For now Delving is meant for level 140 on normal servers and whatever level cap there is for Shadowfax and Treebeard at the time you read this guide. You can add extra difficulty to specifically Before the Shadow missions. As a reward you’ll get delving writs or a chest that can drop a host of armour, junk or very rarely some extra fancy LI or cosmetics etc.
What do you need?
The expansion Before the Shadow and a level capped character. You’ll either get a mail or visit any delving barterer to aquire a Delving Zircon. Then once you start a mission that has a Delving stone inside at the entrance, you’ll be able to pick up a quest from it and then hand it in if you got the correct Delving gem.
Where do you find the missions?
There are 7 locations in Cardolan or Swanfleet. They can be recognized by a duo NPC Delving quartermaster and a named NPC. On every day there are 12 or 13 available missions and you can complete a maximum of 10 Delving enhanced missions. Following maps and screenshots provided by Kinnie.
Rotation schedule Day 1
| Name | Location |
| Aberations of Nature | Clégur |
| Before They Bond | Lhan Garan |
| Tharbad Tower Courtyard | Stonecroft Encampment (Tharbad) |
| Siege-breaking | Herne |
| The Ruins of Amon Firn | Scurloc Farm |
| The Tearful Tomb | Scurloc Farm |
| Caranost Command Post | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Caranost Courtyard | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Crown of Caranost | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Jorthkyn and Hounds | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Siege of Sírlond | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Steps of Caranost | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| The Bridge to Caranost | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| The Ruins of Gaervarad | Ruddymore (south of Sarn Ford) |
Rotation schedule Day 2
| Secrets and Plans | Lhan Garan |
| Among the Watch-towers | Lhan Garan |
| Not As Many Heads | Lhan Garan |
| Shadows in the Greyflood | Stonecroft Encampment (Tharbad) |
| Troubled Waters | Stonecroft Encampment (Tharbad) |
| Bite the Hand | Herne |
| The Hand, Out! | Herne |
| A Plague of Men | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Brigands in Nímbarth | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Haunting at Dol Ernil | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| Stirring of Spirits | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| The Tombs of Gond Orchal | Scurloc Farm |
| Terrible Turtle Trouble | Clégur |
Rotation schedule Day 3
| A Day on the Farm | Clégur |
| Dangerous Deliveries | Clégur |
| Patrol the Township | Clégur |
| Into the Pits | Lhan Garan |
| Mother of Wolves | Lhan Garan |
| The Jaws of Death | Lhan Garan |
| Leadership Direction | Herne |
| Sifting Through Time | Herne |
| Signs and Sigils | Herne |
| Down on the Farm | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| The Nettinglade | Gerwyn Convoy (Andrath) |
| The Accursed Flame | Stonecroft Encampment (Tharbad) |
| Tharbad Tower Ascent | Stonecroft Encampment (Tharbad) |
How to start and upgrade the mission with Delving
The steps are easy enough once done a few times, but there are a few things to watch out for.
- If you’re doing it duo. Done pick up a quest before both players are inside the mission. If not, 2nd player won’t get the delving quest and rewards.
- Don’t run to far in or the stone will dissappear
- Make sure you have the correct stone for your tier. Once a quest is picked up you’ll have to full reset the delving stone (see tips and tricks)
Delving tips and tricks
Shortcutting the tiers
At the start you can only do a Tier 1 with a delving Zircon. Once you complete it you get a Tier 2 stone. All the way up to Tier 10. If you want to jump straight to a higher tier or skip some on an alt. You can barter a stone with some coin bags from a Delving quartermaster.
Choosing the correct difficulty vs your goal
If you’re looking to upgrade some gear because you havn’t done Gundabad for example. Jumping straight into a Tier 10 won’t end well. Normally a mission plays out as a landscape quest 5 levels below you. So if you have a old raidset from 130 you’ll be able to jump a few tiers. Below you can find an overview what tier you could jump into.
| Tier | Equivalent | Loot |
| 1, 2, 3, 4 | Landscape quest up to tier 1 instance Drop chance varies 17% to 20% | Yellow armour (ilvl 470) 10 writs per quest |
| 5 and 6 | Tier 1/2 instance or skirmish | Purple armour with 1 slot 20 writs per quest |
| 7 and 8 | Will need a full set of 140 gear and LI Duo can be done | Teal armour with 2 slots 20/30 writs per quest |
| 9 | Hard, but a decent step down from T10 Duo preferred or good gear | Teal armour with 2 slots 40 writs per quest |
| 10 | Hard without endgame or capped gear | Teal armour with 2 slots 50 writs per quest |
Repeating tiers for free
Once you complete or fail a delving your Delving stone will crack. At every barterer you can repair the cracked stone back into a version you can hand in for the quest.
The tier 10 stone will repair itself. But the others will upgrade to a higher tier. So if for example you want to repeat the tier 7 for the quickest and/or easiest Teal armours.
- Complete a tier 7 with your Delving aquamarine.
- Visit the barterer next to your upcoming mission NPC and repair the stone before the new mission
- Go into your next mission, hand in the Delving 7 quest. Complete or fail the Delving to receive a Cracked aquamarin. Go back to step 1 and repeat.
Resetting the delving stone inside
For whatever reason you need to reset the delving stone. If you don’t have the correct stone, but havn’t made the Delving stone dissappear you can just exit. Fix the stone and re-enter the mission
However, if the stone is gone won’t reset the to a visible state. Neither is cancelling the quest. You’ll have to force the game to think you done another mission or instance.
- Either do another mission and come back to the previous one (cancel old quest to be sure)
- Start another normal instance or skirmish. Enter it and leave. You can then re-enter your mission (don’t have to cancel the quest). The stone will be back.
Other media resources
This guide is far from the only source of information. This guide provides a general information on What, where and how. Other guides might focus on specific areas such as maximimizing time spend or provide all available gear, cosmetics etc.
Google doc with above location data, Difficulty Duo T10 and solo with general tips.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yVbJ5quOBuSq49-yH3_YhGbB1PUmQpIBH7HdHXcKYOs/edit?usp=sharing
General guide with endgame loot by laurelsden
Lotros own delving introduction and developers diary with more indepth reasons behind the system
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Small typo: tier 10 gives 50 writs per quest, not 40.