Trade and crafting
Item rarity
How loot is graded from Common to Legendary, what decides the odds, and where the named Legendary pieces come from.
Weapons, armour and jewellery that drop are graded on a ladder of seven rungs. The system is on by default and forced on online. It sits on top of the drop tables in Loot and drops: those decide what falls, this decides how good it is.
| Rung | Colour | How you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Common | White | The rule. Most pieces. |
| Magic | Blue | One or two affixes from Item affixes. |
| Rare | Yellow | Three or four affixes. |
| Legendary | Orange | One of the named pieces, with fixed bonuses, an enchantment and a special power. |
| Aetheric | Pale blue | Not rolled by the ladder. These are the set armour pieces. |
| Artifact | Purple | Not rolled by the ladder. See Artifacts. |
| Gilded | Gold | The top rung. At present a single weapon, The Hourlock. |
What decides the odds
Each source has a tier, and the ladder gives three thresholds in thousandths: the chance of getting at least Magic, at least Rare, and Legendary.
| Rung | Starts at | Adds per tier | Never above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magic | 10% | 1.5% | 60% |
| Rare | 1.5% | 0.6% | 26% |
| Legendary | 0.1% | 0.12% | 4.5% |
Then three things multiply it, before the cap:
- The source. A corpse counts once, a treasure pile 1.3 times and a boss 2.5 times.
- Your Luck. One percent for each point over 50, from half at Luck 0 to half again at Luck 100.
- Finders. Foxglove makes Legendaries half again as likely, and a long dry spell does too (see below). They multiply with each other.
Rare is never likelier than Magic, and Legendary is never likelier than Rare.
Try the odds
Pick a source, move Luck and add the finders. Move over the chart to read each rung at a tier.
Where the tier comes from
- A corpse has the tier of the foe’s level. A Daedra, or any foe of level 18 or more, is a boss.
- A treasure pile takes the tier of its dungeon: Cemetery 3, Mine and Natural Cave 4, Prison,
Spider Nest and Scorpion Nest 5, Human Stronghold and Ruined Castle 6, Harpy Nest 7, 
Giant Stronghold 8, Crypt and Orc Stronghold 9, Laboratory 10, Barbarian Stronghold 11, Coven 13, 
Vampire Haunt 14, Desecrated Temple 15, Dragon’s Den and Volcanic Caves 18. A tavern’s or guild’s treasure marker is tier 4.
Plain foes are stingier
An ordinary foe with no title and no boss rank rolls on a lower ladder, and carries at most 3 items, gold included (5 in an Elite Dungeon):
| Rung | Starts at | Adds per tier | Never above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magic | 5% | 0.5% | 19% |
| Rare | 0.6% | 0.12% | 3.8% |
| Legendary | 0.015% | 0.0075% | 0.3% |
Titled foes (elite, champions, revenants, named foes) and bosses use the full ladder above, and the Wild Zone doubles what a foe carries. Online, the plain ladder moves a little with Renown.
Finding a particular Legendary
A Legendary is never in a monster’s own loot list. A weapon, armour or jewellery piece has to drop first, and if that piece rolls Legendary on the ladder above, the game picks one named record that fits it. Each record belongs to a family of sources, and a source of that family weighs it five to one against the other records that fit the same piece.
| Family | Its treasure piles | Its foes |
|---|---|---|
| Undead | Crypt, Vampire Haunt, Ruined Castle, Cemetery |  Skeletal Warrior,  Zombie,  Ghost,  Mummy,  Wraith, Vampire,  Ancient Vampire,  Lich,  Ancient Lich |
| Daedra | Desecrated Temple, Volcanic Caves | The Daedra, the atronachs, the imp and the gargoyle |
| Dragon | Dragon’s Den | The two dragonlings |
| Beast | Natural Cave, Harpy Nest, Spider Nest, Scorpion Nest | The animals, werecreatures and the wild and water creatures |
| Orc and giant | Orc Stronghold, Giant Stronghold | Orcs, the giant |
| Spell-casting | Coven, Laboratory | Mage, Spellsword, Battlemage, Sorcerer, Healer, Nightblade |
| Rogue | Prison | Bard, Burglar, Rogue, Acrobat, Thief, Assassin |
| Warrior | Human Stronghold, Barbarian Stronghold | Monk, Archer, Ranger, Barbarian, Warrior, Knight,  City Watch |
A Mine has no family. Every Legendary has its own Where to find it box, with the places and the odds worked out from the game’s numbers: open it from the Legendary items list, where the Best places column answers the question at a glance. Every base item (a 
Short Bow, a 
Dagger) shows the Legendaries that can be made from it, and the loot tables that can drop its kind.
What it comes to
At Luck 50, with no finders:
| Source | At least Magic | At least Rare | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain foe, level 1 | 5.5% | 0.72% | 0.02% |
| Plain foe, level 5 | 7.5% | 1.2% | 0.05% |
| Plain foe, level 10 | 10% | 1.8% | 0.09% |
| Plain foe, level 17 | 13.5% | 2.6% | 0.14% |
| Titled foe, level 10 | 25% | 7.5% | 1.3% |
| Boss, level 18 | 60% | 26% | 4.5% |
| Pile in a Mine | 20.8% | 5.1% | 0.75% |
| Pile in a Crypt | 30.6% | 9% | 1.5% |
| Pile in a Dragon’s Den | 48.1% | 16% | 2.9% |
Luck 100 lifts a Dragon’s Den pile to 60% Magic, 24% Rare and 4.4% Legendary. Foxglove alone lifts its Legendary to 4.4%.
Which Legendary drops
The ladder decides whether a Legendary drops; the piece is then picked from the thirty named ones. Every piece is found among a family of foes, and a source of that family weighs its own pieces five times as much as the rest: undead, Daedra, dragons, beasts, orcs and giants, casters, rogues and warriors. A dungeon’s piles follow the kind of dungeon.
The dry spell
Every piece of weapon, armour or jewellery you take below Legendary adds one to a counter, and a Legendary or better empties it. For every 25 pieces the Legendary chance is multiplied by a further 0.2, up to three times the normal chance after 250.
Related
- Every named piece: Legendary items
- Every kind of bonus: Item affixes
- Weapon special attacks: Weapon techniques
- The Daedric Princes’ sets: Set armour
- What falls from a corpse in the first place: Loot and drops
Category: Trade and crafting