ESO Witches Festival 2026 guide: dates, double XP, Plunder Skulls and style pages

The Witches Festival 2026 is live in The Elder Scrolls Online. It started on Wednesday, October 21 at 10 a.m. ET (11 a.m. Brasília) and runs until Wednesday, November 4. For two weeks every character gets double XP, the first boss you kill each day pays out a legendary Plunder Skull plus 300 Trade Bars, and the new Zhekleg style pages join the loot pool.

How to start the event

Grab the free quest The Witchmother’s Bargain from the Quest Starters section of the Crown Store, or pick it up at Olyve’s Brewery in Glenumbra, Stonefalls or Auridon. If you finished it in a past year, you can skip it. The quest rewards the Witchmother’s Whistle: use it from Collections to summon a cauldron, drink, and you turn into a skeleton.

Double XP

While the festival runs, every character gets a passive 100% bonus to all XP. This is the best window of the season to level alts or push Champion Points.

Daily quests

• Plucking the Crow: built for small groups, rewards the Dremora Plunder Skull, Crownborne Horror.
• The Lord of Fear: built for large groups, rewards the Dremora Plunder Skull, Lord Hollowjack.

Each can be done once per day per character. Both skulls have the normal Dremora rewards plus a very rare jackpot with every Zhekleg or Dremora style page.

Plunder Skulls and Trade Bars

The first time each day you kill one of the boss types below, you get a legendary Dremora Plunder Skull and 300 Trade Bars. Every boss after that gives an epic Plunder Skull. Between the two dailies and the first boss of the day, ZeniMax says you can earn up to 10 legendary skulls a day, and there is no cap on regular skulls.

Style pages: which boss drops what

The boss type decides which Dremora style page a legendary skull can contain:

Boss type	Dremora style pages
Arena final bosses	Bows or Legs
Invasion bosses	Daggers or Gloves
Delve bosses	Staves or Belts
Dungeon final bosses	Helmets or Maces
Public dungeon bosses	Shields or Boots
Trial final bosses	Swords or Chests
World bosses	Shoulders or Axes
Tho’at Replicanum (Infinite Archive)	Any weapon

Legendary skulls can also hold Zhekleg style pages (new this year), Glenmoril Wyrd treasure maps and style pages, and Witchy Writs that reward Hollowjack style pages. Epic skulls drop the Witches Festival motif, alchemy reagents, furnishings, furnishing recipes and provisioning recipes.

What to buy from the Impresario

The Impresario takes Trade Bars for the whole event. The stock includes older Witches Festival rewards such as the Crowborn Hunter, Soulspun Wicker and Grave Dancer style pages, plus this year’s Sanguine fragments:

• Grotto of Desires house: first fragment, Floating Desires Petal.
• Roseblood Bat pet: Crimson Bat Statuette, Red Rose Petals, Sharp Rosebush Thorn.
• Roseblood Wings recall: Embellished Dance Card, Rosy Boutonniere, Sanguine’s Goodbye Kiss.
• Thorn’s Bite Withersteed mount: Blooming Saddle, Gilded Stirrups, Withered Antlers.

A simple daily route

1. Do Plucking the Crow and The Lord of Fear on your main.
2. Kill one boss of the type whose style page you want (a delve boss is the fastest).
3. On alts, repeat the quick delve boss for another legendary skull and 300 Trade Bars each.
4. Spend the rest of the session on content you were already doing: every boss still drops an epic skull, and the XP is doubled.

The festival overlaps with Season Two: Echoes of Skyrim. For the full month, see our ESO October 2026 checklist, and for the latest base game changes read the Update 51 Incremental 1 patch notes.

Sources

• Spook Spectres and Hunt Horrors during the Witches Festival In-Game Event, The Elder Scrolls Online (October 20, 2026).

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