Crafting in Elder Scrolls Online isn’t just filler content—it’s a functional, rewarding system that can empower your characters, help you earn gold, and enhance your overall gameplay experience. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the variety of professions or unsure where to start, don’t worry. This guide will walk you through the basics of all seven ESO crafting skill lines and set you on the right path to becoming a proficient crafter. Whether you want to forge weapons, brew potions, or cook up stat-boosting meals, everything you need begins here.

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1. Overview of ESO’s Seven Crafting Skill Lines

ESO offers seven primary crafting skill lines, and the best part? You can level up all of them on a single character. They break down into two categories:

Equipment Crafting:

• Blacksmithing – Melee weapons and heavy armor
• Woodworking – Bows, staves, and shields
• Clothing – Light and medium armor
• Jewelry Crafting (Requires Summerset Chapter) – Rings and necklaces

Consumable & Enhancement Crafting:

• Alchemy – Potions and poisons using plants, mushrooms, and reagents
• Enchanting – Glyphs for armor, jewelry, and weapons using runes
• Provisioning – Food and drinks for buffs using ingredients and recipes

Each of these crafts also contributes to housing furniture crafting, though that’s a system built into each individual line and not a skill line of its own.

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2. How Crafting Progresses: Inspiration and Experience

Instead of standard experience points, crafting skill lines advance through Inspiration, earned by performing actions like crafting, refining, deconstructing, and completing daily crafting quests (Writs). Deconstruction and refinement offer some of the fastest gains early on.

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3. Gathering Resources in the World

Your first step into crafting begins with resource collection, and thankfully, ESO makes this easy:

• Harvesting nodes (e.g., ore, wood, plants) are scattered across the world. Just walk up and press E.
• As you level up, higher-tier resources will appear.
• Containers (sacks, crates, barrels) also contain useful items—but red-named ones are considered stealing.
• Deconstruction at crafting stations allows you to break down unwanted gear into materials.

Skill lines like Blacksmithing allow you to invest in perks such as Keen Eye (easier resource spotting) and passive Hirelings (free daily resources sent to your mail).

Note on Inventory Management: If you’re not a subscriber, crafting materials can quickly eat up your bag space. ESO Plus offers a bottomless crafting bag—a huge quality-of-life improvement. Otherwise, expect frequent inventory juggling.

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4. Equipment Crafting Stations Explained

Each of the four equipment crafts (Blacksmithing, Clothing, Woodworking, Jewelry) shares a nearly identical station UI, made up of six main tabs:

• Refine: Converts raw materials into usable ones (e.g., Iron Ore to Iron Ingots)
• Creation: Craft gear using refined materials, select item type, level, style, and trait
• Deconstruct: Break down gear to recover crafting materials
• Improve: Upgrade gear quality from normal → epic using special materials (with success chance)
• Research: Learn traits by destroying an item with a specific trait to unlock it for future crafting
• Furnishings: Craft housing items (covered in separate guides)

For example, in the Creation tab, you can choose to make a sword in Breton style with the “Well-Fitted” trait. Traits enhance the gear’s performance, while style controls appearance. The Research tab is crucial—unlocking traits takes time (hours or days), so start early.

Improvement is risky unless you have enough upgrade materials to guarantee 100% success. Failing results in losing both the materials and the item.

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5. Consumable Crafting Stations: Alchemy, Enchanting, Provisioning

These stations have unique systems but are equally useful and profitable.

Alchemy:

• Combine 1 Solvent and 2 Reagents to brew potions or poisons.
• Early on, effects are unknown—you learn by experimenting. Future combinations become more predictable.
• Poisons are applied to weapons for combat enhancement.

Enchanting:

• Combine three runes (Potency + Essence + Aspect) to create glyphs.
• Effects depend on rune combinations; crafting reveals their properties over time.
• Use Extraction to deconstruct old glyphs into raw runes for reuse.

Provisioning:

• Learn recipes by reading them in your inventory (press E).
• Combine ingredients to cook meals or brew drinks.
• Food and drinks grant temporary stat boosts—critical for PvE and PvP.

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6. Daily Crafting Quests: Writs

One of the most important systems for progressing in crafting and earning rare materials is Crafting Writs.

• These are repeatable daily quests available for each craft.
• To access them, you must become certified by completing short quests from NPCs:
  • Millenith (Fighters Guild): certifies Blacksmithing, Clothing, Woodworking
  • Danel Telleno (Mages Guild): certifies Alchemy, Enchanting, Provisioning
  • Felarian (Alinor, Summerset): certifies Jewelry Crafting (requires Summerset)

Once certified, pick up daily Writs at noticeboards near crafting stations in major cities. Completing them grants gold, XP, inspiration, and a chance at rare upgrade materials.

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Final Thoughts: Craft Smart and Start Early

Crafting in ESO isn’t just for roleplayers—it’s a backbone of the game’s economy and character progression. From creating powerful gear to brewing potions that can turn the tide of battle, every skill line has a purpose. Start gathering resources as soon as you begin exploring. Get certified quickly and pick up your Writs daily. Even if you don’t plan to be a dedicated crafter, investing in your skill lines now ensures you’ll be ready when you need to produce or enhance gear later.

The system is deep, yes—but once you grasp the basics, it becomes a satisfying part of your ESO journey. Happy crafting, adventurer!