The Elder Scrolls Online » Discussions


The ESO No-kill Playthrough Experiment

Tags: ##canitbedone #pacifism 
  • Member
    January 15, 2018

    Elder Scrolls Online is a combat-based game. Or is it? What would happen if you tried to play ESO as a pacifist?

    I was browsing the official forums for tips on the Thieves Guild to support my San-daro playthrough when I came upon a comment that suggested that Zenimax themselves had stated that the Thieves Guild DLC could be completed entirely by stealth, without recourse to any combat. Really…? 

    By way of experiment I rolled a new character. To mix it up a bit I went with a Wood Elf. A Khajiit would probably have been even better, to be honest – but I fancied the challenge! And the challenge was to see just how far I could get in the game without killing anyone or anything.

    So, how has it gone? Well, I’m currently at Level 11. Without a single kill (evidence below)

     

     

    Obviously levelling has been slow (often painfully so). That’s simply because as well as not getting XP for slaughtering hordes of enemies, I’m also not getting the XP boosts from turning in those ‘big ticket’ quests. There are a surprising number of quests that can be completed without killing – but they tend to be the smaller side quests with minimal XP.

    As an example, I went to Khenarthi’s Roost. I was able to complete

    • Dark Knowledge
    • The Root of the Problem
    • A pinch of sugar
    • Family Business

    But the main Dominion questline was a no-go. I could start Cast Adrift, but complete it (you need to kill a Maormer to get a Lodestone), whilst Tears of the Two Moons was just completely impossible without going on a killing spree. 

    I was able to do most of the side quests on the starter islands – albeit you can’t get to Betnikh or Bal Foyen without finishing the faction quests. I found one quest in Daggerfall that I could complete – the one where you find the pig (I just ran away from the cultist that attacked when I grabbed the porker). I haven’t looked into what other quests could be attempted but I suspect there’ll be a few scattered town and village quests – ‘fetch’ quests and suchlike – that could be done.

     

    A few general tips 

    1. Nightblade is the way to go, as the Shadow skill line offers Shadow Cloak (invisibility) and – much later – Aspect of Terror (fear). Invest the first skill point into Veiled Strike, so that Shadow Cloak becomes available soon (You don’t need to actually used Veiled Strike for Shadow to level).
     
    2. Equip Medium Armour as soon as you can to start levelling the Medium Armour skill to get sneak bonuses. There are medium greaves in the lockbox you get when you land in Seyda Neen, but you’ll need to buy two more pieces to unlock Medium Armour. The quickest way is to go on a crime spree in Seyda Neen, then catch the boat to Vukhel Guild from the docks in Seyda Neen. Go to the clothier in the market place and buy two more pieces of medium with your ill-gotten gains. Once you’ve actually opened up medium armour, you can add more pieces as you find them. Remember you won’t be getting them from drops – only from stealing or buying them, at least until you start crafting.
     
    3. Explore everywhere – there’s 100XP just for ‘discovering’ a location
     
    4. Find and unlock every treasure chest to get started on levelling Legerdemain (sell the loot to merchants to get cash)
     
    5. Pick up EVERY Skyshard. I can confirm that you can grab every Skyshard in Khenarthi’s Roost, Stros M’Kai and Bleakrock without any killing. This will give you skill points to use, as you won’t be getting them all that quickly from levelling or questing.

     

    OK, that’s all for now. In the next post I’ll talk about how joining the Thieves Guild worked out, and then we’ll get onto the other way to progress – crafting certification and writs. 

    So, has anyone ever tried this? How far do you think it is possible to get before effectively running out of stuff to do?

  • Member
    January 15, 2018

    Very interesting. I might have to try this.

  • Member
    January 16, 2018

    Paul, you have way more patience than I! :D I don't have much to offer besides respect for undertaking this project, although one idea has popped in there: I think something like this could be fun for a roleplay collab. If you had a friend you liked to play with, I think if you group the objectives and xp are shared within your group. So, I think in theory you could play a pacifict while your friend did the killing. You'd get all the xp and, if there is a monster to slay as part of the objective, your friend could do the slaying and you'd still get the xp.

    In practice that could be weird, but in the right circumstances and with the right friend, a potentially viable option...?

  • Member
    January 16, 2018

    Paws said:

    Paul, you have way more patience than I! :D I don't have much to offer besides respect for undertaking this project, although one idea has popped in there: I think something like this could be fun for a roleplay collab. If you had a friend you liked to play with, I think if you group the objectives and xp are shared within your group. So, I think in theory you could play a pacifict while your friend did the killing. You'd get all the xp and, if there is a monster to slay as part of the objective, your friend could do the slaying and you'd still get the xp.

     

    I might be wrong on this Phil, but I don't believe that would work. I believe you have to cause more than a certain % of the damage to get credited with a kill. That's why you see people swarming around dolmens hitting everything they can, just to score the XP at the end. I'm not sure of the %

    I would imagine - not tested this - that if you cause more than that % then it would count as a kill, thus ruining the zero kill 'achievement' board. So either you don't get the XP for the kills, OR you do get the XP, but also clock up a kill on the scoreboard 

    I think that is what would happen (Not going to try it, because if I'm right then I'll spoil my experiment :p )