Middle Earth: Shadow of War sees the return of the much talked about Nemesis system from the first game. With this system, we have some powerful enemies lying in the ranks of Sauron’s army. You’ll know when you come across a captain or a warchief since the game will stop and show you a cutscene signaling their arrival.
Some of these enemies can be pretty pesky to take down but luckily there’s a pretty easy way to tell what these strong foes have for weaknesses. Depending on how much intel you have gathered before going into the fight, you will know a whole host of things about how this enemy operates. Of course, you can always just go into a fight completely blind but sometimes that won’t end well. It will inevitably happen to you over the course of the game so just be prepared for when it does.
If you play your cards right, you’ll be able to check out what your foe is immune to along with what he is weak to. One of the first enemies you fight in Shadow of War is Prak the Warden. From the above screenshot, you can see what he is immune to and you can also check what he is weak to. Since he’s arrow-proof, you won’t be able to sit back and plug away at him with your bow. The same goes for unleashing a hound on him or using fire or poison to your advantage.
Really it just comes down to knowing your enemies weakness and exploiting it. Prak is vulnerable to stealth and executions so just go to town on him with those. Of course since he is the first foe of the game you fight like this, just swinging your sword at him will do the trick. In fact, using your sword will do the trick with most of these enemies but things go a lot faster if you exploit their weaknesses.
All of the captains and warchiefs in Shadow of War will have immunities and weaknesses like this so you’ll have to pay attention to them and know how to counter them. That’s part of what keeps this game so interesting, there are a variety of different units you come across and each of them will have different strengths and weaknesses. It sounds cliche to say that no two captains will be the same but we think that applies with this case.
Killing a captain or a warchief will just cause another unit to step up and take its place. Whenever you die in this game, even if it’s to a normal foe, you can expect that normal Uruk to step up and become a captain. As enemies kill you, they become stronger so try not to die too much.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War is out now on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Shadow of War is an Xbox Play Anywhere title meaning a digital copy on Xbox One will get you a copy on Windows 10 and vice-versa.
