Middle-earth Gameplay Guide

Have you just gone through the Ring Portal to Middle-Earth and unsure how to proceed? Here are some suggestions which may help to keep you alive.

Please note that some sections of the page concern tactics and suggestions by a single user, particularly certain gameplay styles which were thought up by a single user. If you don't like a certain aspect of one gameplay style, just add a subsection with different rules.

Building Another Ring Portal
The only Ring Portal that you should build is the one that brought you to Middle-Earth in the first place. Ring portals cannot be built in Middle-Earth itself, which means throwing a gold ring into the fire will not yield any results. Currently, there is no other use for the gold ring either, so save your eight gold nuggets for something else!

Chopping Down Trees in Fangorn or the Old Forest
This may not come as a surprise to you, but Ents aren't exactly fond of their tree-friends being chopped down for firewood. The reason is most likely because some of those trees aren't really trees; they are Huorns! No matter what your alignment is, trying to chop down a tree or Huorn will result in them attacking you, so keep your tree-chopping to other forests, or you will pay most dearly!

Entering a New Biome Unprepared
Alignment is a major feature of this mod. Basically, the peoples and races of Middle-Earth are divided into numerous factions, and it is impossible (unless in Creative Mode) to gain a positive alignment with every one of them. Thus, even as you make friends, you will make enemies. Certain factions only spawn in certain biomes, so you would do well to research a new biome and its inhabitants before entering, else you may just find yourself surrounded by hostile NPCs. For more information on alignment, see here.

For some of the more adventurous players, the prospect of facing many enemies at once may not seem like a big deal. However, note that some biomes hold more dangerous enemies than others. For example, Angmar Orc warriors from the region of Angmar deal much more attack damage than the normal Orc, in addition to inflicting the Wither effect. The Rohirrim of Rohan are all mounted on the best horses that can be found in the mod, and will see you from 24 blocks away.

Befriending the Wood-Elves
As a side note, Wood-Elves in particular are suspicious folk, and may attack you even if your Woodland Realm alignment is positive. You must have at least +50 alignment with the Wood-Elves for them to completely trust you. This alignment is most easily gained by killing Mirkwood Spiders.

Simply Walking Into Mordor
When you first enter Middle-Earth, don't go into Mordor lightly. It is a barren wasteland swarming with Orcs, and any good or not yet evil enough (below +50 Mordor alignment) player who goes there without suitable armor is likely to meet a grizzly death. Even though the Ring Portal can no longer spawn in Mordor, suit up, because very little vegetation grows there, meaning you will be hard pressed to find food. If you need out, the best thing to do is to look around and see if there are any massive mountains of Mordor rock. Try to get over the mountains as quickly as possible. They block Mordor off from the rest of Middle-Earth so if you can get to the other side, you'll probably be somewhere somewhat safer with better resources.

Entering the Forodwaith or Near Harad
The Forodwaith biome is freezing cold, while Near Harad is scorching hot! Both will cause you to take damage periodically. There are several ways to avoid this. In the Forodwaith, you can either stand near a light source (torch, furnace, etc.) or wear Warg Fur Armor, a cozy outfit for the cold. In Near Harad, it is best to stay out of the sun. This means keeping to the shade and/or traveling by night.

Killing Horses in Rohan
If you didn't know already, the Eorlingas are rather fond of their horses. Killing one in the sight of a Rohirrim will bring their wrath down upon you. Not the best idea. If you have a need for leather, kill cows instead.

Searching For Saddles
It is known that in vanilla Minecraft, saddles can only be obtained from the chests found in abandoned mine-shafts and naturally generated structures. In this mod, there is in fact, a crafting recipe for the saddle. It can be crafted on a regular crafting table using three leather and two iron ingots.

Be Swift in Collecting All the Crafting Tables
The new crafting tables in the mod allow you to make stronger-than-average weapons and armor unique to each faction, so you would do well to collect all the ones available to you (you need at least +1 alignment for a specific faction to use their crafting table). The category page for all current crafting tables can be found here.

Collect From Hobbit Holes at the Beginning of Gameplay
As of Beta 13, your Ring Portal always spawn in the Shire. No doubt when you enter Middle Earth, you will see many, many Hobbit Holes spread across the land. The chests in these structures hold almost anything you might need at the beginning of your adventure, such as books (sometimes enchanted), string for bows, bottles, mugs, and lots and lots of food (unsurprising, since Hobbits eat about seven meals a day). Rumor has it that in Hobbit Holes with expensive chandeliers (gold or silver made), you can find a chest containing valuables under the rug in the foyer.

Fort Besieging Tips
If you want to know how to lay siege to an enemy fort, click here.

Fort Defense Tips
If you want to know how to build a stronghold against enemy players and their armies, click here.

Orcs (and Other Hostile NPC's Excluding Spiders and Wargs) Can Open Doors
Unlike in vanilla Minecraft, running straight into your house with an Orc on your back won't get the Orc off your back. Instead, the Orc will simply open the door and walk right in to get you. The same can happen if you do not put iron bars or glass panes in your windows. If you do put glass or iron bars in your windows, though, enemies can't see you. They also cannot open iron doors, nor tunnel through walls (except for the bombardier, who can blow through walls, even though he never does this intentionally).

Different Styles of Gameplay
These are some different ways to experience gameplay in Middle-Earth. This section will include tips on how to do things such as playing a nomadic game using The Lord of the Rings Mod, and instructions for some new gameplay possibilities that the new game mechanics of Middle-Earth have opened up.

Achievement Collector
This style speaks for itself. Basically, the goal is to try to collect as many achievements as you can without going to Creative Mode. A good way to achieve this is to go one biome at a time, starting with the Shire. Even though some achievements are for things you would be doing anyways such as mining and killing mobs, some are for things you wouldn't think of yourself, like riding a barrel through the waters of Mirkwood. Using this gameplay style gives you a well-balanced experience of the mod.

To see a list of all achievements, go here.

Nomadic Experience
This is a style of gameplay in vanilla, but there are a few things to remember when trying it in Middle-Earth. When you're going to play a Middle-Earth nomadic game, it might be best to start the game in Creative Mode. This is so you can make a portal from square 1 without having to find gold in the Overworld first.

If you want a slightly easier playing experience, start out in the Overworld and make the ring portal as you would normally. By the time you've crafted a gold ring you'll probably have enough iron to make a suit of armor, which should make things easier in Middle-Earth.

Once you get to Middle-Earth, just pick a direction and start walking (try going east like Bilbo). The big difference between gameplay in Middle-Earth and gameplay in vanilla is this: You are no longer aiming to defeat the Ender Dragon. Since quests haven't been added yet, you'll have to set another goal. A good objective for this style of gameplay at the moment is to just raise your alignment as high (or as low) as you can by fighting enemies, or simply try to make your way to Mordor in one piece.

=== Hostile Take-over === To play this style, you simply kill every mob you see, good or evil. This makes running blindly through battle much easier, not having to know what you are hitting. However, with this gameplay style, you don't get many of the alignment benefits, and everyone will see you as a target, so this style should mostly be played by hardcore Minecraftians.

Open War Gameplay
In this style of gameplay, you take advantage of many of the new mechanics in the mod, especially those of alignment and unit hiring. There are several subtly different ways to play this style, but the objective is the same:  Kill as many enemies as you can while looting structures and maintaining an army of soldiers ! There might not be all that much building or mining in this style of gameplay but there will surely be a lot of fighting, so you might want to try counting the number of enemies you kill in each battle like Legolas and Gimli do.

For more info on the Open War style of gameplay, see this page.