With the arrival of Middle Earth: Shadow Of War last week on Xbox ONE, PS4 and PC, we’ve been clocking up the hours of gameplay, so here’s the start our of walkthrough for the game. In addition to the descriptions, you can also watch our walkthrough videos to see how we managed to kill a particular enemy, which should help you to progress past some of the tougher opposition.
Middle Earth: Shadow Of War walkthrough and videos:
Walkthrough #1 – Find Celebrimbor and kill Ratak
This is the beginning of the adventure in Middle Earth: Shadow Of War and in all fairness it’s pretty easy. You start out in search of Celebrimbor, so you just cut your way through a few Orcs, before coming to Shelob, who gives him up in exchange for the new ring of power that the two of you forged. She then sends you off to Minis Ithil, which is under siege from Sauron’s forces, in search of a powerful artifact called the Palantir. As you make your way through the city, taking out Orcs along the way, you’ll eventually come face to face with Ratak, who you’ll need to kill. He isn’t too difficult and the arrival of Idril makes it easier, as she gets in a few hits on him too, which will complete the mission.
Walkthrough #2 Follow Idril
Once you’ve taken care of Ratak, you’ll need to follow Idril through Minis Ithil to get back to the main compound. You’ll need to defeat bands of Orcs along the way to save her sergeants, before being left outside the gates to take out the last of the front line. This gives you the heavy move by holding X, which you can try out, but you might find it easier just to smash X and Y block when needed to finish the mission.
Walkthrough #3 – Sauron’s Eye
This is a relatively quick mission that will see you taking out your first fast travel tower in Minis Ithil. Make your way to the location, avoiding unnecessary scuffles along the way, climb the tower and cleanse the Haedir to complete the mission.
Walkthrough #4 – Shadow’s Of The Past
This mission walkthrough is located underneath the city and you’ll need to follow the point set out when you cleansed the Haedir. The video above shows you the way and also shows how to use Wraith view to find the door to start the memory of Celebrimbor’s past. It shows that the former Elf Lord had been close to finishing off Sauron, but the One Ring had betrayed him and gone to Sauron. You then find yourself in the past as Celebrimbor putting up a fight against Orcs, which you’ll need to fight to build up the might needed to unleash his devastating Elven Rage move.
Walkthrough #5 – The Seeing Stone
This mission will see you facing off against the siege engines of the Orc invaders, so you’ll need to head back up to the surface from your location under the city. You can either use the fast travel or run up, but there’s a Caragor outside for you to take on. It’s like a big dog cat beast thing, so it can inflict a lot of damage up close head on, so you need to hit it with arrows to start with and then finish it off from the side.
When you start The Seeing Stone mission itself, you’ll need to follow Idril through the city again, avoiding flaming bombardments as you go. Then you’ll need to take out the siege beasts by shooting arrows into their weak spots and then getting in close enough to dominate and mount them.
You then use the beast to rain down your own bombardments on the Orc invaders and any new siege beasts that are in range. Once that’s done, you’ll need to repeat the exercise again with another beast further away to complete the mission.
Walkthrough #6 – Knife In The Dark
Here you’ll be heading back to see Shelob in Cirith Ungol to get a vision about an assassin that is planning an attack on Idril and General Castamir. You’ll start by facing a War Troll called Olog-hai, who is distracted by Gollum. You’ll need to beat it to advance and the best strategy is to get in attacks with X, duck under its legs whenever you see A and try to mount it using RB. Press B any time you see it.
Once you’ve killed Olog-hai, Gollum will take you to see Shelob for the vision about the assassin, before leading you off in search of his location. You’ll need to use Wraith view to follow the clues along the way and stealth it out as much as possible, which will lead you to Bolg The Assassin. Check out our Knife In The Dark walkthrough video above to see how to get to him in more detail in you get lost. Bolg is pretty feisty and you’re pretty much on your own on this one. Vaulting over him with A means you can chip away at him with X when his back is turned and then when you get enough Might you can try an execution move to finish him off with Y + B and complete the mission.
Walkthrough #7 – No Man’s Land
Continuing in Cilith Ungol, this mission will see you joining forces with Baranor following another dark vision from Shelob. You’ll be able to send Baranor off to stealth kill Orcs as you follow the trail and then there’s a clue to follow with RB. Make sure you get the required stealth kills for Baranor to get the objective and then you’ll find yourself up against the bodyguard of one of the War Chiefs, Tarz the Scourge. He’s riding a Caragors, so it’s wise to either shoot him off or shoot the Caragors to make things easier when you approach.
Baranor will help you out int he fight itself and if you’re lucky he might even be able to kill Tarz all by himself, like he does in the walkthrough video above to complete the mission.
Walkthrough #8 – Rain Of Arrows
This is yet another mission with Baranor in Cirith Ungol as you join forces once again after a third vision from Shelob about an impending offensive in Minis Ithil. The first job is to stealth kill all of the Orc archers, so you’ll need to stealth your way through them carefully so as not to raise the alarm. Check out our video above to see how we did it if you’re having difficulty. once you’ve taken them out, you then need to get to the vantage point, which is straightforward enough without any enemy archers to spot you and then you can signal Baranor for the attack.
The next job is to join the battle in the arena-like area below to take out as many orcs as possible. Most of the captains and Orcs will be killed pretty easily, but War Chief Ghash the Heartless is a bit more of a challenge. Baranor and the archers will help out, so you just need to keep on attacking to finish him off and complete the mission.
Walkthrough #9 – Traitor’s Gate
Anther Shelob vision shows that there is a traitor in the ranks of Minis Ithil, so Talion sets off with Gollum to hunt down the contact. He leads you up to the fortified compound at the top of the map and you’ll need to stealth your way across the rooftops to keep up with your target. When you get to the top, he’s killed by war chief Huru Man-Breaker, who you’ll need to face to compete the mission.
He’s a tough opponent, especially with the Caragors roaming around below. Shoot them out and avoid the spears to give yourself a better chance of success when you get down there. Don’t forget to drain enemies with B to keep your strength up for the fight. Try to take out as many of the Orcs that work alongside Huru, leaving you with the 1-on-1 task to finish off. Vault over him with A and stun him with B before unleashing X attacks. Keep this up to chip away at him and then you’ll get to interrogate him with B, which reveals nothing but a sinister message from the Witch King before the mission is done.
#Walkthrough #10 – The Arena
Following on from the Witch King’s message at the end of the Traitor’s Gate mission in Cirith Ungol, you’ll need to fast travel back to Minis Ithil to start the next mission. Use the fast travel Haedir to get closer to the mission start point and then you’ll find yourself in the Arena with Ur-Lasu Pit Fighter hurrying towards you. Duck through his legs with A and then hit X to get in your hits. Repeat this to finish him off.
You’ll then need to head to the middle of the arena to taunt the crowd, which will bring Orcs, Uruks and Krakhorn Bone Shaker into the battle. He’s got flaming arrows, so you need to keep him occupied, while also trying to take out the attacking grunts. If you jump between attacks on the Orcs and then back at Krakhorn you should be able to finish him off. Check out the walkthrough video above to see how we did it.
Lastly, Shaka Skin-Chewer arrives in the arena and he can be beaten by grabbing him with RB and letting the Orcs slowly kill him. You can inflict your own damage with X and then when he breaks the hold continue the offensive and get another hold in. If your health ever gets low try to drain one of the grunts with B. Once you fell Shaka, the mission will complete with some spectacular effects from Celebrimbor.
Walkthrough #11 – Before Dawn
This mission is relatively simple as you head out with Idril to rescue her dad from the Orc encampment outside the city. Simply stealth your way through the ranks sending Idril off to steal kill here and there and then set all of the captive soldiers free. Once they’re all free and camp is cleared, you will rescue Castamir in a cinematic video, which will then see you simply leading the two of them back up to the city, killing any orcs that get in the way.
Walkthrough #12 – The Fall
This is the final mission in Act I and it’ll see you getting a new vision of destruction and Castamir’s betrayal from Shelob. Then you’ll need to hold the bridge as you try to reach Castamir, so you’ll need to fight it out with a lot of action and drains to keep going. Avoid the circling Drake like the plague and try to hold out for long enough for the reinforcements to arrive, which will then cue the arrival of Tuhorn Raid Leader. Focus on defeating him as quickly as possible to complete this section using your blocks with Y, hits with X, drain Uruks with B and dodges with A. If you can hit him into the fire, he should weaken fairly quickly.
Once he’s done you’ll be up at the hall to see a cinematic with Castamir giving the Palantir to the Witch King in exchange for Idril’s life, but he still gets killed leaving Talion to face the Nazgul. They’re tough, so make sure you keep hitting Y to block their attacks, focus on taking them out one at a time, dodge with A whenever they’re about to strike and finish each off with B.
Once they’re all done, you’ll find yourself in the clutches of the Witch King in a cinematic, but you’ll be saved by Eltariel with Galadrial’s Light. After this, you’ll need to simply run along with Eltariel to save Shelob from the Nazgul. Once this is done, you get the ring back and you’re off to a new region to start building your army in Act II.
You can see our latest Middle Earth: Shadow Of War walkthrough videos on our YouTube Channel playlist.
