Trait Research Guide - Elder Scrolls Online - ESO Hub

Welcome to the Trait Research Guide for The Elder Scrolls Online. This guide will showcase how trait research works and how you can optimize your research to finish as fast as possible. However, it will take a while to get all traits researched no matter what you do, because there are plenty of traits and plenty of different items that you will have to research!

Learning traits will also enable you to use crafted eso sets. All crafted sets require you to have a certain amount of traits researched before you can craft the sets. You can learn more about crafted sets in the ESO crafted sets category.

Trait Research Example

Table of contents

1. Why do I need Trait Research?
2. Trait Research Time
3. How Many Traits Exist?
4. Trait Research Order
5. Trait List
6. Conclusion Trait Research

Why do I need Trait Research?

Trait research is necessary for you to alter or create gear items. All gear pieces have traits, armor, weapons and jewelry. For you to create a craftable set you are required to know X amount of traits. For example the [Hunding's Rage] set requires you to have 6 traits researched before you can even attempt to craft the set. To pick the trait of your choice when you craft a set you also need to have that trait already researched.

Traits are also used for Transmutation Stations. A Transmutation Station allows you to alter the trait of an already crafted set, or any set for that matter. For example I could change the trait on my necklace from the Arcane trait to the Triune trait.

That leaves us with 3 major use cases:

Craftable sets that require X traits researched
Trait choice when you craft a set
Transmuting a trait

Trait Research Time

Any long time player can tell you that trait research is an ongoing project in The Elder Scrolls Online. The first few traits can be researched in no time, the more traits you have already researched, the longer it will take to research the next trait, it gets exponentially longer as you can see in the table below.

Trait Research	Research Time
1	6 hours
2	12 hours
3	24 hours
4	48 hours
5	96 hours (4 days)
6	192 hours (8 days)
7	384 hours(16 days)
8	768 hours (32 days)
9	1536 hours (64 days)
Total	3066 hours (127,75 days)

Ways to reduce the amount of time it takes to research a trait:

ESO Plus offers a 10% trait research time reduction, therefore you will need slightly less time to complete this.
The ingame Crown Store also offers Instant Research Scrolls that can reduce the time needed for trait research.
Crafting skill line passives exist that reduce the time and allow you to research more than one trait at a time. The passives are called: Metallurgy, Stitching, Carpentry, Lapidary Research

How Many Traits Exist?

There are 3 different types of traits in The Elder Scrolls Online. One for armor, one for weapons and one for jewelry. Each of them has 9 different traits that need to be researched on each piece!

Weapon Traits	Armor Traits	Jewelry Traits
Powered	Sturdy	Arcane
Charged	Impenetrable	Healthy
Precise	Reinforced	Robust
Infused	Infused	Triune
Defending	Invigorating	Infused
Training	Training	Protective
Sharpened	Well-fitted	Swift
Decisive	Divines	Harmony
Nirnhoned	Nirnhoned	Bloodthirsty

Now lets take a look at how many item pieces that you will have to research.

Jewelry Crafting

Ring
Necklace

That means you will have to research 9 traits on each piece. Jewelry Crafting only allows for one trait research at a time, you can get a 25% research time reduction when you have the passive Lapidary Research.

Blacksmithing

Weapons

2H Greatsword
2H Battle Axe
2H Maul
1H Sword
1H Axe
1H Mace
1H Dagger

Heavy Armor

Chest
Sabatons
Gauntlets
Helm
Greaves
Pauldrons
Girdle

That means within Blacksmithing Crafting you will have to research 9 traits on each of the pieces, 14 x 9 = 126. The passive Metallurgy allows you to research 3 traits at the same time in addition of reducing the trait research time by 25%.

Clothing

Light Armor

Robe
Shoes
Gloves
Hat
Breeches
Epaulets
Sash

Medium Armor

Jack
Boots
Bracers
Helmet
Guards
Arm Cops
Belt

That means within Clothing Crafting you will have to research 9 traits on each of the pieces, 14 x 9 = 126. The passive Stitching allows you to research 3 traits at the same time in addition of reducing the trait research time by 25%.

Woodworking

Weapons

Fire Staff
Frost Staff
Lightning Staff
Bow

Armor

Shield

That means within Woodworking Crafting you will have to research 9 traits on each of the pieces, 5x 9 = 45. The passive Carpentry allows you to research 3 traits at the same time in addition of reducing the trait research time by 25%.

Trait Research Order

Always research the more important traits first, because once you have these unlocked you can already use them at the Transmutation Station or you can already craft items with the trait of your choice. Always research the most useless trait at the end if possible!

Trait List

The quality of an item improves the trait and makes it stronger; a common quality item will have a less powerful trait bonus than for example a Legendary upgrade.

Armor Traits

Trait	Effects	Normal	Fine	Superior	Epic	Legendary
[Divines]	Increases Mundus Stone Effects by:	5.1%	6.1%	7.1%	8.1%	9.1%
[Infused]	Increase Armor Enchantment effects by:	9%	13%	17%	21%	25%
[Invigorating]	Increases Magicka, Stamina and Health Recovery by:	8	10	12	14	16
[Impenetrable]	Reduces item’s durability damage by 50% and increases Critical Resistance by:	116	119	122	124	127
[Nirnhoned]	Increases Spell and Physical Resistance by:	220	229	238	244	253
[Reinforced]	Increases Armor by:	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%
[Sturdy]	Reduces Block Cost by:	2%	2.5%	3%	3.5%	4%
[Training]	Increases Experience gained from kills by:	7%	8%	9%	10%	11%
[Well-Fitted]	Reduces the cost of Sprinting and Roll Dodge by:	1.2%	2.4%	3.6%	4.8%	6%

Jewelry Traits

Trait	Effects	Normal	Fine	Superior	Epic	Legendary
[Arcane]	Increases Max Magicka by:	767	797	827	847	877
[Robust]	Increases Max Stamina by:	767	797	827	847	877
[Healthy]	Increases Max Health by:	844	877	914	932	965
[Protective]	Increases Physical and Spell Resistance by:	1053	1091	1128	1153	1190
[Triune]	Increases Max Health, Stamina, & Magicka:	422 384 384	438 399 399	455 414 414	466 424 424	482 439 439
[Infused]	Increases Enchantment Effectiveness by:	24%	33%	42%	51%	60%
[Swift]	Increases Movement Speed by:	3%	4%	5%	6%	7%
[Harmony]	Increases Synergy Effectiveness by:	12%	14%	16%	18%	20%
Bloodthirsty	Increases Weapon and Spell Damage against enemies under 90% Health by up to:	70	140	210	280	350

Weapon Traits

Unlike armor, weapons can hold two slots or be wielded twice, so these stats are for one weapon. For two weapons the bonuses count double, unless otherwise indicated.

1 Handed: Stats shown in the Weapons table

2 Handed: 2x Stats

Trait	Effects	Normal	Fine	Superior	Epic	Legendary
[Charged]	Increases chance to apply Status Effects by:	200%	210%	220%	230%	240%
[Decisive]	Chance to gain 1 additional Ultimate anytime that Ultimate is gained by:	19.1%	21.2%	23.3%	25.4%	27.5%
[Defending]	Increases total Physical and Spell Resistance by:	1428	1485	1542	1580	1638
[Infused]	Reduces Enchantment cooldown by 50%Increases Weapon Enchantment effect by:(doesn’t count double for 2H)	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%
[Nirnhoned]	Increases Weapon Damage by:(doesn’t count double for 2H)	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%
[Powered]	Increases Healing done by:	2.5%	3%	3.5%	4%	4.5%
[Precise]	Increases Weapon and Spell Critical values by:	1.6%	2.1%	2.6%	3.1%	3.6%
[Sharpened]	Increases Armor and Spell Penetration by:	1428	1485	1542	1580	1638
Training	Increases Experience gained from kills by:	2.5%	3%	3.5%	4%	4.5%

Other Purpose Traits

As you might have already seen, we have two more traits which you can find on all items. These traits offer no combat bonuses, and are not meant to be worn or wielded. You can’t research or craft them either.

Trait	Effects
[Ornate]	Increased value upon sale to an NPC vendor.
[Intricate]	Increased Inspiration Experience gained upon deconstruction.

Conclusion Trait Research

There is a total of 27 different traits (Armor, Weapon, Jewelry) that have to be researched on each individual piece in The Elder Scrolls Online. Researching all traits is not an easy task, it will take a long time, especially since you will probably forget about it a few times, therefore planning is key!

Trait Research Guide - Elder Scrolls Online