Skirmish Marks

All Skirmishes will reward the player with Skirmish Marks. These Marks are barter items that can be traded at Skirmish Camps for a variety of rewards (more on that below). For now, just understand that Marks are a lot like gold. They are a liquid resource which you will redeem for the rewards you want. All rewards will have various Skirmish Mark prices. For example, a level 40 Sword may cost 50 SM (Skirmish Marks) while an IXP rune might cost 150 SM. There are a few points in a Skirmish run when SM will be awarded; each Control Point taken, each NPC ally that survives, and killing the final Boss. By awarding Marks in this way, you will gain SM even if your attempt at a Skirmish fails. We hope this incremental increase in your SM supply will allow you to pick a reward to aspire to and feel you are making progress towards that goal at all times.

The amount of SM you get in a Skirmish is dependent on a number of factors. It’s important to point out that SM rewards are not divided among fellowship members. SM rewards are calculated on a player-by-player basis. This means fellows in your group may get more or less SM as you play through a Skirmish. Each time SM is awarded, the settings on the Skirmish are considered for each player as follows:

• Level - The higher level the Skirmish, the more SM Level differential - If a player is HIGHER than the level of the Skirmish, he will receive LESS SM. A level 65 player going into a level 40 Skirmish to help a friend will receive minimal amounts of SM.
• Fellowship size - Larger fellowships receive more SM. This shift is not very large, and is mostly in place to keep SM/Hour rates competitive, as larger fellowship-scaled Skirmishes tend to take longer.
• Difficulty - The higher the difficulty, the more SM earned. This shift is larger than fellowship size, as we hope to reward ALL sizes more SM if they play more difficult Skirmishes.

Lastly, it is important to point out that the daily quests (detailed below) do not use fellowship size or difficulty calculations when awarding SM.

Special Marks

In addition to the very liquid SM you acquire, there will be some more traditional barter tokens that drop. Some rewards will require an amount of SM, as well as a special Mark. Good examples of this are the "Veteran" items. The level 40 sword I talked about before could have a veteran version available which will have better stats, but require an additional Special Mark. There are two types of these Marks and each are acquired in different ways.

The first are the level/size tokens. There are a few versions of this token that are required for various rewards. These are found as drops from Lieutenants and Bosses in all Skirmishes. The level you have set for the Skirmish and the group size you are playing at will determine which specific Mark drops. For instance, in a level 50 3-man Skirmish, the token that can show up is called "Third Mark." Each Lieutenant killed in the space has a chance of dropping this Mark. The boss will have a much higher chance. The "Third Mark" can be traded for some fairly strong level 50 items. The tooltip for each of these Marks will tell you what fellowship size and level Skirmish is required to obtain them. These level/size tokens can be upgraded and downgraded at the Curiosities vendor.

The other special Marks are Skirmish Campaign Marks. We’ve grouped clusters of Skirmishes into campaigns and given their optional encounters chances of dropping these tokens. There are 4 campaigns for the initial Mirkwood release. These Marks are usually for cosmetic rewards, like housing, soldier cosmetic traits and clothing.