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A big part ofThe Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moriais mining and digging through the earth, as many of the old pathways have been blocked off or cursed by the Shadow. You’ll come across enemies, abandoned resources, ores, and even precious gems, all of which are useful to a stranded Dwarf.
One of these gems is the Black Diamond, and they’re an important mid-game material that you’ll need plenty of for tool upgrades and to progress in the campaign. They don’t drop from any ore nodes like other gems, and they aren’t in any Dwarven chests – you’ll have to fight for them.
How To Find Black Diamonds
There aretwo waysto get Black Diamonds:finding them inOrcish Cheststhroughout Khazad-dûm orkilling Orcseither found lurking in the mines or those inhordes occurring in theMines of Moria or deeper.
Getting Black Diamonds From Horde Attacks
The earliest way to get them is byreaching the Mines Of Moriaafter getting through the Elven Quarter, andintentionally triggering a horde’s arrivalby making noisethrough mining.
You can tell if you’re about to be attacked by a horde bylooking at the noise meter at the bottom right of your screen– the more vibrations surrounding the circle, the sooner you’ll trigger a horde’s arrival.
WhileOrcs don’t spawn in every horde, there’s ahigh chance they willand each onehas achance of dropping a Black Diamondupon their death.
You canfind a pocket of ore, set up a small fortified area, thenmine until you trigger a hordeanddefeat as many enemies as possiblebefore they retreat, thencontinuously repeat the processuntil you get enough of them.
Orcs also have achance to drop other useful gemslike Sapphire, Topaz, and Jade, which can be used to inscribe Runes on your weapons for bonus effects.
Killing Orcs For Black Diamonds
Besides hordes,any random orcsencountered in camps throughout the Mines of Moriacan drop Black Diamonds, but this isn’t efficient for farming.
The earliest location withmore consistent Orc spawns is in Orc Town, a zonelocated near the entrance to Crystal Descentonce you progress further and isreachable via the staircase leading up and awayfrom it.
Two Orcs are stillguaranteed to spawn in the hallway near the entrance to the Crystal Descent, and they can easily be farmed by sleeping, going to kill them, sleeping again, and repeating this process.
There are generally aroundfour to five chests in scattered campsin the area, each of which has thesame chance to drop Black Diamonds, and there can be anywhere fromeight to 15 Orcs guarding them or wanderingthe area for you to kill as well.
Theboss of the area,Bolgakh, is alsoguaranteed to drop eight Black Diamondsonce you defeat him, and he alsospawns plenty of Orc minions during the fightthat you can kill for an additional chance at getting them.
Looting Black Diamonds From Chests
Another, sooner way to start getting them isopening Orkish Chests, which you’llstart finding in the Elven Quarter, theMines of Moriain enemy camps, andOrc Townfurther beyond that.
Each one of these chests has ahigh chanceof havingbetweenone and three Black Diamonds, and while thechests don’t respawn, you stillfind quite a few of them, especially in Orc Town.
Thisapplies to both the Campaign and the Sandboxworlds, though the exact locations of these biomes may differ depending on which type of world you’re playing on.
What To Use Black Diamonds For
Black Diamonds areused in a few important crafting recipes, most notably inrepairing the Mine Hoistthat will take you down tothe Crystal Depths. To repair it, you’ll needquite a few ingredients:
Kill orcs or unlock Orkish Chests.
Cut down trees in the Elvish Quarter.
Natural Fiber x30
Kill Cave Spiders or destroy Spider Nests in the Mines of Moria.
You’ll also need Black Diamonds tocraft additionalMap Stones, and theFirst Age Pickaxe, alongsideseveral late-game weapons and tools, such as the Ironwood Pickaxe and Shanôr Hammer.
Map Stones become available in the Mines of Moria, andonce crafted or repaired, they allow you tofast-travel between other Map Stones, and each one you craft requiresthree Black Diamondsand20 Stone.
The First Age Pickaxe is thenext major upgrade after the Steel Pickaxe, and it allows you to not onlymine through tougher sediment, but also mine thenext tier of ores, such asSilver.
You’ll need to haveunlocked and placed a Gem Cutter near your Forgebefore you’re able to craft the First Age Pickaxe, even if you’ve unlocked the recipe for it.
How To Obtain
Steel Ingot x2
Crafted at a Furnace fromIron Ore and Coalafterunlocking the Great Forge.
Crafted at a Furnace fromCopper Ore and Tin Ore.
