Fate of Gundabad (U31)

Release date: November 10, 2021. Official Release Notes.

Key notes

Updated: January 28th, 2022

Starting points

If you’re 130:

• The “Legacy of Durin“ has added Chapters 5 thru 11 + Epilogue. You can resume the storyline with Durin at Annak-khurfu (Elderslade) or Zarkul-sulun (Battlegrounds map). After a couple quests you’ll be ported to Gundabad.
  • Pre-requisite to enter Gundabad: Chapter 4.9 ‘The Lord of Gundabad’.
• The regional quests start at Maergrind, the Noble Gate.
• New Missions and Allegiance quests will be found at Hall of Vérnozal.

If you aren’t at cap / If you want to access the Missions: talk to the Mission Recruiter Stable-master in many locations of Middle Earth (Thorin’s Hall, Bree, Galtrev, 21st Hall, Erebor, etc) and select “Steepset (Gundabad)” as your destination.

New Factions

• Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold (Regional Quests) – currency: Silver Coin of Gundabad, 500 cap (per toon)
  • Reputation standings are: Acquaintance, Friend, Ally, Kindred, Respected, Honoured, Celebrated.
  • Quartermaster items
    • Friend: Travel skills and 6 housing decorations.
    • Ally: 2 Cosmetic Pets (slug & bat) and 11 housing decorations.
    • Kindred: 6 housing decorations and 2 cosmetic cloaks.
    • Respected: 2 Preserved Relics of Gundabad and 7 housing decorations.
    • Honoured: 1 cosmetic shield and 7 housing decorations.
    • Celebrated: 8 housing decorations.
• Gundabad Missions – currency: Gundabad Mountain-mark, 500 cap (bound to character)
• Zhélruka Clan Allegiance – currency: Token of the Zhélruka (bound to character)

Task Items: Cracked Axe, Frost-rimed Claw, Frost-rimed Ear, Frost-rimed Skin, Gleaming Goo.

New Crafting Tier: Gundabad (14): autobestowed and barterable recipes from vendors. Sunstone shard is the new crafting tier special ingredient.

New Virtue Cap: 80

New Trait Points Cap: 98 (3 added with this expansion, to be found at Ch. 7.8 and 11.5 of the main storyline and the third one for reaching lvl 140)

New Allegiance Faction: The Zhélruka Clan

• Location: Hall of Vérnozal, Steepset, Gundabad.
• Starts at Prince Ingor. Join his Allegiance faction from your Allegiance panel (UI in progress, currently found in the Menu – Character – Allegiance)
• Allegiance quest bestowers: Zadokh, Agatur & Bráthi (see below).
• There are 10 Chapters.
• Quartermaster Rewards: Delver’s Humble Essence Box, Necklaces, Boots & Chest pieces of scaling levels, 14 housing decorations, 16 cosmetic outfit pieces (including 1 brawler gauntlet). Allows trading Allegiance relics for Tokens.
  • A new portrait frame has been added to this barterer.

New Missions:

• Location: Hall of Vérnozal, Steepset, Gundabad.
• Mission Bestowers: Hórin & Ausma
• You need to join the Zhélruka Allegiance to open these missions.
• There are 37 new missions.
  • Each mission rewards 5 Motes of Enchantment and 1 Gundabad Mountain-mark. The chest inside the Mission also gives said marks and Allegiance relics (1000 points each).
• Quartermaster Rewards: Shoulders, Rings & Cloaks of scaling levels, 1000 points allegiance relic and 7 new housing decorations.

Note: I’d recommend reaching the Hall of Vernozal (at Zidir-nesad) early in your adventures thru Gundabad because completing Chapter 1 of the Allegiance will give you a Return skill with 5min CD to that location. Makes questing so much faster.

Instance Cluster

Assault on Dhúrstrok

Den of Pughlak

Houses of Rest

The Hiddenhoard

Credits to my kinmate Eorlthain for helping with the locations!

• Assault on Dhúrstrok: discovery entrance coords (49S, 117.6W) in Deepscrave – you’ll have to take an elevator to the catwalks to reach the door!
• Den of Pughlak: discovery entrance coords (45.9S, 118.9W) in Gloomingtarn – use the boat in Skelstrand to get across the lake and take to the left.
• Adkhât-zahhar, the Houses of Rest (6-man): discovery entrance coords (38.6S, 115W) in Pit of Stonejaws, in the northwestern tip of the map, past Zul Mazal (you can see the door behind the statue in the picture above)
• The Hiddenhoard of Abnankâra (raid): discovery entrance coords (34.1S, 125W) in Clovengap. Right past the Amgaruslun map marker.
  • Durin in Elderslade now has a quest you should get before getting the discovery. It rewards VXP & the Steed of Hrímil’s Bane. (Thank you @Nerfhammah for the tip!)
• Drearspire (no ETA): to reach the entrance you have to go to Agal Dun (52.8N, 68.8W) in Car Bronach, enter Tur Faur and find a door in the deepest reaches of the building (the first door is an angmarim garden). This instance has been cancelled & some assets reused as part of the landscape quest arc.

Geode Hunter

You’ll need to complete this quest to be allowed to interact with the different kinds of stones/pebbles you’ll spot on landscape.

• Quest location: Zidir-nesad, the Steepset – coords: 45.4S, 114,8W
• NPC bestower: Brathi, Master Prospector.
• Items to obtain from barterer: 1 cosmetic pet (Crystal Spider), 1 costume (Servant of the First Crafter), 21 housing decorations, 2k points allegiance relics, and Pocket Items with 1 slot.
  • A new portrait frame has been added to this barterer.
• The Geodes you pick up from landscape are Account-shared and go into your Premium wallet!

Zidir-nesad Jewels Quests

Unlocking the post-Epilogue quests is a grindy task. It requires finishing ALL of the Deeds corresponding to each Gundabad region in order to unlock 7 quests related to the Throne Jewels (Zabad’ibin). That means finishing Exploration + Quests + Slayer Deeds in each map: Mattugard, Stonejaws, Deepscrave, Car Bronach, Gloomingtarn, Clovengap and Welkin-lofts.

Only after completing all meta deeds and the 7 quests (no spoilers) you’ll reach a final quest and receive the Steepset Throne portrait frame you see on the left.

Note: after you finish each map’s meta deed you should port to Zidir-nesad to proc the corresponding quest to appear in your log. You’ll have to talk to Rísti near the Throne in Zidir-nesad for each one.

Weeklies & Dailies Wrapper Quests

Pre-requisites: when you reach lvl 140 you’ll receive an autobestowed quest called “Conquering the Three Peaks” that leads you talk to the NPC bestowers for the regional dailies & weeklies: Zova, Agátur, Zádokh & Brathi (so this is all you need to access the resource instances) .

Then, to open the Zhélruka Missions, you’ll need to join the Zhélruka Allegiance from the Allegiance Panel and complete Chapter 1 from Prince Ingor. The mission wrappers will be found at Zova and the individual mission quests are bestowed by Ausma & Hórin.

Dailies NPC Bestowers

Location: Zidir-nesad, the Steepset.

Agátur, the Boastful

“Battle at the Forge” is a public-instance area that includes the following solo quests: Fire Drakes, Fire Trolls, Orcs & Grims + a fellowship quest (Shakalog) and small fellowship quest (Velzajar).

• Rewards per quest: 300 rep points, 1 Silver Coin of Gundabad and 1 Enhancement rune box lvl 131 rare.
• Completing the 3 solo quests seems to complete the wrapper.
• Reputation: Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Battle at the Lofts” is a public instance area that includes the following solo quests: Cold-Drakes, Frost-tusks, Hobglobins & Angmarim + a small fellowship quest (Ulshatarg) amd a fellowship quest (Grazmauk).

• Rewards per quest: 300 rep points, 1 Silver Coin of Gundabad and 1 Enhancement rune box lvl 131 rare.
• Completing the 3 solo quests seems to complete the wrapper.
• Reputation: Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

Note: if you’re alone in these instances, you may need to kill more enemies than required in order to make the 2 bosses spawn.

Zádokh Flint-eye

“Clovengap: Terror in the Trees” has a 1 hour timer and includes two additional solo quests: Valuable resource and Vicious Claws.

• It’s a crafting resource instance for wood nodes.
• Each quest offers the following rewards: 300 rep points, 1 Silver Coin of Gundabad and 2 Enhancement Runes, lvl 131 (one Rare and one Common).
• Reputation: Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Gloomingtarn: Drok-and-Kharb” has a 1 hour timer and includes two additional solo quests: Fire-starter and Shaking Caverns.

• It’s a crafting resource instance for ore nodes.
• Each quest offers the following rewards: 300 rep points, 1 Silver Coin of Gundabad and 2 Enhancement Runes, lvl 131 (one Rare and one Common).
• Reputation: Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Stonejaws: Leader of the Frost” has a 1 hour timer and includes two additional solo quests: The Frost-horde and The Moon-letters.

• It’s a crafting resource instance for scholar nodes.
• Each quest offers the following rewards: 300 rep points, 1 Silver Coin of Gundabad and 2 Enhancement Runes, lvl 131 (one Rare and one Common).
• Reputation: Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

Note: inside any of these 3 you’ll receive a quest from the Dwarf-scout to gather gems for the Zhelruka so don’t worry if you see you can’t complete inside one, you’ll find more in the following one.

Brathi

Each of his quests award 1 Rare Enhancement Rune, lvl 131 and 1 Common Enhancement Rune, lvl 131. He offers the following quests to be completed on landscape (*and missions/instances/raid):

• Mining For Crystals
• Searching For Diamonds*
• Searching For Gold*
• Searching For Sapphires*
• Searching For Treasures
• The Stone-smashers

Hórin & Ausma have the daily missions in the Hall of Vernozal by the stable.

Weekly NPC Bestower

Zóva

Location: inside Hall of Vérnozal, by the entrance

“Challenges of Gundabad” – complete 6 Gundabad Instances

• Rewards: 2 Preserved Relics of Gundabad (2000 Allegiance Points), 5 Rare Enhancement Runes, lvl 131 and 1 Incomparable.
• Reputation: 500 Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Reclaiming the Mountain-hold” – complete 20 Gundabad Allegiance quests*

• Rewards: 2 Preserved Relics of Gundabad (2000 Allegiance points), 5 Rare Enhancement Runes, lvl 131 and 1 Incomparable.
• Reputation: 500 Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Raid: The Hiddenhoard of Abnankara” – complete the raid on any tier

• Rewards: 1 Pristine Relic of Gundabad, 500 embers, 5 Enhancement runes (rare), 1 Enhancement rune (incomparable) and 2000 VXP.
• Reputation: 700 Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold

“Missions of Gundabad” – pre-requisite: Ch. 1 of the Zhelruka Allegiance

• Daily: complete 5 missions
  • Rewards: 1 Preserved Relic of Gundabad (2k points)

• Weekly: complete 20 missions
  • Rewards: 1 Pristine Relic of Gundabad (10k points)

*Note: all the quests listed under Ágatur, Zádokh & Bráthi in the previous section (except Geode Hunter) count towards the weekly wrapper “Reclaiming the Mountain-hold“

“Do you wanna know more?”

Gundabad Exploration Deeds – forum posts by fellow players Rubagol, Arkanur, Wyatt

Gundabad Housing Decorations by DecoduMilieu: here you’ll find all of the Reputation and Geode items and here all the ones that drop as Instances loot.

Gundabad-related Tips Section

When to reforge your LI? When you reach level 131 & 136 (after reforging, item level on the tooltip should display as 470). As more item levels become available, you’ll be able to reforge again.

Exploring Ormgren – if you’re in a group, the dwarves aren’t collaborative so only one player can do them at a time.

Crystal Hunter deed: Looking for the Green Crystal in Stonejaws?

Zidir-nesad: The Jewel of Masal: tip to solving the riddles on your own – look in the pillars next to each plaque to get a clue of what they represent. If you don’t want to do this alone, here’s a video.

Mission tips:

• Wonder of the Deep: Don’t panic & focus on destroying the wards.
• Gold Rush: looting increases your weight and decreases your run speed. So, run straight to the end of the vault & start working your way back to entrance.
• Raging Frost: attract the grims to the highlighted spot to obtain the ice needed. It’s a good place to farm the mission slayer deed since the grims respawn fast.
• Foregone trap: the grey plaques require you to type the right answer in /say chat. This will reveal levers in the pillars around the vault, each pillar has a roman number, so you have to use the levers in order (no combination needed, just use them all). The riddles on the doors are the same as the ones from the Inn of the Forsaken instance doors.
• The Lost Vault: rearrange the mirrors to send light into the grey plaques at the end of the room.
• Stepping into the Drearspire: the final chest has issues spawning, just make sure you cleared the mobs & walk back and forth down the path that leads out of the fortress.
• Sting Like a Grodbog: only the Queens have glands.

Dailies tips:

• Grab Brathi’s quests titled “Searching for…” before you start doing your daily missions, instances, resource instances. You’ll complete them without extra effort!
• For the public instances, if you’re solo & on the squishy side, find the pulls you can handle and just repeat them until you’re done.
  • To make the bosses spawn you’ll need to kill enemies in quick succession, which is why it’s easier to do if you’re not alone, but it is doable alone as well. For example, in Forges you need to kill enough Orcs to make the Caerog boss spawn & enough Grims to make the Grim boss spawn.
• For the resource instances, you can use your goats/boars to ride around.
• The Dwarf Treasures items needed for Brathi’s quest come from Backpacks & Chests all over Gundabad.