ESO Witches Festival (2020)

Tamriel’s most ghoulish gala returns! Put monsters to the sword to receive ghastly goodies and double XP during the Witches Festival in-game event!

elderscrollsonline.com

When:

  • Thursday, October 22 at 10:00AM EDT, and will run until Tuesday, November 3 at 10:00AM EST

Why:

Mount

Crimson Indrik
Earn tickets to buy berries for the Crimson Indrik Mount

Styles

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If you like these videos, please subscribe to Tianlein’s YouTube Channel
If you like these videos, please subscribe to Tianlein’s YouTube Channel
If you like these videos, please subscribe to Tianlein’s YouTube Channel

How

To earn 3 Event Tickets per day during the Witches Festival , kill any of the seven Boss types in the game.

  1. Delve
  2. Public Dungeon / Sweeper Bosses (Imperial City Bosses and Quest Bosses, Dark Fissures AKA Mini-Dolmens.)
  3. World Boss
  4. Final Group Dungeon Boss
  5. Insurgency / Events (Dark Anchor, Geysers, Craglorn Focus Points, Harrowstorms, Zone Dragons)
  6. Arena (Blackrose Prison, Dragonstar Arena, Maelstrom Arena)
  7. Final Trial Boss

You can acquire 39 Event Tickets during this event.

To earn double experience, you need to use the Witchmother’s Whistle momento. You obtain it by completing the event quest.

Looking for tips? Check out Making the Most of the Event

Impresario Offerings

  • All four Indrik Feathers
  • The first two Crimson Indrik Berries (Budding and Bloom)
  • Group Repair Kits
  • The Throw Bones memento
  • Grave Dancer Weapon Style pages
  • NEW Grab Bags!

Who is the Impresario?

What are Grab Bags?
These curious containers have a chance to contain a collectible from a previous Witches Festival event. When you open a Grab Bag, it will only ever contain items you don’t already own or know, and once you’ve acquired every possible item within them, they’ll no longer be available for purchase. Be sure to open each bag and remove its items as soon as you acquire it (to avoid duplicate items from subsequent bags).

If you have acquired every collectible but still have Grab Bags to open, they’ll contain Group Repair Kits instead—useful! For this event, a Grab Bag can contain Hollowjack Motif pages, the Skeletal Marionette memento, Apple-bobbing Cauldron fragments, and the Spectre Mask collectibles.

Making the Most of Event

  • Double-dip on while collecting your Dremor Skulls each day by doing an associated daily for a boss of each type. DLC’s have Delve, World Boss, and Insurgency / Event Dailies. There are also base game dailies for Delves, Public Dungeons, and Dolmens
  • Maximize your Double Experience
    • Unlock your double experience by using the Witch Mother’s Whistle
    • Use the cauldron to turn in to a skeleton to remind you when your double experience buff expires.
      • When you return to normal form, it’s time to use the whistle again.
    • Experience Scrolls / Potions (One or the other but not both) stack with the bonus experience.
    • Unlock the insane experience in a box by completing your crafting writs during event
  • Speed up completion of all seven Dremora skulls each day by parking alternate characters at each of the locations.
    • Delves
      • Find a delve with few campers. Ideally, a delve used in a daily quest. The usual delve boss timer is 5 minutes but will spawn when a daily quester appears in the room: will likely only get gold off mobs. Skulls can also be found on any named, Dolmens, World Bosses, etc..
      • You can gather skulls in Cyrodiil but you have leave Cyrodiil to activate the buff.
    • Public Dungeons
      • Remote locations are often less crowded
      • Best locations for farming plunder skulls are public dungeons with multiple nameds in same room. They spawn every 5 minutes.
      • Easiest way to get this dremora skull at Dark fissures / “mini dolmens” / insurgent daedra spawns. These are spawns in more remote locations where waves of 3 daedra spawn. These are on a 5 minute timer.
    • World Bosses
      • The World Bosses in the starter zones (Stonefalls, Glenumbra, and Auridon) tend to be easier
    • Dolmens
      • Most dolmens will be popular during the event as players use them to level lower level players and farm jewelry.
      • Obtaining a Dremora skull may be problematic as you will need to hit the boss at the end. They spawn just left of the dolmen stairs.
    • Group Dungeons
      • Best option is to double-dip. Grab the three pledges from the Undaunted and queue up in the group finder (normal for a faster run).
      • If you are leveling a lower character, grab the pledges and then queue for a random dungeon daily. You may get lucky and get one of the daily pledges and the bonus experience the first time you do a random dungeon.
    • Trials
      • If you are not in a trial guild, Craglorn zone chat is a good place to find a Trial Pick Up Group (PUG)
    • Arena
      • If you are comfortable with your character build, you can complete Maelstrom Arena on average about 40 minutes.
      • If you have some good DPS friends, normal Blackrose Prison or Dragonstar Arena could be an uption.

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Walk-through

Tip: If you obtained the Crow Caller and completed the event quest previously, you do not need to do the quest or obtain the crow caller again.

  1. Open the crown store and obtain your free Crow Caller found in the Holiday section.
  2. Use the Crow Caller to summon Witchmother Olyve to begin The Witchmother’s Bargain quest.
    1. Collect Pumpkin
      1. Available from Grocer for 150g
      2. Found laying around 
        Tip: There is a spawn outside Bad Man Hollow's Public Dungeon Entrance that is very close to Daggerfall. Also, there's a pumpkin spawn behind the luxury vendor in Hollow City. Some are also found in the Faction base camps in Cyrodiil.
      3. Found in some food containers
    2. Collect Some Guts
      1. Small animals like squirrels, foxes, guar, chickens, snakes, frogs, etc.
    3. Collect an Essence of Death
      1. Named in any Delve
    4. Find the Witchmother Olyve in her brewery.
      Pull up the quest and bring up your map to see location.  
      1. Aldmeri Dominion
        Go to Auridon’s Greenwater Wayshrine (Southwest of Firsthold) in Northwest Auridon. The brewery is a short distance to the the northwest of the wayshrine.
      2. Daggerfall Covenant
        Go to Glenumbra’s Crosswych Wayshrine (northern Glenumbra) and head West. The brewery is just northeast of Cath Bedraud and east of Par Molag crafting centre.
      3. Ebonheart Pact
        Go to Stonefalls by the southern dolmen. Fastest way is to travel to the Serk Quarantine Wayshrine in north Deshaan and travel North and East.
    5. Complete the quest to obtain your Witchmother’s Whistle.
  3. Use the whistle to summon the “Witchmother’s Cauldron,” which grants you and your party a two-hour 100% XP buff that stacks with all other XP bonuses.

Witches Festival Writs

The writs will ask for Witch Festival recipes or Alchemy poisons or potions. You can premake all the items needed before accepting the writs to speed up the process.  You turn the completed writs into one of the daily crafting writ turn-in locations at either the Provisioning or Alchemy box depending of the writ requested. Also, my max crafter obtained 6.5k Inspiration, usual masterwrit experience, and received 1 – 20 master crafter vouchers.

Sample writs

  1. Ghastly Eye Bowl
  2. Crunchy Spider Skewer
  3. Witchmother’s Potent Brew
  4. Witchmother’s Party Punch
  5. Frosted Brains
  6. “Peeled Eyeballs”
  7. Crisp and Crunchy Pumpkin Snak Skewer
  8. Sweet Sangine Apples
  9. Bewitched Sugar Skulls
  10. Essence of Ravage Health (Ravage Health, Invisible, Defile)

Recipes

  1. Recipe: Sweet Sanguine Apples (Green)
  2. Recipe: Crisp and Crunchy Pumpkin Snack Skewer (Blue)
  3. Recipe: Crunchy Spider Skewer (Blue)
  4. Recipe: Ghastly Eye-Bowl (Blue)
  5. Recipe: Bowl of “Peeled Eyeballs” (Blue)
  6. Recipe: Frosted Brains (Blue)
  7. Recipe: Witchmother’s Potent Brew (Purple)
  8. Recipe: Witchmother’s Party Punch (Purple)
  9. Recipe: Bewitched Sugar Skulls (Gold)
  10. Recipe: Purifying Bloody Mara (Gold)
  11. Recipe: Double Bloody Mara Recipe (Gold)
  12. Recipe: Pack Leader’s Bone Broth

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Furniture Recipes

  1. Blueprint: Coffin, Lid
  2. Blueprint: Gibbet, Single 
  3. Blueprint: Stockade
  4. Blueprint: Witches Brazier, Primitive Log (Unconfirmed)
  5. Blueprint: Witches Totem, Antler Charms (Unconfirmed)
  6. Design: Argonian Totem of Skulls
  7. Design: Pumpkin, Display
  8. Design: Sugar Pumpkin, Wax
  9. Design: Wood Elf Bone Chimes
  10. Diagram: Cage, Covered
  11. Diagram: Cleaver, Butcher’s
  12. Diagram: Common Cage, Hunting
  13. Diagram: Common Cleaver, Cooking
  14. Diagram: Common Trap, Hunting
  15. Design: Pumpkin, Display
  16. Pattern: Witches Corpse, Wrapped 
  17. Praxis: Hagraven Cauldron, Rough Stone
  18. Praxis: Hagraven Cauldron, Ritual
Note: There was a scandal over the Cauldron recipe where it looked like the Wood Elf Cauldron. To be fixed.

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Furnishings

Click to enlarge.
  1. Animal Bones, Fresh 
  2. Animal Bones, Gnawed
  3. Animal Bones, Jumbled
  4. Bear Skeleton, Picked Clean
  5. Bear Skull, Fresh
  6. Branch, Curved Burnt
  7. Branch, Curved Laurel
  8. Branch, Forked Burnt
  9. Branch, Forked Laurel
  10. Branch, Sturdy Burnt
  11. Branch, Sturdy Laurel
  12. Crop, Wheat Pile
  13. Crop, Wheat Stack
  14. Gravestone, Small Broken
  15. Hagraven Cauldron, Ritual
  16. Mushroom, Emerging Stinkhorn
  17. Mushroom, Large Puspocket
  18. Mushroom, Lavaburst Bud
  19. Mushroom, Poison Pax Shelf
  20. Mushroom, Poison Pax Stool
  21. Mushroom, Puspocket Sporecap
  22. Mushrooms, Large Puspocket Cluster
  23. Primal Brazier, Rock Slab (Unconfirmed)
  24. Pumpkin, Frail
  25. Pumpkin, Sickly
  26. Saplings, Burnt Cluster
  27. Saplings, Burn Sparse
  28. Saplings, Burn Tall
  29. Shrub, Burnt Brush
  30. Toadstool, Bloodtooth Cluster
  31. Tool, Harvest Scythe
  32. Witches Bones, Offering (Unconfirmed)
  33. Witches Brazier, Primative Log
  34. Witches Remains, Hagraven  (Unconfirmed)
  35. Witches Skull, Horned Ram  (Unconfirmed)
  36. Witches Totem, Bone Charms  (Unconfirmed)
  37. Witches Totem, Emphatic Warning
  38. Witches Totem, Gnarled Vines and Skull
  39. Witches Totem, Twisted Vines and Skull
  40. Witches Totem, Wooden Rack

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Bewitching Alchemy Reagents

  • Blue Entoloma (5)
  • Beetle Scuttle (5)
  • Crawlers (3- 6)
  • Fleshfly Larva (5)
  • Guts (3 – 6)
  • Imp Stool (3 – 5)
  • Insect Parts (3 – 5)
  • Namira’s Rot (5)
  • Nightshade (5)
  • Nirnroot (5)
  • Spider Eggs (5)
  • Stinkhorn (5)
  • Worms (4)

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Treasure Items

  1. “Barbas” Dog Collar
  2. Ashes of Lamae Beolfaf
  3. Anesthestizer Coil
  4. Black Mage’s Spellbook
  5. Blood-Curse Talisman
  6. Charm of Ill Omens
  7. Coral Stain-Scrubber
  8. Crimson Kerchief
  9. Crimson Rose Walking Stick
  10. Crystal Leech Jar
  11. Driftwood Idol
  12. Giant’s Lucky Thumb
  13. Goldtips Bronzer
  14. Horrible Mummified Banekin
  15. Ivory Teeth
  16. Jeweled Bloodletter
  17. Matikora Teeth
  18. Mummified Hand
  19. Mummified Monkey Paw
  20. Nocturnal Weeping Stone
  21. Plush Hagraven Doll
  22. Red Squirrel Paw
  23. Self-Chewing Teeth.
  24. Skull of a Slave
  25. Spool of Daedric Thread

Retired

Note:
Now, these items are only available from Witches’ Grab Bags purchased from the Impresario.

Runeboxes

  • Pumpkin Spectre Mask
  • Scarecrow Spectre Mask
  • Hollowjack Spectre Mask
  • Thicketman Spectre Mask

Apple-Bobbing Cauldron (Fragments)

  1. Apple-Bobbing Aged Fetid Fish
  2. Apple-Bobbing Cold Iron Cauldron
  3. Apple-Bobbing Fenwood Ladle
  4. Apple-Bobbing Fresh Fall Gorapples
  5. Apple-Bobbing Poise Guide
  6. Apple-Bobbing Stale Creek Water
  7. Apple-Bobbing Viscous Slime

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Achievements

Tip:  
The Exorcised Coven Cottage will be available for purchase with crowns in the in-game Crown Store for the duration of the event, and if you earn the Witches Festival achievement “An Unsparing Harvest" you'll unlock the ability to acquire this bewitching home for in-game gold!
  • Sacking Skeletons
    Kill 100 Skeletons while under the effects of the Witchmother’s Brew
  • Cauldron Conjurer
    Use the Witchmother’s Whistle 10 times.
  • Gruesome Feast
    • Consume all 9 of the recipes listed below.
  • An Unsparing Harvest
    • Complete Pumpkin Pairs Well With Guts, Plunder Skull Fanatic, Reaper’s Harvest, Happy Work for Hollowjack
    • Title: Sun’s Dusk Reaper
  • Plunder Skull Fanatic (15pts)
    • 1, 5, 100 Plunder Skulls
  • Happy Work for Hollowjack
    1. Hollowjack Style for Axes
    2. Hollowjack Style for Belt
    3. Hollowjack Style for Boots
    4. Hollowjack Style for Bows
    5. Hollowjack Style for Chests
    6. Hollowjack Style for Chests
    7. Hollowjack Style for Daggers
    8. Hollowjack Style for Gloves
    9. Hollowjack Style for Helmets
    10. Hollowjack Style for Legs
    11. Hollowjack Style for Maces
    12. Hollowjack Style for Shields
    13. Hollowjack Style for Shoulders
    14. Hollowjack Style for Staves
    15. Hollowjack Style for Swords
  • Pumpkin Pairs Well With Guts
    Drink the Witchmother’s Brew during the Witches Festival
  • Reaper’s Harvest
    Complete the Witchmother’s Bargain quest.
  • Bare Bones Puppet
    Consume 10 skeletal Marionette Parts.
    Momento: Skeletal Marionette
  • Wicked Writ Initiate
    Complete Witches Festival Writs
    Hat: Witch’s Infernal Hat (13 Writs Completed)
    Title: Witch (28 Writs Completed)
  • Gruesome Snack
    • Disastrously Bloody Mara
    • Pack Leader’s Bone Broth
    • Bewitched Sugar Skulls
  • The Plundered Masses
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Arena
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Insurgent (Dolmens)
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Delve
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Dungeon
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Pulbic & Sweeper
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, Trial
    • Dremora Plunder Skull, World
    • Plunder Skull
  • Dremora Style Master
Pictures? https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/hollowjack/ 

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Related

References:

EN (NA): https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/58951
EN (UK): https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/news/post/58951
FR: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/fr/news/post/58951
DE: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/de/news/post/58951
RU: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/ru/news/post/58951