Middle-Earth Shadow of War Guide – Legendary Gear, Weapons Upgrades, and Gems

Unlike Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War makes inventory management a big deal. There are reasons for this- your gear determines various stats, its rarity determines the kinds of upgrades it can and will get, the gems you use can be used to stack more perks to it, and finally, Legendary Sets can bestow upon you all sorts of powers.

It’s RPG-esque in terms of the inventory management involved here- or you can think of this as being similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which also placed an emphasis on your inventory. Nevertheless, the inventory here works differently from most other games, so let us walk you through it.

• There are five separate item types in your inventory- a sword, a dagger, a bow, armor, and a cloak. These increase your melee, stealth, ranged attack, defense, and stealth respectively. You can only have one of each equipped at a time.
• There are four ranks of gear- common (white), rare (yellow), epic (orange), and legendary (purple).
• You get gear for completing side quests, and as loot drops when you kill orcs. You can also just buy it from the Market using in game money. Gear is not hard to find, don’t stress over it.
• Each gear item has an upgrade challenge associated with it- the challenge increases that gear’s stat. How much the stat is increased by, and how hard the challenge is, is determined by the gear’s rarity level (the rarer it is, the harder it is to upgrade it, but the more it will be enhanced upon being upgraded). You can check the upgrade challenge for an item in the inventory- and remember, only your equipped items’ upgrade challenges are active for you at any moment. This means you can only be upgrading one sword, dagger, bow, armor, and cloak at a time.
• You can add Gems to each type of gear (but not individual gear pieces) for bonuses. Potency gems add damage, vitality gems add health, wealth gems add, well, wealth.
• There are five ranks of Gems:
  • Basic
  • Carved
  • Polished
  • Refined
  • Perfect
• Each rank is more powerful than the last, and you can combine three of any gem rank gems to get one of the next rank. So, for instance, three Carved gems will give you one Polished one.

LEGENDARY GEAR

This deserves its own section, so here we are. Legendary Gear is late game stuff- each Legendary Gear you pick up belongs to a set. Completing a set leads to some severe bonuses. You can track how many pieces of each set you have and what bonuses you have available from the rightmost icon in your inventory.

The sets in the game, as well as instructions to unlock their individual pieces, follow below:

Feral Legendary Set

• Feral Sword
  Kill a Legendary Feral Slayer or Destroyer.
• Feral Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Feral Assassin or Berserker.
• Feral Bow
  Kill a Legendary Feral Marksman or Tracker.
• Feral Armor
  Kill a Legendary Feral Tank.
• Feral Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Feral Beastmaster.
• Feral Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Feral Commander or Trickster.

Marauder Legendary Set

• Marauder Sword
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Slayer or Berserker.
• Marauder Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Assassin or Tracker.
• Marauder Bow
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Marksman.
• Marauder Armor
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Tank or Destroyer.
• Marauder Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Beastmaster or Trickster.
• Marauder Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Marauder Commander.

Machine Legendary Set

• Machine Sword
  Kill a Legendary Machine Slayer or Berserker.
• Machine Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Machine Assassin or Tracker.
• Machine Bow
  Kill a Legendary Machine Marksman .
• Machine Armor
  Kill a Legendary Machine Tank.
• Machine Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Machine Beastmaster or Trickster.
• Machine Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Machine Commander.

Terror Legendary Set

• Terror Sword
  Kill a Legendary Terror Slayer or Destroyer.
• Terror Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Terror Assassin .
• Terror Bow
  Kill a Legendary Terror Marksman or Tracker.
• Terror Armor
  Kill a Legendary Terror Tank.
• Terror Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Terror Beastmaster or Berserker.
• Terror Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Terror Commander or Trickster.

Mystic Legendary Set

• Mystic Sword
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Slayer .
• Mystic Dagger
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Assassin or Berserker.
• Mystic Bow
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Marksman or Tracker.
• Mystic Armor
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Tank or Destroyer.
• Mystic Cloak
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Beastmaster.
• Mystic Ringcraft
  Unlocked by killing a Legendary Mystic Commander or Trickster.

Warmonger Legendary Set

• Warmonger Sword
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Slayer.
• Warmonger Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Assassin or Tracker.
• Warmonger Bow
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Marksman.
• Warmonger Armor
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Tank or Destroyer.
• Warmonger Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Beastmaster or Berserker.
• Warmonger Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Warmonger Commander or Trickster.

Bright Lord Legendary Set

• Bright Lord Sword
  Open the Ithildin Door in Gorgoroth.
• Bright Lord Dagger
  Open the Ithildin Door in Seregost.
• Bright Lord Bow
  Open the Ithildin Door in Nurnen.
• Bright Lord Armor
  Open the Ithildin Door in Minas Ithil.
• Bright Lord Cloak
  Open the Ithildin Door in Cirith Ungol.
• Bright Lord Ringcraft
  Complete all Shadows of the Past missions with at least a Bronze rating

Middle-earth: Shadow of War Vendetta Legendary Set

• Vendetta Sword
  Complete and finished all objectives of first Vendetta mission.
• Vendetta Dagger
  Use a stealth attack against an online Vendetta Target.
• Vendetta Bow
  Headshot an online vendetta target.
• Vendetta Armor
  Kill an online vendetta target with your HP over 80%
• Vendetta Cloak
  Use a mounted attack against an online vendetta target.
• Vendetta Ringcraft
  Kill a Legendary Vendetta Commander or Trickster.

Dark Legendary Set

• Dark Sword
  Kill a Legendary Dark Slayer or Dark Destroyer.
• Dark Dagger
  Kill a Legendary Dark Assasin
• Dark Bow
  Kill a Legendary Dark Marksman or Tracker.
• Dark Armor
  Kill a legendary Dark Tank.
• Dark Cloak
  Kill a Legendary Dark Berserker or Beastmaster.