LOTRO Points

As with many MMOs, The Lord of the Rings Online has what many refer to as a “money store”, where you spend LOTRO Points. While accessible in-game, it is the place where you can choose to buy optional items or more content with real-world money. Or rather, real-world money converted to LOTRO Points (LP). But simply knowing this does not do justice with quite how much you can do with LP.

Equally, quite unlike other MMOs, you can earn LP in-game, allowing you to earn LOTRO Store items without parting with real-world cash. Here’s my beginner’s guide to LOTRO Points, so let’s dive in.

LOTRO Store vs LOTRO.com Shop

Before we delve in properly, it’s important I highlight there are two real-money stores.

LOTRO Store

The LOTRO Store is accessible in-game and lets you buy basic expansions, content packs and many different types of in-game items. You access this by using the LOTRO Store button on the right of your ability/skill bar UI.

LOTRO Shop

However, for certain packs that are a bit different, they are usually found in the LOTRO.com Shop (formerly the separate LOTRO Market). This is where different packages for expansions are found – such as the Fate of Gundabad Ultimate Fan Bundle. You can reach this shop from the LOTRO.com website.

Items in the Shop are not available for LOTRO Points, at least until the Standard Editions are brought into the LOTRO Store, anyway. You’ll never see a Collectors/Fan pack in for LP.

LOTRO Point Balance and History

While I will talk about spending LOTRO Points later, it is first helpful to know how to find out about your balance.

Are LOTRO Points Account-wide or Server-Specific?

Account-wide. Any LP you earn on any server goes into your balance and can be spent in the store regardless of the server you’re currently playing on.

I added this question as it does pop up occasionally in World Chat among newer players.

Finding Your Balance Info

Load the LOTRO Store
Mine does not always work in-game, but loads in an external browser. Either way, the process is the same.

Find Your Balance
Once the store has loaded look in the top right for the number of LP you have.

Transaction History
Your history includes LOTRO Points spent, but also those added. This can be through purchasing with real-world money, a monthly gift for being VIP (subscriber) or the completion of a deed.

Buying LOTRO Points

Rather than launching into what I think is one of LOTRO’s best features – free LOTRO Points, I thought I’d start with the obvious thing.

LOTRO Points can be acquired through spending your real-world money. But there are nuances, bulk discounts and a new feature to LOTRO in 2022 of supporter packs.

LOTRO Point Bundles

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As is common in sales, and certainly a method I’ve seen in other MMOs, you can see a bulk discount with higher-priced bundles. All you need to do is hit “LOTRO Points” at the top of the Store, select your bundle and process the payment. Voilà, points in your pocketses.

LOTRO-Wiki has a handy table to see how much each LP costs, so you can see the scaling of the bulk discount.

What Does “Double Bonus Points” Mean?

To avoid confusion, whenever LOTRO announce a “double bonus points” offer, it does not mean “double points”!

You’ll see from the packages above that each bundle contains a set number of LP, followed by a separate “bonus points” figure. It is that number which is doubled during those sales.

Is Double Bonus Points On?

LOTRO will promote when double points is on across their social media streams. Here’s a link to the tweets @lotro has put out mentioning them, to see if a new sale is on:

Check Now

Cost per Point

So which bundle has the cheapest cost per point?

I am in the UK, so my numbers here are in GBP. That said, the overall picture should be roughly the same in other currencies.

“Total Points” here includes the Bonus Points off-sale. I have rounded the cost/point to 4 decimal places to prevent us all going crazy.

The general pattern here is that the cost per point reduces with higher bundles. That is, except the £14.99 one. If you buy 3×£4.99 bundles, it costs you £14.97 and you get 1,800, 300 points more.

Supporter Packs

Supporter Packs were introduced in 2022 as a new way of, well, supporting The Lord of the Rings Online. Say you don’t want to be tied into a monthly or quarterly commitment to become a VIP. In this case, you may decide that supporting the game when you have some funds to spare is a way to do this. There are various Supporter Packs, but all of them come with a bundle of LOTRO Points.

I’m not going to list all of the features, because that would be a post all of its own. So I’ve just added the LP bundle for your information.

Simple Supporter Pack

Cost: £25.99 / $34.99 / 30,99€
LP Granted: 3,500
Approximate Cost of LP if Bought Separately: £30.00 ( 3,700)

Enhanced Supporter Pack

Cost: £39.99 / $59.99 / 46,99€
LP Granted: 6,500
Approximate Cost of LP if Bought Separately: £39.99 ( 6,300)

Luxuriant Supporter Pack

Cost: £67.99 / $99.99 / 79,99€
LP Granted: 11,000
Approximate Cost of LP if Bought Separately: £79.97 ( 11,500, or £79.99 for 13,000)

From what I can see, then, if you want to pay real-world money for your LOTRO points, for the first time, it is either cheaper to get a Supporter Pack, or you get more items for approximately the same cost.

I’m not affiliated in anyway with LOTRO, SSG or Daybreak. But if you want more information on these Supporter Packs, then the URL is: https://www.lotro.com/supporter-packs

“Free” LOTRO Points

Having only subscribed to one other game that gave you bonus monthly store points, it’s only SWTOR I can compare to The Lord of the Rings Online in this regard. The FFXIV optional items store does not use points, but actual real-money prices – in your own currency.

That said, there are ways to get “free” LOTRO Points. Here they are – and I’ll explain why “free” is written in inverted commas too.

A Little Extra Never Hurts

The only genuinely-free LOTRO points are granted in a quest you find in your starter zone. It is an introduction to the LOTRO Store, so grants you 10 × . If you don’t pick up part 2, then you can keep the LP.

The quest is A Little Extra Never Hurts.

Limitation

The only limitation is that you can only do it once per server. And it is only available during the introduction, either at the Hunting Lodge (near Archet), or Dwalin in Frerin’s Court.

As such, this is not available for High Elves, Stout-Axe Dwarves or Beornings who have separate starting zones.

While you could create a character on every server just for this purpose, it's not the most enjoyable, or efficient way! See Deeds instead.

Deeds

LOTRO Deeds are character-specific achievements that you unlock and can complete throughout all your wanderings in Middle-Earth. Each new region you unlock also contains more deeds – and many of them grant free LOTRO Points. The more content you unlock (which is account-wide), the more LP you can earn. Deeds are often themed around “discovery” and “combat”: finding a group of locations (“exploration deed”), or defeating a certain number of a specific enemy (“slayer deed”).

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Certainly in terms of slayer deeds, these can feel grindy. But there are days when defeating a hundred enemies can be therapeutic!

LOTRO Points via Deeds Takes Time

The only reason I say these are “free” is that there is a cost – time. But basically, you can earn LOTRO Store items simply by playing the game. I unlocked all of Eriador through this route alone on my main account, not really by grinding but by playing more than one character and clearing the deeds in each region.

All the content up to Level 95 is now completely free, but there’s still more you can unlock!

I do not advocate “farming” – and since so much content is now free, there really is no need to. When I said I played multiple characters, I played one at once and have kept most of those I created. The only exception to that is my Duoquesting / Dualboxing, which is done for role-playing and character development only.

Play the game in a way you most enjoy it and you’ll earn LOTRO Points along the way.

Other Sources of Free LP

VIP Monthly LOTRO Points

If you are a VIP (aka a Subscriber), then each month you will receive a grant of × 500. These are automatically granted, so will appear in your transaction history when they are. Obviously this is not free in the truest sense of the word. But they are LOTRO Points you have not handed over additional real-world money for, on top of your subscription price.

Player Events/Streams

If you keep your eye on social media, you’ll sometimes come across events or competitions. A recent one (at the date of writing) was a Brandywine Housing Contest that had five 100 codes to give away.

You may also find that LOTROstream periodically have in-stream virtual raffles, or another popular LOTRO streamer has been given some codes for a promotion. Take part in these and you could come away with free LOTRO points. But, more importantly, you’ll have connected with the community.

Big LOTRO Occasions

Sometimes, during particularly notable official LOTRO occasions, SSG give LP away. This was true of the 15th LOTRO Anniversary Event, though I wouldn’t expect that to happen again until the 20th!

In any case, it pays (literally) to keep up with official announcements so you do not miss out on freebies.

Spending LOTRO Points

No, I’m not going to run through the blatently-obvious “Load the store, use points, get stuff” process. Instead, I just want to offer some tips:

• If you do want to use real money to purchase LOTRO Points, then keep an eye out for the Double Bonus Points “sale” to really get value.
• Plan Ahead: all items in the LOTRO store are optional. If there are some things you would like from there, then plan how you want to acquire them. Build up some LP via LOTRO Deeds and only buy the points you need.
• Plan Ahead (Part 2): knowing what you’re aiming for is a good plan, especially as many categories of items go on sale at various points in the year. Don’t buy today if you could wait until the next sale.
• Because many items are discounted more than once in the year, don’t stress about the countdown timer!
• While the Store does have many exclusives, not everything is. Search for the item on LOTRO-Wiki, as this often lists the various ways items may be obtained and other known items with similar apperances.

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Mithril Coins

Lastly, I want to briefly talk about the other quasi “real-world currency” in LOTRO, Mithril Coins. MC is used to purchase items inside the game (not the LOTRO Store), for example:

• Outfit cosmetics at Lalia’s Market and other displays in Middle-Earth.
• Acquiring Housing Writs, if you want to purchase a Premium property, such as in the Rohan Housing areas.
• At LOTRO Events many older Mounts are only available for MC. See my Mithril Coins Mounts page for more information.
• To travel to a Stable-Master you have not yet unlocked.

Acquiring MC

Your Mithril Coins balance is server-wide, so if you want to spend any on a specific character ensure you only buy MC while logged into that server! MC are added to your wallet by converting to . This can be done regardless of whether your LOTRO Points were added through a real-world transaction or earned in-game. Head into the LOTRO Store, search for “Mithril” and you’ll find a few packages.

• NOTE: Many, many items in Lalia’s Market and similar displays throughout Middle-Earth can be acquired in-game through quests or crafting. While this is not true of everything, it is for a lot of items. Learn crafting, save good-looking quest items and take part in LOTRO Festivals – there are many ways to make great-looking outfits without parting with real money.

Mithril Coins are periodically on sale at 20% off. If you’re not running low, it’s always best to hold off until the sale recurrs.

TL;DR LOTRO Points – Boil ’em, Mash ’em, Stick ’em in a Stew

Well, maybe not. But there are multiple ways to acquire LOTRO Points and many ways to spend them. Remember to only spend what you can afford, that sales often recurr and optional items are exactly that – optional. Play the game in a way that you enjoy it. If you can’t afford real money, then please know that playing the game still supports LOTRO and you can fully enjoy your time in Middle-Earth without spending a penny, cent, centime etc. Have fun!

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About the Author

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.

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