Imperial City Guide

Between enemy alliance players and Molag Bal's forces, danger lurks around every corner of the Imperial City. Learn the basics and prepare for your battles in the Imperial City with this guide!

Accessing the Imperial City

The Imperial City DLC game pack and all its content is completely free to every ESO player. You can claim it through the in-game Crown Store under DLC.

Once you have done so, you can enter the Imperial City by queueing in the Alliance War menu section, with campaigns that both allow Champion Point perks and disable them. Queuing into the Imperial City in this way places you at your Alliance’s base within the Imperial Sewers—the first point of ingress the Alliances have made from Cyrodiil. If you’re familiar with the wider Alliance War, you may already have a quest from your Alliance bases there to visit the Imperial City—this is where you turn it in.

The whole Imperial City is available by various means from the Alliance bases. In each base, you'll find a transit hub. Use the transit hub ladders to quickly travel to each of the six Imperial Districts. You can also traverse the sewers themselves and find routes into the districts deep in—as well as challenges and rewards unique to the Imperial Sewers. Additionally, you can run between the Imperial Districts on foot, or atop your favorite mount.

The Imperial Sewers reach throughout the city

You can also skip queueing into the Imperial Sewers if you just want to run the dungeons included in the Imperial City DLC game pack—Imperial City Prison and White-Gold Tower. You can queue for them directly from the Dungeon Finder tool or fast travel to them via the World Map from outside Cyrodiil or the Imperial City.

Activities in the Imperial City

The Imperial City has a host of challenges to face, both from other players and from the servants of Molag Bal. Whether you're interested in PvE, PvP, or a fusion of both, you can find something to do in the remnants of the Imperial capital.

One possible activity is to pursue the unique Imperial City storyline, available through each of the city’s districts, that has you join forces with the Drake of Blades, an agent of the Imperial Dragonguard. To begin the storyline, pick up the “City on the Brink” quest at your Alliance base in Cyrodiil for an introduction to the Drake of Blades.

The Drake of Blades is steadfast in her own way

You can also pursue daily quests for your alliance in each of the city’s districts, or hunt for treasures such as Tel Var Stones and Imperial Fragments in the sewers and city surface alike. But beware! Players from the other alliances can attack at any moment to pursue the grudges of the Alliance War or to try to seize control of the city.

The Imperial City is up for grabs, and you can fight for control of each of the city’s six districts by claiming central strongpoints within. The more districts your Alliance controls, the more lucrative things get, with each controlled district granting a cumulative 33% increase to Tel Var Stones earned.

This is hardly all that the Imperial City offers. There are fearsome bosses, evasive Cunning Scamps and Trove Scamps with rich rewards in tow, skyshards, and even Item Set crafting stations hidden away in the winding streets and sewer channels. Join with other players to take down tougher enemies and rivals from the other Alliances, or sneak through the city on your own to explore!

Tel Var Stones

One of the great prizes of the Imperial City are hoards of Tel Var Stones, a unique currency specific to the city.

What are Tel Var Stones?

The Tel Var Stones are small magically imbued fragments of the White-Gold Tower splintered from the structure by the stresses of the Planemeld. The Imperial City seems to be the only place they can be found, so a booming trade has sprung up around them. Each alliance's home base in the Imperial Sewers contains a Tel Var Stone exchange room in which different types of merchants are more than willing to take your hard-earned stones in exchange for other riches.

The Tel Var Stones System

There are several ways to get your hands on these prized stones. Every monster in the Imperial Sewers and the six Imperial Districts has a chance to drop Tel Var Stones. Monsters in the PvE components of the Imperial City (in the Imperial Prison and the White-Gold Tower dungeons) do not drop these stones.

The more challenging a monster is, the greater the reward. Also, you will occasionally see Cunning Scamps running around in the Imperial Sewers, trying to reach a portal. If you manage to kill one of these slippery little Daedra before they escape, they carry a generous amount of Tel Var Stones, too. But be careful pursuing them, as other dangers may lie in their path!

Strike swiftly for rich rewards

You can also find Tel Var Stones by killing player characters of an opposing alliance. Assuming that a player character you defeat is carrying stones, you'll gain some of the stones that they were carrying!

The same is true for you—your carried Tel Var Stones are at risk when you die. If you are slain within the Imperial City, you lose half the Tel Var Stones you were carrying—and if your death was at the hands of enemy players, they will get all the stones you lost (split among anyone who helped to subdue you.) You will be able to see the number of stones you lost in your death recap window. You can't lose Tel Var Stones outside the Imperial City Districts or Imperial Sewers.

Any Tel Var Stones you might get are distributed evenly among all who took part in the battle. For example, if your group of four manages to kill a boss monster in the sewers that had 500 stones, each of you will get 125 Tel Var Stones—an even split of the spoils. If you kill the same boss with six players, four of you will receive 83 stones and two will get 84 stones. It's completely random who will get the smaller share. Note that these amounts can be affected by an individual’s Tel Var Stone multiplier after they are split—more on that below!

Tel Var Stones can also be found in treasure chests within the Imperial City. If you open and loot a chest all the stones inside will become yours–although you might want to thank friends who had your back while you were busy opening a chest in a PvP zone!

Whenever you earn Tel Var Stones, they are automatically credited to a separate UI element in the lower right corner of your screen. This UI becomes visible as soon as you enter the Imperial City and disappears when you leave it. You don't have to worry about looting Tel Var Stones, you automatically loot them. They then go into the Currency tab of your Inventory, where you can track your total carried at any time. You can also deposit them in your personal bank for safekeeping, where they will be safe from any losses you suffer upon defeat. However, banked Tel Var Stones do not contribute to your multiplier.

Track carried Tel Var while in the Imperial City

The UI will show you the amount of Tel Var Stones you carry and your current Tel Var Stone gain multiplier. The multiplier rewards you for taking a risk and carrying many stones at once. The multiplier increases the number of stones you get from monsters (but not player characters.) It's based on the amount of Tel Var Stones you carry. Here's a break-down of how it works:

• When you carry more than 100 Tel Var Stones but less than 1,000, the number of stones you get from monsters in the Imperial City is doubled.
• When you carry more than 1,000 Tel Var Stones but less than 10,000, the number of stones you get from monsters in the Imperial City is tripled.
• When you carry more than 10,000 Tel Var Stones, you will get four stones instead of one for every stone you loot from a dead monster! You crazy risk-taker, you.

Going back to the example above: If you kill a boss monster worth 500 Tel Var Stones with a group of four friends, and you are already carrying 4,000 stones, while your friends have 600, 100, and 10 respectively, you will earn 375 stones, while your friends will get 250, 250, and 125.

Rewards with Less Risk

For those who want to avoid any risk of losing their Tel Var Stones, there are quests, including repeatable ones, in the Imperial City that reward you with a Tel Var Stone box. Unlike with Tel Var Stones you get by killing monsters and enemy-alliance player characters, you don't lose these boxes if your character is slain. You can take these boxes to your home base, open them in safety, and deposit all the Tel Var Stones inside straight into your bank. Doing so will prevent these stones from increasing your multiplier, but it keeps them safe. Or you just open them right where you got them … it’s up to you to decide if the risk is worth it!

Imperial Fragments

As you defeat monsters in the Imperial City districts and Imperial Sewers, you may also find they occasionally drop Imperial Fragments, which are added to the currency tab of your inventory upon acquisition. However, these curious shards are distinct from Tel Var Stones, and do not carry the same risk of losing carried currency or bonuses for having them on you, nor are they automatically looted by default.

Imperial Fragments are prized by the enigmatic Tur, a Daedric collector who haunts the Imperial City’s various Vaults (found in each District of the Imperial City, as well as just inside the entrances of each of its dungeons), and who will trade numerous valuable items and Collectibles for Imperial Fragments or Tel Var Stones. Tur carries different wares depending on the Vault you find her in, so be sure to explore to find the wares you want.

The city’s vaults hold the riches of the Empire

Leaving the Imperial City

When you’ve had your fill for the moment of the Imperial City’s cut-throat action, you can exit the area by returning to your Alliance’s base in the Imperial Sewers and taking the door out of the zone. This will return you to the location elsewhere in Tamriel from which you queued. You can also queue into other activities from the Imperial City, such as Cyrodiil or dungeons (whether those in the Imperial City or otherwise). Once you finish with those activities, your return follows the normal rules respective to them. For example, if you queue for Cyrodiil from the Imperial City, you need to travel to a wayshrine to return to the rest of Tamriel from Cyrodiil.

Now that you're armed with the basics, you're ready to fight for your alliance in the Imperial City—see you there! Don't forget that if you ever have additional gameplay questions, you should navigate to the in-game Help menu for more information on the game's features and mechanics. In addition, you can visit the Players Helping Players section in the official ESO forums to talk to the ESO community or check out any of the player-made guides right here.