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Middle-earth: Shadow of War Game Guide

One ring to enslave them all. This guide for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War contains detailed descriptions of all important elements of the game: melee and ranged combat, world exploration and richly illustrated walkthrough that can help you to complete the game without any problems.

Last update: 21 December 2022

This guide for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War contains detailed descriptions of all important elements and offers a complex walkthrough for all available quests. The first few chapters of this guide focus on describing the most important aspects of melee and ranged combat, stealth attacks and world exploration.

The next part of the guide includes richly illustrated walkthrough that can help you to complete the game without any problems. You can learn how to complete each of the main missions as well as how to unlock and finish every side quest.

This guide can teach you how to develop Talion and turn him into a killing machine. You can also learn everything about the best equipment and ways of acquiring gems. Also, the guide covers a lot of details that can help you in developing and conquering fortresses. The closing pages contain information about additional activities and achievements that you can get in this game.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: Quick Beginner's Guide
Middle-earth Shadow of War: All main missions, walkthrough
Middle-earth Shadow of War: Secrets and Collectibles
Middle-earth Shadow of War: All bossess
Middle-earth Shadow of War: Trophies and platinum guide
Middle-earth Shadow of War: Game length
Middle-earth Shadow of War: System requirements PC
Middle-earth Shadow of War: Game editions

Middle-earth Shadow of War: Quick Beginner's Guide

Here are some basic starting tips for players beginning their adventure with the game:

Platinum can be unlocked at any level of difficulty. If you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself, you can choose the lowest difficulty level. It will make it easier for you to defeat bosses, capture fortresses and win Shadow Wars.
Unlock the orc army management mechanic as soon as possible. Simply perform the initial story missions until you unlock the option to command your army during the second act of the campaign. This will open up many new possibilities.
Recruit a strong orc and appoint him as Talion's bodyguard. Having a good bodyguard can significantly reduce the risk of death after the main character is surrounded and/or weakened by a group of demanding opponents.
Be on lookout for good orcs to recruit. The stronger the orc, the more useful it can be for you if you can successfully dominate and recruit it. You will appreciate having good orcs especially when fighting in the arena and sieges.
Don't look just on the level of a piece of equipment. Items in the game are divided into several quality categories (e.g. rare, legendary), which differ in colors. A rarer item in theory should be better than a lower level item, but this is not always the case. Always try to compare the stats to make sure that you will benefit from replacing one item with another.
Choose the most useful skill upgrades. You can only set one upgrade for each unlocked skill at a time. Try to choose them according to your preferred style of play and, if necessary, the specifics of your current mission.

For more tips and tricks, see the General Tips page.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: All main missions, walkthrough

Middle-earth Shadow of War offers a prologue, three main acts of the campaign and an epilogue, which was originally called Shadow Wars. All story missions can be found in our walkthrough passage. Here is a list of the main quests:

Prologue - New Ring

Prologue

Act 1 - Minas Ithil

Act 2 - Rise to Power

Act 3 - Shadow and Flame

The Bright Lord

Act 4 - Epilogues / Shadow Wars

Shadow Wars / Epilogue - true ending

Middle-earth Shadow of War: Secrets and Collectibles

Middle-earth The Shadow of War doesn't have a very large number of secrets, although there are numerous rewards associated with finding collectibles and solving related puzzles - such as new skills or trophies.

Here are the main variations of secrets and collectible you will find in the game:

Haedir Towers - You can climb up and "clean" each of the towers. This will enable you to discover the other varieties of collectible found in each region of the map.
Webs of Fate - Talion can find shattered fragments of Shelob's memories. They can then be combined by completing simple mini-games.
Gondorian Artifacts - Once you reach any such secret, you can pick it up and listen to the related story. Assembling a full set of artifacts will be rewarded with skill.
Ithildin Door - Talion can find runic words and bring tchem to special door in order to complete elven poems and open the door. Opening the ithildin door is rewarded with legendary equipment.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: All bossess

As you play through Middle-earth: Shadow of War, you may come across bosses who are much more demanding than standard opponents - Middle-earth: Shadow of War Game Guide

As you play through Middle-earth: Shadow of War, you may come across bosses who are much more demanding than standard opponents. You will find a description of the boss battles in our walkthrough:

First Orc Leader - You battle him on the arena. Go to the walkthrough of mission 7 - Rain of Arrows.
Nazguls - You battle them during the defense of Minas Ithil. Go to the walkthrough of mission 11 - The Fall.
Carnan - It will appear in several differet forms. Go to the walkthrough of mission 13 - Violent Nature.
Tar Goroth - The battle takes place after taking down Sauron's acolytes. Go to the walkthrough of mission 24 - Carnan's Bane.
Tar Goroth - second battle - You need to defeat the Balrog once again with Carnan's help. Go to the walkthrough of mission 26 - Frozen Flame.
Bruz - He's in the orc cave. Go to the walkthrough of mission 33 - Worse Than Death.
Zog - In addition to defeating him, you must also stop the awakening of Balrog. Go to the walkthrough of mission 37 - Fire From Ice.
Suladan - He's one of the Ringwraiths. Go to the walkthrough of mission 39 - The Tower of Sorcery.
Zog the Eternal - You also need to destroy nectomancer's totems. Go to the walkthrough of mission 40 - Army of the Dead.
Helm Hammerhand - Talion must also save the fortress Seregost. Go to the walkthrough of missions 41 - The Scourge and 42 - Fire and Fury.
Isildur - Yet another Ringwraith to defeat. Go to the walkthrough of mission 43 - Gravewalkers.
Witch-king - He's one of the last bosses of the game. Go to the walkthrough of mission 44 - The Lord of Light.
Sauron - He's the final boss of the campaign's third act. Go to the walkthrough of mission 44 - The Lord of Light.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: Trophies and platinum guide

Middle-earth: Shadow of War offers 53 basic content trophies and 20 additional content trophies associated with story DLCs. The game of course offers the possibility to unlock the platinum trophy, but this only applies to the PS4 versions.

Platinum in Middle-earth: Shadow of War is not very difficult to get, although it can be a time-consuming process. In addition to trophies related to the progress in the main campaign, character progression and finding secrets, many of them are related to the mechanics of managing your army of orcs. It's worth trying to keep up to date with that, especially as some of these options are easily missed. Luckily, it is much easier to get platinum due to the fact that the game can be played at any difficulty level, including the lowest.

All of the trophies you can find in our trophy guide.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: Game length

The main campaign of Middle-earth: Shadow of War will last for about 20 hours, but this includes only the prologue and Acts 1-3. This value does not include the epilogue, also known as Shadow Wars. Even after the changes that have been made some time after the game's release, it may take over 10 hours to complete Shadow Wars.

If you are planning to unlock the platinum trophy, you should double the value we provided earlier. Expect that it will take about 40 hours to complete the game in 100%. You can find a complete overview of how much time it may take to complete Shadow of War on the separate page titled Game Length.

Middle-earth Shadow of War: System requirements PC

OS: Windows 7 SP1 or later
CPU: AMD FX-4350, 4.2 GHz / Intel Core i5-2300, 2.80 GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
GPU: AMD HD 7870, 2 GB / NVIDIA GTX 660, 2 GB
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
HDD space: 70 GB

The provided requirements are minimum, i.e. sufficient to run the game in low details and low resolution. On the System Requirements page you will also find the recommended requirements and information about the requirements for the PS4 console version.