity and if you are caught by a guard you will be forced to pay your Bounty AND the guard will take your stolen items. If you want to keep a stolen item you can pay a Fence to launder it for you.

Save Gold

You can save your gold by following a few general tips.

• Don’t pay to travel to a wayshrine. You can simply walk to the closest wayshrine and use it to travel for free. If you are not close to any wayshrine you can always open your Guild, Group or Friends screen and select “travel to player” after right clicking on a name. You can even see where the player is located. This will allow you to travel to the closest wayshrine to that player for free!
• Do your items really need to be repaired? If you are going to replace those items in a short time period, especially during the lower levels, there is no advantage to repairing your equipment and this can save a lot of gold!
• Choose a mount carefully. As of Patch 1.6 you can purchase a mount from the Crown Store and this can save some gold. If you buy the Imperial Edition you can purchase a horse from the stables for 1 gold. If you can’t get a mount from the Crown Store you can purchase a horse at the stables in every major city. In the lower levels it is often not required to have a horse as you can walk and travel around with no problem. If you start to PVP however it is wise to use a mount.