Halloween has come to Middle Earth, giving you a chance to take a break from questing and enjoy the lighter side of LOTRO. This guide will show you how to get the most of the festival’s games and prizes.
Harvest Time in Middle Earth: Fall Festival Basics
The festival takes place in four locations throughout the game world: The Shire’s Party Tree, Bree-land’s Festival Grounds (plus Bree itself), Thorin’s Hall and Dulliond in Erid Luin. Each location has its own unique events, so you’ll have to travel to every one to get the best festival experience. When you participate in these events you’ll earn tokens that can be traded in for a variety of items, or some other type of reward.
Pumpkins, Rocks, Apples and Scrolls
There’s a quick and simple way to collect a number of festival tokens, and that’s through doing each area’s unique pick and trade quest. In Bree-land, go to the Festival Grounds and use the pumpkin patch. You’ll receive either a small, medium or large pumpkin, which can be traded in for one, two or three festival tokens, respectively. Odds are tilted towards receiving a small or medium one, but if you’re lucky you’ll bag a large pumpkin. The NPC to trade with is standing right next to the patch, so you can’t miss her.
The events in the other three areas work similarly. In the underground tavern of Thorin’s Hall go and grab either a cracked, pristine or flawless geode. Dulliond’s festival area has you getting either unimpressive, well-written or elegant scrolls. Finally, The Shire’s Party Tree will have you bobbing for small, medium and large apples.
These quests aren’t particularly exciting, but with only an hour long cooldown for each one they’re a great way to quickly rack up festival tokens. Being able to earn anywhere between four and twelve tokens an hour will easily let you win every prize the festival has to offer if you’re patient enough to repeat these events a few times.
Troves and Trickery: Bree and Thorin’s Hall
Nothing says Halloween quite like trick or treating, and in that spirit you’ll be asked to play tricks on a number of Middle Earth’s residents. Each festival area has an NPC who will ask you to find four people and perform emotes on them. You aren’t told the precise emote you need to use, as instead you’ll need to puzzle it out based on the dialogue you’re given by each person. It’s a more rewarding experience if you figure it out on your own, but if you’re stuck here are the precise answers.
In Bree, start by talking to the Human NPC just north of the Town Crier. Keep in mind that these quests are timed, but it’s a pretty generous limit so long as you don’t mess about too much. From the quest giver, head south to the town hall. Use /dustoff on Tad Ashmead, who is standing just outside of the building. Then head to the Bree hunting lodge and use /shiver on Tad Leafcutter. Next, head to the Vault but take the left turn before you reach it and you’ll run into Mat Heathertoes. Use /mock on him. Finally, find Lily Sandheaver by the West Bree stable. Use /yawn on her, then return to the initial NPC and collect your reward of either three fall festival tokens, or a special mask token. More on those later.
In Thorin’s hall, start with the Dwarf NPC in the far right corner of the first room. Head next door to the Auction Hall and /charge any of the Auctioneers. Next, go to the crafting hall and /flex at Egil Oldbeard. Then go show Adwyn Flame-Eye your /pushups over by the Hunter Trainer. Last, head up to Dwalin’s thrown and throw a /tantrum at him, then go collect your reward.