Extra mission: Brand the Warchiefs | Main missions Middle-earth: SoM Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Requirements to start the mission: You need to complete the sixteenth main mission (The Power of the Wraith).
In many respects, this mission resembles "Kill the Warchiefs", which you have been completing towards the end of your stay in the Udun valley. What is unique about this mission is that you do not complete it in any location in particular. You can complete it ever since the moment that you have completed the sixteenth main mission (The Power of the Wraith). Up until the moment, in which you meet all of the requirements, you will not be able to progress to the final battles.
The plan is that you Brand a total of five Warchiefs of the Sauron's army (the ones from Nurn). You can score one of the Warchiefs automatically, thanks to completing the sixteenth main mission "The Power of the Wraith ". This means that you need to brand four more, on your own.
Before you take to this mission, it would be a good idea to make some preparations. Try to complete as many side missions as possible, thanks to which Talion gets stronger and gains access to new abilities and attributes. It is important, because battles with Warchiefs tend to be very demanding.
Regardless of which method you choose (they have been described above, also try to increase the Power parameter in the Warchief that you intend to attack, or the captain that you intend to help being promoted to the rank of the Warchief. What speaks for this is that the Warchiefs that you brand take part in the final battles of the storyline. With a powerful army on your side, it is going to be easier to be victorious. The Power factor in the orcs of the of the Sauron's army can be raised in two ways, which you should already know about. First of all, you can let them kill Talion. Secondly, you can send a Death Threat to the orc (you need to buy the ability first).
Note - if you still haven't learned the identities of the Warchiefs of the Sauron's army, nor their weak and the strong points, it is necessary that you make up for that. With additional knowledge about the individual Warchiefs, you are going to find it CONSIDERBLY easier to weaken and brand them.
Note - Battles with the Warchiefs of the Sauron's army can be made easier, by eliminating their bodyguards beforehand, who are marked in the Sauron's army window (the lines linking the Warchiefs with the Captains). Eliminating them beforehand means that the Warchief will be unable to summon them into battle.
There are two main methods to brand. The first one assumes that you repeat all of the steps that you have taken in the sixteenth main mission (The Power of the Wraith). Therefore, you need to dominate one of the Captains of the Sauron's army and play an additional mission connected with him, in order to provide him with backup, while eliminating one of the Warchiefs. As a result of that, he will be promoted to a Warchief (that is loyal to Talion).
If this is the variant that you choose, you need to picking a Captain that you want to see promoted to the Warchief. It may be a "regular" orc, as well as one of the bodyguards of a Warchief. The only difference is that you will have to play different missions after you dominate the Captain, after which he gets promoted to a Warchief.
After you have selected the Captain, you need to reach him, attack him and deprive him of his health points. At the same time, it is a good idea to deal with his bodyguards (they should be the regular orcs). After the Captain's health bar turn green, you need to grab him and select the option to dominate. Then, you need to Command him. After the window of the army loads up, select one of the Warchiefs and have the dominated Captain start the actions that will get him promoted.
Note - since the regular orcs may obstruct you from grabbing the Captain, it is a good idea to kill them beforehand, lure the Captain away from the rest of the enemies or grab him only after he starts fleeing.
Note - do not risk with too strong attacks because you may kill the Captain by accident and you will be unable to dominate him.
The next step is to reach the marker of the additional mission connected with the Captain that you have just dominated. The course of this mission is different, depending on whether you dominated a regular Captain or one of the bodyguards of one of the Warchiefs. The objective is always the same - you need to help the captain defeat the Warchief and keep him alive, at the same time. After you start the mission, always focus only on dealing damage to the Warchief and, whenever do not use AoE attacks (e.g. Wraith Flash, shooting arrows at grog barrels), which would wound the dominated Captain.
Defeating the Warchief will help you achieve your goal. After the Sauron's Army window pops up, the victory will be confirmed again and you will learn that the branded Captain has been promoted to a Warchief.
The second method is much less troublesome, although you need to expect more complications, while trying to dominate the Warchief. The plan is that you attack the Warchiefs directly, in order to weaken them and brand them. Therefore, in this case, you do not need to dominate Captains.
If this is the variant that you choose, you need to start by reaching one of the yellow markers on the world map. Just to remind you, the yellow icons symbolize the starting points for the missions connected with luring Warchiefs out.
As I have already stated in the walkthrough for the "Kill the Warchiefs" main mission, the missions connected with Warchiefs tend to vary. If you want to lure a given Warchief out, you may have to eliminate, stealthily, the selected orcs in the stronghold, or eliminate them in melee. Regardless of the conditions of the mission, you need to act up until the selected Warchief appears in the battlefield.
The next step is the most troublesome. You need to attack the Warchief, BUT it is very important to remember about several things:
- You cannot use the attack that would instantly kill the Warchief (e.g. a stealthy kill). You only want to weaken him and not to kill him.
- Apart from fighting the Warchief, you also need to eliminate his bodyguards, gradually. This way, they will not obstruct you, later on, from branding. Unfortunately, this is tedious a task, because the Warchief can summon lots of orcs into the battle. Therefore, use strong AoE attack and walk away from the battlefield, after you lose too much health.
Continue fighting the Warchief. Your task is to bring about one of two situations. If the Warchief can be grabbed, you need to wait for his health bar to turn green and then try to grab him. If, however, the Warchief can block your grabs, you need to keep bringing his health bar down, and hope that you will be allowed to choose, towards the end of the battle, if you want to eliminate him or dominate him (of course, choose the latter).
Note - If, however, in spite of your attempts, the Warchief died, you need to wait for him to be replaced with one of the Captains. If you do to want to wait for the promotion, use a forge tower and speed up time, or leave Nurn for several moments (return to Udun).
Note - if the Warchief regenerates spontaneously (this may be one of his strong sides), you cannot allow yourself moments of rest, during the battle. He may, in the meantime, regenerate some of hi health points and it may be impossible to grab him.
You need to keep performing the above steps up until Talion manages to dominate (brand) all of the five Warchiefs of the Sauron's army. Of course, you will be informed, by the game, that the mission has been completed and, in the army window, above all the Warchiefs there are blue icons (an example in the above screenshot).