Maintenance for the week of June 15:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – June 15

Night Market How To Succeed in Skirmish's Guide

rhythmsuji
rhythmsuji
✭✭✭✭
https://youtu.be/_eTBvGK2Ask

In case anyone is still wondering how to successfully clear Skirmishes in the Night Market:

I played through each one with tips and a bit of other advice, the perspective is from the tank view. But I speak on the other roles and their duties a bit as well. I got more detailed in the text guide than the video actually, in order to cover things which without the visuals might be less clear or understandable. So if you are a text guide enjoyer, that was for you! <3

This guide is late due to life/family issues, but I decided to finish it anyway for those who asked originally, those who have joined the event late and for future use.
ESO Night Market: Skirmish Guide


This guide covers the three main skirmishes in the Night Market. These events can be challenging, but understanding the core mechanics will significantly improve your success rate.

1. Skittering Precinct (1:01)

Mechanic: You must clear spiders and use fire from braziers to burn piles of skittering spiders. Spiders will constantly web over these braziers, so players must prioritize cleaning the webs to keep the fires active.

After that bar fills up to 100%, the zone will have activatable Dreg piles. Simply walk up to them, activate the Dreg and slowly walk it to a nearby Brazier. Other players should do their best to keep the Brazier's lit and the Dreg carriers safe. So kill as many mobs as possible, taunt them off Dreg carriers and clean webs off the Braziers.

Boss Tips: The final boss has a dangerous charging attack that can one-shot players if they don't dodge-roll out of the way (7:25). As a tank, ensure you have some massive mitigation or invulnerability if you plan to eat the hit. I was unable.

General Tip: This event can become overwhelming quickly. If your DPS is not top-tier, managing the braziers is the highest priority to avoid getting bogged down by adds.

Additionally, the Roaming Roksa boss will likely show up during this, in fact the event takes so long it's almost certain. So kill it before hand, or be ready for the additional trouble. The boss itself is a pretty normal tank and spank, with the most dangerous ability being a beam which sprays the current agro target for a ton of damage over like 10-11 seconds so you will need a lot of mitigation or healing as a tank for this. Non tanks are hard to keep alive.

The other mechanic of the Roksa is that is spawns little light orbs which explode, but they are easy to clear. So just clear the 5 or so orbs when you see them periodically just to avoid needless damage or deaths.

2. The Parch Skirmish (11:29)

Mechanic: The objective is to collect blue electrical orbs dropped by defeated mobs and use them to activate broken anti-weather pylons.

Secondarily, bring the elementals over to the Pylons in the second phase once the arc circle is complete. And kill them on top of the Pylons to charge them up as the Elementals power disperses.

Boss Tips: The main boss performs a massive expanding red circle attack. If the circle reaches its full range, it will one-shot everyone inside. You must activate the pylons with orbs to stop the expansion (15:06). These are the same orbs which drop from elemental mobs, and the Pylons will have a green circle indicating their readiness to accept the orb charge.

Important Note: Watch out for the roaming worm in the area; avoid getting swallowed by it, as it will trap you until you destroy internal sacks to escape (14:28).

3. Sorrow's Friend Skirmish (18:07)

Mechanic: You must destroy pillars that are invulnerable until you defeat "Restless Dead" skeletons in close proximity to them. Always prioritize burning one pillar at a time.

Boss Tips: You will face the main spider boss alongside a "Spiral Incarnate" mini-boss. The mini-boss should be tanked to keep it away from DPS and healers, but don't waste time trying to kill it as it will respawn. Focus all main damage on the spider (23:32).

Additionally, the roaming boss here will almost certainly show up if you did not kill it before starting the skirmish event. And unlike the Roksa in the Skittering Precinct, this one had a very deadly AOE move. It will periodically spawn a void orb on the ground which has strong gravitational pull, you have to brace/break free asap and move out of the circle. If anyone hits the center, it explodes violently and will one shot most players with normal non tank levels of health and defenses.

Pro-Tip: Forming Secondary Groups (18:11)

If you find the skirmishes too chaotic or slow, consider forming a second group within your instance. (Or 3rd if you are feeling extra spicy. But beware, the 3rd group is very likely to not successfully get all 12 players in your instance. Because if there are ANY other players in the entire Night Market instance, they count toward the 36 player cap.)

Why do it: Each instance supports up to 36 players (three groups of 12). By organizing a second group, you can split objectives more efficiently and reduce the pressure on a single 12-man team.

Benefits: This is the most effective way to farm loot and favor faster. It prevents the event from scaling poorly and keeps the encounter moving, making it much easier to handle roaming bosses (like the Calamituos or Roksa) that can disrupt the main event. If your group is struggling to clear mechanics or stay alive, a second group is often the difference between a quick success and a repeated failure.

Hope this was beneficial to someone even if late. Let me know if you have any questions or input any time. <3

-ESO Feanor
Edited by rhythmsuji on May 26, 2026 2:04PM
For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    Really curious if this one is too late to help anyone, BUT I am glad I fulfilled the promise no less lol.
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • Blood_again
    Blood_again
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some bonus tips.

    Skittering skirmish:
    Use many brazier aoes on the boss. It helps a lot.
    Focus and interrupt the blood-mages if they respawn. They killed more players than the boss.

    Sorrow skirmish:
    Initial pillars mechanic is the following:
    - kill the Restless Dead to have an aoe after its death
    - dds stand to this aoe (get heals, it hurts), so they can see and kill the red ghost, who protects the pillar. Stay in the aoe while killing the ghost. Simple step-in/step-out doesn't work
    - now the pillar is vulnerable, feel free to damage it. You can step out of aoe now.

    Keeping the mini near the boss/pillar is useful to kill him with cleave. He is worth killing because his front wave becomes bigger and heavier with time.

    When the boss-spider casts circles all around, the safest zone is near the boss, where the circles are visible (they do not damage here).
    These circles turn to dark-red waves further from the boss. They hit hard and they are not telegraphed, so you often can't see what just killed you. So the closer, the safer.
    The Best Faction you might ever choose on the Night Market. Join The Thousand Eyes!
  • icefyer_ESO
    icefyer_ESO
    ✭✭✭
    I've found the skirmishes are extremely difficult, borderline impossible, with your average 1 group. Only time I've been able to beat the skirmishes is if someone drops group after everyone's in and forms a second group. 24 players or more to beat one event is pretty excessive considering they throw out 160,000 damage hits sometimes. Not even kidding. The Parch one nailed me for that much, one-shotting the entire raid team without so much as a telegraph or warning.
  • spartaxoxo
    spartaxoxo
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    For the hordemother boss fight stage

    DD Priority targets aside from boss

    Bash Void Bringers to stop their channel and then kill them. This is the reason most groups wipe or die constantly. Always the first priority.

    Kill Webspinners/keep braziers lit - these are the ones that put webs on your braziers. If a brazier goes out, multiple people working to unweb it makes it go faster. Defend the people unwebbing.

    Throw coals on swarms/boss. The coals do big damage to the boss and are the only thing that can kill the hard hitting swarms. So make sure there's always at least a couple of DD on this task.



  • Gabriel_H
    Gabriel_H
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭
    Sorrow's Friend Skirmish: If you don't have strong/enough healers and/or only one tank, absolutely prioritize the Incarnate over the boss. It will rip through the tank otherwise. If it is killed quick enough there is a gap between re-spawns.

    Skittering Precinct Skirmish: The boss gets enraged when you kill her minions. She will be glowing bright red. Mitigation isn't enough, you need above 50k health, or just roll dodge her big attacks until she calms down.
    Edited by Gabriel_H on May 26, 2026 5:39PM
    PC EU
    Never get involved in a land war in Asia - it's one of the classic blunders!
  • SeaGtGruff
    SeaGtGruff
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    rhythmsuji wrote: »
    Really curious if this one is too late to help anyone, BUT I am glad I fulfilled the promise no less lol.

    You've given a few tips that I hadn't already known, so it was helpful to me. :)
    I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    SeaGtGruff wrote: »
    rhythmsuji wrote: »
    Really curious if this one is too late to help anyone, BUT I am glad I fulfilled the promise no less lol.

    You've given a few tips that I hadn't already known, so it was helpful to me. :)

    That is fantastic news, ive been stressing the "its way too late" thing so im very happy top hear this. Thank you <3
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    Gabriel_H wrote: »
    Sorrow's Friend Skirmish: If you don't have strong/enough healers and/or only one tank, absolutely prioritize the Incarnate over the boss. It will rip through the tank otherwise. If it is killed quick enough there is a gap between re-spawns.

    Skittering Precinct Skirmish: The boss gets enraged when you kill her minions. She will be glowing bright red. Mitigation isn't enough, you need above 50k health, or just roll dodge her big attacks until she calms down.

    HUH! Okay this is great additional info for sure, thanks for sharing. I mostly gathered what I could doing these events as a solo pugging it and I did not pick up on those mechs. Thanks for sharing!
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    For the hordemother boss fight stage

    DD Priority targets aside from boss

    Bash Void Bringers to stop their channel and then kill them. This is the reason most groups wipe or die constantly. Always the first priority.

    Kill Webspinners/keep braziers lit - these are the ones that put webs on your braziers. If a brazier goes out, multiple people working to unweb it makes it go faster. Defend the people unwebbing.

    Throw coals on swarms/boss. The coals do big damage to the boss and are the only thing that can kill the hard hitting swarms. So make sure there's always at least a couple of DD on this task.



    Great input as always Spartaxoxo, thanks for adding to the convo and that Skirmish definitely seem the most overwhelming especially for 12 man groups haha.
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    I've found the skirmishes are extremely difficult, borderline impossible, with your average 1 group. Only time I've been able to beat the skirmishes is if someone drops group after everyone's in and forms a second group. 24 players or more to beat one event is pretty excessive considering they throw out 160,000 damage hits sometimes. Not even kidding. The Parch one nailed me for that much, one-shotting the entire raid team without so much as a telegraph or warning.

    Oh yeah for sure, especially early on when people were not recognizing that growing circle. I saw multiple full group wipes when that explosion went off since it 1 shots almost any player within it.

    But yeah even once you know the mechanics, the Skirmishes are a lot of work for just a 12 player group. I definitely prefer grabbing extras to get through them quicker and safer, especially since I only group with pugs and don't have like a Trial group I run with or anything.
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    Some bonus tips.

    Skittering skirmish:
    Use many brazier aoes on the boss. It helps a lot.
    Focus and interrupt the blood-mages if they respawn. They killed more players than the boss.

    Sorrow skirmish:
    Initial pillars mechanic is the following:
    - kill the Restless Dead to have an aoe after its death
    - dds stand to this aoe (get heals, it hurts), so they can see and kill the red ghost, who protects the pillar. Stay in the aoe while killing the ghost. Simple step-in/step-out doesn't work
    - now the pillar is vulnerable, feel free to damage it. You can step out of aoe now.

    Keeping the mini near the boss/pillar is useful to kill him with cleave. He is worth killing because his front wave becomes bigger and heavier with time.

    When the boss-spider casts circles all around, the safest zone is near the boss, where the circles are visible (they do not damage here).
    These circles turn to dark-red waves further from the boss. They hit hard and they are not telegraphed, so you often can't see what just killed you. So the closer, the safer.

    All fantastic alterations, corrections or additions to what I said! I definitely came at this from a rush pug group viewpoint since that's usually when im running. And some of these inputs like yours are illuminating on factors which my structure definitely did not make clear while playing haha.

    Honestly wish I would have had your insight before publishing the video lol 😅

    But I guess it serves the purpose of showing how doable the events are, even without fully doing the events entirely perfect since I definitely have not been. My main goal is getting more people who have felt the Night Market is out of their league or capabilities to give it a shot, since ive seen poll results saying a large portion of players have still sadly not even tried it. :(
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • lillybit
    lillybit
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    More bonus tips for The Parch Ritual,

    On the charging phase there's an add that does a channel to drain the pylons again (Dremora Stormcaller or something similar I think) that needs interrupting. Doesn't matter so much if your group is good/big and they may not even appear, but on a slower fight it makes a difference.

    The big Daedroths and stuff keep spawning until all the Storm Atros have been done so don't try to clear them first, just focus on the mechanic.

    The main bosses enrage if you drag them out of the circle and can reset too, so try to keep to the middle. Even tho there's all the AOE's in there it's still an easier fight.

    It's possible to survive the one-shot by leaving the circle before it reaches the outside if the mechs aren't done. Sometimes it kills you anyway tho. Safest just to stop it, but sometimes people pick up the orbs and don't know what to do with them so its good to have a backup plan.

    Can't think of anything that hasn't already been said for the others!
    PS4 EU
  • rhythmsuji
    rhythmsuji
    ✭✭✭✭
    lillybit wrote: »
    More bonus tips for The Parch Ritual,

    On the charging phase there's an add that does a channel to drain the pylons again (Dremora Stormcaller or something similar I think) that needs interrupting. Doesn't matter so much if your group is good/big and they may not even appear, but on a slower fight it makes a difference.

    The big Daedroths and stuff keep spawning until all the Storm Atros have been done so don't try to clear them first, just focus on the mechanic.

    The main bosses enrage if you drag them out of the circle and can reset too, so try to keep to the middle. Even tho there's all the AOE's in there it's still an easier fight.

    It's possible to survive the one-shot by leaving the circle before it reaches the outside if the mechs aren't done. Sometimes it kills you anyway tho. Safest just to stop it, but sometimes people pick up the orbs and don't know what to do with them so its good to have a backup plan.

    Can't think of anything that hasn't already been said for the others!

    Awesome! Thanks, and yeah there was another thing in there I did not know.

    The mob casting an ability which drains the Pylons after they got charged, had no idea. Good info!
    For ESO •GUIDES •INFO •NEWS •DISCOURSE & more come see me at:

  • Blood_again
    Blood_again
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    rhythmsuji wrote: »
    But I guess it serves the purpose of showing how doable the events are, even without fully doing the events entirely perfect since I definitely have not been. My main goal is getting more people who have felt the Night Market is out of their league or capabilities to give it a shot, since ive seen poll results saying a large portion of players have still sadly not even tried it. :(

    Your video is great. When I run NM, I still see most of the players have no idea what to do in Skirmishes.
    A video guide with demonstration and explanation is what the community needs. I'm sure it helps a lot.
    Thank you for doing it!
    The Best Faction you might ever choose on the Night Market. Join The Thousand Eyes!
Sign In or Register to comment.