LOTRO Midsummer Festival – Quick Guide

Hello everyone! It’s midsummer which means it’s time for the LOTRO Midsummer Festival! Unlike most of the other festivals (which take place in Eriador, often around The Party Tree or the Bree Festival grounds), this one’s main location is Minas Tirith.

In the Lord of the Rings books, some key places, like Minas Tirith and Helm’s Deep, have a lot of history that takes place during the story. To show this in the game, LOTRO has different versions of these locations. So for the festival, you want the one latest in time (so far) and that that is Minas Tirith (Midsummer).

To make my festival questing go smoothly, and without having to think too hard, I have written up a quick set of directions, and I am happy to share them with you.

Now, if you are new to the festival, I highly suggest you take a look at FibroJedi’s fabulous guide and/or the fan created and maintained LOTRO-wiki. They’ll give you a nice overview of the festival quests and many of the little details about the festival that will help make your stay in Minas Tirith that much more enjoyable. And make sure you have game music volume turned up; they took a lot of music from other parts of the game and reworked it for the festival and it sounds fantastic.

When you first log in during the festival, you’ll get a map to Minas Tirith (Midsummer). I suggest you use that opportunity to bind to the milestone; you’ll find it diagonally/north-east from the Daily Wrapper quest giver & Stable-master.

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Guide Guidance:

Moving/action is indicated in italics and quest names are bolded. South means south and/or clockwise and North means north and/or counter-clockwise.

My quick routes assume that you’re fine with paying the stable-masters in Minas Tirith to get around, and you have a 5 minute cooldown on your milestone, or you have other travel skills like a house in a premium neighborhood so you can use the Far-ranging Stable-master there with your 1 minute cooldown travel skill. South Bree, Michel Delving, and a few others also have swift travel to that ground level Midsummer stable-master in Minas Tirith.

Ready? Let’s go!

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++Preamble/Preparation:

• Have a milestone set to the ground tier (ideally with a 5 minute cooldown).
• Pick up the daily wrapper quest In Celebration of Midsummer on the ground level.
• Pick up all the quests on the 7th Circle (the tippy tippy top).
• If you are doing A Long Awaited Banquet, pick up today’s quest in case they ask you to go out into the city. (Some do, some don’t.)
• Firefly Quests:
  • If you are doing fireflies, pick up the quest (at the top) & then catch them as soon as possible. Return to the top and get the quest progression so you can place them around Minas Tirith while doing your other quests.

++Ground Level/Workers’ Tier (1st Circle):

• Go into the City Stables interior (pick up and complete Aiding the Stable-hands).
• Go south to the florist’s daughter, progress quest.
• After finishing with the daughter, go north to the stable-master, ride to Soldiers’ Tier.
  • Old instructions: continue south to the Ramp; go up.

++Second Circle/Soldiers’ Tier

• Pick up Artistic Direction from Borlach of Rimmon when you arrive.
• Go south/left to Splintered Shield (for Toss a Coin, To the Last Drop, and What Ales You…).
• More south to Mûmak and Keep (What Ales You…).
• After Mumak & Keep, use Milestone,
• Take stablemaster to Craftsmen’s Tier, dismount & head down-ramp.
• Progress Artistic Direction quest and pick up Growing Pains from Lebadar (Gardener).
• Go to the Worried Woman, diagonally from the Gardner, and do Unhelpful Hounds.
• Ride up the ramp.

++Craftsmen’s Tier/Third Tier

• Turn right, grab Wedding Supplies, talk to Potter,
• Go into House of Craft for 2 more supplies.
  • Pick up Honoring Healers from the Postmaster (in case you decide to do it later).
  • You can also pick up & immediately turn in the crafting quests if you pre-make the goodies.
• Come out of House of Craft and continue north to the garden at the far end.
• After garden, use Milestone, take stablemaster to Craftsmen’s Tier, dismount & head down-ramp & turn in Growing Pains.
• Ride back up the ramp to the Stable-master, take stables to Players’ tier, dismount & ride down).
• Finish gathering for Artistic Direction and pick up Sweet Treats from Ciriel (pastry chef).
• Ride to the two hungry guards north (can do before or after next step) .
• Ride to the two hungry guards south.
• While south, get rest of wedding supplies & go into Merry Swan for a barrel (What Ales You…) and flowers onstage for Arranging Arrangements…
  • Onstage for Emerald Firefly Lanterns
• Return to Ciriel then go up nearby ramp (to Players’ Tier).
• Take stables to Soldiers’ Tier, turn in Artistic Direction. Take stables back to Players’ Tier

++Players’ Tier/Fourth Tier

• When you return to the Players’ Tier:
  • Sapphire Firefly Lanterns are by the Players’ Tier stable master.
• Turn right for one Tasty Morsels person, then back left for the rest.
• Continue south for Blue Theater.
• Inside the Blue Theater, do Something Misplaced, Something Blue (if you want) and finish Arranging Arrangements…
• Use Milestone, take stables to High Stables, dismount, take ramp down to Sages’ Tier.

++Sages’ Tier/Fifth Tier (all south/west of the ramp from 6th Circle)

• In the Houses of Lore, do Something Floral – 4 in main area, two upstairs off the southwest room.
• Do Love is in the Air from Colladan (if you want).
• Exit, turn right to The Thirsty Seer for the final barrel for What Ales You…
  • Ruby Firefly Lanterns is at the far North so if you have it, go around now and then milestone back up, ignoring the next “up ramp” instruction.
• Go back up the ramp.

++Masters’ Tier (6th Circle – same as High Stables)

• Go into Houses of Healing, High Hall (on the right/north) for A Cure for All Ills.
• Go into the Houses of Healing, House of Remedies for Honoring Healers (this one takes longer, so skip if you want). Fyi, if you get lost trying to leave, the exit is center east.
  • Inside and south of House of Remedies for Amethyst Firefly Lanterns

++Finishing up

• In any order:
  • Take stable-master to Craftsmen’s Tier & turn in Honoring Healers to the postmaster.
  • Head to the top and turn in all the quests.
  • Use Milestone & turn in wrapper.

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Just a few more notes:

Updated for clarity: You can swap the order of the last two tiers (Sages and Masters) if you can handle doing the tiers out of order. 😀 If you do, go into the Thirsty Seer before the Houses of Lore so you can milestone from there.

The tiers in Minas Tirith are referenced by both name and number in the quests, so here’s a quick list that brings that information together:

• Workers’ Tier (1st Circle) City Stables
• Soldiers’ Tier (2nd Circle)
• Craftsmen’s Tier (3rd Circle)
• Players’ Tier (4th Circle)
• Sages’ Tier (5th Circle)
• Masters’ Tier (6th Circle) High Stables
• The Citadel (7th Circle) – no separate stables, use High Stables

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I hope this was helpful to you! Let me know if you have any question or if you know of any more ways to optimize the routes for the quickest time!

Edit: As I refine small pieces (which are basically, “hey why didn’t I think of that before”), I’ll note the changes. Thanks for your suggestions!