After 802 days, I'll stop the crafting dailies. It's not worth it anymore.

JiubLeRepenti · October 19

(parts in yellow are estimations)

I've been doing crafting dailies for 802 days. That’s 2 years, 2 months, and 12 days. Each day, I wrote down what I got, what I sold, etc.

I did this during three distinct periods:

August 2022 - September 2023
February 2024 - September 2024
March 2025 - October 2025

What you see in the previous picture is just a summary based on formulas. Here’s what the sheet really looks like:

I decided to stop, simply because it was taking too much time, but also because the game economy is not collapsing, but seriously tumbling down. Today will be my very last day doing them.

I started with 10 toons, and finished with 20. I maxed every toon in crafting, including hirelings for each crafting profession.

In 2023, one toon was making 43k per day. In 2024, it was 23k. And in 2025, it was 19k. And it keeps decreasing. Just to give you an idea, here’s a quick view of what I was doing daily on average in 2023, 2024, and 2025:

(blue for 2023, orange for 2024, brown for 2025)

The dailies containers represented 51% of the global value on average. Provisioning represented 13%; Surveys 18%; gold from dailies quests 18%. This last figure is surprisingly high, but by doing each daily on each toon, it was rewarded with more or less 5,000–5,500 gold. Which represents 100k–110k per day for 20 toons.

And here are the estimated material values for each year (it’s always a bit overrated since I don’t calculate zircon plating, alchemy materials like columbine stacks, etc.):

In 2023 and 2024, the global comparison between sales and estimated values were pretty close (less than 10% difference). In 2025, I made a daily comparison between sales and estimated value, and I had less than a 5% difference (meaning that for estimating I was selling 100k, I was actually selling 95k). I adapted some material values when needed, because of the economic slowdown.

I loaded a toon 11,719 times during these 802 days. I looted approximately 6,100 dreugh waxes, 4,600 chromium platings/grains, and 6,300 tempering alloys.

In total, I spent 870.5 hours, or approximately 36 days and 6 hours.

During these 802 days, I made approximately 340,000,000 gold. Now I only have 40M in the bank, since I spent most of it on styles, collectibles, and housing.

Now it's time for me to rest a bit...

katanagirl1 · October 20

I still do them all on 9 characters per day, I only ever did them for the 5k each gold. Console values of gold mats have historically been very low due to bot farming, so selling them is not worth it to me. I’ve been doing them for nearly ten years on one character, and added others over the last five years I estimate. I stopped the alchemy writs with mudcrab chitin maybe a year ago, when I realized I had blown through ten years of material on just this task. I plan to stop the one with violet coprinus next. I just don’t farm mats overland like I used to and am draining that supply.

I make some gold selling master writs so there’s that, not a lot because I don’t want them to expire and pay to list again.

After all that time, I had about 2/3 of the writ vouchers needed to get all of the attunable tables for the GMC stations, so that was a bonus. I was able to grind out the rest with more MWs and some gold.

I can get enough XP to cover half my Enlightenment each day just from doing 3 master writs per day, and I can sell the rest. I also spend gold buying motifs and furnishing plans, but the cost is probably lower on console than what you guys pay on PC.

I still think it is a worthwhile endeavor to do each day. I used to make a lot of gold selling furnishing plans that I did not need but the abysmal drop rates on everything new now prevents me from doing that and I have to buy a lot of plans. So this little bit of income goes a long way if I look for bargains.

moderatelyfatman · October 20

@JiubLeRepenti Thank you for your service!
Seriously though, I am impressed by your perseverance. Personally I've always found the daily writs to be a bonus in terms of mats and XP. The gold is meagre, though.

kevkj · October 20

Ok, but is Warren Buffett still doing writs? I'm not going to change my financial habits until I hear from him.

daim · October 20

Yea I still do them for some reason even that there's no need for me to do them. I started years back to cover my mount upgrades expenses and for some reason haven't stopped.

And yes the economy is so low there's hardly any point.

I guess I mainly do them for crafting writs and surveys which I hate to do

Now that they both stack they just keep piling up haha.

method__01 · October 20

economy isnt good but writs are a steady income and source of mats-even for me that i dont sell-or buy anything
fishing is also profitable and if you feel better -can stay away from crafting for some time

for me i .ido 20 EU -14 NA every day since June 2016 and havent missed a day-i crashed with my road bike 2 years ago but i managed to complete that day, even with fractured shoulder

not going to stop now

Horace-Wimp · October 20

This reminds me of the crazy uncle from the movie "One Crazy Summer" who spends his Summer sitting in a room listening to the radio trying to win ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Should ZOS look for an incoming rocket propelled grenade?

LadyLethalla · October 20

I just like accumulating gold... it's a form of FOMO.

Sarannah · October 20

Wow, very nice!!! Always love statistics.

Having done daily writs for over a year and a half myself(stopped after that), I am missing something from your statistics. Which is, were you never short on materials? Did you have to buy materials to keep being able to do the dailies? If so, which materials?
Personally I was always short on oko, corn flower, and platinum. (though I never completed the surveys, only for jewelry)

JiubLeRepenti · October 20

Thanks for your messages

Sarannah wrote: »

Wow, very nice!!! Always love statistics.

Having done daily writs for over a year and a half myself(stopped after that), I am missing something from your statistics. Which is, were you never short on materials? Did you have to buy materials to keep being able to do the dailies? If so, which materials?
Personally I was always short on oko, corn flower, and platinum. (though I never completed the surveys, only for jewelry)

Yup, there were several materials I was running short of while doing all the processes (dailies-hirelings-surveys-master writs):

Oko runes: I went short only once or twice (I was always buying a full stack when running short of something).
Platinum ounce: I was always buying 2-3 stacks per week. Master writs were killing my stocks.
Ancestor silk: I was also depending on master writs. But it was rarer to run short of it.

Alchemy reagents were the most used materials by dailies, even after I stopped doing alchemy master writs:

Spider egg: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.
Violet Coprinus: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.
Mudcrab chitin: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.
Imp stool: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.
Torchbug thorax: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.
Nirnroot: I was buying a new stack several times a year, maybe 5-6 times a year.

I was also buying a stack of race stones every two weeks (with some stones being used more than others)

Every week, after having done the surveys, I would check if I had a full stack of everything for the upcoming week. For crafting materials like platinum ounce or ancestor silk, I calculated that 3k per week was enough for 20 toons.

JiubLeRepenti · October 20

method__01 wrote: »

economy isnt good but writs are a steady income and source of mats-even for me that i dont sell-or buy anything
fishing is also profitable and if you feel better -can stay away from crafting for some time

for me i .ido 20 EU -14 NA every day since June 2016 and havent missed a day-i crashed with my road bike 2 years ago but i managed to complete that day, even with fractured shoulder

not going to stop now

Wow, how much money do you think you made?

I don't think I could have done it for so long, even less on two servs lol

redlink1979 · October 20

Thanks for sharing

zaria · October 20

JiubLeRepenti wrote: »

method__01 wrote: »

economy isnt good but writs are a steady income and source of mats-even for me that i dont sell-or buy anything
fishing is also profitable and if you feel better -can stay away from crafting for some time

for me i .ido 20 EU -14 NA every day since June 2016 and havent missed a day-i crashed with my road bike 2 years ago but i managed to complete that day, even with fractured shoulder

not going to stop now

Wow, how much money do you think you made?

I don't think I could have done it for so long, even less on two servs lol

i stopped one I realized how much resources and gold I had, no chance of effer spending all that gold.
I say the switch to the CP for double resources also affecting surveys helped tanking the resource marked.
Remember having to buy platinum bars as I did not get enough from surveys.
And the pretty stable meta, not that I complain for that, the flip flopping they did was so annoying.
Add that the tips for how to make gold is still do crafting writs, yes it's probably more efficient ones but they are very random and changing like blueprint hunting or require planning and some skills and connections like selling weapon runs.
Still do them on my main.

method__01 · October 20

JiubLeRepenti wrote: »

method__01 wrote: »

economy isnt good but writs are a steady income and source of mats-even for me that i dont sell-or buy anything
fishing is also profitable and if you feel better -can stay away from crafting for some time

for me i .ido 20 EU -14 NA every day since June 2016 and havent missed a day-i crashed with my road bike 2 years ago but i managed to complete that day, even with fractured shoulder

not going to stop now

Wow, how much money do you think you made?

I don't think I could have done it for so long, even less on two servs lol

hmm good question, not that much -in cash term-i spend a lot in game -mostly buying missing plans and motifs that
i cant farm and of course im the best client of Zanil and Golden cause i have many houses to decor, help new players etc
what i have got is tons of mats,surveys and lots of vouchers- i can proly support a small guild but im solo player
atm im trying to fill my NA collection but i dont have time to play both the way i want
PC client with addons, have so many advantages that helps with managing all the crafting , both servers takes about 2 hours daily -less if i have all pre crafted and empty bank,so not that much time

Sarannah wrote: »

Wow, very nice!!! Always love statistics.

Having done daily writs for over a year and a half myself(stopped after that), I am missing something from your statistics. Which is, were you never short on materials? Did you have to buy materials to keep being able to do the dailies? If so, which materials?
Personally I was always short on oko, corn flower, and platinum. (though I never completed the surveys, only for jewelry)

Mudcrab Chitin is my nightmare -i refuse to buy and must spent countless hours farming ....to understand i have over 10k cornflower ,asked for a change -like they did with other mats in the past. still nothing

Aliniel · October 21

I am also a 20-character-every-day-crafting player. Been doing it since Jubilee 2022 after a few-years-break from ESO.

For me, this is an ideal "brain off" activity. I can listen to the podcast I like while still getting some sort of rewards in ESO. It made me more gold than I'll ever need (I don't do housing stuff at all). Plus, I get plenty of surveys and master writs which I do in bulk when I need mats or have some extra podcast to catch up to.

But I have to agree the rewards are getting less rewarding due to mats losing their values over the last year or so. Not sure if this is necessarily a bad thing. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge.

On the other hand, gold is not something that gives you enormous power or great advantage in ESO. It's mostly used for personal stuff (mainly housing I'd say). There are plenty of us hoarders out there and I don't think we're harming the game.

Personally, I'd welcome some extension to the whole crafting system. Maybe some city-building-time-gated sort of mini game. You put mats into something and wait X hours until it finishes building. But it would probably become just another niche activity for a portion of player base like ToT.

mocap · October 21

Another player finaly woke up and realized that all these resources, which had taken years to farm, were now just dead weight. Grats, you're no longer fooling yourself.

JiubLeRepenti · October 22

mocap wrote: »

Another player finaly woke up and realized that all these resources, which had taken years to farm, were now just dead weight. Grats, you're no longer fooling yourself.

I'm not gonna lie: doing them has been very heavy and painful recently. At the very end (in 2025), I had nearly 0 motivation to keep doing them. Mostly because de materials value was collapsing.

Doing the dailies in 2023 was fine when I was doing 500k per day with only 10-12 toons. When you like housing and outfitting like me, money is always needed to buy styles, crafting materials, etc.

Now I'm doing like 300k with 20 characters, and it keeps decreasing. So yea, now that I have almost all the buyable collectibles in my collection and my houses fully equiped, it's hard to find motivation to keep doing them.