Mini-quest

"Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the blue for mad adventures? Anything from climbing trees to visiting elves—or sailing in ships, sailing to other shores! Bless me, life used to be quite inter—I mean, you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time."

- Bilbo Baggins about Gandalf the Grey, The Hobbit, An Unexpected Party Mini-Quests are tasks for players to complete. They were added in the Beta 20 update on September 1st, 2014.

Mini-quests are started by speaking to friendly NPCs. To keep track of your quests, it is recommended that you use the Red Book, as it records the details of all your currently active mini-quests. If you spawned in a single-player world, you will find a Red Book in the starter chest, but it can also be crafted, so don't worry about not finding it in multiplayer.

Starting a Quest
When talking to an NPC who you are friendly or neutral with, they may offer you a mini-quest to complete.

When that happens, a panel pops up on the screen that gives you the choice to either accept or decline the quest. It also provides a description of the quest. Pressing the ‘Decline’ button will not result in any penalties.

The nature of the quest can consist of any number of tasks, from killing a certain number of enemy units to simply getting a Dwarf a few raw porkchops so the family can enjoy supper.

Active Quests
You can only have one quest active for an NPC at once, but after completing their quest, you may be offered another. There is also a limit of five active quests per faction. You can, however, remove active quests by cancelling them in the Red Book.

All active quests are recorded and updated in the Red Book.

Any NPC who you are currently questing for will not despawn. They have a Red Book icon floating above their heads, making them easier to locate. If the NPC somehow dies before the quest is complete, this will be written in the Red Book, and the quest will become invalidated, waiting for you to remove it.

Completing a Quest
Once you have done your deed, return to the NPC who offered you the quest (making a custom Fast Travel waypoint near them can help with this). They will take the items you gathered for them (if applicable) and give you some reward in return – most often alignment with their faction, the exact amount depending, of course, on how difficult the quest was to complete. As of Beta 20.1, silver coins and achievements are also awarded.

You can speak to the NPC before completing the quest. They will urge you to complete the quest and may give a reminder of what the quest requirements are. If it is a ‘collect’ quest (see below), they will take the items you have currently gathered from your inventory (but not out of your pouches) and the quest will be updated in the Red Book.

A notable feature about questing is that it allows you to get alignment without killing units. This is especially useful for the Hobbit faction before the player feels ready to leave the Shire. In fact, questing is now the only way to get Hobbit alignment besides killing dark huorns.

Mini-Quest Types
Currently, there are two main types of mini-quest in the mod, each of which has several hundred quest possibilities.

'Collect' Quests
These require you to collect a certain amount of a specific item and bring it to the NPC. Said items can be obtained through any method, including crafting, looting, or drops from enemies. The amount of items the NPC requests is randomly chosen for each quest.

These quests can range from forging items for an NPC to prove your standing among their people, to collecting enemy drops as a token of strength, to bringing a Hobbit food for his uncle's birthday party, and much more.

'Kill' Quests
These types of quests require you to kill a certain number of enemies, either of a certain faction, or a specific type (e.g. Trolls). As with other quests, in order to complete the quest, you must return and speak to the NPC after having slain all the enemies.

These quests most often require you to kill enemies of the NPC who is giving the quest. For example, a Man of Rohan may ask you to slay a certain amount of Uruk-hai or Dunlendings, but will never ask you to kill Mirkwood Spiders.

List of Achievements Gained From Questing
Below are a list of the current achievements that can be awarded when a player completes a mini-quest for a certain faction:
 * Local Shirriff: Complete a Hobbit mini-quest
 * Welcoming Halls: Complete a Blue Mountains mini-quest
 * Fair and Free: Complete a High Elves mini-quest
 * Errand Scout: Complete a Ranger mini-quest
 * Scavenging Filth: Complete a Gundabad mini-quest
 * Servant of Evil: Complete an Angmar mini-quest
 * Spider Spawn: Complete a Dol Guldur mini-quest
 * Trust of the Elves: Complete a Wood-elf mini-quest
 * Kin of Durin: Complete a Durin's Folk mini-quest
 * Friend of the Lady: Complete a Galadhrim mini-quest
 * Blood Pact: Complete a Dunland mini-quest
 * Esquire of Rohan: Complete a Rohan mini-quest
 * Fell Deeds Awake: Complete an Uruk-hai mini-quest
 * In Aid of Gondor: Complete a Gondor mini-quest
 * Hand of Sauron: Complete a Mordor mini-quest
 * Desert Wanderer: Complete a Near Harad mini-quest
 * Rites of Passage: Complete a Moredain mini-quest
 * Forest-Man: Complete a Tauredain mini-quest
 * Trollish Tasks: Complete a Half-troll mini-quest

Optimal Questing
This section explains how to optimally profit from quest rewards. Of course, we all hope this will encourage players to optimally enjoy the immersive aspects of the mod.

(... and not encourage the cowardous, lazy and oh-so-un-lotr-mod ways of '(trap-)grinding' ...)

Acquire Quest Assignments
There are a few tricks to get the best out of quests in terms of alignment rewards. First a few tips on how to optimally acquire quest assignments:
 * Stay in one area where NPCs of the faction(s) you want to befriend to get a maximum number of NPCs to spawn.
 * Decide on what type of quest assignments you wish to get: 'collect' or 'kill' and focus on one of them.
 * NPCs load a new quest assignment every 4 seconds. When switching between NPCs, new quest assignments are loaded at a faster rate.
 * When acquiring quest assignments, go in an area with many NPCs and then: 1) stay with one NPC (maybe corner it) and right-click him/her every 4 seconds until a satisfactory assignment is given and/or 2) switch between 2 NPCs that are closeby and right-click them one after the other until you get a satisfactory assignment and/or 3) walk/run around (can be mounted) and right-click another NPC until you get a satisfactory assignment.
 * Set a waypoint in an area where you acquired a maximum amount of quests for a faction. Return to finish 5 quests at once and only leave after you acquired 5 new useful quest assignments.
 * Consider multiple faction quest typicals for deciding on which type of quests to focus. Some factions have comparable desires.

Focus and quest completion strategy
Now on to some tricks to get maximum quest rewards, in a limited number of time:
 * For Collect Quests: Get a good idea on what types of materials must be collected to please the faction you wish to befriend. Make notes and go out to collect as much units of material you can get. Base your farming, lumberjacking, mining or whatever appropriate strategy on this objective. Name a pouch appropriately and stuff it with the materials you wish to share with that faction. Then start acquiring assignments in the way described above. Note that the harder to collect items, the higher the reward. This strategy may be especially useful to get evil alignment and coin quickly, in orc dominated factions, as the orcish skirmish habit can be a real quest spoiler.
 * For Kill Quests: Get a clear notion of which foes the faction you want to befriend wishes to be eliminated. Decide which foe you wish to fight on behalf of your friends. Acquire quest assignments. Plan your PvE strategy and go get them! Don't forget to take your Red Book with you on your campaign. Keep in mind that kills from hired NPCs don't add to your credits. Return safely after you have completed all quests. Get maximum rewards! As shown in the example below, the rewards of killing dozens of foes of multiple factions can amount up to 3-5 times the single value alignment points and coins per killed foe per faction! Note that the nasty habit of skirmishing makes this way of working less attractive for evil, Orc dominated factions.

Example for Kill Quest optimization
This example shows how optimally acquiring quests and focus on a single type of kill quests can get you maximum rewards for each 'Kill that filthy enemy!' assignment.