Heroes Article Guide
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Heroes Articles are an additional type of collectible in Record of Lodoss War Online that can be unlocked account-wide by completing the main quest line and the quest 'Hero Tracer' on a single character. Each article refers to a small part of the game’s story and provides a passive bonus for all characters on an account once it’s been collected. A player can exchange a full set of Bronze, Silver, or Gold type articles for Heroes Traces which serve as a currency and can be exchanged for valuable item rewards at the NPC merchants Sagah and the Mysterious family.
2. How to unlock the system
Once you have completed the main quest line up to and including the quest 'The end of adventure', you can visit Sagah near the center of Jackson and begin the quest 'Hero Tracer'.
Sagah sends you to a solo instance where you need to defeat a Manticore boss. Upon completion of the quest, the Heroes Articles system is unlocked for all characters on your account.
The following quests are listed as main quests in the game (quests in brackets aren’t technically required to get access to the 'Hero Tracer' quest but I would recommend to do them anyway for the story and the rewards; they might also be needed for content in future updates of the game; the quest 'Minotaur labyrinth's threat' is listed twice in the game so I listed it twice here, as well :))
3. User interface integration
When Heroes Articles are unlocked, the new tab doesn't automatically become visible in the user interface (or at least it didn't for me). By clicking on the 'Bottom UI Customization reset' button while the 'Bottom UI Customization' is set to unlocked, you can make the new tab visible in the bottom UI.
The Heroes Article list can also be accessed by opening the Hunting Book where you’ll see a 'Heroes Article' tab on the left side of the window.
Lastly, you can also open the Heroes Article window by pressing H (default key).
4. First time collection vs. second time collection
Once the system is unlocked, Heroes Articles can be obtained by completing a variety of different tasks such as talking with certain NPCs, using dowsing in certain locations, or completing certain exploration dungeons (see the next section of this guide for a complete list).
6 Articles initially need to be crafted with recipes that can be purchased from Tiki's special shop in the storage area of any Adventurer Association building. These recipes cost 25,000 gold each, have a 100% success rate, and all of them require the same materials: Marble Fragment x 20, Transparent Marble x 8, and Blue Crystal Ball x 3.
18 Articles can only be obtained from Grego's Mystic Box when you collect them for the first time which can initially be received for free once per day and character by talking to Grego in the Adventurer Association pub of any town. You can select which Article you would like to claim from the default 'Grego's Mystic Box':
Once the player has collected a full set of Articles in the Bronze, Silver, or Gold category and has turned it in for a reward at least one time, then the Articles in that category will from now on be obtained in a new way: Most of them can now appear as random drops from any defeated monster that can drop loot (normally that means that the monster can be at most 5 levels higher or lower than the player character, but there are exceptions like monsters in exploration dungeons and labyrinths that seem to always have a chance to drop Articles ).
The methods used to obtain an Article for the first time, in most cases, will unfortunately not be available anymore for further acquisitions and there are long cooldowns for Heroes Articles that have been obtained as a drop until the can drop again (between 24 hours and 3 weeks). The cooldowns appear to be account-wide.
Tiki's crafting is still an option for the second acquisition, but all 6 craftable Articles can now also drop from monsters.
4 Articles can only be obtained by completing repeatable quests that require you to defeat a strong boss when you collect them for the second time (hard to solo at level 40, but it's possible with the right class, with strong mercenaries and LP-refilling items).
One of the 4 bosses:
Once the player has turned in all 3 sets of Articles (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) at least once, Grego will not offer his free default box anymore and will instead offer 'Grego's Mystic Box II' which can be purchased for 5,000 gold once per day and character and includes a random one of the 18 Articles that could already be found in Grego's first box. It also includes Articles the player has already re-collected so it can easily be a waste of gold when the player receives an Article they already own. Fortunately, all Articles included in the box can also be found as drops from monsters for the second acquisition so there is no need to spend any gold on 'Grego's Mystic Box II' if you don't want to.
5. A List of all Heroes Articles, the passives they provide and how to obtain them
Bronze category - 50 Articles - max drop cooldown: 1 week
Silver category - 30 Articles - max drop cooldown: 2 weeks
Gold category - 20 Articles - max drop cooldown: 3 weeks
Hints
The Articles that require you to purchase items from Jeremy and repeatedly give them to other NPCs took me about 2-5 items of each type to complete (2-5 items for 250 gold and 2-5 items for 1,000 gold).
I always won the rock-paper-scissors game against Ting by selecting 'Rock', but that may be a coincidence :)
The following three maps show the harder to find locations where dowsing needs to be used to obtain an Article:
Total bonuses
The total bonuses from obtaining all Heroes Articles are as follows:
6. Item rewards
A full set of Articles in a category (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) can directly be exchanged for Hero Traces in the Heroes Article window. However, the passives the Articles provided will be lost until you collect them again!
All 50 Bronze Articles -> 1 Heroes Trace[Bronze]
All 30 Silver Articles -> 2 Heroes Trace[Silver]
All 20 Gold Articles -> 2 Heroes Trace[Gold]
You can buy items with Hero Traces from Sagah at the center of Jackson or from the Mysterious family merchant in the storage area of the Adventurer Association building in any town (Sagah has all of the items listed below in one shop).
Mysterious family merchant – box collection shop
1. New weapon box // 2 Heroes Trace[Gold] // A random one of six 6-star weapons (One-Handed Sword, One-Handed Blunt, Dual Blades, Staff, Bow, or Two-Handed Sword) OR 1-5 Ancient Material - Mystic Stone
2. New protective equipment box // 2 Heroes Trace[Gold]// A random one of 21 6-star protective equipment items OR 1-5 Ancient Material - Mystic Stone
3. Supplement box // 1 Heroes Trace[Gold]// A random one of the following materials:
4. Tiki’s Ancient Box II // 2 Heroes Trace[Silver] // A random one of the following items:
Shining Magic Crystal, Vitality Shirt (5-star shirt +1 Luck)
Master of Real Battle (4-star belt with up to 10% crit damage, up to 10% hit rate, and +1 luck)
4 Ancient Material - Mystic Stone
Mysterious family merchant – functional consumable shop
Mysterious family merchant – ingredient collection shop
Notes:
20th February 2019: The guide is complete now. If you notice any mistake please leave me a message here or tell me ingame so I can correct it and update the guide. I hope this guide will be helpful to someone. Thanks for your time :)
