A guaranteed Quest Reward from Season 1's Thieves Guild quest line is selling for over 500k gold

SeoulTeamwork · July 15

Just some basic info
The Item is called the Wherenow Code Key. It's one of the pieces for the new House

This is NOT character or account bound, meaning you can sell it

The reward is from the 4th Quest in the quest line
Codex Caper
Three Thieves of Daggerfall
Codex and Cartel
A Guild Grows in Glenumbra

It takes about an Hour and a Half, to 2 Hours, to complete

As long as you don't consume the item, you can keep getting the item on your other characters as a quest reward

Right now (15 July 2026, 6:30pm EST), the average selling price is 605k Gold, with a minimum of 210K, and a maximum of 1 million

My friend was able to sell her Wherenow Code Key within a half hour of listing it for 200k gold at her guild trader

Zoidsberg · July 15

Who is buying these?

Elvenheart · July 15

I guess it’s people that want to jump right to the house without doing the new quest line. To be honest, I was quite surprised to find out all of these house fragments are unbound, and I wonder if that’s a mistake. I didn’t find out until I had gotten my fourth one and already used the other three. I went ahead and used the fourth one too because I didn’t want to try and get it again.

Gabriel_H · July 15

The other house fragments are also unbound, selling for around 400k gold.

AlnilamE · July 16

A fool and his money are soon parted.

dcrush · July 16

This is not a new concept in ESO. The Gallant Chain chest piece and the recipe for Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch are also guaranteed quest rewards that have been in the game for a very long time and still fetch a lot of gold.

freespirit · July 16

@Zoidsberg I cannot speak for others but I want the house on multiple accounts, earn gold that I very rarely spend, except on housing, so for me these being tradeable is a godsend!

I'm useless at heists and trying to earn that particular piece three times would drive me to distraction!!

The quest one I'm ok with earning and the DE one I've already dropped three, I've dropped one and only one of the safebox one, so will probably buy the extras of those at some point.

The one I'm most likely to buy all of is the Mysterious Nocturnal Note but I will at least try a couple of heists first.

Gabriel_H · July 16

freespirit wrote: »

@Zoidsberg I cannot speak for others but I want the house on multiple accounts, earn gold that I very rarely spend, except on housing, so for me these being tradeable is a godsend!

I'm useless at heists and trying to earn that particular piece three times would drive me to distraction!!

The quest one I'm ok with earning and the DE one I've already dropped three, I've dropped one and only one of the safebox one, so will probably buy the extras of those at some point.

The one I'm most likely to buy all of is the Mysterious Nocturnal Note but I will at least try a couple of heists first.

You only need 1 of each to unlock the house.

Gagoimaliu · July 16

People who have the gold will almost always spend it rather than put in a couple hours of questing for something. I know if I had 400k lying around I'd spend it on motifs rather than grinding out dailies for them, it's just how people are.

It's their gold if they want to spend it let them do it

AlienSlof · July 16

Gagoimaliu wrote: »

People who have the gold will almost always spend it rather than put in a couple hours of questing for something. I know if I had 400k lying around I'd spend it on motifs rather than grinding out dailies for them, it's just how people are.

It's their gold if they want to spend it let them do it

This. ^

I found a Nocturnal piece at the bottom end of the pricing and snapped it up, as I really don't like doing the heists. I don't like timed quests, I find them super-stressful, so picking this up was a blessing for me.

Elvenheart · July 16

I got the heist fragment from the blue satchel we get if the timer runs out before completing the heist. I wasn’t in the mood to do the sneaky stuff so I just killed everything.

agelonestar · July 16

If you don't wanna do a whole load of quests but you DO want the house, you'll buy the fragment.

Not that difficult.

o_Primate_o · July 16

Elvenheart wrote: »

I got the heist fragment from the blue satchel we get if the timer runs out before completing the heist. I wasn’t in the mood to do the sneaky stuff so I just killed everything.

yup, AFAIK the purple satchel rewards only a higher quality item and maybe a better/more treasure. I do the Heists on multiple toons - Shock-and-Awe to get them done and over with. Leads + new motif pages still drop from blue!

freespirit · July 16

@Gabriel_H sorry but you did NOT read my post.....

I have three accounts, I want three houses, I am too lazy to do this content THREE times, I hate heists!

I will need THREE of all the items, therefore I will likely buy some of them. 😁

Gabriel_H · July 16

freespirit wrote: »

@Gabriel_H sorry but you did NOT read my post.....

I have three accounts, I want three houses, I am too lazy to do this content THREE times, I hatr heists!

I will need THREE of all the items, therefore I will likely buy some of them. 😁

3 Accounts? I have no sympathy for you. :-P

Ingenon · July 16

ESO provides "incentives" for people to keep doing the activities that earn the four pieces needed for the house (achievements, challenges, etc.). So, there will be players that earn more than one of these. I'm glad they can be sold at the guild trader and that there are other players who are buying them. Players with gold can buy the pieces and get the house without doing the multiple hours of activities. All good.

Elvenheart · July 16

I’ve been wondering, if once we use the fragments and have the house, will those fragments continue to drop for us?

Gagoimaliu · July 16

Elvenheart wrote: »

I’ve been wondering, if once we use the fragments and have the house, will those fragments continue to drop for us?

It's in the OP,

As long as you don't consume the item, you can keep getting the item on your other characters as a quest reward

I wish I knew this before doing the questline, I could have been rich

katanagirl1 · July 17

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

kind_hero · July 17

The thieves trove hunt for the themed armory station was grindy and boring enough, now this...

I am a fun of stealthy game play, my main is a nightblade, but unfortunately sneaking is very buggy in ESO, and the game wasn't really designed for this, because you can't parkour enough and use the environment like in other games that were built around this concept. So, I don't find heists or quests that require sneaking to be very fun, like they should be, just tedious. Not to mention that during the new quest, you could sneak like a panther only to have some player who is terrible at it pull all the guards and get you bounty (happened to me in Hew's Bane part of the quest).

ectoplasmicninja · July 17

I found the Sai note and then bought the others - I know that there are ways to make sneaking much easier and faster but I just haven't found myself particularly interested in this Thieves Guild content so I figured that this was a great excuse to spend some of my gold that has been piling up. I had 50 mil before I spent ~1.5 mil on the keys, so it's barely made a dent anyway.

Gagoimaliu · July 17

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

Oh probably but it's not the first time MMO players have used exploits to get rich, it's all risk v reward and so far nobody has been banned for it (that we know of)

Arunei · July 17

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

YffresTrill · July 17

I don't really see the problem. On PC EU at least, 500k is peanuts.

And there are a variety of players. Some might want the house but not want to do the quests. Some might want to do the quests but not want the house. Some might do the quests on multiple characters. I think these being tradeable is actually a pleasant surprise. I would say more things in the game should be tradeable (and I would personally be fine with all).

(Edit for typo.)

katanagirl1 · July 18

Arunei wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

Perhaps. For me personally, I would not engage in that unless it had been officially stated. Of course, I would not enjoy running this quest more than once so it wouldn’t be an issue for me anyway.

DenverRalphy · July 18

Arunei wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

To be fair, the dev staff aren't saying much of anything at the moment, and haven't been able to since 2 days before this particular instance came about. They have enough on their plates as it is at the moment.

I don't have an opinion either way on the topic at hand. But dev silence on the subject isn't exactly a reliable reference on the matter.

Arunei · July 18

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

To be fair, the dev staff aren't saying much of anything at the moment, and haven't been able to since 2 days before this particular instance came about. They have enough on their plates as it is at the moment.

I don't have an opinion either way on the topic at hand. But dev silence on the subject isn't exactly a reliable reference on the matter.

They haven't been saying anything about the roadmap or things in general in regards to the layoffs, other than to clarify a few things here and there and to also let us know they're working on said roadmap. That's not the same as them not saying anything about something that could be a huge exploit if they know about it. The only reason I can see they'd stay quiet even if it IS a glitch and people are exploiting it would indeed be because they don't view it as anything particularly harmful or of great importance in light of the current layoffs.

At the same time it's not everyone working on the roadmap. Iirc it's Nick and...Sarah is her name? I'm so bad at remembering names...anyway, there are plenty of people on the team who'd report whether this is an exploit or not, given we have seen the Community folks posting stuff at about the same rate as normal when it comes to bugs or whatever.

At any rate, even if it is a considered an exploit, it wouldn't be an immediately obvious one for a lot of people I wouldn't think, and the devs normally don't punish people for doing/taking things that aren't glaringly obvious abuses of a system or something.

katanagirl1 · July 18

Arunei wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

To be fair, the dev staff aren't saying much of anything at the moment, and haven't been able to since 2 days before this particular instance came about. They have enough on their plates as it is at the moment.

I don't have an opinion either way on the topic at hand. But dev silence on the subject isn't exactly a reliable reference on the matter.

They haven't been saying anything about the roadmap or things in general in regards to the layoffs, other than to clarify a few things here and there and to also let us know they're working on said roadmap. That's not the same as them not saying anything about something that could be a huge exploit if they know about it. The only reason I can see they'd stay quiet even if it IS a glitch and people are exploiting it would indeed be because they don't view it as anything particularly harmful or of great importance in light of the current layoffs.

At the same time it's not everyone working on the roadmap. Iirc it's Nick and...Sarah is her name? I'm so bad at remembering names...anyway, there are plenty of people on the team who'd report whether this is an exploit or not, given we have seen the Community folks posting stuff at about the same rate as normal when it comes to bugs or whatever.

At any rate, even if it is a considered an exploit, it wouldn't be an immediately obvious one for a lot of people I wouldn't think, and the devs normally don't punish people for doing/taking things that aren't glaringly obvious abuses of a system or something.

True, they have been lenient except for that endeavor in Reaper’s March quite some time ago, but that is why I am always cautious.

I missed out on the whole Maelstrom Arena perfected drops on normal for fear of punishment and was quite angry at myself for that, since everyone else knew it was an exploit and got their weapons anyway. I’ll never get those otherwise unless physical therapy can eventually improve my hand issues. Just another example of how no good deed goes unpunished.

Arunei · July 18

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This kinda sounds like an exploit. I wouldn’t do it. It couldn’t be intended.

People have been openly selling these things for days now, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a few mentions of things like the Safebox ones being mentioned on the forums already. If it were an exploit, the devs would have already made a statement about it being unintended.

To be fair, the dev staff aren't saying much of anything at the moment, and haven't been able to since 2 days before this particular instance came about. They have enough on their plates as it is at the moment.

I don't have an opinion either way on the topic at hand. But dev silence on the subject isn't exactly a reliable reference on the matter.

They haven't been saying anything about the roadmap or things in general in regards to the layoffs, other than to clarify a few things here and there and to also let us know they're working on said roadmap. That's not the same as them not saying anything about something that could be a huge exploit if they know about it. The only reason I can see they'd stay quiet even if it IS a glitch and people are exploiting it would indeed be because they don't view it as anything particularly harmful or of great importance in light of the current layoffs.

At the same time it's not everyone working on the roadmap. Iirc it's Nick and...Sarah is her name? I'm so bad at remembering names...anyway, there are plenty of people on the team who'd report whether this is an exploit or not, given we have seen the Community folks posting stuff at about the same rate as normal when it comes to bugs or whatever.

At any rate, even if it is a considered an exploit, it wouldn't be an immediately obvious one for a lot of people I wouldn't think, and the devs normally don't punish people for doing/taking things that aren't glaringly obvious abuses of a system or something.

True, they have been lenient except for that endeavor in Reaper’s March quite some time ago, but that is why I am always cautious.

I missed out on the whole Maelstrom Arena perfected drops on normal for fear of punishment and was quite angry at myself for that, since everyone else knew it was an exploit and got their weapons anyway. I’ll never get those otherwise unless physical therapy can eventually improve my hand issues. Just another example of how no good deed goes unpunished.

I'd actually completely forgotten that was a thing. And yeah I hear ya, heh. Sometimes I hear about X or Y thing that you'd think people would at the very least have that item or whatever removed from their account but it never happens, and it's like "welp I could have kinda used that boost". Ah well, it's the price one pays for being an honest gamer and also not wanting to get banned >__>.

SeoulTeamwork · July 21

So far I've made 1.5m gold from selling these house pieces 😃