Blightfire Moors

All the usual caveats apply: I assume that you read the quest text (ha!), and know how to resize the quest window to see all the stages and details of each stage, and know about replying to text in square brackets, target an NPC and press ‘h’ for hail, etc, etc. The commonest cause of missing quests is not noticing that an NPC has multiple words in brackets that they can respond to. You can assume that most quest rewards are garbage apart from the ones I mention, all of which come from the Hero’s Journey; but please check for yourself!

You have to be in Blightfire Moors to see the details in your Tome of the Hero’s Journey; if you are in a different zone, it will just tell you to go to Blightfire Moors.

Before leaving Crescent Reach, make sure you have the explore task from Regan, and check Smithy Bronson for three quests before you leave Crescent Reach. Check the Moors sign post as you zone in (yes, you have to click on it); collect all the quests it has.

Rats & Snakes

The Moors are divided into several areas that interest us. As you enter, right by the signpost, both north and south, are rats and snakes. Watch out for the named rat and snake, Plaguebringer and Mossback, who are level 25 but drop some valuable items. As well as the skins, you should find a locket dropped from one of the mobs. Kill the rats and bats to complete the first two quests, then head east and collect the quest from Ordunn the Miner. While you are going into the Mines, take the quest from Merchant Makesn, “A Widow’s Last Memory”, which involves killing the mucktail foreman (in the middle mine, in the left hand chamber). From Crescent Reach, follow the road east from the sign post (it splits into three, stay heading due east) and find the caravan outpost, where most of the quest NPCs can be found. Then go to Scout Zerak across the hill to the south, standing guard north of the gnoll mines.

Gnolls

To the south of the outpost and the rats and snakes are the gnolls, and Scout Zerak can be found on the grass north of the mines and gnoll camps. Along the road to the north you will have passed the druid ring, with one more quest NPC, Roanoak. You can ignore further east for the moment. Collect quests from everyone, and make sure you have all the explore quests and gnoll quests; these were given in Crescent Reach by Smithy Bronson, and at the outpost by Ordunn the Miner; then head to Scout Zerak for his quests. Rockbreakers are 19-21, and miners 21-23.

Kill gnolls and periodically return to the NPCs for hand ins; make sure that you collect 8 in total rock breaker hammers, as both Scout Zerak and Smithy Bronson want four of them. Note that miners are rare outside of the caves, but plentiful inside. Once you have completed Ordunn’s quest, return to him before heading back to Crescent Reach. Anarynn, who is missing a locket, can be found in the inn (bottom floor, third door on the left). At this point you will have received a cloak, a very nice 75% weight reducing backpack, and, once you have completed the Mucktail Mines by killing Pit Boss Scar (level 25), a weapon. Pit Boss Scar in in the middle mine; and Ambassador Orren is in the easternmost one. Scar has two guard dogs that will probably aggro with him, and drops three parts of his shield, so this is good for three characters at once; he also takes several hours to respawn after he is killed (or he did, before the Hero’s Journey). This should complete “Two Gnolls With One Stone”, rewarding you with a neck item. The hammer (1HB) reward for the Mucktail Mines is very nice, but is for melees and hybrids, excluding knights, only. At this point I had hit 27, but again, Blightfire was a hot zone and this was in a bonus experience period (+30%).

Mostly Walking Plants

At around the same level you should first kill saplings and treants (level 20-25) around the druid rings, then the sporali farmers (20-25) further north. You can’t use ‘/open’ on the Rotwood Spores; you have to hit them to collect the spore. Then you can kill turtles and lockjaws (19-25); the ticking crocodile is spawned in the pool south of the outpost by killing lockjaws, but the skins only drop from the northern pools, with the turtles. Quest givers for these are Ozzana the Trapper and Hammerstock. Back to Crescent Reach and Smithy Bronson for the Golden Pick hand in. Make sure you have the next Akins quest, “Dead Wood, The Shambling Mounds” while you are in Crescent Reach. You should finish the Rotwood series from Roanoak around this time; the last quest is to kill Molderahn (level 25-28).

I would then kill witchlamps (level 25-27) west and south west of the outpost. Next stage is to finish the Golden Pick in the mines. While at the crossroads, pick up the quest from Gorath to kill Sporali Decomposers (levels 25-27), and use that to collect the Charm of Lore item from behind the dragon skeleton. There’s a strong chance you may chain spawn Dragoneater, who drops 50pp items every time.

Then finally work your way anti-clockwise around the crater working on the explore quests to reach the slashclaws (in the cliffs east of the gnolls), then north to the shrubs, to the camp with Cook Idriak for the Supply Runner, then the ghostpack, and finally to Selay, in the NE corner. Slashclaws are 25-28, and the named, Cliffstalker, is 30.

For the hedge devils, you need the shrubbery on the south wall, not the ones at the entry to the crater; these are 25-30. Wolves are also 25-30. The Denlord is level 30, drops three teeth every time, and is easiest reached from the north, and all the ghostpack wolves see through invis and become immune to magic in cycles. This makes them tricky for casters, although melee might not notice. Another charm of Lore item is just north of the Ogre Stomp, which is where Gubjak the Lost is, and is north of the ghostpack area. If you are up to level, you should do Gubjak’s quests now; gnarl thorns (28-30) can be found at the north entrance to the crater, past the briar thorns. Shades of Nokk are 33-37, and the ancestral guardians for the second quest are around level 36; you can come back for this, after the first set of shades have despawned, which takes roughly an hour. The checkin point for the Intrepid Explorer task is hard to find: it is roughly SE of the Denlord, and almost south of Selay, slightly to the west of that line.

NPCs for these quests are Alchemist Ella, Roanoak, Farmer D’Resh (in the inn in Crescent Reach, near the other two farmers), and Ozanna the Trapper. Return to Crescent Reach for multiple hand ins, and collect more from Akins and from Regan, who will have given you the Loadstone. This complete the “Job Offers” achievement, which rewards you with a mask; and also “Welcome to the Moors”, rewarding a helm. At this point I was 34, with just under 18 hours played.

Inside the crater are green ooze buds, see Fletcher Orshawn (at the crossroads camp) for the quest (and pick up all his others, if you can; these belong to the Bixe series, so could be saved for later). You can do these at the same time as the later Akins quests inside the crater, and possibly with the second Gubjak quest, as levels are similar.

It’s easy to aggro several green ooze (level 33-35) at once, so pull them back and snare them, if you can; some of them may be healers, or can possibly be healed by the briars. The treants are higher level (35-40), but much easier kills. Handing in the green ooze buds completes “Stemming the Threat”, and will upgrade your cloak. Connect with Gimlek and Shaytherrin at the crossroads for their quests; you can handle the mapping task by minor diversions while on the way to other places, including back to Crescent Reach; the mines stage can be triggered outside the middle mine.

More Undead

You may as well finish the Gubjak quest after the treants, and before the Dark Tower or finishing the crater quests. There should have been enough time for his original Nokk shades to have despawned. The ancestral guardians are 33-37, and have reasonably low hit points.

Go on to the crater, not forgetting the charm of lore item between the central hole and the lake in the SE. This series is annoying, because of all the forced returns to Crescent Reach to hand in to Akins. The undead here are 35-40. Time to get the next Wanderlust quest from Regan in Crescent Reach; his next quest takes us to the SE of Blightfire, which we can save for later. This should finish the Battling Blightfire achievement - reward is a choice of bow or weapon/shield combinations.

The Dark Tower

At this point I was level 39, 25 hours played, one death (at the Dark Tower, thanks to summoning witches).

Make sure you take the relics quest (Pieces of the Past) from Historian Pewdri when you return to Crescent Reach, before starting the Shaytherrin quests, as they all take you to the Dark Tower. Lookouts and guardians are 35-40.

Note that Pewdri’s Task has a time limit to complete (8 hours); the remains he wants are upstairs inside the tower, and this is best done when you are collecting the crests for Shaytherrin’s second quest - so save collecting this quest for later, when you return to hand in the first quest. In the mean time, both of the first quests in the two series require drops that can be gathered from the lookouts outside the tower. Once you have completed the first quest for both Pewdri and Shaytherrin, make sure you save all the flickering torches, as they will be needed for the last Shaytherrin quest. You can do the second quest in both series at the same time.

It is easiest to kill the outside lookouts at the back of the tower, as you won’t get adds from the witch.

Make sure you get the quest from Tailor Ulen while you are in Crescent Reach; griffons are mid 30s.

Bixies

You only need do this if you either want to complete the Hero’s Journey, either for the sense of achievement or for the rewards, or are getting bored in the earlier areas, as you may be of sufficient level to move on to Stone Hive or Goru’kar Mesa. These are rated as 25-30 quests, and I was 40 by now. If so, pick up the quests from Merchant Makesn and Fletcher Orshawn at the crossroad, and Scout Bowen and Scout Ethaniel in the swamp camp, and take the next Regan quest to Pilgrim Fiskar. Bixes in the SE of Blightfire are level 30 - 35. Makesn’s later quest will send you to the southern lake inside the crater. If you wait until you have almost finished the Scout Bowen series, he will send you to kill a green ooze, also inside the crater, and you can do both at the same time. That completes “Makesn’s Plight”; the reward is a range item.

At some point you will loot a Honey-Covered Journal from a bixie gardener, and pages of “Bixie Evolution”. The journal is a container, and when opened with give you a quest. This is required for one of the Stone Hive achievements, and uses page drops from Blightfire and Stone Hive.

Buzzazzar isn’t too hard (level 35), and drops three of his handin items. Scout Verrin is in the middle of the planted field, lying down; nothing will attack him on the walk back. The jumjum reserves are in the first building you come to (to hand the green ooze bud). Once you have killed the Farm Alchemist, you will need to return to Crescent Reach.

The reward for the Ethaniel series is a decent weapon. Level 42, 26 hours played.

You can also collect the Charm of Lore item from the plant in the bixie farm, and you might also consider going into the garden in Stone Hive for the next Charm of Lore item.

The Hard(er) Part

Zan the Witchhunter is a basilisk in the trench that runs through the ghostpack; Arch Druid Springthorn is flat on the ground, just south of the griffon camp in the centre north of the zone. Their quests are relatively tough ones that you might return to later - you will need to kill all four witches and the four moorswalkers; these all summon. For the moorswalkers, you only need to take them down to under 50%, then click the staff you were given by Zan. These should all be pretty easy post 40 with a merc. Each of the witches drop three of their hand-in items.

Now is also the time to finish the Dark Tower series; the last quest involves Defan the Watch Captain, who has various raid style mechanics to his fight, so be careful. The three named for the penultimate quest drop three of their hand-in items.

All bar the final Dark Tower quest done: level 43, 27 hours.

Rewards

All of the Hero’s Journey rewards are useful, and you will be given a full suit over time. Most of the normal quest rewards aren’t. There’s at least one augment reward which has +mana regen (Treat Frost, from Akins), and a couple with 5 or more AC. The weapons are mostly useful - Scout Zerak has a good 1HB for most melee classes (knights get short changed, as usual); Roanoak offers you a Treantwood Staff from the Molderahn quest (again, melee only bar knights!), and the final Scout Ethaniel reward is a choice of good weapons.

In addition, I ended up with an undead trap item (Mark of Searing Dawn, from Gubjak #2), and a bixie mesmerise item (Pollen Dusted Ring, from Scout Bowen #3).

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