Credit: ZeniMax Online Studios
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The Elder Scrolls Online Takes Combat Underwater in High Seas of Tamriel
September 7, 2026·3 min read
The Elder Scrolls Online is building a full gameplay loop around underwater combat for its upcoming High Seas of Tamriel event, sending players from ship battles to fights against enemies and bosses beneath the Abecean Sea.
High Seas of Tamriel begins on September 30 as part of Season One, shortly after Update 51 arrives on September 28. ZeniMax Online Studios describes the event as a major experiment for ESO, combining naval encounters, underwater exploration, combat, and treasure hunting in a format unlike the game's usual events.
The underwater sections are not limited to swimming between objectives or searching for treasure. Game director Nick Giacomini confirmed that players will fight underwater, with the environment introducing combat mechanics they will need to adjust to. Associate design director Jason Barnes also said the altered physics affect movement and exploration, giving players access to unusually large jumps while searching the ocean floor.
Boss encounters are part of the underwater areas alongside hidden secrets, messages in bottles, and other discoveries. ZeniMax has experimented with underwater sequences before, including content in Graven Deep, but High Seas of Tamriel builds a larger gameplay loop around the idea rather than using it as a smaller part of an individual dungeon or quest.
The official Season One page describes the event as a hunt for sunken treasure that includes battles against pirates and abyssal creatures on the ocean floor.
High Seas of Tamriel begins above the water, but its naval combat is not designed around freely controlling a ship in the style of a dedicated sailing game.
Instead, enemies can board the player's vessel and attempt to destroy it. Players need to deal with attackers, put out fires, and fight back while protecting their own ship. Group play can add further pressure, including enemies attacking beneath the hull.
The ship can be destroyed, causing the encounter to fail. Once the opposing vessel goes down, the activity moves beneath the surface. Barnes said ZeniMax deliberately connected the naval and underwater sections through the story so they feel like different stages of the same adventure rather than unrelated activities placed together.
The event can also be played solo, while bringing additional players increases its difficulty and adds more threats during the naval battle.
High Seas of Tamriel is being treated as an experiment rather than a permanent overhaul of ESO. Giacomini said the studio wants to see how players respond before deciding how far to take its new ideas. If there is enough interest, elements of the event could return through future events, become permanent game modes, or be reused in other quests and content.
Barnes said the team increasingly wants to build systems that can be adapted for future content instead of developing mechanics that only appear once.
That makes the September event more significant than a temporary pirate-themed activity. It gives ZeniMax a chance to test a more developed form of underwater combat and naval gameplay inside The Elder Scrolls Online, with the possibility that the strongest parts could continue beyond High Seas of Tamriel.
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Every legend starts somewhere and in The Elder Scrolls Online, it starts with you. Write your story into a vibrant chapter of Tamriel’s distant past that takes place nearly 1,000 years before the iconic TES V: Skyrim, and discover a world steeped in adventure and possibility.
Released
April 4, 2014
Developer
ZeniMax Online Studios
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
