Update 48.5 Release Notes
Here are the Release Notes for Update 48.5, released on Thursday, June 11, 2026.
Of Special Note:
The 2026 Midsummer Festival has arrived!
The festival runs from Thursday June 11th starting at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Wednesday July 1st. New rewards are available for barter, including Flowering Sun avatar cosmetics, Elk mount, Eagle-owl cosmetic pet, and housing decorations. Read our guide to the event on LOTRO.com!
At this year's Midsummer Festival, the freebooters of Furtherholm are introducing a new horse race, the Shield Isles Midsummer Run! Race around the tropical paradise of Zír Aktar and earn Midsummer tokens. Complete the race enough times to become a seaside sensation and earn extra Midsummer Tokens, 500 Virtue Experience Points, and the title Sea Horse-master. To begin the race, speak to Lêkhar, the Shield Isles Race Master, on the west side of The Cracked Flagon. To get to Furtherholm, talk to Ikhajât in front of the City Stables in Minas Tirith (Midsummer). She can also be found at the Party Tree, Thorin's Hall Inn, inside The Prancing Pony and The Festival Garden in Duillond.
News and Notes:
- Monsterplay: Gothmog's Mace fire FX is now only visible when the weapon is visible.
- Trait Tree Panel - UI content selection no longer shifts when the panel size exceeds the screen size.
- Trait Tree Panel - Trait dependancy arrows scale better with the panel size.
- Tooltips for UI elements correctly scale with the Tooltips UI scale slider again.