How to expand your inventory in Return to Moria

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria starts you off with a frustratingly small backpack. While you’re limited to the 10 slots (plus the eight slots in your hotbar) that the Scout’s Pack gives you at the beginning of the game, you’re going to run out of inventory space constantly. Luckily, you can make yourself a bigger pack — the Adventurer’s Pack.

You’re just going to have to put in a lot of work first. Our Return to Moria guide will explain how to expand your inventory by crafting a new pack and everything you’ll have to do to get there.

How to expand your inventory in Return to Moria

Expanding your inventory in Return to Moria is as simple as making a new and bigger pack. But getting the point where you can craft that pack is the tricky part. Before you can expand your inventory in Return to Moria, you’ll need to complete five steps first:

• Reach the Elven Quarter
• Collect a bunch of Elven Wood
• Build a Workbench
• Make a Hunting Bow
• Collect hides from animals

Once you’ve done all of that, then you’re ready to expand your inventory. Let’s break down the steps in detail.

Reach the Elven Quarter and collect Elven Wood

Before you can make your new pack and expand your inventory, you’ll need to be able to build a new crafting station in your base, a Workbench. And for that, you’ll need Elven Wood. And for that, you’ll need to reach the Elven Quarter.

Early in the game, you’ll discover that the path to Durin’s Highway is blocked. You’ll then get a new map marker for the Shortcut to the Mines. Follow this one to (eventually) find the Elven Quarter.

Image: Free Range Games/North Beach Games via Polygon

There, use your pickaxe to take down a few of the trees — don’t worry much about exploring yet. The trees will drop both Wood Scraps (always useful) and Elven Wood. Collect at least 23 Elven Wood to save yourself some trips.

Build a Workbench and make a Hunting Bow

With your new Elven Wood resource in hand, head back to (a) base. (If you haven’t done so yet, here’s how to unlock fast travel.) In the Build menu, choose a Workbench (2 Iron Ingot and 15 Elven Wood) from the Essentials & Crafting tab and place it.

Image: Free Range Games/North Beach Games via Polygon

The Adventurer’s Pack will be unlocked at this point and it’s tantalizing 25 slots of inventory space, but you’re probably not going to have the resources for it — specifically, the Hides. Hides come from animals that run away when you get too close, so it’s time to craft a ranged weapon. Make yourself a Hunting Bow (8 Elven Wood and 2 Hide Scraps) and as many Arrows (15 Wood Scraps and 3 Metal Fragments) as you want. The arrows come in sets of 30 and a stack of them holds 99.

Collect Hides to craft a new pack

The Hide Scraps that drop from Wolves and Da’imun that you’ve been using all along (including for crafting your bow) aren’t going to cut it for your new pack. You’re looking for Hides.

Image: Free Range Games/North Beach Games via Polygon

Hides drop from the white elk-like animals called Hriwaras that you’ll see around the Elven District. These run away when you get too close, so the only way to kill them up close is to trap them in a corner — of which there are frustratingly few in the Elven Quarter. Instead, use your bow to take them out. If you don’t kill them in one shot, they don’t run far before stopping, so just chase them down.

Technically, it’s also possible to get Hides from Cave Bears, but your weapons aren’t really a match for them yet and wearing down their health isn’t really worth the time. It’s much faster to look around for Hriwaras.

You’ll need 8 Hides for your new pack.

Craft an Adventurer’s Pack to expand your inventory

Back at the Workbench, it’s time to craft your Adventurer’s Pack (8 Hides). This new pack has 25 slots for inventory. Since weight isn’t a consideration, this means you’ll be able to collect a ton more stuff on your expeditions — like heading to the Great Forge of Narvi to start making steel.