The Elder Scrolls Online's Endless Archive could be its wildest addition yet We checked out the Endless Archive — a never-ending labyrinth of increasingly difficult encounters coming to The Elder Scrolls Online.Tom West Published 31 Oct 2023 FollowtopicsThe Elder Scrolls OnlineThe Elder ScrollsBethesda SoftworksLocal MultiplayerOnline MultiplayerArticleXbox Series X|SAction-RPGTom West A host of new features will soon arrive in The Elder Scrolls Online with Update 40 and the Endless Archive, both of which will drop on PC first on October 30, followed by Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and other consoles on November 14. While Update 40 brings in some massive changes to help lower the price of jewelry crafting, adds Grandmaster Crafting Stations, and more, the crown jewel is the new Endless Archive PvE content, which is unlike anything we've seen hit the game before. The final months of 2023 are set to be filled with excitement for Tamriel's adventurers in The Elder Scrolls Online. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls Online, so when ZeniMax Online offered me a hands-off preview of the new Endless Archive and Update 40 content with lead encounter designers Mike Finnigan and Rob Garrett, I jumped at the chance. Whether you're also a part-time ESO adventurer like myself or just starting out on your journey as a Vestige, you'll likely have noticed that ZeniMax has a knack for introducing new gameplay elements to the ever-growing Elder Scrolls Online. We've had the Tales of Tribute card game, relic-hunting Antiquities system, Endeavors to earn currency to purchase premium items, and more. The studio seems unconcerned with taking risks to bring something new to the game, and it makes each update and expansion even more exciting.A look at Update 40With that in mind, our first port of call during the preview was to check out some of the new features arriving with Update 40. Everything arriving on Xbox on November 14 will be free to all players, including the Endless Archive, and there are some fantastic quality-of-life improvements on the way. One feature focusing on solo/guild-less players is the new Group Finder tool. While Group Dungeons and Battlegrounds have matchmaking abilities, all other group content requires you to actively seek out other players if you want to partake in Trials and the like, but the Group Finder tool should now make it far easier to find like-minded players. By using the tool, you can create a listing to find players for a host of activities, from Trials and World Boss hunting to roleplaying and social meetups. For those of you with a love of crafting but find yourself bogged down with numerous attunable Crafting Stations, the Grand Master Crafting Stations are going to make your life so much easier. These new stations come with a hefty price tag, and you'll need to have the Unsurpassed Crafter in-game achievement for completing 100 Master Writs to get started, but once you've paid the price of admission, you'll only need to have four Grand Master Crafting Stations in your home to cover all 300+ armor sets. The final notable new addition arriving with Update 40 is changes to Jewelry Crafting, which until now has been the most expensive crafting line due to the rarity of its Epic and Legendary materials. The update will see Grains removed from the game, so that only Plating can be found, similar to how the other crafting professions work. This will hopefully rebalance Jewelry Crafting, making it far more affordable.Diving into the never-ending Endless ArchiveThe Elder Scrolls Online is already crammed full of Player Versus Environment (PvE) content, from World Bosses and Public Dungeons to four-player Group Dungeons, Arenas, and 12-player Trials, and as of November 14, it'll have the Endless Archive to add to that list. The Endless Archive operates in a slightly similar way to Arenas, in that you need to fight your way through rounds of trash mobs before facing a boss. Despite this, the overall feeling of this new content is unlike anything we've seen in The Elder Scrolls Online before. Honestly, I can't wait to dive into it!The Endless Archive links to the new Necrom Chapter (you don't need to own it to access the content) and can be found in Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. What makes the Endless Archive so different from the other PvE content in the game — other than many of the side activities I'll get into in a bit — is that it's randomly generated and has a static difficulty level for solo and duo play that grows over time, so it'll actually be slightly harder to work through on your own. Unlike Arenas, which let you completely leave the instance to go and do something else when you need a break, leaving the Archive's hub will reset your progress. Once you're in there, you're locked in if you don't want to lose your progress or spot on the leaderboards.A playthrough in the Endless Archive is made up of Stages, Cycles, and Arcs, with a spattering of randomly-generated content in between. Stages act as your basic mob-killing rounds, and you'll need to battle your way through two of these to reach a Stage featuring a boss — over 60 bosses have been added from across the game. The three Stages are called a Cycle, and upon defeating the boss during the third Stage, you'll begin a new Cycle. After completing four Cycles and working your way through your fifth, you'll come face-to-face with an even stronger boss mob as the final hurdle of an Arc. Survive this encounter and you'll begin the entire process again but at a slightly increased difficulty level. As of the second Arc, there will be the chance of a Marauder boss spawning with the trash mobs during one of the Stages. The Marauder is a hard boss to overcome, but will only spawn once per Arc, and can quickly end your run if you're not careful when it appears.The basic structure of the Endless Archive is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are a ton of random encounters, modifiers, and other mechanics involved that can make each run unique. While it's called the Endless Archive, you do only have three lives, called Threads, unlike the infinite lives found in Arenas. You'll need to hang on to your Threads if you want to delve ever deeper into the Archive, and you can unlock certain permanent buffs to gain more Threads. To help you on your journey, you'll find buffs called Verses and Visions during your runs. Verses can appear when you complete a Stage, offering you a choice between two temporary buffs that will only last for your next Stage, while Visions are permanent buffs that last your entire run. Every time you complete a Cycle you'll be offered a choice between two Visions — although you can invite another player to help you at any time during a run if you're playing solo, they won't retroactively unlock any Visions, so they'll join with an immediate disadvantage!Variety is the spice of lifeMy favorite aspect of the Endless Archive is easily the random encounters that can show up via portals, which take you to a separate area called The Unknown. These separate instances offer up side quests, either as contained experiences, or objectives linked to the main Endless Archive Stages. The quests and objectives are randomly-generated but can come in multiple parts, so you'll need to enter additional portals throughout a run to uncover the entire narrative. During my preview, one portal we went through saw us transformed into a goat being hunted by a butcher. Amusingly, to survive the ordeal, we had to run around eating sweet rolls to build up our Ultimate meter so we could unleash an Ultimate attack to defeat the butcher. The silliness of the objective as a breath of fresh air and a welcome break from the stress-inducing combat found on the other side of the portal. It will be interesting to see what other delicious side content ZeniMax has prepared for us in the full release. Of course, no Elder Scrolls Online content is complete without new rewards to earn, and the Endless Archive comes packed with plenty of goodies. The main offering is the introduction of Class sets, something we've not had in the game before. ZeniMax is testing the waters with these sets, however, so there are only seven sets on offer — one for each class — but each focuses on a specific skill line for each of the classes. While the side content found in the optional portals will offer treasure of their own, the main rewards in the Endless Archive come from Muniment Chests, which are awarded at the end of each Cycle. These boxes of treasure come packed with a host of items, including class set pieces and a new currency called Archival Fortunes, which you can spend with the many merchants found in the Endless Archive's main hub area. All in all, Endless Archive is shaping up to be an exciting new experience, and while I'm not sure if we'll get any new The Elder Scrolls Online achievements with the update, the content is going to be worth exploring anyway. I'll be jumping in when Endless Archive and Update 40 arrive on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on November 14. Hopefully, I'll see you there!More The Elder Scrolls Online stories: Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2023 showcase: All reveals and announcements Xbox Game Pass Core will feature 36 games at launch Free Play Days features four free Xbox games this weekend Xbox booth at Gamescom to have Stalker 2 and more playable in "world debuts" Microsoft confirms Xbox Game Pass Core and the end of Games with Gold Xbox Series X|SXbox One Written by Tom WestTom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.