No anecdotes. No useless information. Just some basic farming and crafting tips I’ve discovered from my time playing ESO. (If I get a good community response, I may try my hand at another helpful tips guide.)

If you have any information to share, please be as specific as possible. Don’t post something like, “Uhhh…there’s garlic…uh…in the Mages Guild hanging from a bookshelf.” What city? What floor? What’s around it? Do you have a picture or a link? It might also be helpful to list your alliance and level.

*Note: The character I gathered this information with is veteran rank in the Daggerfall Covenant. Aldmeri and Ebonheart areas are VR. It’s possible some of the items in these areas will populate differently for characters in different alliances.

Provisioning

Contrary to a lot of information online, I’ve found that baskets tend to contain meats and other food-based crafting materials, whereas beverage ingredients can be found in crates and barrels.

Where’s the garlic?

You may have noticed that there’s not an abundance of this food ingredient. Do not believe what you read on every thread. You will not find garlic in crates or barrels in delves—at least not enough to warrant having to open every single thing you come across—or any random homes, and if you do, feel free to post an exact location of it on this thread, sans extraneous details, please. Obviously stealing food is fine as long as you plan to store it in your bags or cook it right away, but personally, I prefer not to waste space or have to worry about guards.

Tip #1

When farming in an instance-based zone, like delves, or even a building in town that you have to go through a door to enter (and possibly wait for a loading screen), you can simply log out and re-log back in to replenish items in that zone, i.e. water skins, food crates, weapon racks, desks, nightstands, etc. Dwemer ruins, which are on a reset timer (approximately 1 hour) that’s not affected by re-logging, are a unique exception to this trick.

You can use this tip for farming mats for most crafting professions and it will save you an incredible amount of time. It may seem tedious, but it’s far better than the alternative and it allows you to farm one location as efficiently as possible. Occasionally this trick works when you’re out in the open world as well. Try it at the locations below.

Farming Locations

Malabal Tor, Velyn Harbor, Bank (Harbor Customs Hall): Upstairs in a hallway, across from a wooden counter, hanging around a stone hearth are 2 – 3 ropes of garlic. There’s also white meat, pumpkin, jazbay grapes, saltrice, apples, melons, cheese, small game, potatoes, carrots, and beets in this location, all of which you won’t have to steal. Log out and log back in. Rinse/repeat.

Malabal Tor, Dra’bul (Orc Camp): Shaman Glazulg’s hut in the eastern part of the camp has poultry and game hanging over the fire pit. Follow the fork in the road right, past the shaman’s house, north out of camp, and to the shore. To the left as you reach the shoreline there is one group of two orcs by a wooden cart and another pack of three orcs guarding a boat by a campfire. There is a makeshift shack in between these two groups with fish, potatoes, flour, and beets. Log out and log back in. Rinse/repeat.

Glenumbra, Ilessan Tower (Delve): You can find this delve east of Daggerfall. This is a good go-to dungeon for farming a diverse selection of provisioning ingredients. If you’re in DC, it’s also one of the lowest level delves, which means you can plow through everything with reckless abandon and farm to your heart’s content.

Reaper’s March, The Vile Manse (Cave/Public Dungeon): You can find this public dungeon northwest of the Fort Grimwatch wayshrine. The kitchen on the first floor has 2 – 3 ropes of garlic, beets, flour, saltrice, carrots, and some crates and barrels. The first and second floors of the main house area also have a number of desks, wardrobes, trunks, and other containers. The entrance to the actual dungeon portion is to the left of the cooking fire in the kitchen.

While various containers, crates, and barrels can be found throughout the entire instance, the very first area of the basement you enter has the highest concentration of high-level provisioning materials I’ve seen yet. There are too many to list. And there are only a few packs of mobs you have to clear to get access to all of it! There’s one room (directly across from the entrance) that has entire wheels of cheese. You can loot 40 – 50 wedges of cheese per run.

*Note: There seems to be an hour-long cooldown similar to the Dwemer ruin mechanic that affects the repopulation of containers in this instance. Simply logging out and re-logging back in will not work here.

Tip #2

Stealing is inevitable, as is breaking into buildings. Just don’t get caught. And if you do, you really only have three choices: (1) Stay put and wait for your aggro and bounty to diminish; (2) Find a guard and let them detain you so you can give back the (un)intentionally stolen item(s) and pay a fine; (3) Flee. Although, I don’t recommend trying this option until you’re VR. Guards will melt your face. Duh. I’m sure it’s possible to kill them, but do you really feel like dealing with all that for stealing some bread or an apple?

Stormhaven, Wayrest, Mages Guild (Chironasium): Downstairs in the basement there is a small room with a friendly NPC taking notes. There’s poultry, small game, beets, 1 – 2 ropes of garlic, and fish on the shelf. There are also a number of desks and cabinets down here you can check for motifs or recipes. You will have to steal everything from this location, so make sure to stay hidden! There’s only the one NPC to worry about though. Log out and log back in. Rinse/repeat.

Crafting

Once you’ve amassed a large quantity of provisioning materials, simply go to a cooking fire and craft the highest-level food or beverage you can create. Inspiration gains for provisioning are based on the level, not the quality, of food. In other words, if you had to choose between crafting a level 15 superior (blue) recipe or a level 20 fine (green) recipe, you’d want to go with the level 20 craft.

Tip #3

In order to expedite your crafting it’s handy to use the Y button in your cooking menu, which lists the recipes your character has, in order to toggle on and off on the recipes that you currently have ingredients for. However, it might also be helpful to note which ingredients you are missing from higher-level recipes. If you have two out of three ingredients for a given recipe, take note and try to find a fixed location you can re-log from to farm that third ingredient.

You can also check the guild traders—and guild stores (via banker NPCs)—in major cities for ingredients, though prices fluctuate drastically. Traders and stores are also a good source for cheap recipes. There are multiple traders in Daggerfall, Wayrest, Elden Root, and Ebonheart, to name a few.

That's all for now. Again, if you have anything to add, please be respectful.