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ESO Endless Archive Dungeon Guide - For Beginners

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Welcome to the Endless Archive guide for the Elder Scrolls Online. The Endless Archive is a new type of endless dungeon/arena added to ESO in Update 40. This guide is for both Normal and Veteran mode.

You can play it solo, with an NPC Companion or with one friend (in a duo). There is a separate Leaderboard for solo and duo completions of the archive. 

The Endless Archive is different to other PvE content in ESO, because the majority of its encounters are randomly selected and found in a random order. You will be fighting randomly selected trash packs, which can conjure up unusual combinations of various mobs throughout the game, such as bone colossi fighting you alongside dwarven automata. 

You will also find bosses randomly selected from dungeon, world and trial bosses throughout ESO. The bosses HP and damage is reduced to make them more suitable for a 1 or 2 player battle, however they retain most of their original mechanics, so knowledge and experience of a wide range of bosses in ESO is advantageous to have. 

In this guide we will explain how the Endless Archive works, along with some tips and tricks that will help you to progress through the Archive and delve to greater depths.



Table of contents

Getting Started in Endless Archive

The first time you enter the Endless Archive, you can speak to the NPC, Master Malkhest, for an introductory quest to the Endless Archive. This will guide you through the first Arc of an Endless Archive run. If you fail the run or leave for another reason, then you can return to continue the quest, but you’ll need to start a new run from scratch. 

Before you begin with the Endless Archive, I strongly recommend conducting some basic preparation before starting. While the difficulty may seem easy to some players when you first start out, some of the bosses found within the Archive are pretty strong and can definitely derail even an experienced player. 

Tips for completing the Endless Archive

Steps to complete before starting:

  • Make sure you have a good buff food that increases your health, magicka/stamina and regen. Don't just use "parse food"
  • Ensure you have a good DPS build that can handle solo situations (even if you play with a friend, they may die which means you’ll need to survive on your own for a while)You can find powerful solo builds hereThese DPS group builds will also work - just be sure to include a self heal
  • You can find powerful solo builds here
  • These DPS group builds will also work - just be sure to include a self heal
  • Slot a self heal at minimum - mitigation skills like damage shields also help
  • Bring good potions, some soul gems and repair kits (or gold for repairing at the merchant)
  • Have plenty of time - as the name suggests, the Endless Archive can keep you occupied for quite some time even if you’re only doing one run. 

How the ESO Endless Archive Works

The Endless Archive is broken down into smaller portions to make it more structured and manageable:

  • Stages - Each time you go through a Portal in the Endless Archive, you are taken to a new Stage. You usually have three stages of trash mobs, each one containing three packs of randomly generated mobs. The fourth stage will contain a boss, randomly selected from a very long list of potential bosses found throughout ESO. 
  • Cycles - After beating the boss at the end of the final stage, you will begin a new Cycle. Each cycle has the same structure as that described above, four stages with a boss fight on the final one. 
  • Arc - After completing four Cycles, you will have to fight another boss, which is the final boss of the Arc. After completing the boss, you will move onto another Arc, beginning the process anew (Arc 2, Cycle 1, Stage 1). Each Arc is more difficult than the last - mobs and bosses will hit harder and you may occasionally find surprise bosses mixed in with the trash pulls.

Visions and Verses

While the Endless Archive does get progressively harder, there are two types of “power ups” you can obtain as you progress. 

  • Visions - These are temporary buffs to your character that can improve your defensive or offensive abilities. After you finish a Stage, you will be able to choose between two Visions. Visions last until the next Cycle. 
  • Verses - These are similar to Visions but can last for much longer. Each time you complete a Cycle, you must choose one of two randomly selected Verses. These will last for the remainder of the run, so they can be a big help as the fights get more difficult. 

Extra Stages and Threads

After completing a Stage, a smaller portal sometimes opens off to the side of the main one, allowing you to explore the unknown. These lead to a minigame of some kind, where you typically need to complete a task while avoiding hazards. You only get one shot at these - winning them will grant you an extra reward chest. If you fail you are ported to the next Stage, but you don’t lose a life for failing so you might as well give it a try. 

The last important thing to note in the Endless Archive is that you start each run with three Threads, which are basically lives. Every time you die, you lose a thread, and if you run out of Threads you will not be able to proceed further and must reset the Archive. Occasionally you may be rewarded with an extra Thread upon completing a Cycle, but this is quite uncommon. 

Endless Archive Bosses

As mentioned above, there are many different bosses that you can potentially find in the Endless Archive. These bosses are reflections of dungeon, world and trial bosses throughout ESO, and typically retain most of their mechanics and attacks, however their HP and damage is usually scaled down to make them more balanced for 1 or 2 players. 

As you progress through the Endless Archive, the bosses will get tougher, with more HP and damage. If you want to optimise your build for the Endless Archive Bosses, then you may want to know the armour of the bosses so you can determine how much Penetration your build needs. 

The armour of bosses in Endless Archive is as follows:

  • First Boss: 9100
  • Second Boss: 18200
  • Third boss: 27300
  • Fourth Boss: 36400
  • Arc Final Boss: 18200

Endless Archive Rewards

After completing a Cycle, Arc or side puzzle, you will be able to open a Muniment Chest, which contains rewards including gold, equipment, soul gems and a special new currency called Archival Fortunes. 

Archival Fortunes can be spent at the merchant in the entrance area of the Endless Archive in return for special rewards, such as Monster Mask style motifs, Legendary quality treasure maps, non combat pets, Companion gear and more. The items available will change on a weekly basis. 

Sets in Endless Archive

The Endless Archive offers class specific sets that you can obtain in the endless dungeon.

There are 7 sets total, each focusing on a specific skill line from each of ESO’s 7 classes. These sets come in all weights (light, medium and heavy).

Full sets can be found here: ESO Class Sets Overview Page

Basalt-Blooded Warrior, Dragonknight

2 – Adds 129 Magicka Recovery

3 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health

4 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

5 – Casting an Earthen Heart ability grants you a Rock Stance buff for 20 seconds, with a 20 second cooldown. While on your Front Bar, you gain Molten Stance, granting you Major Heroism and Minor Heroism, generating 4 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds. While you are on your Back Bar, you gain Obsidian Stance, increasing your Healing Done and Damage Shields by 14%. Bar Swapping will swap your Stance automatically.

Wrathsun, Templar

2 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

3 – Adds 657 Critical Chance

4 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

5 – When you deal damage with a Dawn’s Wrath ability, gain a stack of Sunlight for 10 seconds, once per attack. You can have 50 stacks max and gain 12 Magicka Recovery per stack. When at max stacks, your Dawn’s Wrath abilities deal 25% bonus damage and a Wrathful Nova is automatically cast on the enemy, but you cannot refresh Sunlight. When Sunlight expires at max stacks, you lose 50% of your current Magicka.

Monolith of Storms, Sorcerer

2 – Adds 657 Critical Chance

3 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

4 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

5 – Dealing damage with a Storm Calling abilities' initial hit or every 5th tick, creates a Monolith near the enemy for 10 seconds, up to one every 1 second. You may have up to 3 Monoliths at a time. Monoliths link to your other Monoliths within 28 meters of each other, each link dealing 3064 Shock Damage every 2 seconds to enemies between and near them. An enemy can only take damage from this set once every 2 seconds.

Soulcleaver, Nightblade

2 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

3 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health

4 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

5 – While in combat and with at least 20 Ultimate, strengthen your Siphoning abilities at the cost of Ultimate: Increase the damage and healing of Siphoning abilities by 17% of your current Ultimate, up to 200 Ultimate, from a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 34%. Reduce the cost of Siphoning abilities by 15%. Casting a Siphoning ability while in combat drains you of 1% of your current Ultimate, with a minimum of 1.

Gardener of the Seasons, Warden

2 – Adds 4% Healing Done

3 – Adds 129 Magicka Recovery

4 – Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage

5 – Casting a Green Balance ability grants you Herald of Spring, causing your Green Balance overheals to apply Minor Heroism for 3 seconds. Casting 2 non-Green Balance class abilities within 2 seconds consumes Herald of Spring and grants you Harbinger of Fall for 10 seconds, causing your Green Balance Overheals to create an 8 meter area for 5 seconds, applying Major Maim to enemies and Minor Vitality to allies within. You can only create an area once every 5 seconds. You cannot gain Herald of Spring while Harbinger of Fall is active.

Nobility in Decay, Necromancer

2 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health

3 – Adds 4% Healing Taken

4 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health

5 – Casting a Bone Tyrant ability while in combat grants you Beautiful Corpse, Minor Protection, and Minor Resolve for 16 seconds, reducing your damage by 5% and increasing your Armor by 2974. This can proc once every 20 seconds and is reduced by 2 seconds for each slotted Bone Tyrant ability. Casting a corpse consumer ability consumes Beautiful Corpse, treating you as a corpse.

Reawakened Hierophant, Arcanist

2 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka

3 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka

4 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka

ESO Endless Archive
ESO Endless Archive

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