Getting Ready for Raids in The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth™!

Greetings Ring-bearers!

Previously, we’ve covered at a high level what a Raid will look like in The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth.

To recap, Raids will be open to guilds and their members to engage with. We are aiming for guilds to be able to kick a Raid off about once a week, and last up to four or five days. That being said, the length of a Raid does depend on how well a Guild does. 

Each Raid consists of multiple Chapters of exciting gameplay. These Chapters will slowly roll out to the community over time, giving players a chance to master each Chapter before the next becomes available. Completing a chapter means earning enough Points across your guild to progress and each Chapter will have its own unique way of earning Points in battle. For example, one chapter may be all about dealing as much damage to a single Raid boss, while another chapter may focus on healing and surviving as many turns as possible...  In addition to Chapter progress, Points earned in battle will contribute to both Personal Rewards for yourself and an End-of-Raid Reward for everyone in the Guild. Players can increase the number of Points they accrue by increasing the Difficulty of the Raid on each of their Attempts, independent of their guildmates. The higher the difficulty, the greater the rewards.

Our goal is to have a dynamically challenging raid experience to grow with your roster of characters, but also allow players in each guild to choose the experience that feels most comfortable for them. Our hope is that players have an entertaining strategic puzzle to solve, while working together as a guild for epic success and rewards.

Now you’re probably wondering what specifics you’ll need in order to enter and successfully compete in a Raid.

• You’ll need to be at least level 30. 
• Be part of a guild.
• Be prepared for danger and rewards!

In order for your guild to start the Raid, you’ll need to collect Raid Keys to unlock the raid itself. These raid keys are earned each time a guild member completes specific daily objectives - so individual efforts on your own daily progress count towards the larger effort! It’s worth noting that you can still continue to earn Raid Keys for the next Raid while a Raid is active.

Once a Raid has begun, each chapter will be open for 24 hours and guilds must earn a certain set amount of banked points to unlock the next chapter and proceed forth. The amount of Points needed to progress to the next chapter varies from Chapter to Chapter. If you’re not able to hit the required amount of Points then the raid will end. There is a short grace period after a Chapter has closed, where anyone who started a raid attempt can finish and submit their attempt, so make sure to push for those last few Points to get over the line.

Once your guild has collected all the required Keys needed to unlock the Raid, kick-offs can be organized and started by guild officers. Throughout the Raid period, guild members will be kept up to date with game notifications and in-game chat to inform them of Raid progress. Players can also check in and see how their guild is doing at any time by checking out the Raid area and which chapter and rewards are available.

As you start your battle, you’ll choose which characters you’ll take with you into the fray. You do have a limited number of attempts as well as a timer in which you will need to earn as many points as possible. During battle you’ll be able to see your current score, as well as the maximum possible score you can earn at the current difficulty you’ve selected for this battle. Keep in mind that you’ll need to be strategic as to how you construct your team and who you bring into battle as after each battle your characters become Exhausted and cannot be used again in that Chapter of the current Raid.

Being part of a guild means all your efforts matter. Guild members will collect points based upon how well they complete scoring objectives in battle within chapters. Points gained can also be multiplied by a difficulty modifier to help reflect the challenging nature of the battle. When players complete a battle, they have the choice to either retry for higher points or bank their points, adding to their total. 

As an individual you’ll unlock more rewards the more points you collect during the raid along with gaining guild rewards that get better as the guild progresses further through the raid.

Speaking of rewards… Players will be able to collect their rewards in the Reward Track. Forgot to pick up your reward and the raid has closed? No problems! Any unclaimed rewards will be sent to your in-game inbox. 

As you participate in Raids you can earn Gold Raid Coins and Mithril Raid Coins which can be used to purchase items from the Raid shop.

As always for those with a competitive streak, you can see how your progress stacks up compared to other members in your guild on the leaderboard. Through the leaderboard players will be able to see information such as all the banked attempts across the guild, team compositions, difficulty and your own personal best banked attempt.

So what happens when your guild finishes a raid? Well first, congratulations would be in order! Next would be to enjoy the spoils of your efforts! 

Potential reward items you’ll see are:

• Featured Character Shards
• Gems
• Gold
• Character XP
• Raid Supply Currency

Of note, Gold Raid Coins and Mithril Raid Coins can be spent on the following things:

• Rare Gear Pieces
• Luminous & Shadow Crystals
• Essences
• Featured character Shards
• Rare and Epic Ability Materials

We look forward to seeing how players interact with Raids! Everything mentioned in this article is subject to change as we make improvements along the way. As always we’ll be keeping a close eye on how things are going and are always on the lookout for things we can improve on in future updates.

For the latest news, and all things The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as our Discord!

Includes in-game purchases (including random items). Abilities may require certain gear tiers to be reached.  Please see in-game for more details.

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