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Middle-earth: Shadow of War Guide: 6 Tips & Tricks to Defeat Your Enemies

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the much-awaited sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. It promises to be just as epic as the original game, with a few new tricks thrown in for good measure. What’s even more epic, however, is that you can now play the game on Android and iOS mobile devices! Continue Talion’s quest to overthrow Sauron by turning his own army against him. The game uses the same Nemesis system from the original, which allows you to acquire followers from different races, including Orcs and Trolls. The decisions you make in the game affect how your nemeses behave, allowing you to create your own path as you play. Take control of some of the most iconic characters from the stories, including Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Gimli, and of course, Talion himself. You will need to lead your followers in real-time combat across the hostile regions of Mordor. It’s a good thing you can rely on our Middle-earth: Shadow of War ultimate guide, that comes with a couple of tips and tricks in order to survive!

1. Utilize Active Positioning Correctly

One of the most important features of this game’s combat system is the ability to give your units individual commands. You will need to master giving these commands quickly in order to succeed in battle. Knowing when to tell your units to dodge, get into position, and attack will be the key to your success or failure in this game.

Another thing to keep in mind is your party’s position when advancing towards the next enemy team. Unless instructed, each member of your party will automatically move forward regardless of their position. Make sure you drag your tank units ahead of the group so they can protect the rest of your units as soon as the battle starts.

2. Don’t Forget To Upgrade Abilities

Each of your champions have abilities that can be used in battle. Upgrading these abilities require ability points and mirian, the game’s regular currency. The good news is that ability points regenerate over time, and the mirian requirement is minimal. Since there is a cap to the number of unassigned ability points you can have, you will not be able to regenerate more until they are used. You just need to make sure you upgrade abilities often so that none of your free points go to waste.

3. Collect Ring Inscriptions

If you have been playing the game for a while, you will probably notice that it suddenly becomes much harder to move forward once you reach the third orc nemesis. You are not imagining things as the game really does increase in difficulty levels pretty quickly. Aside from keeping your abilities updated, you will also need to fully upgrade your champion rings by collecting inscriptions. This means replaying some of the earlier levels in order to get what you need. Just go to the ring upgrade screen then tap on the inscription you are missing, and you will see which levels drop you need to replay. Take time to upgrade your rings because it is the only way you can continue moving forward given the rising difficulty levels.

4. Make Orcs Your Friends

Remember when we said your decisions will affect the orcs? Once in a while you will be given the option to either brand or execute an orc. Branding will allow you to summon them during battle, making it easier to win. Unfortunately, each orc goes on cooldown for an hour after you summon them. The solution? Brand a whole bunch of orcs early in the game! This ensures you have enough orcs in your back pocket for any emergencies.

Choosing to execute an orc has its advantages. You will earn a rune for each dead orc which will make you stronger. However, there isn’t any point in collecting a lot of runes early in the game because you only have limited slots. On top of that, the slots require you to be a certain level before they can be used. Having a lot of orcs to summon just makes better sense than having a lot of runes you cannot use.

5. Balance Is Key

While you are free to build your own team however you want, you will find that the game is a lot easier to play when you are prepared for every situation. That means building a balanced team composed of fighters, tanks, rangers, and supports. Fighters are the melee specialists and are good at dealing damage. Tanks, on the other hand, are damage absorbers, and should always be in front of the team. Rangers provide additional damage from a distance. Lastly, supports heal allies or weaken enemies. Try to have one of each class with you in order to build a balanced team.

6. Unlock All The Champions

When you visit the Champions screen, you will see a list of playable champions that you can add to your team. However, some of them will be locked. You can unlock champions by collecting the required number of glyphs for each of them. The glyphs you need to collect vary for each champion. Of course, stronger champions will need more glyphs to unlock. Once you have unlocked a specific champion, you can continue to collect his glyphs as you will need them to raise that champion’s ranks.

The first way to collect glyphs is to just play the game. Glyphs are often given out as rewards in certain levels of the game. You can replay these levels repeatedly until you have everything you need to unlock a champion. It takes a bit of work but having the right champion on your team can make a lot of difference.

Alternatively, you can also get glyphs from the game’s gacha system called the Palantir. You get a free Palantir every few hours so make sure you check on it from time to time. You can also purchase more by spending gemstones, the game’s premium currency. One Palantir costs 300 gemstones, but if you wait until you have 3,000 gemstones, you can get 11 for the price of 10. Once in a while, there will be limited-time Palantirs available. These have increased chances of giving you high-ranking champions so make sure you get them whenever they are available.

Sauron may be a formidable enemy, but if you can amass enough followers, you might be able to overthrow him. Remember everything you learned from our Middle-earth: Shadow of War ultimate strategy guide and you will surely win the war!