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ESO Witches Festival Tips

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!

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Making the Most of Event

  • Pick up the daily quest titled Plucking the Crow from Witchmother Taerma, who is within Olyve’s Brewery AND at every Impresario tent in Tamriel.
    • Her daily quest charges you with collecting 50 Cursed Feathers, found within Plunder Skull containers. 
    • Tip: Save around 6 purple plunder skulls to obtain feathers on future days. (thanks: RatherDashing)
  • 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 if you want to look like a skeleton.
      • Double Experience is automatically applied during the event.
    • 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 crowdedBest 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 option.

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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 Witches Writs Items

  1. Bewitched Sugar Skulls
  2. Crunchy Spider Skewer – 1 Voucher
  3. Crisp and Crunchy Pumpkin Snack Skewer
  4. Frosted Brains – 1 Voucher
  5. Ghastly Eye Bowl – 1 Voucher
  6. Pack Leader’s Bone Broth – 20 Vouchers
  7. “Peeled Eyeballs” – 1 Voucher
  8. Purifying Bloody Mara – 20 Vouchers
  9. Sweet Sangine Apples – 1 Voucher
  10. Witchmother’s Potent Brew
  11. Witchmother’s Party Punch
  12. Essence of Ravage Health (Ravage Health, Invisible, Defile) – 1 Voucher
  13. Damage Health Poison (Ravage Health, Invisible, Defile) – 1 Voucher

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
  5. Blueprint: Witches Totem, Antler Charms
  6. Design: Argonian Totem of Skulls
  7. Design: Pumpkin, Display
  8. Design: Common Bowl of Stew, Display
  9. Diagram: Cleaver, Butcher’s
  10. Diagram: Common Cage, Hunting
  11. Design: Pumpkin, Display
  12. Design: Sugar Pumpkin, Wax
  13. Design: Wood Elf Bone Chimes
  14. Diagram: Cage, Covered
  15. Diagram: Cleaver, Butcher’s
  16. Diagram: Common Cage, Hunting
  17. Diagram: Common Cleaver, Cooking
  18. Diagram: Common Trap, Hunting
  19. Diagram: Vampiric Candlestick
  20. Formula: Vampiric Alchemy Rack,Tubes
  21. Formula: Vampiric Lab Jar, Large
  22. Formula: Vampiric Lab Jar, Red
  23. Pattern: Common Pack, Backpack
  24. Pattern: Witches Corpse, Wrapped 
  25. Praxis: Hagraven Cauldron, Rough Stone
  26. Praxis: Hagraven Cauldron, Ritual
  27. Praxis: Vampiric Sconce, Azure
  28. Praxis: Vampiric Lamp, Azure Triple
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. Apocrypha Inkwell
  5. Apocrypha Ink Bottle, Black
  6. Apocrypha Ink Bottle, Green
  7. Apocrypha Ink Jar, Green
  8. Apocrypha Ink Jar, Black
  9. Apocrypha Ink Pestle, Black
  10. Apocrypha Ink Pestle, Green
  11. Apocrypha Ink Vat, Small
  12. Apocrypha Ink Vat, Black
  13. Apocrypha Ink Vat, Green
  14. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Abyssal Eel
  15. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Brains
  16. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Centipede
  17. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Eyes
  18. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Leech
  19. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Nascent Creative
  20. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Scorpion
  21. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Spider
  22. Apocrypha Specimen Jar, Tomeshell Viscera
  23. Bear Skeleton, Picked Clean
  24. Bear Skull, Fresh
  25. Block and Axe, Chopping
  26. Branch, Curved Burnt
  27. Branch, Curved Laurel
  28. Branch, Forked Burnt
  29. Branch, Forked Laurel
  30. Branch, Sturdy Burnt
  31. Branch, Sturdy Laurel
  32. Crop, Wheat Pile
  33. Crop, Wheat Stack
  34. Gravestone, Small Broken
  35. Gravestone, Broken
  36. Hagraven Cauldron, Ritual
  37. Mushroom, Emerging Stinkhorn
  38. Mushroom, Large Puspocket
  39. Mushroom, Lavaburst Bud
  40. Mushroom, Poison Pax Shelf
  41. Mushroom, Poison Pax Stool
  42. Mushroom, Puspocket Sporecap
  43. Mushroom, Puspocket Group
  44. Mushrooms, Large Puspocket Cluster
  45. Primal Brazier, Rock Slab
  46. Pumpkin, Frail
  47. Pumpkin, Sickly
  48. Ruby Candlefly Gathering
  49. Saplings, Burnt Cluster
  50. Saplings, Burn Sparse
  51. Saplings, Burn Tall
  52. Shrub, Burnt Brush
  53. Specimen Jar, Spare Brain
  54. Toadstool, Bloodtooth Cluster
  55. Tool, Harvest Scythe
  56. Vampiric Container, Congealed Liquid
  57. Vampiric Container, Yellow Liquid
  58. Vampric Flask Stand, Double
  59. Vampiric Lamp, Azure Tall
  60. Vampiric Lightpost, Azure Single
  61. Vampiric Lightpost, Azure Double
  62. Webs, Cone
  63. Witches Bones, Offering
  64. Witches Brazier, Primitive Log
  65. Witches Remains, Hagraven
  66. Witches Skull, Horned Ram
  67. Witches Totem, Bone Charms
  68. Witches Totem, Emphatic Warning
  69. Witches Totem, Gnarled Vines and Skull
  70. Witches Totem, Twisted Vines and Skull
  71. 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 of St. Pelin
  6. Blood-Curse Talisman
  7. Charm of Ill Omens
  8. Coral Stain-Scrubber
  9. Crimson Kerchief
  10. Crimson Rose Walking Stick
  11. Crystal Leech Jar
  12. Driftwood Idol
  13. Giant’s Lucky Thumb
  14. Goldtips Bronzer
  15. Horrible Mummified Banekin
  16. Ivory Teeth
  17. Jeweled Bloodletter
  18. Matikora Teeth
  19. Mummified Hand
  20. Mummified Monkey Paw
  21. Nocturnal Weeping Stone
  22. Plush Hagraven Doll
  23. Red Squirrel Paw
  24. Self-Chewing Teeth.
  25. Skull of a Slave
  26. Spool of Daedric Thread

Retired

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

Runeboxes

  • Face-Eating Tome
  • Pumpkin Spectre Mask
  • Scarecrow Spectre Mask
  • Hollowjack Spectre Mask
  • Thicketman Spectre Mask
  • Marshmallow Toasty Treat emote
  • Bonfire Memento

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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Outfit Styles

  • Dremora Style pages
  • Glenmoril Weapon Style pages
  • Glenmoril Armor Outfit Style pages
  • Grave Dancer Weapon Style pages
  • Hollowjack Motif
  • Witchmother’s Servant Style page
Check out Tianlein’s YouTube Channel

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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Impresario

Who is the Impresario?

During the event, The Impresario will sell various items including fragments for the current quarter’s special event fragments and fragments for the base item to morph to the quarter item..

It is a good idea if you are interested in the special item to grab it’s fragments first. Unless it is the last quarter of the year, you will have other opportunities to obtain tickets for the base item fragments.

Generally, all items sold for 5 or less tickets, can be obtained from the event reward boxes.

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.

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

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