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.