Early in your Tamriel adventures, gold may be tight. Purchasing supplies, upgrading gear, and paying for conveniences tend to run you through cash reserves quickly. Fear not, though, as there are a number of ways to make money in Elder Scrolls Online.
Loot Defeated Mobs: The gold and items looted from the corpses of defeated mobs may not be worth a whole lot at first, but they add up. Don’t circumvent enemies as you traverse between quest givers and your objectives. Fill your bags with loot and unload what you don’t want at local vendors. Look for Traveling Merchants along well-trafficked paths to eliminate the need to return to town.
Loot Containers: Containers—such as barrels, crates, pots, urns, and dressers—hold resources, basic gear, Lockpicks, and more. Grab everything you can and sell the goods at a vendor.
Treasure Chests: Keep an eye out for treasure chests that hide throughout Tamriel. A Lockpick can be used to get inside the chest and extract the loot. The higher the lock difficulty, the less time available to pick it, but its contents are typically more valuable.
Thieves Troves: Thieves Troves also provide valuable loot, but there’s no need to pick a lock to get inside. The downside is that any items swiped from the container are marked as stolen, so they must be fenced or laundered. Thieves Troves require the Thieves Guild DLC to open.
Gather Resources: Gather resources as you explore the Tamriel wilderness, even if you don’t plan to take part in crafting. Sell the materials to Merchants for a little gold, or better yet, sell them to other players for a bigger profit. As your level increases, higher-level resources are found, which in turn sell for more gold.
Fill Soul Gems: You may not want to make a business of it, but filling empty Soul Gems with enemy souls can make a decent profit. A filled gem sells for much more than an empty gem.
Complete Quests: Earn gold by simply completing quests. Story quests, zone quests, guild quests, and crafting writs are all rewarded with gold, Experience, and occasionally valuable items. Progressing through quest lines sends you to new locations, which provide more opportunities to earn money and experience.
Daily Quests: Numerous daily quests become available throughout Tamriel that offer new jobs each day. The Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, and Undaunted all offer repeatable quests. Cyrodiil and the Battlegrounds provide daily tasks in PvP areas. In Vvardenfell, find new daily quests in Ald’ruhn and Vivec City after following their respective vector quests.
Run Dungeons, Repeat: Exclusive equipment sets are available as drops in the dungeons of Tamriel. To complete the sets, though, you must run the dungeons multiple times. Sell unwanted gear for a decent profit. As a bonus, the multiple runs through the dungeons earn a great amount of Experience and gold.
Destroy the Dark Anchors: Keep an eye and ear out for active Dolmens around Tamriel. These world events are heard and seen from far away, and anyone in the area can participate. Help defeat three waves of Daedra and Undead to complete the event and receive a chest full of valuable loot.
Theft: For those who don’t mind breaking the law, pickpocketing, trespassing, and burglary can net a decent profit. Visit a Fence at any Outlaws Refuge, where you can sell the treasures for 100% profit or launder them to keep them. Invest in the Legerdemain and Thieves Guild skill lines to improve thievery abilities. Get caught breaking the law and you could end up losing the stolen items and paying a fine.
Crafting: Crafting armor and weapons not only gives your character access to gear, but it can be lucrative selling the items to fellow players. The more trade skills you take part in, though, the more places you have to spend Skill Points.
Buy a Mount: A mount is expensive, but the travel time saved and increased storage space mean a mount can pay for itself over time. Use the mount and its Sprint ability to reach your destination quicker.
Player Guilds: Join guilds for the ability to sell and trade items with guildmates. Guilds with at least 50 members are able to open a Guild Store. Guilds also have the ability to bid on Guild Traders throughout Tamriel, allowing players in the group to sell items to all players. Due to the convenience of these traders, and with a good location, this can be incredibly lucrative. Players can join up to five guilds.
PvP: After reaching Level 10, players can participate in player-versus-player (PvP) combat in Cyrodiil. Play through the introductory quests to learn the basics of the Alliance War, gain some gold and Alliance Points, and receive a free forward camp. Alliance Points can be spent at Merchants in Cyrodiil for exclusive items.