15.01.2025
How do Champion Points work in ESO? A quick beginner guide!
There are so many ways to make your character stronger in ESO. You unlock a particularly big number of them when you reach the maximum level. The most prominent one must be the Champion Points system as it's unlocked as soon as you hit 50 lvl.
Not all players, however – especially those that have just 1 max level character – fully understand how to make the most out of it. In this brief but detailed blog post we'll tell you all you need to know about this progression system. Whether you're new to it or just want to brush up your knowledge, you'll surely find it useful! Let's go!
So as you can see, each of those branches focuses on a particular part of the gameplay: the Green branch deals with various quality-of-life improvements, crafting, and other out-of-combat things, the Blue branch deals with dealing more damage or healing, and the Red branch mainly contains perks that improve your survivability.
The Blue and Red branches have noticeably more perks than the Green one – have you noticed that? The reason for that is the sub-branches that those 2 branches have.
And here's a list of sub-branches of the Red branch (Fitness):
As you can see, they don't really have many perks each but in total they make a considerable chunk of all the branch's effect kit.
Here's what the coolest of them (Imperial Chancellor) looks like:
What are Champion Points in ESO?
Let's start with a definition: Champion Points are a progression system that you unlock after reaching the maximum character level (50). Unlike regular levels, this progress system is horizontal: it means that you can develop your character in every way within it. What does it mean exactly?With the Champion system you collect points to unlock new perks. But you can unlock any of them, you don't just get them unlocked for you automatically upon accumulating a certain amount of points. Compare that with levels: you get a particular new ability upon reaching a particular level and you can't reset your levels and choose other abilities. With Champion Points you are much more flexible.
You have a vast skill tree to choose perks from. The tree has 3 branches and you can activate 4 active bonuses for each of them at once. There are plenty of passive bonuses too, though, that work for you in the background without having to be activated. We'll explore perks in detail a bit later. Now let's find out how you actually collect Champion Points to unlock any perks in the first place.
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How do you collect champion points?
You can start collecting Champion Points as soon as you've reached level 50. They are practically the same as levels and you get experience for them the very same way. Complete quests, defeat enemies, do dungeons and trials, and so on.As for champion perks – the bonuses that you unlock with champion points – you need to spend some time collecting points before unlocking them. You can click any perk in the tree UI to see how many points you need to unlock them.
Some perks have several ranks. So you can first unlock their lowest rank and get a minor bonus. Then you can keep investing champion points in that perk to make that bonus more powerful and impactful.
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What types of Champion Perks are there?
Oh, there are lots and lots of champion perks for you to choose from. They all are quite valuable and can make your character stronger. But there are some slightly confusing things about them that we'll help you clear up right now.If you prefer videos over text, here's a brief video showcasing the system (by Dottz Gaming):
Branches
First of all, let's talk about the perk tree. There's a special tree-like UI where all those Champion Perks are located and that tree has 3 major branches:
| # | BRANCH | COLOR | PERKS' FOCUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Craft | Green | Sneaking, unlawful activities, crafting |
| 2 | Warfare | Blue | Dealing damage or healing |
| 3 | Fitness | Red | Resilience: reducing, avoiding, & mitigating damage |
As a rule of thumb, the 3 branches are usually described as follows:
- Green is good for exploring the world and doing solo content
- Blue is good for PvE
- Red is good for PvP
But maxing out just one branch won't work. One reason for that is a strong character is a well-balanced character which means that you should be able to do more than just one thing to succeed. Another reason is the fact that you can only use 4 bonus perks from each of the branches at once. To understand that better we need to see what perks each of those branches can actually contain.
Perks
Each perk can be either passive or active. Passives work exactly as any other passive in the game: you unlock it and it remains active for as long as it's unlocked. The only way you can turn it off is by resetting your Champion Perks.
Actives are a bit less intuitive. What makes them "active" is the fact that, unlike passives, they should be equipped in special slots. It doesn't mean, however, that they are active abilities: they are not, you can't cast or use them. They are passive improvements but since they are stronger and more impactful than most other passives, you can only use 4 of them per branch at a time.
So here's another reason to invest champion points in all the branches: you need those 12 slots filled with perks. It won't make much sense to just limit yourself to one branch because there's no way you'll be able to fill more than 4 slots with its perks.
Okay, so now let's see how many perks of each type does each of the branches have:
| # | BRANCH | COLOR | PERKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Craft | Green | 19 Active – 9 Passive |
| 2 | Warfare | Blue | 38 Active – 8 Passive |
| 3 | Fitness | Red | 31 Active – 10 Passive |
Want to learn more about what perks are there in those branches? Here's a video by Dottz Gaming showing some builds:
Sub-Branches
Yeah, so it gets a bit more complex. Sub-branches are quite simple to grasp though: the Blue and Red branches (also known as constellations due to their visual representation) have 3 sub-branches each. Here are the sub-branches (sub-constellations) of the Blue branch (Warfare):
| # | SUB-BRANCH | FOCUS | PERKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Extended Might | Damage & penetration | 5 Passive – 3 Active |
| 2 | Mastered Curation | Healing & support | 1 Passive – 4 Active |
| 3 | Staving Death | Damage resistance & healing | 4 Passive – 2 Active |
| # | SUB-BRANCH | FOCUS | PERKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Survivor's Spite | Pushing back & fighting against the odds | 1 Passive – 3 Active |
| 2 | Walking Fortress | Blocking | 1 Passive – 3 Active |
| 3 | Wind Chaser | Movement speed & sprinting | 1 Passive – 3 Active |
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Are there any Champion Points-related rewards?
Actually, yes, there are. You don't just get more points to spend on perks. You also get access to Veteran dungeons (basically, it happens as soon as you reach level 50) and 4 great costumes:| CHAMPION LEVEL | REWARD |
|---|---|
| 10 | Veteran dungeons unlocked |
| 20 | Golden Saint costume |
| 60 | Dark Seducer costume |
| 100 | Mannmarco costume |
| 160 | Imperial Chancellor costume |
Many Champion Points unlock powerful gear
Raising your Champion Point number to 160 lets you use powerful equipment! And we can help you get a very lovely set of armor with the help of a dedicated 160 CP Gear boost – quickly and securely!
What are the fastest ways to collect Champion Points in ESO?
Collecting Champion Points is essentially the same as leveling up. You collect experience and get a point every time when you fill the XP bar. There are some ways to speed that up, however:- Use buffs
- Use scrolls / drinks
- Grind mobs
- Do activities with high XP yield
Let's take a look at each of them in detail! Alternatively, here's a video by Tryiest giving his idea on the best ways to collect experience for your CP progress:
1. Use buffs
There are several ways to activate passive effects that increase your experience gains. The easiest one is Enlightenment. You automatically get 400'000 experience worth of Enlightenment daily. What it means is that as long as you have this effect, you earn 4 times as much experience. And you can get 400K more Enlightenment experience daily for 12 days running for a total of 4.8 Million experience! That's a lot! And you don't even have to do anything for that – just log in and play!
Other bonuses can be activated in these ways:
- +10% XP for each epic (purple) or better Armor piece of Weapon you're wearing
- +10% XP for active ESO Plus membership
- +10% XP for being married (both you and your partner must wear the rings)
- +10% XP for playing in a group
- +100% XP during various game events (Witches, New Life Festival, etc)
Most of those things are not that hard to achieve. You can start by playing in a group most of the time – any random player will do and you'll both benefit from it.
2. Use Scrolls & Drinks
Unlike the buffs from the previous section, scrolls and drinks can't be stacked. It means that you can only have one experience-increasing effect from them at once. But it doesn't mean that you can just disregard them: if you want to power level, you should always have such an effect active. Here are several examples of what those consumables can be:
- +50% XP from Psijic Ambrosia Drink or XP scroll
- +100% XP from Aetherial Ambrosia Drink or XP scroll
- +150% XP from Mythic Aetherial Ambrosia Drink of XP scroll
They all can be crafted.
3. Grind mobs
Since earning Champion Points is similar to leveling up, grinding mobs is a valid strategy for it as well! The best way to do it is in an instanced area with lots of mobs and 1 teammate (both for the XP boost for being in a team and to help you grind more effectively). The 2 best places to do that are Skyreach Catacombs and Blackrose Prison, according to the ESO community.
The Skyreach Catacombs grind in the Upper Craglorn is pretty straightforward. You just come to the Catacombs and start destroying anything that moves there. Once you've run out of targets, you let the dungeon reset. 2 great advantages of this destination are: it's base-game (everyone can access it) and it helps you improve the reputation with the Fighters Guild. The only downside is that if you're looking for the absolutely best source of experience, it's not the Catacombs. They are close to that as they are a solid number 2 on this list but if you're absolutely positive you need the best yield of experience per hour, consider the Blackrose Prison.
Blackrose Prison is the best source of XP for your Champion Level. Note that it's not base-game and you need an active ESO Plus membership or a particular DLC purchased to venture into it. It's located in Murkmire and you need the Normal version of this arena for the optimal power leveling – the Veteran will be too hard and you'll likely get wiped out too often. So when inside the prison get to round 2. Let one player die and the other should pick up a Resurrection Sigil and die too right after. As you both lie dead on the floor, let the player with the sigil activate it and you'll both come back to life and respawn ads. The ads are what you need: repeat this operation as many times as you can and get tons of XP. Just make sure to bring along some repair kits as dying that often won't leave your equipment intact.
Are there other good grinding spots? Sure, plenty of them. Those 2 are the most often mentioned when Champion Points power leveling is discussed. But it's likely that you personally can find a better place to grind than those 2 we've mentioned.
4. Do activities with high XP yield
We recommend considering the Random Daily Dungeon challenge and Battleground Dailies. Even if you don't really enjoy those activities, leveling up your Champion Level fast is best when you complete those things. Also you can do craft writs on each character for lots of experience, and so on.
* * *
And just like that – you now know everything you need to know about Champion Points in ESO. So if you want to significantly power up your character, you should start working on increasing the number of available Champion Points right now to get access to as many perks as possible.
If you don't think you can do it fast on your own, you always have us: a professional team of experienced players willing to help you get as many CPs as you want. Find a Champion Points Farm service as well as many other useful boosts for Elder Scrolls Online in the special dedicated section on our website! Or get in touch with us to learn more or make a custom order!
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