Return to Moria Starter Guide: Survival, Crafting, and the Opening Quest Chain

The dwarves of Khazad-dûm lost their kingdom long before the Fellowship walked its halls. The Balrog is gone now, the Fellowship is gone, and the mines are still a mess of goblins, broken statues, and forgotten halls waiting for someone with a pickaxe to fix them. That someone is you. This guide covers the systems, the loop, and the early tutorial quests so your first hours in Moria do not end in a Despair-induced death.

Welcome Back to Khazad-dûm

Boot the game up and the voice cutting through the dark belongs to John Rhys-Davies, the same Gimli you remember from the films. After designing your dwarf and rolling a world seed, the actual survival crafting begins. Everything below covers the mechanics you will lean on and the first quest chain that teaches them.

The Game at a Glance

Campaign vs Sandbox

Return to Moria is a survival crafting game played inside procedurally generated cells of the old dwarven kingdom. Two modes share the same toolkit but differ in pacing.

Campaign Mode follows the scripted story arc starting at the Doors of Durin. Biomes appear in a set order, so the narrative beats land at predictable moments even though the layouts themselves stay random.

Sandbox Mode keeps the same systems but throws out the script. Biome depth and order are shuffled. You still spawn near the Doors of Durin, but where you go from there is your problem.

The Gameplay Loop

Whichever mode you pick, the rhythm is the same:

• Exploration. Best done by daylight. Moria is not friendly after dark.
• Repair. Broken statues and dwarven mechanisms pay out recipes and other rewards.
• Resource Gathering. Mining, fighting, and transmuting feed every other system.
• Crafting. Tools, weapons, and armor built from what you gather.
• Base Building. Restoring old structures and adding new ones to anchor your progress.
• Combat. Goblins, orcs, and worse. They keep coming.
• Investigation. Clues and routes that move the story forward.

Systems to Track Early

Morale

Watch the Morale gauge constantly. It drops as you descend deeper and falls faster at night. Let it bottom out and your dwarf catches the Despair debuff, which slowly drains health. Without a light source nearby, Despair will kill you. No pun intended on rock bottom, but the floor here is literal.

Food and Cooking

Forget campfire stews. Cooking in Moria requires a hearth fire with a meal table set up beside it. Once both are placed, interact with the hearth to start cooking. Mushroom Soup is the entry-level recipe, and more unlock as you progress.

Mining

Dwarves and pickaxes are a known combination. Mining stays simple here: equip the pickaxe, find the right deposit, swing. Most of your raw material flow starts at a rock face.

Crafting

Most crafting happens at camp on dedicated workbenches, not on the move. Simple items can be made in the field, but the heavier gear comes from named stations like the Great Forge. The Recipe List inside any crafting menu tells you which station you need.

Unlocks come from progression and exploration: repairing dwarven statues, completing Muznakans, and clearing key areas all hand out new recipes.

Base Building

Moria still has the bones of its old buildings, just none of them in great shape. Restoring what is there and adding new structures around it is half the point of the game. Start by fixing a Hearth, then expand outward. Every piece of building work costs materials, so resource gathering and construction grow together.

Combat

The mines are not empty. Goblins, orcs, and other dark things still hold most of the territory, and they will visit your camp if you let them. Equip what you craft, axes, shields, and whatever the Forge produces, and keep weapons in the hotbar instead of buried in storage.

Reading the HUD

The on-screen overlay is dense, and ignoring it is a fast way to die. The key elements:

• Minimap
• Depth Indicator
• Notifications
• Points of Interest
• Day and Time
• Morale Meter
• Health Bar
• Hunger Bar
• Energy Bar
• Stamina Bar
• Danger Level
• Buffs and Debuffs
• Hotbar
• Masterwork
• Equipped Weapon Controls
• Chat Log

Spend a minute matching each readout to the system it tracks. The Morale and Depth indicators alone will save several deaths.

Tutorial Walkthrough

The opening quest chain teaches every system above through small, practical tasks. Survival newcomers in particular should not skip them.

Torch, Pickaxe, First Ore

The first job is a Torch. Gather 5x Wood Scraps from the area, press C to open the crafting menu by default, then build the Torch and drop it on your hotbar.

With the Torch lit, walk through the hall, drop into the short ravine, and pick up the scattered Metal Fragments. The prompt asks for a Pickaxe next: 3x Metal Fragments and 4x Wood Scraps. Build it and break the nearby ore-studded wall.

Mushrooms, Hunger, and the Fallen

After the wall comes hunger management. Collect the Mushrooms nearby and eat them.

Dwarves eat a lot. Your dwarf can starve. Pack enough food before any deep run, especially if you are heading into a session on a Return to Moria dedicated server with friends.

Honor any fallen dwarf you find. Paying respects unlocks blueprints. One body sits near the campfire in the starting area. After that, talk to Aric, Son of Erebor, the raven on the broken pillar.

Quick Platforms and the Doors of Durin

Pickaxe through the next dirt wall. Beyond it is a trench between you and the higher ground. Press V to drop quick platforms across the gap. Each platform burns 1x Wood Scraps.

Mine through one more dirt wall after the trench. That opens the path to the Doors of Durin.

Improvised Weapons and Restoring Camp

Continue forward and you will overhear orcs debating what to do with the dwarves in the mines. With enough Metal Fragments, Wood Scraps, and Cloth Scraps in the pack, open the crafting menu and build an Improvised Axe and an Oakenshield.

The Improvised Axe needs 3x Metal Fragments, 4x Wood Scraps, and 2x Cloth Scraps. The Oakenshield uses 8x Wood Scraps and 2x Cloth Scraps. Neither weapon is needed right away, but both will come up soon.

Walk the path until Aric appears again. The next task is rebuilding the old campsite. Find the nearby Stone Hearth and restore it with 10x Stone.

Restoring the Hearth unlocks several building recipes. Press B to open the building menu, find the Bedroll under Essentials & Crafting, and craft it with 6x Cloth Scraps. Place and claim it to clear the quest.

Cooking and a Wood Chest

Use the restored Stone Hearth to cook a meal. Mushroom Stew works. The quest completes the moment the food finishes.

The next quest expands the camp. Build a Wood Chest from 15x Wood Scraps and place it inside the campsite to close out the objective.

Warning. Do not leave camp at night without a Torch equipped. Goblins and worse will find you in the dark, and they will eat well.

Iron Ore and the Furnace

Walk to the marked Iron Ore deposit and mine it. Back at camp, restore the Furnace with 20x Stone, then smelt 1x Iron Ingot using 3x Iron Ore.

Smithy, Hide, and the Iron Sword

Two tasks left: rebuild the Smithy and forge an Iron Sword. The Smithy takes 3x Iron Ingot, so mine more Iron Ore, smelt the extra ingots, and restore the structure next to the Forge.

Once the Smithy stands, the Forge can produce the Iron Sword: 3x Iron Ingot, 4x Wood Scraps, and 1x Hide Scraps. Iron and Wood you have. Hide Scraps come from the small critters nearby.

Equip the Improvised Axe and Oakenshield before going critter-hunting. Goblins notice unarmed dwarves and act on it. Once the Hide Scraps are in the pack, return to the Forge and finish the sword.

Reclaim the Kingdom

The Iron Sword closes out the beginner chain. From here, the mines are yours to map. Travel between points of interest, talk to Aric when prompted, and let the questline keep feeding you new biomes. Stay light on your feet, keep the Morale meter watched, and may the light of Eärendil guide you in the dark.