How to Become the Emperor in ESO

Emperor ArmorOne of the main incentives to participate in PvP in Elder Scrolls Online is conquering Cyrodiil with your alliance and having one of your fellow players be crowned Emperor. That’s right – you can become the Emperor in ESO. The Ruby Throne of Tamriel lies empty, and the three alliances: Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant and Ebonheart Pact are in war with each other, rushing to have one of their own rule Cyrodiil.

The Alliance War affects every player on Tamriel in one way or another. This is mostly visible to those who enjoy PvP and visit Cyrodiil on a regular basis, the central province of Tamriel and the stage of player vs. player combat in Elder Scrolls Online.

This short guide will explain what it takes to become the Emperor of Tamriel in Elder Scrolls Online, and what kind of incentives are in place for striving to become one.

ESO Emperor

Congratulations, Emperor Kip!

Players in the rest of Tamriel will be notified of the Alliance War’s progress even if they are not fighting for their alliance themselves. Global messages will be broadcast when one of the Elder Scrolls are taken or captured, and most importantly, when a new Emperor is crowned. Participating in the Alliance War to help your alliance is of course a good idea, but you will still reap the rewards of your alliance’s success even if you choose not to participate in PvP. If your alliance does well in a campaign, everyone in your alliance can earn bonuses to gold and experience gains, combat boosts and much more.

How to Become Emperor

Becoming Emperor is not an easy task, but is certainly something you want to strive for, as you’ll find out later on in this article.

The first requirement is that your alliance must simultaneously hold all six keeps surrounding the Imperial City. There’s a total of 18 keeps in Cyrodiil, and by default every alliance holds six of them. The keeps that matter towards Emperorship are the six keeps around the Imperial City. Control all of them, and a new Emperor will emerge.

The player who has accumulated most alliance points in the campaign will be crowned Emperor. Alliance points are awarded for participating in PvP. You can get alliance points by killing enemy players, healing your allies, capturing keeps and other resources such as mines, lumber mills, farms and outposts. You will also gain alliance points by completing various repeatable quests in Cyrodiil – there’s quests which focus on PvP such as bounties, which ask you to defeat a number of enemy players, scout quests which ask you to go and scout a strategic location in Cyrodiil, and conquer quests, which will reward you for capturing a specific resource. These are just some of the quests you will find in Cyrodiil. There are also more PvE friendly quests in Cyrodiil, but keep in mind that Cyrodiil is a province in war and enemy players can sneak up on you at any given time.

It’s needless to say that to become an Emperor, you must put some serious commitment into PvP. Doing well on its own is not enough – you need to have more alliance points that anyone else in your alliance. This can be achieved by doing the right things, at the right places, at the right time. And by playing A LOT. We’ll do a more comprehensive guide on how to gain alliance points in the near future – keep an eye out for it.

To sum it up:

  • Be the player with the most alliance points in your alliance.
  • Have your alliance control all six keeps around Imperial City.
  • ???
  • Profit.

Emperor Perks

There’s a bunch of incentives for becoming the Emperor in ESO:

  • Emperor of Tamriel title. Seriously, who would not want to be called “The Emperor”?
  • Gain access to Emperor Armor – this is an outfit which can be worn on your current gear. The stats of your gear will not change when this outfit is worn.
  • Gain the Emperor Skill Line – this is one of the Alliance War Skill Lines and it is only awarded for Emperors. Once you have been crowned Emperor, you will always have access to the skill line, but as a former Emperor the skills will not be as powerful as they will be for the current Emperor. You’ll find that many of the skills will still be very, very useful.

Emperor Skill Line

Here’s the Emperor Skill Line. It consists of passive skills, and they will change depending on the status of your Emperorship. Many of the skills will be different to former Emperors.

Emperor Skills
Passive Domination

  • After capturing a lumber mill, farm, mine, or keep: Increase weapon damage by 10% and Magicka and Stamina regeneration by 20% for 10 minutes.
Passive Authority

  • While Emperor: Increase Ultimate gains by 200%.
  • As a former Emperor:
    Increase Ultimate gains by 4%.
Passive Monarch

  • While Emperor: Increases the magnitude of healing effects on Emperors by 50%.
  • As a former Emperor: Increases the magnitude of healing effects on Emperors by 1%.
Passive Tactician

  • While Emperor: Increase siege weapon damage by 400%.
  • As a former Emperor: Increase siege weapon damage by 8%.
Passive Emperor

  • While Emperor:
    Increase Health, Magicka and Stamina regeneration by 100% while in your campaign.