Nightmarket Tips and Tricks for Solo Casual Players

spartaxoxo · May 1

Here are some tips and tricks to help you survive the Night Market and earn favor without needing to be an endgame player.

Earning Favor

You won't be able to earn as much favor as someone with a dedicated group, but there's still plenty to earn in the districts. There are a number of daily quests that you can pick up in each district. Many of these don't require combat although some will be difficult to get without it. There are others though, like cooking a meal and dropping it off that will give you a nice little amount of favor without requiring you to fight.

There are also a number of bosses scattered through the district that will drop rewards. There are areas near each of them with little to no enemies. You can wait in stealth for a crowd to arrive or join a group finder group to tackle these bosses without needing to talk with anyone else.

Finding a group without needing friends or a guild

There is a new section of the activity finder called "Event Zone," and there are constantly groups running. If you want to ensure that you are in a populated instance, you can join one of these groups and help out. Many of these groups are NOT dedicated groups doing specific activities but other solo casual players like you just loosely grouping up because there is safety in numbers. You can even leave them once you're inside and as long as they aren't delisted, they'll be able to continue to find members. And you'll know there are other people in the instance. So, don't feel obligated to remain in the group for hours. You can join them for a boss or two and then leave. Just be polite and don't join a group that has 11/12 members if you plan to immediately ditch ahead of time.

If you are in a guild but don't feel like going with a guild group because you want to play by yourself, you can also use "Travel to Player," from the guild roster. This will put you in the same instance as your guildmate. This way you're less likely to end up in an empty instance but can still do your own thing.

Gear and Skills

There are some gear and skills that are fairly easy to get that can help you die less often. None of this requires instanced group content to obtain. Although you may need to take on some older world bosses.

Overland Sets

Ring of the Pale Order This mythic ring will heal you as you deal damage. Having passive healing can be a huge aide in staying alive when you're fighting. Just take this ring off if you decide to join an activity finder group that has a good healer in it.

Oakensoul Ring This mythic ring gives you a number of damage and survivability buffs that will help you defeat enemies. The most notable of this is empowered, which will supercharge your heavy attacks allowing you to save your resources for defensive skills. However, it limits you to one bar.

Briarhear Set This set also gives you passive healing for doing critical damage. Not the best set in the game but if you're struggling to stay alive in Nightmarket, it is a solid option for staying alive. It pairs well with the Order's Wrath Set.

Vesture of Darloc Brae - This sets reduces the radius that you can be detected by enemies and restores stamina and magicka back to you while crouched. You can pair this with invisibility to sneak past enemies.

Nightmother's Embrace - This set reduces the radius the radius that you can be detected by enemies and reduces the movement penalty of sprint. This set is excellent when paired with Darloc Brae to allow you swiftly and easily avoid enemies. However, you'll hit like a noodle so only fight bosses in large groups.

Crafted Sets

Tideborn Windstalker This set gives you a pretty substantial and passive buff to your direct damage skills against npc enemies.

Order's Wrath This set gives your crit, raising your damage against npcs substantially (and it's better than similar overland sets). It pairs very nicely with the briarheart set.

Highland's Sentinel Another strong crit set. Stronger when you aren't moving but even without stacks it's decent and easy to get.

Skill lines to consider adding to your arsenal

Sorcerer - Storm Calling - Critical Surge - This skill allows you to passively heal as you do damage while active.

Nightblade - Shadow- Shadowy Disguise - Most of the trash packs in the Night Market can be snuck by using invisibility. Shadowy Disguise allows you to maintain that invisibility for as long as you have magicka.

Dragonknight - Draconic Power - Disintegrating Dragonfire - This is a widespread continuous beam channel skill. In addition to looking like you're a cool flamethrower, this skill is excellent for allowing you to take on the trash packs because you can keep on the move while channeling it and it doesn't require empowering ahead of time.

Dragonknight - Draconic Power - Take Flight - This ultimate ability will knock the smaller trash enemies up into the air, so you can use CC to even the odds. Additionally, it dramatically increases your damage done against them. When paired with the skill line passives, it will also restore some hp and resources back to you. This is a very powerful line to subclass into.

Arcanist - Herald of the Tome - Pragmatic Fatecarver - The infamous beam that hits a bunch of enemies at once and grants you a damage shield at the same time. Needs to be empowered by a crux builder first. This remains a solid option but for Night Market, since you're playing by yourself, I actually recommend the DK beam more as it doesn't require the delay in powering up. Nevertheless, this remains a very solid and popular choice for solo casual play as it is hard hitting, grants you survival, and hits multiple enemies at once.

Damage Shields - There are a number of damage skills in the game. Use them to get away from danger or help you survive particular big attacks. Use them as a way to enhance blocking and roll dodging rather than as a replacement for it. Which you'll want to use will depend on your build e.g. a stamina character may want to equip a 2H and use brawler.

Champion Points

Reaving Blows This slottable will grant you healing as you do direct damage. Found in the blue tree. Pairs nicely with the beam skills as they are considered direct damage.

Potions

Invisibility Pots and Tripots (restore stam, mag, and hp) are both of great benefit. You can also use armor pots for tough fights.

Strategies

Sneak around when by yourself

Use stealth to get around trash packs in the Night Market. If you don't care about doing high damage, you can make it even easier to sneak around using the sets listed above. Wait for larger groups to engage in bosses and then join into the fight or join a group in the group finder to take on bosses. You'll find players running around either way. If you'd prefer to hold your own when fighting the district bosses, I recommend equipping the more damage-oriented sets instead. While you're waiting for groups, do the daily quests to continue to earn favor without needing to fight so much.

When fighting, don't move around excessively

You don't want to pull multiple trash packs by running around too much. Pay attention to your surroundings to avoid aoes and running into more trashpacks. You can circle strafe around the enemy in a tight circle to avoid damage by movement while still not pulling other things when necessary. Block and roll dodge are good for getting out of high damage scenarios like aoes. If you're having trouble seeing the AOES, you can customize their colors to something you can see better in your settings.

Use Activity Finder to locate populated instances

You may not want to be in a group with people, but you also don't want to be by yourself all the time. Join an activity finder group or create on yourself. You'll find a bunch of people doing their own thing, but just in the same area.

Use the jump pad to get out of danger

If you've accidentally bit off more than you can chew. You can run to a jump pad and whatever was chasing you will stop once on top. Use a damage shield to survive the brief stun when using one.

Look for buffs

There are races and puzzles that you can take on that will offer you powerful buffs. There is also the werewolf behemoth buff just lying around. Take advantage of these to enhance your strength.

Get Passive Healing

This guide offers a number of suggestions for getting yourself some passive healing that heals you up while doing damage. But it is far from an exhaustive list. You know your character best so find ways to add passive healing to it if it is not high already. There are a number of sets and skills in this game that offer it. Passive Healing will be one of your best friends in the Night Market because it will allow you to thin out enemies while preserving your resource so that you can use your damage shields and other defensive options when you need them most rather than spamming them.

Conclusion

You don't need trials, arenas, or dungeon sets to do just fine in the Night Market. But you may want to adjust your playstyle to add sneaking and passive healing to make trash packs significantly easier to manage.

AScarlato · May 1

Awesome guide - thanks for sharing and taking the time to put this together!

Bguk · May 1

Sadly, some will not heed the advice. Thank you for putting this together.

LunaFlora · May 1

very good post.

When solo i have been using a stealth build, Shadowy Disguise and Vampire stage 4 sprint are so useful.

coop500 · May 1

I have actually paired Briarheart with another overland set called Hexos' Ward. It's a little harder to get since it comes from The Deadlands, but they go well together and I've been soloing the Night Market with those two sets, Oakensoul, and a pureclass Arcanist.

heimdall14_9 · May 1

its nice of you to do this so let me add in a few set's that might help others out here

mark of PARIAH
mighty chudan
bloodspawn
fortified brass
lord warden

sets pair them with a damage set or monster's pair with two damage sets depending on your level of understanding with playing solo

tomofhyrule · May 1

Few more good ones if you want to go heavy armor, but these are from Dungeons.

Leeching Plate
Crimson Twilight

They allow you to heal from nearby enemies and also make you tankier in the first place so their attacks hurt less.

Leeching comes from Imperial City Prison and Crimson from Castle Thorn

Illmatic · May 1

i solo vet pledges, elseweyr dragons (ice and lightning one too)
and more since years with this.
any others dps sets in place of pillar works too
but amberplasm is important imo
also obviously pure class sorc perfectly works too (i was obviously pure class before subclassing), no need the nb subclassing (just replace merciless by frag, and impale by mage's wrath)

but many combos can be good too, i don't know wich one is the best, i just give one

frogthroat · May 1

Just now read this and oh wow. This is a great guide/tips. Amazing.

I am a solo player (well, a jack of all trades, master of none) and with my estimation, yeah, absolutely agree with everything. Even those parts where I read the beginning and thought "yeah but I'm going to have to correct something soon" you later mentioned the exact points I was going to nitpick about.

So for all who think about trying soloing, listen to OP. These are excellent points.

spartaxoxo · May 2

There's another piece of gear I want to shout out that I use.

Ring of the Wild Hunt does require a base game dungeon. I purposefully tried to exclude anything that required dungeons, trials, and arenas so I didn't include this ring in the OP. But Elden Hollow 1 is one of those older, base game dungeons that most people can complete on normal. So I figured I should probably bring it up here.

My personal stealth setup is

5 Pieces Night Mother's Embrace
5 Pieces Darloc Brae Vesture
1 piece Ring of the Wild Hunt
1 piece resource recovery monster set (doesn't matter which, easily replaced by 1 piece Trainee)
Shadowy Disguise (Nightblade skill)
Stage 4 Vampire for the following passives - Dark Stalker - removes the movement penalty of sneak. If you use this then you don't need Night's Silence and can swap it for a different sneak set like Night Mother's Embrace.
- Unnatural Movement - Cuts cost of sprint in half and if you sprint continuously for 3 second you automatically become invisible.

Precognition in the ultimate slot (Psijic Order). Let's you break free even while stunned or the other morph grants you major protection just for being slotted. With the Psijic Order passives, you also get a free damage shield. Very useful for if you mess up and aggro something and need to bounce.

Phantasmal Escape (Nightblade skill) - removes snare. For when you mess up and need to escape)

The other skills depend on my class but I use these for sneaking about.

katanagirl1 · May 3

I just want to let you know that Travel to Player in your guild doesn’t guarantee you will be in the same instance, based on my experience.

Thanks for the tip on Event Zone in the group finder, I did not know that was there.

Wildberryjack · May 3

Do the side quests on a NB in full stealth sets. If not on a NB then take a ton of invis potions in with you. Don't try to take on anything alone, you'll get mobbed and melted. If you see a group, thank your lucky stars and tag along with them.

CatalinaWineMixer2 · May 3

Thank you for posting this. I have been seeing more and more helpful things like this around the forum and many other places. And around the group finder community. I have been helping as many people as possible as well.

This is the way Eso is SUPPOSED to be! This event is helping expand player cooperation! This is a great thing.

Athory · May 3

For you solo players—if you’re thinking about going solo and enjoying your build, here it is.
Of course, Oakensoul Ring could do better… but… lol?

@spartaxoxo, should I go for an Oakensoul HA Sorc??? Post a video of you playing solo and engaging in fights, trash mobs, bosses, etc. Just go play the game… please… just do it.

edit: Video doesn’t fit in the channel

EDIT:
Video length is 4:34. I spend around 2:50 as a ghost. Funny? Or crazy?

spartaxoxo · May 3

@Athory

https://youtu.be/UK7MhcEHGhk

There you go. Kill 75 enemies done mostly solo with 1 other solo player randomly following me for a bit and then leaving. On a heavy attack sorc, not a build I recommended up here but not one crazy different in power and generally considered a casual friendly build. I chose this character because you're the one that brought it up, so I hope that since it's one you recommended that you'll accept it as a fair choice.

I was there for about a half hour. I died twice, both because I pulled more than I meant to pull. Other than that, I stayed alive. I sped up the video for most of the successful trash packs because it's boring. But I have it normal speed at the start to see it in action, when I died so you can see how I died, and at the puzzles.

Unfortunately, I ended up in an instance alone because I traveled straight to the Night Market instead of following my own advice for finding populated instances. Because the section about group finder/guild roster is about finding a populated instance so you can treat it more like going in solo during the Writhing Wall event rather than putting people into situations they have to socialize and work with a dedicated group. The instance cap in Night Market is only 36 people so it's way easier to end up alone. The tips in this guide can help players workaround that without needing to already have a good guild or friend group to play with because they usually play solo.

There are gear recommendations in my opening post if someone prefers to fight the enemies and there are also some good recommendations made by others in the comments section. You don't have to skip the trash packs by sneaking around. It's just a really accessible option. That's why I recommend it.

There's a big daily for doing a race. The fire puzzle that I have in this video is one of those races. You can do it from stealth but you'll get discovered when you go to the light the lantern near the double trash packs. Save it for last and then quickly get away back into stealth, die, or clear them out ahead of time. Either way it's a couple of minutes anyone can do with a sneak build. Sneak is also useful for the district dailies. It's not a whole lot of favor but it's something doable completely alone with little combat experience.

That's why I recommended the sneak build. Not because solo players are required to use it.

Athory · May 3

@spartaxoxo You're not alone for more than half of the video. You're not in a group, but you're not alone... unless you have two companions? Bug abuse... or what?

What’s your point? To prove you can complete one quest without a group? Oo, we all know that... Can you enjoy the [snip] market as a solo player? No, you can’t!

lol… So your solution for solo players is: “You can play solo… as long as someone is helping you”? lol!? Seriously?
Ok ok…

Well, let’s hope ZoS doesn’t turn all of ESO into Dark Souls style, because let’s be real… there’s absolutely no need for that. They could make it as hard as they want, but they could and should keep the “normal” mode for solo players.
Half an hour with help? Without help, you’ll be there for an hour just to complete one simple quest... come on... there’s no reason for this...

spartaxoxo · May 3

Athory wrote: »

@spartaxoxo You're not alone for more than half of the video. You're not in a group, but you're not alone... unless you have two companions? Bug abuse... or what?

What’s your point? To prove you can complete one quest without a group? Oo, we all know that... Can you enjoy the [snip] market as a solo player? No, you can’t!

lol… So your solution for solo players is: “You can play solo… as long as someone is helping you”? lol!? Seriously?
Ok ok…

Well, let’s hope ZoS doesn’t turn all of ESO into Dark Souls style, because let’s be real… there’s absolutely no need for that. They could make it as hard as they want, but they could and should keep the “normal” mode for solo players.
Half an hour with help? Without help, you’ll be there for an hour just to complete one simple quest... come on... there’s no reason for this...

@Athory

I can't control that someone else was in the night market. I was alone for the majority of the video but another person did randomly start following me for some trash packs. You'll also notice I kept rezzing that person so even in fights that they helped on, they were not helping the entire fight. They ended up quitting. Whether they died too much or had simply finished their objective I don't know because I do not know that person.

There was a second person in your video as well. Should I claim that you're too bad to even do stuff in a group? Or does it only count as soloing when it fails?

I tried to reasonably meet your criteria. I did not use the group finder and ended up in an empty instance where I only ever encountered one other person to battle with.

I used a heavy attack sorceror build because you were the one to mention it and it's a well known and popular casual friendly build.

I killed 75 enemies mostly alone. The first packs that illustrated it could be done were completely alone.

I can't control the actions of others. So that is not a reasonable criticism. This is an MMO. There will be other people in zones.

I'm sorry that you're not having a good time. But, this is meant to be a guide to help others. So, I ask that if all you want to do is argue about how much you don't like other people exist on the same map in a group zone, you do that in the thread that you created for that purpose.

Thank you.

Athory · May 3

@spartaxoxo

What are we discussing here?
Can you “solo” the [snip] market? No, you can’t. You can’t kill a boss, you can’t enjoy the [snip] market all day if you’re playing alone. Let’s be honest here, please... it’s just too hard! Come on...
we both know there are some players who may even be able to kill the boss alone. I know 3 or 4 players who I bet can do it.

But again, let’s be honest... is this fun or even possible for solo players in general? No. Stop pretending it’s an illusion, it is what it is, and that’s fine... but it’s not, mate. We can’t accept ZoS doing this from now on without telling them this is wrong, and that they could and should add a normal mode.

A “normal” mode won’t hurt anyone. Will it hurt you, me, or others? No. Will it be good for game, solo or more casual players? Yes. So why pretend this “hardcore-only” mode is welcome for everyone? Alone, it’s not. Make it even harder, I don’t care, but with a “normal” mode as well.

edit:
We have normal trials/dungeons. And I’ll give you a better example: a friend of mine, @Howl......, has whispered me many times to go on a “normal” trial for this or that motif. And I simply refuse to do normal trials. But hey, they are there for casual players... let them play too... why not! The [snip] market shouldn’t be different.

spartaxoxo · May 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Here are some additional guides that are mostly text-based for those who prefer to read. Note that I have not tested many of the builds and this should not be taken as an endorsement as to the efficiency of these builds. They are simply builds that community members have posted in various places for the Night Market.

General Information about what the Night Market has to offer (may include maps as well)

ESO Night Market Event Zone Guide - Rewards, Factions & Free House - by Edenprime for ESOHub
ESO Night Market Pocket Guide (Season 0) - by TCLee13 for Tank Club
Online: Night Market - by the team at UESP for The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages Wiki
Night Market - by the team at Fextralife for the Elder Scrolls Online Wiki
ESO Night Market Complete Guide 2026 - by Hack the Minotaur for hacktheminotaur.com

Tips and Tricks for the Night Market

The Night Market - Oddities/Puzzle Guide Solo - Text & Video - by Rhythmsuji on the ESO Forums
Night Market: Daring Race Guide & 7 More Puzzle Tips! - by Rhythmsuji on the ESO Forums
Night Market Oddities and Daring Races Guide - by Hyperioxes at hyperioxes.com
ESO Night Market: How to Beat Every Boss and Puzzle - by Edenprime for alcasthq.com

Game Maps for the Night Market
Marked Maps for Night Market Precinct and District Quest Starter / Find Spots - by Raystormusa on the ESO Forums
ESO Night Market Event Zone Map - by the team at GAME-MAPS.com

Night Market Builds

Sneak Builds

Night Market Stealth and Speed Build For Solos - by Kartalin on ESO Forums
Night Market Ninja - by TrasseToursTTV on ESO Hub

DPS Builds

The Bard Archer: Surviving the Night Market - Nightblade Build PvE - by Mennybrand for ESO Hub
Night Market Build - by Mystic_wolf479 on ESO Forums
Breath Dragonknight Solo Build - by Hyperioxes for hyperioxes.com. [note: This isn't a specific Night Market Build but a pre-existing solo build that is particularly good in there. It is similar to what I was using in there]
Solo Builds - by Hyperioxes for Hyperioxes.com [note: Additional solo builds by Hyperioxes for many other classes. These weren't made specifically for the NM but should do well there but I haven't tested them]

Tank Builds
Night Market PUG Tank - Templar Build PvE - ESO - by DankMagician856 for ESO Hub
Night Market 1B Tank - by GC for ESO Hub

Healer Builds
ESO Doctors Without Members - by Tamriel Tips N Tricks on YouTube

I posted this on the official page for Community Created Guides but I figured I would post it here too for easy access to a wealth of information.

annathepiper · May 6

Jumping in to contribute a few thoughts here, since I've been experimenting with seeing what kind of builds I could come up with that would let me survive for more than five consecutive seconds in the Market. XD

My main is a Templar and mostly, I run her as a healer. So my approach over the last couple of nights has been to kit her out with a build that's a combo of DPS and heals, and a stupidly high amount of shielding. I'm also explicitly bringing in Isobel, who I've kitted out as a tank, since I myself am not doing a huge ton of damage on my own.

So here's what I've got:

Sets used:

* Lunar Bastion, because if you trigger a synergy, that'll proc this set and you'll get the shield off of it
* Hexos' Ward which has been already mentioned further up the thread
* Iceheart for monster set, both pieces, because it does shielding
* Resto staff on front bar so I can use Radiating Regeneration to keep Isobel up and running
* Not sure yet whether to keep Hexos lighting staff on the back bar OR use Maelstrom Arena lightning staff, the latter is tempting because of buffing Blockade of Storms, but in that scenario I lose proccing Hexos on the back bar, so YMMV on that

Skills used:

Frontbar skills:
* Radiant Glory
* Luminous Shards (partly for dropping shards on the trash packs but also because it gives the Holy Shards synergy, which the player can invoke, and that in turn procs Lunar Bastion)
* Ulfsild's Contingency (Warding Contingency, specifically)
* Radiating Regeneration
* Fortifying Banner
* Shooting Star on ult

Backbar skills:
* Vampire's Bane
* Blockade of Storms
* Echoing Vigor
* Channeled Acceleration
* Fortifying Banner again
* Reviving Barrier on ult

On Isobel, I'm more or less using the build guide for the Shield Saint build for her on Hack the Minotaur. I've mostly got her in blue gear right now though, so there's definitely room for improvement. She holds out pretty well against lower powered trash mobs, but a bigger mob, or one that throws around a lot of fire AOEs, can wipe her out.

I'm prebuffing with the banner and Channeled Acceleration (because I want that speed buff), and then tapdancing all over Radiating Regen and Echoing Vigor to keep Isobel up and running for as long as possible.

Is this a high powered DPS build? Can I kill things quickly with it? Can I kill bosses with it? ABSOLUTELY NOT. XD But I can confirm that at least in the Skittering and in Sorrow's Friend, it let me survive most of the trash mobs I encountered. Which is about all I need if I just want to get in there, run the quest to kill 75 hostiles, or maybe some other side quests.

But there's definitely room for improvement here as well on ME, since so far, I have not been able to take this build very far into the Parch.

Hope this helps somebody!

annathepiper · May 6

Also, since the OP called out Vesture of Darloc Brae and Night Mother's Embrace, can confirm, I have a Nightblade alt and those sets are splendid if you want to sneak around the Market. The trash mobs can't obliterate you if they can't FIND you!

I had a stealth build on my NB anyway that uses those exact two sets. The other two slots I filled out with Shadow Queen's Cowl and one piece of Slimecraw. Neither of those are exactly useful for shielding, so you may or may not want to try something else when doing a Market-specific build. But so far when I've taken my NB in with that build on, it's kept her very well hidden.

ESO_player123 · May 6

Athory wrote: »

For you solo players—if you’re thinking about going solo and enjoying your build, here it is.
Of course, Oakensoul Ring could do better… but… lol?

@spartaxoxo, should I go for an Oakensoul HA Sorc??? Post a video of you playing solo and engaging in fights, trash mobs, bosses, etc. Just go play the game… please… just do it.

edit: Video doesn’t fit in the channel

EDIT:
Video length is 4:34. I spend around 2:50 as a ghost. Funny? Or crazy?

I do the trash packs on HA Sorc with a Matriarch as a healer. I use Sergeant (of course) + heavy Alessian for more tankiness. And I use the Ward for shield. It's grindy, sure, but I have no issues (unless you try to engage more than one pack at a time).

I cannot solo bosses, but I was not expected to be able to do it based of how the NM was advertised. I know that there are endgame players that can, but I'm nowhere near that level.

That said, I was able to play all of the content of NM with PUGs, and I'm enjoying it.

Note, I drag a tank companion with me because I always do, but he dies pretty quickly, so it's up to you if you want one with you or not.

annathepiper · May 6

P.S. to my post above:

Lunar Bastion being a trial set, obviously that's not going to be the easiest thing in the world to get, but I'm using it here because I had the pieces anyway. I'd made them for a heavy armor build I've been using when my main guild runs vet trials.

Players without access to trial gear could very easily swap in anything else they have better access to.

UESP has a list of armor sets known to have damage shield effects at this page. Of those, the only other one besides Hexos that's mentioned as an overland set is Hatchling's Shell. Stats on that aren't great, but might be worth considering in conjunction with Hexos.