Online:Stealth

Stealth, also known as Sneak, governs your ability to escape detection by others through reducing your visibility and noisiness. It is primarily useful for evading confrontation with enemies, and for executing surprise attacks that inflict critical damage.

In previous Elder Scrolls games, "Stealth" and "Sneak" are different concepts: stealth being a grouping of (more-or-less loosely) conceptually related skills, of which sneak was one. In ESO, there is not a distinct, developed skill line for this behavior, and any character can sneak. Similarly, being "stealthed" in ESO usually refers to a sneaking character who is hidden from enemies.

Skill Usage

Toggling the sneak control causes the player to crouch or stand, indicating that you have entered or left sneak mode. Moving while sneaking will burn stamina; if the player stops moving, stamina regenerates normally.

While sneaking, the crosshair becomes a special "eye" reticle indicating the following statuses:

A horizontal line indicates you are completely hidden, or "stealthed". This is accompanied by the text HIDDEN, and your character gains a shadow over their location. In this state, a successful pickpocket won't incur a bounty.

The "eye" begins to open as you get near to a potential witness, or if an NPC begins to search for you. A partially-open "eye" with the text "HIDDEN" means you are hidden, as long as you do nothing to break stealth (i.e.--pickpocket, assault).

A solid oval means that somebody knows where you are or can see you. This is accompanied by the text detected. Note that you will also see this icon and text whenever interacting with objects even if there are no witnesses around to see you.

Sneak Attacks

You perform a sneak attack when you physically strike someone who is unaware of your presence. Sneak attacks stun the targets hit, unless they are under the influence of a Radiant Magelight.

• The sneak multiplier is only applied to the physical damage done by a weapon, i.e. the damage shown for the weapon in your inventory.
  • Poison and enchantment-related damage enhancements are added to damage inflicted by power attacks, their effects are not increased by performing sneak attacks
• Sneak damage applies to all attack types, including dual-wield weapons, bows, and skills.

If a sneak attack does not kill an enemy, you will become detected -- by the enemy themselves and by any of their allies within detection range. This seems to be true even if it does not appear that the enemies "ought" to be able to know where the attack came from -- e.g., by an arrow fired from cover.

Also, when you attack from sneak, you immediately leave sneak. Leaving sneak automatically has the benefit of making you instantly able to attack/defend/run without being handicapped in your movement speed, but may factor into the fact that you become immediately visible.

Subsequently crouching to return to sneak, or using concealing skills such as the Nightblade's Shadow Cloak, will have whatever success in hiding you again that they would in any combat situation: mixed, depending on your circumstances. However, if you can regain sneak, you can immediately attack again and have the usual sneak multipliers apply.

Sneak Suppression

Sometimes your ability to sneak is suppressed. There are various things that can cause this:

• An NPC guard with a lamp, found in places associated with the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, or Morrowind DLCs. While sneaking, you will see a shining circle on the ground around them. You cannot sneak within this circle, and possibly for a few seconds after leaving it. If you are in a restricted area or have a bounty on your head, the guard will generally try to arrest or attack you if you are spotted.
• Some traps in these same areas can temporarily inhibit your ability to sneak. Try to keep an eye out for any trip wires or leaky pots which can explode and deal damage in addition to suppressing your stealth.
• In PVP zones, other players may use a Potion or Poison with the Detection trait against you, preventing you from entering stealth unless you can purge the effect somehow.
• The Expert Hunter, Magelight, Piercing Mark, Revealing Flare and Soul Strike abilities can also inhibit stealth in PVP areas. (You may also use these abilities to detect NPCs who are using stealth, though these are also much more common in PVP zones.)
• The Way of Air and Sentry sets give bonuses that increase the wearer's stealth detection radius.
• You will not be able to sneak while wearing a disguise, which can be done for certain quests. Instead, a message will display stating that sneaking would cause suspicion.
• You cannot sneak in Werewolf form though sources which give Invisibility will still work.

Sneak Buffs

Sneak is improved by buffs such as a decrease in the distance at which you can be detected, an increase of the damage from stealth, a reduction of its cost and other bonuses.

Skills

Skill	Available at	Effect
Blade of Woe (Dark Broterhood)	1	Gives the ability to instantly kill an unsuspecting target, provided you approach them while in stealth from behind. It only gives 25% of the experience and cannot be used on difficult NPCs and on players.
Blood Scion (Vampire)	5	When transformed, you can see enemies through walls.
Dark Stalker (Vampire)	3 / 7	Ignore the Movement Speed penalty while in Sneak. Decreases the time it takes to Sneak by 25%/50%.
Feed (Vampire)	1	Allows you to feed on an unsuspecting target from behind, killing them and increasing your Vampire Stage.
Feline Ambush (Khajiit)	25 / 35 / 50	Improved Stealth radius by 1/2/3 meters. Increases your Critical Damage and Critical healing by 4/8/12%.
Hunter's Eye (Wood Elf)	5 / 15 / 30	Increases your Stealth Detection radius by 1 meter.
Improved Hiding (Legerdemain)	1 / 6 / 11 / 16	Reduces the cost of Sneak by 10/20/30/40%.
Improved Sneak (Medium Armor)	14 / 34	Reduces the cost of Sneak by 4/7% per piece of Medium Armor equipped. Reduces the size of your detection area while Sneaking by 3/5% per piece of Medium Armor equipped.
Light Armor Bonuses (Light Armor)	1	Reduces the Movement Speed penalty of Sneak by 5% for each Light Armor piece equipped.
Master Assassin (Assassination)	8 / 18	Increases the duration of the stun from from Sneak by 100%.
Strike from the Shadows (Vampire)	4 / 8	(While you are at Vampire Stage 2 or higher) When you leave Sneak, invisibility, or Mist Form your Weapon and Spell Damage is increased by 150 / 300 for 6 seconds
Veil of Shadows (Thieves Guild)	10	Decreases detection range of Witnesses and Guards by 10%.

Sets

Set	Pieces	Effect
Archer's Mind	5/5	Increases your Critical Damage and Healing by 8%. Increases your Critical Damage and Healing by an additional 16% when you are Sneaking or Invisible.
Night Mother's Embrace	5/5	Reduce the range you can be detected while hidden by 2 meters. Reduces Sneak cost by 10%.
Night Terror (set)	3/5	Decrease detection radius by 2 meters. Reduces Sneak cost by 10-27%.
Night's Silence	5/5	Ignore Movement Speed penalty while Sneaking.
The Shadow Queen's Cowl	1/1	While crouched, you can see Witnesses and Guards through walls. Successfully pickpocketing a Witness or Guard applies Distracted to them for 10 seconds, stunning them and decreasing their Stealth detection radius by 30 meters for the duration.
Shadow Dancer's Raiment	5/5	After leaving Sneak or invisibility, you dodge all incoming attacks within the next 1 second. This effect can occur once every 8 seconds.
Shadow Walker (set)	5/5	Restore 25-2150 Health and Stamina every second while hidden and not moving.
Stormweaver's Cavort	1/1	Sneak now consume Magicka instead of Stamina. You reduce your Magicka Recovery to 0 while Sneaking. You no longer reduce your Stamina Recovery to 0 while Sneaking.
Stygian	5/5	When you leave Sneak or invisibility while in combat, your Weapon and Spell Damage is increased by 8-369 for 15 seconds.
Vesture of Darloc Brae	4/5	Reduce the range you can be detected while hidden by 2 meters. Reduces Sneak cost by 10%.

Champion Points

Perks	Stages	CP per stage	Effect
Sustaining Shadows	50	1	Reduces the cost of Sneak by 1% per stage
Out of Sight	3	10	Reduces the radius you can be detected while Sneaking by 1 meter per stage.
Fleet Phantom	5	8	Reduces the Movement Speed penalty of Sneak by 5% per stage.