The Elder Scrolls: Blades Update Removes Chest Timers, Buffs Loot Drops

Bethesda has released a new update for The Elder Scrolls: Blades and it’s pretty significant. Update 1.5 removes one of the most egregious annoyances with the game – chest timers. That’s right – from now on, chests will open immediately and the developer is looking to refund Gems to those who upgraded their chest capacity.

Other major changes include more Gold found in chests, enemies dropping more loot and the ability to join Guilds. You can also visit towns belonging to other guildmates. If that weren’t enough, the update also adds the Arena for PvP combat. It’s unlocked at level 5 and offers a best of three rounds match against other players.

Check out the full patch notes here with some highlights below. The Elder Scrolls: Blades attracted heaps of criticism when it first released due to the abundance of microtransactions and timers. However, it now seems Bethesda is taking major steps to fix the game. Available for iOS and Android, it’s coming to Nintendo Switch in early 2020.

New Features and Improvements

Loot Overhaul

• Chests: Open Chests immediately now that Chest timers have been removed!
• Chests: Claim back all the Gems you spent upgrading your Chest capacity.
• Chests: Find more Gold in Chests and a guaranteed Gem in every Wooden Chest.
• Loot: Collect much more loot from enemies.
• Loot: Defeat a boss in every job to get even better loot, including Legendary equipment. Boss rewards replace the mystery chests and materials given out previously for completing jobs.
• Chests: Look for Silver, Golden, and Elder Chests in jobs’ secret rooms.
• Enemies: Beware the tougher, optional bosses guarding some of those secret rooms!
• Loot: Smash open new breakable objects and discover more loot inside. The bigger the object, the better the reward.
• Materials: Discover which materials are more likely to drop from which breakable objects. There’s more Lumber in forests and more Crystals in caves and Ayleid ruins, for example.
• Equipment: Equip yourself with a wider variety of items, now that Chests and enemies can provide lower-tier, higher-rarity gear.
• Jewelry: Craft more brass and gold jewelry thanks to more Brass and Gold Ingot rewards.
• Loot: Carry all this new loot with 20 more free inventory spaces.

PvP

• Arena: Unlock the Arena automatically at level 5.
• Arena: Fight other players in best-of-3 matches.
• Arena: Change your equipment, spells and abilities between rounds.
• Arena: Equip a potion or poison and use up to one per round.
• Rewards: Earn XP and Gold whether you win or lose.
• Rewards: Win matches to earn trophies and climb the ranks from arena to arena, culminating with the Imperial Arena!
• Rewards: Win rounds over multiple matches to earn Chests.
• Rewards: Reach new arenas and arena levels to earn rewards, including the new Blades Sword, Shield, and Armor set.
• Leaderboards: Fight for glory on the global leaderboards.
• Arena: Enjoy Arena-only combat enhancements: tripled Health and improved blocking. In the Arena, high blocks can be held longer, refresh faster, and stun opponents for 2.5 seconds. All blocks are also more effective against elemental damage and much more effective against physical damage.