Harrowstorm & Update 25 Preview

01/21/2020

Travel to a mysterious island and venture into the heart of an ancient burial site in Harrowstorm, the first release in the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure. Learn about Harrowstorm’s two new dungeons and Update 25’s base-game improvements here.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Harrowstorm and Update 25 is coming soon for PC/Mac, Xbox One, and PlayStation®4.

This DLC dungeon pack and update brings the following new features:

  • Icereach group dungeon
  • Unhallowed Grave group dungeon
  • New item sets and collectibles
  • The start of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure
  • Improvements to performance (Update 25)
  • Patching overhaul (Update 25)
  • Various fixes and balance changes (Update 25)

Uncover a Dark Conspiracy

In the Harrowstorm DLC, you dive into two challenging new dungeons that set up the events of the upcoming Greymoor Chapter and year-long Dark Heart of Skyrim adventure. 

Raiders and grave robbers have forced their way into an ancient burial site in Bangkorai, seeking an ancient power that has remained imprisoned for centuries. In Unhallowed Grave, you must enter this long-forgotten tomb, uncover the reasons for the crypt’s invasion, and put a stop to the invader’s plans before it is too late.

Skyrim’s northern coast is beset by a terrible, supernatural storm. The origin of this maelstrom appears to be the island home of a powerful coven of witches. You and your comrades must travel to Icereach, confront the witches, and shut down their deadly ritual before it brings ruin upon all of Skyrim.

Both dungeons bring challenging monsters and bosses to fight in addition to all-new item sets and collectibles to earn. As the first part of the Dark Heart of Skyrim adventure, both Unhallowed Grave and Icereach also set up the events of ESO’s next Chapter, Greymoor, coming May 18 for PC/Mac and June 2 for PlayStation®4 and Xbox One!

Update 25 Improvements

Launching simultaneously with Harrowstorm is Update 25, a free base-game patch for all ESO players. This update continues to implement the planned performance improvements and introduces a series of new features, fixes, and balance changes.

Performance Improvements

With Update 25, we’re implementing a series of improvements that help framerates on all platforms. This includes changes to the effects manager and addition of multi-threading. This is only the first step in improving framerate for all ESO players, so keep an eye on our Performance Improvements Plan article for the latest information.

Patching Overhaul

This update also implements a massive patching overhaul for the ESO game client, changing the way the game is downloaded, patched, and stored. This change dramatically reduces the amount of space ESO takes up on your hard drive. However, with the implementation of this improvement, ALL ESO players on every platform will have to re-download the game client upon the launch of Update 25. Keep an eye out for more information regarding this process in the near future. You can even earn yourself a free Crimson Torchbug pet for your troubles!

For everything coming as part of the Update 25 base-game patch, including a combat fixes and improvements, you can check out the PTS patch notes on our official forums.

Now on PTS!

Harrowstorm and Update 25 are now on the Public Test Server for PC/Mac players. If you’d like to check out the start of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long saga before it goes live, open your ESO launcher, navigate to your Settings menu, and select the Show Public Test Environment button. You can then download the PTS client (it’ll need to be completely reinstalled due to the above patching overhaul) and get started!

The Dark Heart Skyrim Begins

Your next big adventure launches with the Harrowstorm DLC game pack and continues throughout 2020. Are you ready to delve the dark conspiracy at the heart of these two new dungeons and begin an adventure that will lead directly into The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor and beyond? Let us know on Twitter at @TESOnlineInstagram, or Facebook.

Part of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure, the Harrowstorm DLC game pack is coming soon for PC/Mac, Xbox One, and PlayStation®4. This new DLC game pack arrives in tandem with Update 25, a free base-game update for all ESO players.

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