ESO New Life Festival
Oh wow, it’s past the middle of December already! Do you know what it means? That everyone is probably contemplating what they have and haven’t achieved during the passing year but also that… ‘Tis the season of Christmas events in MMOs! 😀
For The Elder Scrolls Online it’s New Life Festival that lasts for almost 3 weeks (it’s started a while ago and ends January 2nd). Unfortunately I couldn’t play ESO last year during the event, but now I had some time to get to know the Festival and… by now it’s the most entertaining ESO event for me. It doesn’t only have a LOT of fun activities but there are also great rewards every day (you can get up to 200 loot boxes) and 14 achievements to unlock! These things are really important to me – that’s why I loved Rift’s Fae Yule and that’s why now I love ESO’s New Life Festival. It still has room to improve but hey, It’s great already!
Event Tickets are back!
Starting somewhere in the middle of the passing year, each of 4 major ESO events (Jester’s Festival, Midyear Mayhem, Witches Festival, and the current New Life Festival) lets you get one Event Ticket a day. When you collect 10 Tickets you may exchange them for one Indrik Feather and you will need 4 of these Feathers (one of each kind) to get your beautiful Nascent Indrik mount.
During New Life Festival you’ll have 9 different dailies (one for each Tamriel playable race) to complete – the first one you complete every day gives you one Event Ticket. This event lasts for 20 days so if you couldn’t participate at all in one of the past events you still have a chance to get your Indrik before New Life Festival ends.
If you already have your Indrik you may want to keep collecting the Tickets because they’ll be required during one of the next ESO events to get special berries item that will evolve your Indrik into one of 4 STUNNING adult Indriks.
How to participate?
To be able to participate in the New Life Festival you first have to obtain a quest starting item from in-game store (the item is called New Life Festival Scroll and is free so everyone can get it). After using it from within inventory the player is told to go to Eastmarch, where, a bit to the north of the zone’s centre you can find Breda – the event’s main NPC.
When you talk to her she’ll give you the first Festival daily quest. There’s 9 of them altogether and you can complete all 9 every day for a bigger chance for nice rewards. Also, remember that for completing all 9 quests for the first time there is an achievement, but you only need to complete one of those quests a day to get your Event Ticket and a golden Mysterious Reward Box.
But what are the quests?
As I mentioned before there is 9 daily quests for this event – one for each playable race in ESO (lore-wise each quest is showing you the traditional celebration of the New Life Festival among all the races). After you’re done with each quest you have to return to Breda to collect your reward.
Nords
Quest: Snowbear Plunge
Location: Eastmarch
What is the quest about? The quest will send you to 3 locations in Eastmarch to jump into ice cold water. The quest is quite fun. After you jump to the water you get Freezing debuff that slows down your movement for 2 minutes. To get rid of the debuff quickly stay at a nearby bonfire for several seconds to warm up. Each jumping location is relatively close to a wayshrine so it’s quite convenient to move from one to another but they are also close to each other so you can just run on foot or on your mount.
Achievement: To make the quest even more fun – try jumping into the water without any armor equipped. You get an achievement for it.
Argonians
Quest: Fish Boon Feast
Location: Shadowfen
What is the quest about? In this quest you’ll be fishing for event fish in event fishing holes that are located at the southeast of Shadowfen. The quest will also tell you to get a lure from a certain NPC but you can skip this step if you have any other lure with you. This quest is also fun, mostly because there are only several fishing spots and a lot of people is participating, so be ready to run to the next spot at any moment because the fishing spots tend to dry out quickly when there are so many fishers around. You’ll have to catch one of each 3 kinds of fish to complete the quest but you can keep fishing for as long as you want, so the next time you get the quest you’ll have the fishes ready to hand them in. When you’re done with fishing you have to go to a village near Hissmir Wayshrine to give the fish to the quest NPC.
Achievement: You unlock an achievement for this quest when you catch all 3 kinds of fish 5 times.
Bretons
Quest: Castle Charm Challange
Location: Stormhaven
What is the quest about? The quest is located near Alcaire Castle Wayshrine (northwest of Stormhaven). You’ll have to perform one of the circus-like activities for NPC celebrants in 3 places in the area (an inn, a city square and inside of the castle). The activities you’ll be performing are flame-breathing, knives juggling and sword eating. When you complete some event dailies you’ll most likely obtain consumables that will let you play those emotes too. Additionally, you may get lucky and loot rare mementos that will do the same as the consumables but the mementos are permanent.
Achievement: You earn it pretty much by just doing the quest – the requirement is to perform for the crowd in all 3 places the quests tells you to.
Bosmers (Wood Elves)
Quest: Mud Ball Merriment
Location: Auridon
What is the quest about? For this quest you’ll be throwing mud at other players and NPCs and believe me or not – it’s super fun. In Rift I loved throwing snowballs at other players as one of the Fae Yule dailies, and throwing mud in ESO is aaaalmost as fun. Or maybe it’s even better because the animation also adds actual mud stains on the hit character who is not happy about it at all! 😀 You can throw mud at others for as long as you want if you have the quest active – if you are not on this quest you can still throw mud if you have special consumables in your inventory or you’ve collected a memento granting the same emote. To complete the quest first go to middle east of Auridon (Skywatch Wayshrine) and throw mud at 10 players (there’s always a lot of people next to the portal but if there’s no one there just throw the mud at nearby NPCs and it will count too). When you’re done go to the Skywatch Manor and throw mud at one of the ambassadors.
Achievement: Unlocked by throwing mud at queen Ayrenn (located, depending on if you’ve finished the faction quest or not, either in the Vulkhel Guard Manor or in Skywatch Manor), Jorunn the Skald-King (next to Trolhetta Summit Wayshrine in The Rift or in Eastmarch in a small house to the east of the castle in Windhelm) and High King Emeric (in Wayrest Castle in Stormhaven or in Hall of Heroes in Bangkorai).
Orks
Quest: Stonetooth Bash
Location: Betnikh
What is the quest about? Betnikh is a small island near Glenumbra. If you don’t have any portal on Betnikh unlocked, take a boat to the island at Daggerfall harbor first. The quest will want you to kill a wasp and several wolves to get ingredients for the orkish festival feast. After getting the mats bring them to the quest NPC, then you’ll have to eat and drink what they cooked. The hunting part may be tricky though, because a lot of players is trying to do the same quest at the same time, so you may have troubles with finding living wasps and wolves in the quest area.
Achievement: You get an achievement for drinking craftable event drink Betnikh Twice-Spiked Ale during the feast. Don’t confuse it with the keg drink you try during the quest and which is called Betnikh Spiked Ale. The one that gives you the achievement has “Twice” in its name and it’s got to be crafted by you or another player.
Khajiit
Quest: The Trial of Five-Clawed Guile
Location: Reaper’s March
What is the quest about? This quest is taking place near the zone’s centre: at Rawl’kha Wayshrine. To complete it you’ll have to unlock 3 chests on 3 difficulty levels, so be sure to bring enough lockpicks with you. The quest is timed – the counter starts running when you start unlocking the first chest (there’s no particular order to open the chests in). If you fail to open all 3 chests and get the coins that are inside on time – you can talk to the quest NPC and start the quest over.
Achievement: The achievement here is not the easiest one. You earn it by opening all 3 chests and getting the coins in 35 seconds or less (try bashing the locks instead of opening them, worked for me!).
Altmers (High Elves)
Quest: An Orphan’s Sojourn
Location: Grahtwood
What is the quest about? Now, this is the easiest and the quickest quest of them all. Or – can be the quickest one if you want it to. It will lead you to midwest of Grahtwood – there you’ll have to help war orphans at a temple by either donating a small amount of money or your time on killing mobs. You can do both tasks if you feel generous.
Achievement: As I mentioned – to complete the quest you only have to do one task but if you choose to do both – you get an achievement.
Redguards
Quest: Signal Fire Sprint
Location: Alikr’s Desert
What is the quest about? This is another timed quest. Head to the zone’s south, to Bergama Wayshrine. You’ll have to run fast to light 4 signal fires and the quest NPC will actually give you a piece of good advice – first check the locations of the fires so you can plan your route. If you can’t finish the quest on your own – it can be completed also in a party, or, you can use foods, drinks or potions to boost yourself for faster running. The signal posts can be lit in whatever order, but for me the most convenient order is SouthEast, SouthWest, NorthEast, NorthWest.
Achievement: Just like in the other timed quest the achievement here is also for completing the race in 35 seconds or less.
Dunmers (Dark Elves)
Quest: Lava Foot Stomp
Location: Stonefalls
What is the quest about? It’s a dance-off! ….Not really. But you will have to dance in several inns in Stonefalls. 2 of those inns are located in Devon’s Watch (northeast of Stonefalls) and 2 in Ebonheart (the centre of the zone). They go in a particular order though and you do have to start in Devon’s Watch.
Achievement: Similarly to the Breton’s quest’s achievement you earn this one for dancing in all the locations required to complete the quest.
Rewards time!
When you turn each quest in as a reward you get some gold and a green New Life Festival Box. Additionally, as I mentioned before, for the first event quest you complete a day, you’ll receive a golden Mysterious Reward Box and an Event Ticket. The boxes may contain:
fun event consumables,- event recipes (when you learn them all – you unlock an achievement)
- motif pages (when you learn all the pages of Skinchanger motif – there is an achievement for this too)
- non-combat pets,
- runeboxes (containing mementos or one of 2 kinds of New Life hoods),
- crafting mats (connected to the event’s theme),
- rogue potions (useful for Bosmer and Redguard quests),
- lighting items for housing (candles, torches, lamps),
- undaunted keys,
- New Life Charity Writs – for completing 12 of these there is a really nice achievement which gives you a COOL reward 😉 . The recipes to craft for those writs are easy and you can buy them from the crafting merchants. Your reward for completing a single writ is 1 Writ Voucher – if you collect enough of those you can exchange them for rare items or recipes at Writ Voucher Vendor in Grahtwood, Stormhaven or Deshaan.
fun event consumables,On top of all the earlier mentioned achievements, there is yet one more: you unlock it by… well, earning all the rest of achievements.
The fun of this event is totally worth the time in my opinion and I actually wish all ESO events were so entertaining, so come on, join the celebrations and get hundreds of rewards by having a lot of fun!
