ESO Champion Point Milestones: CP160, 300, 810 and the Long Climb, Explained
✓ Current as of Update 50 (2026)🎮 Works on console (no add-ons)
New players hear ‘get to CP160,’ then ‘CP300,’ then ‘CP810,’ and it sounds like an infinite grind with no explanation of why those numbers matter. Here's what each milestone actually unlocks, why CP160 is the one that really counts, and why the old ‘810 cap’ talk is out of date.
CP160 — the one milestone that truly matters
Gear scales with your CP up to CP160. At CP160 your equipment hits its maximum stats, so this is the real ‘start of endgame’: below it, perfect gear keeps getting outscaled, so it isn't worth chasing yet. Getting to CP160 should be your first and main goal — after that, gold gear and meta sets are worth investing in.
Everything before CP160 is ‘play the game you enjoy and accumulate points.’ Don't over-optimize gear here.
Why you hear 300 and 810
Those are historical or convenience numbers, not hard walls. CP300 is often cited as ‘enough slotted stars to feel complete’ for general play, and 810 was the old total cap before the Champion Point rework. Neither is a gate that unlocks a feature the way CP160 caps gear scaling.
The real cap is 3,600 — and your earned total never stops
After the rework, the spendable cap is 3,600 total: up to 1,200 in each of the three constellations (Craft, Warfare, Fitness), with 4 slottable stars active per constellation. Meanwhile your earned CP keeps climbing forever as you play, so you'll see accounts with totals in the thousands — that earned number isn't a cap, and you still can't spend past 3,600. (Cap current as of Update 50, June 2026.)
How to spend as you climb
You don't need to be near the cap to be effective. Prioritize the slottable stars for what you do — damage/penetration stars in Warfare for DPS, sustain/health in Fitness, gold and gathering in Craft — and re-slot freely as you switch activities. A CP400 character with the right slotted stars outperforms a CP2000 character with the wrong ones.
Sources & further reading
Related
Common mix-ups about the CP system
A frequent point of confusion is treating CP160 as a level cap similar to a character level. It isn't: your character level and CP are tracked separately, and CP160 refers specifically to the point at which gear stops scaling upward with your Champion Point total. You can technically be well past level 50 and still under CP160 if you haven't spent much time earning Champion Points.
Another mix-up is assuming the 3,600 spendable cap means progression stops there. Earned CP has no ceiling and keeps counting up as a lifetime total shown on your character, which some players use as an informal measure of time played. Only the amount you can allocate into the three constellations is capped at 3,600 (1,200 per constellation); everything earned beyond that is banked but currently unspendable rather than wasted, in case the cap is raised in a future update.
Because slotted stars can be changed for free, there's no single 'correct' build to save up for. Many players slot differently for trials, solo overland content, and PvP on the same character, adjusting Warfare, Fitness, and Craft stars to match whatever they're doing that session rather than committing to one permanent setup.
Common questions
Do I lose slotted Champion Point stars when I switch gear or activities?
No. Slotted stars are not tied to gear; they are a separate menu you can open at any wayshrine or rest area (and in some cases in combat, depending on current game rules) to re-slot the 4 active stars per constellation. Swapping from a damage-focused Warfare setup to a sustain-focused one costs nothing but a trip to the CP menu, so there is no reason to keep a single 'default' loadout once you have points to spend.
Should I unslot Craft stars while leveling to get to CP160 faster?
Craft stars (gold find, gathering yield, and similar) don't affect how fast you gain CP, since CP is earned from experience gained while playing, not from anything in the Craft constellation. Below CP160 the priority is simply playing content you enjoy and letting CP accumulate; which constellation you slot points into during this phase has no bearing on leveling speed, so it comes down to personal preference (e.g., extra gold from crafting versus early combat sustain).
Is CP160 gear automatically the best gear, or do I still need better sets later?
CP160 caps the *stat scaling* on gear, meaning any item at CP160 or above has the same base stat budget regardless of your CP level beyond that. It does not mean all CP160 gear is equally good. Set bonuses, trait choice, and item slot (weapon vs armor vs jewelry) still matter a great deal, and 'meta' sets change as the game is updated. Reaching CP160 just means it's finally worth farming and upgrading specific sets instead of using whatever drops.