Lord of the Rings game shadow of war. The official announcement of “Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The plot of the game Middle-earth: Shadow of War

In the world Middle-earth Shadow of War, five ancient burial grounds are hidden, inside which they are waiting for Talion legendary items from the Light Lord set. You just need to restore the lost poem - and the door will open.

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In the world of Middle-earth Shadow of War, five ancient burial grounds are hidden, inside which legendary items from the Light Lord's set await Talion. You just need to restore the lost poem - and the door will open.

Collecting Ithildin

To restore the poem you will have to run hard. In each area of ​​the game world there are several Ithildin - words that need to be inserted into the missing places in the poem. They need to be collected, even if you know exactly the correct word order. You can't just open the door like that.

Finding Ithildin by chance is almost impossible: Talion sees symbols only with ghostly vision. You will have to clear all the Khedirs in the location, mark the Ithildins on the map, and only then go collect them. It's a long way to get legendary equipment.

Restoring the poem

Have you collected all the Ithildin in the area? Great. Go to the burial ground and get to the Ithildin door - now you will practice elven poetry. Your task is to arrange all the found words in the correct order, giving the poem meaning. Let's get started.

Ithildin Door of Minas Ithil

To get into the treasury of the Minas Ithil burial ground, you need to collect these Ithildin: Challenge, Home, Doom, Shadows, Righteous and Banners.

In dark Mordor, a dwelling Shadows,
Higher Banners, and our step is faster.
Righteous driven by the flames of anger,
We are fighting for the edge that once was Home.
Who will quit Call us? Stupid or brave
The one who Dooms to death?

Ithildin Door of Cirith Ungol

In Cirith Ungol you will have to reach six Ithildin: Infinite, Came, Light, East, Blade, Banish.

It seemed Infinite there will be darkness
What is uninvited into this world Came.
But Light The Lord rose like the sun:
From sunset to East it will come back
The shine of chain mail and Blade
Will expel darkness from the east - for centuries.

Ithildin Door of Nurnen

For the door in the Nurnen burial ground, Talion needs to get these Ithildins: Overcome, Cohorts, Gadov, Ditch, Wounds, Mnili.

Let the enemy build walls and dig Moat deep,

Calls the animals and Gadov to the rescue,
Not Will overcome hordes that have no equal and never will.
Scary ones Wounds
We will inflict on those gloomy Cohorts,
What Thought hold back the light coming to Mordor.

Ithildin's Door of Seregost

To get to the treasures of the Seregost burial ground, Talion will have to find the following Ithildin: Rot, Shrouded, Poisoned, Fallen, Cunning, Fury.

Mordor Shrouded darkness, like a dead man's shroud.
A broken oath poisons itself forever Poisoned He.
In his lands Insidiousness with strife they stand on guard.
He is doomed to fade away in cold embraces fallen.

Soon, like a flame, Fury of the Light Lord
Will burn out all the decay and Rot, and the plain will bloom again.

Ithildin Door of Gorgoroth

In the Gorgoroth burial ground, as in all other locations, you need to find six Ithildin: Chainmail, Walls, Confident, Pouring, Wins, Darkness.

In the shadows and darkness hiding vilely, the enemy strives to defeat us,
But ours Walls If they don’t waver, the enemy will not succeed here.
Let him sharpen blades and arrows fiercely, Pouring there is evil and poison in them -
Expertly made Chain mail They will protect us from death.
Let the enemy Sure in his success, but he should know
That the army of the Light Lord is always Wins darkness.

Fans of John R.R. Tolkien began to rejoice yesterday evening, when box art of the upcoming announcement leaked online, but we didn’t have to wait long, and today we have at our disposal a very impressive cinematic trailer for “Middle-earth: Shadow of War.”

The plot of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor centered on Talion, a ranger of Gondor killed by the Black Hand of Sauron, and whose spirit merged with the ghost of the elf Celebrimbor. The new game will take place in the time period between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Talion and Celebrimbor will return and this time they will have a new ring that can subjugate the power of Sauron himself.

Here's the official synopsis: "Middle-earth: Shadow of War" is the sequel to the critically acclaimed action role-playing game "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor", which received over fifty different awards, including "game of the year" Game versions Developers Choice Awards, "Outstanding Development Achievement" D.I.C.E. Awards, as well as the BAFTA Award for Game Design. A new game from Monolith Productions, Middle-earth: Shadow of War continues the story of Talion and Celebrimbor, who must infiltrate the enemy army and turn the forces of Mordor against the Dark Lord Sauron himself.”

The first gameplay of the game will be shown on March 8, and the release is scheduled for October 10, 2017 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

In our review, we already mentioned that this game from Monolith Productions has a kind of second bottom - secret ending, which only opens if the player is diligent enough. But in fact, there are other secrets and Easter eggs that are worth knowing about.

Orcs or Pokemon?

This is not exactly a secret, and certainly not an Easter egg, but rather a funny observation. Game mechanics Middle-earth: Shadow of War allows you to simulate in some detail the society of orcs - evil creatures who serve the Dark Lord Sauron. Talion can take control of these creatures and, in a way, collect them.

Each orc has unique parameters, and there are countless varieties of these unsightly creatures. Therefore, the motto “Collect them all!”, which was proclaimed by the creators of the Pokemon universe, is simply perfect for the game from Monolith Productions.

Moreover, like Pokemasters from “Pokemon”, the ranger Talion can develop the orcs under his control in several ways at once. The simplest one is to push them together. If you wish, you can even arrange duels between your orcs without the participation of enemy ones. In the end, they don’t care who they kill.

If an Orc wins a duel, he increases his rank and may even gain a new ability. Pokémon also improve over time, evolving into more powerful forms.

Orc Assassins in Shadow of War

One of the main reasons to play Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the well-known Nemesis system, which generates a wide variety of content. First of all, these are unique orc leaders who receive a unique appearance, characteristics and even character.

In fact, Nemesis is much more complex than it seems. It also creates unique dynamic tasks and events - duels, hunting trips, attacks of some orcs on others and much more. In the sequel, she also simulates the war for the fortresses that she wages main character Talion, gathering troops and participating in bloody sieges.

But that's not all. To make the world of Shadow of War even more unpredictable, the developers recorded thousands of unique lines for the orcs. They talk about a lot of things, and often their conversations are references to other games.

For example, in the game you can hear the following dialogue:

- I'm a killer. - We're all killers. It's like a credo!

Needless to say, the English version uses the word “assassin”?

Perhaps, even without this, it is clear that Monolith Productions really love the Assassin's Creed series, because Talion, judging by his movements, learned parkour through the work of Ubisoft. In addition, there is another reference to this series, but not in the game, and in the list of achievements and trophies.

In the Xbox version of the game, for example, there is an “achievement” called “Everything is Permitted”, which gives a sneak attack on an orc with the assassin class. If anything, the motto of the Brotherhood of Assassins ends with these very words: “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

Such different orcs

While playing Shadow of War, you can come across not only assassins, but also a bunch of other colorful characters. The generation algorithm does not work completely randomly; it also contains a variety of character templates, which, according to the developers, should surprise the player.

And they surprise, that's for sure! It is enough to meet the so-called Singer - an immensely charismatic orc who expresses himself exclusively in verse to the musical chords of a lute:

This is actually just one example. The author of these lines personally encountered very interesting types. For example, there was an orc named Brainless. He was really slow to think, because in all the dialogues he constantly repeated only one phrase: “I don’t know.”

There was another poet who also spoke in poetry, but, however, without a lute. Apparently the level is too low.

There are a lot of similar moments in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. True, sometimes they don’t seem funny at all. Quite the contrary - frightening. For example, one of the orcs we met didn’t say anything at all, just giggled maniacally:

Apparently, he cannot speak, but he fights well. It’s almost impossible to kill him the first time, but later he becomes even more creepy by wearing a scary mask!

In short, orcs in all their diversity are the best thing about Shadow of War.

Secret ending of Shadow of War

To be honest, this is not entirely a secret, since the second ending is not hidden in the usual sense of the word. No need to wait for the credits to end, no need to look for hidden game areas, everything is much simpler.

After completing the main storyline of Middle-earth: Shadow of War game continues. Most players took this fact quite casually - Talion can continue to gather troops, capture fortresses and simply play with the Nemesis system, which even after the end of the game continues to work properly, generating more and more new opponents and funny situations.

But if you go to the task menu, you can see an active task entitled “Shadow Wars”. It appears immediately after completing the mission “The Bright Lord” and is to capture all the fortresses. Yes, grab it. Yes all.

The task seems impossible, since to complete it you need to seriously try: capture dozens of captains, participate in difficult battles with heavy losses, and generally overcome by all available means. Of course, you can buy victory by paying real money for a chest with legendary orcs, but that's a completely different story.

One way or another, if Talion can still complete the conditions of the “War of Shadows” quest, he will receive a very cool reward - a very cool cutscene that directly references the “Lord of the Rings” saga.

Shelob's complete memory

Another interesting plot detail is Shelob’s memory. Pieces of it are scattered throughout the game. In each region there are several places where you can complete a simple puzzle and get literally a two-second fragment of a large video.

If you put all these pieces of memory together, you can combine them into one video. It shows Shelob's role in the conflict between Celebrimbor and Sauron, and how she chose her giant spider form:

“The Lord of the Rings” is undoubtedly a cult work, which gave birth to a huge fantasy universe, which inspired, and continues to inspire today, thousands of authors of different generations and genres. Not only in literature, but also in cinema, music, comics, video games. Everywhere you can find works that are in one way or another inspired by Middle-earth, the adventures of the hobbits, the atrocities of Sauron, and endless war. So the Monolith studio decided not to stand aside, not forgetting to be inspired by the Arkham Batman series created by colleagues from Rocksteady. In 2014, the team released "Shadows of Mordor"- an open-world action game that introduced a unique “Nemesis” system, forcing enemies to develop, become stronger, take revenge and actually exist independently of total scripts.

The first strike is the unchanging basis

Three years have passed, and now we have a continuation - "Middle-earth: Shadow of War". The sequel continues to take an equally bold and decisive turn in J.R.R.'s universe. Tolkien, telling us about the events that supposedly took place between the adventures told in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. However, familiarity with the original is not a requirement for immersion in the game world. Talion, the hero of the first game, a deceased ranger, whose spirit united with the ghost of the ancient elven blacksmith Celebremor, continues his path of destruction and revenge in order to stop the outrages that the orc troops under the leadership of the Dark Lord are doing.

There's more in this game characters, including women - the spider Shelob, the elf Eltariel, the spirit of the forest Karnan and the girl knight Idril. I hope that DLC skins of at least Elathriel and Idril will appear in the game, as was the case with Lithariel in the first part.

This time our couple doesn’t get by with wreaking havoc and shredding orcs in two locations; instead, the game offers five areas, with different climates, atmospheres and features. Although, the atmosphere is similar everywhere - it's a war an endless fight between darkness and light, to quote the Rebellion group. Each area has its own fortress, which will need to be captured and protected from attacks. Fortresses are distinguished from each other by their dimensions, spaciousness and location key points, which, combined with the characteristics of the areas, provides the game world with good variety.

Second strike - introducing a new engraving

However, from a functional point of view, all areas are no different from what we highlighted in Shadow of Mordor. The volcanic terrain of Gorgoroth will not burn Talion’s heels, the swamps of Nurnen will not stain them, and the snow of Sergost will have little effect on the main character. Or his opponents. These are all just visual effects and decorations, nothing more. In all areas, we kick the butts of the orcs, who in the first twenty to thirty hours of the game will delight the hell with their diversity: in “Shadows of War” the number of enemy classes has increased, they have become more diverse in appearance, and the number of replicas has increased significantly. There is also humor - there is an orc rhymer who speaks in verse, there is an orc bard who is ready to sing a welcome song.

There are several orcs in the game that will become our obligatory companions, for a long or short time. These characters are developed simply perfectly, the dialogues with them are excellent, they have charisma and good humor. In general, the work on the orcs in the sequel was done even better than on the main one storyline, which, although interesting enough to keep you glued to the screen, is still too drawn out, which prevents it from being perceived as a coherent narrative. On the other hand, this is the problem with most open-world games - the player gets very carried away with exploring areas and doing all sorts of side tinsel, which are often necessary to advance through the scenario.

Even stupid orcs are surprised by amazing wanderings. Like this one in the picture above.

The third blow - we close the ring

In his wanderings through Mordor, Talion seeks not only to wreak havoc in the ranks of Sauron, but also to create his own power. Here his comrades come to his aid - we can assign one or more bodyguards to the hero, who will save him in a difficult situation, take with us a detachment of tamed orcs and order them to storm the camp, summon a graug or tame a dragon flying nearby. Locations are filled with objects for interaction and profit: chests with money, collectible items that reveal the secrets of the world of Middle-earth, hives with evil flies, spider nests, barrels of grog, ice icicles and carcasses for baiting caragors. All this can be used against your enemies. Many orc commanders can be killed with one such action!

Thirty hours later, and I’ve played more than fifty and haven’t yet received the platinum cup, the encounters with the orcs are starting to get a little tiring. Welcome remarks are repeated several times, the types of orcs are also not endless, and you can’t miss all this. You just want to grind missions for experience, money and recruiting officers, because the fourth act leading to the secret true ending is a complete mockery of a dedicated player. And the game seems to tell you: “No, my friend. Take your time, meet the orc Pushkrimp for the fiftieth time, albeit now in a new type, listen for the 101st time to the line about the orc who speaks in poetry, and then watch several dozen battles in the pit. And all this cannot be missed.”

Orcs know how to cheat death, that is, to return from the other world, betray us, run away from battle a second before the final blow, escape from finishing moves and replenish health. All this works under the control of a random generator.

Fourth strike - laying the foundation for special touches

Pit fighting is a new and cool feature with which you can actually pump up your orcs without losing, raising their level. Almost every area has three types of pits: for worms, warriors and winners. The former are attended by low-level fighters, the latter are attended by mediocre fighters, but the latter are attended by real monsters. The pits are a way to make your captain a leader by introducing a spy into the fortress. It is enough for him to defeat another captain. The probability of victory depends on a number of factors: the level of the orc, its weaknesses and strengths. For example, I pitted a level 30 orc against a level 39, and he won a fairly easy victory due to the fact that his strengths gave him a powerful advantage over the enemy. He was dexterous, but his opponent was clumsy.

The Overkill trophy drops when we send two of our subordinates to fight in the pit. Against each other
of course. There is also a cool “Brother against brother” trophy, but it is performed in a normal game.

When the area comes under the control of the player, the pits become the main tool for pumping. We choose our orc whom we want to upgrade, send it to any of the three pits and watch how he fights with a random enemy. Wins? Great, he gets a level and brings us bonuses. Losing? It's a pity, poor fellow, but now is the time to personally go down into the pit and recruit the winner. Who needs losers?! The player has no physical influence on the battles in the pit, and cannot intervene in the battle. So, the classic scheme of “combining business with pleasure” works here: we go about our business, read “The Lord of the Rings,” watch “The Hobbit” and at the same time click on the orcs, sending them to the pits. Don't waste valuable time in vain.

Fifth strike - will the ring be for the rich?

Of course, if you just want to beat the game and then watch the true ending on YouTube, as many will definitely do, then there is no need to grind dozens of orcs for the monotonous, boring and incomprehensibly done events of the bonus act. You don't really need holes. But it’s almost impossible to get through the thorns of the final chapter without them. Unless you have enough extra money to purchase golden chests that contain high and legendary orcs. You can also get them in silver chests, which are bought with in-game currency, but the chances of this are much lower. For example, I bought several golden chests, each with a guaranteed legendary orc, one with two. Out of ~100 silver chests, I came across about five or seven legendary orcs.

Did this ruin the game? No. Despite all the negativity that many of us feel towards “loot boxes” and other microtransactions, players who fill in real cash only get the opportunity to save real time, which is known to be money. They receive no real advantage over regular players, and online interactions in Shadow of War are asymmetrical, often depending on the skill of the player themselves rather than on the strength of the fortifications of the owner of the world they are invading.

Sixth strike - sparks burn the skin

As you progress, you experience much more “burns” due to the basic game mechanic, rather than from forced microtransactions, which you stop paying attention to when you go beyond the Internet and forums. In particular, combat system The new game suffers from the same thrills that were in the first part, and are also integral features of Rocksteady's combat. All of them can be grouped into a category called “game recognition of player intentions.”

I won’t do without examples, because they are so important (no sarcasm). When the player fights with a captain or leader, ordinary orcs have a bestial tendency to appear out of nowhere and get in the way. And often they are joined by all sorts of intelligent and semi-intelligent living creatures: olog-hai, they are also trolls, caragors, graugs and dragons. You just deal with them all and focus on your target, when suddenly an arrow flies in, and then the counterattack indicator lights up. “Your mother is this way and that,” you think, and try not to waste any more time on the husk. This is where trouble comes.

Controlling each animal is unique, but not always convenient. Especially when you play as a dragon in closed space missions. You need to get used to everything - the clumsiness and sluggishness of the graugs, the agility of the caragors and the drunken flights of snakes.

Firstly, the game often does not understand what exactly the player wants to do - jump over the enemy, or roll between his legs (in the case of a troll, which cannot be jumped over, but Talion persistently tries!). Secondly, the game often confuses conquering the enemy (pressing the “circle”) with the movement that is prescribed for pressing the “circle” - in my case, this is a freezing punch. Thirdly, the game often does not understand what kind of enemy you are trying to conquer. Not only does the conquest work with a delay, but it also works on an ordinary stupid orc instead of a broken captain! I deliberately played around with this tonight and checked it out. Situation: two captains, one is broken and stands closer to me, the second is aggressive and is several meters further than the first. Who is the game trying to conquer when you press the “circle”? You understand... It was possible to prescribe adequate priorities.

Is the seventh strike a whipping ring?

The rest of the combat system also remains the same. Talion can swing a sword, parry blows, carry out powerful counterattacks, jump over enemies, tame animals, and beautifully chop anything that can be chopped. The mechanics are the same "Arkham" series of Batman adventures, with all its features, flavored with an additional layer of absorption and instant execution. The hero has a bow, which he wields masterfully, thanks to the ghost of Celebrimor, and is able to briefly slow down the flow of time while he takes aim. Most of Talion's moves can be upgraded and equipped with additional features: freezing, poison, ignition, increased stealth, jump shooting and much more. There are a lot of skills, and to upgrade them all, you will have to grind a lot.

Eighth strike - sudden madness?

Talion also knows how to kill secretly, or savagely destroy an enemy, dipping the surrounding orcs into a vat of horror. This mechanic, stealth, is implemented in “Shadows of War” in the same tortuous way as in “Shadows of Mordor”. It exists for added variety, a few key missions and numerous secondary objectives. But in fact, it works less like secrecy and more like surprise. It seems to me that this is exactly what it should have been called during translation. The fact is that when you rush through the entire camp at elven speed, two dozen opponents shy away from you, and you sharply attack one of them - this is not stealth, but surprise. Moreover, for a specific orc who received a lethal dose of steel in the liver. But the game considers this to be stealth. Thus, tasks involving stealth + time are solved by a banal run through the enemy camp with the sudden destruction of several. And I don’t care that an orc dragon with three captain heads is rushing after you.

I find Eltariel's missions the most interesting. And not because of the blonde elf, but because they show the stories of the Nazgul. Even if not as much as we would like.

However, despite the forced, I would even say cartoonish, stealth, awkward moments in the combat system and a drawn-out narrative, “Shadow of War” plays very well. The project is naturally captivating, and its performance on PlayStation 4 is exceptionally pleasing. Good draw distance, nice animation of enemies, cool original voice acting, stable frame rate, only occasionally allowing itself to sag a little. On a regular console. Any mechanical flaws in best traditions Assassin's Creed has already become so ingrained in open-world games and parkour that you pay attention to them, but you don't get as angry as before. We are talking about problems when a character clings to an unnecessary ledge, refuses to unclench his fingers and jump, clings to some invisible texture, and so on. It's all here, just like in the first part.

The Ninth Strike - the omnipotence that unites Mordor

The game also works fine online, and there are three types of online interaction: completing challenges (including to receive premium gold), taking revenge for other players, and besieging their castles. The challenges change daily and are easy to complete, online revenge is no different from a regular vendetta, just as the siege of a fortress is almost identical to the local one: we must reach the throne room and defeat the ruler of the lands. The player whose world we invade does not suffer from our actions! Just like we are from the actions of others. Just for fun, and for the sake of war trophies, for every thousand of which there is a chest with bonuses. The web is also a great way to find a lot of legendary gear.

Finally, I would like to say a little about trophies - I took the platinum cup in “Shadows of Mordor” in 38 hours. I'm already nearly 60 hours into this game, and there are still trophies left unobtained. Just a few, but I don’t want to grind them yet. Hypothetically, during this time it was already possible to get platinum, if you did not spend too much time on exterminating captains, complete domination in all locations, and network tasks. If you buy golden chests, then yes. But don’t forget that the orcs in “Shadows of War” are vile bastards and often betray. This fact also applies to legendary fighters from purchased chests, so think twice before investing additional funds.

On a dark path!

The tenth strike is a ring worthy of a new Overlord

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a worthy sequel to Shadow of Mordor, Monolith's loose retelling of the events that were lost between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Game world became many times larger and richer, the “Nemesis” system was brought to a qualitatively new level, gladiatorial battles between orcs and the capture of fortresses added variety to game process. However, there is a fly in the ointment: the narrative feels drawn out, the controls are replete with the same inconveniences as in the original, and the path to the true ending is like a slow naked parade through a thorn bush in which a nest of feisty wasps is hidden.

The review was written based on the digital version of the game provided to the editors by the publisher.

In a conversation about "Shadow of War" ( Middle-earth: Shadow of War), perhaps dominated by the question of how much loot boxes and microtransactions contribute to the experience (namely: none), but on the inside, this is a skillful, innovative and quite original game.

"Shadow of War" is based on the "Shadow of Mordor" Nemesis system, where any random enemy can kill you and rank up (during revenge missions and other confrontations between enemies). Now you recruit new orcs (recruited in-game or perhaps purchased from the vendor The Headhunter) and set them against a series of fortresses in need of capture.

You can assign spies to get ahead of some high-ranking warlords when the siege begins, deploy your friendly orcs to thin the ranks overall, and even call in others to act as active bodyguards in the game.

There's a lot to use here, but if you're going to Mordor, make sure you know how to get to the other side.

12. How to automatically select items

"Shadow of War" requires awkwardly holding R1/RB to select items or equipment. It's the same button as capturing orcs or activating missions, and it's... a little annoying, to be honest.

But there is nothing to be afraid of - there is a way to move around and select items, just like in any other game. Simply go to the character screen, then scroll down to the Wraith row and you'll see "Treasure Hunter" next to the four icons.

Grab it and that's it - when you go through items, they are added to your inventory. Of course, those four badges mean you'll need to level up four times to get the required points, but Treasure Hunter is a vital level that eliminates one of the game's biggest drawbacks.

11. Intentional death has its benefits.

The very foundation of the Nemesis system is based on the fact that Talion cannot die, and makes the orcs the regional antagonists, allowing them to collect abilities and armor to boot.

But this also has its benefits.

Let's say there's a special Orc with a specific skill set that you'd like to recruit. Set up a mission to trigger their arrival or search the world and then fail on purpose.

They'll immediately get a level/ability boost, some new equipment, and a new title, all of which you'll then get if you find them and defeat them in this new form.

Of course, it will be harder to fight, but there is no other way to level up your orcs so quickly, and although this may sound like an excuse, it is much more effective and quick way creating a strong army.

10. Return a stolen/broken sword (even in better shape)

I wonder why you can't delete your starting equipment in your inventory? This is because the game keeps it just in case the orc decides to break your new set.

In fact, during any encounter with a captain/warlord/overlord, it is possible to encounter an enemy who (if you are knocked down and left alive) will literally take your current blade and break it in half.

Although you thought he was missing forever, find new mission"Vendetta" that appeared with the mentioned orc, and go through it.

After defeating a new enemy (don't recruit them) they will drop the stolen equipment again - luckily with additional levels, which match any update they received to kill you.

9. You can assign several assassins to the governor

Tiny stats on the army screen - assigning orcs/captains to capture a warlord and assigning spies.

Shortly after you've dominated a certain Orc and given him a target, press the "Command" option on another and hover over the same Warlord whose days are already numbered.

After assigning a few traitors, start this mission and watch as your orcs reveal their true commands, draining the Warlord's health so you can get an easy kill.

8. How to use fighting pits effectively

Fighting Pits are one of the coolest features in Shadow of War - they're where your best orcs fight the game's random creatures, which only have AI controlled animations.

But while you can order any recently captured captain to infiltrate the upper echelons of the fortress as an assassin, you will always return to the same place (themselves fighting pits) for the fight to take place.

To get around this, capture the orcs and lure them to your side, but wait to assign the mission until you are literally in place in the pit. Once you're there, click on the Army screen and then tell your orcs who's fighting who. A mission will appear nearby and you can start it.

Repeat this for all your captured orcs and you'll save a lot of time. Just remember: capture/dominate as many orcs as you need, then fight.

7. Only quests and killing the captain give experience

It's unclear how they made such a mistake, but Shadow of War literally forgets to tell you how the XP system works.

In other words, if you think you can wander around open world, killing thousands of orcs and increasing rank, then do not expect an increase in XP.

But the only ways to gain experience are by killing the captain (found in the world) or through missions. Yes, killing Warlords and Overlords gives XP, but they are triggered from the map in the form of icons.

Note that story missions give over 10,000 XP once you get into the second act, so if you need to rank up your entire army, prioritize these missions and objectives. Your army's strength is equal to Talion's level, so sometimes you need to engage in battle, story or whatever.

6. Ghost Vision reveals rats that give health

Recovering health is much more difficult in Shadow of War, mainly because there are no items that restore it and your meter will only regenerate to the gray part.

Basically the rats will spawn nearby once the health level is low enough, so back away, hold circle/B and poke the little tiny heads.

5. You need to jam properly to ride Olog

It's a small but significant difference, although the game tells you that a stunned Olog will let you ride him, and it's not the circle/B button that will help. You'll get flattened while you're trying to achieve this.

It's best to wait until Olog starts attacking, a prompt will appear with a button icon above his head, and then press circle to stun him. Then press R1 / RB, and you will successfully mount the beast, now you can control it to clear the territory.

The same goes for missions where you need to “quietly kill” or “quietly dry out” enemies. "Shadow of War" just wants you to see the melee animations rather than take a long-range headshot.

Hopefully this will be fixed in post-launch patches, but just remember: it's probably not you, but the game being picky.

4. Power-ups and stones

These are two extremely important components of the game, and can be easily seen in the pile of menu prompts that make up the game's first act.

Gains: Perhaps when you take part in your first Siege or when you tell an Orc to kill another, you noticed the "Training Orders" option and found a couple of buffs there. Typically it's elemental damage, a troupe of extra orcs, or a special weapon change, etc. that the orc uses in each subsequent battle, but then... they disappear from the same equipment screen.

The reason is that these are additions locked in loots - equipment drops from the market that you can purchase with real money or gold coins that are given for daily tasks. Extremely useful: try to complete a few tasks before equipping your favorite Borgface The Stab-Lover with the best boosts.

Stones: You might think that they need to be collected again, first you want to spend some Mirian to open the necessary "gem" slots for each weapon, because they greatly affect the gameplay.

They work like this: (besides the fact that “red” = “damage”, “green” = “life” and “white” = “XP / recruitment level”) all stones of a lower level can be given to a higher one. You will need three first levels to create one second; three second for the third and so on. So don't let go of the orcs collecting gems (indicated by white arrows on the minimap), kill them, and even if you get a standard gem, combine them all together in sequences for better buffs.

3. Distract the orcs with noise

The Distraction ability in Shadow of Mordor has been updated so you no longer have to aim at the Orc for the tooltip to appear.

Now, instead of looking to see who's ahead, just hold L2/LT and aim. Whether you're in Ghost Mode or Normal Mode, use this to create a triangle/Y noise distraction at the location your crosshair is pointing at.

A very useful thing for destroying Captains who have moved away from their bodyguards. This can also be used to lure out enemies if you're on that annoying mission where you can't be detected.

2. Orcs can serve as human shields

In normal combat, we all run out of supplies. And when the screen quickly fills with many orcs from different factions, hold R1/RB to grab one.

This can be done in any part of the group, then leave with the loot, and every other orc that strikes deals damage to him.

This is a great way to get out of trouble, especially if the captain can be grabbed without giving in. Take advantage of the chaos: when more bodies appear on the screen, hit your target and then take him away.

1. Instant dominance and recruitment of multiple captains

One of the deliberately designed disadvantages is the reduction of your nearby. Before you manage to dominate/recruit the captain when you hold circle/B, another enemy will almost always interrupt.

To fix this, use the Combat Drain ability (press X + O / A + B at the same time), which allows you to grab someone immediately, rather than after 5-6 seconds.

And if you combine it with Double Charge (an ability that allows you to take on two enemies at once), you can dominate two captains at the same time. Both game "rollers" will dissolve one after the other, and even if there are no captains in sight, grab a regular orc for backup.