The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall is a landmark in gaming that set some standards for RPGs going forwards. It took what worked in Arena and doubled down, expanding the lore, designing interesting quests, and creating one of the most customizaওble character creation systems that exists to this day.
While players are still hungry for news of The Elder Scrolls 6, they may wish to take a look back at Daggerfall. While the graphics look dated and it is renowned for its bugs, it is still an iconic piece of fantasy RPG history, and it’s impossib✤le to ignore the influences it has had on modern ꦆgaming.
10 W🔯ereboars Exist ꦏ
While Lycanthropy and Vampirism have long been parts of Tamriel’s lore, it was not the Bloodmoon expansion pack for Morrowind that introduced alternatives tꦚo werewolves. In Daggerfall players can encounter wereboars in addition to werewolves. While not s൩een in-game, there also exist werecrocodiles, werevultures, and even weresharks.
Living as a lycanthrope in Daggerfall is not as bad as it sounds, just like in f🌸uture games. They get large bonuses to their combat stats that persist even in their regular form, they are immune to disease, and any ♈crimes committed in their were-form are tracked separately — making it an excellent charact🍎er choice for a less moral player.
9 N🥃ic💎he Conversational Skills
The incredibly varied character creation system that Daggerfall has contains some options that some players may find slightly bizarre. Among these are the many conversational skills that you can p♒ut points in, such as Centaurian, Impish, and Daedric. These let you learn the language of a certain type of monster and give you a chance of making these monsters non-hostile when encountered.
Most interestingly, Orcish is one of these skills. Just like i🐓n Arena, Orcs were not ye🐭t a playable race and were present in the game only as enemy creatures to fight.
8 The Holy Order Of Fig꧂hting
Daggerfall contains many different guilds and organizations that you can join and access. One of these is the Fighter’s Guild, known far and wide for their basement-clearing quests and brave members. You can come to these guilds to repair equipment, pick up quests and train up your coꦏmbat skill.
Notably, though, some of these Fighter’s Guilds seem to have a dual purpose in the region of Hammerfell, h༺ome of the Redguards. Here, Fighter’s Guilds double up as Temples for their settlements and are open all day long, instead of the usual 11:00 to 23:00 working hours that the guild usually observe. Despite not having priests, they definitely count as holy grounds – va🧜mpires even take damage there!
7 ꦆ Khajiit Finally Have Tails
While Arena included Khajiit as a playable race and describe🌄s them as “descended fr🔯om an intelligent feline race,” it is only in Daggerfall do they begin to resemble the catlike sapient race that we know and love today. They finally have tails and are stated to paint their face ♋in a feline fashion, in the style of their ancesꦜtors.
Later games would explain these discrepancies between games by introducing the concept of so many different types of Khajiit depending on what phase the moon was in when they were born. As a result, the Khaji💙it of Arena are all of the man-like Ohmes variety (which does not have a tail), and Daggerfall’s Khajiits are the similar yet be-tailed Ohmes-raht variety.
6 Tꩵhe Warp In The West
Players of the more recent Elder Scrolls games may be familiar with the book “Th💖e Warp In The West.” It describes a fantastical event (known as a Dragon Break) where the universe appears to have given up, letting many antit✨hetical things happen all at once.
This is how the Elder Scrolls universe handled the seven different possible endings of Daggerfall. Instead of sticking a canon ending onto the end of the game, they made every ending canon to a certain extent, and expanded the lore🦩 significantly as a result.
5 ൩ Summo🃏ning At Great Lengths
Daggerfall started the tradition of including the iconic Daedric Princes and having them dole out specific quests to the player𒐪 character. These are often themed after the Daedric Prince’s whims and domains and help to build up a bett🦩er picture of the universe's lore.
In this game, however, Daedra must be summoned, and this is a costly process that can only be done on specific days. Outside of specific circumstances (such as the Glenmoril Witch coven being keenly associated with the Daedric prince Hircine), this means that you may end up having to wait a long time for your chance at completin🔥g a Daedric quest. It can be 🔥worth the wait, however, as the rewards are often very useful.
4 𒀰 Backstabbers Bewareꩲ
In an odd choice that will leave Dark Souls players seething, backstaꩲbs in Daggerfall are not automatic. In fact, there is a skill that directly affects a character’s ability to perform these critical strikes on their foes. One would think that being able to get behi💯nd an enemy in the first place would be a high-enough barrier, but not so.
In Daggerfall, every strike at the back of an enemy checks the player’s Backstabbing skill. What this does mean, however, is that the nice 3x damage bonus can happen mu꧙ltꦰiple times, rather than the singular Sneak bonus that players enjoy in future Elder Scrolls games.
3 🐽 Reputation I🍸s Key
While this system would be explored a little in Morrowind and Oblivion, it was at its deepest and most complex in Daggerfall. Reputation is affected by almost everything the player does and the🅺reꦦ are countless factions that are tracked in-game. Everything from various vampire families to city guilds to the various Daedric princes of Oblivion have their political power and opinions of the player’s reputation tracked.
Do too many vampiric quests? Prepare to be disliked by mostly everyone. Fail a nobleman’s quest? They’ll like you precisely 22 points less than before. It’s a complex system in that these reputation changes even apply to related factions. That nobleman’s associates will also dislike you a bit if you fꦺail the nobleman’s quest. It's a tough balancing act for new players to handl♏e.
2 ꦏ Get A Move On
In a game (and indeed, franchise) that has a penchant for throwing so many quests at you, it can be a frustrating revelation that many of these quests are timed. While these time limits are usu♓ally lenient enough to give you some breathing room, it can be a chore to keep up with a journal that keeps filling up with tasks.
Running out of time to complete a quest can be especially annoying, as it means a failed quest and reputation loss with the quest giver’s factions. Luckily, there are masses of quests in Daggerfall to alleviat🌼e this issue – you will never be without s𝓰omething to do.
1 Daggerfall꧑ For Free ⭕
Like Arena before it, . Despite the game being a little dated and absolutely full of bugs (ah, Bethesda…♊) it is still a fun experience that fans of the fraꦚnchise should seriously consider.
Additionally, there is also a fan project called Daggerfall Unity which aims to recreate the game in the Unity engine, improving the game’s architect🐼ure and modding abilities! It requires the original game files but, as mentioned, these are free to obtain now. .