LOTRO Buried Treasure Event Guide

LOTRO Buried Treasure Event Guide

The LOTRO Buried Treasure Event is a great way to spend down time from questing, or life! A repetitive chance at unearthing tokens, cosmetics and sometimes even mounts.

I suggest you pick a couple of characters to do it at the same time so you always have something to do. But let’s follow the Dwarves to the Low-lands of Ered Luin and see what we can find!

Buried Treasure Event Dates 2024

As per the LOTRO Events Schedule, the dates for 2024 are:

  • From: 4th April 2023 at 10am /servertime, To: 10th April 2024 at 3am /servertime.
  • From: 7th November 2023 at 10am /servertime, To: 13th November 2024 at 3am /servertime.

For the May event it means the last full day is the 29th May. And for Autumn, the last full day is the 27th November.

Be Considerate!

This Event, like many others attracts a lot of players. It also often means logging and re-logging characters. As the base camp can get busy, please be considerate of other players:

  1. Please do not stand, mounted or otherwise, over the Quest-givers or Vendors. It can make interacting with them very difficult.
  2. If you see someone heading to a bush for Berries, don’t race them for it.
  3. If a player is releasing a Cave-Claw in an area of dig sites, try someplace else.
  4. Please dismount at the base camp. It can get crowded and anything that helps it load quicker for players is good for everyone.
  5. Please also consider limiting, or not using: Cosmetic Pets, Lore-Master Companions and Captain Heralds. They take up space and increase load time.
  6. Please don’t use involuntary Emote items around quest givers (e.g. mass fainting – e.g. Such as Essence of Toad and Swamp-Cabbage).

Treasure-Hunters Picks, Cave-Claws and Dowsing Gems

There are three main items that are your ‘treasure hunting equipment’. these are Treasure-Hunter’s Picks, Trained Cave-Claw Cages and Dowsing Gems. Here’s what they are, how you obtain them and how to use them effectively.

Treasure-Hunter’s Picks

These are your precious resource and are Single Use! Don’t use them without knowing you are putting them to good use first!

Obtaining Treasure-Hunter’s Picks

  • If your character has never done the LOTRO Buried Treasure Event before, you have an intro quest that grants 10 Picks.
  • After that, the best way to amass them is to speak to Quest-Giver Aldúlf. You can complete Treasure Hunt every 15 minutes. You receive 2 Picks for this quest.
  • Every 15 minutes you can interact with the Cave-Claw Quest-Giver and obtain the Berries Quest, which also grants 2 Picks
  • You can also find Picks when out digging for Buried Treasure.
  • If you wish to, you may purchase extra Treasure-Hunter’s Picks from the LOTRO Store, but you really don’t need to

Using Your Picks

Right-click on a Dig Site to use one of your Picks. You may also add them to your quickbars and use them that way.

You could also consider using the Rich! Plugin to keep all your Buried Treasure items in one separate window:
Read More ↓

Trained Cave-Claw Cages

Trained Cave-Claws are clever little beasts that, when released, will sniff out the best Dig Site from ones nearby so you know which Dig Sites to use your Treasure-Hunter’s Picks on. Or, importantly, which ones to avoid! They are also Single-Use.

Obtaining Trained Cave-Claw Cages

  • You receive 1 × Cave-Claw by completing the Quest Berries
  • Cave-Claws may be purchased for 5 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens from Sigtír. If used properly you often dig up more tokens than you spend on them!
  • Extra Trained Cave-Claws may also be dug up from Dig Sites

How Do I Use Cave-Claws?

  • Only use Cave-Claws early in a Round
  • Releasing a Cave-Claw within a ‘circle’ of Dig-sites minimises your chance of wasting one.
  • Ensure you release one when there are a good number of dig-sites nearby
  • If another player is near you and appears to be releasing a Cave-Claw, I advise you head somewhere else on the map. Both the Cave-Claw Cages and Dowsing Gems uses a kneeling emote/action.

How Far Can Cave-Claws Sniff?

A huge thanks to @JThornshield for this tip on maximising the use of your Cave-Claws!

Cave-Claw sniffing/detecting range tweet

@JThornshield did and experiment and the 20 meters rule applies; but it seems if a Huge Dig Site is fairly close to that range your Cave-Claw may still detect it.
It seems the Cave-Claw has a stronger nose than we thought

Opinion: It is far better to wait for a new round to start than release a Cave-Claw in an area with few Dig Sites remaining.


How They Detect Dig Sites

Trained Cave-Claws will tell you what size dig site it is: Small, Medium, Large or Huge.

It is rarely worth using your Picks on Small Dig Sites as at best they give you a couple of tokens, maybe three at a push. Other sized dig sites are worth using your picks on, for their Buried Treasure Tokens token yield – and sometimes grant you cosmetics, or additional Treasure-Hunter’s Picks/Trained Cave-Claws/Dowsing Gems.

Dowsing Gems

Dowsing Gems are like magic crystals.

You can use a Gem on a single Dig Site and it will return a “reading”. Here’s how they equate to the size of dig site:

  • Very Weak Reading: Small Dig Site
  • Slight Reading: Medium Dig Site
  • Strong Reading: Large Dig Site
  • Very Strong Reading: Huge Dig Site

Weirdly, the Dowse Emote is far more interesting than what happens when actually dowsing for treasure!

Berries – 15min Cooldown

Treasure Hunt – 15min Cooldown

How Buried Treasure ‘Rounds’ Work

During a round you can use your supplies and picks to investigate dig sites.

A round lasts until someone has found a Huge Dig Site.

There is a short delay while the Field re-sets.

Don’t use your items or picks after you receive the on-screen text of Current Round Has Ended. You may waste your precious!

Buried Treasure Event Rewards

Unlike other LOTRO Events, you can get some rewards at the Barter Vendor, but others can be found in Treasure Caches that you unearth. as well.

Treasure Cache Rewards

Inside treasure cache’s you can receive various things

Note: Some of the cosmetics available at the Token Vendor, may drop in Treasure Caches. Therefore it’s best to put off buying the cosmetics with tokens until you’re sure you’re done with the event.

Treasure Cache Steeds

Update: As of Update 25.4.5, Treasure Cache steeds are Bound to Account not bound on acquire so if you dig up a steed in a box (ew!) feel free to gift what you dug up to another character of yours.

Misc Treasure Cache Rewards

You can acquire all sorts of other items for no tokens from Treasure Caches: Cosmetics, Decorations and Emotes for example!

Note: if your current character already has an Emote they have dug up, you can send it to another one of your characters. They are Bound to Account, so share the love!

Pro Tip: If you have a Rune-Keeper, the Treasure Hunter’s Satchel doubles up as Rune-Keeper’s Satchel. It is technically a “back” item but it appears attached to your belt.

Emotes

Some emotes fall from treasure caches, some from the Barter Vendor and some can be obtain via either of those methods. I’ve recorded ones I have so far. If you want to see these Emotes in action, I’ve given videos below.

Counterfeit Emote

See the Counterfeit Emote
Play this video
See the Counterfeit Emote

Command: /counterfeit
Not Available for Event Tokens

Gem Inspection Emote

See the Gem Inspect Emote
Play this video
See the Gem Inspect Emote

Command: /inspectgem
Buried Treasure Tokens 250 Tokens
Large Cache Rewards

Rich Emote

See the Rich Emote
Play this video
See the Rich Emote

Command: /rich
Buried Treasure Tokens300 Tokens
Huge Cache Rewards

Coin Flip Emote

See the Coin Flip Emote
Play this video
See the Coin Flip Emote

Command: /flipcoin
Not Available for Event Tokens

Dowse Emote

See the Dowse Emote
Play this video
See the Dowse Emote

Command: /dowse
Buried Treasure Tokens 30 Tokens
Medium Cache Rewards

Other Emotes available:

  • Gold Panning: Buried Treasure Tokens 100 Tokens, Medium Cache rewards

Buried Treasure Token Rewards

Mount: Harvest-Brew Goat

There are a LOT of things available from the Barter Vendor. There is, however, just one token-barter mount:

Harvest-Brew Goat 1000×Buried Treasure Tokens

Mount Details Here →

↑ Guide Menu


Cosmetics

All cosmetics listed here can be acquired from Treasure Caches. So only use tokens to purchase them near/at the end of the event so you can use your tokens for other things. For more information see my Buried Treasure Cosmetics page, or click/tap into one’s you’re interested in.

Golden Cave-Claw Mask

Golden Cave-Claw Mask from the LOTRO Buried Treasure Event500 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Jeweller's Helm

Jeweller's Helm - Buried Treasure Cosmetic200 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Treasure Hunter's Pack

Treasure Hunter's Pack Cosmetic150 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Treasure Hunter's Rucksack

Treasure Hunter's Rucksack Cosmetic150 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Treasure Hunter's Satchel

Treasure Hunter's Satchel Cosmetic60 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Wooden Cave-Claw Mask

Wooden Cave-Claw Mask cosmetic90 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens

More Info →

Pets

As Hobnanigans pets were imported into the Buried Treasure Event, there are now loads of pets to collect!

Cave-Claw Pets

There are various Cave-Claw pets you can barter tokens for. Note these are cosmetic pets and do not actually help you with finding Treasure. You need the Trained Cave-Claw Cage items for that.

All Cave-Claw Pets cost 500 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens:

Chicken Pets

The Dwarves have imported the chickens from Hobnanigans, and there are six different chicken pets to acquire.

I don’t own all these chickens, so I have linked to LOTRO Wiki’s entries below to help you.

Carrying Chickens

Each of the six Chicken Pets comes with an equivalent “Carrying Chicken”. As the name says, it’s a consumable that lets you carry a chicken for quite a long time. As a bonus, if you “consume” 50 × Carrying Chicken of the same variety, you get the permanent skill for that bird.

  • White Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 5 Tokens Each (250 Tokens for the Deed)
  • Red Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 6 Tokens Each (300 Tokens for the Deed)
  • Dorking Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 7 Tokens Each (350 Tokens for the Deed)
  • Scrapper Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 8 Tokens Each (400 Tokens for the Deed)
  • Black-foot Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 9 Tokens Each (450 Tokens for the Deed)
  • Orange Wyandotte Carrying Chicken: Buried Treasure Tokens 10 Tokens Each (500 Tokens for the Deed)

Facepaint Stencils

Facepaint is like a temporary tattoo. There are 8 Facepaint designs and cost 5 x Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens each. Here are the facepaint stencils available at the Buried Treasure Event.

Bee

Bow

Butterfly

Feather

Flower

Pipe

Star

Sword

Facepaints have a 20-second cool-down but last for 1 hour each usage.

PS: the last Bullroarer session showed these had 2-hour durations.


Facepaint Deeds

Facepaint Consumables have related deeds. If you use the same stencil 50 times, that character will get a permanent skill for that stencil!

As Facepaints only cost 5 × Buried Treasure Tokens Buried Treasure Tokens each, you can get a stack of 50 for 250 Tokens. Easily doable over a weekend.

Motes of Enchantment

You can barter 200 Buried Treasure Tokens for 300 × Motes of Enchantment Motes of Enchantment.

↑ Guide Menu


Decorations

Since 2020, previous Hobnanigans decorations have been made available at the Treasure Hunt. Full details, screenshots and token prices of these can be found at Déco Du Milieu .

See Event Decos

↑ Guide Menu


Cooking Recipes

What’s an Unearthed Sack?

Good question! For a mere 500 Tokens you can get a mysterious Unearthed Sack. This is basically a “lucky dip”, so its contents are random. You can see a selection of possible items over on the Wiki. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it’s worth the price tag!

Rich! Plugin

Cave-Claw Wrangler Deed Title

You can obtain the Cave-Claw Wrangler title at this event. To do so you will need to:

  • Barter for single-use Domesticated Cave-ClawsExternal Link (Opens in New Window/Tab)
  • Hug one of each type (target the cave-claw and use the /hug command, or quick-slotted emote from Collections.

If you find another player’s cave-claws you can also hug theirs to advance the deed!

TL;DR All sorts found in the ground during the LOTRO Buried Treasure Event!

From tokens, to cosmetics – from homestead decoration to free mounts, the LOTRO Buried Treasure Event is full of rewards. If you’re patient! And one final tip: Play some music in the background so that the looping Dwarf-tune doesn’t send you loopy, enjoy!


About the Author

Fibro Jedi
Fibro Jedi

I have been playing MMOs for about ten years and began writing guides to The Lord of the Rings Online in 2017. I've only been creating content about Final Fantasy XIV since 2022, but I am glad for the mix. My current games include LOTRO, FFXIV and the occasional Palia session too.

LOTRO Posts | FFXIV Posts | Please support me on Ko-Fi Donate Coffee | Author Page


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