New Player Guide: Player vs Player (PvP) Challenges

Ready to take on other players in The Elder Scrolls Online? There are three ways you can enjoy Player vs Player combat in Tamriel: Dueling, Alliance War, and Battlegrounds.

Dueling

Dueling lets you test your skills with friends

After the challenged opponent accepts the duel invitation, a flag will appear and there will be a short countdown before you begin, so get ready! Once someone reaches zero hitpoints, the duel will conclude; the losing player will be offered a free resurrection or can also be resurrected by other players.

Note that you can auto-decline duel requests through the Social panel found in the Options menu.

Alliance War

Conquer Cyrodiil and become Emperor!

When you reach level 10, you can participate in the Alliance War. In the Alliance War, you battle your fellow players for the glory of your Alliance in Cyrodiil.

To access the Alliance War menu on PC/Mac, press “ L". Console players can access the Alliance War by navigating to Main Menu, then Campaigns.

Campaigns

Before entering Cyrodiil, you'll need to choose a home campaign. You can do so from the Alliance War menu.

Once a campaign is selected, you can travel to Cyrodiil from the “Campaign" tab of the Alliance War menu. When multiple campaigns are active, you'll be able to become a guest in a different campaign or choose a new home campaign.

Some campaigns are Alliance-locked. In an Alliance-locked campaign, only your characters from the Alliance of the character on which you first enter the campaign can play there. You will be given a short window of time before you are committed to that Campaign for that character’s Alliance.

You can change campaigns in the Alliance War interface. You are allowed one free campaign change, but changing a campaign will usually cost you Alliance points or gold to complete. Changing the Alliance on which you play an Alliance-locked Campaign is also possible but cannot be done until the duration of the full campaign has elapsed. To change your chosen Alliance in such a campaign, you must first abandon the campaign with all characters currently tied to it, paying any relevant costs in Alliance Points or Gold.

Alliance Points and Emperorship

You'll earn Alliance Points as you participate in battle throughout Cyrodiil. Killing enemy players, and defending or capturing keeps and resource sites are some of the way you'll earn AP. With AP, you can purchase gear, siege equipment, and more from your alliance's merchants.

Alliance points also help determine your overall score. You can see the top players in your campaign on the “Emperorship" tab of the Alliance War Menu, or in the Leaderboard section of your journal. To be crowned Emperor, have the top score in your Alliance when you control all six of the inner keeps.

Keeps

Capturing and defending keeps is a key strategy for winning in the Alliance War. You'll need allies to successfully assault an enemy keep and the resources that surround it, so gather your friends and lay siege! Once you've breached a keep's defenses, your alliance must occupy the two inner banners of that keep long enough for it to change ownership.

If you are defending a keep, the walls, doors, and siege weapons can be repaired with the proper repair kit. To repair, target the object you want to work on and use the repair kit from your quickslot.

Siege Weapons

You can use Alliance Points to purchase rams, boiling oil, trebuchets, catapults, and ballistae from the merchants at your alliance main gate or keeps to assist in sieging and defending keeps. To deploy a siege weapon, assign it to your quickslot and use it. A yellow circle will appear on the ground in valid deployment locations.

Each siege weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses, so try them all out to learn more about them!

Forward Camps

Forward Camps provide you with additional respawn points in Cyrodiil. They are placed like siege weapons, but have a limited duration and can't be placed near another Forward Camp. You can destroy an enemy's Forward Camp by approaching it and making use of the prompt. 

Note that you will need to be Alliance War rank "Tyro 2" before you can place Forward Camps.

Transitus Shrines

Transitus Shrines allow fast travel in Cyrodiil between your alliance's gate and keeps or outposts it controls (provided there is an unbroken link between the locations). Use them to travel quickly to the action.

Elder Scrolls

Each alliance protects two Elder Scrolls, a powerful relic that provides benefits to the entire alliance. 

If your alliance can manage to steal an Elder Scroll from the enemy's heavily-guarded shrines and return it to your alliance's keep, the entire Alliance within your campaign will gain a bonus. Elder Scrolls are not easy to capture, but are well-worth the effort.

Exiting the Alliance War

If you would like to leave Cyrodiil, you can do so from the Wayshrine found in your Alliance's base (the one you started in when you first entered). 

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds feature quick, action-packed combat

In Battlegrounds, you fight as part of a 4- or 8-person team in various arenas. 4v4 matches are tightly focused for the most competitive play, while 8v8 matches are more open and flexible. To participate in Battlegrounds, you must first reach level 10.

To access this PvP mode, navigate to the Group & Activity Finder menu and select Battlegrounds. You can choose which size of game to queue for, but the game type will be randomly determined within the available modes. You may queue solo or in a group of up to four players. Additionally, sometimes there may be special queues available for a specific game mode with additional rewards — keep an eye on in-game event notifications for occasions such as these!

Game Types

There are several unique Battleground game types, and each one offers a different kind of action. These include:

• Team Deathmatch – Defeat enemy players to win.
• Domination – Capture and hold key locations on the map to win.
• Crazy King – A variation on Domination where the capture points appear and disappear at different intervals and locations. Capture and hold these points to win.
• Capture the Relic (8v8 only) – Capture enemy relics and bring them back to your base to win.
• Chaosball (8v8 only) – Hold a damage-pulsing chaosball until it slays you or your enemies do. Hold the ball and protect its bearer for as long as possible to win.

You'll be informed of the game type when you enter a match, although there may be variations depending on the map type and player count. For example, the number of capture points in Domination maps can range anywhere from one capturable five points to a single objective—a sure location for bloody battles! In addition, the 8v8 matches will also house four unique powerups that spawn during the game. Powerups can provide temporary boosts to your damage absorption, speed, damage output, and ultimate—everything you and your team need to dominate the match.

Another way in which battlegrounds can vary is the presence or absence of lives and rounds. They are present in 4v4 Deathmatch matches and restrict you from respawning after a certain number of deaths. In matches with lives enabled, players who die more than a certain number of times are unable to return to battle but may spectate their surviving teammates who continue the fight. Fortunately, you will never be out of the fight for long, as matches with lives enabled are also broken into multiple rounds no longer than five minutes each, and lives are refreshed in each round. Winning for two out of three rounds wins the overall battleground.

In each game type, you'll win by either reaching the point limit or by having the highest total by the end of the match! Similarly to the Alliance War, taking part in a Battlegrounds match will grant you Alliance Points and additional rewards, including some item sets and collectibles exclusive to battlegrounds. You can further enhance the rewards of completing battlegrounds by accepting daily quests from Battlemaster Rivyn in the Battleground camps found outside many towns and cities, or by competing for a top score on the weekly Battleground leaderboards.

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.