Hello all! I'm here to help people get through Shadow of Mordor, or make it worse for them. I'm not use to writing a guide so forgive me if its not the best. There will be errors and maybe even better ideas, but here are some of my own.

I have played the game for about 30 hours and counting, I have every single acheivment there is to get, 100%. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to speak it. If this guide doesn't suite you, don't read it, or drink enough that it seems good.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD. PROBABLY. MOST LIKELY. FOR SURE

LAST WARNING. SPOILERS PROBABLY AHEAD. READ WITH CAUTION.

Well lets give a a tiny bit of the story away. You play as Talion, a badass captain of Middle-Earth with more skill then any would-be assassin, somehow. Talion was midin his own business at the black gate when all of a sudden a full scale invasion stared. You do some cool stuff but in the end, your family was killed in front of your eyes, then well, you were killed.

The end. Or so you thought (not really). It turns out you were banished from death. Never being able die, ever. Well, at least not officially. Talk about making some crazy bets with some friends, ammiright? Anyways, when you awaken you kinda freak out an wonder why your not dead. Luckily, you have a nice wraith buddy who tells you how you were in a blood sacrifice and banished from death. And as you can expect, Talion wants revenge.

So begins you little adventure to find relics, topple orcs, eat some flowers, and get your revenge.

Theres a few characters you will meet. Not much special in this part, just the general idea of who's here. No paticular order.

The Good(ish)


Talion - Well that's you. Your a baddass.

Ioreth - She's your wife. You love her. A lot. Seeing how shes kinda the reason your on this vengence quest.

Dirhael - Your only son. He's...well he's dead.

Celebrimbor/Bright Lord - Your Wraith buddy. Turns out he has some issues too.

Gollum - We all know who this crazy, cave-dwelling fish eating, precious obssessed thing is. If you don't, when you need to go watch LotR. Or read it. Whatever.

Hirgon - He used to be a ranger, but left and was hunted for teason. He's an outcast now.

Eryn - She and Hirgon are in love. SHe was catured by orcs. You saved her. +1 point.

Lithariel - She is Lady Marwens daughter (The Queen), and a tough warrior.

Queen (Lady) Marwen - She's the queen and leader of Tribesmen of Nurn. As well as Lithariels mother (looks like her garndmother at first).

Torvin - A dwarf, and a great hunter. Oh yeah, and he kinda forced you to be his hunting partner.

Gorvin - Torvins brother. He was killed when him and Torvin tried to kill the legendary Graug. You don't meet him.




The Bad

Black Hand - Second in command and the one who cursed you and your family. Your mission is to kill him and be at peace.

Sauron - Big badass of badasses that just doesnt ever seem to go away. Hes the head honco with the nachos.

Ratbag - Only captain worth mentioning. Hes a coward. But you need him. So go save him a few times and get what you want.

The Hammer (If You Know What I mean) - He used to be good, till he got ahold of Saurons mace, now he sees the bad in people and kills for Sauron. Also a Black Captain.

The Tower - He's just freaky looking. A black Captain, and the lead torturer.

Saruman - Hes kinda like a dark wizard. Who kinda, you know, looks like a hippie. He's evil and what not.


Just simple lore. Nothing fancy. Move on!

Uruk - Big ol orcs who just want to kill you. These guys are your main enemy, they are the captains and war chiefs you will face.

Caragors - Kinda like dogs. Except a lot bigger and meaner. Oh and they want to pretty much kill everything.

Dire Caragor - Stronger then your average caragor with a nice white skin.

Graugs - They kinda wanna kill everything too. Imagine it like a troll but better, and out of control (for now).

Legendary Graug - Lots of spikes, and kinda legendary.

Ghuls - These things are just mean. Easy to kill, but can twindle your health if your not careful in a group.

Ghul Matrons - Imagine a ghul on steroids, they kinda run the hive.

I'm sure you've heard, there is no difficulty setting. And yes, some people are going to hate this. Like OMG Whyyyy.

But you can get past this, and make your own difficulty. But why should I have to? There should be a slider or somethin..WAAAAAAAAAA. Always something to complain about right?

Look heres a few ways to make your life harder depending on how hard you want to make it.

- Don't upgrade your health.
- Don't upgrade your Elf-shot.
- Don't Upgrade your focus.
-Turn off all Counter indicators and the Hud.
- Limit yourself to how many rune slots you can activate. Meaning, each weapon has a total of 15 runeslots, thats 5 a piece. So instead of unlocking all 15, limit yourself to only unlocking 10 (or less).
- Don't use certain moves (unless you need it for a quest).
- Never use healing plants when in battle, or after battle if you prefer.
- Don't stealh take down (1 hit) captains and warcheifs.
- Resrict yourself from using the environment (grog, campfires, flies, etc)
- Dont brand body guards before battling a cheiftan.
- Only identify captains when you have unlocked the "Death Threat" skill.
- Never EVER run from battle.

You don't think it's hard, but do some of these and I promise it will get hard. Captains and beasts alike will one hit you and send you home crying.

I'll try to do this the best I can. If you have suggestions or ideas I should put in, let me know.

When starting the game, your character doesnt have near the potential as your end game character (or course). In order to unlock more skills you need power, you get power from killing captains (and warchiefs) and doing captain related quests. Weather they win, or lose(fail), you will get the power points from it. However, if they win their mission they become stronger. And if they lose, they stay the same. Stealth is VERY useful in this game.

Your wondering, what ablities should I get? What runes to use? Well thats why I'm here. There are a total of 39 Abilities, so max lvl, is lvl 39.


Tier 1
Personally, its a tough choice on what to get first ability wise. Kinda depends on what you want.

A very useful skill to get first is the Ride Caragors skill. Caragors can be tough to kill and can kill you quick. When one comes into battle, run up a ledge and take them over first or they will kill you.

For a more stealthy approch then get Strike From Above, this will make Aerial takedowns useful. And get Detonate second, as this will help you kill multiple orcs around a campfire, making it easier to sneak around.

For a more go in and kill type guy, get Execution first. From there, I would suggest getting wraith stun. As this will stun enemies and allow you to attack the target many times really fast, so you get the combat multiplier up quicker.

Just think on what you want to do. You want stealth? Pure fighting? Or perhaps a mix. You will eventually get all the skills.


Tier 2

Again, think of what you want.

For stealth, I would suggest getting Shadow Strike, then Stealth Drain. This waty you can be all over the place and get your Elf-Shots back. After that get brutalize, as that can get rid of a few orcs if your target is in a group.

For fighting, I would get Wraith Flash, or Critcal Strike if you can time it right. If you seem to be dying a lot, get Last Chance Finisher.

I didn't seem to use the Poison skill often and didn't even unlock daggers untill the end as daggers seem useless.


Tier 3

Stealthy stealthy, get Lethal Shadow Strike first, always. Then Swift Finisher.

Fighting wise, get Swift Finisher, and then Vault Stun.


Seeing how I didn't get daggers till late, I didn't get Brace of Daggers till late either. And I would wait on Wraith Finisher, I like fighting more orcs, but get it if you want some to run in terror from a Drain or Flurry kill.


Tier 4

Stealth and Fighting will be the same here in skill order. I would get Blade Master then Recilence. Unless you confident in your abilities to not get hit then get Death Theat for a greater challenge or Shadow Mount if you want to deal with catagors faster.


Tier 5

Stealth wise, I would get Shadow Strike Chain, then Double Charge. After that I would get Quick Draw.

Fighting wise, get Double Charge then Critical Strike II if you can do it well, if not, Flame of Vengence. Then get Shadow Strike Chain.

Abilities aren't the only way to make your character stronger, you can also spend Mirian on Attributes. But how do you earn Mirian? Well theres many ways. One of the best way of getting a lot of Mirian is by doing your weapon quests, or Legends. Legends are all over the map and can be found in both regions.

Its best that when doing any mission, not just Legends, that you always do the Bonus Mission, as this will give you a little more Mirian to spend. But theres more! Any time you happen to get some extra runes in your bag or duplicates of runes, you can sell them suckers and make a little extra. So get to killing some captains and warcheifs!

Now that you have all this Mirian what should you do with it? Well drinking and gambling of course! Well, if you could, anyways. You spend it on your Attributes. Atrributes is the Core to your character and the rune slots to your weapons.

Personally, it all depends on how you like to play mordor. I like to Shadow Strike and fight up close mostly, so I started out getting a lot of Elf-Shot and Health first. With more Elf-Shot I could use Shadow Strike more often.

For a stealthy approach, I would get Elf-Shot up first if you want to be moving all around the place to take out the pesky archers. You dont want them ratting you out. Of course, if you like to shoot people along the way you can always get focus afterwards.

For a fighter approach, I would get a little Health first, then Elf-Shot. Gotta have more health to sustain in battle.

As far as runes go, pick them up as you play, no paticular order. I pre-ordered the game off Steam so I got an Epic Sword Rune to start, that being, I got a sword Rune first. So say you find a good rune, and have enought to either get Health, Elf-Shot, Focus, or a new slot for that sword rune. If it's a good enough rune, get the rune slot.

Just whatever is worth it to you, I like to Shadow Strike a lot and be all over the battle place. Find your zone and build around it!

I'll try to think of all the techniques I use to battle these fiends. Starting from lower levels to higher levels. *Added Recently

When starting out, you might think fighting is hard. But its not all that bad! Just pay attention to the inticators on your screen to dodge or counter. Always, ALWAYS counter when you can, even if your in the middle of an attack. You want to avoid damage the best you can. And don't be afraid to take risks, its not so bad to die.

Take over caragors first. Always.

Elf Arrows and stealth is your best friend. Stealth kill all the orcs you can, and shoot any who might hinder you. You don't always have to go fighting all the orcs at once. Be sure to have arrows for any orcs trying to raise an alarm. You don't want all those orcs trying to kill you (or maybe you do?).

*Starting a mission will recover all your health and Elf-Shot. If you dont want to sneak in to a mission, you can just run past orcs and start the mission, it will stop anything chasing you and begin the mission. If your about to die, you can start a mission and it will save you, however, it will end anything your trying to do.

There are 2 enemies to be wary of, beserkers and shield-barriers. They can be a pain when surrounded by multiple orcs. Try to use your combat finishers on them first and if you have to, kill them off with Lethal Shadow Strike or an arrow to the head if in battle, and target them first in stealth. As they can kill you quick.

To kill a Shield Barer, you have to vault over him (and it can stun him with the ability) and attack his back. *These guys cannot be countered, they must be dodged either by dodging away or vaulting over them. A quicker way to kill these guys is by using Lethal Shadow Strike on them, or combat finishers.

To kill a Beserker, you must stun him (Wraith Stun), and finish him that way. This goes for captains as well. *Berserkers are tough, you can counter their attacks but cannot attack them back directly. A good way to take care of these guys is by using your wraith stun and using your flurry attack, if you can finish it, good, if not, try to get up enough combat multiplier to combat finish them. You can also Lethal Strike them.

To easily kill a captain in a fortress, get him and the orcs to follow you under a fly nest, this will scatter the orcs, leaving you with just the captain.

*Take care of Archers and Javalin Throwers first.

The environment is your best friend. Gather orcs around campfires and grog barrels, watch it go boom.

*Using Wraith Stun followed by a few hits from Flurry Attack can quickly build your combat multiplier.

If your not confident in your ablities, be sure to always find out a captains Strengths and Weaknesses. This can determain a whole battle.

Captains aren't much different from normal orcs (at early levels). Except they have a few extra abilities.

You can use Shadow Strike to escape a battle or to build up your combat multiplier. Also a good way to quickly get to your destination!

The orcs can be kind of dumb, and this can be cheap, but if your having touble, you can simply run around a wall, climb it, and keep stealth killing orcs or captains ( as long as they arent resistant to stealth attacks).

If your elf shot is high enough, you can use Lethal Shadow Strike over and over to build up your multiplier, then use combat drain two times in a row to get more arrows, and rinse and repeat.

This section will be updated as I go.

As far as runes go, it all depends on your play style. If you like stealth, get personal, use your bow a lot, etc. The best combinations in my opinion, are the ones that sync together.

For example. On my dagger, I like to use a lot of runes regarding branding Elf-Shots, as they have a lot of good uses.

I use:
Sword
Wrath and Ruin (Epic) - Increase the stun and knockdown durations on Wraith Flash.
The Bright Host (Epic) - Recover +1 Elf-Shot for each Wraith Flash kill.
Savage Onslaught Lvl 11 - Increase melee damage by 21% at mid Hit Streak ranges (15-29).
For Vengeance Lvl 22 - Increase melee damage by 32# at high Hit Streak ranges (30+).
Foe Hammer (Epic) - Recover Elf-Shot on combat Executions kills.

Bow
Sylvan Arrow Lvl 9 - 34% chance to recover +30 Focus for a headshot kill.
Ascendant (Epic) - Reduces the Focus depletion rate by 50%
Broken Mind Lvl 17 - 42% chance to recover +4 Elf-Shot on a Drain or Brand
Wind Rider Lvl 18 - Recover 43% Focus on any Shadow Strike move.
Will of the West Lvl 18 - 43% chance to recover +10 hp on a headshot kill.

Dagger
Spell of Ruin (Epic) - I recover +1 Elf-Shot Wraith Burn or dispatch kills.
Favor of the Lady Lvl 22 - Recover 32% HP when completing a Drain or Brand.
Forge of War (Epic) - Recover +4 Elf-Shot on Drain or Brand.
Chill Soul Lvl 14 - 67% chance to recover +50 Focus on a head explosion kill.
Worm's Tooth Lvl 18 79% chance to recover +25 hp on a head explosion kill.

As you can see, I like to use Drain moves a lot. Reason being is I love using the Lethal Shadow Strike move on the harder guys (Shield and berserker guys), getting my combat multiplier up, and using brand to recover more Elf-Shots and health. As well as having half the focus drain, better focus recover for more shots, build the combat multiplier up, Lethal Shadow Strike move to move in and brand some more. And with branding, I recover health. Use ones to your play style and combine them to make them better.

How to get lvl 25 runes:
It's not too hard, theres a few things you have to do first.

They must be lvl 20. +20 points
A cheiftan. +2 points
Know their weaknesses and strengths. +1 point
Exploit their weakness. +1 point
Make them your Rival (Die by Them). +1 point

Do NOT Death Threat them as that will cause an Epic rune to drop, and you wont get the lvl 25 rune. To make this easier, I would find an orc who has an easy weakness. Like fear of fire or Catagors. So know their strengths and weaknesses. Die to them once. And get them up to cheiftan. Then kill them. If a non epic rune drops, it will be lvl 25. And you will get 2 acheivements. A lvl 25 rune, and Dying by an Orc, getting them to Cheiftan, then killing him.

To Be Updated