Alliance Points are the currency used in Cyrodiil to purchase gear, siege weapons, repair kits and other items in the Alliance War. Points can be earned by killing other players, participating in the capture or defense of Keeps and Resources, recovering Elder Scrolls, and by completing certain PvP quests. Accumulation of Alliance Points goes towards your Alliance War rank, provides inspiration for the Alliance War skills, and determines your position on the campaign leaderboard.
Earning Alliance Points
Participating in Player vs Player combat is one of the best sources of Alliance points; but is naturally one of the hardest, since it pits players against other players. In addition, it can turn out to be an unreliable source, if enemy players cannot be found. Grouping with friendly players will cause points received to be distributed evenly, however the total amount of points per kill may decrease as the number of grouped players increases. *Note that direct combat is not necessary to earn Alliance points, and that playing a support or healing role to allies gives just as many points as killing players.
Attacking or defending keeps and their resources automatically distributes a flat amount of Alliance points to the victors. When attacking, the points are awarded the moment the keep is secured; while defending, points are awarded after combat dies down enough for the keep to be considered safe. Both keeps and resources have a “bonus pool” of Alliance points, which is filled as players die during the battle. When the keep has been successfully taken or defended, these bonus points are also distributed among the victors. Therefore, heavily contested keeps are more profitable than taking empty keeps.
Finally, repeatable quests handed out by faction notice boards and commanders award Alliance points upon their conclusion. These include quests to kill opposing players, scout keeps and resources, secure keeps and resources, and steal Elder Scrolls held by opposing factions. Only one of each type of quest can be given to a player at once, and each type of quest gives a different amount of points based on relative difficulty; with the least points given by scouting quests and the most by quests for the Elder Scrolls. Quests to take keeps, resources, and Elder Scrolls will not be given out if your alliance already controls all of the related objectives. In addition, participation in those objectives is mandatory to satisfy the quest – for instance, if a quest is taken to secure a keep, but the keep is then taken without your assistance, the quest will not register success. In order for such a quest to complete, either the objective must fall back into enemy hands to give another chance to succeed, or the quest must be abandoned.