In addition to the Battlegrounds update, new Companions, and more, Update 44 also introduces Golden Pursuits, a new reward system that allows you to complete activities to earn additional in-game items, currencies, and collectibles.
This new system will arrive when Update 44 goes live on October 28 for PC/Mac and November 13 for Xbox and PlayStation consoles, but note that the first Golden Pursuits campaign won’t be active until later in November—keep an eye out for details!
A New Way to Earn Rewards
When designing Golden Pursuits, the team wanted to create new reasons to play and new ways for players to earn in-game rewards. “Golden Pursuits are intended to give players the opportunity to earn extra rewards for trying out different systems and features,” explains Katie Yu, one of ESO’s Systems Designers. “They’re meant to highlight specific aspects of the game, or to support an event or theme. We want to ensure that players know exactly what they have the opportunity to earn and that they feel rewarded for completing the Golden Pursuit.” While Daily Login Rewards are set every month, almost every aspect of a Golden Pursuits campaign can vary. This includes its ease or difficulty of activities, volume and quality of rewards, and even when they’re active and duration. “Unlike many of the systems in ESO, Golden Pursuits don't operate on a regular daily or weekly cadence. There may be anywhere from days, to weeks, to months in between them, and Golden Pursuits will vary in length when they are live. They're meant to be exciting, spontaneous events. But don't worry, they're pretty difficult to miss: Golden Pursuits will always appear on the Announcement Panel and in the Group and Activity Finder when they're active.”A Variety of Challenges
As mentioned above, each Golden Pursuits campaign will vary greatly in size and scope, and this variability will be reflected in the activities and rewards each individual campaign may offer. “Generally, the activities will be very similar to what players have been seeing from Endeavors,” says Yu. “The number can vary—some Golden Pursuits may offer only a few activities, while others may provide more options for players to peruse before deciding how they want to earn their rewards. Broadly, Golden Pursuits activities are meant to highlight different parts of the game, whether that's encouraging players to engage in some friendly PvP, or try out Housing and Home Tours, or even simply explore what the wide world of Tamriel has to offer.”
Pursue new challenges
When it comes to the individual rewards, it was important to the team that Golden Pursuits campaigns varied the kinds of things you can earn.
“Players can expect to see mounts, pets, costumes, furnishings—the list goes on,” explains Yu. “There’s a wide variety of cosmetics, minor utility items such as potions and meals, currencies, and more from Golden Pursuits, and we're really excited to give players new opportunities to earn them.”
With this broad selection of reward types in mind, the team worked to ensure that the ideal balance is struck between the effort required to complete a Golden Pursuit and what it awards.
“Each Golden Pursuit is designed to be fully completable within the duration that it's active. To give a peek behind the curtain, Golden Pursuits are typically put together by a multidisciplinary group before launch. We have data gathered from player feedback, and we review the performance of similar systems in ESO to inform the design and expected level of investment. Our goal is to make sure playing with an active Golden Pursuit is both exciting and rewarding.”
