The Elder Scrolls Online Update 51 introduces a new way to experience dungeon content: fully soloable versions of March of Sacrifices and Moon Hunter Keep. These dungeons let players enjoy their stories at their own pace while also offering optional difficulty modifiers for anyone looking for a serious challenge.
Whether you’re after a relaxed adventure or a brutal challenge, the new solo dungeon system has something for you. ArzyeL Gaming has put together a quick overview to help you get familiar with the new solo dungeons and the Misfortune system.
How to Enter the Solo Dungeons
You can access the solo versions of March of Sacrifice and Moon Hunter Keep in two ways.
Players can accept their quests for free through the Crown Store and then teleport directly to the dungeon from the world map. Alternatively, you can travel to their physical locations and enter through the normal dungeon entrances.
The dungeons retain their original layouts, enemies, secrets, and challenges. For example, March of Sacrifices still features the Golden Indrik hunt and its associated buffs.
The major difference is that these versions have been adjusted specifically for solo play.
What Are Misfortunes?
The most interesting feature of solo dungeons is the new Misfortune system.
Before starting a dungeon, you can activate up to three Misfortunes. These work as optional difficulty modifiers that make enemies and encounters more challenging. In exchange, higher difficulty provides better reward opportunities.
The system gives players control over how difficult they want their run to be.
0 Misfortunes: Relaxed Exploration
With no Misfortunes active, the dungeon provides a casual experience. You can focus on exploring, following the quest, discovering secrets, and enjoying the story without worrying about intense combat.
This is a great option for players who primarily want to experience the dungeon without a group.
1 Misfortune: A Step Up
Adding one Misfortune increases the difficulty, but the overall experience remains fairly manageable.
For players familiar with ESO’s combat system and equipped with a decent solo build, this level shouldn’t present too much trouble.
2 Misfortunes: Serious Challenge
Things become much more demanding at two Misfortunes.
Enemies and bosses deal more damage, have increased health, and may appear in greater numbers. Mechanics become much more important, meaning simply relying on damage output may not be enough.
A strong solo build and a good understanding of each encounter can make a major difference.
3 Misfortunes: Brutal Difficulty
Activating all three Misfortunes turns the dungeon into a serious test.
Even regular enemies can become extremely dangerous, and mistakes can result in a quick death. At this level, survival, resource management, positioning, and encounter mechanics all become critical.
The exact difficulty also depends on which Misfortunes you select, as each dungeon has its own modifiers.
Every Dungeon Has Different Misfortunes
One of the most interesting aspects of the system is that Misfortunes aren’t identical across every dungeon.
For example, Moon Hunter Keep features the Alleviating Assault Misfortune, which causes enemies to heal when you deal direct damage to them. This can dramatically change how you approach combat and make certain encounters far more frustrating.
Because each dungeon has its own selection of Misfortunes, players can’t simply use the same strategy for every run.
If you don’t like the modifiers you’ve selected, there’s also a convenient solution. A Reset Hourglass at the entrance allows you to reset the instance and start over.
It’s a simple quality-of-life feature that could be useful in other challenging ESO content as well.
The Same Dungeons You Know
Despite being designed for solo players, these aren’t completely new dungeon environments.
The solo versions retain the same layouts, enemies, secrets, and challenges found in their original group versions. This means players familiar with the traditional dungeons will already have some knowledge of what to expect.
For March of Sacrifices, for example, you can still search for the Golden Indriks and obtain their buffs just as you would in the standard version.
This makes the solo dungeons feel less like simplified copies and more like alternative ways to experience familiar content.
What Rewards Can You Get?
Completing solo dungeons can reward players with a variety of useful and cosmetic items, including:
• New monster sets
• Busts and trophies
• Antiquity leads
• ESO gold and consumables
• Dungeon item set pieces
• Crafting materials
• Undaunted Crests
Higher Misfortune levels can also improve your chances of obtaining available rewards. Runs with two or three Misfortunes guarantee a monster mask item set piece and a bust as part of the rewards.
Undaunted Crests and New Rewards
Undaunted Crests are a new currency earned exclusively from solo dungeons.
You can spend them at Veya Thenim, who can be found at the Undaunted Enclaves. Her offerings include:
• Crafting materials
• Curated item set pieces from the two solo dungeons
• Bound style pages
• Undaunted Key containers
• Undaunted Apothecary’s Parcels
This gives solo players another reason to return to the dungeons beyond simply completing their quests.
Is Solo Dungeon Content Worth Trying?
The new solo dungeon system offers something ESO has been missing: content that can be enjoyed alone without sacrificing meaningful difficulty or rewards.
If you simply want to experience the dungeon story, zero Misfortunes provides a relaxed adventure. If you’re looking for a greater challenge, one or two Misfortunes can put your build and mechanics to the test. And for players who want to push themselves to the limit, three Misfortunes offer a much more punishing experience.
The fact that every dungeon has different Misfortunes also adds variety and encourages players to adjust their builds and strategies.
Overall, ESO Update 51’s solo dungeons are a promising addition for both casual explorers and hardcore solo players. March of Sacrifices and Moon Hunter Keep give players the freedom to choose how they want to experience dungeon content—and how much pain they’re willing to endure along the way.
