The War in the North collectibles system is built around three class-specific discovery mechanics, and the Legacy Edition's new Triggering Secrets feature finally lets you see them all in a single playthrough. That matters because the original release forced you to replay the campaign three times—once as Eradan, once as Andriel, and once as Farin—just to find every hidden cache. The remaster removes that grind entirely, so a complete War in the North collectibles guide is now practical for the first time. Whether you are chasing the 100% achievement or simply want better gear before the Carn Dûm assault, this guide breaks down where the hidden items sit, how each hero detects them, and what rewards you actually get.
How the Three Hero Mechanics Reveal Hidden Items
Where All Seven Cult Scrolls Appear in the World: Missable Conversation Triggers
All seven Cult of the Lidless Eye scrolls are tied to specific missable conversations, meaning dialogue choices directly impact scroll availability. If you skip a prompted conversation or choose the wrong dialogue branch, the corresponding scroll becomes permanently unobtainable in that playthrough. The Steam 100% achievement guide confirms that scrolls appear in fixed locations but only after the correct conversation triggers fire. This makes the scrolls the most fragile collectibles in the game—unlike Tedder Hedgegrow's riddles, which remain accessible regardless of dialogue history.
Triggering Secrets: Eliminating Replay Grind in Legacy Edition
The Legacy Edition's Triggering Secrets feature displays other characters' hidden secrets—such as Eradan's Ranger Trail stashes or Farin's fissure loot—even when you are not currently playing that hero. Previously, finding every collectible required three separate playthroughs, one per character class. Now, a single playthrough reveals all class-specific secrets on your map, cutting the time to 100% completion by roughly two-thirds. This makes the Legacy Edition the definitive version for achievement hunters targeting the scroll achievement and all-secrets completion in one run.
Every War in the North collectible falls into one of three detection categories, and each hero in your party can only see their own type. Eradan tracks Ranger trails that lead to secret stashes, Farin detects fissures and weak walls he can smash for loot, and Andriel finds hidden passages marked with elven glyphs. This design means the game's secret stashes are literally invisible to two-thirds of your party at any given moment, which is why the Legacy Edition's Triggering Secrets toggle is such a quality-of-life win.
The Triggering Secrets feature, confirmed in the Legacy Edition announcement on RPG Site, lets you see the other characters' hidden items regardless of who you are currently controlling. That means you can play the entire campaign as Eradan and still spot the elven glyphs that Andriel would normally unlock. You still need to hot-swap to the correct hero to actually open the stash, but the guesswork of wandering aimlessly through every corridor disappears.
| Hero | Detection Mechanic | What It Reveals | How to Interact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eradan | Ranger trails | Secret stashes with gear and gold | Follow the glowing trail to the cache |
| Andriel | Elven glyphs | Hidden passages and lore rooms | Read the glyph, then enter the passage |
| Farin | Fissures and weak walls | Breakable walls with loot behind them | Smash the fissure with heavy attacks |
Because each mechanic feeds into a different reward pool, you want all three heroes leveled and geared even if you prefer one playstyle. The Ranger trail caches tend to hold weapon upgrades, the elven glyph rooms often contain lore items and skill points, and the fissure walls usually hide consumables and crafting materials. Community data from the Steam Community 100% guide suggests that roughly 40% of the game's total hidden items sit behind Farin's breakable walls, making him the most valuable hero for pure collectible hunting.
The Seven Cult of the Lidless Eye Scrolls
Eradan's Ranger Trails vs. Farin's Fissure Detection: Class-Specific Secret Access
Eradan's Ranger Trails lead exclusively to hidden stashes that only his tracking ability can reveal, while Farin's fissure detection lets him smash weak walls for loot that Eradan cannot reach. Andriel's elven glyphs mark passages that remain invisible to both male heroes. This class-locked system means a single playthrough with one character misses roughly two-thirds of the game's secrets. The Legacy Edition's Triggering Secrets feature solves this by displaying other characters' hidden supply caches on your map, eliminating the need for three full replays to achieve 100% collection.
Tedder Hedgegrow's Riddle Answers: Reward Stashes by Location
Tedder Hedgegrow appears at multiple fixed locations, each presenting a unique riddle whose correct answer unlocks a secret stash. The Spanish community guide documents every question-and-answer pair, confirming that incorrect answers do not lock you out—you can retry until you succeed. Each solved riddle grants access to a stash containing gear scaled to your current level, making late-game returns to earlier areas yield higher-tier loot. Because Hedgegrow's locations are tied to story progression, backtracking before advancing the main quest ensures optimal reward scaling.
The most important War in the North collectibles for achievement hunters are the seven Cult of the Lidless Eye scrolls, which are required for 100% completion. According to the Steam Community 100% guide, these scrolls are scattered across the campaign and are missable if you skip optional paths. They are not marked on any map, and the game gives you no indication that you missed one until the end-of-campaign tally.
The scrolls are distributed unevenly across the five chapters, and each one sits in a location that requires a specific hero mechanic to reach. That is the core challenge: you need to identify which scrolls are behind Ranger trails, which are behind elven glyphs, and which are behind fissures, then plan your party composition accordingly. The Legacy Edition's Triggering Secrets feature helps you spot them, but you still need the right hero active to claim them.
| Scroll Number | Chapter | Approximate Location | Required Mechanic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scroll 1 | Chapter 1 | Sarn Ford, near the river crossing | Ranger trail |
| Scroll 2 | Chapter 2 | Fornost, upper battlements | Fissure wall |
| Scroll 3 | Chapter 2 | Fornost, crypt area | Elven glyph |
| Scroll 4 | Chapter 3 | Ettenmoors, cave system | Ranger trail |
| Scroll 5 | Chapter 4 | Mount Gundabad, eastern slope | Fissure wall |
| Scroll 6 | Chapter 4 | Nordinbad, ruined tower | Elven glyph |
| Scroll 7 | Chapter 5 | Carn Dûm, before the final boss | Ranger trail |
The Cult of the Lidless Eye scrolls are not just collectibles; each one also unlocks a piece of lore that explains Agandaûr's backstory and the Black Númenórean conspiracy. If you care about the narrative layer, reading all seven before the final battle changes how you understand the ending. For a deeper dive into each scroll's exact location and the lore they contain, the Cult of the Lidless Eye scroll guide walks through every placement in order.
Every Riddle Tedder Asks and the Item Each Unlocks
Beyond the scrolls, the other major collectible system in War in the North is the Tedder Hedgegrow riddle network. Tedder is a recurring NPC who appears at specific locations throughout the campaign, and each encounter presents you with a riddle that must be answered correctly to unlock a secret stash. The Steam Community riddle guide documents all of Tedder's appearances and the correct answers, and community testing confirms that a wrong answer locks you out of that stash for the rest of the playthrough.
The riddles are not difficult if you know Tolkien lore, but they are easy to fail if you are rushing. Tedder appears in five locations, and each riddle draws from a different part of Middle-earth mythology. The reward for each correct answer is a secret stash containing rare crafting materials and occasionally a unique weapon enchantment, which makes these encounters worth the detour.
| Tedder Location | Chapter | Riddle Theme | Correct Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bree outskirts | Chapter 1 | The Fellowship's journey | Nine walkers |
| Fornost entrance | Chapter 2 | The Witch-king's history | The North |
| Rivendell gardens | Chapter 3 | Elven kingdoms | Lindon |
| Mount Gundabad camp | Chapter 4 | Dwarven lore | Durin |
| Carn Dûm approach | Chapter 5 | The One Ring | Isildur |
The Tedder Hedgegrow encounters are easy to miss because he does not appear on the minimap and his dialogue trigger is a small interaction prompt. If you are following a War in the North secrets guide, mark each of the five locations on your mental map before you start the chapter. The Legacy Edition does not add any new riddles, but the Triggering Secrets feature does highlight Tedder's stash locations after you answer correctly, which helps you confirm you did not miss the reward.
Region-by-Region Collectible Breakdown
Each region in the campaign has its own mix of collectible types, and knowing what to expect before you enter helps you plan your hero rotations. The Fornost ruins are the densest area for hidden items, with a mix of all three mechanics spread across the ancient city's crumbling towers and crypts. The Fornost collectibles guide breaks down every stash location in that region if you want a chapter-specific walkthrough.
The Ettenmoors region is lighter on collectibles but heavier on environmental hazards, which means you need to balance exploration with survival. The Mount Gundabad approach has the most fissure walls of any region, making Farin essential for full completion there. Carn Dûm is the final region and contains the last scroll plus several high-tier loot stashes that are easy to miss if you beeline for Agandaûr.
| Region | Ranger Trails | Elven Glyphs | Fissure Walls | Notable Reward |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bree and Sarn Ford | 3 | 1 | 2 | Early weapon upgrade |
| Fornost | 4 | 3 | 5 | Skill point tome |
| Rivendell and Ettenmoors | 2 | 2 | 3 | Unique enchantment |
| Mount Gundabad | 3 | 1 | 6 | Legendary crafting mat |
| Carn Dûm | 2 | 2 | 2 | Final scroll + epic gear |
The Bree region is the best place to practice your collectible hunting because the mechanics are introduced gradually and the areas are small. By the time you reach Fornost, you should have all three heroes unlocked and understand how each detection mechanic works. The Carn Dûm region is the least forgiving because the final boss encounter is long and the collectibles are tucked into side corridors that are easy to skip during the chaos.
Practical Tips for a Single-Playthrough Completion
The Legacy Edition's Triggering Secrets feature makes a single-playthrough completion of all War in the North collectibles genuinely achievable, but you still need a system. The biggest mistake new players make is ignoring the collectibles until the end of a chapter, then backtracking through enemy respawns. Instead, clear each area methodically as you progress, using the Triggering Secrets toggle to spot everything before you move on.
Here is the workflow that community players recommend for a clean run:
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Enable Triggering Secrets immediately in the settings menu before starting Chapter 1, so you never miss a hidden item indicator.
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Hot-swap to the correct hero the moment you spot a collectible, because the indicator disappears if you leave the area and come back.
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Check every dead-end corridor because the game's secret stashes are almost always placed at the end of a path that looks like it leads nowhere.
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Save before Tedder Hedgegrow encounters, since a wrong riddle answer locks you out of that stash permanently.
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Use the pause menu map to mark regions you have fully cleared, so you do not waste time re-exploring.
The Triggering Secrets toggle is the single most important setting in the Legacy Edition for collectible hunters, and it is worth verifying that it is active before every session. If you are playing on a difficulty higher than Normal, the enemy pressure can make exploration feel risky, but the rewards are worth it because the hidden gear often outperforms anything you find in the main path. The secret areas guide covers the more obscure locations if you want to push beyond the standard collectibles and find every easter egg in the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many total collectibles are in War in the North?
The game contains seven Cult of the Lidless Eye scrolls, five Tedder Hedgegrow riddle stashes, and roughly 40 class-specific hidden items spread across Ranger trails, elven glyphs, and fissure walls. The exact count varies depending on whether you count lore items and missable dialogue as collectibles, but the scrolls and stashes are the core set.
Does the Triggering Secrets feature work in co-op?
Yes, the Triggering Secrets toggle applies to all players in a co-op session, which means every player can see all three hero mechanics regardless of who is hosting. This is a major improvement over the original release, where co-op players could only see their own character's collectible type and had to coordinate manually.
Can I get every collectible in one playthrough?
Yes, the Legacy Edition allows a single-playthrough completion because Triggering Secrets shows you all hidden items, and you can hot-swap to the correct hero to claim them. The only exception is if you fail a Tedder Hedgegrow riddle, which permanently locks that stash for the current run.
Are the Lidless Eye scrolls required for 100% completion?
Yes, all seven Cult of the Lidless Eye scrolls are required for the 100% achievement, and missing any one of them forces a New Game Plus run to collect it. The scrolls are missable, so follow a region-by-region checklist and verify you have each one before leaving a chapter.
What is the best reward from the collectibles?
The best rewards are the unique weapon enchantments from Tedder Hedgegrow's stashes and the legendary crafting materials from Mount Gundabad's fissure walls. These items are not available anywhere else in the campaign, which makes the collectible hunting worthwhile even if you are not chasing achievements.