The Elder Scrolls Online has officially begun its year-long Dark Heart of Skyrim event with the launch of the Harrowstorm DLC today. Harrowstorm is now available on PC and Mac, and will come to PS4 and Xbox One on Tuesday, March 10.
Harrowstorm is essentially a bite-sized precursor to Greymoor, a larger expansion coming this summer which takes players to Western Skyrim. It sets up the events of Greymoor and introduces two new dungeons: the Unhallowed Grave and Icereach.
The Unhallowed Grave is largely built around the grappling hook seen in the Dragonhold DLC. "One of the goals for Unhallowed Grave was to reward players who like to explore and feel like delvers in the dark," says dungeon lead Mike Finnigan. "The grappling hooks allowed us to provide an interesting traversal method in the dungeon and kick it up a notch in boss fights. As a result, it’s fully integrated within the dungeon in how you travel, battle its bosses, and even discover its secrets."
Icereach, meanwhile, features the sisters of the Icereach Coven. "There are different interactions with each sister and her ally," Finnigan says. "Some of those interactions are complementary, while some, such as Sister Hiti and Skelga, are actually in competition. Using the powers of Hiti and Skelga against each other is key to defeating the encounter." These mechanics come together in the final fight against Mother Ciannait, who's joined by all previous sisters.
Harrowstorm also comes with a few performance improvements, as well as a massive improvement to the game's storage footprint. "This change dramatically reduces the amount of space ESO takes up on a player’s hard drive," Bethesda says, but it will require players to re-download the entire game. The good news is that you'll get a Crimson Torchbug pet for your troubles, and you'll have more space on your drive at the end.
ESO's return to Skyrim was first announced in December 2019 with a spicy trailer for the Season of the Dragon.
"It makes me sick": Skyrim modder with 475,000 downloads, fed up with "daily harassment," abandons modding after "thousands of hours" of work on what she calls "the most advanced follower to ever exist"
Former The Elder Scrolls Online lead says Bethesda was such an amazing partner that it was harder to make a WoW-free MMO than it was to make a good Elder Scrolls MMO
