Well met and glad tidings!

As mentioned Friday, we're shifting the news updates to Tuesdays. This week, we have a special announcement! We're releasing additional Vault cards next week, February 26th, to all players for unlocking. This is part of our ongoing second major Vault card release, which expands the number of player cards you may use to build your decks.

As always, these cards are part of our Early Access development and are subject to change once live in play.

Here they are for your perusal and planning for future decks. What cards are you unlocking?



Rarity: Uncommon VP Cost: 750
This second level Spirit card allows a player to simply straight up defeat a non-unique foe. This powerful card is gives Spirit players new options in tough combat situations.




Rarity: Common VP Cost: 375
This Leadership card allows players to gain resources quickly when they have a deck centering around Dúnadan heroes and allies.




Rarity: Uncommon VP Cost: 750
This second level Tactics card grants a new keyword, Ambush. Ambush is a powerful new ability that allows characters to bypass the Counter keyword and take no reciprocal damage from characters with Guard active.



Rarity: Uncommon VP Cost: 750
Lore cards aren't normally where you'll find weapons, but this blade fashioned by the master craftsmen of Rivendell, grants Lore players the power to remove Block from any creature they strike for the remainder of a round. This can be a powerful way to bring down especially tough enemies like Trolls or armored foes.




Rarity: Common VP Cost: 375
This character is a standard Spirit ally with no special powers, but capable of helping either with combat, or willpower as needed and a small level of staying power.



Rarity: Common VP Cost: 375
This stout Dwarf gives new options to Tactics players. This character uses the Counter keyword, which inflicts 1 point of damage on any unit that attacks it in melee. With a 2 attack and 5 health, this character has good staying power, but with a low resource cost, he starts with 2 damage already inflicted upon him. If you want him to last, you'll need to back him up with additional healing.




Rarity: Common VP Cost: 375
This level 2 Lore card grants both the new Ambush and Block upon any character it is attached to, making it invaluable to players who double up on their Lore heroes.




Rarity: Rare VP Cost: 1500
The unique Noldor ally Erestor is a versatile level 2 Leadership ally whose power is to discard a card in order to gain a resource and add 2 to a player's Fate Meter. With 6 health, he has a better than average staying power.




Rarity: Rare VP Cost: 1500
Our Neutral card for this vault release, Enduring Valor is a special attachment that gives the right Hero or Ally the ability to automatically gain the Guard keyword whenever it exhausts. This gives a powerful card the ability to both act and gain Guard in one round- though beware, as this ability makes this card a primary target or foes.




The last Vault cards for this set are level 3 cards that we will make available in the upcoming The Shadow's Fall expansion as this will be the first time players will be able to make a Level 3 deck with 3 heroes from the same card Sphere.

That's it for this week. Feel free to reach out with feedback on these cards here on the Steam community forums or on discord.

May you enjoy only glad tidings until we meet again.

FFI and Asmodee Digital

Well met, gentle folk!

This week we've been continuing work on the game internally. We've been very happy to see the amount of play MP is getting and the discussions both here and on our Discord channel.

Keep the ideas and feedback coming!



Change in weekly update schedule!

We will be changing our weekly updates to Tuesdays rather than Fridays starting next week on February 19th. News and Announcements will be made each week then.



User Experience Enhancement Work Continues

We're all heads down working on user experience enhancements that have been outlined previously and in our Twitch Stream this week, so there's not a lot news this week. We do have a few things we want to give you a sneak peek at, such as upcoming cards that will be available when Sphere Level 3 cards become available with The Shadow's Fall official release. On this note, we're getting close to being able to announce when it will launch. Be sure to stay tuned to find out more about that in the future!



Multi Level Card Sneak Peek!

With multi-level Sphere cards, you are giving up deck diversity in order to double down on a single sphere's capability. That means you lose access to some powers that are part of a Sphere's focus by choosing to reduce the number of Spheres you use. For that reason, as we design multi-level Sphere cards, we operate under a set of rules to compensate for this.

First, if a card grants an effect that is part of a Sphere's focus, it should either be at a lower resource cost or grant a more powerful effect than normal.

Second, a card can grant an effect that is outside of a Sphere's focus when multi-level, but if it does, it should be at a higher resource cost than what would be normal for that Sphere.

With that in mind, here are some Sphere Level 3 cards we wanted to share with you.



Erebor Battlemaster



The Erebor Battlemaster is, potentially, a very powerful card. You may only add him to a deck if you use triple Tactics heroes, and his power is only effective when you have lots of Dwarves on the table—if you do, he can become devastating.



A Light From Within



A Light From Within is another card with a potentially powerful effect. For each Ally, you gain 1 Willpower. You may only use this card if you have 3 Leadership Heroes—but if you do, you will become a Questing machine.



These cards are undergoing internal testing now and are subject to change before release, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek to discuss.

That's it for this week.

Fair winds to you all until next time!

FFI and Asmodee Digital

Well met people of Middle-earth!

We also wish you Earth-bound people a happy new year of the Pig!

With a portion of the dev team off celebrating the Lunar New Year, the rest of the team has been focusing on bug fixes and designing our new Tutorial, UI enhancements and quality of life improvements for rollout in the coming weeks.

Besides all of this behind the scenes development, there's additional news we wanted to share.



Mithril Upgrade Extended!

First, we've decided to extend the Mithril Bundle Upgrade through this weekend!

If you want to buy one of the existing Founder's packages or upgrade your existing Founder's pack to the Mithril Bundle, this weekend is your last chance. to do so and lock in the exclusive Mithril Bundle content.


The Mithril Bundle upgrades your existing Founder's pack to the Mithril level with the following unique Avatars, Player Tag Frames and Card Backs:

Player Avatars


Player Tag Frame


Card Back


In addition, you'll receive all Mithril pack bonuses we've mentioned previously, including alt-art, new exclusive card backs, and the first and second Expansion DLC packs for free!

To upgrade to the Mithril Bundle, visit:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9190/Lord_of_the_Rings_Living_Card_Game_Founders_Bundle/



Core Set Goes Live Next Week



With the extension of the Mithril Bundle upgrade deadline, we've decided to hold off switching to the new Core Set until Monday at 10am Central Time (US).

After this change, the Founder's packs will no longer be available. Instead, we offer you the the Core Set as a single point of entry into Middle-earth in anticipation for leaving Early Access later in 2019. (Don't worry, this has no effect on any existing packs or users- this change only applies to new purchases made after the switchover on Monday.)

The Core Set is priced at $18.99 (prices vary by territory- see your local Steam store for exact pricing).



Multiplayer Scoring Fix

When we released multiplayer, a scoring glitch made its way into the game which caused players to receive different scores when completing the game. A fix was deployed on the server side last weekend to all players and has been live this week. Both players should now receive the same score based on the best possible joint score achieved.

Remember that if you play as a guest on a quest you have not yet unlocked, you receive no score. Be sure to unlock all of your quests to receive a score!



Helpshift
This is a reminder that assistance for game issues is only a click away. We've built a HelpShift button directly into the upper left of the Options menu. Helpshift allows you to contact us directly with bug or issue reports.



If you encounter any issues, you can contact us at any time directly from within the game. If you can't get into the game, you can submit a Helpshift report directly at...

https://asmodee.helpshift.com/a/asmodee-net/

For more information about filing HelpShift requests, as well as how to include your player log, check out:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/509580/discussions/0/1735463620081440495/

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and may your paths be green and golden.

-FFI and Asmodee Digital

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

With this midweek update, we wanted to alert you that Cooperative Multiplayer is now live! Join a friend or invite another player to jump into a cooperative match against the forces of Sauron.



You can connect to other players on your Steam or Asmodee.net Friends list as you quest together.

We hope you enjoy this new mode as we continue to evolve The Lord of the Rings™️: Living Card Game™️.



Core Set Pricing



We also wanted to let you know about our pricing for the upcoming Core Set. We are sunsetting the sale of the Founder's Club packs on February 8th. After that date, we will be offering The Core Set as your point fo entry into Middle-earth as a single premium game release in anticipation for leaving Early Access later in 2019.

The Core Set will be released at $18.99 (prices vary by territory- see your local Steam store for exact pricing).

Note that with the release of this Core Set, the original Shire, Steward of Gondor and Istari Founder’s Packs will no longer be available.

We'll be posting more details on The Core Set release soon, but all existing Founder's Pack owners will already have the Core Set contents plus the exclusives features and rewards associated with each level.



Expansion Pack Pricing



In addition, we wanted to let players know that we have premium DLC expansion packs coming in 2019. Each Expansion Pack will include a brand new Campaign with five harrowing new quests, 4 new heroes and 32 new player cards (2 each of 16 new cards).

Each pack will retail for $9.99 ((prices vary by territory- see your local Steam store for exact pricing).

We'll have more information about the first expansion pack, The Shadow's Fall in an upcoming post.



Encounters and Vault Releases

We will continue to have new free encounters coming down the road. These are unique quests that provide new challenges to your heroes and are accessible to all players who own The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game.

In addition, we will continue to provide new player cards to the Vault for all players to unlock.



For those players who bought the game at the Shire, Steward of Gondor and Istari Pack levels, you still have time to guarantee access to all of the Founder's Pack bonuses.

The Mithril Bundle allows you to upgrade to the Mitrhil level with the following unique Avatars, Player Tag Frames and Card Backs, as seen below:

Player Avatars


Player Tag Frame


Card back


You can upgrade to the Mithril Bundle until February 8th here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9190/Lord_of_the_Rings_Living_Card_Game_Founders_Bundle/

Until next time, may useful winds speed you on!

-FFI and Asmodee Digital

A glorious cooperative day to you all!

For all of those that watched the recent stream on the FFIGames Twitch channel, we're sure you're aware that this week's blog will be focused on none other than coop mode!



We were amazingly pleased with the reception that the new mode had during our Twitch stream. If you've not had a chance to check this out, then we highly recommend that you take a few moments to head on over and see it for yourself. You can do so by clicking the link below:



If you haven't already learned this crucial and wondrous piece of information from watching the stream, then we're happy to inform you that we now have a date for the launch of the cooperative mode in Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game! Without much further ado and cheer in our hearts we are pleased to finally announce that the date cooperative mode will be launching is January 30!



We're ready, are you?

THE DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

In addition to the previously discussed coop mode, we wanted to give you a quick update regarding the game's development road map. We are currently working on multiple improvements that are intended to assist in both accessibility and make the UI more readable.



NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE

One of the main complaints we have been seeing regarding new player experience is the difficulty they are exposed to as soon as they begin playing. We are currently working on improving the opening quests to create a narrative experience that better teaches new players, improving their experience. This will not only teach the game flow and how to play, but it will now also include an introduction to deck building.

Our ultimate goal with this revamped tutorial for Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is to have users fully versed in the game's flow and mechanics before the end of the first campaign. Part of this will also include a small rework to the rewards system, showcasing how the unlocking of valor cards and other content works.

ACCESSIBILITY: BALANCING, UI IMPROVEMENTS AND REWARD SYSTEMS

As well as the new player experience being a core goal for us to improve before the official launch of Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, we are also working on specific improvements towards accessibility to aid both new and veteran players alike.

We will be doing this via three specific routes; Balancing the difficulty curve, reviewing our reward systems and improving the UI.

The first step for this is the most important to us as it is currently something that scares away many new players, the difficulty curve. We will be adjusting the level of difficulty you encounter in the opening missions to ensure a smooth learning curve, rather than a cliff as steep as those of the Misty Mountains. Another system we are exploring to ease the experience of all players is the introduction of a save system during quests, providing players with more opportunities for exploring their play and being able to guarantee shorter sessions if you are unable to commit to longer play.

The second step will be ensuring an improved reward system that provides the appropriate compensation for those willing to explore creative deck building. This will give players more reasons to attempt quests with more inventive and wild deck styles that will challenge even the most veteran of players! We are also investigating the quality of the Valor Points system, card rewards and the overall systems for player progression. We will provide more information on this at a later date.

Lastly, improving the UI. This will involve a variety of changes that we cannot go into too many details on at this time, but our aim is to make the game more approachable and readable by clearly stating what is happening on the board at all times and how it impacts play. Incorporation of your feedback—while very important in all of our changes—is especially vital for us regarding this topic, so be sure to let us know your thoughts on the forums.


As most of you are aware, we have been planning for changes to the economic model of the game. Initiating this was our recent implementation of an upgrade bundle for all current Founder's Pack purchasers that allowed you to upgrade to the Mithril Pack. We wanted to alert you that we are currently finalising the economic model changes and will be deploying the new one-tier payment model to purchase the base game of Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game.

This model will more closely emulate that of the physical version with there only being a single tier which unlocks all base game content. Additional content will of course become available at later dates, both free of charge and via DLC.

If you're wanting to guarantee your access to all of the Founder's Pack bonuses, we highly recommend that you jump on the opportunity to get your Mithril Bundle soon! Some of the cool exclusives you can get are unique avatars and Player Tag Frames and Card Backs, as seen below:

Player Avatars


Player Tag Frames


Card back


You still have time to upgrade to the Mithril Bundle here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9190/Lord_of_the_Rings_Living_Card_Game_Founders_Bundle/



We're looking forward to getting all these changes into your hands and moving ever closer to the elusive goal of full release. In the meantime we hope you enjoy the all new coop mode, and keep your eyes open for more information about the next campaign release; The Shadow's Fall!

-Asmodee Digital and Fantasy Flight Interactive

The Mithril™️ Upgrade Bundle is now available to Founder’s Pack owners for a limited time!

If you bought one of the existing Shire, Steward of Gondor or Istari™️ founder’s packs for The Lord of the Rings™️: Living Card Game™️ and realized you wanted to get all the great exclusive content from the other packs, now is your chance to upgrade.

Until February 8th, 2019, you can take advantage of this great offer to get all of the great Mithril Bundle content. You’ll get all the great content and exclusives from each of the available bundles you haven’t yet purchased at a 10% discount.

You can upgrade here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9190/Lord_of_the_Rings_Living_Card_Game_Founders_Bundle/

Simply select the bundle option and the game will upgrade you to Mithril status granting you the content from the other Founder’s Packs as follows:

Shire Founder's Pack Items:

• 5,000 Bonus Valor Points
  
• Exclusive Shire Player Tag
  
• Exclusive Shire Player Avatar and Frame
  
• Exclusive Shire Card Back
  
• Frodo Avatar Unlocked
  
• A Friend in Need (Uncommon) Card Unlocked

Steward of Gondor Founder's Pack Items:

• 13,000 Bonus Valor Points
  
• Exclusive Steward of Gondor Player Frame and Avatar
  
• Exclusive Steward of Gondor Player Tag
  
• Exclusive Steward of Gondor Card Back
  
• Aragorn Avatar Unlocked
  
• Reinforcements (Uncommon) Card Unlocked
  
• Ghân-buri-Ghân (Rare) Card Unlocked

Istari Founder's Pack Items:

• 27,000 Bonus Valor Points
  
• Exclusive Istari Player Frame
  
• Exclusive Istari Player Avatar
  
• Exclusive Istari Card Back
  
• Gimli and Arwen Avatars Unlocked
  
• Star Brooch (Uncommon) Card Unlocked
  
• Beorn (Rare) Card Unlocked
  
• Tom Bombadil (Legendary) Card Unlocked

This package also includes any rewards that will come to Mithril Bundle owners when The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game goes into full release out of Early Access.

Please note that you’ll need to have purchased at least one Founder’s Pack in order to purchase this upgrade. Your progress or in-game currency will not be reset through this purchase.

In addition to the above content, you’ll also get the exclusive Mithril Bundle items, including:

The Mount Doom Card Back



The One Ring and Agent of Sauron Player Avatars



And the Dark Armor Player Tag Frame



If you’ve been wanting to upgrade your Founder’s Pack, act quickly as this is a limited time offer!

Happy Friday!

The word for this week is: new Heroes!

Okay, yeah, that’s two words. Moving on: in the weekly wrap-up for December 14, we shared two of the new Heroes planned for the next expansion (check it out if you haven’t yet). We were jazzed to show off Fredegar Bolger and Dain Ironfoot, but savvy players know that four Heroes are included with each expansion—so, what about the other two?

Well, wonder no longer! Here’s your sneak peek on the Heroes that’ll round things out. (With the standard caveat, as always, that these cards are subject to change before release.)





Glorfindel is an Elf of great renown, with a card to match. He’s got a respectable 2 Attack and Willpower and solid 9 Health, but check out his ability: Each round, if he takes damage, he boosts the Fate Meter by 1; but if he isn’t damaged, he lowers the Threat Meter by 1. If you’re looking for dynamic ways to manage your Fate and Threat, Glorfindel’s a great option.





Much like Glorfindel himself, the cards in his pack are designed with versatility in mind. Elven Blade offers a nice +1 boost to Attack and Health—and, at just 1 Resource, it’s a great Attachment choice when building an Elf-centric deck.





Idraen is a Tactics Hero, so it’s not surprising that combat is where she really shines. Her 2 Attack is decent to start, made more impressive by her ability to ready up once per round after defeating an Enemy. Equip her with Ranger Spear—or any other handy weapon Attachment—and Idraen becomes truly fearsome on the battlefield. Also, as a Dúnadan, you can combine her with Aragorn for a potent Ranger-focused deck. And one more thing: she’s our second original Hero to join the game!





Dúndedain Trap is designed around a new gameplay mechanic: it returns to your hand after its effect expires. Spending just 1 Resource to lock down a non-unique Enemy for two rounds is pretty useful. Being able to do it more than once with the same card is amazing! The trade-off is that Dúnedain Trap is a Sphere level 3 card. It can only be used in a deck with three Lore Heroes—so get ready to build your Arwin, Faramir, and Fredegar Bolger deck!

We’ve got one more sneak peek before we wrap things up: the Woodman Village Location from the upcoming Shadow’s Fall Campaign. What heartless monsters would set fire to such a peaceful place?





Deck of the Week
User kjeld built a deck that’s all about playing smarter, not harder. It can be dicey in heavy duty combat situations, but with some strategic gameplay, you can usually knock out the Objective and get on your way before Sauron’s minions unleash a serious beating.

Kjeld’s Smart and Secret Deck

Heroes:
• Arwen
• Èowyn
• Tom Took

Ally (15)
• 2x Erebor Record Keeper
• 2x Galadriel's Handmaiden
• 2x Gandalf
• 1x Imladris Caregiver
• 2x Ithilien Lookout
• 2x Rhovanion Outrider
• 2x Tom Bombadil
• 2x Wandering Took

Attachment (5)
• 1x Favor of the Lady
• 2x Forest Snare
• 1x Sting
• 1x Unexpected Courage

Event (10)
• 2x A Watchful Peace
• 1x Beorn’s Hospitality
• 1x Fair and Perilous
• 2x Gilthoniel! A Elbereth!
• 2x Mithrandir’s Advice
• 2x Study the Scrolls

We’ve got some big news planned for next week, so stay tuned. Till then, have a great weekend and watch out for those Hazards!

FFI and Asmodee Digital

Happy Friday and Happy New Year, everyone!

New content is coming with the new Campaign: The Shadow Falls and Valor Vault 2 coming soon. We’ll have an update on that soon, but in the meantime we wanted to give you some sneak peaks at upcoming content, including a look at two Level 3 cards that are only available to fellowships based around a single Sphere of Influence. While you give up diversity of effects with these types of decks, the Level 3 cards give you powerful new options.

New Valor Cards-
When the Valor Vault 2 release comes, you’ll have 3 new cards from each of the individual Spheres, plus a single Neutral Sphere card to choose from (we already released 4 new cards prior to the new year, which rounds out the Valor Vault release). Here’s a sneak peek at four upcoming cards.

Here are the new cards…



Back to the Dark is a powerful new Level 2 Spirit card that allows you to defeat any exhausted non-unique enemy. This gives Spirit decks a little more firepower in combat situations.



Ioreth is a Level 3 Lore ally with a unique healing power for triple Sphere decks. She can heal a full 3 health points from any character when she uses her Power as an action. Additionally, she has just as much Willpower as Willpower as Arwen when you need to resolve an objective or gain Fate Points quickly. However, with just 3 health, you will need to protect her.



The powerful Level 3 card Strength of Arms typifies the nature of the Leadership Sphere. You may ready each of your exhausted characters across the board. Use this card for those times where extra effort might win the day.



The stout Dwarf warrior Veteran of Nanduhirion is a powerful new Tactics ally for your fellowship. He’s a stout warrior who showcases the new Counter keyword, doing one damage to any attacker. His resource cost is only 1, but as a result, he arrives on the battlefield with 2 damage already on his character, so you will need to heal him if you want to make the most of this character.

Finally, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at the upcoming Shadow’s Fall campaign by showing you the Dol Guldur Library location.



Who knows what dark sorceries were imagined by The Necromancer in this strange place filled with terrible knowledge?

Deck of the Week

This week we’re featuring a deck by ransomman in direct response to “We Must Away,” the Fourth Quest in the Shadow’s Reach campaign. Though we are looking at the balance of this level longer term, this deck should help you overcome this challenging quest.

We Must Away
Arwen
Éowyn
Tom Took

Ally (11)

• Erebor Record Keeper x2
  
• Forest Protector x2
  
• Galadriel’s Handmaiden x2
  
• Imladris Caregiver x2
  
• Ithilien Lookout x2
  
• Tom Bombadil x1

Attachment (5)

• Star Brooch x2
  
• Sting x2
  
• Unexpected Courage x1

Event (14)

• A Friend in Need x2
  
• A Watchful Peace x2
  
• Beorn’s Hospitality x2
  
• Lembas x2
  
• Secret Paths x2
  
• Study the Scrolls x2
  
• Well-prepared x2

That’s it for this week, but watch this space for news and updates.

Have a great weekend!

FFI and Asmodee Digital

Happy New Year, The Lord of the Rings fans!

Our staff had a nice break during the holidays, spending time with friends and family, and now we’re all back into the swing of things. There’ve been a few changes that coincided with the holidays, so we have a lot of news to share on our plans for supporting the game both in the near and long term.

There’s lots to cover, so I apologize in advance for the length of this news post.

Social Media Changes
First off, you’ll note that this post is coming from me, your friendly neighborhood studio head, rather than from Luke, our community manager.

We’ve been a bit quiet on this front the past few weeks. Part of that is the holidays, but part of that is the fact that Luke decided to depart FFI and try his hand at doing personal work in social media and writing. We wish him the best and will be watching with interest to see what he does. We’ll always be fans of Luke and he’ll always be welcome here as a friend of the studio and someone who was pivotal in making this game come to life.

We’re working with our partners at Asmodee Digital to get our various channels up and going again soon. Look for more input here and on our other channels directly from the folks at Asmodee Digital, while we at FFI continue to reach out ourselves to toss around ideas, provide feedback and keep you informed.

Twitch Streams
We will continue Twitch streams, but likely at a different pace than previously until we have our long-term plan sorted out. This means no regular Tuesday and Thursday streams for now, but we do want to begin again as soon as possible. We see these streams as an important way to reach out to you, so keep an eye out for when the next one will be.

Content Releases (Important Release News!)

Campaign 2: The Shadow’s Fall



We originally announced here that this would release on January 9th, but we’ve made the call to postpone this release until a later week. As we were completing the content for this new campaign, we needed to upgrade our code base to the latest version of Unity, and this had a bigger impact than we first expected. Combined with the holidays, this means that we need additional time to polish the release before it goes live. No excuses -- if you want to blame someone for this release going late, blame me for making this call. We should have a new release date to announce shortly and we will be giving you a sneak peek at the new campaign soon in our renewed Twitch streams.

Valor Vault 2 Release

We’ve also decided to hold the Valor Vault release until Campaign 2 launches. When Campaign 2 is released, you’ll also get access to the remaining new Valor Vault cards on the same day.

Cooperative Multiplayer Status
We’ve been testing multiplayer quite a bit internally and the final UI tweaks are being put in place. We’ll do some last internal play and stress testing, then release it into the wild. The team and I want to get MP into your hands as soon as we can so we can get your feedback and input changes based upon them. This interactive feedback is the major point of an Early Access game. Your feedback has been invaluable thus far, and we look forward to continuing that back-and-forth with you now with cooperative play.

You’ll see a change soon to the main menu that will look like this:



When Cooperative Multiplayer goes live, you’ll be able to click on the Multiplayer window and start a new game. From there, you can host or join a session, invite friends either from your Steam or Asmodee.net friends list, or just hit the fast play button to jump into a random game.

We’ll save more details on specific elements of functionality and details of how MP works for a later post and upcoming stream.

Short Term Focus
Once Campaign 2 and Cooperative MP are live and in your hands, we’re turning our focus back to the First Time User Experience (FTUE), Player Onboarding and general game balance.

FTUE and Player Onboarding
The First Time User Experience sets your expectations for the entire game. We could be doing better here. We want you to be welcomed into the game, shown the key elements and then be able to dive into adventure. To get there, we’ll be changing the current experience quite a bit for our full release.

The first change is the tutorial. We want initial players to get the basics quickly and then choose either to dive right into play or, if you wish, take the time to learn more of the subtle aspects of our game.

We make no bones about our game having a lot of complex interactions. The LOTR LCG allows you to just throw around your cards, but the game will punish you if you do. To get the most out of gameplay, you to really consider your options with each play you make.

Our data analysis shows that there are predominantly two camps of players: those who love the lore and simply want to experience the narrative, and those who enjoy an intense challenge. We think there’s a better way for us to serve both audiences better; changing how we bring you into the game is just the first step.

While some very vocal players can’t get enough challenge, other players come in and get smacked around pretty hard by our first quest and campaign. Some players are totally up for that, but a large part of the audience just isn’t. For that reason, we’re looking to further refine how the Narrative setting works within the game so that we can better deliver an experience that audience is looking for.

However, this doesn’t mean we won’t come up with more challenges for the other camp of players. We’ll continue to create more devious ways to challenge our toughest players, which you’ll always be able to find in the Challenge setting.

Balance and Scoring
As part of this effort, we’ll also change how scoring works. Coming up with a single score system that promotes all types of play is a real challenge. We’ve got with some ideas that we will unveil as part of our FTUE relaunch. Our plans are to make scoring more transparent, better promote replay ability and grant rewards quickly.

Deckbuilding and Card Earning
The Valor Vault will change somewhat, too, mostly in how you earn cards. Much more on that in the coming weeks, but in general we plan to cast off some vestiges of the old economic model.

Quality of Life and Other Changes
We’re always looking at improving the UI experience and what we call “quality of life” issues in the game. This means adding subtle changes and new simple additions or consolidations to make the game flow faster and make the game feel snappier, the UI more logical and generally just “feel right.”

Artificial Intelligence
We’re also always tweaking AI. As a game that focuses mostly single and cooperative play (PvE), AI is an ongoing challenge. We continue to make changes so that Sauron avoids dumb plays and give him better tools to play the game and make him feel more like an opponent than a scripted enemy. Some of these changes are coming in the new content releases, and others will come with the new Cooperative Multiplayer mode.

Core Set
Soon new users to the game will have only the Core Set as a purchase option in the store. We'll be retiring the Founder's Packs at that time. This won't change your current purchase status or reward plan, but it will make the purchase options for the game less confusing to newcomers.

This update is already getting long, so we’ll just end it here for now. Look to the Steam discussion pages as well as our other channels for news, throw us suggestions, or simply talk about the game.

As always, we appreciate you playing The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game and being a part of our community. We have a fantastic base of fans and we’re striving hard to keep new content coming and grow our audience.

We have a lot to show you in 2019 and we can't wait to do so.

Until next time!

FFI_Tim
Fantasy Flight Interactive Studio Head

Happy Friday, everyone!

A little end-of-the-year gift is coming to the Valor Vault next week. Four new cards will be added as a thank-you to players for joining us in our first year.

Additionally, we have news regarding co-op and more—let’s get to it!

Four bonus cards are coming to the Valor Vault as a special year end thank-you:



Guardian of Arnor shows off the upcoming Counter keyword, which deals 1 damage to an Attacker when attacked. Note that this stacks on top of reciprocal damage from Guard, so the Guardian will deal a total of 3 damage to Attackers when Defending!



With Ride to Ruin, a Rohan Ally can make a noble sacrifice, adding progress to an Objective at the cost of the ultimate price.



Fornost Bowman is a powerful Tactics Ally who gets stronger as he defeats foes.



And finally, The Road Goes Ever On is the first card to reference Fate in its text. We can’t wait to see what decks you build with it!


As always, you’ll be able to spend the Valor Points you’ve earned by playing the game on these new Valor Cards. They will be available on Thursday, December 27, so make sure to check them out in the Valor Vault at that time!

These cards are a preview of the next Valor Vault release, coming to The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game soon. How soon, you ask?

In just a few short weeks, the next round of Valor Cards will be added to the Valor Vault. You’ll be able to unlock these new cards using Valor Points. 13 cards will join the cards released on Thursday, totaling the number of Valor cards in this wave at 17 (4 cards from each sphere, plus 1 Neutral.)

But that’s not the only thing coming to the game on January 9.

That’s right: We’re hitting the ground running in January, and the Expansion The Shadow’s Fall will be released along with the new Valor Vault cards.

This isn’t typically how we’ll release content—usually, Valor Vault releases will come separate from new Expansions. However, we wanted to start 2019 with a big content drop, including a new Campaign, 4 new Hero Packs, new Valor cards, new mechanics, and more. The Shadow’s Fall expands on existing mechanics and keywords and brings with it the Counter and Ambush keywords.

Finally, the Shadow’s Fall brings a third Hero from each Sphere to The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, and as a result, we’re introducing one of the most anticipated card types to the game: Level 3 Cards!

We previewed some of these cards on Thursday’s stream. You can get a first look at twitch.tv/ffigames.



Check back the week of January 9 for a closer look at the incoming mechanics and cards!


On Tuesday’s stream, we went over some of the changes we’re making to cooperative play, based on initial player feedback and internal testing.

First off, co-op will now have a Shared Fate Meter. The Cost of Fate Events will increase to compensate for this, and Fate Events will only be able to be used once.

Secondly, players will be able to play Attachments on other players’ Characters. You’ll be able to grant a blade to your partner’s Heroes, and we hope this will encourage more cooperation!

Finally, we’re working on balance to make sure the gameplay in co-op feels challenging and consistent. We’ll be adjusting things like Sauron’s Resources, Enemy stats, and more in order to achieve the right balance.

All that being said: We’ve decided that co-op, while stable, just isn’t quite ready for its Early Access debut this month. We’re pushing co-op to January, though we don’t have a firm date. It will come later that month, after the release of The Shadow’s Fall and the new Valor Vault cards. We hope that having more cards in the pool at co-op’s release will lead to greater deck diversity among players!

There will not be any streams or Weekly-Wrap Ups for the next two weeks as we prepare for the New Year. We’ll see you on January 11 with the next Wrap-Up, though we’ll have more news to share on the 9th for the release of Expansion 2, The Shadow’s Fall!


The Angry Elf by Iluvatar 79
How much damage can a Character deal in a single attack? That’s the question Iluvatar 79 asked with this Double Spirit deck. The answer is apparently 51! This is a combo deck in every sense of the word, built to stretch the limits of the game for fun—and profit. Check it out below, and click on this link for a full description from the deckbuilder: https://digital.ringsdb.com/decklist/view/52/the-angry-elf-1.0

The Angry Elf
Arwen, Èowyn, Tom Took

Ally (6)
2x Forest Protector
2x Ithilien Lookout
2x Longbeard Mapmaker

Attachment (8)
2x Favor of the Lady
2x Forest Snare
2x Star Brooch
2x Sting

Event (16)
2x A Friend in Need
2x Advance Warning
2x Borne Aloft
2x Fair and Perilous
2x Mithrandir's Advice
2x Sterner than Steel
2x Study the Scrolls
2x Well-prepared


See you in the new year, all!

FFI