Exploring Cyrodiil: is it possible?

Shantu · November 2019

As long as you understand:

1. You WILL be ganked.
2. You WILL be attacked by mobs who all relish the experience of killing you at the same time.
3. You WILL receive PM's from toxic twits who feel the need to inform you of the ignorant crap they have for brains.
4. You WILL spend 75% of your time riding a horse simulator.

So yeah, go have some fun.

Vorpan · November 2019

I enjoy exploring Cyrodiil. There are some toxic players, and you do spend a lot of time on your horse, but overall it's fun and ESO has a pretty great community. I suggest buying some recall stones, and don't be afraid to ask for help flipping a town if you need to do some quests. There are sometime awesome people who are willing to help out.

SeaGtGruff · November 2019

As long as you sneak everywhere, you can usually explore without getting hassled-- although sneaking isn't a guarantee.

If you run into enemy players while exploring a delve, sometimes they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone. Chances are, if they're there rather than attacking a fort or capturing resources, they're probably just questing like you are.

vamp_emily · November 2019

I've never had a problem doing anything in PvP. You will die a few times and get a few Mushroom Stamps ( a.k.a. t-bags ) but everything will be fine.

WiseSky · November 2019

Well will be getting all 18 the treasure maps blind, with no addons or guides. I am looking forward to it its gonna be a challenge but a fun one, so just look at as strong AI if you ever meet a player

Jeremy · November 2019

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I’ve been to Cyrodiil for several times, mainly on Midyear Mayhem events. Not sure why I did that – just wanted to see what’s going on there, to get some motifs... It was not a frustrating experience; I even founded it to be fun of some sort.

Yet what I want in Cyrodiil is not PVP. I want only to explore it. Cities, Ayleid ruins, delves… I wonder if there are any Daedra Lord statues present - like we saw them in Oblivion, any wayshrines (not travelling points, but old shrines like we saw in Oblivion and ESO Gold Coast).

The question is: can I explore the enemy territory? I’m in AD now. What if the territory I’m interested in belongs to EP or DC? Can I enter it at all, or should it become AD controlled first? How hard is it to explore the enemy’s territory? I know that I should be as stealthy as possible, yet can I completely avoid any fights? Maybe I need several characters – one for each Alliance?

What I do know now is: I need to sneak all the time, I should not approach settlement controlled by other Alliances (those with PVE quests) because guards will attack me. Also, I know that all-impenetrable thing, yet I wish I could avoid any PVP interaction.

Attempting to explore Cyrodil during an event is probably the worse time to do it. Try a no-CP Campaign during the day. Your chances of running into gankers will be far less likely.

xxthir13enxx · November 2019

Once upon a time while exploring Cyrodiil one could unlock the Wayshrines at the Enemy bases... Some unscrupulous individuals would than transit there and begin a slaughter of the unsuspecting individuals there...
Ahh the g’ol daaaa.....er...those sad sad bad ppl...

Pink_E_808 · November 2019

I went into a dead campaign recently to finish some of the town quests and hit all the towns. Only saw a couple of other people while there, mostly allies, and I was at it for several hours. I also went in a dead campaign to finish my Master Angler and only saw one blue (I'm yellow) and we fished together for a couple of holes, then went our separate ways. I finished all the delves long ago and did them in my active home campaign. I found most enemy players were just there to clear them like I was and we generally worked together as best we could, though we'd still hit each other sometimes, lol. I did get killed by a few gankers here and there that would wait just inside the entrances, but not too often.

MasterSpatula · November 2019

It was a bit easier before they put PVP objectives in Quest Hubs, but it's still doable.

robpr · November 2019

Become a vampire or wear Night's Silence set and sneak-run the whole land...nobody will notice you.

Enodoc · November 2019

It's definitely doable. Being killed by another player isn't really a major problem, it's just irritating to have to trek all the way across the map again!

For a bit more info of what you'll find in each area, check out the following pages at UESP, which were written with a more PvE focus:

SeaGtGruff · November 2019

Jeremy wrote: »

Attempting to explore Cyrodil during an event is probably the worse time to do it.

That depends on the event and what you're trying to do. I finished up my Cyrodiil skyshard achievements and delves during the recent Imperial City event, while everyone else was either in the Imperial City or the IC Sewers trying to get their tickets and rewards.

OrdoHermetica · November 2019

It can also be helpful to bring a friend who does PvP to act as your guardian angel while you quest and explore together. I'm that guy for many of my guildies, because I enjoy few things in PvP more than ganking would-be gankers.

zyk · November 2019

All you need is a good attitude and some gumption. Don't be afraid to die because you have absolutely nothing to lose. As you encounter obstacles, consider which skills, potions, sets, etc may help you overcome them. Over time, you'll develop skills and intuition and it'll get easier.

Trust no one. Don't presume any opponent will leave you alone because none have to.

Hapexamendios · November 2019

I’m pretty much a PVE only player and I’ve got all the skyshards, delves, town missions, dolmens done in Cyrodil. Dead campaigns are your friend, avoid fights and don’t expect to finish it all very fast.

renne · November 2019

Asardes wrote: »

NPC guards will most likely get you even if you cloak, since they have an AoE skill that breaks stealth and puts a debuff on you so you can't re-enter sneak for about 30s.

This is not my experience, at least with the gate guards for the four faction gated skyshards. I play stamblade so even with my minuscule amount of magicka I was able to spam cloak through the gate and far enough to not even aggro them when I ran out.

Also I never had any experience where anyone from another faction that I ran into left me alone, so I just took being ganked without fighting back (because not even remotely a PvPer) and rode my horse for ten minutes to get back to where I was!

prof-dracko · November 2019

It's 100% possible to explore, it's just time consuming. Get some speed and stamina upgrades for your mount, avoid running near keeps and resource outposts and invest in some invisibility potions for a quick getaway if you need. Most people in Cyro are there for PVP so if you stick to backroads then you won't encounter many from place to place.

There are a few Delves that are popular grinding spots, so you might run into other players farming or doing skyshard runs so be aware that you will be killed a few times. In this respect exploration is easier if you faction controls more of the map so travel is faster. There are three skyshards that are a bit tricky to get, one behind each factions's main gate and one in Bruma. Bruma is always a hit or miss because its right in a major PVP scuffle zone but you can sneak through the gates when they're open with invis pots to get those shards.

Also yes, there are a few Daedric statues. I found a Vaermina one a few days ago somewhere north of Alessia bridge. No quests though, just NPCs and lorebooks.

renne · November 2019

prof-dracko wrote: »

There are three skyshards that are a bit tricky to get, one behind each factions's main gate and one in Bruma..

Five. There is one behind each of the two scroll gates for each faction, plus the Bruma one.

prof-dracko · November 2019

Sorry, you're right. One for each.

TheShadowScout · November 2019

myskyrim26 wrote: »

The question is: can I explore the enemy territory?

Yes.
Quite doable.
Take your time, sneak a lot, but mostly... stop worrying and learn how to live with the gank!

When ganked, don't get worked up, simply respawn and explore some other corner, coming back to where you got taken out tomorrow, or in a couple hours, or whatever; when the gankers have moved on. As has been said, it helps going into a low pop campaign at times when most of the US players are already in bed and most of the EU players still at work... and yes, it does help when your alliance controls the map, then you can at the very least have more "bloodport" options, and have most of the NPC guards on your side so you don't have to worry about them as well...

Most out of the way places are deserted anyhow as all the gankmasters tend to follow the frontlines looking to gank for fun and AP, most surprise gankings happen either when you fight in some dwelve searching for the last boss you need to clear it (most cyrodil dwelves have several bosses that are not always all up, and need to have each defeated once for clearing them; bosses respawn randomly so if you kill one, any of the bosses might respawn, so you often have to kill some several times before the other you need spawns) and happen upon a enemy grinding a little... or when you leave stealth to talk with a quest giver in the daily questing hubs.

Heck, sometimes things even get funny. Like... once I was soloing a dolmen, when three blues came up, pitched in, then let me grab the chest... before they plowed my poor little pact scout under. I appreciated the courtesy of letting me take the dolmen reward first tho!

January1171 wrote: »

Also slaughterfish. Beware the slaughterfish. They'll kill you before you can even get out of the water, and it's not always super clear which bodies of water have slaughterfish

...generally, the slaughterfish are in the waters around IC, and the river seperating pact and AD territory. Any waters connecting to those are suspect! Others, like, say, the river through Cheydinhal that is not going near those "border waters", those you can usually swim in without fear. Still good to be careful tho!

EmEm_Oh · November 2019

Buy some invis potions or have somebody make some for you. Some pretty amazing areas to discover.

ZOS should have one day a month as pve, give rewards for delves, etc.

mague · November 2019

myskyrim26 wrote: »

What I do know now is: I need to sneak all the time, I should not approach settlement controlled by other Alliances (those with PVE quests) because guards will attack me. Also, I know that all-impenetrable thing, yet I wish I could avoid any PVP interaction.

Yes, it is possible.

Craft invisible potions to escape players and NPC guards.
Craft 5 pieces Night Silence. Use a trait that helps you in PvE
impen trait is useless if you want to avoid PvP.
Use 5 items to reduce your detection.
Use some CP for sneak cost reduction. Medium armor has advantage but light or heavy works too.

Watch out for animals when exploring. They might de-stealth you and make you visible. If you watch the map and your environment, then you are able to use the mount a lot. Just be prepared to unmount fast, drink a invis potion and sneak away fast.

That way i did all of Cyrodiil PvE. All Delves, anchors and all shards, books and fishing. I died maybe 5 times from players and maybe 2 times from NPC.

I also play PvP once in a while, but the Cyrodill PVE'ing was some of the best experiences in ESO.

Edit: Put /wave on your wheel. Some respect it, some not. Still worth a try if you meet an enemy at a questgiver or while fishing.

TheChinbone · November 2019

I dont pvp much, went to cyrodil for the Explorer achiev, got all delve bosses in 2 days going there for about 2h each day +/-. Had a couple of fights unprovoked but still manageable, also met other players who did not attack and were just there probably for the same reason as me.

MajBludd · November 2019

Do your exploring in the Under 50 server. That's place is pretty dead and if there are any players around, they'll be near contested points.

bearbelly · November 2019

I've gone into Cyrodiil twice to grab a couple of Lore books.
I did it each time with sub-50 characters fully expecting to get ganked before I made it to the books I was after.

That never happened. I did get jumped once by a single player who must have been hiding behind a tree or something, but he hit me once, stopped and stared at me for a second, then ran off. I was a lowly level 12 at the time, so I'm assuming he was simply the sort who doesn't live to gank low-level characters just to make his peen tingle.

He was the only person I saw over both trips into the zone, even though I was EP and had to run all the way from the NE corner of the map to the SW corner of the map for the particular books I was after. I did purposely choose a low-pop campaign both times, though it was during the afternoon on a weekend, so it wasn't exactly off-hours.