ESO Plus and the Crown Store

Thanks to our good friends at Bethesda, we suddenly found ourselves with 4500 Crowns that we could spend as we wished in The Elder Scrolls Online Crown Store. The goal of making these purchases was to assess the value of the Crown store, see if an ESO Plus membership was worth it, and let you know what’s good and what isn’t. Let’s dive in!

ESO Plus

There are numerous benefits to being an ESO Plus member, although it is a subscription service reserved for only the most hardcore of ESO players. However, even those that might see themselves only playing for 6 months or a year, might also find small benefits that make the 11.99/month (12 Month) service worth it (additionally, a you can buy 6 months at 12.99/month, 3 months for 13.99/month, or month-to-month for 14.99 a month).

With your ESO Plus membership, you will receive:

1. Full access to all DLC packs (which goes away when you no longer are an ESO member)
2. Unlimited storage for crafting materials
3. 1650 Crowns per month to spend in the store
4. Double bank space
5. 10% increase to Gold and Experience
6. 10% increase to Crafting Inspiration and Trait Research rates
7. Double furnishings and collectibles space in players house
8. Exclusive ability to dye costumes
9. Double currency cap for Transmutation Crystals
10. Exclusive access to unique Crown Store deals

I’ve been playing The Elder Scrolls Online ever since it originally launched on the Xbox One, and can instantly say that perks #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5 are so incredibly worth the price of admission. The other perks are great as well, but attempting to deal with limited bank space and crafting material space is the number one things that would push me towards this membership.

The first 5 membership perks are so valuable in the overall progression of your character, and if you are going to invest the time and resources into the experience, you might as well enjoy it as much as possible.

Crown Store Purchases

But what if you opt to not go for the ESO Plus membership, and decide on buying Crowns instead? Are there beneficial purchases in the store?

There are a number of different Crowns Packs that players can purchase:

1. 21,000 Crowns – 149.99
2. 14,000 Crowns – 99.99 (on sale right now for 89.99)
3. 5,500 Crowns – 35.99
4. 3,000 Crowns – 22.49
5. 1,500 Crowns – 13.49
6. 750 Crowns – 7.19

If you plan on splurging on the upper tiered Crowns packs, getting an ESO Membership is likely a better option for you. On the 12 month plan at 144.00/year, you will receive 19,800 Crowns, plus all the named perks above. Further, you will not have to spend any of your Crowns on the DLC content (which are typically priced from 2000 Crowns – 5000 Crowns) as that is all provided to you at no extra charge.

If you are looking to make a few key purchases in the Crown Store, however, the samller Crowns packs could be beneficial in the long run, although I’d still be tempted to purchase the 6 month or 3 month ESO plan instead of a pack. What might you purchase? Here are a few of our essential favourites!

500 Crowns Starter Pack

Getting yourself started in ESO isn’t too difficult, but if you’d like a leg up, or are trying to catch up with friends who are a few levels ahead of you, grabbing the Starter Pack is a good way to get ahead faster. The starter pack comes with experience scrolls, crafting materials, and more, and can be a great way to move ahead early!

1000 Crowns – Pack and Bank Upgrades

The amount of stuff you can carry and the amount of stuff you can store in a bank is limited, and getting more of it is locked behind in game currency pay walls and Crown Store paywalls. For 1000 Crowns (per upgrade), players can permanently upgrade their carrying and banks space by 10; although this sounds like only a little bit, 10 extra spaces goes a long way in your inventory management!

5000 Crowns – Assistants

Assistants might be one of the best purchases you can make in the ESO Crown Store, and although it comes at the steep price of 5000 crowns, which effectively would be about $35-40, having access to a banker and a merchant ANYWHERE – outside of battlegrounds and Cyrodiil – is incredibly beneficial, especially when your pack becomes heavy but you are far away from a standalone bank and merchant (typically in towns).

I will be exploring more purchase options in a subsequent article, but these are my top picks for what you should spend your Crowns on. Have a suggestion of your own? Leave it in the comments!