Welcome to the second annual Tinkerfest! Be careful when you are traveling around large congregations of gnomes*, as there seem to be even more cogs and sprockets and such scattered around them than usual! (In addition to Gnomeland Security, you will find gnomes clustering in: Baubleshire, Temple Street, Gorowyn, Kelethin, Neriak, Moors of Ykesha, Bonemire, & Solusek's Eye.)

Tinkerfest will be a limited-duration Live Event. It is expected to be available from July 23 starting at 12:01 a.m. PDT, through August 2, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

While the concept of gnomes celebrating the wonders of gnomehood, complete with jugs of "cheer" may sound like a recipe for disaster when you think of some of their more infamous tinkering mishaps, this event seems to be relatively catastrophe-free! {trips over a stray cog lying on the ground} More or less. It also isn't just for those who have learned the Tinkering skill, although they will get a bit more out of it than your average adventurer.

The Festivities

Once the event is live, make sure that you have learned the gnomish language (primers sold in gnome starting villages such as Baubleshire & Temple Street), and then either head directly to Gnomeland Security in Steamfont Mountains, or use the handy one-way teleporter thingamabob found at the other clusters of gnomes mentioned in the first paragraph to warp there.

While you travel around these gnomish areas, you will find lots of Shiny Tinkerfest Cogs (cleverly hidden as glowing "!") and purple glowies to harvest. Scrounge those cogs, as you're going to want them for shopping and/or crafting binges!

The Quests

Once you're at Gnomeland Security, you will find a new repeatable quest at the base of the climbing wall leading up to Gnomeland Security, called Great Balls of Fire. Climb on up, and the questgiver Didyma (at roughly -576, 170, 999) will offer you three quests this year.

Please note that completion of one of these four quests is needed to receive credit for Tinkerfest for the achievement that requires participation in various world events. If you do not catch Tinkerfest during the 2 weeks that it is available, you will not be able to finish the achievement, and earn the bauble reward, until next year.

BOOM!

In addition to being tons of fun for all adventuring levels, the Great Balls of Fire quest has two rewards for those who are willing to repeat the quest several times.

Repeat the quest 5 times, and you are rewarded with the lovely Cloak of Clockwork Dreams. In addition to being a very lovely appearance item, this cloak has a +25 tinkering skill on it, which makes it handy for some of those more troublesome tinkering combines.

Repeat the quest 25 times, and, like my little warlock on Test, you too can earn the title of "the Explosive"!

Didyma's Offerings

Didyma offers multiple quests, so wading through her various hail responses can take a bit of time. However, they're worth the effort.

The repeatable quest, "Tinkerfest Cheer" returns again this year, where you deliver cheer {hic} to the celebrating gnomes in other areas (Baubleshire, Temple Street, Gorowyn, Kelethin, Neriak, Moors of Ykesha, Bonemire, Solusek's Eye.) This repeatable quest rewards you with some Gnomish Spirits (below) and a house item Tinkerer's Cup. In addition, for those demented enough to repeat the quest 10** times, there is a new title: "the Deliverator". (**Note that the number of repetitions needed for this quest was lowered from 25 to "we think" 10, between when the quest was tested and when it is released. Final confirmation on the number of repetitions will be made once the quest is live on the 23rd.)

Shofar of Test sits on a throne made from the cups earned while running the quest and proudly displays the new title

The other quest that returns from last year is a minor crafting quest, "Friendly Competition", to aid a gnome over by the battleclocks. Regardless of your tinkering ability, or lack thereof, he will want your aid in collecting some ingredients from around the zone, then crafting them into a battleclock. (The no-trade recipe book, Battleclock Blueprints 1.1, requires only level 2 Artisan to scribe.) While the recipe requires dull black coal, don't fret if you didn't bring any with you, as there's a Tinkering Supplies vendor beside the Gnomeland Security work bench that can sell you the 5 that you need.

Last but not least is a new Geargrabber quest which requires quite a bit of running around, as well as a scales-to-level instance. (I believe you can invis past the aggro mobs if you have the ability to invis from spell or totem, however, you're given a large Harclave-style buff on entering the instance, if you need to fight your way through.)

The rewards for these last two quests include your choice of items: a Tinkered Control Console for your home, or some gnomerific appearance weapons (wrench, whirlblade).

And that is pretty much it for the questing, unless you trip over a Guide running a special Tinkerfest quest. These are gnomes, after all, with 2-track minds: tinkering and partying. This year's new guide quest rewards a lovely house item book the no-trade "Tome of Tinkering", which contains some "ancient" recipes from EQ days for a trip down memory lane. The quest requires Tinkerfest glowies and the Tinkerfest quest reward gnomish spirits, so it will only be available from guides during Tinkerfest time. In addition, the guides will also have available last year's quest, with the Tinkerfest Memorial Sculpture reward.

The Goodies

However, that isn't the end to the goodies. Remember those Shiny Tinkerfest Cogs? There is a vendor here that will sell you various goodies in return for these fast-respawn items, and tinkers can put them to use in several new recipes. (As with events such as Erollisi Day and Nights of the Dead, the special ingredient is only available during the event. If you stockpile them, however, they can be used in the event recipes all year long.)

While many of the house items sold on the vendor can also be made from new tinkering recipes, several of them are vendor-only, so you'll want to plan out your cog-spending in advance. In addition to the house items, the vendor also sells "Master Tinker's Companion Blueprints 1.0" (400 tinkering to scribe) as well as "Tinkerfest Blueprints 1.0" and "Tinkerfest Blueprints 2.0", which require 25 tinkering skill to scribe (but the recipes contained within then are skill 125). All three recipe books are no-trade, and cost 10 cogs apiece.

Vendor-Only Offerings

This includes items from last year as well as five new offerings:

Celebration of Spring Sculpture	Large Carbonite Gear (inactive)	Large Rhodium Gear Active & Inactive versions	Medium Rhodium Gear Active & Inactive versions
Small Rhodium Gear Active & Inactive versions	Small Rusty Gear Active & Inactive versions	Small Velium Gear Active & Inactive versions	Spoked Carbonite Gear Active & Inactive versions
Spoked Rhodium gear Active & Inactive versions	Spoked Rusty Gear**	Spoked Rusty Gear** Active & Inactive versions	Spoked Velium Gear Active & Inactive versions
Tinkerer's Cup (same as the quest reward)	Vertically Aligned Ronium Gear (Inactive)	Vertically Aligned Velium Gear (Inactive)	(New) Carbonite Hex Gear
(New) Carbonite Plated Gear	(New) Large Rhodium Angled Cog	(New) Overworked Rhodium Gear	(New) Square Gear Pairing

**There are three versions of the Spoked Rusty Gear - "Spoked Rusty Gear", "Spoked Rusty Gear (Active)", and "Spoked Rusty Gear (Inactive)". The Active & Inactive versions share one graphic, the one without either tag has a different graphic.

As one might guess "active" versions have some movement/animation, the "inactive" versions do not.

The Crafted Goodies

As mentioned above, the Tinkerfest Blueprints 1.0 and 2.0 recipe books require 25 tinkering to scribe (recipes are 125 difficulty). The primary ingredient for all of the house items is a Shiny Tinkerfest Cog ground spawn. Common ingredients are T3 common harvests (pliant loam, agate, gold, carbonite), and each requires 7 dull black coal for fuel. Fireworks (flowery, foamy, rainbow) require the same tier of common ingredients, and the same fuel, but do not require a cog. (This makes them great for an alternate tinkering grinding item.)

Tinkerfest Blueprints 1.0

(Click on images to see recipe and size comparison image)

Green Clockwork Lamppost	Green Mechanized Lamppost	Ornate Gold Gear	Plain Tinkered Chest
Red Clockwork Lamppost	Red Mechanized Lamppost	Rusty Tinkerer's Lantern	Smokestack
Tinkered Carbonite Divider	Tinkered Gold Divider	Tinkerer's Bed	Tinkerer's Bookcase
Elaborate Tinkerer's Chest	Tinkerer's Fancy Chair	Tinkerer's Lantern	Tinkerer's Long Bench
Tinkerer's Mechanokinetic Sconce	Tinkerer's Mining Lantern	Tinkerer's Mining Sconce	Tinkerer's Mug
Tinkerer's Ornate Chair	Tinkerer's Piezoelectric Sconce	Tinkerer's Round Table	Tinkerer's Short Bench
Tinkerer's Worktable

Tinkerfest Blueprints 2.0

(Click on images to see recipe and size comparison image)

Automated Rockpicker	Carbonite Roller (Animated)	Compact Mana Battery (Animated)	Corrugated Floor Plating
Dual Charge Station	Impacted Floor Plating	Large Power Orb	Large Tinkered Lamppost
Small Tinkered Lamppost	Sturdy Control Room Door	Tinkered Airship Propeller	Tinkered Laboratory Counter
Tinkered Lighting Mechanism (Animated)	Tinkerer's Regulat-o-tron

In addition to the above, those with 400 Tinkering can purchase "Master Tinker's Companion Blueprints 1.0", a no-trade recipe. This recipe creates a no-trade scroll that you then scribe to gain a fluff pet Master Tinkerer's Companion. This pet is a personal fluff pet version of the tinkered inspiration housepet glowie reward. Those who do not have 400 Tinkering skill will be unable to scribe the tinker-crafted scroll to gain the ability to summon the pet, so the only time this should be commissioned is if you have a 400 Tinker friend who missed out on buying and scribing the recipe.

The Glowies