Crafting

Crafting is the process of gathering and refining resources in order to create a variety of useful items such as armour, class items, essences, jewellery, potions, and weapons depending on the crafting profession the player has chosen.

Getting Started

To start crafting, the player must complete the introduction and move out into the wider world. In various towns throughout Middle-earth, Masters or Mistresses of Apprentices will teach players crafting professions. The crafting system offers 10 professions, and each character can learn up to three of these. It is possible to purchase an additional craft slot from the LOTRO store for 995 LP per character. A profession determines the types of items the player can create, the recipes it can learn, the resources it can collect, and the crafting guild it can join.

Players may change a profession at any time by speaking to a Master or Mistress of Apprentices, however, they will lose all progress and recipes memorized in that profession and start the new profession from the beginning.

Suppliers, Novice-level Crafting Vendors and crafting facilities are usually near Masters and Mistresses of Apprentices. Suppliers and crafting vendors sell most of the items needed to begin crafting. All crafts require the correct tools, raw materials, and a workplace to execute a recipe. For instance, woodworking requires a set of woodworking tools, a supply of wood, and a workbench. Crafting facilities are found in many locations in most towns and can also be purchased and placed in player housing.

Professions

Main article: Profession

Professions are divided in two groups: gathering and crafting. Gathering professions harvest materials from the landscape and refine them into ingredients used by the other professions. For example, a Prospector harvests skarn from resource nodes and smelts it into ingots, which are then used by Jewellers, Metalsmiths and Weaponsmiths. Scholar is both a gathering and crafting profession as it harvests and processes its own ingredients into finished products.

Choosing a profession can benefit the player's class. The following tables show which classes benefit from the different professions.

Profession vs. Class

Profession	Beorning	Brawler	Burglar	Captain	Champion	Guardian	Hunter	Lore-master	Mariner	Minstrel	Rune-keeper	Warden
Cook	Food	Food	Food	Food	Food	Food	Food	Food	Food, CSI	Food, CSI	Food	Food
Jeweller	Jewellery	Jewellery, CSI	Jewellery	Jewellery	Jewellery, CSI	Jewellery	Jewellery	Jewellery, CSI	Jewellery	Jewellery	Jewellery, Weapon	Jewellery
Metalsmith	Armour	Armour		Armour	Armour	Armour, CSI				Shield	CSI	Shield
Scholar	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls	Scrolls	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls, CSI	Scrolls, CSI
Tailor	Cloak	Cloak	Armour, Cloak, CSI	Cloak, CSI	Cloak	Cloak	Armour, Cloak	Armour, Cloak	Armour, Cloak	Armour, Cloak	Armour, Cloak, CSI	Armour, Cloak
Weaponsmith	Weapon	Weapon	Weapon, CSI	Weapon	Weapon	Weapon, CSI	Weapon		Weapon	Weapon		Weapon, CSI
Woodworker	Weapon		Weapon	Weapon, CSI	Weapon, CSI	Weapon	Weapon	Weapon		Weapon, CSI	CSI	Weapon, CSI

CSI: Class-specific Item

Gathering resources

Main article: Resources

Crafting materials are found throughout Middle-earth from vendors, as loot drops, as resource nodes, in the assorted chests and crates around the world, and, later, in special Crafting Instances. Raw materials consist of ore, wood, hides, gems, seeds, cooking ingredients, dye components, and lore items.

Resource nodes

• Artifact nodes produce raw materials for Scholars and sometimes critical ingredients.
• Crop nodes that are found in the wild produce ingredients for Cook.
• Crop nodes planted by a Farmer in a Farmland produce crops and sometimes dye ingredients for Scholars and critical ingredients.
• Ore nodes produce raw ore and sometimes gems for Jewellers, dye ingredients for Scholars and critical ingredients.
• Wood nodes produce raw wood and sometimes critical ingredients.

Tracking skills

Upon learning a gathering profession, the player will learn a skill to track nearby resource nodes on the mini-map.

 Track Artifacts -- Scholar

 Track Crops -- Farmer

 Track Mines -- Prospector

 Track Wood -- Forester

Other resource locations

• Hides are found as loot drops from many creatures.
• Seeds and cooking components can be purchased from Suppliers or tradesmen.
• Lore items are found as loot drops on humanoid enemies or in and around ruins inside ancient Artifacts.
• Rare items for high level crafting and single use recipes may be found in Farming fields as well as any appropriate level resource node. They may also drop from "Rare Elite" or "Rare Signature" creatures. See Crafting Rare Components
• Most crafting materials can also be found in chests on the landscape and in instances.
• Missions and delvings are another source of crafting materials. On a Mission (Weekly), On a Continuing Mission (Weekly), and Delve Deepest (Weekly) offer a selectable reward of a Bonus Crafting Materials Box, one of the subcomponents of which is a Crate of Crafting Materials, which provide a crafting resource of any type and any tier.
• Certain the Further Adventures of Bilbo Baggins missions contain Master (tier 5) resource nodes, regardless of the level of the player. Chapter 2 and Chapter 5 contain Lebethron branches and Dwarf-iron Ore nodes.
• Some boss chests for the Woe of the Willow and Agoroth, the Narrowdelve instances, drop a random crate of crafting materials, from which materials of any tier of the relevant crafting profession can be selected, even if the instance is set to minimum; level 20 for Woe of the Willow, or level 45 for Agoroth.

Crafting instances

Main article: Crafting Instances

Starting with Moria, crafting instances provide another way to gather resources. These instances feature a high concentration of resource nodes though usually accompanied by mobs. Additional crafting instances can be found in Hytbold, the Entwood, and Gundabad.

Some instances not designated as crafting instances may also be sources of crafting materials. For example, the wargs in the scalable instance Warg Pens drop hides for a crafting tier commensurate with the level at which the instance is set upon launch.

Recipes

The crafter must have learned the recipe for items it wants to craft. Recipes are either given automatically when achieving a crafting tier, purchased, dropped from mobs, or obtained as treasure.

Type of Recipe	Description
Basic	Each tier has a number of basic recipes that are provided for you once that tier is available.
Vendor	Recipes can be purchased from a Novice or Expert profession NPC.
Guild	Recipes can be purchased or bartered from the appropriate Guild Representative.
Reputation	Recipes can be purchased from the certain faction representative. Recipe access and use is normally controlled by reputation Level.
Dropped	Recipes can be obtained as loot from various creatures or from certain instance chests.
Single use	Recipes that can only be crafted once and then it is removed from your recipe list.
Quest	Certain quests require the use of a crafting recipe. If the player does not already have the recipe, the quest will usually bestow it. These are generally single-use and do not offer crafting XP.
Processing	Processing recipes use a two-step-process to transform raw ingredients into an intermediate form and back again at the rate of half the input of the resource resulting primarily in Craft XP.

Icon	Recipes	Recipe Indexes
	Cook Recipes	Cook Recipe Index
	Farmer Recipes	Farmer Recipe Index
	Forester Recipes	Forester Recipe Index
	Jeweller Recipes	Jeweller Recipe Index
	Metalsmith Recipes	Metalsmith Recipe Index
	Prospector Recipes	Prospector Recipe Index
	Scholar Recipes	Scholar Recipe Index
	Tailor Recipes	Tailor Recipe Index
	Weaponsmith Recipes	Weaponsmith Recipe Index
	Woodworker Recipes	Woodworker Recipe Index

Executing recipes

Executing a recipe requires the correct tools, raw materials, and a workplace. Completing a recipe can result in either a standard or critical success.

Ingredient Packs can take the place of a recipe's ingredients, however, items crafted with ingredient packs are Bound to Account. Ingredient packs are rewards for the crafting introduction quests, found in Hobbit Gifts, and purchased from the LOTRO Store.

Critical Successes

After gaining Proficiency in any tier of a crafting profession, each time you craft an item for that tier, you have the chance to receive a Critical success. This is commonly referred to as "to crit" or "critting"; the resulting product of such a success is often called a "crit item".

Types of Critical Success

There are two different outcomes when you critically succeed while crafting:

• Producing a larger number of items. Example: Normally Bronze Ingots produces two ingots at a time, but a critical success yields four ingots.
• Produce a better quality item with improved statistics. Example: A normal outcome is Leather Armour but a critical success gives Tough Leather Armour which has increased stats.

Notice that Weaponsmiths, Metalsmiths, Jewellers and Tailors also have a special feature attached to critical successes at Artisan level and above: they are given the option to Inscribe Item (allowing custom named items).

• Certain Guild Recipes are referred to as "Auto-Crits." These recipes can only generate the Critical Success outcome. They normally require a "Guild pattern" of some sort associated with that profession, as well as the same materials as required by the "normal" recipe, and are typically on Cool-down timers. They typically require a certain Guild Reputation level to acquire and execute. No "critical success bonus" is associated with these as the success rate is always 100%. Example: Item:Cloak of Théodred Recipe

• Similar to "Critical Successes" are Bulk Crafting Recipes available from Guild's "Improved Recipe" vendors and from the Skirmish Crafting Trader. These recipes allow the creation of multiple items at one time. Most are related to resource or component production. They typically require specific Mastery or Reputation levels. Examples: Item:Bulk Brushed Doomfold Leather Recipe, Bulk Tome of Wisdom Recipe

Achieving Critical Success

Critical Success is governed by the laws of probability.

If a crafter is proficient in the crafting tier being used, and if the recipe allows critical success, the base chance of attaining a critical success is 5%. This base chance can be increased by using player-crafted Crafting Tools, special "mastery components", and Scholar-made crafting lore scrolls.

To see possible outcomes from critical successes, open a recipe in the crafting panel (at the page Critical success an example is included that illustrates this section). The lower area of the screen is commonly called the Mastery Component area. The special name of a critical success is displayed in this area, if one is possible. Hovering over the icon will display the improved stats and bonuses. Notice that if you have not yet attained proficiency for the tier of the recipe, the content of this area will be disabled.

The Mastery Component area of most recipes also displays a special ingredient slot for what is commonly called a "Mastery Component". If the crafter has the special ingredient available, he may select the "use" box and that way increase the likelihood for critical successes. In the example to the right Chunk of Crude Brimstone may be used. Single-use recipes usually require "crafting journals" crafted by scholars, e.g. Artisan Metalsmith's Journal rather than standard mastery components.

• One mastery components is used per craft attempt.
• Mastery components are optional; also crafting without them may yield a critical success.
• Standard Mastery components are random loot but Farmers may buy them from vendors.
• Not all recipes have an option for mastery components.
• The base chance stack with crit chance from crafting tool, mastery components, and scholar's lore.
• A critical success is never guaranteed as you may never reach 100% likelihood (except for Farmer fields).
• The percentage outcome of critical successes is generated per crafting attempt, not over a series of attempts, thus the mileage of a shorter crafting session may differ considerably. The average of longer sessions should be close to the expected likelihood. If a crafter, as in the example crafts 20 Items, that is 20 individual attempts!

At the page Critical success a hands-on example illustrates how the different improvements interact to a better likelihood for critical successes.

Crafting Facilities

Main article: Crafting Facility

Every profession has an appropriate place to actually do the work. The gathering professions, Scholars, Prospector and Forester, primarily harvest resource nodes, in the wild. Farmers grow resources in Farmlands, then process them at Workbenches. However once harvested, these resources must then be "refined" in the same Crafting Facility used to create crafted items.

The Cook and Scholar can craft certain items without a crafting facility.

Profession	Facility
Cook	Camp-fire • Oven
Farmer	Farmlands • Workbench
Jeweller	Workbench
Metalsmith	Forge
Scholar	Study
Tailor	Workbench
Weaponsmith	Forge
Woodworker	Workbench

Crafting Halls

Main article: Crafting Hall

There are many places found throughout Middle-earth where most crafting facilities are grouped up for convenience. These are often found within a Crafting Hall. Many of the larger cities and settlements have them.

Crafting Halls
Location	Settlement	Region	Coordinates	Notes
Aughaire's Market	Aughaire	Angmar	[0.7N, 39.9W]	open-air "hall"; no Study
The House of Craft (After-battle)	Minas Tirith (After-battle)	Anórien (After Battle)	[64.8S, 18.1W]	all Crafting Guilds access
The House of Craft (Midsummer)	Minas Tirith (Midsummer)	Anórien (After Battle)	[23.2N, 54.9W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Buckland's Craft-faire	Buckland	Bree-land	[33.8S, 62.2W]	open-air "hall"; no Study
Combe Crafting Hall	Combe	Bree-land	[28.8S, 48.6W]
South Gate	Bree	Bree-land	[32.0S, 50.4W]	open-air "hall"
West Gate	Bree	Bree-land	[29.6S, 52.9W]	open-air "hall"
Three-farrow Crafting Hall	Bree	Bree-land	[30.5S, 51.0W]
Hall of Crafts	Herne	Cardolan	[49.6S, 45.1W]
Ethring's Market	Ethring	Central Gondor	[72.0S, 50.2W]	open air "hall"
Linhir's Market	Linhir	Central Gondor	[80.7S, 44.9W]	open air "hall"
Pelargir's Market	Pelargir	Central Gondor	[83.6S, 34.6W]	open air "hall"
Craft-hall (Galtrev)	Galtrev	Dunland	[79.9S, 17.0W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Craft Hall of Snowbourn	Snowbourn	East Rohan	[60.9S, 62.2W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Harwick Crafting Hall	Harwick	East Rohan	[39.4S, 53.0W]
Arnach Forecourt	Arnach	Eastern Gondor	[77.2S, 24.4W]	no Study
Keep of Annak-khurfu	Annak-khurfu	Elderslade	[32.8N, 61.2W]
The Hall of Making	Lhanuch	Enedwaith	[66.5S, 17.2W]
Celondim's Crafting Terrace	Celondim	Ered Luin	[28.2S, 92.7W]	open-air "hall"
Crafting Hall (Thorin's Gate)	Frerin's Court	Ered Luin	[15.1S, 103.5W]
The Maker's Hall	Thorin's Hall	Ered Luin	[13.8S, 103.2W]	Metalworker's and Weaponsmith's guild access
The Keep of Tharrazhâr	Skarháld	Ered Mithrin and Withered Heath	[36.4N, 46.6W]
Ost Forod's Market	Ost Forod	Evendim	[7.5S, 64.1W]	open-air "hall"
Tinnudir's Keep	Tinnudir	Evendim	[12.2S, 68.0W]	open-air "hall"
Dale Crafting Hall	Dale	Eryn Lasgalen and the Dale-lands	[24.9N, 25.7W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Lake-town Trading Hall	Lake-town	Eryn Lasgalen and the Dale-lands	[17.1N, 27.2W]
Tumnu-dûm	Erebor	Eryn Lasgalen and the Dale-lands	[14.0N, 135.7W]
Great Lodge of Sûri-kylä	Sûri-kylä	Forochel	[19.5N, 72.0W]	no Study
Stangard's Market	Stangard	The Great River	[26.5S, 63.5W]	open-air "hall"
Hall of Vérnozal	Zidir-nesad, the Steepset	Gundabad	[45.3S, 115.0W]
Estolad Lân's Camp	Estolad Lân	Imlad Morgul	[64.5S, 2.2W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Craft Hall of Járnfast	Járnfast	Iron Hills	[28.4N, 3.6W]
Arnach's Market	Arnach	King's Gondor	[76.3S, 24.4W]	open air "hall"
The Harlond's Market	The Harlond	King's Gondor	[72.3S, 19.5W]	open air "hall"
East Pelargir's Market	Pelargir	King's Gondor	[83.1S, 32.1W]	open air "hall"
Ost Guruth's Market	Ost Guruth	Lone-lands	[31.3S, 29.6W]	open-air "hall"
Telain Galadhrim	Caras Galadhon	Lothlórien	[15.7S, 67.8W]	no Study
Vintner's Market	The Vineyards of Lórien	Lothlórien	[18.5S, 64.0W]	open-air "hall"
Crafting Hall of Ost Galadh	Ost Galadh	Mirkwood	[14.5S, 51.1W]
Crafting Bunker	The Twenty-first Hall	Moria	[5.4S, 105.0W]
Craft-hall of Esteldín	Esteldín	North Downs	[9.7S, 40.5W]	Jeweller's, Tailor's, and Woodworker's guild access
Trestlebridge Market	Trestlebridge	North Downs	[17.9S, 53.7W]	open-air "hall"
The House of Craft	Minas Tirith	Old Anórien	[64.8S, 18.1W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Bywater's Craft-faire	Bywater	The Shire	[31.9S, 69.7W]	open-air "hall"; no Study
Michel Delving's Craft-fair	Michel Delving	The Shire	[34.6S, 75.5W]	Cook's Guild access; open-air
Lhan Garan's Market	Lhan Garan	Swanfleet	[54.5S, 27.4W]	open-air "hall"
The Forges of Rivendell	Rivendell	Trollshaws	[28.5S, 6.2W]	Forge and Workbench only; open air
Craft Hall of Aldburg	Aldburg	West Rohan	[69.3S, 64.9W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Artisans' Quarter	Dol Amroth	Western Gondor	[74.4S, 71.2W]	all Crafting Guilds access
Calembel's Market	Calembel	Western Gondor	[67.2S, 55.7W]	open air "hall"
Craft Hall of Forlaw	Forlaw	Wildermore	[38.8S, 60.6W]

Crafting Tools

Main article: Crafting Tools

Once you have spoken to a Master or Mistress of Apprentices and chosen your professions, they will give you a set set of inferior crafting tools. These can be immediately replaced with more durable tools from novice or expert crafting NPCs as well as suppliers.

Improved crafting tools and toolsets are crafted by Metalsmiths. For the gathering professions, these improved tools decrease the time necessary to gather a resource node". Higher ranked tools also provide an increase in the critical chance associated with their use.

Modifiable crafting tools were introduced with crafting events. These tools are upgraded with resources earned during the events. When upgrading, players first choose from a variety of appearances and the enhanced tools provide bonuses such as increased recipe critical chance, decreased gathering duration, and increased chance to find rare materials when gathering.

Crafting advancement

Tier Level	Proficiency	Points Needed	Mastery	Points Needed	Resources**(***)
1	Apprentice	200	Master Apprentice	400	75(39)
2	Journeyman	280	Master Journeyman	560	105(54)
3	Expert*	360	Master Expert	720	135(69)
4	Artisan	440	Master Artisan	880	165(84)
5	Master	520	Grand Master	1,040	195(99)
6	Supreme	600	Supreme Master	1,200	225(114)
7	Westfold	680	Westfold Master	1,360	255(129)
8	Eastemnet	760	Eastemnet Master	1,520	285(144)
9	Westemnet	840	Westemnet Master	1,680	315(159)
10	Anórien	840	Anórien Master	1,680	315(159)
11	Doomfold	840	Doomfold Master	1,680	315(159)
12	Ironfold	840	Ironfold Master	1,680	315(159)
13	Minas Ithil	630	Minas Ithil Master	1,260	???(???)
14	<profession> of Gundabad	630	Master <profession> of Gundabad	1,260	???(???)
15	<profession> of Umbar	630	Master <profession> of Umbar	1,260	???(???)
* Allows crafting guild access ** Resources refer to prepared resources needed to achieve mastery in a tier. For example: this would be ingots, not ore, boards, not wood, and leathers, not hides. Double this number if you are starting with ore/wood/hides/etc. It takes into account that most players want some resources left over after they have completed a crafting tier, therefore, with crafting XP scrolls and speed potions, this number can be considerably reduced, especially if leftovers are not desired. You would process half of this number into shavings (for example), and then return them to their intact state to complete a tier. You should expect considerable loss of resources whenever you use Processing. *** For Processing, add the amount of experience needed to achieve mastery in a tier (proficiency and mastery together) using the formula: [exp/16]+1. I.E: [600/16]+1 = 39.

Every time you complete a recipe, you gain Craft Experience Points (Craft XP) in the respective profession. You advance in a profession by gaining Craft XP.

Each profession is broken up into tiers, and each tier has two requirements furthering your progression towards the higher crafting tiers. See the table for requirement per tier. Each requirement you reach, you earn a new crafting title which provides new abilities.

Proficiency: Completing the Proficiency part of a tier (denoted with a bronze anvil) enables you to achieve critical successes while crafting items from that tier (see below), and, furthermore, it opens up the first part of the next tier, and for gathering professions it allows you to harvest nodes for the next tier.

Mastery: Completing the Mastery part of a tier (denoted with a gold anvil) enables you to begin earning mastery points of the next tier. Until Mastery is completed you can just earn crafting points to complete Proficiency of the next tier, but not any further. Once Master of a tier you do not earn any more crafting points from crafting items of that tier. Critical success on a tier requires Mastery of all previous tiers.

The following explains the four levels of crafting progress per tier:

	An empty bronze anvil: you are currently working towards Proficiency.
	A bronze anvil: you have gained Proficiency.
	A bronze anvil and an empty gold anvil: you are currently working towards Mastery.
	Two filled-in anvils: you have also gained Mastery.

Crafting Guilds

Main article: Crafting Guild

Crafting Guilds provide additional paths of advancement for the crafting professions. Crafters can join a guild after advancing to Expert (tier 3) in a profession. Farmer, Forester and Prospector do not have a crafting guild.

Crafting guilds offer improved recipes which produce slightly better items than most other recipes of the same tier with critical success. While levelling, this is typically the best armour, weapon, and jewellery available.

Players advance with crafting guilds by using crafted reputation items. At higher reputation levels, better recipes become available.

Guild Halls

Crafting Guild Halls can be found in the following locations around Middle-earth.

Guild Name	Location	Region
Cook's Guild	Michel Delving's Craft-fair	The Shire
Weaponsmith's Guild	Thorin's Hall - The Forging Hall	Ered Luin
Metalsmith's Guild	Thorin's Hall - The Forging Hall	Ered Luin
Scholar's Guild	The Last Homely House in Rivendell	Trollshaws
Tailor's Guild	Craft-hall of Esteldín	North Downs
Jeweller's Guild	Craft-hall of Esteldín	North Downs
Woodworker's Guild	Craft-hall of Esteldín	North Downs
All crafting guilds	Galtrev	Dunland
All crafting guilds	Snowbourn	Sutcrofts
All crafting guilds	Aldburg	West Rohan
All crafting guilds	Dol Amroth	Western Gondor
All crafting guilds	Minas Tirith	Old Anórien
All crafting guilds	Minas Tirith (After-battle)	Anórien (After Battle)
All crafting guilds	Minas Tirith (Midsummer)	Anórien (After Battle)
All crafting guilds	Dale	Eryn Lasgalen and the Dale-lands
All crafting guilds	Estolad Lân	Morgul Vale
All crafting guilds	Dol Amroth	King's Gondor
All crafting guilds	Umbar Baharbêl	Cape of Umbar

See also

• Crafter interdependence