I heard 90% of mounts is locked away in the crown store. If that's true is that the only thing? Because if it's just mounts that are gated like that I could care less. I understand the whole reason behind the store because it is not required to get a sub.

But what would be nice to know is that only the mounts are locked away because I would be happy just getting costumes and other stuff and knowing that the best ones are not locked away like mounts. Or at least if there's a lot of stuff in game as much as the store.

If there's only 10 in game costumes and poses but 40 in the store that would be a bummer. I got the assassins pose from the Dark Brotherhood quest and I thought that was cool!

Yes you can get free pets and fully furnish your homes without crowns.
There are even instances where non crown furnishings look more intricate/prettier than its crown equivalent.

Look up velothi triptych (stealable, not present in crown store)
And velothi panels (buyable with crowns)

The triptychs design are more intricate and they even come with gold rims.
Unlike the simple velothi panels (still beautiful though).

Velothi tapestries (stealable, not present in crown store) are another.
Their crown equivalent pale in comparison.

Then there is the godslayer mount that is not buyable with crowns, but require hardcore skill and teamplay to get.
It is even rarer and more eye catching than the rarest crown crate mounts.

And if all else fails, you can always use farmed in game gold to buy crowns from other players.
It is allowed.
So don’t worry.

Both the wife and I started playing ESO about 3 months ago. We both liked the game enough to sign up for one year of ESO+ and save $40 compared to a month to month sub. That gave us enough crowns to go and purchase a lot of the cosmetics like the mounts. For me, I wanted enough crowns to buy the extra character slots. So it made sense to me to get the 1 year sub that allowed me to do that.

If you do a month to month, that gives you 1600(?) crowns a month to spend in the store.


While I don't think that the cosmetics are necessary, I will say that being able to customize the character and costumes has made me like some characters over others simply based on the appearance of that character.

All the cool stuff is behind crowns. The stuff you can get in game is lackluster at best.

FangOfTheTwoMoons wrote: »

All the cool stuff is behind crowns. The stuff you can get in game is lackluster at best.

You are dreaming.

Some of the best furnishings come in game each week from the luxury furniture vendor for in game gold.

Some of my favorite pets like the monkey, dwemmer sphere and the chicken were free rewards (you can't get these now but there are new ones most months).

We just had the anniversary event where we got a bunch of new styles for free and the Sai Sahan one is one of the best in the entire game.

We have gotten two massive homes for free although I admit neither are close to being the best.

The new achievement mount is incredibly hard to get but those that do will really have something to show off.

SlowIron wrote: »

So what else is gated in the crown store. (I can look away from mounts) What can I earn from dungeons because better stat gear isn't enough for me. I would like furnishings and cosmetics.

There are crown exclusive things like, houses, motifs, pets, mounts and cosmetics, but the game also offers a variety of these via questing, achievement completion or just via gold purchase from traders. Some mounts, pets and costumes are given as part of chapters or DLCs, but if you are just starting out, I'd say get what the game offers for free before venturing in the crown store. The only category that doesn't offer an in-game equivalent, as far as I can think of, is adornments and hair styles, there are some markings you can earn wthrough questing, like the psijic ones for example, but I don't think there's something like that for hairstyles or adornments.

Can I get pets in game, can I furnish my entire house without having to spend money on the crown store. I'm happy subbing but purchasing items in the store takes away the fun of the game for me.

You can get pets in game (an easy one, which doesn't require having DLCs or chapters, is the Razak's Opus spider from the public dungeon in Bangkorai) and mounts (a free one from levelling, and also from the stable masters), you can earn a free apartment by completing a short quest in the major cities, and also buy houses for gold, you can earn or buy costumes with gold, and you can make furniture by learning the recipes for them, or by buying them from guild traders. There are merchant NPCs that sell furnishings as well, some are tied to achievements, and there's a weekly luxury furnishing vendor who sells special housing items in the weekends.

I think you can definitely have a fun experience without buying things from the store, and ever since we've gotten the outfit system, you can use in-game earned motifs to customize the look of your character even more. Plus, if you are subbing, then you'll have free crowns sent to you periodically anyway, which you can then use as you please.

You can watch the official twitch streams for "drops". I've gotten a mount, a pet and various consumables from crates.

Also, when I bought Elsweyr I bought the version that gave me all the goodies (mounts/pets) that came with the previous DLC's.

ESO+ is worth getting.

You're right that there aren't many mounts available outside of the crown store. Only the 4 horses (1 from level up rewards and 3 bought from stables with gold) and a few others like the indriks which are obtained by collecting event tickets from special events through the year - meaning it takes several months to get one, and one which is a reward from the new trial. Although others are available through login rewards, special promotions and other free methods occasionally - you just need to keep a look out for them.

I think it's done that way because unlike WoW mounts weren't supposed to be a big deal in ESO. For the first year of the games life the only mounts in the game were those 4 hoses and one from the Imperial Edition Upgrade. They only started adding other animals when the crown store was introduced. (Also in case it's not clear different mounts in ESO are purely skins - the rarest crown store or achievement mount is no better functionally than the brown horse given to everyone at level 10.)

The main cosmetic rewards from dungeons and trials (aka raids) are helmets and shoulders with unique skins, but there's also pets, costumes, mementos (like fancy emotes), titles, dyes and motifs - which are armour and weapon skins. Motifs are tradable so they're not a great way of proving you've completed something, but they can be a good way of making money if you enjoy running dungeons. And of course it's the source of some of the best equipment stats in the game.

So there's a lot of stuff to unlock in game, including a lot of rewards which some people consider highly prestigious and are very proud of having, it just may not be the same type of items you're used to. (e.g. before I started ESO my only MMO was Guild Wars 2 and it took me a long time to get my head around the idea of dyes being an achievement reward or anyone knowing, much less caring, exactly which dye you're using.) Even once you get used to what's available you may not be interested in certain things - for example I almost never use mementos - but there might also be things you really enjoy and want to go out of your way to hunt down.

(Also just a note on furniture: A lot of crown store furnishings are also available in-game for gold, and there's quite a few achievement furnishings which cannot be bought from the crown store and which are often fairly unique and interesting, so it might be worth checking a fan site like UESP or ESO Fashion to see what's available before spending crowns on anything.)

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

The DLC that gives you the Imperial class, and more importantly, being able to play any Alliance with any race -- that one is actually very good for very new players.
Because right now you cannot change class or Alliance. And once you have an established character, you might not want to redo them just to change Alliance while retaining the race you want.
If you don't even PvP in Cyrodiil however, none of this really matters.

Minor but important correction - the Imperial race and Any Race in Any Alliance upgrade come from two separate crown store purchases, neither of which is classed as a DLC.

The Digital Imperial Edition Upgrade gives you access to the Imperial race. Imperial characters can be in any alliance but buying this upgrade won't allow you to select different alliances for your other characters.

The Any Race, Any Alliance Bundle (in the Special Offers tab) gives you the upgrade which allows you to choose which alliance a new character will start in, rather than it being chosen automatically based on their race, and to choose any race for an existing character when using a race change token. (Note: there is no way to change the alliance of an existing character, you would have to delete and re-make them.)

(There's also the Imperial City DLC which purely gives access to the city and 2 dungeons in the centre of Cyrodiil with no new races or race selection/change options.)

I've seen too many people get those three mixed up and find they've wasted money on useless purchases which don't do what they wanted, so now I make a point of clarifying which one of which.