Middle-earth Shadow of War: How To Get Epic and Legendary Orcs

How To Get Epic and Legendary Orcs in Middle-earth Shadow of War

Your Orcs in Shadow of War are integral to your success in-game, and while you can choose pretty much any Orc to take into battle, the best ones are those labeled as Epic and Legendary. These Orcs are a lot stronger than their regular counterparts, and since you must recruit Orcs at or near your level and you can’t recruit higher level Orcs than yours, you’ll want to pepper in some Epic and Legendary recruits to strengthen your army. You can do this in several ways, though some are going to be a little simpler and more concrete in execution than others.

Collect Orcs as you encounter them

It goes without saying that you’ll be doing this through normal play already, but it’s a valid method just the same that needs to be listed here. Mordor is home to several different Epic and Legendary Orc Captains, and though their rarity drops are random, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the Epic and Legendary Orcs whenever you can.

Stay vigilant as you track them and make sure you track which potential recruits possess traits you need to succeed, such as proficiency with ranged fighting or immunity to arrows. Dominate these Orcs as soon as possible and add them to your menagerie. This may not always work for you, because obviously not every Orc that spawns will be an Epic or Legendary.

It’s time-consuming in this way to keep looking for Orcs that you want to add to your team, but it also costs nothing and you can keep doing it over and over. This is the cheapest option, by far.

Purchase Chests

It’s true you can recruit Epic and Legendary Orcs for free simply by looking for them, but buying Chests is a surefire way to add more to your group. It will cost 1,500 Mirian to purchase a Silver War Chest, which will guarantee one Epic Orc and another Orc at the standard rarity level or higher. You could potentially receive a Legendary Orc from this type of chest, but it’s not likely as it’s completely random.

If you want to guarantee yourself a new Legendary Orc, you’ll want to purchase Gold and Mithril War Chests. You’ll get a whopping two Epic Orcs with the Gold War Chests and four Legendaries with the Mithril War Chest. The only drawback, however, is the fact that you cannot use Mirian to purchase these Chests. You’ll need to use Gold, the game’s premium currency earned with real-world cash, to buy these special Chests. That’s why they give you such a good payoff, after all.

Attempt to trigger Epic and Legendary Orc drops

The Nemesis system ensures that any Orc soldier that manages to take you out in battle gets promoted to an Orc Captain. You can game this system to your advantage by purposefully throwing a battle with a specific Orc you want to encounter later in the game to Dominate and add to your control. This is where you get to be a little more selective about the Orcs you’ll have under your command.

If you decide you’d like to have a specific Orc with a particular talent, simply challenge that Orc when you find him in battle and die when you two inevitably clash. It’s important that you make sure you’re being killed by the Orc you have in mind, however, because there are usually so many traveling in a pack at the same time. If this happens, just restart from a previous save.

This is the difficult part, but you’re not done yet. You have to wait for the Orc to spawn as a new character. There’s no guarantee you’re going to get a special Orc that’s Legendary or Epic, but it’s worth a shot. This method doesn’t cost anything but time either, although getting killed can be a frustrating endeavor, especially since you’re doing it on purpose over and over. If you’re looking to avoid spending money, this is a reliable method.

For more on Shadow of War, be sure to check out our wiki.