Newbie Guide Herblores

Newbie Guide Herblores

This guide written and published by p(Baca/Endo)

"Thereupon the herb-master entered. 'Your lordship asked for kingsfoil, as the rustics name it,' he said; 'or athelas in the noble tongue, or to those who know somewhat of the Valinorean...' 'I do so,' said Aragorn, 'and I care not whether you say now asëa aranion or kingsfoil, so long as you have some.'"

JRRT, The Return of the King

This guide is about using and making herblores in MUME. I will not be going into very much on specific herblores, but more of the general idea of how to make them.

Many parts of this guild reference to the MUME help pages which can be found at: https://mume.org/help/help_index

Bold words can be looked up in the games help files. Like help mix.

Herblores

Cooking food or using a casserole is as close as MUME has to a crafting system in game that is accessible to every player. But if you really want to craft more in MUME, herblores are for you. They also act somewhat as 'magical' potions, allowing those without spells to gain temporary boons. Another nice benefit of herblores is you can mix them and give it away to another character or group member.

Types of Herblores

Herblores can be broken up in to a few categories in the game.

Poisons: These herblores make a vial of poison that you use against either a mob or a player. Most poison herblores make a vial of poison. Once the vial of poison is made, you need to use the envenom skill to apply it to a weapon. Successfully hitting someone with the weapon gives a chance of injecting your target with the poison.

Food: A couple of herblores in the game are really more of a food that might offer some sort of benefit. Some require a campfire or fireplace to cook them. You can't really benefit from them if you are already full.

Potions: Most of the herblores in the game make some type of a 'potion'. You drink it to gain the effects. Many herblores call these potions something else like: a mug, a bowl, a draught, a flask, a philter, etc...

Herblore Like "Loots" in Game (or one shot magical items)

There are actually a very few potions that load in the game. Some of these mimic an herblore. You can loot them, but some of them decay after a duration of time. So best to drink them as soon as you need them. You cannot save most of them for later. One thing all these items have in common is they are either one shot use, or only usable a few times.

Alcohol!!

Drinking in MUME will slur your speech, making you hard to under stand by other players if you are drunk. The drunk effect will fade, so eventually other players will be able to understand what you are saying. Also, if you are full of water, you won't be able to drink very much alcohol. Some drinks in the game get you drunk faster then others. So beer will get you drunk, but not as fast as other, stronger drinks. Some alcohol is lootable from mobs and chests, or you can buy it at several bartenders in game. Alcohol does not decay, but carrying around alot of it can get heavy.

One side effect of drinking alcohol in MUME is it will affect your hits and mana. It lowers your total mana and slightly lowers your mana regen. But while doing that, it raises your total hit points. So drinking in MUME is oddly like a weak potion for warrior types. You will sober up, and your bonus hit points will fade, along with the mana penalty.

Poison Vials:

Several mobs in the game load a vial of poison. You can loot the vial and use it, just like a vial from an herblore. They will decay after about playing the game for an hour. Without the envenom skill however, mostly they are just sellable loot. There is a pawn shop in Fornost that will buy them, and one shop in the very dangerous sewers under Tharbad.

Black Candle:

This odd item is not a potion, but does provide a spell effect you may find useful. You must hold the candle then use it. It casts a ROOM WIDE sleep spell effect. This spell will not affect you, but can affect all other targets in the room. So yes, you can sleep your horse or other group members. It's a weak sleep spell, so some mobs will save against it and not fall asleep. Very useful against groups of lower level mobs. They do not decay.

Brown Bottle:

This loot mimics an antidote herblore. It's a potion that removes or cures any poison you might have. It may also make you resistant to poisons for a very short amount of time after drinking it. They load in a few rare spots in the game. They will very likely decay after about 30-60 minutes. The tanner in Bree also hands one out for a quest.

Green Bottle:

This odd potion can help you recover from several diseases such as flu, plague, or amibia. It comes with a small penalty to Willpower and mana, but that fades quickly. It has a small chance of loading in a few rare rooms in the game.

Infusion:

The most common "potion" in MUME. It loads in several areas near and in the Shire. It will cure the flu if you drink it and also removes ALL potion and herblore effects on you. So if you have an herblore up you want to keep, do not drink this potion. It also provides a small and short boost to mana and mana regen. It's nice for like one extra cure light spell. The infusion will decay after like 24 minutes to 45 minutes or so.

Pipeweed:

Pipeweed is not really a potion, but has a small benefit similar to one. You need a pipe with some pipeweed in it. Hold the pipe in your hand, REST, then smoke pipe. It can give you a boost to mana regen, and has a random chance to grant you 0 to as much as 30 mana or more. But it can also "backfire" and do like -15 mana to you as well.

Fallohide hobbits are talented at smoking pipeweed, and never backfire it, and tend to get more mana smoking.

It's useful for casters and non-casters alike (with only a spell or 2). Pipeweed never decays. Pipes can hold many more smokes then just one pipeweed, try putting alot in your pipe.

Pipeweed is common in some parts of the Shire and around the village of Staddle in Breeland. Also in some herbalist and smoking shops in game.

get pipe pack, put weed pipe, rem shield, hold pipe, rest, smoke, stand, rem pipe

Alchemist Potions:

There is a hidden Alchemist in Fornost that can make some potions. One is an aging potion that will make you ancient in age (not recommended for playing). He also regularly performs experiments from time to time and will drop a strange potion when he is done with it. If you drink one of these potions, it will might give you penalties and benefits randomly to your abilities. Beware, they can come with MORE penalties then benefits. Like maybe + 1 Constitution but -2 Willpower and -2 Perception as an example.

Softly glowing green cup:

This is a quest reward you get from a ghost south of Lorien. The ghost only comes out at night. The cups do not ever decay. It provides a few minutes of enhanced mana and mana regen. A great potion for casters.

Flask of Miruvor:

This very rare potion is only granted from a few elf mobs in the game. Either for doing a quest or for turning some evil items to be destroyed. It is a regen potion, that helps you recover hits, mana, and moves for a few minutes. They do not decay.

Orkish flasks:

There are a few types of orkish flasks in the game. Rarely some of them can be found as possible loot. They generally are not a good idea for People of the West to consume. They can lower your hits at the benefit of some moves or move regen. But might have side effects like making you puke, sick, or poisoned. They decay after a long time.

Scrolls:

Not potions, but still a one shot magical item. They have a variety of effects that mimic spells in the game. Such as Heal, Breath of Briskness, Fear, Sanctuary, Bless and others. Some scrolls might even have a dangerous spell linked to them, like Poison. A few scrolls cast multiple spells at the same time. Scrolls are generally "end game" loot, and mostly only accessible from very difficult supermobs in the game.

Ways of Learning an Herblore

There 2 main ways to learn an herblore in MUME. You must either do a quest for a mob or find and loot an herblore recipe. Once you successfully do a quest or read an herblore from a recipe, your character now knows it from then on. You do not ever lose the knowledge of how to make an herblore, even if you die.

Quest: Several mobs in the game have a quest where you can learn how to mix an herblore. Some of these quests are easy, and some require more work. Several of them are level scaling quests. Which means the quests get harder and more difficult if you try to do them at higher levels, or easier at lower levels.

Some herblores are only learnable by certain races or side of the war. There are orc specific herblores for example. Or a quest only accessible by the Free People.

Loot Recipe: These herblores require reading something to learn them, instead of having a mob show you how to make them. It could be a note, a book, a parchment, a plaque, or other form of writing that contains the knowledge of how to make that herblore. Some of them you loot from the corpse of a mob, others might be in a chest that is difficult to get access to or open.

Once nice thing about looting a Recipe is that you have some more options once you get one. You can read it if you don't know it. Or you can give it away, sell it, or trade it to other players in the game. Some recipes are not worth very much, but some are much more valuable. A few books are heavy, but most of them do not weight much. Some of these recipes are rentable and some are not.

Mixing an Herblore

In order to mix an herblore, you need to have an herbal kit or a crude kit. Your success in making an herblore is heavily based off of your Wisdom. If you have high Wisdom, you will regularly mix herblores with ease. If you have a low Wisdom, you might fail over 30% of the time, possibly more.

Mishmash: This is the message you will get if you put the wrong ingredients into a kit and tried to mix it. It is also the message you will get if you fail trying to make an herblore. Mishmash wastes all of the ingredients in the herbal kit and uses them up. It can be disappointing if you messed up with some hard to get or rare ingredients. Some players even give ingredients to others with higher Wisdom for a better chance of getting the herblore mixed.

Herbal kits: Herbal kits load in a few rooms of the game and on a very few mobs. Mostly characters go and buy them from a general shop or maybe an herbalist shop. The herbal kit must be held or worn to be used in making an herblore. You can wear an herbal kit in a belt slot.

You can type help kit to learn more about what you can do with an herbal kit.

help kit
Help on how to use an enhanced herbal kit:

  "put <ingredient> kit"  put ingredients in the kit
  "mix kit"               mixes the ingredients in the kit, producing
                          something new (and possibly useful)
  "look kit"              shows you the description of the kit
  "examine kit"           shows what you have put in the kit so far

Note that you have to hold or wear the kit for these to work.

Herblore Commands

Crush: Many plants and herbs in the game are crushable. Using the crush command you can take a large, heavy plant and turn it into some leaves or needles that weigh just a few ounces. Most herblores use the crushed version of a plant.

A low, many-branched shrub covers the ground here.

get plant

inv

You are carrying:
a many-branched shrub

crush plant

You start crushing the shrub.
You have produced some scented crushed leaves.

You are carrying:
some scented crushed leaves

Herblore: The herblore command actually has several different functions. If you just type herblore it will list out all the herblores you know. It will also show you what lores you can make and how many from the ingredients on your character.

If you type herblore <name of lore> it will show you the information about the lore, such as what ingredients and how many you need. It will also give a general description of what the herblore does when you drink/eat it. Or if you have enough ingredients to make a lore you can type herblore <name of lore> to "auto mix" it. It has a longer delay, but will gather all of the ingredients you have, put them in the kit and mix them for you.

You know the following herblores:
Belladonna    Seeing         Soothing-Draught  
Baker         Leaf-Cake      Shadows       Walking

You have enough ingredients to mix the following herblores:
Baker × 1  Seeing × 2  Shadows × 2

Mix: The mix command is used to actually make the herblore, if you have put all of the ingredients into your herbal kit. So put leaves kit, put berries kit, put flower kit, mix. You can use the mix command OR use the herblore <name of lore> short cut. Either one will make the herblore for you. Using mix is a faster delay, but still a delay.

Drink or Quaff: Most herblore products you drink (a few you eat). The quaff command will let you drink a potion even if you are already full of water, so you can still gain the benefits (and penalties).

When you are done with an herblore there is sometimes a container left behind. An empty flask or bowl, for example. Simply drop them or hide them. Once used they are just useless weight. Some herblores don't leave behind containers.

Envenom: This is the skill that is used to pour or smear poison onto weapons from poison vials. You cannot even attempt to poison weapons without pracs in envenom. If you fail the envenom attempt, you are also dosed with the poison you are trying to use. You can practice this skill to a low % in Tharbad, but higher from a special guild master NE of Rivendell.

Herblore Effects

Most herblores do not just give you an out right bonus without some sort of penalty. To see SOME of these negative effects type info to see if the herblore lowered any of your abilities. Food herblores have no penalties. And poison vials only give you a penalty if you are affected by the poison.

Benefits and Penalties: The vast majority of herblores in the game come with a side effect. Sure, it might raise your move regen by +7 but it will lower your Willpower by -3. Or it might give you +2% DB, but it will lower your Constitution by -1. To see SOME of these negative effects type info to see if the herblore lowered any of your abilities. Most herblores do not just give you an out right bonus without some sort of penalty. Also some herblores only give you the penalty after the duration of the good benefits run out.

Duration: This is how long the herblore lasts for, even poisons have a duration as they fade away. Some herblores are quite fast, and only last a few minutes of play time. Some herblores can last for three entire MUME days. Also a few herblores have a "cooldown" between how often you can use them. Also some herblores don't work if you are already under the effect of that herblore.

Fading: Related to duration, some herblores do not just abruptly end, but fade away. It might go from +2% DB to +1% or the move regen fade from +5 to +3. So the effects lesson over time. A few herblores give you the benefits for a short period of time first, THEN as it fades gives you the penalties of the herblore for a short period of time.

Stacking: Herblores "stack" or can be used with any other spell effects or effects from other magical items in the game. However MANY herblores can NOT be used while you have another herblore effect up. So trying to stack herblores benefits is very difficult due to how many of them don't work when others are up. So trying to use a healing herblore and a strength herblore at the same time might not work well.

Poisons are an exception to this rule, you can get as many poisons on you as you want too.

You can eat the two food lore herblores anytime you are not stuffed full.

It will give you this information in your stat command, if you currently have an herblore active.

Affected by:
- potion

Decay: Many herblore products in the game are rentable, but beware, they will decay. Some herblores decay fast. After you mix them, you better be prepared to use them. Some herblores last for an hour or more after you make them. It is pretty varied, so learn how long the herblore products last so you can learn how to best plan their use. One thing is for sure, that antidote potion you mixed will decay about 5 minutes before you get poisoned... and then really need it.

Herblore Ingredients

These are what you need to make an herblore in your herbal kit. Some herblores only require 3 ingredients while others may take as many as 5. One issue is a few herblore ingredients will decay after you pick them, so you might need to be ready to mix quickly.

Plants

Most herblores in the game use products from plants. Most of these plants need to be crushed first before you use them, but a few you do not crush first. The plant ingredients could be berries, leaves, or needles. Word of warning about berries, several types of them decay somewhat fast before you use them.

Roots

A few herblores in the game are made with a root of a plant. Sometimes you will see a hint of the plant above the ground to know the root is there, but very often you will not see that hint above ground. You need to type reveal root to pull the root up. You can try using the search command, but reveal a better choice.

Fungus

A few herblores use some type of mushroom as an ingredient. You don't crush them first just use the whole mushroom. Most of these you can just pick up off the ground.

Animals

Some herblore use products from animals. It could be honey, fur, a tail, some flesh, or blood.

Only the honey needs to be crushed first to use.

You will need to butcher corpses to get some of these ingredients.

Only Saruon's followers can drain a corpse of blood, and then you need an evil priest to help preserve it.

Herblore Starting Tips

Here are just a few herblores to maybe help you get started. This will not be a list of all the herblores in the game. Just a suggestion of some you may want to try to get. Some of these are quests that get more challenging and scale up as you level. So better to try the quest out at lower levels when they are easier.

Aldereon's quest: Aldereon is an elf with a village named after him, Aldereon's Village. It is NW of Greenholm and SE of Tower Hills. He wants some help with writing his friends, and will teach you a Walking herblore for helping him out. This herblore helps with move regen.

Nodri's quest: Nodri is a dwarf in Blue Mountains that is a collector. He wants you to get him some items and in exchange he will teach you a Soothing Draught herblore for helping him out. This herblore helps with hit regen.

Lonely giant quest: This giant wanders the Shire and can be found in several different areas, crying. If you comfort him he may give you a quest to find some ingredients or herbs for him. If find them, he will teach you a Baker herblore for helping him out. This herblore makes alot of very light weight, very filling food. Bonus, the bannocks you cook can also be sold at grocers. Good way to make piles of silver.

Road to Fornost: Along the Road to Fornost, going north from Bree, are two more challenging areas that can sometimes load books that can teach about herblores. These books teach the Seeing herblore, for raising your Perception. Also the Shadows herblore, for casting the shroud spell (once) and helping you dodge slightly better.

So go out and see what you can find or learn about from other players. If you see someone mixing with an herbal kit, ask them about which herblore they are mixing! If you gather some ingredients for one, ask someone else to mix it if you don't have them yet. Some players don't bother with herblores much (often because weight issues or a very low Wisdom). Some players collect herblores and mix them alot.

Don't forget, selling herblore ingredients to other players or herbal shops for cash can be a good way to make some silver. Also most grocery shops will buy berries.

Link back to the wiki guides:

Guide