Maintenance for the week of May 11:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – May 11

Faceted Foes: Help

  • Aylish
    Aylish
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yesterday, I saw them everywhere. Today, when I played in my group and wanted to kill them, they were all gone again...
  • code65536
    code65536
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    I too have yet to find one on PC/NA. Since the hotfix, I've seen them only on PC/EU.

    I think that this might be a problem with how instances work in ESO. In order for an instance to shut down, every single player must leave it, and the instance must remain empty for 5 minutes.

    The EU server experiences extreme population swings, in part because it doesn't have a lot of people from other regions playing on it, and this is exacerbated by how pretty much all of continental Europe is squeezed into a single oversized time zone. So compared to NA, EU experiences much higher peak populations during prime time, and much lower populations during off-hours.

    The (relative) lack of deep valleys and high peaks for NA population counts means that there's probably far less instance churn on NA than there is on EU. Old instances aren't really emptying out completely on NA so they aren't getting shut down, and the peak demand period isn't as intense to generate new server instance spawns.

    I could be wrong and only ZOS would be able to say for sure, but based on what I've seen in the past and ZOS's own comments about EU-vs-NA population patterns, I believe this to be a plausible explanation for why these new instances aren't appearing on NA.
    Edited by code65536 on May 9, 2026 9:15PM
    Nightfighters ― PC/NA and PC/EU

    Dungeons and Trials:
    Personal best scores:
    Dungeon trifectas:
    PC/Console Add-Ons: Combat AlertsGroup Buff Panels
    Media: YouTubeTwitch
  • Reginald_leBlem
    Reginald_leBlem
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    @ZOS_Kevin any update to this? Some of us still haven't seen one of these Faceted Foes!
  • SerafinaWaterstar
    SerafinaWaterstar
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    Popping up all over the place on PSEU. Mostly at extremely inconvenient times/places!
  • dcrush
    dcrush
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Saw one on the first day on PC NA, have not seen a single one since and I’ve been playing every day.
  • ESO_player123
    ESO_player123
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    It look like PCNA is having really bad time with the Faceted foes. Would be nice if a fix was done before the end of the event.
  • frogthroat
    frogthroat
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    I apparently found one on day 1 since that's when I got the achievement. But I don't remember seeing one since. Not until yesterday when they were everywhere.
    j6p77ewkclcn.png
  • Josh3133
    Josh3133
    ✭✭✭
    frogthroat wrote: »
    I apparently found one on day 1 since that's when I got the achievement. But I don't remember seeing one since. Not until yesterday when they were everywhere.

    Which server was this on?
    Edited by Josh3133 on May 11, 2026 4:09PM
  • Dalsinthus
    Dalsinthus
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Really helpful thread - this helped me realize i did see a faceted foe on day one of the event (I was alone and didn't kill it unfortunately). Looks like I need to get into the nm right after the next maintenance or at really off hours. The hunt continues...
  • SeaGtGruff
    SeaGtGruff
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    code65536 wrote: »
    I too have yet to find one on PC/NA. Since the hotfix, I've seen them only on PC/EU.

    I think that this might be a problem with how instances work in ESO. In order for an instance to shut down, every single player must leave it, and the instance must remain empty for 5 minutes.

    The EU server experiences extreme population swings, in part because it doesn't have a lot of people from other regions playing on it, and this is exacerbated by how pretty much all of continental Europe is squeezed into a single oversized time zone. So compared to NA, EU experiences much higher peak populations during prime time, and much lower populations during off-hours.

    The (relative) lack of deep valleys and high peaks for NA population counts means that there's probably far less instance churn on NA than there is on EU. Old instances aren't really emptying out completely on NA so they aren't getting shut down, and the peak demand period isn't as intense to generate new server instance spawns.

    I could be wrong and only ZOS would be able to say for sure, but based on what I've seen in the past and ZOS's own comments about EU-vs-NA population patterns, I believe this to be a plausible explanation for why these new instances aren't appearing on NA.

    I haven't seen any faceted foes on PCNA, either. I've seen a lot on PCEU, although they don't seem to be as numerous as the first day that I noticed them there; I couldn't turn a corner without running into one, because as far as I could see, every group of "trash" mobs had a faceted with it, and you could stand on a rooftop oasis and see several of them at once in any direction you turned to look. Now they seem to be more reasonable in number on PCEU, meaning the districts aren't oversaturated with them anymore.

    What you suggest about the instances on PCNA versus PCEU might be right. ZOS may need to have a maintenance downtime where they reboot the servers, thereby clearing out and resetting all of the instances. If they do, I just hope it doesn't turn all of the Unstable Creatia into the "duck and jump" variety, which are impossible for me to clear.
    I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • code65536
    code65536
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    SeaGtGruff wrote: »
    If they do, I just hope it doesn't turn all of the Unstable Creatia into the "duck and jump" variety, which are impossible for me to clear.

    I have now seen a number of instances on PC/EU where Faceted enemies exist, but the Creatia is "easy". And, crucially, there was an instance where it was "hard", but when we looked later, it was "easy". If you compare the easy and hard versions of the Creatia, you'll notice that the hard ones have twice as many obstacles; the bug isn't that the walls were all flipped into the crouch position--it's that all the jump-position walls had just despawned.

    So I no longer think that the hard races were the result of a secret hotfix. But rather, I think all instances have the intended hard race initially, but that after some time, something happens (no idea what that might be) that causes the jump-over barriers to just despawn, turning them into an unintended easy variant with only half the obstacles.
    Edited by code65536 on May 13, 2026 11:05PM
    Nightfighters ― PC/NA and PC/EU

    Dungeons and Trials:
    Personal best scores:
    Dungeon trifectas:
    PC/Console Add-Ons: Combat AlertsGroup Buff Panels
    Media: YouTubeTwitch
  • BetweenMidgets
    BetweenMidgets
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    on PC NA and I still have not seen a Faceted Foe.
    PC-NA
  • Blood_again
    Blood_again
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    code65536 wrote: »
    SeaGtGruff wrote: »
    If they do, I just hope it doesn't turn all of the Unstable Creatia into the "duck and jump" variety, which are impossible for me to clear.

    I have now seen a number of instances on PC/EU where Faceted enemies exist, but the Creatia is "easy". And, crucially, there was an instance where it was "hard", but when we looked later, it was "easy". If you compare the easy and hard versions of the Creatia, you'll notice that the hard ones have twice as many obstacles; the bug isn't that the walls were all flipped into the crouch position--it's that all the jump-position walls had just despawned.

    So I no longer think that the hard races were the result of a secret hotfix. But rather, I think all instances have the intended hard race initially, but that after some time, something happens (no idea what that might be) that causes the jump-over barriers to just despawn, turning them into an unintended easy variant with only half the obstacles.

    I get instances with hard and easy creatia randomly.
    Difficulty is always the same for all 3 doors in the district.
    Hard:easy variant ratio was about 1:3 for me today. The same as the first week.
    I tested and found no correlation with:
    - entered the door with Tempest buff
    - joined the instance with Tempest buff
    - joined the instance in group or jumped solo on friend/guildmate

    Neither correlation with faceted mobs. I've seen all 4 possible combinations.
    I found that faceted mobs are present in all three districts, if they were found in one.

    Also, I ran with the guild group, then spent about 2h on experiments, and rejoined this group. They didn't change the instance, and this instance kept the hard versions of creatia.
    If the barriers disappear with time, it probably takes more than 2 hours of active group action.

    I guess the instances keep being created with a predefined state.
    So the barriers don't disappear. It was just created with an instance as is.
    I don't know the inner workings, so I have no idea why it is possible. But if one state had been a fixed bug, the corresponding instances wouldn't have been created again and again, the chance to meet them would've been changed.
    Well, it looks like both seeds or presets for instances keep existing in the system simultaneously.
    Maybe this is a problem of the same nature as during the Orsinium giveaway, where the old instances just kept existing.
    The Best Faction you might ever choose on the Night Market. Join The Thousand Eyes!
  • Vaqual
    Vaqual
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Saw 6 yesterday, with one actually appearing twice in the same district and instance. We ran a train around Skittering to kill some time before the Skirmish and the Faceted Atronach was the first we encountered. After finding two other Faceted, we found the Atronach again in a different spot.
  • Blood_again
    Blood_again
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    on PC NA and I still have not seen a Faceted Foe.

    I can confirm.
    I just tried everything that helped me to find various layers. I found faceted easily on PC EU.
    I spent an hour traveling on PC NA the same way but found nothing. No single faceted mob in any layer I ended up in.
    The Best Faction you might ever choose on the Night Market. Join The Thousand Eyes!
Sign In or Register to comment.