The seasons are changing for The Elder Scrolls Online, as the game is dropping the giant expansions and minor DLCs and instead will pivot to seasons, making it just like every other live service game around. But these changes are not just a way to release more content, nor just flooding the game with new things, there are big plans for how things are changing.

One of the things that players should be happy to see is more direct engagement with the developers, so when things are revealed that you don’t like, you can provide feedback and if you join in voicing your distain, respectfully of course, with other players, that may change how things end up.

Before we dive into seasons, the other massive change for the game is that there is no more staggered releases. In the past when a new expansion, dungeon or other content released, PC and Mac players would get it on one day and then two weeks later, console players would get it. On March 9, when update 49 releases, it will be the first to arrive onto all platforms at the same time, no more split release going forward.

So what will players discover across 2026, as there is a lot to expect, given this new roll out method, thankfully the team at Zenimax Online Studios have revealed their plans, or at least the high level plans. Each season will include both new a Tamriel Tome and a refresh of the Gold Coast Bazaar. One final note, we have put the seasons, the seasons of our world, into the Australian ones, so just invert if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Autumn - Season Zero

Classes & Combat

At launch, visual refresh & balance update for both Dragonknight class and two-handed weapon skill lines
Later in June, visual refresh & balance update for Werewolf - also adding in a female werewolf model

Player Experience Improvements

Account-wide outfit slots
Skill/Attribute respect for free in the UI
Back Bar XP
And more

Other additions

Group Event Zone - The Night Market - noted as being more challenging than normal
Battle Pass System - Tamriel Tomes
Earnable Rewards - The Gold Coast Bazaar
PvP Progression System
New Overland Difficulty Options

Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Imperial City will be added to the base game as well, no need to be an ESO Plus member to play them now.

Winter - Season One

Classes & Combat

Visual refresh & balance update for Warden Class

Player Experience Improvements

No details just yet

Other additions

New Thieves Guild story and quests
New System - Sage Vault
New Story and quests featuring Sheogorath
New Trial - Crimson Veldt
Multi-Stage Co-op Events

Spring - Season Two

Classes & Combat

Visual refresh & balance update for Sorceror Class

Player Experience Improvements

No details just yet

Other additions

New in-game event - High Seas of Tamriel
Solo Dungeons - Moon Hunter Keep & March of Sacrifices
- New modes in development will allow players to play with story mode, ignoring groups, along with more challenging runs
Large-scale world event in Skyrim - Dynamic Storms

Greymoor will be added to the base game with this season as well.

You might have noticed at the start I mentioned Tamriel Tomes, that is what they game will call their Battle Pass. There are three levels to the Tamriel Tome, the free one that all players will get and two paid ones.

As players play through the season and complete weekly and seasonal challenges, they will progress through the pages of their tome. These pages, or tiers, have multiple levels and as you unlock a level you get new items. Basically, the more you play, the more you can technically win.

Now as someone who plays ESO mostly solo, ok like 99.99% solo, the idea of having to do a dungeon raid annoys me, if I want to earn some loot via the Tamriel Tome. Well good news for me and others like me, as the challenges will cover things like quests, trials, PvP, crafting and yes, even dungeons. If you begin a new week and see that most of the tasks are associated with things you don’t like doing, you can re-roll the challenges, getting a new batch to work with. You won’t be stuck dealing with shitty challenges, if you don’t want to, which I really like.

So, what do these challenges give you, apart from the sense of satisfaction at how you filled a progress bar? The team have not revealed the specifics of the first Tamriel Tome yet, but the free tier will let players earn a new armour set, 10 new weapon styles, new currency in Trade Bars, new skill style for Vigour, new crates and 8,000 Seals of Endeavour. That last one is a big deal, because as part of the changes, the daily login rewards and endeavour challenge lists will be no more, instead your 8,000 seals can be used to buy what you like and the daily login rewards will now be selectable via the tiers. The good news for those who hated the daily grind, the challenges are now weekly, no more daily challenges, giving you even more flexibility.

I said before that there is a free one, but there are two paid tiers, yes two. The first is called Premium Tome and the second is called Premium+ Bonus, they really went out there with those names hey. There are really two important parts you need to remember for the various tiers, so let me break it down for you.

Free Tome

Available to all players and will last for the duration of the season
Rewards include - cosmetics, items and currencies

Premium Tome

Costs money, local price not yet confirmed but it is $15 USD - There is no time limit on this pass, so if you need to take a few weeks of the next season to finish things, you can.
Rewards include - cosmetics, items and currencies
Additional Premium rewards include - premium cosmetics, items and currencies

Premium+ Bonus

Costs money, local price not yet confirmed but it is $30 USD - There is no time limit on this pass, so if you need to take a few weeks of the next season to finish things, you can.
Rewards include - cosmetics, items and currencies
Additional Premium rewards include - premium cosmetics, items and currencies
Faster progress with instant Tome points - lets you unlock some tiers without doing the work.
Bonus cosmetics only available to the tier

That is Tamriel Tomes, I am sure things will change over the first few seasons as players like parts and hate others, but as I said at the start, the team want all that feedback, so they can adjust things as they need to.

The other aspect that I mentioned before, it was a while ago, so you might not remember it was Gold Coast Bazaar. This is a store that will refresh each season and will be where players can go to buy those limited time items. I don’t mean new ones, but that mount that released via the games 3rd anniversary stream on Twitch that was at 2am for us, you might find it here to buy. All those limited time rewards, celebration gifts and other such items from the past 10 years of ESO, will rotate through the Gold Coast Bazaar. It is important to note that the bazaar will refresh each season, so if you are wanting one item and don’t see it in Season Zero, check back when Season One releases.

In order to get these items, you need to buy them and you do that with Trade Bars, which are the new currency that was mentioned before. As you play through the game, completing challenges will give you Trade Bars, so the more you play the more you can earn and the more you can buy at the bazaar.

But what about my ESO+ I hear you think, well if you pay for ESO+ then well done Mr Money Bags, but more importantly, it is not going anywhere. ESO+ will remain available to players and at the same price as it is today, but you are going to get access to more for being a member there.

One of the big additions for ESO+ members is that they are getting a monthly grant of Tome points, letting you buy some rewards in the Tamriel Tome on day one, no playing needed. You will also earn Tome points at a faster rate, letting you buy things quicker and you will also get a Premium+ Bonus token, letting you get access to one of the Tamriel Tome tiers for free every 12 months of membership. Just remember, you get one FREE Premium+ Bonus token every 12 months of membership, this is not 12 consecutive months, but 12 total months. If you were a member 4 years ago and got 9 months done then, but then stopped it, after 3 months here, you get that token. You will get another token for every 12 months you stay subscribed.

Ok, that is a lot, but if you thought that was it, you are wrong… all that, everything above is about how players can earn rewards, now we get to dive into the way players can enjoy the game, with the quality of life updates coming to the game.

This is not the one or two items that the team could fix, no a dedicated team was spun up specifically to look into what the community was saying and work on coming up with fixes. These are not one off fixes, the team will be constantly scouring message boards, forums, survey responses, everything in order to build a list of things that you, the player, want to see fixed. So what is in Season Zero?

Respec Skills & Attributes in the UI - at no cost to players
Guild trader listing - restoring back the 30 day listing window
Account-wide outfit slots - with appearance tied to a character
Faster mount training - get three upgrades to a single stat at once, not one at a time
Moving 16 mounts out of the crown store and into the game for purchase with gold, as well as adding a brand new mount
Furnishing limits are being increased on all houses, large homes will see a cap raise from 328 to 415
Longer antiquities lead times - increased duration for higher difficulties and ESO+ members will get double time

A thing to note about houses, not all houses will get upgrades at once. The team have admitted there are some limitations on some houses and while they try to work out a solution for those, the largest ones being the pain right now, other houses are not going to be kept waiting.

Like a TV salesmen trying to get you to buy something, but wait there’s more. Also coming in Season Zero is Night Market, a new challenging zone that will really test players. There are three factions within and each time the zone opens up, you can choose who you wish to align with, the battle will then begin and so will the punishment. There are no restrictions on entering, you don’t need to be in a guild for this one or anything like that, but if you are a new player to ESO, maybe get some experience before taking part. There will be new rewards for those who take part in the Night Market, because what is a market if you don’t leave with some goodies.

And there we go, the big changes coming to The Elder Scrolls Online beginning in March. A lot of what the team are doing is reducing roadblocks to player, by dropping big paid expansions and requiring daily logins, to letting folks earn rewards by doing the things they like to do.

Does this sound good to you? Let us know if you are on board, or if you prefer the way things used to be.