User blog comment:AvocadoSandpaper/My first trip to Utumno/@comment-33763020-20180127165339

 Hope your trip was successful and you made it out alive  :) . For your future trips (it is good to return sometimes, as a supply of Flames of Udun is practical: the bow for example you put it on after a while can no longer be repaired with strong on an anvil, so better have more of them), my advice would be following:

 1. Have a fixed pouch with essentials ready for each trip, so you don’t have to think about what you brought last time, only to realize down there what you’re missing. I have a bag of „travel essentials” I bring along everywhere, though many of the items are not needed in Utumno, such as maps, paper, clock, etc.

 2. What I would add if you have space is 2 Horns of command (Summon/Ready-Halt) if you take troops and maybe a Sword of Command, some emergency cups of milk or jungle brew (against poison if your health is close to zero and Athelas ran out), some green potions can help you escape pursuers when you’re badly hurt or Miruvor. You’re better off with potions in barrels than the Ent-draughts, as those take a lot of space as they cannot be put into barrels and their effect lasts shorter. Potent Dwarven tonic for example holds 16x12 minutes worth in one barrel, whereas the same space is taken by a 3-minute Ent potion..

 3. For repairing my items, I always take a stack of string (to repair my bow in case it’s not Enduring or worn down), materials for my repairs (iron blocks, Sarlluin to make blue dwarven ingots, coal for making Elvish and Dwarven iron ingots, more crafting tables for the different items I may want to craft (Elvish and Dwarven factions especially) as these are easy to make and no loss if you die, Elven and Dwarvish forges, maybe an unsmeltery. I also take at least 2-3 of each, in case I am using one and get driven away too far from it or simply forget to take it with me again  J . The normal crafting table you don’t really need to take with you, as you can use your inventory crafting slots to create one anytime you want from the wood you take with you. The saplings are indeed a good idea to plant a tree and grow it anytime with the bones you collect. One thing missing from your list is very important: an anvil! If you want to repair any of your best stuff, you really need that. I take 2-3 with me always (again in case I forget to remove it again).

 4. In terms of weapons I always have in my first slots in Utumno a sword for close combat, a bow to shoot the pesty archers with their knockback, a spear to keep poisoned daggers at bay, a pike for poking at enemies behind a barrier or trolls to keep at bay, as well as a mattock (instead of an axe and a pickaxe separately, which is a waste of space to take both). If you use dirt to fence yourself off, better have a shovel in your slots as well. These are all Enduring of course so repairs are kept to a minimum, the weapons are all Blessed and Legendary as well, so I finish off the enemies faster and of course get highest tier loot. Going in without Blessed weapons is a real waste, it’s the most important of the three, then Legendary and finally Enduring. I don’t like knockback, as especially with Archers it gives them the advantage of again being able to shoot you from where you knocked them to. Long and Swift I find less imporant as well, as the blows from Legendary give you much more advantage per blow. If you want to play defensive and build chest-high walls in the corridors and let them come to you, you can use a pike to poke at their feet or heads, so you don’t get hit by melee weapons. This is your safest strategy when you go in alone and do not have the best equipment. The lower you go, the better this strategy works, as enemies get stronger.

 5. Armour: I see four major groups here. Eölean or Belegostian tiers on Elven or Dwarven armour, optionally Galvorn or Woodelven Scout armour. Eölean protects you mostly from projectiles and the archers are the biggest pain down there in my opinion. Still, it does not help against knockback, but most Elvish/Dwarven armour are stronger than Galvorn and longer lasting, so a good option for the upper two levels. Belegostian can help you tremendously on the fire level, so you don’t have to use fire potions all the time. Galvorn has the major benefit of no knockback or health damage whatsoever from projectiles, but gets worn down really fast, so if you stay for long, better to bring more sets or change it once you get further down. Woodelven tunics give you the speedboost, so when you want to outrun your enemies (through large halls for example) you can put these on for a short while. I personally use the Eölean most and only on the lowest level do I use the Belegostian. Galvorn is great but gets worn down too fast and resources are difficult to come by as you need to mine a lot. The Woodelven is great for a speedrun, but has much less protection compared to the others, so I would use it only if you want to avoid fights and run to find the Balrog finally for good loot. In that case you could of course use green Ent-draught as well, but that only lasts for so long. Of course all your armour needs to be the sturdiest (Tough or Steadfast where possible), then Enduring so you don’t break them too soon and then the Eölean or Belegostian modifier. For boots you can opt for a Lightfooted version in case you’re afraid of falling down into pits.

 6. I would avoid taking anything with you that is too valuable, especially mithril armour or weapons! Before you bring a mithril sword to the level of any other sword with modifiers, you need 6 ingots for the merging of 3 swords with each the best modifier class, as well as about 300 coins per each reforging, which could cost you tens of thousands of coins just to have a weapon that is slightly stronger than your other weapons! The fact that mithril lasts much longer is not relevant, as you can repair any other material blade easily to new with an anvil, at minimum cost. So the only benefit is the strength of mithril, but if you loose it, you have lost a huge amount of coins, not to speak of the mithril you need to mine or loot again.. Using mithril outside the Pits is perfectly fine as you can quickly recollect it if you die, but in Utumno it’s lost forever. Don’t risk it. On top, if your mithril equipment do not have the best modifiers on them (Sharp is not Legendary yet..), they will in fact be weaker than a Legendary/Swift/Blessed sword for example, not to speak of the fact that if yours is not Blessed, your loot will be much less! A Legendary Uruk Berserker Cleaver is as sharp as a Sharp mithril sword, but I would rather loose a cleaver down there than anything mithril.. Of course you cannot craft the Cleaver if you’re Good aligned, but I’m sure you have better odds in getting it as loot and reforging to perfection cheaply, than getting anything mithril.

 7. On the food side I don’t think you need that much, but I advise more filling food than bread: steaks have much higher saturation than bread and even 20-30 is more than enough, you run out of tonic before that and will be going back to refill anyway. Taking bread is unnecessary either way: take haybales instead, which consist of 9 wheat each, which means that a stack of haybales is 3 stacks of bread.

 8. As said before me, wood planks are unnecessary in advance, take wood instead and when you actually need it, convert it to planks. This way you have 4 stacks of planks instead of one, taking the same space. Of course once you convert, you will need an extra space for planks and wood separately, but pouches must have some spare space for that.

 9. I would take much more dirt than that: sealing yourself off in case of danger is easiest with dirt as well as removing it, but removing it all the time is a pain. I go in with at least half a large pouch full of dirt, up to 1000 blocks. Even if I die and loose all of it, in a few minutes you can dig it again anywhere outside with a Masterful shovel. On top, instead of torches you can lay your path with dirt on every intersection, in case you want to avoid running around in circles or in case you feel safe enough to put down a chest somewhere to collect loot and want to find it back again.

 10. I usually shoot arrows as many as I can (crossbows are too slow for my taste) and 3 stacks run out fairly quickly for me, I take at least 6 stacks to places like that. My choice of arrow has become the Mirkwood bows for speed: the high-Elven ones are stronger, but draw slower and to counter the onset of arrowfire in Utumno I rather draw quickly than punch hard. A Punching modifier on your bow is definitely advised if a bigger group or wargs attack you.

 11. If you don’t have mithril to repair your mithril equipment, I would advise against bringing any into Utumno, as you will not be able to replace them. In fact, if you don’t have mithril for spare and your mithril equipment is not top-notch, don’t use mithril at all, as you will not be able to repair or replace it. It is much easier to keep a constant stock of optimal armour and weapons that if you loose any, you just take the next sword from the rack with the same modifiers. My favourite Sword type is a Legendary/Blessed/Enduring Elven sword which hardly needs any repairs, or Swift instead of Enduring if I go on short trips or on exploration with little action. If I loose one, I just take the next exact copy from the weapons chest.

 In general I would say you are a bit underequipped for Utumno in my opinion: as it is really challenging, you would do better to forge everything to the highest level modifiers before you enter, your survival chances will be much bigger that way. Aside from survival, not having all your weapons on Blessed is a real waste as your loot will be much less good. Or alternatively take the cheapest of what you have and risk dying early before you can get out, but at least you hardly loose anything of value. In that case though, bringing in 3 set of armour is a waste as you will likely loose them or not even spend long enough down to run out of the first set. So don’t take the middle-way with weapons and armour the cost you enough to regret loosing them, buta re not good enough to get the best loot or give you the best survival odds.

 Just my 2 cents <span lang="HU" style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:HU;mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings"> :).