The Elder Scrolls: Blades drops timers on loot chests with update 1.5, delays Nintendo Switch version to 2020

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is currently receiving its version 1.5 update, bringing a handful of new features and tweaks to the game. We generally liked Blades in our review but noted that it really felt more like a typical mobile game over an Elder Scrolls title. These changes might help tip the scales back in a more favorable way.

More loot, fewer timers

The biggest change with this update is the removal of chest timers. You won't have to wait five seconds for wooden chests, 1 hour for silver chests, 6 hours for golden chests, etc. Once you find a chest, open it and get the stuff inside. Bethesda will also be refunding gems if you purchased increased chest capacity before this change.

I'm thinking not many people were spending gems on opening chests early, so if Bethesda makes the chests feel more valuable, players will be more likely to spend gems on getting new chests that they can actually open.

The loot system is also being overhauled and it seems like it'll be for the better. There's more stuff to break in quests, enemies drop more items, and each quest has a boss at the end that might drop legendary equipment.

Lastly, PvP is opening up to anyone over level 5, and Blades is rolling out guilds where you can join up with up to 20 other players to chat and visit other towns to buy items.

Honestly, this looks like a pretty exciting update. I played quite a bit of Blades for my review, but it's fallen off since then. These changes might just pull me back in for a few hours. However, there's bad news for Nintendo Switch hopefuls; despite announcing that the game would be coming to Nintendo's portable console this year, it's been delayed into 2020. That's not far off at this point, but don't expect a last minute Christmas update.

Read more: Bethesda