Update 48 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 48: A Glorious Hunt, released on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. 

Of Special Note:

The 19th Anniversary has arrived!

The Lord of the Rings Online is turning 19! Enjoy our Anniversary Event fun starting at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Thursday, April 23rd. This year's Anniversary Event continues until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Tuesday, May 12th. Find our guide on LOTRO.com!

This year's celebration features new Missions, new rewards and more:

• New Quintessential cosmetics on Anniversary barter vendors
• A 19-year Gift Box with new fireworks and portrait frames for players who previously acquired the 18-year Gift Box.
• The Mysterious Stranger inside the Prancing Pony has four new Missions set in the Lone-lands and the North Downs. These Missions are available to all players levels 20-160 during the festival, and all have Delvings as an option.
• Special items available just for the19th anniversary:
• We've added a special quest for our 19th Anniversary Celebration! Speak with Waldo Rumble and take part in new missions alongside existing missions and activities to obtain a new Sunstone Drakeling cosmetic pet.
• Find new dog and parrot cosmetic pets available to barter for Anniversary tokens and a jerboa pet and fence housing decorations available to barter for Steel Tokens.
• 'Nineteenth Anniversary Surprise!' packages will occasionally drop from monsters out in the world.

Rivendell Housing opens on Thursday, April 30th!

Update 48 sees the launch of our newest premium neighbourhood, the Rivendell Steadings. Nestled high in the mountains just to the west of the Vale of Imladris, players now have the opportunity to call Rivendell home! Rivendell Housing will open on the 64-bit game worlds on Thursday, April 30th, starting at Noon Eastern (-4 GMT). Additional housing neighborhoods will open automatically once enough homes in existing neighborhoods are purchased. 

There are multiple ways to get to the Rivendell Steadings. The main entrance of the neighborhood is a quick walk south-west from the Rivendell stables, right before the tree bridge crossing. You can also access the neighbourhood from Bree-town via the Broker’s Office as well as from the new Rivendell Steadings Broker’s Board in Lalia’s Market. 

New Questing: A Glorious Hunt!

In the southern scrubland of Pahar Hatokáli, Shâra Mizâdi, queen of Shagâna and its environs, has pursued the villainous pretender king Bârshud across deserts, mountains and cities throughout Shagâna and Mûr Ghala. After he fled Emax Dûl, Bârshud and his sorcerous second, Sudûgul, have taken up residence south, in the Hatokáli Fells. Mizâdi and her retinue, including Numûru, Razâl and Rahâzi are fast on his heels. But like a serpent cornered, Bârshud is even more dangerous in his desperation. What fresh secrets and horrors will Mizâdi find in her hunt, buried deep beneath the Fells?

Experience the story of Mizâdi's glorious hunt over three parts, released over time throughout the spring! Meet up with Shâra Mizâdi in Hanamíku in Pahar Hatokáli to begin your journey. The first set of quests is available with launch, and the second set of quests unlocks on Wednesday May 6th at 10am EDT. The final quests in the story unlock on May 20th. "A Glorious Hunt" is FREE to VIPs and available in the LOTRO Store.

A new weekly quest to earn Virtue has arrived!

New Embers for Virtue quests are obtained from Embers traders around Middle-earth.

• First, you will need to obtain the weekly quest "From the Ashes Comes Virtue - Weekly" that tracks your status and provides the paramount reward at the end of the week. This quest resets every Thursday allowing your to start the process over again.
• Then, bestowed by the same Embers traders that bestowed the Weekly, you can obtain the six "From the Ashes Comes Virtue - I-VI" quests. Each quest allows you to turn in a number of embers for Virtue XP. Each of these quests also reset at the end of the week, allowing you to complete the quests again every week.
• If ever a quest does not allow for a turn in and you have enough Embers, you can log off the character and return to the world and the quest will update accordingly. Or, if you do not meet the requirement for the Ember turn-in collecting more Embers should also push the advancement of the quest.

New Additions to Adventurer's and Traveler's Lootboxes!

Rowan Raspberry has arrived to trade your Figments of Splendour for new and returning rewards! These new items are also available in Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound Lootboxes. Learn more in this article on LOTRO.com!

• Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes contain new "Rivendell" cosmetic items including avatar cosmetics, oryx cosmetic pets, and a variety of housing decorations. These items are also available on Rowan Raspberry for Figments of Splendour.
• Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes also now contain a Humming Sunbird cosmetic pet, Forges of Imladris, Rivendell Stove, and Rivendell Kitchen Set crafting facility decorations, and Replica of the Imladris Stables and Last Homely House decorations. These items are not yet available for barter.
• The following pet and housing items are now available on Rowan Raspberry for Figments of Splendour: Mushroom Hunter's Pack and Mushroom Hunter's Corgi cosmetic pet.
• Some older items were moved off of Rowan Raspberry and onto the Curator including Hidden Peaks cosmetic clothing and many housing decorations. See the article for full details.
• Filbert Fig has retired for the season.
• Newly acquired Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootbox gear for level 160 characters now scales to item level 562 - 564.

News and Notes:

Classes & Skills:

• Brawler
• The Plant Feet skill description no longer states a specific, incorrect interval value for its defensive bonuses.
• Burglar
• Mischevious Delight's power restore is now fixed.
• Captain
• Armour of the Dôlo's 4-set bonus now works as intended, but the cooldown reduction per enemy hit has been reduced from -1s to -0.5s.
• Guardian
• Sweeping Wound, Brutal Wound, and Overwhelming Wound bleeds now correctly benefit from Traceries which increase the damage of their corresponding skills.
• Shield-taunt no longer applies duplicate threat effects.
• The original animation for Smashing Strike of a leaping strike has been restored.
• Smashing Strike now properly inherits your weapon's damage type.
• The tooltip for the trait Reckless Attack now correctly refers to Reckless Attack, rather than Reckless Strike.
• Hunter
• Plant Feet trait no longer incorrectly increases induction times.
• Armour of the Silver Arrow's Moonlight bonus damage now procs on all ranged attacks.
• The Silver Arrow now correctly gains increased critical magnitude from the Area Effect Magnitude tracery, rather than the Single Target tracery.
• Camouflage no longer erroneously gains bonus critical chance from the Kingsfoil healing tracery.
• Hunter's Silver Arrow now correctly gains crit mag from Focus Builders Critical Magnitude effects
• Hunter's "Induction Bow Critical Multiplier" and "Focus Bow Critical Multiplier" properties have been renamed to "Ranged Focus Builder Critical Multiplier" and "Ranged Focus Spender Critical Multiplier" to more accurately reflect what they are and to what they apply.
• Lore-master
• Lore-master Brooches and Stickpins "of Rage" have been renamed to "of Nature", and now provide offensive pet benefits of +10% Pet Health +5% Pet Damage +2.5% Pet Crit Chance.
• Lore-master Brooches and Stickpins "of Regrowth" now provide defensive pet benefits of +10% Pet Health +10% Pet Health Regen -2.5% Pet Incoming Damage.
• Lore-master non-crit crafting Brooches and Stickpins at Westemnet (T9) and lower now provide additional Vitality, but no longer provide Power.
• Burning Embers' Tier 2 Damage over Time effect has been renamed to 'Flaming Embers' to distinguish it from the skill and its initial hit still called "Burning Embers".
• The "Fellowship Friend - Cat" effect now correctly shows its bonus as being +3% Melee Damage and not +3% Outgoing Damage, which was incorrect.
• Mariner
• Fixed an issue causing mariner ground-targeted pot skills to sometimes generate multiple hotspots.
• The Dramatic Flourish effect 'Imitating a Master of War' buff potency has been reduced from 25% to 10%.
• Minstrel's Armour of Triumphant Song 4-set bonus now correctly benefits your entire Fellowship, not solely the caster.
• Rune-keeper
• Rune-keepers once again gain the 'Charged' FX when the charged effect is applied or tiers up.
• Warden
• Armour of the Wound Carver's Heroic Spear of Fate buff potency has been adjusted for Tiers 1 and 2 and is now only consumed when using Spear of Fate if the buff at tier 3.

Crafting & Hobbies:

• Recipes for Mûrai Hunter Tomes now have more generic names so that it is clearer that they are multi-output recipes.

Festivals & Events:

• In the Anniversary Scavenger Hunt Quest Year 1 Travels: Towering Monuments, visiting the Stone of Erech in King's Gondor will no longer advance the quest. The quest text now specifies that you must visit the "wartime" Stone of Erech in the version of the Blackroot Vale that existed before the destruction of the One Ring.
• When the Midsummer Festival returns, Furtherholm will have a fishing supplier who sells fishing rods.

Housing & Decorations:

• The Housing Deco item Umbari Property Guard now correctly summons an Umbari Property Guard when called upon.
• Added two Enormous and 5 huge mobile yard hooks to the Lyndelby Kinship Smial.
• All Yard hooks now use smaller visual representations to mitigate usage issues in locations where hooks visually overlapped.
• Mobile Yard Hooks have a uniform coloration to help make them distinct from standard Yard Hooks.
• Fire Pit House Hooks now use Furniture-sized Hook Artwork to make using them and other hooks around them easier.
• Added a third property fence hook for the upper ring of fences in the Lyndelby Kinship Smial.
• All properties in Eastfold and Kingstead neighborhoods now have property fence hooks.
• All Belfalas Houses now have interior light hooks (NOTE: With the implementation of this system, most static lighting has been removed from Belfalas housing interiors. Players will need to purchase Light decorations from Ambience Furnishers to update the lighting in their homes)
• Minor adjustments have been made to the entrance locations of each Belfalas house interior to help mitigate the issue where players could fall through the floors upon entering from landscape.
• The following items can now be used on Yard hooks:
• Hobbit Stable
• Farmer’s Gazebo
• Renewed Gondorian Fountain
• Large Gondorian Scaffolding
• Ruined Arnorian Bridge
• Simple Ruined Arnorian Wall
• Small Destroyed Round Arnorian Wall
• Destroyed Wide Arnorian Wall
• Ruined Wide Arnorian Wall
• Arnorian Arch-wall
• Ruined Arnorian Gate
• Ruined Full Arnorian Arch-wall
• Full Arnorian Arch-wall
• Ruined Filled Arnorian Arch-wall
• Filled Arnorian Arch-wall
• Destroyed Arnorian Arch-wall
• Dispersed Arnorian Rubble
• Crumbling Dwarf Fountain
• Flooded Deeps Aqueduct
• The Wreck of the Thoroval
• Ruined Stone Pillars
• Stone Pillars
• Lórien War Tent
• Large Pipeweed Field
• Large Wheat Field
• Large Dry Wheat Field
• Round Gondorian Reflection Pool
• Blue and White Tent
• Red and Gold Tent

Instances & Skirmishes:

• The Isle of Storms instance now scales from level 150 to 160.

Items & Rewards:

• New rewards are available from Delving Quartermasters! Use Delving Writs to obtain the Tome of the Cobalt Grodbog Protector, the Tome of the Obsidian Deep-claw Whelp and several new housing decoration items.
• Daegoth, in Ost Galadh, will now exchange Medallions of Dol Guldur and Dark Emblems for Marks and Medallions on worlds where the level cap is 85 or higher, allowing players to acquire some level 65 challenge rewards that are otherwise unavailable.
• Some expansion packages were incorrectly binding their cosmetic contents to character instead of account, and are now fixed:
• Fate of Gundabad Collector's Edition - Bonus Items!
• Fate of Gundabad Ultimate Fan Bundle - Bonus Items!
• Cosmetic Armour of the Gundabad Reclaimer
• Fateful Gundabad Cosmetic Armour
• Minas Morgul Collector's Edition - Bonus Items
• Minas Morgul Ultimate Fan Bundle - Bonus Items
• Cosmetic Armour of the Great Alliance
• Cosmetic Armour of the Dead City
• Attempting to use a Title-granting consumable when you already have the title will now fail.
• The Pouch of Black Mushroom Spores for the Farmers Faire quest "Planting the Seeds for Harvest" will no longer go into Crafting Carry-alls.
• Ashes of Osgiliath: Instance Gear Updates
• The armour sets available from the Ashes of Osgiliath instance cluster (The Sunken Labyrinth, The Ruined City, and The Dome of Stars) have been updated.
• The gear set is now fixed at Level 100 / Item Level 202 and will no longer scale with your character's level at the time of the drop, ensuring consistent stats on every piece you earn.  
• Class specific set bonuses have been re-added to these new versions.
• There is now a unique set for the Brawler and Mariner.
• Set pieces now have a chance to drop exclusively from the Level 100 Challenge versions of all three instances.  Specifically the "Osgiliath Labyrinth Armour", "Osgiliath Ruins Armour", and "Osgiliath Dome Armour".
• Previously acquired gear is unaffected and will keep its current level but not gain set bonuses. This old non-set gear can be exchanged for their new set equivalents via barter at the Osgiliath Rewards Vendor Quartermaster.
• Mariners can now upgrade Dread Terror set items up to "Supreme" and even "of the Morannon"!  Visit the Host of the West Herb-master and Master-weaponist for details.
• A few items from the Dread Terror gear sets incorrectly had sell values.  These have been removed.
• The Marine Scorpion cosmetic pet has been renamed to Death-light Scorpion.
• Baubles
• The Ringwraith Baubles earned on Angmar and Mordor will now populate correctly across your account. If you have previously acquired the item to earn the bauble skill, then you will need to use the bauble skill to populate the reward across your account. If you have not previously acquired the item to earn the bauble skill the first time you collect the item you will receive the item on all characters on your account.
• A set of cosmetic items have been upgraded into Baubles. These items have been transformed into consumable, account bound scrolls which will teach you the Bauble skill/effect the item used to generate.  As a reminder, to view Baubles open then Collections panel (SHIFT + C), then look to the bottom tab on the left.
• Rotten Fruit
• Sack of Petals
• Flower Petals
• Hollin Gate Fireworks
• Yellow Star Fireworks
• Orange Star Fireworks
• White Tree Fireworks
• Dragon Fireworks
• Pinwheel Fireworks
• Willow Fireworks
• Soaring Pinwheel Fireworks
• Incandescent Lightning Fireworks
• Mighty Ram Fireworks

Landscape:

• Numerous stuck spots across the game world have been resolved.
• Numerous floating objects across the game world have had their placement adjusted.
• Numerous inaccessible resource nodes and monsters have had their placement adjusted.
• Camels can now be used in Thorin's Hall and the Hall Under the Mountain.
• The appearance of the entrance to the Understaddle in Bree-land when the Farmers Faire is not in progress has been changed.
• Fixed a bug that caused Frill Terrain Color graphics option to show incorrect colors on frills.
• Dread 5, 6, and 7 no longer claim they cause cowering in their tooltips.
• Adjusted landscape scaling loot drops on monsters level 61-80 to more consistently scale their equip effects.  Primarily effects Soothe Wounds and the other status removing effects to always be level 80 removal, as well as the Intermittent Power and Moral which also now have a flat restoration amount.

Legendary Worlds:

• Angmar and Mordor will increase to level cap 105 on Wednesday June 3rd, 2026. The Legendary Item level cap also increases to item level 250 at this time. On Angmar and Mordor only, from June 3rd through July 15th, extra plants will spawn in North Ithilien and the Wastes for Flora containing specific extract phials on a weekly rotation. To help plan collection forays, plants with Verdant Extract will be more common 6/3 - 6/14, Umber Extract 6/10 - 6/24, Crimson Extract 6/17 - 7/1, Sapphire Extract 6/24 - 7/8, and Amber Extract 7/1 - 7/15.

Quests, Deeds, & Adventure Areas:

• Burning Brush in the North Ithilien quest Saving the Wilds will now actually be burning.
• The barricades now have sound when they collapse In the Minas Morgul Instance "The Harrowing of Morgul". 
• The webbed trees will now have appropriately sized flames in the Morgul Vale quest "The Trees of Taurlingol".
• Quest objective directions in "Crocodile Hunting (Daily)" have been corrected.
• Horses for the quest "Riders of the Storm" should now respawn faster.
• Added some additional text introducing the Word-hoard of Gobetham to the quest "II.10: Forgotten Lineage".
• An issue that prevented players from completing the Brown Lands Instance "A Sunset Storm" if they defeated the third captain and the commander in the wrong order has been resolved.
• Ensorcelled Vessel enemies in the "Houses of Lamentation" encounter can now be selected with mouse.

Reputation:

• Hamât Renewed now extends to the Celebrated tier.
• The Favoured Standing for Hamât Renewed now grants a 25% bonus for the Honoured tier and 30% for the Celebrated tier.

UI & Miscellaneous:

• Players are now able to use the "loot all" button to loot bound-to-account items from containers when they are in a Fellowship. A confirmation window will appear to allow them to confirm their decision.
• Confirmation windows for bind-on-acquire items are now able to be suppressed via a checkbox.
• Added "Edit UI" buttons to both the System Menu and the UI Settings page of the Options panel in order to increase visibility of UI customization. This was originally only accessible by the Ctrl+\ hotkey.

Known issues:

• LOCALIZATION:  Some text may be pending final translation.