Jewelry crafting is a fairly new addition to The Elder Scrolls Online. Released alongside the Summerset Chapter in 2019 — five years after the game’s initial launch — jewelry crafting has quickly become one of the best ways to earn gold and improve your character. It follows many of the same rules as other crafting professions, although there are a few quirks you’ll need to learn if you’re hoping to become a master jeweler.
From finding crafting components to leveling up your current gear, here’s everything you need to know about ESO jewelry crafting.
Further reading
- ESO beginner’s guide: How to get started in The Elder Scrolls Online
- The Elder Scrolls Online review
- Everything we know about New World, Amazon Games’ first MMORPG
What is jewelry crafting in ESO?
Jewelry crafting gives you the chance to create and upgrade your favorite rings and necklaces. However, it’s also meant to be a bit more complex than other crafting professions. As ZeniMax said at launch, jewelry crafting requires you to “put more effort into developing your craft than usual.” That means it might be best to spend some time familiarizing yourself with other forms of crafting in ESO before jumping into the jewelry game. You’ll also need to purchase the Summerset Chapter to gain access to the skill.
Once you decide to take the leap, you’ll need to follow a formula that looks oddly familiar — gather materials, find a jewelry crafting station, then create, improve, research, or deconstruct your piece of jewelry. The time-consuming task is more than worth your time. Not only will it let you upgrade your favorite gear, but it’s also one of the best ways to make gold in all of ESO. Leveling up is simple, too — just keep performing any form of jewelry task, and you’ll slow watch your level rise.
Gathering materials for ESO jewelry crafting
Before you can craft any ornate, valuable items, you’ll need to scour the overworld for crafting components. These can be found in Seams scattered throughout the rockier portions of Tamriel. Interact with them to harvest Dust, which can then be refined at a jewelry crafting station and used to create new items. What you’re able to harvest is depending on your Engraver level and character level — here’s a look at what level you’ll need to harvest different forms of Dust:
- Levels 1-25: Pewter
- Levels 26-50: Copper
- Champion Level 10-60: Silver
- Champion Level 70-140: Electrum
- Champion Level 150-160: Platinum
Finding a jewelry crafting station
With plenty of Dust in your inventory, you’re ready to start crafting. Head to your nearest jewelry crafting station — which you’ll find in most major cities — and interact with it to open up your menu. You’ll immediately notice several options that let you do much more than just craft new items. In fact, it’ll look remarkably familiar to anyone who has dabbled in any other form of crafting.
Here’s what ESO jewelry crafting lets you do:
Refine
This is where you’ll take all that Dust and combine it into an Ounce — the refined component used for crafting. You’ll need a large amount of Dust to perform a successful refinement, so make sure you’ve harvested plenty of Seams or have traded with a friend for all the resources necessary.
Creation
With your Ounces in hand, you’re ready to craft a bit of jewelry. Jewelry crafting in ESO limits you to just rings and necklaces. However, you can make things a bit more interesting by selecting the Material and Trait you’d like to use to craft your new item. New Materials will be unlocked as you level up, and Traits can be learned using the Research option in the crafting menu.
Deconstruct
During your time with ESO, you’ll eventually fill up your inventory with items you no longer need. Instead of selling them, consider deconstructing them. This will destroy the item and provide you with new materials in the process. The higher your level and more powerful the item, the better materials you’ll harvest. If you’re not excited to run around searching for important crafting and improvement components, deconstructing will quickly become your best friend.
One note — only jewelry picked up after the launch of Summerset can be deconstructed. It’s not too big of a deal, but if you’re wondering why you keep running into issues when trying to deconstruct a certain piece of jewelry, this is probably the culprit.
Improvement
If you’re already a fan of your rings or necklace and don’t need to create new ones, crafting stations give you the option to improve their rarity. That means you can keep all their beneficial attributes and take them to the next level. Here are the items — called Bars or Platings — you need to make the jump to the next tier:
- Fine: Terne
- Superior: Iridium
- Epic: Zircon
- Legendary: Chromium
Beyond deconstructing gear, you can also acquire these items by refining Dust. Every time you refine materials, there’s a chance you’ll acquire Grain — which can then be combined and turned into a Plating.
Research
Take an unwanted item and learn an associated Trait. This will let you apply the Trait to any future Jewelry you craft — so long as you have the requisite materials, such as Cobalt for Arcane or Antimony for Healthy. A full list of Traits can be found in-game, but here are some of our favorites:
- Bloodthirsty (Slaughterstone): Increased damage against low-health enemies.
- Arcane (Cobalt): Increased max Magicka.
- Swift (Gilding Wax): Increased non-mounted movement speed.
- Robust (Zinc): Increased max Stamina.
- Triune (Dawn-Prism): Increased Health, Stamina, and Magicka.
Sketches
If you happen across any Furnishings that require jewelry crafting skills, you’ll find them in this tab. Sketches can be found throughout Tamriel, and you’ll often find them by pickpocketing, stealing, looting, or as special rewards for a variety of quests.
ESO jewelry crafting recap
There’s a lot of ground to cover with jewelry crafting, but if all the above has your head spinning, here’s a simple rundown of how it works.
- Gather Dust from Seams.
- Refine 10 Dust into an Ounce — with the possibility of also earning Grain.
- Deconstruct items to earn useful resources.
- Grain can be refined into Platings, which are used to upgrade jewelry.
- Research unwanted items to learn Traits, granting your jewelry unique abilities.
- Craft jewelry using Ounces, infusing it with Traits along the way.
Jewelry crafting closely parallels other crafting professions — such as Blacksmithing or Woodworking — although everything tends to take a bit longer and components are harder to come by. Take your time, plan out your crafting or improvement schedule, and slowly pull together the components you need. Before you know it, you’ll have some of the most powerful accessories in Tamriel.
Quickly level up ESO jewelry crafting
There’s no foolproof way to rapidly increase your level, but most players tend to have luck with the following methods:
- Deconstructing: One of the easiest ways to level up is by deconstructing unwanted items. Not only does this grant great XP, but it also doesn’t require much planning. Just skim through your inventory, select jewelry you don’t need, and with one click you’ve deconstructed it. Other activities — such as crafting, refining, or improving — all require multiple resources and tend to be a slower way to level up your skill. The higher the rarity of the jewelry, the faster you’ll level up when deconstructing.
- Jewelry Crafting Writs: It’s not the greatest source of XP, but it also grants you a decent chunk of gold and crafting materials. You’ll first need to get certified — find Felarian in Alinor — but then you’ll be able to tackle writs every day by heading to an Equipment Crafting Writs board in most cities.