Elder Scrolls Blades has received its Update 1.5, bringing with it a huge overhaul in loot, opening of the Arena for PvP, and the ability to join a Guild with other players.
Bethesda has finally removed one of the worst features of its mobile adventure game Elder Scrolls: Blades: loot chest timers. New features including opening the Arena for PvP, adding Guilds to to join with friends, and a seasonal winter event make now a good time to give the mobile game a try, if you’ve been on the fence.
Since the game’s release, fans and players have been calling for the removal of chest timers. The way these timers worked was that the player would receive chests with quality loot, but each chest would require the player to wait a certain amount of time before they could open it. Of course, players could bypass this wait by paying money to skip the timer.
The worst part, however, was that you could only carry a certain amount of chests at a time, meaning that if a new chest with better loot came along and you were full, you had to skip out on getting that content. Microtransactions came into play again by giving players the chance to either buy more chest storage or pay to skip the timer and clear up space.
Luckily, Bethesda has finally removed this highly criticized part of its game. With the release Update 1.5, timers are removed completely and allow players to open and reap the rewards immediately. On top of this, players can also reclaim all the gems they spent on increasing their chest storage in the game. While it doesn’t seem like you will be able to reclaim gems you spent to skip timers, it is still a decent step in making up for the frustrating microtransactions.
Loot, in general, is also improved in this update, giving better rewards from enemies and boss fights.
Bethesda has also opened up an Arena mode for the game, pitting players against one another in 1v1 matches, best of three rounds. While in the Arena, players will have tripled health and improved blocking, meaning that these fights can be substantial brawls to the death.
Guilds now join the game, too, allowing up to 20 players to share materials and gear, and even to visit each other’s towns to shop. Chat and share with your friends to discuss game strategy and more.
Finally, the “New Life Festival” is beginning, allowing players to enjoy a snowy visage in their town, special items in the store, and new appropriately themed town music and sounds.
These, along with the usual balancing and bug fixes, are all detailed in the update’s official patch notes.
All of this is a good step for the mobile game as it enters its second year. Hopefully the continued support will help Blades avoid the fate of Elder Scrolls: Legends, the trading card game for which Bethesda recently announced it was ending future content updates.
Elder Scrolls: Blades is now available on Android and iOS, with a Switch version planned for 2020.
