During your travels through Moria, you’re going to eventually need to delve deeper.

To access the Lower Deeps, or Crystal Caverns, you’re going to need to repair a mine hoist.

In this survival guide, we’ll show you how to repair the mine hoist in Return to Moria and offer some tips of how to prepare before your descent.

To see the hoist for yourself, be sure to watch the video below!

Mine Hoist Location in Return to Moria

To access the Lower Deeps, you first need to find the mine hoist.

Like the rest of the game, the Western Halls section of Return to Moria is completely, randomly, generated.

So, you may need to do some digging in order to find the mine hoist.

In one of my savefiles, I had to fight an encampment of orcs just to get to the area.

In another, the mine hoist was just a few mine shafts away from my base.

You’ll know you’re in the right area when you find yourself in a large room with a broken piece of machinery.

If it’s your first time in the cavern, then you’ll find nodes of True Quartz scattered about the area.

You’ll also find a mapstone that you can repair to fast travel to the area.

How To Repair the Mine Hoist in Return to Moria

The mine hoist requires a number of expensive resources.

One of them is rarer than the others.

The full repair list includes:

• 15 Black Diamonds
• 20 Elven Wood
• 30 Natural Fiber

Black diamonds is the most challenging resource to gather.

You can find them through killing orcs and mini-bosses.

Fighting Bolgakh is another great way to earn some black diamonds.

Elven wood you can gather back in the Elven Quarter.

To find natural fiber, you’re going to need to slay some spiders.

Once you have enough resources, head to the mine hoist and press the “rebuild” option to fix it.

How To Prepare for the Crystal Descent in Return to Moria

Before you head down the mine hoist, you’ll want to prepare.

The Crystal Descent is the next phase of the game, so you can expect to meet stronger enemies.

It’s worth crafting tier II armor if you haven’t already or making steel weapons.

The climb downwards also drops you down there without means of getting back up initially.

So, it’s a good idea to bring a few things to prepare.

At the very least, it’s not a bad idea to have some wood scraps on you.

This can allow you to build some platforms to gain access to the rope ladder that you can use to climb back up.

Otherwise, you’ll want to have enough resources on you to build a stone hearth.

Then you can build up to the rope ladder and climb that way.

Finally, if you have the extra black diamonds, then you can always make another mapstone which you can use to fast travel around.

Either way, come ready for a fight as there are spiders that spawn down there.

With the right resources, armor, and weapons, you’re ready to descend deeper into the mines of Moria to make your escape.