#Middle earth shadow of war endings series#

There are numerous other tactics involved to ease the path, such as equipping gems that boost recruited orcs by one to five levels depending on the gem’s potency. Even better, I found that killing level 23 legendary captains in the open world when I was level 54 still gave me level 54 gear. And if you do end up killing them, well, there’s your legendary loot drop for gear or weapons. And so you can pick up new orcs during the siege itself, whether in offense or defense. The most important rule of Shadow of War is that you should never kill an orc - particularly a legendary quality orc - if you can recruit him. You don’t even need to hunt for them “in the wild.” That’s a waste of time. You don’t need loot boxes to get legendary orcs for your fortress’ assault or defense.

Spending mirian wisely (and picking up around 10,000 more from loot dropped during the Shadow Wars), I still had around 10,000 by the time the Shadow Wars ended.īut here’s the big point. That’s not too bad, and they’re permanently unlocked each time you fight at that fortress. A cavalry of caragor riders costs 700 mirian, while the ability to have a drake fight for you costs 950. When Act IV came along, I spent most of that on defensive and offensive upgrades for each fortress I had to protect or assault. I just saw no reason to spend my mirian as loot drops were already so plentiful and orcs were easily recruitable. Keep in mind that I had no idea that the Shadow Wars were coming. I had over 50,000 mirian when I finished Act III-which counts as a “soft” ending-and this was after spending a few thousands to unlock all gem slots for my gear. Why? As I said in my review, the in-game currency of mirian “drops like rain” from missions, bonus mission objectives, random enemies, and from Talion’s old gear when you break it down. I sincerely believe developer Monolith Productions could remove the boxes right now and it’d make little tangible difference to the game. After playing a lot more of Shadow Wars, I feel the same way, and although I mainly came to that conclusion by pulling stunts like the one above, that 'stunt' made the game more fun. Some say it’s essentially impossible to complete without using purchasable loot boxes stuffed with legendary quality gear and orcs for your army if you run out of money, with Polygon going so far as to say that the system is “predatory.” I, on the other hand, said in my own Shadow of War review that I didn’t get the point of the loot boxes.

#Middle earth shadow of war endings series#

I hate it so much, in fact, that when an army of orcs from the Machine tribe showed up at the gates of my fortress in Núrnen in Mordor’s sunny southeast, I just went to the menu, clicked “Leave Mission,” and let them have it.Īnd so it often went with Shadow of War’s controversial fourth act - called The Shadow Wars - which involves a 10-stage series of battles over different fortresses before you can reach the “real” ending. I hate defending fortresses in Middle-earth: Shadow of War.