Challenges
All familiar with MSF or SWGoH knows what Challenges are and recognize their importance for the farming routine. It is the same in Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth. For those who don’t know, the explanation is simple – you have certain enemies to beat by being limited to using characters with specific traits or roles from your roster.
By achieving victory without losses you can auto-farm those Challenges on certain days in the week to get the most essential resources needed for improving characters in the roster. Every Sunday on reset all Challenges are available, while doing other days you can have only 2 Challenges.
It is important to say that each Challenge has 6 Tiers (at the moment – new Challenges and Tiers will be added in the future definitely)with gradually increased difficulty of enemies for better rewards.
This is the list of Challenges, their Requirements, awards, and days when they are available:
- Dark Relics (Orcs, Elves) – rewards Shadow Crystals; opens on Mon, Thu, Sun
- Wonderous Abilities (Attacker, Support) – rewards Ability Materials; opens on Mon, Thu, Sun
- Forged in The Deep (Human, Goblin) – rewards Light Crystals; opens on Tue, Fri, Sun
- Treasure Trove (Light) – rewards Gold; opens on Tue, Fri, Sun
- Lost Artifacts (Tank, Healer) – rewards Challenge Coins; opens on Wed, Sat, Sun
- Treasure Trove (Shadow) – rewards Character Experience; opens on Wed, Sat, Sun
Dark Relics
Dark Relics Challenge rewards Shadow Crystals. In the first few days, new players are not aware of the importance of those Crystals (both Shadow and Light), therefore they are not aware of the importance of the Challenge itself.
While everyone has at least 3 Orcs immediately on start, Elves were not either available or popular upon game release. That is the reason why this Challenge caused problems for many, even though the challenge itself is not particularly hard as some other Challenges. With the early availability of Elrohir, things become even easier.
So the best course of action is to rely on 3 early Isengard (Ugluk, Mauhur, and Dunhar) and to add Elrohir and Rokma. That is the fastest and most efficient way of successful progression through Dark Relics – the first few Tiers you can clear just using 3 Isengard members and Elrohir while waiting for Rokma. Upon adding Rokma everything rest is easy.
Dark Relics is not really hard, so you can clear it with some other setups as well. Our suggestion is made to help you preserve most resources while using characters you need to improve on the start anyway.
The challenge contains 3 phases:
- Phase 1 – Blind Orc Engineer and eliminate Taskmaster fast
- Phase 2 – Prevent Ironhide from using his AOE special (same as in Arena) and focus on Taskmaster (Shagrath alter)
- Phase 3 – Kill Nazguls in this order – The Blade of the East->The Witch King->The Black Beast->The Souther Shadow
Wonderous Abilities
Wonderous Abilities is the hardest Challenge by far. For this Challenge, you will be limited only to Supporters and Attackers. The problem here is the last phase where you will learn that Elves are not “bad”, on the contrary.
It is impossible to assemble the perfect team at the start so you will have to adapt as you progress.
If we talk about usable Supporters you will have only 2 sure options at the start – Eowyn and Pippin. If you follow our counsel you will have Rokma pretty fast as well, but for Arwen, I am not sure, especially if you didn’t unlock her through her Adventure. If you did, the course of action is easy because it is only logical to have her improved due to Elrond’s unlocking requirements.
Attackers is a different story and there are a lot of viable options to help you succeed. You already know that Eomer is the best damage dealer at the moment (due to his assist mechanics), so considering everything he should have a certain spot.
Elrohir is also a great damage dealer but in this Challenge he will not have allies with Taunt to exploit his passive (unless you have read my Best Arena Defensive teams and decided to make a risk and go after Abel from the start – then you will have “Provoke” to be exploited and you will make this Challenge a lot easier)
If you choose to invest in Mordor early I must say that Grimlurz-Shagrath synergy will not help you much here because you want everyone alive when the battle is over which will be almost impossible for Grimlurz.
As I said there are a lot of options that can be helpful and can be used (as you can see in the Videos – Strider, Mauhur, Frodo) but 2 options exceed all others. First is Herendil – it is unlikely that he will be your first option for the Light team because he cannot be synergized with others in the arena.
However, Herendil is the only character in the current roster (aside from Rangers and Eagle Eye -but you cannot use them here, except for Mirie but she is almost useless without Halbard) that can hit targets with Nimble and actually punish them because they have it.
The second really good option is Lomion but only if Elrohir and Arwen are also there – he has insane damage and his special will remove all Elrond’s Unbreakable in just one attack (his special causes 5 separate attacks and each of them will remove 1 Unbreakable or 1 Numble).
Like all Challenges, Vonderous Abilities has 3 phases:
- Phase 1 – Depending on your turn rotation focus fully either on the healer Goblin or on Archer Goblin. When the Troll handler is there, kill him first because if you don’t do that after each kill while he is alive he will heal the remaining enemies.
- Phase 2 – In Phase 2 your 2 main tasks are to prevent Wubete and Abel to use their AOE attacks. There are several ways to kill both before they can play, but whatever you do be sure to have Disable at the start of phase 3. You can even let them Slow you so you can build your CDs for the last phase by placing Weaken Banes on them (Rokmo Basic for example)
- Phase 3 – You have only 1 Goal – to kill the main damage Dealer in the first turn while preventing Elrond to Revive him in the second. That is why it is important having Disable ready for this phase.
It is important to say that your first goal should be getting 3 stars in Wondeorus Abilities T4. That Tier should be easily done once you can start it and it will be enough for a steady income of Yellow ABility Materials that is needed to make all characters you will use effective immediately.
Tier 5 and later Tier 6 are a lot more difficult and by the time you are ready to unlock them, you will have just enough Purple Ability Materials so you not feel that your progression is stalled since you can’t clear those tiers with 3.*
Forged in the Deep
Forged in the Deep grants Light Crystal fragments and you are limited to using only Humans or Goblins – that means only Humans in my case.
Assembling a team is really straightforward considering your early options. Some of the Rangers, Rohirms, and Gondor are Humans for the light side, while Haradrim and Dunland are for the Shadow side. So, you will rely on Rohan, Strider, and the fifth member of your choosing, So you have several viable options but in my opinion, Wubete is the only one who can fit in any setup for different purposes.
Aside from Wubete, you can use Herendil, Yeftu, Eddric, Mirie…
You have 3 phases:
- Phase 1 – You will face Dwarfs. Until T5 you will not have named characters against yourself and preventing Dwarf Solder from harming. On T5 when Fili and Killy spawn – Killy should be your first priority
- Phase 2 – Here you will face Orcs – Isengard + Tordok. Whatever you do make sure that Dunhar is to first to die and try prolonging the battle long enough so you have Disable ready (Eowyn) and Mass Slow (Wubete if you have her) for Phase 3
- Phase 3 – Here you will face Gimly and Trolls. If you have Mass Slow ready, there will not be any problems. Trolls are so slow that you just need to Disrupt one and focus on another and you will have enough time to kill them both before Gimly Taunts.
Keep in mind though that Troll Handlers passively heal the rest of their team when you kill someone, so make sure to kill them first before killing the first troll – it shouldn’t be hard as you can see on Videos.
Treasure Trove
As you all know the main complaint about HoME is the “Gold bottleneck”. Having that in mind Treasure Trove Challenge is essential for having the edge over others especially if you are f2p.
For this challenge, you will have only Light characters at your disposal which makes it easily doable considering that most players will have initial Rohan and Strider at full maximum as they progress through Challenge Tiers.
If you started later and focused on Elves initially your task will be only easier. The last Tier V of the Challenge is unlocked at level 50, so your goal should be to progress there as soon as possible.
There are 3 Phases:
- Phase 1 – you will be against Dwarfs again. Knowing which Dwarfs cause the greatest damage (Dwarf Soldier)should set up the killing order. In Tier 5 you will encounter Troll as well but that will not be an issue for the Rohan’s synergy.
- Phase 2 – It is time to face Goblins. Focusing on the Great Goblin from the start is a mistake in my opinion. Greta Goblin is slow but he can be dangerous. Eliminating archer Goblins and then Healer while controlling Great Goblin is the sure path to success.
- Phase 3 – In the last phase you will be against Mordor forces. Fortunately, they lack Rokma (goblin engineer) so yous should not have problems with Shagrat’s Leadership ability – control Ironhide and eliminate Tassmaster and then Shagrath. Everything rest is easy.
Lost Artifacts
Lost Artifacts Challenge will decide the speed of unlocking Halbarad or Bolg for f2p. Challenge Coins can grant you some gear pieces as well but those 2 Stier characters are the main prize. Upon starting the game you will be awarded 10k Challenge Coins which may misguide you that you will not have problems farming 1 of those characters on a daily basis. Soon you will realize that you are wrong.
For this Challenge, you will have only Tanks and Healers at your disposal. As for Healers, only Dunhar will be ready at the start. Fortunately, some of the most used characters are considered Tanks. Ugluk Eothain and Ironhide – all tanks. If you guess that my 5th is Wubete you are right.
However, you have a wider set of options that will grant you success. Knowing that you need to farm Elves, Naremiri, and Leliel will be a strong option. Also since you will need Aeldred for Light Quest you can use him as well. In the end, Nurraz has a natural synergy with Ironhide.
All in all, you have plenty of options and this Challenge should never make you problems.
There are 3 Phases:
- Phase 1 – You will be against Elves. Ironhide is extremely effective against them. As long as Naremiri is about to die first you will not have any problems.
- Phase 2 – Second Phase will be tricky since you will be against rangers. They are sturdy heavy hitting and have Halbarad and Elladan to protect them. At this moment the fact you have 3+ tanks in your team will help you.
Try dividing enemy damage between your tanks while focusing on Elrohir and Faramir (later Tiers). If you saved Ironhide’s special from Phase 1you will not have problems with their Boons and Stealth. Keep in mind though, that there is Phase 3 as well so try preserving at least one IH’s AOE and Wubette’s Mass Slow
- Phase 3 – In this Challenge the last Phase is not as hard as others – mainly because AI just cannot control Hobbits as they should be used. You will be against 3 Hobbits (without Marry) Strider and Halbarad.
My suggestion is to focus on Halbarad right from the start – Road to Rivendell members will be under 50% HP by the time you kill Halbarad because of your available AOEs. When that happens focus on killing Pippin first, then Frodo and Sam in the end. Never had any problems with this Phase on any of the Challenge Tiers!
Battle Experience
The amount of available Character Experience causes problems for players, but not as same as gold. Nonetheless, earning 3* on Tier VI (Level 50) as soon as possible will crucially affect the speed of improving your roster.
Obviously, if you are building just one team (as some people suggest) you will not have problems with character Experience, so you shouldn’t be really bothered with this in case you have problems putting certain Battle Experience Tiers on farming status.
For this Challenge, you will need Shadow characters. Depending on your progressing strategy you will have only one option or several of them – either to fully rely on Isengard and the first 5 Shadows you built (3 Isengard+Ironhide+1) or to try and build some other characters such as Rokma, Shagrath, Golburz, Wexe…
The Challenge itself is not easy as some others but it is not hard as Wonderous Abilities. There are 3 phases:
- Phase 1 – Mordor+Rohan. This is an opening of the Challenge where you will control Orc Engineer while slowly eliminating others and waiting for CDs to fill up. Do not use Ironhide’s AOE in this phase!
- Phase 2 – Mordor and Rohan again unless you will encounter named mobs here. Eomer+Aeldred+Eothain and Shagrat+Ironhide (it will be easier on lower Tirs but this is the final setup).
You will have to notice which of those enemies has a passive buff for additionally increased damage on every next turn. Whoever that is, you want him dead first while forcing Irnihde to waste his AOE (similar to Arena). Eomer and Shagrat are both primary targets so they need to be eliminated as soon as possible.
Eomer is more dangerous definitely but in his second turn if unopposed, Shagrat will buff all remaining with Allies with Might, which can lead to the death of some of your team members. When you kill those 2 you should slowly build your CDs(cooldowns) and prolong the battle as much as possible so you can be fully prepared for what comes next.
- Phase 3 – You will face Boromir, Faramir, Denethor, Gondor Archer (Herendil), and Orc Engineer+1. This last phase is really hard and depends on a lot of things. You have 3 AOE enemies against you + Boromor who also has an AOE ability when combined with Faramir.
You will have only 1 controlling ability (if you invested in Bolg you will have 2) and there is no way to avoid casualties unless being fully overpowered in terms of Levels and Gears. Do not put Blind on Faramir – it is useless.
Always have Dunhar’s healing ready, because it can place Weakne buff on enemies that will be crucial for your survival. If you have Ironhide’s special ready at the start of Phase 3 do not use it immediately – use it in the second turn when enemies have stealth and several Boons on themselves. As you can see in the video, having Rokma and mass low from Wubette really helps.
Conclusion
There will be more Challenges in the future. Not soon but you can bet on that. As Level Cap increases so are Challenge Tiers.
Also, at some point, we will get new forms of improving characters and when that happens it will be only logical to release new Challenges as easily made content that affects economic balance in the way Developers want.