2019 Marks 12 Years of LOTRO – so it’s time to celebrate LOTRO Anniversary Event! Quests and events are being held across Middle Earth with the Scavenger Hunt literally seeing people trekking across most map regions! However as some of these require a L60 character (or a very understanding Fellowship or Kin) how can solo- or low-level characters enjoy LOTRO’s Anniversary and reap tokens for the rewards? Here’s my handy guide to the many quests you can enjoy, as well as showing you the rewards you can earn!
As always I intend to update the Festival’s rewards on day 1 of the event. So 2019’s Mounts and Cosmetics should be updated on 18th April 2019, hopefully. Thank you for your patience.
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When is the 2019 LOTRO Anniversary?
Edited: Per the Event Calendar, the Anniversary Event runs from 18th April at 10am Server Time Event Event to the 19th May 2019 at 3am Server Time
When is Anniversary Encore?
The current dates/times of Anniversary Encore are: 7th June at 10am Server Time, to 18th June 2018 at 3am Server Time.
Where Are LOTRO Anniversary Quests Found?
As the whole of Middle Earth is celebrating the anniversary, you will find yourself in three main map regions!
- Bree Town Centre and Bree Race Courses
- The Shire: the Methel-Stage and the Shire Racing Track
- Thorin’s Hall Ale House (also called Thorin’s Hall Inn in some quests.
Hunters with travel guides rejoice! The rest of you will need to use Quick Travel to ride around everywhere. There is no Quick Travel to Hobbitton – you will need to Quick Travel to Michel Delving and then take a normal horse taxi, or your own mount, to Hobbiton to reach the Methel-Stage.
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Another Lovely Year (Daily)
Before you pick up quests in Bree, head to The Party Tree and pick up the quest Another Lovely Year from Waldo Rumble. You then can participate in 3 Anniversary Events and gain a bonus 3 Anniversary Tokens.
Earning Essence Fragments
The LOTRO Anniversary Event allows you to earn Essence Fragments but not by doing the 7-quest wrapper on its own. Instead you need to complete A Yearly Yield (and subsequent chains). A Yearly Yield requires you to complete Another Lovely Year 3 Times
The Quest-giver for this can be found at the Party Tree so go there before completing any Anniversary Quests if you want to earn this reward!
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Earning Anniversary Tokens
Below is your guide to repeatable quests you can earn for tokens. I have put in the number of tokens and the approximate cooldown of these quest to help you know what can be repeated and when! OK let’s get to it!
Fireworks Show (Bree): 2 Tokens, Repeatable Every ½hr At Nighttime
In the North-West of Bree at night time (from Evening until the end of Foredawn) you can participate in the fireworks show! This quest involves listening to the Fireworks Announcer and following the instructions to send up the correct firework. Or to not send up an incorrect firework! These can be worded “Time to send up a red firework” or “This is not the time for yellow, but any other colour will do”. So pay attention!
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Fireworks in the Shire (Methel-Stage) – 1 Token, Repeatable Every ½hr
A really quick one this time – simply keep setting up fireworks for 3 minutes to keep those pesky local Hobbits from complaining to their neighbours! May as well do the Shire Horse Race while you’re in the area!
Weirdly this quest can be completed during day-time, unlike the Fireworks quest in Bree.
Important: the Quest text says you will need more than 1 or 2 people to impress the local Hobbits. So you’re best holding off accepting the Quest until a few people are at the Methel-Stage with you. Unless you want to disappoint a whole bunch of fickle Hobbits! You can decide!
Sparking an Interest (Bree): 2 Tokens, Repeatable Every 3hrs in the Daytime
Quest Giver: “A Young Took” (near Bree Fireworks) – From Dawn until end of Dusk.
Entrepreneurial Hobbits want you to go and find places in Bree to set off a random firework. Their hope is that by doing so it will encourage the locals to attend the show at nighttime! I highly recommend showing floaty names (N Key) as these can be tricksy to spot. They also despawn when a player puts a firework down, and they respawn later. Example locations are below, but there are others!
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Fireworks Exploration (Non-Repeatable)
Gandalf at the Methel-Stage in The Shire wants you to launch different coloured Fireworks in various locations. This is because colour invokes different emotions depending on the setting!
Just a few notes:
- All locations are technically accessible at any level BUT Level 15+ to safely get up Weathertop
- Tom Bombadil’s House is in the North of the Old Forest, so there may be some mobs around L18-20. Just be aware!
- The Fireworks in question can be purchased from the Fireworks Vendor in Bree for 6 Silver each
Rewards:
- Anniversary Token × 1
- Title: Firecracker
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Master Blaster Title Deed (7 Tokens, once per Character)
You can earn LOTRO Anniversary Tokens and the Master Blaster title once per character during the Event. The deed that grants the title only triggers once you set off fireworks purchased from a vendor. If you do Fireworks Exploration you will have received 6 separate deeds (if you didn’t start this last year, of course) – one for each colour of fireworks.
To gain the Master Blaster title you need to set off 50 of each colour of firework. This deed may not suit F2P players because it can be expensive to do it during the one event. But you could consider doing it during the event, the Anniversary Encore and next year’s event, to spread the cost.
- Red Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
- Green Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
- Blue Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
- Orange Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
- Yellow Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
- Purple Fireworks: × 50 = 300 Silver
That makes the total cost: 1 Gold, 800 Silver, which is why I said F2P-ers may want to approach this deed over a longer period of time.
Anniversary Tokens: 7: One for each colour and one for the final Master Blaster Deed.
Lost Invitations (Bree): 2 Tokens, Repeatable every 9hrs
Quest Giver: Percy Bywood (near Anniversary Vendor)
Clumsy folk have lost their invitations to the festivities! So you need to run around Bree (seriously on-foot is easier than mounted for this one) to find the lost invitations. You are looking for Envelopes – some are flying about in the breeze but many are located in fixed positions. Although you only need to find 7 lost invitations, not all envelopes contain invitations, so you’ll need to collect more than 7 (unless the dice are in your favour anyway).
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Horse Racing (Bree and Shire Horse Tracks) – 2 Tokens Each, Repeatable Every 12 hours
Or, if you’re bad at the Horse Racing as I am, you can re-try every hour! Take the challenge and navigate the course. You have to avoid the boggy bits and get through each gate before the timer runs out!
- If you navigate the wooden walk-ways without faling in the bog you get a speed boost!
- If you fall in the bog you get a speed reduction (and I always fail the race if I fall in!)
Note: the Horse Trials do NOT count towards your 7-Quest target for the Essence Fragment. I don’t know why, but they don’t.
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Beer Brawling (Thorin’s Hall Ale House – below Ground Floor) – 1-3 Tokens Repeatable Every 9 minutes
Pick up a giant club and beat up other players! This is the best activity to “grind” for tokens and counts towards the 7-quest wrapper. But other players may not make it easy for you – so play nice. This Anniversary Event has 3 Difficulty Levels:
- Basic Level (1 token): successfully whack 8 players. If you’re knocked out the arena you don’t fail the round, but you do get a ‘fall limp debuff’.
- Intermediate Level (2 tokens): successfully whack 8 players. If you’re knocked out the arena you fail the round and have to wait for restart.
- Expert Level (3 Tokens): successfully whack 8 players and stay inside the arena. Plus you must retrieve a Glorious Beer before the round ends.
A few times I was whacked out the arena at the start of the round! On the other hand I accidentally selected Expert once and won it! So there are a lot of tokens you can earn in an hour here, but other players may stand in your way!
You can earn 18 tokens/hour so long as you don’t fail a round (Good Luck!).
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Anniversary Gifts Quest Chain – 7 Tokens, Repeatable Every 3 Days 6 Hours
Throughout the three Anniversary Regions are people sending gifts to each other! Although you can pick up the Gifts Quest Chain at any stage, there is a logical route you can take while you deliver the gifts:
- Bree to Combe: A Delicate Bracelet – Quest Giver: Roger Hazeltwig (Bree Centre)
- Combe (to Combe!): Delicious Pastries
- Combe to Michel Delving: Wooden Carving
- Michel Delving to Hobbiton: A New Hammer
- Hobbiton to Frérin’s Court: A Dwarf Shield
- Frérin’s Court to Thorin’s Hall Ale House: A Lucky Goat’s Horn
- Thorin’s Hall Ale House to Bree: A Pint of Ale
How Many LOTRO Anniversary Tokens Can You Earn?
On a calculation of the above, if you just did one or two Beer Brawls, you can earn 25-30 LOTRO Anniversary Tokens in the first 2 hours you play the Event!
Beer Brawling is the quickest way to earn tokens – but a LOTRO Festival is not just about earning fast tokens. Experience the celebrations – relax and enjoy!
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LOTRO Anniversary Event Rewards 2018
I won’t cover all the rewards but the main ones are as follows:
Anniversary Mounts / Steeds
- Sea-Ward Steed (40 Anniversary Tokens)
- Steed of the Unflagging Dragon (20 Anniversary Tokens)
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Pets
I don’t collect kites in LOTRO (personal preference) – as I don’t think I’d use them much. Animal pets however, is a TOTALLY different thing! So 2018’s Event introduces a new Animal Pet – a beaver! You can pick up a Tome of the Beaver for 15 Anniversary Tokens. They are not character bound so you can obtain on one character and pass over to another if you want.
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Anniversary Cosmetic Outfits
2018’s Event features cosmetics based on ‘The Waking Wood’ – Armour, Gloves, Shoulders and Quivver. I didn’t spot any boots, however.
- Unflagging Dragon Armour Set (50 Anniversary Tokens for all 5 Pieces) – in the screenshot below mine is customised with a Black Dye
- Reveller’s Robe of the Odogil (7 Anniversary Tokens) + Reveller’s Cloak of the Odogil (7 Anniversary Tokens)
- Silken Gown of Golden Splendour (4 Anniversary Tokens) + Cloak of the Shining Star (4 Anniversary Tokens)
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Fiddles
2018 is the year of the fiddle, so you can obtain two Fiddles at the Anniversary celebrations – one of which is clearly meant for groups/bands – the Traveller’s Trusty Fiddle because it’s a plucked Fiddle.
- Bardic Fiddle: 7 × Anniversary Tokens
- Traveller’s Trusty Fiddle: 15 × Anniversary Tokens
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What are Anniversary Steel Tokens?
At the event vendors stall in Bree, you will find a barter vendor who sells various things in exchange for Steel Tokens. These are character-bound currency that drop from mobs. Although the official line is that these drop from harder foes, that is no longer true and tokens can fall from any mob – even gray ones.
If you don’t want any of the cosmetics you can convert them
- To Marks: which can be bartered at a Skirmish Camp for armour, weapons, cosmetics – and to enhance your Skirmish Soldier
- To a ‘Battle Box’ (which, if you get Marks is twice the value of directly converting them)
- To a ‘Legendary Box’ which helps with Legendary Items
So you can always put them to good use even if you don’t want any of the other rewards!
You can exchange Steel Tokens for a variety of cosmetic and other items items.
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LOTRO Anniversary Token Vendor After the Event
The Anniversary Token Vendor seemed to stick around until after Scavenger Quests are removed, but there are Vendors still positioned in various places in Middle Earth. The easiest one for everyone can be found in Bree‘s main square (near the Tasks Bulletin Board). So if you have tokens left over you want to spend, you should be able to do so.
For example there is one at Ost Guruth in the Lone-Lands last year, so just keep your eyes peeled!
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TL;DR Enjoy the 12th LOTRO Anniversary Event!
There is a lot going on even if you can’t, or don’t want to, do the Scavenger Hunts. You can obtain all the rewards as a solo and/or low-level player. So enjoy beating up other players, setting off fireworks and celebrating the 2019 LOTRO Anniversary with the community!
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Some of them require you to visit level 100+ zones, too! But the guide is great! Thanks! At least my low level alts will have something to do 😀
Thanks for commenting! And yes I’ve heard about the L100 Zones as well. I see the advantage in offering harder to content to players who have played more, but I wanted to offer something that helped everyone get some of the anniversary rewards at least. Sadly the really neat pets people were looking forward to require Scavenger Hunts. I still may try and group up for one or two, just so I’ve experienced it.
At The Shire Fireworks, Gandalf gives a quest to use fireworks at various locations, furthest away being the Last Lonely House. Does not appear renewable – rewards with a title as well as tokens.
Heya Ray, thanks for this. Is that a quest that all levels can do or is the travel hazardous?