LOTRO officially started on April 24, 2007 so this Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of our beloved game. To celebrate some festival type activities have opened up on both Turbine and Codemaster servers.
The anniversary celebrations start April 19 (today) and run until May 2, 2011. [source]
Double Experience
From April 21 – 24, 2011 there is double experience earned on monster kills! Time to get your favorite character or favorite alt some levels!
Codemasters has double experience listed as lasting until April 25th.
Anniversary Tokens
Gift Box Tokens
Monsters in Middle-earth will be dropping several tiers of tokens that you can turn in for random gift boxes. These tokens have some sort of metal name. For example “Tin Token” or “Gold Token”. The tokens correspond to the level of mob you killed and grant gift boxes with goodies appropriate for that level.
The NPCs that do the token exchange are called “Keeper of Gifts”. One of the Update 2 release notes mentions adding these vendors to all the major hubs in each zone so they’re be easier to turn in this year. You can expect things like potions, hope tokens, skirmish marks, food, and fun items like cosmetics to randomly drop from these gift boxes.
The “Keeper of Gifts” NPCs (the ones who give gifts during the Anniversary) will now be at a major hub in each zone throughout the world.
Anniversary Tokens
New this year is the Anniversary Tokens. These are different than the tokens exchanged for gift boxes. These are earned from the festival events listed below.
There is a new vendor next to the “Keeper of Gifts” called the “Games-Master” who has some special anniversary items for sale for the new Anniversary Token.
Cosmetics:
Ketani was able to run to this new vendor and take some photos of the new items. All clothing costs 20 Anniversary Tokens each.
Silken Dress of Golden Splendor |
Silken Robe of Golden Splendor |
Cloak of the Shining Star |
Ketani also took screenshots of these same items dyed sea-blue to show how the item dyes. She said that a lot of dyes clashed because of the teal trim on the robe and dress and she felt the sea-blue looked the best. You can click on them to see larger versions.
Housing Items:
All items cost 20 Anniversary Tokens each.
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Large yard item "Windmill" |
Small furniture item "Toy Windmill" |
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Maps of: Bree-land, The Shire, Ered Luin, Lone-lands, Northdowns, Trollshaws, Misty mountains and Angmar. Each map is a small wall item. |
There is a deed associated with these maps. See our “Cartographer Maps” post for full details.
Horse Races
The festival horse races have returned with a special Anniversary Steed available for a prize.
This event operates the same way as all other festival horse races. If you are new to the festival horse races you can read our General Festival Guide for the run down on this event.
The race quest rewards one of the following. It is repeatable daily for both the Bree and Shire locations.
- 1 anniversary race token
-or- - 1 anniversary tokens.
This mount is available at Hengstacer Farm from the festival horse trader Will Peartree and costs:
- 3 Anniversary race tokens
- 1 document of mount ownership
- 30 anniversary tokens
Battle for Glorious Beer
This was an event for Yule Festival 2009 but last year was replaced by Winterhome. They told us at the time that the Beer Fight would return and it has!
The Battle for Glorius Beer happens in Thorin’s Hall. There are two entrances to the festival arena. One is outside by the steps leading up to the gate and one is inside Thorin’s Hall down in the underground tavern on the back wall. Look for the door labeled “The Festival Arena”.
Deeds:
- The Mighest Arm: granted for clubbing 200 opponents and gives you the title “Clubber”
- Why Your Head Hurts: granted for winning the beer fight 25 times and gives the title “Battered, Bruised and Contused”.
The Mightest Blow is the name of the quest you are given by Gisli Strongclub who hands you a Dwarf Club of Unimaginable Power. You should put this club in your action bar so you can easily use it.
Your goal in this event is to bat 3 competitors with your club. It sends them flying up in the air but it does not hurt them so don’t feel bad. Giant glowing mugs will appear on the tables in the hall. Your job is to grab one of these mugs and run back to Gisli with it. If you get batted you’ll spill the beer and lose it. You can also lose by getting kicked out of the arena space which I’ve found out is really easy to happen to you.
To complete the quest (win the game), you must bat 3 opponents, get the beer and return it to Gisli.
Different from the 2009 version is every player has a chance to finish the event. It does have a time limit to do all your club bonking and collect the beer but there isn’t just one winner per game like there was in the past. Games cycle every 9 minutes.
Winning grants you 1 Anniversary Token.
It is important to note that you do not have to have the quest to get batted around. I wandered into the playing area and went flying from someone’s club! Wee!
It is required to have at least two players in the arena to complete this quest. You must bat opponents 3 times but it can be the same opponent over and over.
April 28, 2011 at 9:48 am
hi, I woul like to know until when I can gather tokens to trade for a horse? I mean I want to know the date when it finish
thank you!
April 28, 2011 at 11:10 am
The festival for Turbine ends May 2nd. I believe the EU gets a week longer.
April 28, 2011 at 12:29 pm
It is the same for the EU. Everyone ends on May 2nd.
April 28, 2011 at 11:15 am
They changed the length of the Anniversary Cloak. Personally I’m not happy with this, as I had a short version saved in my wardrobe, went to put it on on another character and suddenly it’s a foot and a half longer.
April 28, 2011 at 12:29 pm
I believe it is only short on the tall races (man and elf) and is longer on dwarf and hobbit. But you may be right that it was changed. I’m not certain.
April 28, 2011 at 12:32 pm
My elves and men are the only ones with access to the cloak at this time. It was short all the past week, now suddenly it’s gained that extra length. Instead of hitting the back of the knees like it did before (and is shown in your examples above) it now hits them just above the foot on all my elf/man characters.
May 24, 2011 at 9:50 am
Yes, the cloak is now full length for my elf race. On the other hand they did fix the outside windmill and it now has turning vanes. yey!
May 24, 2011 at 10:27 am
sorry for the double post but the anniversary cloak is still short for the race of man. the character I looked at was female, and the cloak had been dyed. I wonder if that has anything to do with other man races saying their cloaks were now long.
May 24, 2011 at 11:00 am
It is short just for the male but long for the female? That’s kinda strange.
May 24, 2011 at 10:48 pm
The cloak glitch seems to have cleared up after logging out again, now all seem to be long. They do this on purpose to make us feel like we are losing our marbles lololol