Obtaining runes | Sauron's Army (Nemesis System) Middle-earth: SoM Guide

Each Captain or Warchief that you defeat drops a rune

The Nemesis System is not only about handicaps that require you to fight battles against the strong orcs. It also means various profits, such a experience points, power points or gold. The most valuable, however, are runes and you receive them as a reward for killing Captains and Warchiefs of the Sauron's Army. Each elite orc that you kill drops a random rune.

An example epic rune

There are several important relationships which it is good to know about:

• The type of rune that you receive for killing an orc depends on the type of weapon that you used to kill that orc. For example, if you kill an orc with the sword, you receive a rune that you can then allot to this type of weapon only.
• The value of the rune that you obtain depends of the Power level of the orc that you killed. For example, for killing a Captain with low power level, you receive a rune of moderate properties. By killing a stronger opponent, you may receive a rune with discernibly better parameters.
• For defeating the strongest Captains and Warchiefs, you can obtain the runes that are the best in the game, and which you will be able to tell by the gold color. This is the main reason, for which it is a good idea to die. at least, several times, during the battle wit the specific opponent. Then, he will gain in strength and receive additional power points. Thanks to this, during the final encounter (the one that ends in his death), you will get a higher chance of farming an epic rune.
• You can, additionally, increase the odds of obtaining an epic rune by sending a Death Threat to a given Captain or Warchief. This requires you to have the Death Threat ability.
• In the inventory, Talion may keep up to 25 of each type. If you have some runes that you do not need, you can sell them, but do not expect to get rich this way - for a regular rune, you receive 25 gold pieces and for the epic one, 50.
• The runes cannot be disposed of, although, which you apply to your weapon, is up to you.
• The standard runes are, usually, described by means of percentage bonuses to the select statistics. This may mean, for example, a bonus to the health bar or to damage dealt. Each of the epic runes, on the other hand, ha one, or several, unique properties. In most cases, these are valuable bonuses that allow you to heal yourself completely, after you kill a Captain. Of course, this serves as an encouragement to obtaining more and more epic runes, thanks to which the game may become much more enjoyable.

Note - To learn more about how to upgrade weapons with runes, see the chapter entitled Character Development.