The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Patch Notes
Patch 1.6.7
# The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Patch Notes
## What changed
- **Performance across all areas** — fixed multiple issues causing lag spikes, frame rate drops, and long loading times
- **NPC behavior** — resolved crashes, stuck NPCs, disappearing characters, and control deactivation issues
- **Trading and crafting systems** — improved economy balance and NPC work efficiency
- **Expedition content** — fixed story progression blockers and boss rendering issues
## Performance & Optimization
- **Voxel engine** — improved framerate and lag spikes in old or heavily mined-out world areas
- **Item equipping** — eliminated lag spike that occurred when equipping items
- **Firing arrows** — no longer triggers navmesh rebuilds, reducing lag spikes and FPS drops
- **Area loading** — fixed long wait times when joining Dedicated Servers or teleporting to distant locations via mapstone
- **Megabases** — added performance improvements for very large player bases
- **Log spam** — removed data corruption logs that were decreasing performance
- **Placeholder Dwarfs** — fixed bug spawning multiple "citizen Dwarf" NPCs that reduced performance
## Bug Fixes
- **"Buy Durin's Folk" popup** — now appears only a few times instead of every game launch and menu visit
- **Earthquake notifications** — no longer appear after every expedition return
- **Story Expeditions** — fixed multiple scenarios where players could get stuck
- **Vror NPC** — fixed instances where he would not appear in story Expeditions
- **Location name spam** — fixed issue where some clients saw location names repeatedly when entering new areas
- **Final boss fight** — fixed rare control deactivation after knockback in base game boss
- **Expansion
Fixed a bug that was spawning multiples of the placeholder “citizen Dwarf” and reducing performance throughout the game
Improved an issue with the voxel engine that led to low framerate, lag spikes and high loading times for clients joining old or “mined-out” world areas.
Fixed an issue that caused a lag spike when equipping an item
Fixed a bug where loading into a new area could have resulted in very long waiting times. This was most commonly seen when playing on Dedicated Server and teleporting into a distant new location with a mapstone.
Firing arrows no longer triggers the navmesh to rebuild, improving lag spikes and FPS.
Several improvements that should reduce the instances of long loading walls and long loading times
A package of improvements to performance for very large “megabases”
Removed several log spams that could happen due to data corruption or in special cases, which could decrease performance.
Fixed various crashes.
Fixed an issue that was erroneously showing the “Buy Durin’s Folk” message every time the player launched the game or visited the main menu. It should now only appear a few times then never again.
The notification that an Earthquake occurred no longer appears after returning from every expedition.
Fixed several scenarios where players could get stuck in story Expeditions.
Fixed instances where Vror would not appear in story Expeditions.
Fixed an issue where some clients would see the names of all locations repeatedly, when entering a new area.
Trade Order recipes now stay unlocked once discovered
The new tribe of Orc that appears during the expansion will no longer appear during sieges and hordes after the completion of the story. They are still available in the highest difficulty of Expeditions.
Fixed a rare issue where getting knocked back in the base game’s final boss fight would deactivate some controls.
Fixed remaining issues where the Expansion’s boss would appear untextured.
Work to improve several instances where NPCs were getting stuck
Fixed an issue that was limiting what Salvager would collect to an extremely limited set of items. Salvagers should now collect most things on the ground.
Fixed several instances of NPCs disappearing from a delving
Improved cases of enemies being able to walk through walls and closed doors
Fixed several issues that left the Cook and Brewmaster NPCs idle when they should be working
Decreased the amount of materials needed for crafting NPC hats and outfits
Improved the radius that Miners use to find ore
Fixed an issue where NPCs will craft using materials from pallets and other locations they should not have access to
Fixed an issue where Salvagers would duplicate materials they collected
Fixed several scenarios where players would fall through the world after returning from an expedition
Package of tuning updates to the cost and payoff for traders has been delivered, to reduce the overall grind of trade goods and the trading economy
## What changed
- **Duplicate NPC dwarves** — dismissed dwarves no longer spawn duplicates at their original location, fixing performance issues and unusable recruits
- **NPC performance** — removed duplicate citizen dwarves that were causing low framerates across multiple areas
- **Loading transitions** — loading walls between areas no longer persist for extended periods
- **Mapstone fast travel** — fixed occasional long loading times when using mapstonesto teleport
- **Gulrun's appearance (PS5)** — fixed textures not loading properly, which made the beast appear white instead of its intended colors
## Bug Fixes
- **NPC recruitment system** — duplicate dwarves no longer interfere with hiring dismissed NPCs
- **Area transitions** — persistent loading walls removed
- **Fast travel loading** — mapstone teleportation no longer causes extended load screens
- **Boss visual rendering (PS5)** — Gulrun now displays with correct textures and color
## Overall
This patch eliminates duplicate NPC spawning issues, improves overall framerates by removing excess citizen dwarves, speeds up area transitions and fast travel, and fixes Gulrun's texture loading on PS5.
Fixed an issue where duplicate NPC dwarves would appear in their original spawn location in the world after being dismissed from a delving. This would cause several issues including performance problems and unusable NPC recruits
Improved various performance issues that caused framerates to be low in many instances caused by duplicate citizen dwarves
Improved issues that caused loading walls between areas to persist for long periods of time
Fixed an issue where using a mapstone to fast travel would sometimes cause long loading times
Fixed a PS5 issue where Gulrun’s textures wouldn’t properly load, causing the beast to appear white, and devoid of color
# The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Patch Notes
## What changed
- **Dedicated Servers** — launched as a new multiplayer hosting option for player sessions
## Infrastructure
- **Dedicated Server support** — players can now host multiplayer games on dedicated servers instead of peer-to-peer connections only
## Overall
Dedicated servers are now available for multiplayer sessions in The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, improving connection stability and hosting options for co-op play.
‘And now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey. Are you coming?’
World Map is now split into layers
When two areas are connected vertically it is marked with a vertical dotted line
Players can switch between available layers for the current section of the game
On consoles, or when using a controller, there is now a virtual cursor, enabling easier selection of waypoints!
Simplified UX for enabling waypoints to appear in the game world
Four new Beards and one new hair included for everyone in the Dwarf Creator
Dwarves can now sit! Approach any existing player buildable seat and watch how your Dwarf… just… relaxes… and sits… and wait a minute, there is work to be done. Get up get up.. Moria isn’t gonna return itself!
The environment art in two major landmarks have been completely revamped to be more destroyable and better able to be restored.
Dirt piles and other various environmental ornamentation can be destroyed with a pickaxe or cleaned up by building a hearth.
Greater variety among Orcs in terms of appearance.
Poison areas are now more visible and better represent the danger area.
Poison mushrooms can now be easily destroyed - no need to avoid specific areas or have the perfect build space ruined by an unwanted mushroom!
Building Menu re-organized to better reflect play patterns
Dedicated servers have been updated to support the expansion
Fixed a crash when approaching bedrolls while having the “Show Custom Text” setting enabled
Fixed an issue where two story Expedition icons can appear at the Expedition map at the same time
Fixed an issue where in some cases an important story Expedition icon was not appearing on the Expedition map
Fixed an issue where story Expeditions were not generating correctly if two players were interacting with the Expedition map at the same time.
Iolite now drops when mining Star Metal Ore
Fixed a crash that was caused by players building multiple hearths too near one another
Fixed an issue where defeating an enemy with a weapon imbued with Yarog-luthnul rune caused them to incorrectly drop Ironwood
Updated descriptions of several player items that incorrectly stated non-existent gameplay effects. Sorry Blue Mountains Dwarves.
Hearth lighting no longer discolors nearby water
Fixed an issue where the player Dwarf would unnaturally slide when swinging a repair hammer
Fixed an issue where the player Dwarf would be teleported out of bounds when traveling to a map stone in a late game area.
Fixed an issue where the player Dwarf’s hair would clip into the clothing when wearing the DLC Beorn Set
Fixed an issue where players were unable to fast travel to areas discovered by other party members
Fixed an issue where statues would occasionally be built sunk into the ground
Fixed an issue where occasionally a Great Forge would appear active before repairing them
Fixed various typos in item descriptions
Find up to four Survivors of Gimli’s Company, rally them together and build a small company of your own as you face the long dark.
Solve the mystery of the Endless Stairs and unlock Durin’s Tower.
Five new songs were added: some are in the tavern song rotation, and some during story moments.
Dedicated servers have been updated to support the expansion
Open a camp for NPC where potential recruits can apply to join your Company of Moria
Build Delvings to manage where the NPCs live and give them jobs that help you thrive
Build Great Monuments to advance the Company level and unlock more Delvings and upgrade existing Delvings
Open a trading camp and exchange trade goods for unique resources, building recipes, meal recipes and crafting recipes
All new Sandstone and Marble building sets available to unlock via trading.
Build an Expedition Table and go on short expeditions to newly generated areas
Discover new story enemies and how to defeat them.
New cosmetic items rewarded for completing the Expansion story
Cosmetic and Equippable outfits and hats for NPCs and Players
Tinted armor is shown as default color when given to an NPC
Items offered by the traders can remain highlighted, even when they aren’t purchasable
Cooks can travel back and forth between multiple cooking stations when there aren’t any materials available
Reviving a fallen NPC can cause them to display the incorrect status briefly
Certain NPC outfits and hats are not retaining their tints
Using a mapstone to travel to the Dimrill Dale causes stamina to deplete briefly
NPC interact prompts are visible from far distances
Aric’s in-world waypoint can be visible indefinitely
NPCs don’t always face the player when singing
In rare instances, building a hearth doesn’t remove all nearby grass or rocks
Singing while standing on stairs can cause minor animation issues for the Dwarf
In rare instances, the minimap outline may be visible on the loading screen
Durin’s Axe fragment search area Audio and Visual cues are missing in multiplayer
The Wanderer NPC can sometimes be missing from his assigned Delving, but this does not block progression
In rare instances NPCs can appear below the floor or be missing and marked ‘lost’ - in most cases this recovers by withdrawing the NPC from a delving and then reassigning them. It may also be solved by closing and loading the world.
In some cases NPCs will say they are blocked from their destination. It may be necessary to destroy and rebuild items like beds and crafting stations to better enable their routing.