Greetings from the Summoners War Dev Team!
We wish you a new year filled with joy and good memories.
Today, we would like to share news about a brand-new collaboration that many of you have been waiting for.
On Jan. 29, the collaboration between The Lord of the Rings and Summoners War will begin.
Collaborations that introduce new worlds and stories into Summoners War are always exciting for us, while also giving us plenty to think about.
To bring the beloved world of The Lord of the Rings into Summoners War in our own way, we carefully planned every detail, from the character lineup to the overall content.
We truly hope that this collaboration will deliver a memorable and enjoyable experience for all Summoners.
Before we dive into the dev note, we have prepared a video that shares more about the collab.
You can watch the video in the link below.
[▼ Watch the Dev Story Video ▼]
■ Summoners War x The Lord of the Rings
On Jan. 29 PST, the heroes of an epic journey centered around the One Ring will arrive on Sky Island, reimagined in the unique style of Summoners War.
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy masterpiece written by J. R. R. Tolkien, set in the vast world of Middle-earth and built around the conflicts and choices surrounding the One Ring.
Since its initial publication in the 1950s, it has been loved by readers around the world for decades and is widely regarded as the foundation and benchmark of the fantasy genre.
Among the many characters connected to the One Ring, we have selected five who stand out for their strong roles and symbolic significance.
Let us introduce the characters from The Lord of the Rings who will be joining us.
■ The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters
Five iconic characters who left a powerful impression in the original story have been chosen as Collab Characters: Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gollum.
Frodo, the heart of the journey, who moves forward to fulfill his mission to destroy the One Ring.
Gandalf, the Grey Wizard who protects the Fellowship with wisdom and magic. Aragorn, the heir to the throne and trusted guide to the Fellowship. Legolas, the Elven warrior who turns the tide with sharp perception and agility. Gollum, a creature who embodies obsession and duality, consumed by the temptation of the One Ring.
These beloved characters, each with their own distinct appeal, have been reimagined in the unique style of Summoners War to bring you a fresh and exciting experience.
The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters will be added in Awakened form only, using their unique character names, just like previous collabs.
Please note that some will be available as both default 4★ and 5★ depending on their attribute.
For this collab, Frodo will be available exclusively as a default 5★ Water Collab Character from a collab event.
Please refer to the table below for more details.
Many of you are probably most curious about how the abilities and skills of the original characters have been translated into Summoners War.
To give you a sneak peek, we would like to share some of the skills in advance.
We spent a great deal of time thinking about how to naturally bring the stories, personalities, and defining traits of each character from The Lord of the Rings into Summoners War.
In particular, we focused on expressing these elements through a variety of skill effects and animations, taking into account the turn-based battle system that defines Summoners War.
For example, Legolas is known in the Fellowship for his exceptional archery skills and agility.
In Summoners War, we reflected these traits by designing skill effects that leverage high Attack Speed to influence the flow of battle.
Alongside this, we paid close attention to battle animations, aiming to capture both the swift movements of an archer and the graceful elegance of an Elf.
We hope you enjoy discovering each character's unique personality and charm through their skills and battle animations.
We are very curious to hear your thoughts now that you have had a chance to check out the skills.
You may also be wondering about the skills for the attributes that have not been revealed yet.
We are working hard to present them in the best possible form, so please look forward to what is coming next.
As always, we have prepared a variety of collab-exclusive content so that you can fully enjoy the collab experience.
Let's go over the content prepared for The Lord of the Rings collab one by one.
■ Collab Event Building: Mordor
"Mordor" is where the collab content is gathered in one place for easy access.
It will appear on Sky Island for the duration of the collab period.
You can enter Mordor either by pressing the building shown on the island or by using the event icon added to the right side of the island screen.
Once you enter Mordor, you will find a menu that lets you view all collab-related content at a glance.
We will take a closer look at each piece of content available in this menu.
■ Collab Exclusive Content: Event Dungeon – Land of Shadow
The new event dungeon, Land of Shadow, is designed as a journey made up of multiple stages, starting at the Black Gate and leading all the way to Barad-dûr.
By clearing each stage, we hope you will feel as though you have become a member of the Fellowship and are taking part in the journey yourself.
When you enter the Land of Shadow, you will be greeted by a vast landscape that evokes the feeling of an ancient map from a fantasy world.
We have designed the main setting of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings to be divided into the Black Gate, Mount Doom, and Barad-dûr for the Normal, Hard, and Hell difficulties, respectively.
The Land of Shadow features the following key elements.
▶ The Lord of the Rings Support Characters
Battles in the Land of Shadow are fought with a party of five Monsters.
To start a battle, at least one The Lord of the Rings Collab Character must be included in your party.
Upon your first entry into the Land of Shadow, four The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters will be provided, and you can choose one to use.
▶ Three Difficulty Levels: Normal, Hard, and Hell
Each difficulty consists of seven stages, and each stage is made up of three waves.
Once all waves are cleared, you can proceed to the next stage.
A boss unique to each difficulty appears in the final, seventh stage.
▶ Relic Piece Shop
Upon clearing each event dungeon stage, the Relic Piece Shop will appear to offer special effects that help you progress through the dungeon.
The Relic Piece Shop will feature 15 types of Relics, including Royal Sword, Ancient Elven Breath, Essence of the Tree Spirit, Starlight Powder, and Frostlit Mirror Fragment.
After clearing a stage, five Relics will be randomly selected from the total pool of 15 and displayed in the shop, where you can purchase one Relic.
These Relics grant various effects to your Monsters, helping you clear the Land of Shadow more easily.
Relics grant effects based on their prefix. For example, the Royal Sword provides the following effects.
In addition, collecting multiple of the same Relic grants not only stacked effects but also special additional effects.
For the Royal Sword, the following special effects are granted based on the number collected.
▶ The Lord of the Rings Lore Facts
In the Land of Shadow, you will receive one piece of The Lord of the Rings-related information each time you clear a stage.
By providing interesting lore related to The Lord of the Rings universe with each stage clear, we hope to help you gain a deeper understanding of the world behind this collab.
Next, let us introduce the bosses awaiting you in the Land of Shadow.
■ Event Dungeon: Land of Shadow Bosses
In the final stage of each difficulty, iconic enemies from the original story will appear as bosses: [Mouth of Sauron (Normal)], [Uglúk (Hard)], and [The Witch-king of Angmar (Hell)].
We would like to take a closer look at Uglúk and his skills in this dev note.
Uglúk, the Hard difficulty boss, is a powerful Orc commander who relentlessly pursued the Fellowship and drove them into peril in the original story.
In Summoners War, we are currently testing and fine-tuning his balance so that his overwhelming presence and strength can be fully felt in battle.
Swinging his massive blade, he destroys enemy HP and disturbs HP recovery, and then delivers a powerful finishing strike against targets whose HP has been destroyed.
Based on his skill design, Monsters that can continuously grant Shields to allies will be especially effective when facing Uglúk.
Since destroyed HP cannot be recovered, a viable strategy may be to prevent HP loss altogether from the start.
You may want to check which of your Monsters have skills that grant Shields.
If that proves difficult, you can also take advantage of Gandalf among the Collab Support Characters, as his Skill 1 grants a Shield.
■ Event Dungeon: Land of Shadow Rewards
When you clear all stages of a given difficulty, you will receive rewards corresponding to that difficulty.
The event dungeon resets weekly. Each week, clearing the final Hell difficulty stage will grant you special weekly rewards. The weekly rewards are as follows.
For this event dungeon schedule, Week 1 will run from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, and Week 2 will begin on Feb. 2.
(The weekly reset will occur at 12:00 AM on Monday, based on server time.)
Next, we would like to introduce a piece of content that puzzle-loving Summoners may find especially tempting to try.
For this collab, Gandalf himself steps in as the riddle master, presenting a variety of challenges for you to solve.
Let us introduce the minigame [Gandalf's Riddle].
■ Collab Exclusive Content: Minigame – Gandalf's Riddle
Gandalf's Riddle is a puzzle-style minigame where you divide a given shape into similarly sized pieces by drawing cuts within a limited number of moves.
This minigame was inspired by Com2uS's casual puzzle game [Slice It!].
With a newly designed UI and stages, it will be easy to pick up and play, even for first-time players.
There are a total of 100 stages. We are excited to see how well you will be able to clear them.
Let's take a look at some minigame screenshots and go over the details.
▶ Minigame Flow
When you first enter the minigame, you will see that it is divided into three chapters.
You will begin with the first chapter, The Shire, and progress through the chapters in order.
Each stage is played by drawing lines a limited number of times to divide the given shape according to the specified requirement.
Each stage can earn between one and three stars. The more evenly the pieces are divided in size, the more stars you will receive.
While you do not need to create perfectly identical pieces to clear a stage, keeping the sizes as balanced as possible will result in a higher score.
Shall we take a look at the actual gameplay screen? On the game screen, the following menus will be displayed.
Please keep in mind that a stage will be considered failed if you exceed the allowed number of lines, or if the number of resulting shapes is greater than the target requirement.
Now that we have covered how the minigame works, let us briefly go over the key features of each chapter.
▶ Chapter 1. The Shire
This chapter helps you get familiar with the basic rules. Only shapes appear, with no special gimmicks involved.
As you continue playing, you will naturally get a feel for how to divide shapes effectively.
▶ Chapter 2. Mirror of Galadriel
Mirror objects that reflect drawn lines will appear.
Using mirrors effectively allows a single line to create unexpected splits, adding a layer of strategy to the gameplay.
▶ Chapter 3. Black Gate
In the final chapter, wall objects that lines cannot pass through will appear.
You will need to think more carefully about how to work around blocked paths, making this chapter more challenging.
▶ Hint Feature
If you encounter a particularly tricky stage, you can make use of the hint feature.
You receive one hint per day, and you can earn an additional hint each time you clear a stage with three stars.
▶ Minigame Rewards
When you clear a stage, you earn one to three stars based on how evenly the shape is divided.
A total of 100 stages are available, and you can claim rewards based on the number of stars you accumulate.
All chapters of this minigame will be available to play from the first day the collab begins.
Clearing the first stage of each chapter unlocks the next stage, which means it is possible to clear all stages on the very first day.
■ Other Collab Exclusive Content
▶ Complete Missions in Mordor on Sky Island
Mordor, the stronghold of evil, has appeared on Sky Island!
Prepare for the battles ahead by completing three Daily Collab Missions and five Weekly Collab Missions.
By completing these missions, you can earn collab event currency, various rewards, and Pass EXP to help with your progression.
Daily missions reset at midnight, and weekly missions reset at midnight from Sunday to Monday, based on server time.
Most collab missions are designed to be completed naturally through gameplay, so you can participate at your own pace to earn rewards.
During the first week of the collab, the weekly reward goals will be adjusted so that they can be completed within the shorter Week 1 period.
Here is a look at the collab event currency.
The collab currency can be used on the event page to exchange for a variety of items.
Collab events that run alongside this collab will be introduced through separate notices.
▶ The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters in the Trial of Ascension
In the Trial of Ascension opening on Feb. 14, 9:00 PM PST, The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters will appear as bosses every 10 floors.
You can earn The Lord of the Rings Scroll as a reward by clearing Normal 50F, so be sure to give it a try.
※ Collab content in the Trial of Ascension will be available from Feb. 14, 9:00 PM PST to Mar. 14, 10:00 PM PDT.
▶ Arena Rival Master X
The mysterious Master X, who appears during every collab period, is back once again to challenge you.
Please look forward to the deck combinations prepared for this collab.
※ You can battle Master X once per day. Attempts reset daily at midnight, based on server time.
▶ Collab Special Emojis
To celebrate the collab, special The Lord of the Rings emojis will be available.
Obtain these emojis through collab events and use them in chat to have fun with other Summoners.
Next, let us walk you through the collab schedule and how you can obtain the Collab Characters.
■ Collab Period and How to Obtain Collab Characters
▶ Collab Period: Jan. 29 PST - Mar. 31 PDT
The Lord of the Rings collab is currently being prepared to go live with the v9.1.0 update on Jan. 29 PST.
Original Monsters that will replace the Collab Characters will be added in a future update on a separate schedule.
Please note that the update schedule may change depending on the circumstances.
If there are any changes, we will notify you through a separate notice.
▶ How to Obtain Collab Characters
During the collab period, you can obtain Collab Characters through various summon methods.
Once summoned, Collab Characters can be used permanently.
After the collab period ends, they will no longer be obtainable through normal summon methods.
However, any The Lord of the Rings Scrolls you possess beyond the collab period can be used to summon them.
※ The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters can be summoned in the following methods.
- All summon scrolls that can summon default 4-5★ Monsters have a chance to summon Collab Characters.
(Excluding summon methods with fixed Monster lists, such as Legendary Engrave Summons, Engraved Scrolls, or Engraved Summoning Pieces.)
※ The Lord of the Rings Scroll
- It's an exclusive scroll that summons a default 4-5★ The Lord of the Rings Collab Character of all attributes (Water/Fire/Wind/Dark/Light).
- Water Frodo, which can be acquired from a collab event, will not be summoned.
■ Additional Information
▶ Please check the schedules for the weekly event dungeon and minigame.
The event dungeon and minigame will run for a total of nine weeks.
The event dungeon will reset weekly at midnight from Sunday to Monday, based on server time.
Unlike previous collabs, all minigame stages will be available as soon as the collab begins.
▶ Please look forward to special events celebrating the collab.
To celebrate the collab update, special events packed with amazing rewards will go live.
We have also prepared exclusive gifts that can only be obtained during the collab period, so be sure to participate in the events and claim the gifts prepared for you.
Details of the collab special events currently under preparation will be shared through separate notices.
In addition, a guide page with some more details on The Lord of the Rings Collab Characters is now available.
Check out the page for some of the Collab Character details in advance!
[ ▼ Collab Preview Page ▼ ]
That wraps up everything we wanted to share in advance about the collab.
We hope this dev note brought some exciting news to those who have been waiting for the next update.
(Please note that the details shared in this dev note are provided to help with your understanding.
As development and testing are still in progress, some details may differ in the actual update.)
The update discussed today is being prepared to go live on Jan. 29 PST, so please hang tight just a little longer.
We have been working hard to deliver an enjoyable and memorable experience,
and we sincerely hope you look forward to and enjoy The Lord of the Rings collab.
Thank you in advance for your continued love and support for Summoners War.
We will be back with even more exciting news in the next dev note!
Thank you.
© 2026 Middle-earth Enterprises. The Lord of the Rings and the names of the characters, events, items and places therein, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC used under license by Com2us Corp. All rights reserved.