Enlightenment - How It Works

ZOS_GinaBruno
ZOS_GinaBruno
Community Manager
Hi everyone!

We've been seeing a lot of confusion over Enlightenment and how the system works, so we wanted to explain it a bit more thoroughly for you. In simplest terms, Enlightenment is a bonus for the XP you earn while playing that counts toward your Champion Point progression.

Every 24 hours, you receive enough Enlightenment to earn one Champion Point at the rate of 100,000XP per Point; after your Enlightenment is used up, you will return to requiring 400,000XP to earn a Champion Point. The 24 hour timer starts when you log in with your first Veteran character or unlock the Champion System, whichever is first, and resets every 24 hours after it first starts. You will receive a message on your screen that you are Enlightened, and you can also hover over your XP bar to see if you are Enlightened.

If you end up not using up all your Enlightenment while you play, it will continue to accrue for a maximum of 12 days. Once you hit the limit, you will not gain any additional Enlightenment until you begin to use it by gaining XP.

In addition, there were a number of issues with Enlightenment when it was first introduced, and have since been fixed as of patch 2.0.1. Below is what we addressed:
  • Fixed an issue where logging in with an existing unconverted character for the first time could restart the enlightenment process, once the process had begun.
  • Fixed an issue where it would appear as though a new character was accruing enlightenment.
  • Fixed an issue where it would appear as though you had gained a Champion Point, but were not able to use it.
    • Note: This was due to a desyncing issue, and you did not lose out on any earned Enlightenment or Champion Points.
  • Fixed an issue where it would appear as though you were Enlightened and progressing through the Champion System faster than you actually were.

We hope this helps, and let us know if you have any further questions!

Gina Bruno
Senior Creator Engagement Manager
Dev Tracker | Service Alerts | ESO Twitter | My Twitter
Staff Post
  • technohic
    technohic
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    12 days? That's a big increase, no?
  • firewatch
    firewatch
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    technohic wrote: »
    12 days? That's a big increase, no?

    Yeah, I thought they said you could only accumulate a maximum of 3 days worth or 1.2 mil?

  • Snit
    Snit
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    12 days now?

    I cannot type "Thank you" enough. Work takes me on the road for a week or two at a time. Now, I can catch up again by playing obsessively when I'm back. Woot!
    Snit AD Sorc
    Ratbag AD Warden Tank
    Goblins AD Stamblade

  • Morvul
    Morvul
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    firewatch wrote: »
    technohic wrote: »
    12 days? That's a big increase, no?

    Yeah, I thought they said you could only accumulate a maximum of 3 days worth or 1.2 mil?

    I remember the same.

    That said: I'm all in favour of 12 days!
  • technohic
    technohic
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    Snit wrote: »
    12 days now?

    I cannot type "Thank you" enough. Work takes me on the road for a week or two at a time. Now, I can catch up again by playing obsessively when I'm back. Woot!

    Same here and coming up. Not to mention I have been slacking as it is to where I am already perma-enlightened. Glad I get a little more of a window to use it if I get some time on a weekend.

    Just in time to go with the Cyrodiil XP boosts as well. Today is GOOD day ZOS

    EDIT: Also gives me a little bit more of a feeling that I can take a day to work on an alt without losing so much enlightenment.
    Edited by technohic on 18 March 2015 19:19
  • Prizax
    Prizax
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    This is perfect! I actually was hoping for 8 days to be able to stack enlightenment but now it's 12 :)
  • HungryHobo
    HungryHobo
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    Well... 12 days is actually 1.2million xp now (100k, 1 CP per day).. as before, 3 days would net you 1.2 million enlightenment(400k, or 4 CP of enlightenment per day).

    Essentially you gain it 4x slower per day, but you can stack 4x more days total.

    Works out better for casuals this way.

  • Prizax
    Prizax
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    HungryHobo wrote: »
    Well... 12 days is actually 1.2million xp now (100k, 1 CP per day).. as before, 3 days would net you 1.2 million enlightenment(400k, or 4 CP of enlightenment per day).

    Essentially you gain it 4x slower per day, but you can stack 4x more days total.

    Works out better for casuals this way.

    Uh? before 4 CP per day? it was never like that or was it?
  • Dagoth_Rac
    Dagoth_Rac
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    I am happy for the 12-day Enlightenment reserve. I could not get Enlightened for anything when Update 6 came out. I think it had to do with my logging into alts and mules and all that while playing the Inventory Management Minigame. That must have been repeatedly resetting my Enlightenment timer. The patch came out on a Tuesday and I think it took me until Saturday to get Enlightenment! The irony is that now I can get Enlightened every day but I have trouble getting through my Enlightenment! Dungeons and Trials and quests just do not give enough XP/hour to get through your Enlightenment unless you are speed-running or playing many hours per day. It is certainly not one CP per hour when Enlightened, as was hinted at before Update 6 dropped. So if I can actually play the game for 11 days and just reserve one day of every 12 to go through that soul-crushing grinding-through-my-Enlightenment drill, that would be great.

    But I'd still prefer normal game activities give better XP as opposed to spacing out the grind sessions!
    Edited by Dagoth_Rac on 18 March 2015 19:42
  • Athas24
    Athas24
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    This is GREAT news!
    ...OverTwerked & Underpaid.
    Rajaat04 in game @Athas24 on forums
  • Dagoth_Rac
    Dagoth_Rac
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    Prizax wrote: »
    HungryHobo wrote: »
    Well... 12 days is actually 1.2million xp now (100k, 1 CP per day).. as before, 3 days would net you 1.2 million enlightenment(400k, or 4 CP of enlightenment per day).

    Essentially you gain it 4x slower per day, but you can stack 4x more days total.

    Works out better for casuals this way.

    Uh? before 4 CP per day? it was never like that or was it?

    It was like that very briefly after Update 6 dropped. They hotfixed it within a few days. It was a bug. You were supposed to get 100K "real XP" at the 4x rate = 400K "Champion XP". Instead they gave you 400K "real XP" at the 4x rate. But it has not been that way for about a week and a half. The 12 days of Enlightenment reserve sounds new, but your first 100K XP of the day at a 4x rate towards CP has been in place for a while.
  • Sharee
    Sharee
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    12 days, hmm? It seems i have wasted less enlightment by playing a non-vet alt than i thought, that's good :)
  • Mystikkal
    Mystikkal
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    I''ll take credit for suggesting the increase from 3 days enlightment storage in the official champion point feedback thread :)
  • Sykotical
    Sykotical
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    So, does Enlightenment currently bring it to 100,000XP per CP or is this to be in the next patch? I'm asking because I've just earned 200,000XP but I haven't received any CP and the counter still shows that I need 400,000XP.

    W7kF1il.png
    Son Azoth | Breton Nightblade
    PC - NA - DC - myCampaignTBD
  • Hutuldur
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    Great news. Handy for people who can only play couple of nights per week.
  • technohic
    technohic
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    Sykotical wrote: »
    So, does Enlightenment currently bring it to 100,000XP per CP or is this to be in the next patch? I'm asking because I've just earned 200,000XP but I haven't received any CP and the counter still shows that I need 400,000XP.

    W7kF1il.png

    If I understand correctly, it means you are earning 100k real XP (which would be counting toward your level) and 4x that is going toward enlightenment as you see in your screen.
  • Nazon_Katts
    Nazon_Katts
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    While storing up Enlightenment for up to 12d sure is nice, it still doesn't change that it's just 1CP a day that's used up in 20 minutes and the steep drop in progression makes me not want to play the game any further than that. Still gonna take 10 years. Yay.
    "You've probably figured that out by now. Let's hope so. Or we're in real trouble... and out come the intestines. And I skip rope with them!"
  • AlnilamE
    AlnilamE
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    Sykotical wrote: »
    So, does Enlightenment currently bring it to 100,000XP per CP or is this to be in the next patch? I'm asking because I've just earned 200,000XP but I haven't received any CP and the counter still shows that I need 400,000XP.

    W7kF1il.png

    The counter will always show you need 400,000k XP. But if a quest gives you, say 11k XP on completion, the counter will actually go up by 44k XP.

    I have seen this pretty consistently on my V1. Every 100k XP she gains towards her V2 equates a Champion Point (because I've not played enough to run out of enlightenment yet).
    The Moot Councillor
  • Sykotical
    Sykotical
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    technohic wrote: »
    If I understand correctly, it means you are earning 100k real XP (which would be counting toward your level) and 4x that is going toward enlightenment as you see in your screen.

    Okay, that's right. The 400,000K goal threw me, but I've still only earned 50K XP. Thanks
    Son Azoth | Breton Nightblade
    PC - NA - DC - myCampaignTBD
  • Caroloces
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    Still a little bit confused:
    If you end up not using up all your Enlightenment while you play, it will continue to accrue for a maximum of 12 days. Once you hit the limit, you will not gain any additional Enlightenment until you begin to use it by gaining XP.

    Day One (the first 24 hours): You log in and play for awhile but you don't gain enough for a CP even at the accelerated rate of enlightenment.

    Day Two (the 2nd 24 hours): You log in and play (and here's where I'm confused!). The clock has reset itself to provide enlightenment again, but are you gaining xp for the accrued enlightenment from Day One, or are you gaining xp for the enlightenment for Day Two, since the clock was reset?

    From my understanding, enlightenment is just a state that is dependent on the player actually doing things in the game to gain xp. What's confusing about the quote above is that there is the implication (through the word "accrue") that the enlightenment continues to add up over the course of time (like interest on an investment). So if you don't play for 5 days, have you accrued 5 days of enlightenment that will give you 5 cps at an accelerated rate? My gut tells me that that is not the case. I think the real situation is that the enlightenment is sustained over 12 days as you gain xp towards the goal of 100,000 xp, and then it is reset in the next tick of the 24 hour cycle (after you reach the goal). If you don't reach the goal of 100,000 xp at the end of the 12 day period (the limit), then, whatever you have achieved remains for the standard 400,000 xp progression.

    @ZOS_GinaBruno Can you tell me if I've gotten this correct?
  • Tyr
    Tyr
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    Wow, the 12 day thing is great. It's only been like 15 days since 1.6 launched so, even if you haven't been actively gaining much XP, you haven't wasted any enlightenment.
  • robeauch
    robeauch
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    We've been seeing a lot of confusion over Enlightenment and how the system works, so we wanted to explain it a bit more thoroughly for you.
    Thanks Gina! This clarifies a lot of questions from a lot of folks.

    I want to add, as a general note... I think that ZOS's explanations are not always particularly clear. The previously supplied explanation of Enlightenment (both in the patch notes and from Dev forum posts) is a good example of the problem. Your explanation here is a good example of how to do it right.

    It would be ideal if the write-up of a new system could be put in front of a person familiar with the game, who isn't a dev, so they can read through it and point out anything that needs clarification. (The devs already know the new system -- they aren't the best judge of whether the write-up is incomplete or confusing.) I guess that's probably not a realistic solution, given the time crunch around new releases, but really, some kind of non-dev patch note review would probably reduce a lot of the confusion around new systems.
  • HungryHobo
    HungryHobo
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    Caroloces wrote: »
    Still a little bit confused:
    If you end up not using up all your Enlightenment while you play, it will continue to accrue for a maximum of 12 days. Once you hit the limit, you will not gain any additional Enlightenment until you begin to use it by gaining XP.

    Day One (the first 24 hours): You log in and play for awhile but you don't gain enough for a CP even at the accelerated rate of enlightenment.

    Day Two (the 2nd 24 hours): You log in and play (and here's where I'm confused!). The clock has reset itself to provide enlightenment again, but are you gaining xp for the accrued enlightenment from Day One, or are you gaining xp for the enlightenment for Day Two, since the clock was reset?

    From my understanding, enlightenment is just a state that is dependent on the player actually doing things in the game to gain xp. What's confusing about the quote above is that there is the implication (through the word "accrue") that the enlightenment continues to add up over the course of time (like interest on an investment). So if you don't play for 5 days, have you accrued 5 days of enlightenment that will give you 5 cps at an accelerated rate? My gut tells me that that is not the case. I think the real situation is that the enlightenment is sustained over 12 days as you gain xp towards the goal of 100,000 xp, and then it is reset in the next tick of the 24 hour cycle (after you reach the goal). If you don't reach the goal of 100,000 xp at the end of the 12 day period (the limit), then, whatever you have achieved remains for the standard 400,000 xp progression.

    @ZOS_GinaBruno Can you tell me if I've gotten this correct?

    Hopefully I'm answering this correctly for you...

    Day 1 enlightenment xp, day 2 enlightenment xp, day 3... etc.. all get lumped into your enlightenment pool. This pool can only hold 1.2 million enlightenment xp... If you gain extra enlightenment xp BEYOND 1.2 million, it is nullified and you essentially wasted it, because you will hold at 1.2 mil.

    Now, this is where I'm going to confuse you, but if you have multiple veteran rank characters who you play regularly.. it is theoretically possible to use an enlightenment pool of 799k, across 8 Vet Rank characters, and NOT get 1 CP.... This is because each character's progression towards a CP is different. If you gain 97% of a CP on Char #1, and you log onto Char #2, he will have 0% of a CP gained... You can get him to 99% of a CP point, then play Char #3, who would be at 0% too...

    Basically, you need to break everything down into XP rather than Champ Points... Every 24 hours = 100k enlightenment until you have 1.2mil enlightenment accrued, then you don't save any beyond that point. If you play everyday, and consistently use 50k of the 100k enlightenment, you would be netting +50k enlightenment per day, so it would take you 24 days to hit the enlightenment cap of 1.2mil....


    Edit: I re-read the quote from Gina, she did make it seem like you should be counting your days... but since 1 day = 100k xp, and 12 days = 1.2mil xp, your cap is at 12 days, or 1.2mil xp. Just think in terms of xp... not time or CP's. lol
    Edited by HungryHobo on 18 March 2015 21:52
  • HungryHobo
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    This is how the quote should read :smile:

    If you end up not using up all your Enlightenment while you play, it will continue to accrue for a maximum of 1,200,000XP. Once you hit the limit, you will not gain any additional Enlightenment until you begin to use it by gaining XP.

  • runagate
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    I only read the OP, but please please please please please put in UI feedback, such as a timer (so we know when to log in, get some xp, and restart the timer, as well as letting us know how much more "enlightenment time" is on an account while we play. I'm sure others have asked for this, but think of it like "riding skills" (formerly "logging in every 20 hours to feed our horses).

    It's not fun to have to be an accountant and scheduling secretary to use in-game mechanics semi-efficiently. Nor can I think of why obfuscating this information would be necessary.
  • Naor_Sarethi
    Naor_Sarethi
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    And on the 13th day you reach Nirvana, realizing the futility of it all lel.
    Edited by Naor_Sarethi on 18 March 2015 22:31
  • EQBallzz
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    Yeah this is nice and all but they still need to address the fact that there is no way to earn XP in the first place if you have completed all your quests. I have yet to run out of enlightenment because I have nothing to do that eats up enough XP.
  • Domander
    Domander
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    well, at 1 point a day it'll only take 10 years to reach the cap :P ... which is ok. I wonder how long it will actually be before players are at 3600.
    Edited by Domander on 18 March 2015 23:18
  • Iago
    Iago
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    Thats awesome
    That which we obtain to cheap we esteem to lightly, it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

    -Thomas Pain

  • ArconSeptim
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    As I heard from one wise man on QuakeCon last year, he said, you will earn 1 CP per hour of gameplay!
    This is just impossible today no way, maybe if you are lucky and you are enlightened that whole hour but what is with next hour? I thought you will keep your promise and make it possible to earn each hour with gameplay 1 CP, doesn't matter if someone grinds mobs, dungeons, quests, PvP etc.
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