Creatures of LOTRO: Neekerbreekers Edition

"They spent a miserable day in this lonely and unpleasant country. Their camping-place was damp, cold, and uncomfortable; and the biting insects would not let them sleep. There were also abominable creatures haunting the reeds and tussocks that from the sound of them were evil relatives of the cricket. There were thousands of them, and they squeaked all round, neek-breek, breek-neek, unceasingly all the night, until the hobbits were nearly frantic.

The next day, the fourth, was little better, and the night almost as comfortless. Though the Neekerbreekers (as Sam called them) had been left behind, the midges still pursued them." 

-- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 11

Mentioned only briefly this way in the first book of the trilogy, it's easy for most Tolkien fans to forget the existence of these insects in Middle-earth -- particularly because they are never actually seen by the hobbits. But when you're a video game developer, and you need to fill in your mob list with lore-friendly enemies... neekers sure are handy to differentiate your MMORPG from the others who only have men who can't throw a punch, rabid wolves, skeletons/zombies, spiders, and swarms of rats.

Um... snark? Why are you writing a blog entry about... bugs?

Glad you asked, hypothetical-reader-who-probably-doesn't-exist! Last month, I told the webcomic artist, hoppystar, that if she finished an update of her webcomic before leaving on a several-weeks-long vacation across the ocean... then I would write a blog entry about her favorite creature from LOTRO. (No, I don't understand why she likes the things, either. Just roll with me here.) She got the webcomic updated in record time, so I am happily indulging her with this entry. It also gives me a fantastic springboard to make this into a series, and I have a few more creatures on my list. If you're reading this and have a LOTRO creature request, please let me know!

I had always sort of rolled my eyes when I found out I had to deal with these bugs. I mean... they're just overgrown bugs. But they're also annoying when they burrow into the ground mid-fight and you're stuck in combat waiting for them to resurface. Not having much else to go on for this blog entry, I turned my attention to the LOTRO wiki to dig up information about the roster of neekers in-game. I found a few interesting things!

Neekerbreeker Fact List

• There are 4 signature neekers in LOTRO; 2 are rare signatures.
• Only 3 of the signatures were given proper names.
• The lowest-level neeker in the game is one of the rare signatures.
• The list of neeker types in the game, by name, totals 31 in the wiki. 
• The nerbyg are considered a species variant of neekers.
• The neekers exist in only 12 of the 32 regions in LOTRO.
• The level range of neekers in the game spans from 9 to 115.
• Some are aggressive while others will threaten before attacking.
• They are weak to Beleriand damage but resistant to Common damage.
• If there isn't a petition for neekers to be cosmetic pets, hoppystar is likely to start one. 

Edit: Since publishing this, LOTRO has pushed out a game update that includes 3 neeker cosmetic pets! They are now available from lootboxes or for 2,500 Figments of Splendour each.

I took the time to hunt down the 3 signatures with names and used the skill Knowledge of the Lore-master in order to get a snapshot of their strengths and weaknesses. It took me about a week to find them (they don't spawn as consistently as I'd have liked), so I hope you appreciate the effort!

Allow me to present...

Eye-biter

Eye-biter is the lowest-level neekerbreeker in LOTRO, at a whopping single-digit 9. Despite this, it is a rare signature and will drop the item Eye-biter's Carapace when squished. It can be found wandering in a northern area of the Midgewater Marshes (northwest of Marshwater Fort) in Bree-land, but its distinct gold color stands out against the purple of the Marsh Spiders, or the green and orange of the Green Neeker-breekers and Dun Neeker-breekers.

There is also a type of neeker called Eye-biter's Kin -- but they're found all the way over in Mirkwood! (Specifically in a quest instance in the Drownholt -- Midnight in the Drownholt.) When I discovered this, I thought it was a neat little Easter egg for those who might remember the little signature in Bree-land.

Rattleclaw

Rattleclaw is a signature nerbyg at level 33 and blends in supremely well with a host of other nerbyg in the Barandalf area of Evendim. The Sand-mounds are crawling with Sand-nerbyg, Huge Sand-nerbyg, Burrowing Sand-nerbyg, and summoned Broodlings. It took several passes of mowing down the regular mobs to get this one to spawn, but when it did it was to the northern side of the mounds. Being just a normal signature, the only item drop from this nerbyg is an Adamant Shard.

Swale-singer

Swale-singer is a rare signature nerbyg at level 48 in Western Malenhad within Angmar (good news if you haven't finished the Epic far enough to get past the Watching-stones). The other good news is that there are no other nerbyg that spawn west of the Watching-stones, so it will be easy to spot. The catch? It has two general spots where it only sometimes spawns, and it isn't very often. Being a rare signature, it drops both a Beryl Shard and Swale-singer's Mandible.


The fourth signature neeker in LOTRO is a level 115 nerbyg simply named Frenzied Norbog. Killing this bug counts toward the deed Dangerous Foes of Agarnaith. It can be found in Mokál Rukh, which is an area on the Plateau of Gorgoroth in Mordor. Not being special enough to have a proper name, I didn't bother to hunt it down.

So now you know a little bit more about neekerbreekers in LOTRO! 

I think it's great to see how resourceful the LOTRO developers were to take this one reference and utilize it throughout the game. Nicely peppered through appropriate habitats in a handful of regions, there are enough neekers to be aggravating when you encounter them, but not so often in the game that you become bored with them.

If you enjoyed this...

• Go check out hoppystar's webcomic, The Only Star in Gorgoroth, which is based on LOTRO and follows an elf's misadventure in Mordor. Enjoy her story, and thank her for being the inspiration for this entry and others to come!
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