A Quick Guide for Prospectors

Prospecting is needed to provide materials for metalsmiths to make armour, weaponsmiths to make weapons and jewellers to make jewellery.

Here is a quick summary of how much ore will be needed to reach mastery for each tier through smelting.

Notes:

For Craft XP and Crafting columns, the first number indicates for proficiency and the second is for mastery.

In the Locations column, an asterisk indicates abundance or ease of obtaining needed ore (i.e. recommended).

For tiers 7-9, high-grade skarn is a rare find when mining. This can be extracted and turned into bits of pure ore, for 8 XP/Craft. Using this method to supplement normal smelting would reduce the total amount of ore needed to reach mastery.

Tiers 10-13 include the processing methods common in other crafting professions, allowing you to inter-convert between metal shavings and ingots to gain crafting XP. This also reduces the amount of ore needed as it can be recycled. 50% of ingots are lost during processing so if you smelted 360 ore into 180 ingots [earn 6x180 = 1080 Craft XP], recycled it into metal shavings [earn 8x90 = 720 Craft XP] then made ingots out of the shavings [earn 8x90 = 720 Craft XP], you would end up with 90 ingots (maybe a few extra from critical successes) and 2520 Craft XP - enough to reach mastery for Tier 10, 11 or 12. Only 272 ore would be needed to earn 1890 Craft XP for Tier 13 mastery.

The general formula to calculate how many times to use a crafting recipe to complete proficiency or mastery skill levels for a tier is:

Number of crafts = [Craft XP] / [XP/Craft]

Tier	Ore	Locations	Craft XP	XP/Craft	Crafting	Total Ore Needed
1	Copper Ore	Ered Luin, Shire, Bree-land	200/400	8	25/50 Ingots	150 Ore
2	Barrow-iron Ore Silver Ore	Ered Luin, Shire, Bree-land*, Lone-lands, North Downs	280/560	8	35/70 Ingots	210 Ore
3	Rich Iron Ore Gold Ore	Lone-lands, North Downs*, Evendim, Trollshaws	360/720	8	45/90 Ingots	270 Ore
4	Dwarf-iron Ore Platinum Ore	North Downs, Evendim, Trollshaws*, Misty Mountains*, Angmar	440/880	8	55/110 Ingots	330 Ore
5	Ancient Iron Ore Ancient Silver Ore	Misty Mountains*, Angmar, Forochel, Eregion	520/1040	8	65/130 Ingots	390 Ore
6	Khazâd Skarn	Angmar, Eregion, Moria, Lothlórien*, Mirkwood, Enedwaith	600/1200	8	75/150 Ingots	450 Ore
7	Calenard Skarn	Mirkwood, Enedwaith, Dunland*, Great River	680/1360	6	114/226 Low-grade Ingots	680 Ore
8	Riddermark Skarn	East Rohan, Wildermore	760/1520	6	127/253 Low-grade Ingots	760 Ore
9	Eorlingas Skarn	West Rohan, West Gondor, Central Gondor	840/1680	6	140/280 Low-grade Ingots	840 Ore
10	Anórien Skarn	East Gondor*, Old Anórien, Far Anórien, Ithilien*	840/1680	8	105/210 Ingots	630 Ore
11	Doomfold Skarn	Plateau of Gorgoroth, Eryn Lasgalen*	840/1680	6	140/280 Ingots	840 Ore
12	Ironfold Skarn	Iron Hills*, Ered Mithrin, Vales of Anduin	840/1680	6	140/280 Ingots	840 Ore
13	Minas Ithil Skarn Langflood Skarn	Minas Ithil, Langflood	630/1260	6	105/210 Ingots	630 Ore

Reputation Recipes:

These recipes provide a shortcut for crafting high-grade ingots directly from raw ore.

Improved High-grade Calenard Ingot

Requires Westfold Prospector crafting ability

Requires Friend standing with Théodred's Riders (Dunland)

Improved High-grade Riddermark Ingot

Requires Eastemnet Prospector crafting ability

Requires Acquaintance standing with Men of the Sutcrofts (East Rohan)

Improved High-grade Eorlingas Ingot

Requires Westemnet Prospector crafting ability

Requires Ally standing with the Helmingas (West Rohan)