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Scrying is a new and exciting way to get awesome rewards and explore unknown areas of beloved maps. It’s a fun and new idea for the Elder Scrolls Online franchise and allows players to do something other than killing or completing quests. It’s essentially a new style of mini-game that involves thinking ahead, a keen eye, and lots of patience.

Updated January 30, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: As more and more players try the Greymoor expansion, now included with ESO+, more and more players are discovering the engaging side-game that is the Antiquities System. There’s a lot to unpack with this wide-ranging system, but in broad strokes, it lets players uncover ancient artifacts throughout the world of Elder Scrolls Online by locating digsites by completing puzzle-like Leads. With the skill lines of Excavation and Scrying ESO lets players become more archeologically adept by completing more and more of these Leads. This ESO Scrying guide has been updated to describe some of these systems in more depth to get you started with the ESO Scrying system faster.

10 What Is Scrying In Elder Scrolls Online?

Scrying is a way to get a fair amount of gold, treasure, and some pretty unique items. Essentially, a player can use the Antiquities mechanic of Scrying to read Leads, which can be found from treasure chests, world bosses, public dungeons, and lots of other sources throughout a zone.

Completing these Leads shows the player where a Digsite is located, which must be tracked down and excavated to complete the Antiquity. It allows the player to enjoy exploring the map, get some easy cash, and have fun doing it. Ultimately, Scrying is a mini-game designed for when the players get bored with dungeons, quests, and fighting. It’s also pretty addictive.

9 How To Scry In ESO

The player can’t start until they complete the quest to get Scrying equipment. To find the quest that initiates this, head to the Antiquities headquarters in Solitude. The quest isn’t too challenging and serves more as a tutorial than a fully-fledged multi-part questline.

Once it’s complete, go to the Map and select the Scrying tab on the top right of the screen; this will show all leads a player currently possess. Then, the player can click on the Lead and begin the Scrying process. It is only possible to Scry Green Leads until level 3, then Blue becomes available. After that, Purple and Gold leads can be unlocked which yield even greater rewards.

8 How To Scry

After selecting the lead, an eye will appear, the main aim is to match the symbols to touch the glowing orbs. If you get all of them, it will reveal one location; if you don’t, it will reveal two or three depending on how many you missed. Then simply travel to the location highlighted and search for a dug-up mound.

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Then uncover the antiquity, use the Augur to find a green square that reveals the exact location. A gold square means that it’s somewhere within the boundary of that square. Be cautious to not dig too deep and damage the item though, as using more improved tools could potentially break the treasure. If that happens, the process will have to be restarted.

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6 Scrying Gives Rewards Like Furniture, Mounts, and Mythic Gear

Many players struggle to find the point in Scrying, but there are some seriously cool rewards if someone works hard enough. These include a Dwarven Ebon Wolf Mount, Pearls of Ehlnofey, Malacath’s Band of Brutality and so much more. These are not only awesome to own but can be extremely useful to any tank, healer, or DPS.

Most of the gear acquirable through the Antiquities system is Legendary and is, in fact, labeled as Mythic. Sporadically these Mythic items show up in the Gold Vendor pool, but it’s extremely rare and not worth holding out for.

5 Small Zones = More Scrying

Leveling up Scrying fast is long-winded and repetitive, but there are certain locations that are perfect for this sort of thing. It’s well known among Antiquity Aficionados that Artaeum, which is within the province of Summerset, is the best location to Scry. This is because it’s one of the smallest locations in the game, meaning the player doesn’t need to go too far to the next digging site.

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If the player can’t get to Artaeum, the next best option is faction starter zones. The Dominion’s Khenarthi’s Roost, the Pact’s Bleakrock Isle, and the Covenant’s Stros M’Kai each have a Wayshrine unlocked for players to travel to (according to their chosen faction) from the very outset of the game.

4 Scrying And Excavation Upgrades

It would be a good idea to get ahold of every perk in the tree but along the way it’s best to choose skills that help the player the most. When it comes to the Scrying skill line, it’s best to focus on Antiquarian Insight, Coalescence, and Scryer’s Patience. These will allow the player to get more moves, more squares, and more challenging leads.

With the Excavation skill line, the best thing is to focus on Keen Eye: Dig Sites, the Trowel, and Heavy Shovel. It’s good to get Excavator’s Reserves but only at level 10. The Keen Eye increases how easily players can find the dig sites, while the Trowel and Shovel are extremely useful when it comes to finding the extra loot in the dig site.

3 It Can Cause An Uncommon UI Glitch

This is a frustrating error that the player should really expect. It’s known that one bug in Elder Scrolls Online comes when Scrying. After the player finishes digging up an Antiquity, they may find that they can’t access the journal or anything else in the UI interface.

There are two ways to fix this annoying bug but none are permanent, unfortunately, although luckily it’s rare that it happens every time. The two fixes are either forcing the game to shut down and restarting it or simply typing in “/reloadui” into the chat. The latter, naturally, reloads UI interface. It’s very frustrating but easily fixed.

2 Rarity Affects Scrying Skill XP Gain

There is a specific order for Scrying that allows for the most XP and the most progression. Green (or uncommon) Leads are available for every zone, and completing one unlocks a Blue (rare) Lead, which then unlocks a Purple (epic) final lead for the zone. The best way to start out is to grind the Green Leads until the player gets to level 3. The player gets 1 XP for the green leads and 3 from the Blue and even more from a Purple, but these latter two can only be accessed once the previous tier has been completed.

It’s best to complete them in order and then continue to the next zone, which lets the player harvest XP from as many Blue and Purple Leads as possible. This is the best order to maximize XP and keep the player relatively sane while trudging around Tamriel.

1 Other Things To Keep In Mind

Scrying in Elder Scrolls Online is one of the more engaging side activities in the MMO, thanks to its lucrative reward system and its puzzle-based mechanics. It’s not exactly a brainteaser at low levels, but Purple and Gold leads can really challenge a players’ puzzle-solving skills. As such, don’t worry about delving too deeply into either the Scrying or Excavation trees until you gain the ability to Scry for Epic and Legendary leads, as it’s a waste of Skill Points (especially before Max Level).

Leads can’t be traded between characters, so if you come across a Legendary Lead without being skilled enough to Scry for it, there’s no possibility of an alternative pay-out, as it were. Additionally, there are no Skill Books in Elder Scrolls Online for the Scrying or Excavation Skill Lines, so they must be leveled up in the traditional way, not bookshelf spamming.

The Elder Scrolls Online is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S.

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