Post Sections ⇅
- When Is the Next LOTRO Hard Tack Event?
- What Is “Hard Tack” anyway?
- Event Overview from Orion
- How to Get Started
- Wrapper Quests
- Hard Tack Event Map
- Race for Your Winner Ribbon!
- ⛏ Prospector Quests
- 🍳 Hard Tack Quests for Cooks
- Assistant Quests
- Event Food
- How to Build Your Custom Pickaxe
- Hard Tack Event Rewards
- Combining Forester and Prospector Tools
- Ribbon Exchange
- Deeds
- Tips from Players
- A Gentle Reminder
Hi LOTRO folks, I’m back with another event guide, because, you know, there’s no such thing as actual questing when SSG keep making fab community events. And I really do like the new Hard Tack of Thorin’s Hall one. I’ll try not to accidentally make tacky terrible puns along the way. If I do, I promise to change tack my approach.
Let’s have a look in and see how it tacks, stacks up. I said stacks!
When Is the Next LOTRO Hard Tack Event?
The Event now runs from the 1st of every month at 10am /servertime and ends on the 8th of every month at 3am /servertime.
This means the last full day of each run is the 7th of each month.
What’s That In My Timezone?
I hope I got this right! Please let me know if I didn’t.
- 10am Eastern: 2pm GMT, 3pm BST, 3pm CET, 4pm CEST, 11pm JST
- 3am Eastern: 7am GMT, 8am BST, 8am CET, 9am CEST, 8pm JST
What Is “Hard Tack” anyway?
Well that question kind of needs answering before even considering why we’re making it. A food of that name already exists in LOTRO. If you ignore the combat-effects and look instead at the tooltip, you’ll see:
A traditional soldier’s ration; they will keep you alive, marching and complaining about the food for a very long time.
So, it’s functional but fulfilling food. On that description it is very similar to the Lembas of the ElvesRef.
So, Why Do the Dwarves Need It?
Dwarves don’t need a reason to want food any more than Hobbits do! But for it to be this kind of food, there has to be a particular reason.
The reason is a company of Dwarves are going on a long expedition and want supplies. Long-lasting food suddenly makes sense.
Just don’t ask a Dwarf if Hard Tack is inferior to Lembas bread – if you value your head, anyway.
In LOTRO (and in LOTR lore), there are two different foods: Dale-man’s Cram and the Hard Tack already mentioned. It feels like there must be a similarity between Cram and Hard Tack.
Event Overview from Orion
Okay, so eventually this section will be phased out. But initially I think I’ll keep it in here. From a past LOTROstream, Orion gave us an overview of the Hard Tack of Thorin’s Hall. I mean, that’s a mouthful for an event name, so I expect eventually we’ll end up calling it the “Hard Tack Event” or the “Dwargff crafting event” etc.
Stream Notes
- This event is a community-friendly one, where prospectors and cooks have direct involvement. However, unlike the Forester Event, if you have neither of these crafting professions, then you can still take part.
- During each run of the event, players can work together to achieve objectives and help each other out.
- As with the Forester Event, you can earn
Participation,
Runner-Up and
Winner’s Ribbons.
- The more quests and sub-quests you complete, the more ribbons you can earn.
- To get the best results, everyone will need to work together.
- It is categorically cooperative and categorically not PvP.
Why Working Together Is Needed
I discuss the wrapper quests a bit later. But, in short, you need to complete 20 quests in 20 minutes and have time to run back to the NPC to hand the wrapper in.
To do this, you will almost certainly need items and/or actions from other players.
- Prospectors can dig up ore that Assistants can deliver.
- Event-specific food made by Cooks reduces channel times (digging, in the case of prospecting) and run speed.
- Assistants can handle nuisance hobbits and sluggard miners, which helps both Cooks and Prospectors.
Where your quest can be improved by others, or can assist another players, I have put a Teamwork Effect section.
Look for where you can help each other complete more quests in 20 minutes. If I’ve missed a synergy in this Hard Tack Event guide, please let me know. I will credit all additions/corrections!
Who Can Take Part in This Crafting Event?
The short answer is “anyone”! The longer answer is that Prospectors and Cooks have their own quests, but LOTRO have added extra event quests for people who don’t have those crafting professions. These are called Assistant quests.
What Tier Crafting Do I Need
for the Hard Tack Event?
You can start Prospector and Cook quests as soon as you’ve trained in those professions. Any Cook recipes you need are Apprentice recipes.
And with Update 41, you can add a fourth profession via the LOTRO Store too. So, once you have your
Crafting Profession unlock, you can tag Cook or Prospector onto your existing set if you want!
What If I Only Have One Profession?
The simplest answer is: do the event for that profession! You can also do the Assistant quests if you want a bit of variation!
Also from Update 41, you can add a fourth crafting profession (or “gathering”, in terms of Prospecting) too.
Prospecting/Forester/Farmer are gathering professions, yet all involve an element of crafting. Despite that, CXP boosts and boost events don’t usually buff these professions, only “pure” crafting ones.
How to Get Started
In theory it runs on the hour for 20 minutes. A 5-minute warning is sent across Ered Luin. In practice, you're better asking people in the area, or on World Chat when the last one finished, then add 40 minutes.
When Does It Run Next?
The first run started the 1st August 2024 (at 10am /servertime) and due to end on the 12th August 2024 (at 3am /servertime).
Where is the Hard Tack Event?
It takes place in the Vault of the Great Forge (when translated out of Dwarvish, anyway!) at Thorin’s Hall in Ered Luin. See the mini-map below.
NB: I had to check what is apparently called “Neo-Khuzudul”. Ukhbab can indeed be ‘Great/Greatest Forge’, but gair usually refers to a “hole/cave”. Per the Dwarrow Scholar’s dictionary, ‘vault of’ could be rendered khaltu.
Go to the Right Place
Go to Thorin’s Gates. No really! Head pretty much to the huge gates to Thorin’s Hall. Turn left, walk past the door to Thorin’s Hall Inn and through the door in front of you.
Go through the Right Door
Outside is Héori Firefeed, who is the Hard Tack Event Rewards vendor.
Next to him are the different Prospectors Pickaxes you can earn.
Wait for the Right Time
Once you’re in Ukhbab-gair, wait for the event to start. Pick up the “wrapper” for Prospector, Miner or Assistant NPCs.
If you are questing in Ered Luin and don't want to see this message every hour then untick Event Broadcasts in your chat filters.
Choose The Correct NPC!
I, and at least one other player hit issues because we chose the wrong ‘wrapper’ NPC. If you see my Event Map, there you’ll find the locations of quest-giving NPCs. Hopefully you can get it right first time, unlike…well, unlike me!
Prospector
NPC: Sculd Scentlode (he can smell a vein of ore miles away?)
Quest: Hard Tack Event: Prospecting
Cook
NPC: Ingúl Ovestoke (stokes the oven…)
Quest: Hard Tack Event: Cook
Neither
NPC: Velgerd Kilnwarden (approach the kiln at your peril)
Quest: Hard Tack Event: Assistant
You will only have the option of Prospecting or Cook if you are one of those professions. If you are, then that and Assistant ones will be available. Make sure you choose the one you intend to.
Event Coordinator
If you’re in doubt, or need a friendly reminder, have a chat with Ogmund Bellowbreath, Event Coordinator (NPC 1 on my map). They can let you know about the other Coordinators and other event information.
Who Do I Pick If I’m a Prospector and a Cook?
If your character is prospector and cook, you can only “major” on one per event. That means, once per hour.
If you want to share the love between crafting professions, then consider alternating them. You can run as an Assistant if you want, but mining the nodes and cooking the recipes give CXP. Unless you’ve maxed your professions then you’ll probably want that CXP.
Wrapper Quests
Once you’ve chosen your NPC, you’ll have a related “wrapper quest”. This gradually increments as you hit objectives. Unless you fully complete and get a Winner’s Ribbon, this wrapper will fail at some point. Don’t worry, any rewards you’ve got so far are safe!
The wrapper quests are in tiers. For prospectors these are all 5-quest tiers. However, T3 for Assistants is 10 quests, I believe.
Wrapper Tier Rewards
- Tier 1: 10 ×
Participation Ribbons
- Tier 2: 10 ×
Participation Ribbons
- Tier 3: 20 ×
Participation Ribbons
- Tier 4: 5 ×
Runner-up Ribbons
- Turn the Quest In: 1 ×
Winner Ribbon
Basically, your aim is to complete as many quests as possible in the 20 minutes the event is live.
Note: apart from the turn-in, your ribbons are awarded when you complete a tier, not at the end. Make a note of how many ribbons you have before a round before deciding whether you received your next ribbons or not.
How in Middle-Earth Can I Do 20 Quests in 20 minutes?
This is why it’s called a cooperative event. Working with others will work better.
More specifically, cooks make event-specific boost foods to either increase run speed, or reduce channeling times etc.
Hard Tack Event Map
Here is my in-development Hard Tack at Thorin’s Hall Event Map. I’ve shown NPCs, different mining nodes, where to fish, where to find mushrooms and a few other bits and pieces.
Please do let me know if anything has changed. Although I’ve done my best here, if anything is out of place, do let me know. I like the LOTRO community contributing to content.
Race for Your Winner Ribbon!
This is important! Tiers 1-4 of the wrappers complete automatically. However to get your 1×
Winner Ribbon, you have to manually turn in the quest at the same NPC you picked up your wrapper from.
By this point, you will have done 20 quests. To do 20 quests you’ll have had to have help from a cook to increase the speed of mining and running. But you likely won’t have much time left.
You need to beat the clock to claim that final reward. “You have no power here Auto the Complete”.
Teamwork Effect
Try to get some run-speed food from Cooks. These can only be made inside the event and consumed only inside the event area. You should be able to pick some up from the tables, if Cooks are running the event.
All other running speed modifiers are disabled, including racial and combat abilities.
⛏ Prospector Quests
These quests involve you finding and/or digging ore of different types. The quests auto-complete once you’ve hit the objective. Where digging is involved, do not interrupt the channelling of the skill. This is a bit of a patience game, but you’re smart enough to slow down yes?
Note: you’re prospecting, you just need to let the digging run. Only one “use” action is required on your part. Your character does the hard work.
Teamwork Effect
Reminder: digging/channel times can be reduced with food from cooks! As far as I can tell you can cook your own food in one event to use in the next one, too.
Quickest Prospector Rotation?
Admittedly this is from day 1 and when food made by others could not be consumed.
But it seems to me that these quests make for about 1-1½min/task average (without buffs):
- Discover Nodes (1/round)
- Rich Nodes (see Map of Ore Nodes)
- Medium Ore Delivery
- Weak Nodes (see Map of Ore Nodes)
Do You Have Tips?
If you have insights to share, let me know and I’ll credit any I use. Thanks!
⛏ Discover Nodes
Quest only repeatable once per event. Wait until the next one runs on the hour to do this quest again.
When you’re in the vicinity of ore you can /look
at, you’ll see the following pop-up (and in chat):
Look at this vein for Ever-burning Ore.
You do not need to target the ore before doing the /look
emote. Simply ensure that you have the above message.
If the message below is the last one you received, you need to keep searching.
You are too far from an ore vein to search.
⛏ Laden, Rich & Weak Node Quests
There are three “nodes” quests that can be done at the same time: Laden Nodes, Rich Nodes and Weak Nodes.
See my Map of Ore Nodes.
You need to head into the tunnels and mine from nodes relating to those descriptions.
But before you do, pick up one of the Ore Delivery Quests.
⛏ Ore Delivery Quests
The preparations for the Dwarves necessitates large quantities of ores to keep the ovens burning. To that end there are three Ore Delivery quests:
Large Ore Delivery (Laden Nodes)
Medium Ore Delivery (Rich Nodes)
Small Ore Delivery (Weak Nodes)
I have marked Mining Carts on my Map of Ore Nodes.
Tip: to complete two quests back-to-back, couple the delivery quest with the related 'node' quest.
Teamwork Effect
Assistants cannot mine the ore, but they can deliver it. Team up with an assistant so that you can both use the dug-up ore before it de-spawns.
Map of Ore Nodes
I can’t claim to have mapped all of the nodes, but there are a lot here to get you started.
How Many Chunks and What Sized Pieces?
The three node types take different lengths of time to mine, and yield different sized ores:
- Weak Node: 4 ×
Small Chunks of Ever-burning Ore.
- Rich Node: 3 × Medium Chunks of
Ever-burning Ore and 1 ×
Small Chunk.
- Laden Node: 2 ×
Large Chunks of Ever-burning Ore, 1 ×
Medium Chunk and 1 ×
Small ChunkRef
.
So Laden > Rich > Weak.
This also means a node drops more ore than is required for the turn-in, should you be stopped by Sluggard Miners!
Sluggard Miners
If you get tripped by a Sluggard Miner, you fail the quest. Rush back to the NPC then return to your Ore before it despawns!
⛏ Large Ore Delivery
With Large Ore:
- Deliver 1 × Ever-burning Ore to a mining cart.
- Avoid Sluggard Miners
⛏ Medium Ore Delivery
With Medium Ore:
- Deliver 2 × Medium Chunks of Ever-burning Ore to a mining cart.
- Avoid Sluggard Miners
⛏ Small Ore Delivery
With Small Ore:
- Deliver 3 × Small Chunks of Ever-burning Ore to a mining cart.
- Avoid Sluggard Miners
Teamwork Effect
Mining Laden nodes is slow. Get event food from a friendly Cook to reduce mining time!
Delivery Runspeed
Different sized chunks of ore affect your movement speed. Cooks make Thorin’s Hall Hearty Meals to improve your runspeed while carrying event items.
On large screens, I’ve increased the font size of this guide. Please let me know on social media if it’s clearer or too big (Mastodon, BlueSky
or Facebook
. xTwit
if you must!)
🍳 Hard Tack Quests for Cooks
Cooking is the second profession involved in this event. Or the first, depending on which you have! You make food that may help others in their jobs. Here are cooking-related quests:
Hard Tack of Thorin’s Hall: Recipes
Firstly, you’ll need to learn the new Apprentice cooking recipes.
To do this, pick up the one-time quest called… Recipes. I can feel your shock and awe from here.
Each of these relates to a Cook-specific quest.
Only one Cooking quest may be active at a time.
These recipes appear in the crafting panel under Apprentice → Event
Special Brew
There is a stage in this that may not seem obvious, so I’ll lay it out simply:
Collect Ingredients
Pick up spices and mushrooms from the nearby crates. Grab an ale from the suspiciously Rohan-imported keg nearby.
Cook Recipe
Carry out the crafting in your panel as per normal. However, before you leave the oven in a hurry:
Collect Ale from the Oven
Unlike other recipes, the item is not automatically placed in your bags. The quest text clearly says:
Collect your brew from the oven and deliver it to a brew table.
Right-click/Use the oven again to collect your freshly-cooked items.
Delivering to Tables
You then have to avoid Sneaky Hobbits to get the Special Brew to a table before the timer runs out. If your drink gets spilled, you’ll have to restart the quest.
Note: Sneaky Hobbits might actually still end up right by the delivery table. In the past they could there for quite some time. You’ll have to wait, or try to sneak around them. Better still, ask an assistant to help with Feeding Time.
Have I Totally Lost the Item?
If this does happen to you, you should still have your item for personal use in your bags.
But it cannot be used for a future quest completion, as far as I can see.
The remaining two quests follow exactly the same process, except for a change in ingredients – and potentially which table responds to you.
Teamwork Effect
Sneaky Hobbits can be distracted by players who complete Feeding Time.
If you’re about to do your cooking quests, see if an assistant is able to run Feeding Time for you first!
Special Meal
As with the previous recipe, grab your ingredients from the nearby crates. There are three for this one: Fish, Spices and
Mushrooms.
Head to the oven and craft your Thorin’s Hall Hearty Meal from Crafting Panel → Apprentice → Event
Don’t forget to collect it from the oven.
Deliver it safely to a table, avoiding Sneaky Hobbits.
Mushroom Snack
Collect Mushrooms and
Spices from the crates in front of the ovens.
Craft a Thorin’s Hall Mushroom Snack from Crafting Panel → Apprentice → Event.
Use the oven again to collect the food.
Deliver it to a tabled area while avoiding Sneaky Hobbits.
Assistant Quests
The quests below are available to all players whether or not you are a Prospector or Cook.
All players, whether you have the crafting professions or not can become an Assistant.
There are different “stages” of the wrapper Hard Tack: Assistant that awards ribbons for each stage, as the other wrappers do.
Ore Delivery for Assistants
Speak to Skuld Scentlode who has three Ore Delivery quests – large, medium and small.
Teamwork Effect 1
Now, as an Assistant you cannot mine the ore, even if you’re a prospector by crafting profession. This means you must team up with a prospector.
Anything they dig up, you can carry for a delivery run.
Teamwork Effect 2
The quest Served Cold puts Sluggard Miners to sleep. Work with another player so that you can deliver your ore safely.
Alternatively, look out for sleeping Sluggards for safe routes!
Mushroom Harvesting
Quest Objective: collect 5 × Deep Mushrooms or pick up a
Crate of Mushrooms from the larder and deliver those mushrooms to the cooking area.
While I have marked some on the map, they appear to respawn fairly quickly, meaning you may not have to visit 5 unique mushroom locations.
Even with a reduced number, I reckon the crate is quicker. The only way picking mushrooms is quicker is if you also do the fishing quest as you’ll only have to do that run once.
What They Look Like
Map for Harvesting Mushrooms
Location of the Crate
Deliver Mushrooms
Once you have them, by whichever method, you need to deliver them to the cooking section in the main event area.
Teamwork Effect
This is one of those long channel times where you really want food from cooks!
I think it’ll only take a few rounds before people realise at least befriending a cook will be…advantageous!
If You Don’t Want to Rely on Others…
For Pure Solo: as it stands, I believe you can do a round as a cook, make food, then use that food in a different round as an Assistant. You cannot switch wrappers mid-round.
However, it appears that, unless you fail to deliver your item, it isn’t in your bags. You can cook food, and pick it up from the table straight away though, I think.
Served Cold
- Quest-giver: Skuld Scentlode (Prospector NPC)
- Aim: to let other miners get on with their jobs, by putting sluggards to sleep for a while,.
Collect Ale from the Larder
Give to Sluggard Miner
As you can see “Sluggard Miner” is their title, “Lazy Prospector” is their name.
You can keep repeating this quest, but be aware of other players also doing it. You could waste time carrying around ale and find no Lazy Prospectors if too many other players are on the same quest.
Avoiding Sneaky Hobbits
To avoid Sneaky Hobbits, just run through the outer mines instead of through the main area. Job done.
It’s a strange quest requirement, but it basically means “don’t cut through the centre part of the area”. Pick up your ale and carry it to the western section where there are a few sluggards.
Teamwork Effect
Doing this puts the sluggards to sleep for a time, which helps Prospectors and Assistants with Ore Delivery Quests.
Put another way:
Barrel of Fish
- Requires: Fishing Hobby
- Bonus: This quest grants an additional Thorin’s Hall Commendation. This means it is worth two quests as it takes longer.
Objective
Catch 5 Fish and deliver them to the cooking area.
Process
This quest is a simple case of going, catching fish and returning them to the main area. It took me about 7 casts for 5 fish, last time I tried which is time-consuming.
You may have to try at different angles to get to the water that’s deep enough to fish in. However, I was able to cast from somewhere along all the highlighted area on the map. So please spread out if others are fishing!
Feeding Time
Sneaky Hobbits are trying to interfere with Dwarves keeping the furnaces hot.
Apparently, the answer to this is to feed them a bit too much spice in their food. I guess a burning mouth would be something of a distraction? Pick up the ingredients and go deliver them to one Sneaky Hobbit!
Collect Spice
You can find Spice in the Northern Chambre in both of the two ‘rooms’.
Collect Mushrooms
These are also found in the same area as the spices.
Teamwork Effect
This quest distracts (despawns?) Hobbits, clearing some space in the middle zone for Cooks doing food delivery.
It’s also a bonus for any Assistants running Served Cold, because they need to avoid Sneaky Hobbits.
Note: Due to the way the deliveries are made, you cannot fail Served Cold while doing a mushroom snack delivery! As far as I can see, LOTRO have done very well at making sure clashing quests cannot be taken at the same time.
The Nice Spice
Spices in food may be the perfect weapon against Sneaky Hobbits in Feeding Time. But for Dwarves, they’re the perfect pick-me-up. Even better this spice helps them move quicker and grants strength. All perfectly legal and above board, naturally.
Collect Spice
As with Feeding Time, Spices are in the above sections of Ukhbab-gairu.
Deliver to Spice Rack
In reality, you’re collecting from a spice rack and delivering to a spice crate.
The crate is in the oven section of the main area and you have to wait for the channel time to count down.
Teamwork Effect
Cooks can craft food to reduce how long you spend crouched down putting stuff in boxes. Look on the tables for event food. Put a call out if there isn’t any on the tables. Cooks can’t give you the food directly.
The food item is bound to character, so it cannot be sold or traded. Only your character can use your food. You can collect and use any of the food on the tables, however.
Pick Them Up
You don’t have to wander the mines long to find sluggards. They’re just “causing difficulty” per Ingúl.
Again, mushrooms seem to be the, uhm, dare I say it, “magic”?
Collect Mushrooms
One time I ran this, the Sluggard Miner dropped some ore. Assistants may benefit from having a delivery quest active in case there are no player Prospectors.
Teamwork Effect
This quest causes a Sluggard Miner to despawn for a while. this helps Prospectors and Assistants clear Ore Delivery Quests more easily.
Event Food
The Hard Tack event brings specific food that players can use during their runs. That said, cooks still need to complete their own quests, so while they can make food to help non-cooks, don’t badger them for it!
Food Restrictions
The LOTRO team has put a lot of effort in how food from the event is used for the event. Any of the event-related consumables that are made must be done in the event area and can only be consumed in the event area.
From what I remember, even if you have remaining cooldown, you get no benefit from the food once outside the Vault of the Great Forge.
Event Food Buffs
Here are the three types of food. Please note, there are combinations you cannot use together.
Thorin’s Hall Brew
Buff: -67% to all Hard Tack Event induction actions (Improved Efficiency).
- Most Benefits: Prospectors (Picking up ore), Assistants (pickup, too)
- Restriction: Cannot use if under the effect of a Brew already.
Thorin’s Hall Hearty Meal
Buff: +100% movement speed when carrying items in the event space (Encumbrance Reduction).
- Most Benefits: Assistants, and Cooks. (Prospectors only get limited benefit from carrying ore because of the limited distances between Ore Nodes and Carts)
- Restriction: Cannot use if under the effect of a Mushroom Snack.
Which Foods Can Be Used Together?
Looking at the restrictions, your options are just these two:
Brew +
Hearty Meal
Brew +
Mushroom Snack
How to Build Your Custom Pickaxe
As with the Forester Event, during Hard Tack at Thorin’s Hall, you can earn ribbons towards building and upgrading your customised pickaxe! Here’s how to go about doing that.
Getting Started
1. Get Your Basic Pick
Your first step is to acquire a Modifiable Prospector’s Pickaxe.
To do this, earn – or exchange ribbons to match: 1 × , 1 ×
, 50 ×
.
Exchange these with Héori Firefeed outside of the event’s entrance.
2. Choose Appearance
Before you can build stats, you’ll have to decide on your tool’s appearance. See Pickaxe Designs below.
Acquire a Cosmetic Design item matching your desired appearance. e.g. Cosmetic Dwarf Design, Cosmetic Westernesse Design.
This is a crafting ingredient and costs: 1 × , 1 ×
, 50 ×
each.
3. Craft Initial Designed Tool
Before you can equip your newly-designed pickaxe you need to craft it. And to craft it, you’ll need the recipe.
Look through the barter rewards and get the recipe that matches your Cosmetic Design item from step 2.
You want the first one where your design is mentioned in the list. So, if you went for a Cosmetic Elf Design item, you need the Elf Prospector’s Pickaxe Recipe.
The recipe for this stage costs: 1 × , 1 ×
, 50 ×
.
Now you have all you need to make your first themed pickaxe. Your Modifiable Prospectors Pickaxe and your Cosmetic Design are the “ingredients” to make your themed pickaxe.
Ribbon Costs
So, the total cost to this point is: 3 × , 3 ×
, 150 ×
.
Upgrades after this point are to increase its stats and bonuses.
You do not need to run this crafting event on multiple characters to earn ribbons, unless you want to do some time playing as cook and other time as prospector, where both are not on the same character. But the Participation Ribbons are easy to rack up in this event from what I’ve seen so far.
And remember you can exchange ribbons for higher or lower grades, as well as earn them in the Forester Event.
Crafting Upgrades
The process for upgrading your tool is roughly the same for each tier of upgrade:
- Acquire ribbons for the “next level” crafting recipe. Your first upgrade is the “Fine Prospector’s Pickaxe”.
- Acquire ribbons for
Luck-stones (and buy them).
- Make sure you have your old tool in your bags, equip a basic tool then craft your new tool.
Tier Order
You craft your pickaxe in the following order:
- Fine
- Superb
- Splendid
- Exceptional
- Extraordinary
Each recipe requires the tool from the previous step as an ingredient. That means you have to do them in order.
Cost Changes
While the process is the same, what does change is the number of Luck-stones you need for each tier.
The Extraordinary Tool Recipe requires 10 × ;
And the recipe costs themselves increase too. The Extraordinary Tool Recipe costs:
5 × , 8 ×
, 50 ×
.
Note: you have to have your Modifiable Pickaxe (at whichever stage) in your bags/inventory to make the tool and upgrade it. This means you’ll need a basic pickaxe equipped to actually craft it! Grab one from an NPC vendor for 2×
Silver.
Working Out the Cost/Stage
It’s not my intention to price up every stage, as it would be mind-numbingly dull. But doing one example should be helpful, hopefully.
Let’s pick the Superb Elf Prospector’s Pickaxe Recipe. It requires 4 × Luck-stones.
- Recipe Cost: 2 ×
, 2 ×
, 50 ×
.
- Luck-stone Cost: 4 ×
, 4 ×
, 200 ×
.
- Total: 6 ×
, 6 ×
, 250 ×
.
- Total Cost in Participation Ribbons: 600 + 600 + 250 =
1,450.
If you were only able to obtain Participation Ribbons, the cost looks crazy, hah! But bear in mind, the idea is not to get your Max-Level item on the first run of the event. Unless you actually enjoy doing it that way, of course.
Remember that ribbons are shared between all crafting events present and future. Also the barter vendor remains in place even when the event is not on. That means you can earn ribbons in, say the Forester Event then come and spend them on your Pickaxe.
Luck-stones
While you barter ribbons for Luck-stones, the stones themselves go into your wallet. They are then removed as you craft recipes that require them.
How Much Does a Luck-stone Cost?
1 × Winner Ribbon, 1 ×
Runner-up Ribbon, 50 ×
Participation Ribbons.
Pickaxe Designs/Skins
There are eight different designs for you to choose from:
- Dwarf
- Elf
- Gold
- Hobbit
- Mithril
- Ornate (Lossoth)
- Primitive
- Westerness
Where Can I See the Designs In-game?
Next to Héori Firefeed outside the event hall. He’s also the rewards vendor so do give other players space as you browse his wares, please.
What Do the Prospectors Pickaxes Look Like?
Modifiable Prospector Pickaxes Stats
Excuse the pun, but I don’t know if these are set in stone yet. But last I checked:
- Modifiable Pickaxe: -3 seconds Mining Duration
- Fine Pickaxe: -4 seconds Mining Duration, +2% Prospector Critical Rating, +1% chance of rare items when Mining.
- Superb Pickaxe: -4 seconds Mining Duration, +4% Prospector Critical Rating, +2% chance of rare items when Mining.
- Splendid Pickaxe: -4 seconds Mining Duration, +6% Prospector Critical Rating, +3% chance of rare items when Mining.
- Exceptional Pickaxe: -4 seconds Mining Duration, +8% Prospector Critical Rating, +4% chance of rare items when Mining.
- Extraordinary Pickaxe: -4 seconds Mining Duration, +10% Prospector Critical Rating, +5% chance of rare items when Mining.
If you’re on a larger screen, hit the “table version” tab to see it laid out clearer.
Sometimes these things are clearer in tables, but tables don’t always work well on smaller devices.
Upgrade Stage | Mining Duration Reduction | Critical Rating | % Chance of Rare Items |
---|---|---|---|
Modifiable | -3 Seconds | No Change | No Change |
Fine | -4 Seconds | +2% | +1% |
Superb | -4 Seconds | +4% | +2% |
Splendid | -4 Seconds | +6% | +3% |
Exceptional | -4 Seconds | +8% | +4% |
Extraordinary | -4 Seconds | +10% | +5% |
Hard Tack Event Rewards
There are plenty of rewards to go for at the Hard Tack event! From cosmetic outfits, to titles and special emotes, spending ribbons is not difficult. Earning them? Well, that’s just time!
Reminder: the barter vendor is also the same Dwarf you need to acquire Luck-stones, crafting recipes and design patterns for your customised Prospectors Pick. Given how ribbons are earned, it may be better to decide on your rewards one-by-one!
Outfit Cosmetics
Here you can find one-piece outfits with themes for Blacksmiths, Prospectors, Cooks and Scholars. As with the Forester event, you can acquire these in different colour schemes. Given they are not dyable, they are event exclusives.
How Much Do Cosmetics Cost?
There are a variety of prices depending on which item. Some are for 50× and the most expensive are: 1 ×
, 5 ×
, 50 ×
.
It is possible to earn far more participation ribbons per “event” in the Hard Tack event compared to the Combe Forester one. And you can exchange ribbons between types at no value loss to get the combination you need.
Navigating these Cosmetics
On larger screens, these sets are in tabs, so as to prevent loading the images until you need them.
If you’re on a smaller screen, please use the links below to “skip” to that section to also reduce load time.
Blacksmith’s Garments
Cook’s Garments
Prospector’s Garments
Scholar’s Garments
Titles
As with the Combe Forester Event, there are plenty of titles to acquire during the Hard Tack Crafting Event.
All titles cost: 1 × , 15 ×
Prospecting-Themed
- Is an Ore-digger
- Competitive Prospector
- Fearsome Prospector
- Cutthroat Digger
- Champion Prospector
- Tireless Prospector
Cooking-Themed
- Is an Oven-boss
- Competitive Cook
- Fearsome Cook
- Cutthroat Cook
- Champion Cook
- Tireless Cook
Emotes
During the last test, you could find the emotes in the 'Consumables, Titles and special items' section, rather than the one containing Emotes in the title
Combining Forester and Prospector Tools
With the release of this event, LOTRO have also made it possible to combine the highest-grade Foresters Hatchets with the Prospectors Pickaxes.
This will allow you to have two of the same-themed tool, but only needing to equip one item to go gathering wood and metals.
How to Combine the Tools
They are created using Toolset recipes and are only available for Extraordinary tools of both types. That means if you want to combine them, you must complete all upgrades for both tools.
1. Craft Basic Toolset
Obtain and craft the Extraordinary Wanderer’s Toolset. This is like your first basic Forester or Prospector starting point.
The recipe costs: ×5,
×8,
×50
Note
This recipe solely merges the tools into one for convenience. There is currently no additional stat bonus for your extra Luck Stones.
2. Get the Correct Theme Upgrade
Don’t waste ribbons! LOTRO’s barter system still does not have a confirmation dialog.
Check the theme of your Prospector and Forester tool and obtain the relevant Extraordinary (description) Wanderer’s Toolset Recipe. So, for example, if you have the Elven tools, yours would be: Extraordinary Elven Wanderer’s Toolset.
The recipe costs: ×5,
×8,
×50
Reminder: Luck Stones are held in your Wallet, and have a cap of 15.
Extraordinary Elven Wanderer’s Toolset
And here is a combination shot of the combined Forester and Prospector tool I just mentioned. As with Universal Toolkits or Metalsmith-crafted combination tools, you just need to equip one item to go chopping and digging.
Ribbon Exchange
As before, you can exchange ribbons at no loss with Héori Firefeed during the Hard Tack event. The rates are below and work in both directions.
- 1 ×
Winner =
100 × Participation
- 1 ×
Winner = 10 ×
Runner-up
- 1 ×
Runner-Up =
10 × Participation
Deeds
This section is largely incomplete and will be so until myself and/or the Wiki figure out all the possible deeds. However, during Beta 3, I stumbled on three. These deeds are found in the Reputation tab of your Deed Log.
Weirdly you can also see these deeds if you interact with a Sneaky Hobbit as they come up as “Current quests”!
Party Foul
Get tripped up by your first Sneaky Hobbit.
Title: Party-fouler
Bean-spiller
Get tripped up by a Sneaky Hobbit “several times”. Number not known yet.
Title: Bean-spiller
Clod
Be tripped up by “many” Sneaky Hobbits (number not known yet), so you shall “be known as a clod forever more”!
Title: the Clod
Tips from Players
I put out a forum thread asking for tips from others for this guide. Naturally, the conversation diverged a bit, but here are some nuggets that may help you. I have paraphrased some.
- Cook:
Crafting snacks is the fastest recipe to execute, but its still important to make a brew every once in a while to keep the induction reduction buff up. Remember, the induction buff reduces the time it takes to gather ingredients and place food on the table. (Tarbel)
- Assistant
Clearing hobbits is the best and the fastest quest to do. No need to take other quests. (Except) if there are plenty of miners then you can do ore delivery. (Arabani) - Assistant
I have seen Miners doing their “Digging up nodes” quests only. You can tell if they move straight from one node to the next. So, if you see a nearby miner and there’s a lot of their “cast” time left, do take that ore for a delivery quest before it despawns. (FibroJedi)
- Prospector:
If few others are playing, take the laden node quests and dig the node nearest to the quest-giver. Go hand it in, pick up the new quest and get back to your original dig spot. You should be able to grab a chunk you’ve already dug up. (Arabani) - Prospector:
WeirdJedi suggested alternating nodes. This is because the mined nodes contain a mixture of different-sized ore. The focus is around the Medium Ore Delivery, with an alternating between Rich and Laden nodes. Read their full, suggested pattern/rotation here.
- Cook:
If you’re VIP make sure you’ve used your Subscriber’s Jug. The current thought is that Cooks will struggle to fulfil the T5 requirements in time mostly due to the time spent cooking and needing to eat some of what you make. At least VIP-ers get near-instant crafting, saving a few seconds/recipe. (A couple of players agreed on this fact).
A Gentle Reminder
The idea of crafting events was to do them in a relaxed manner when you felt like it, not to try to get everything in a short space of time. While you can grind them, you don’t have to. Play for fun and enjoy the rewards along the way.
If you are not a grinder (I’m not), and it starts to feel like you’re grinding, stop. Come back to it next time the event rolls around!
I hope this guide to the Hard Tack event in LOTRO encourages you to get stuck in, build your upgrades and help other players. Maybe team up with Kin members and have fun together. Take care, LOTRO Family!