Getting to level 10 fast is the goal of most players in The Elder Scrolls Online because that’s when you to get to Alliance War battles in Cyrodiil, or PvP. However, around level seven, the XP curve takes a sharp dip and you often find yourself struggling. Most people estimate it’ll be around two weeks before the vast majority of players hit level 10 from when they start, although I don’t believe it’ll take that long myself.

This guide is more or less some advice on how to get to level ten as fast as possible.

Starting Off (Levels 1 - 4)

First things first, there is no way to get through Coldharbour quicker. You just have to grab your bootstraps and get through the zone, unless you already have done it before in which case high five. Anyway, your first step is to conquer Coldharbour, spend your first skill point (on a direct damage skill) and get into the open world.

You’re now going to be in the first major town (like Davon’s Watch). Your goal now is to skip all of the quests here except for Fighter’s and Mage’s guild (just do the introduction lines to pick up the skill lines) and then move on to “newbie island.”

Before you begin questing, you’re going to need to change a few options. Most importantly you’re going to want auto-loot and area loot on, to save yourself some time while looting. You’re also going to want to use any food items you find as soon as possible, they make a huge difference in how efficient you are.

Oh, if you have the Imperial Edition, go ahead and buy your horse from the first major city at the stables (open your map and find the horse’s head). It’ll be one gold piece and it can help with traveling slightly.

Skyshards

Collect three skyshards and you get a skill point. This skill point can help a ton early on because it can give you another active skill or morph one of your early ones. Without spoiling their location, you can get hints based on the achievements for each zone.

Newbie Island (Levels 3 - 6)

Once you’re on newbie island your goal is to do every quest possible there and luckily enough there is an achievement that tracks how many quests are left. It’s for every starting island and lists the people you have yet to save. You’re going to want to save all of them, because most of these quests are short, simple, and fruitful in rewards. It’ll also give you one huge advantage - you’ll out level the content you’re moving on to.

The game is built with exploration in mind, this is true, but it’s also built around the idea that you do most of the side quests before you move on. So side questing is something you’re definitely going to want to do a ton of. Once you “rescue” all of the people on the island, you’ll want to push forward with the storyline quest which is going to take you to newbie zone 1.

Newbie Zone 1 (Levels 6 - 8)

The first zone after newbie island is going to be a slightly bigger challenge for you because it’s not only shorter than the first island, but it’s going to be a bit tougher. Enemies can now pose a challenge to you and you can be overwhelmed, plus the heavy use of phasing can be disorienting, but fear now. By now you should be level six and this zone will get you through to level seven and a little bit beyond, putting you at only needing a few more levels to go, which is easily doable in…

Newbie Zone 2 (Levels 7 - 10)

The next zone is the return to the major city you first seen at the start of your adventure. You’re going to want to again do this entire zone, but luckily for you since you did all of the quests at the start, you’re now at a huge advantage since most of the content in this zone maxes out at level 11 or 12 and you should be almost level eight by now, or at least somewhere in level seven. There are a ton of quests at the start, including your main story line picking back up and defending the major city. You can also explore more of the Fighter’s and Mage’s quest lines.

The Key of Exploration

The big thing is to do as many quests as possible and they’re all located randomly throughout the world. You actually have to explore, which isn’t hard since it feels like almost any direction you go you’ll find an NPC or two who have a quest for you. So just put on your walking shoes and look around.

Summary

So there you have it, the fastest way to level is just to do as many quests as you can early on so that you build up a strong over-level for content in the first major map like Stonefalls. Failure to do so will result in you being under-leveled which will make questing hard if not impossible, with a lot of deaths and a lot of walking back, which is going to slow you down. Being slowed down means that you can’t get to level 10 quickly and you can’t join in the fun of PvP.

As a side note, I can get to level 10 in about a day with a few super solid hours of playtime. So it’s not difficult, as long as you follow these tips and are very cautious about moving to the next map without cleaning the previous map. It makes the world of difference and you should take all the easy XP you can get.