Is ESO Worth Playing Without ESO Plus? Yes, Absolutely.

The short answer is yes, Elder Scrolls Online is absolutely still worth playing and enjoyable without an active ESO Plus membership. While the subscription service offers some nice quality-of-life perks and conveniences, it is not at all necessary to have hundreds or even thousands of hours of adventuring through Tamriel.

ESO Plus primarily provides bonuses and unlocks for convenience, inventory management, and access to DLC zones. However, you can still fully enjoy the core gameplay experience of questing, PvP, dungeoning, crafting, housing, and exploration without it.

Let‘s take a deeper look at the pros and cons of playing without ESO Plus – as well as some tips for making the most out of the base game.

What Do You Get with ESO Plus?

First, a quick refresher on what features ESO Plus actually provides. The ESO Plus membership grants subscribers:

• Full access to all DLC zones and dungeons
• A Craft Bag for unlimited storage of crafting materials
• 1650 Crowns per month to spend in the in-game Crown Store
• Double bank space for characters (240 slots)
• 10% bonus to XP, gold, inspiration, research
• Double furnished items in player housing (200 limit)
• Exclusive ability to dye costumes

Of those benefits, the two most significant are the Craft Bag and access to DLC content. The Craft Bag provides essentially infinite storage for crafting materials – a huge quality of life boost.

Meanwhile, DLC zones like Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Orsinium offer dozens of hours of additional questing and content.

So in summary – inventory management and content access are the big things you‘ll be missing out on without ESO Plus. Let‘s examine the impact of not having those benefits and how to play around it.

Downsides of Playing Without ESO Plus

Here are some of the biggest challenges you‘ll face and sacrifices you‘ll make when playing ESO without a Plus membership:

Limited Inventory Space

One of the most immediately obvious downsides is having extremely limited inventory space. Without the Craft Bag, all of the materials you gather will fill up your inventory quickly.

This means you‘ll have to take frequent trips to merchants to sell off unneeded items just to free up space. You can‘t hoard too many materials for crafting either. It‘s a hassle.

However, here are some tips to better manage inventory:

• Regularly sell unneeded weapons, armor, and materials
• Increase inventory capacity with gold as possible
• Research item traits to allow reconstruction later
• Store excess materials in bank or on alternate characters

While inventory management will be a chore, it is still feasible long-term. Just requires some added diligence.

No Automatic Access to DLC Zones

The other major loss is automatically unlocked access to all the DLC zones. These offer some of ESO‘s best story questing, locations, and dungeons.

Without ESO Plus, you would need to purchase DLC zones separately (or acquire with Crowns) if you want to play through that content.

The good news is that there are hundreds of hours of content in the base game zones alone. So you aren‘t missing out on core gameplay – just some optional zones you can save for later.

You can also access the DLC dungeons through the activity finder by joining groups willing to travel to those locations.

Slower Progression

Some of the more minor downsides include:

• Loss of the 10% XP and gold acquisition bonuses
• Only 100 furnishing limit in player housing
• No free monthly Crown allowance

These won‘t dramatically affect overall enjoyment, but they are nice bonuses that improve the pace of progression.

You‘ll level up, acquire gold, and furnish your home slightly slower. And you‘ll need to be selective when buying items from the Crown Store without that monthly stipend.

The Cost of DLCs Separately

If you did want to purchase all of the DLC zones at once, here is a breakdown of the costs:

Buying all the story DLCs at once would cost around $137 versus $15 per month for ESO Plus. Alternatively, you could strategically buy only certain DLCs when they are on sale.

Tips for Enjoying ESO Without ESO Plus

While ESO Plus brings some quality of life benefits, you can absolutely still enjoy hundreds of hours in Tamriel without it. Here are some tips:

• Join a guild – guildmates can craft gear so you don‘t need as many materials

• Use zone guide – guides you to important quests and locations in each zone

• Develop crafting early – research traits ASAP, even if not crafting yet

• Only keep necessary materials – don‘t hoard lower level materials

• Increase mount speed – faster movement means less inventory filling up

• Stick to base game areas – no need to buy DLC zones right away

• Sell unneeded equipment – don‘t let it sit unused in inventory

• Get the bankers & merchants – unlockable assistants provide mobile services

• Use alts for storage – create alternate characters to hold materials

Following those tips, you can easily enjoy the core ESO experience even without a craft bag gobbling up materials or instant DLC access.

Is ESO Worth Playing in 2022 Without ESO Plus?

Absolutely.

Despite being over 8 years old now, The Elder Scrolls Online has aged like a fine wine. The game saw its highest ever player population in 2021, and continues going strong into 2022.

Since launch, ESO has added:

• 27+ zones with hundreds of hours of questing
• Over 80 dungeons
• 10+ 12-player trials
• Robust PvP with the Alliance War
• In-depth housing and furnishing
• Antiquity system for scavenger hunts
• Companions to adventure alongside you
• An excellent transmogrification system

All of that core content is playable without ESO Plus. The subscription simply enhances inventory management and optionally unlocks DLC zones you can save for later.

The base game zones alone offer more than enough content to keep you adventuring for months. And the thriving community provides plenty of opportunities for dungeon groups, trading guilds, and social interaction.

For newcomers to the game, I strongly recommend playing for a while without ESO Plus to experience the core gameplay.

After investing dozens of hours and reaching higher levels, you‘ll have a better sense of whether the quality of life benefits justify the subscription cost.

But ESO remains a top-notch MMORPG and absolutely worth playing even without the optional membership.