Thread: Do I have to pay to play after a certain point?

Hey everyone! I'm a level 30 and I just finnished all the quests in the Lone Lands and everywhere I go from there, you have to pay for the quests? Do I have to pay to advance the book quests? And if I do buy a quest pack, do I have to buy all of them to advance? Thanks for the help!

No all book quests are free. But if you dont have other locations bought you will have to XP only throught Skirmishes and Instances

and don't forget just randomaly killing mobs.

You do not *have* to pay. If you do all the deeds you have open, you should have enough TP to get another quest pack.

If you don't mind paying (but don't want to subscribe), I recommend the Legendary Rise of Isengard pack, it will give you the quest packs for trollshaws, ereigon and moria (if i remember correctly).

But the epic quests are always free.

don't have to 'buy' anything, you earn TP in game which can be used to unlock further content if you wish, all a matter or time vs. $.

Originally Posted by jayzee011

Hey everyone! I'm a level 30 and I just finnished all the quests in the Lone Lands and everywhere I go from there, you have to pay for the quests? Do I have to pay to advance the book quests? And if I do buy a quest pack, do I have to buy all of them to advance? Thanks for the help!

Yes, you have run out of the quest packs that you get for free. You don't have to pay to do the Epic quest series, or to travel to any other zone. However, if you want to get more non-epic quests, you're going to have to get a quest pack.

Check the Store to see how many TPs you have now. The quest pack I recommend at your level is Evendim. Find out how many TPs it takes to buy that, and how many more TPs you need.

You can choose how to get those TPs:

1. Buy TPs with real-life money
2. Grind for more TPs

If you want to grind for more TPs, try making additional characters (even on other servers) and leveling them up to 15 or 20. You'll earn TPs doing that... and eventually you'll have enough to buy Evendim. And you can keep doing that, even by deleting and making new characters, until you have earned all the TP you want.

As far as i get it if you have time to play its cheaper to become vip for one month lets say. You'll have access to all quests during that period . Downside is that after month you wont be able to do them lets say with your alt characters...

You are never 'forced' to pay, but you will certainly notice the difference between areas that you have the quest packs for and areas that you dont.I haven't done the math, but strongly suspect that if you are serious about remaining f2p indefinitely, the most effective thing to purchase with the tp your current characters earn is additional character slots. ( Each character can earn its own tp, I suspect each character can earn more tp than the slot costs). Then again, endlessly repeating the same starter deeds may well end up feeling like the chinese water torture. Don't forget the trick of starting characters on different servers, so that the cost of account-wide purchases can be spread across them.

Given in mind that the game has serious grind for players who have no problem putting their hands in their pockets, I don't envy the wannabe-f2pers, but the choice *appears* to be there, for any determined enough.

Originally Posted by wachkussen

You are never 'forced' to pay, but you will certainly notice the difference between areas that you have the quest packs for and areas that you dont.I haven't done the math, but strongly suspect that if you are serious about remaining f2p indefinitely, the most effective thing to purchase with the tp your current characters earn is additional character slots. ( Each character can earn its own tp, I suspect each character can earn more tp than the slot costs). Then again, endlessly repeating the same starter deeds may well end up feeling like the chinese water torture. Don't forget the trick of starting characters on different servers, so that the cost of account-wide purchases can be spread across them.

Given in mind that the game has serious grind for players who have no problem putting their hands in their pockets, I don't envy the wannabe-f2pers, but the choice *appears* to be there, for any determined enough.

Well Lotro is a good game..i really dont get people who cant spend 10 or 20 $ for it. Ofc to buy everything you need to have wide bank account , but basically becoming vip from time to time can do a trick.

Originally Posted by wachkussen

I haven't done the math, but strongly suspect that if you are serious about remaining f2p indefinitely, the most effective thing to purchase with the tp your current characters earn is additional character slots.

This is almost certainly incorrect. Even as a totally free player, you can have up to 2 characters PER SERVER, and all their TP goes into the same pot. That's over 40 characters. You definitely do NOT need more character slots.

What you can really use is more quest packs. Buying a quest pack gives you access to all the TPs you can earn by doing deeds in that zone... and less repetition for all your disposable characters.

Disregarding all the mathematical calculations and speculations:

Yes, you will likely be paying after a certain point...


The grind, the slow level progression, the limited gold/resources you can use as a Free2Play player, plus the lack of skirmishes will make the game extremely boring for you unless you start paying for something.

Turbine knows this, and this is also the reason why they have designed all their contents around this model.

Personally I am yet to see 1 person who have purchased Mines of Moria for 100% earned Turbine Points as a F2P player.

Only Turbine knows the exact numbers of people who start as F2P and later on decide to pay, but I am *guessing* that well over 75% of all active players are either Premium, Lifetime, or VIP members.

(yes, I am guessing; its not an official number, just my personal guess)

Dont bother. Pay a few $ and you will instantly get "Premium". No Goldlimitation, 3 Charakterslots and so on.

You can enjoy and have a good time in Middleearth for a very long time. Then spend some $ and again you will have fun for a very long time. Look out for discounts and you will not need much to get far.

If you dont want to pay nothing, never, no discussion: then go to armourgames or newgrounds and have fun there.



Welcome to Middle-Earth btw :-)

Originally Posted by Thostunmund

Dont bother. Pay a few $ and you will instantly get "Premium". No Goldlimitation, 3 Charakterslots and so on.

Actually premium players have a 5 gold limit per character.

Originally Posted by HugoHu

You'll have access to all quests during that period .

Except expansion quests...Moria, Mirkwood, Isengard. VIP must unlock those too.

Originally Posted by Shukar

That's over 40 characters.

Nearly 60 actually. With the Codemasters servers added in we now have 29 servers.

And I agree. Free players do not need more character slots but rather the quest packs.

Originally Posted by lutemaster

Personally I am yet to see 1 person who have purchased Mines of Moria for 100% earned Turbine Points as a F2P player.

Assuming they're telling the truth, I've seen a handful of posts by players here in the forums who've said they've unlocked ALL quest packs with earned TP. Some of them have done the Moria one via the expansion unlock rather than simply the QP. I don't recall though if they've gone as high now as the actual RoI expansion or simply the QP on that one.

Originally Posted by Catisa

don't have to 'buy' anything, you earn TP in game which can be used to unlock further content if you wish, all a matter or time vs. $.

This is accurate. Functionally, the further you progress, the more difficult it will become. You'll find yourself neededing to roll extra characters or do without some things.; One VIP month though can make a very large portion of the grind evaporate if you use the time prudently.

Other worthwhile large-timesavings investments include the Legendary Edition of Rise of Isengard and the Steam Starter pack.

Do not invest in the Rohan pre-order at this time.

Originally Posted by KualaBangoDango

Assuming they're telling the truth, I've seen a handful of posts by players here in the forums who've said they've unlocked ALL quest packs with earned TP. Some of them have done the Moria one via the expansion unlock rather than simply the QP. I don't recall though if they've gone as high now as the actual RoI expansion or simply the QP on that one.

I have personally met 1 person who was still F2P at level 75. She purchased some crit-crafted jewelry from me... which is how I know that she could not pay with in-game currency. We had to do a deal where I posted a trash item on the AH for the money, and she bought it.

I cannot tell you what quest packs she had (or whether or not she had Moria) but I met her in Galtrev.

If you don't mind a grind then F2P is technically viable, for the most part, but not necessarily much fun.

I am proud to say I have all the quest packs and expansions apart from Isengard, Great River and... Enedwaith I think is the last one I need. I got the Moria expansion as well, not just the quest pack. All purchased with turbine points earned in game. I also have the currency cap lifted, 10 AH slots and the first two upgrades for shared storage.

I have gone VIP for one month for the swift travel and trait unlocks mostly, but I also used the extra turbine points to get me some more shared storage while it was on sale.

Sales are wonderful for F2P and save on a large amount of grind. Say something for 500 points is at 25% off, and you average 10 points per deed, you are saving yourself having to complete around 13 deeds there. Bliss.

This was all done with 14 characters (one deleted around level 30 when I decided I didn't like the server). Most are still around the 20-35 level range.

Anyone who plays this game exclusively without paying money, I tip my hat (were I to ever wear one) to you. But for the average person if you want the game to remain fun and not some tedious grind-fest, then at some point you will have to pay money. By which point however you should have come to the conclusion whether the game is worth it.

Just so I understand, if I were to buy VIP for one month and go start quests in some of the places I get from that such as Evendim, when the VIP runs out, will I be able to finish any of thoe quests that I have started but unfinished?

Originally Posted by Godless-Mimicry

Just so I understand, if I were to buy VIP for one month and go start quests in some of the places I get from that such as Evendim, when the VIP runs out, will I be able to finish any of thoe quests that I have started but unfinished?

As long as they dont require entering a classic instnace (Annuminas, Carn Dun, Etc.)