The Ultimate Guide To Creating Custom Orcs

This guide will explain the best ways to create custom orcs and help you maximize the Nemesis System to It's full potential.

0- Introduction

Hello there!

(THIS GUIDE IS RIGHT NOW A WIP)

My name's Skanderbeg, and today I'm going to show you many tips to help create custom orcs, like the few below.









Most of what I will be showing you is reccomended to do late-game, as in your early to mid game you should focus more on playing the game. (You still should learn how to make back-up saves, regardless of what point you are in the game.)

I will be showing you to do things, including, but not limited to;
:Making all your Orc followers Legendary
:How to manipulate a captains class and appearance
:How to make multiple copies of a captain
:Recommendations for certain traits for captains for both Pit Fights and Fortress Defense
:How to make captains cheat death (And give them some pretty cool scars!)
:Some other tips to make life in Mordor a little bit better

Formating of this guide will break each "section" of a trick into two parts, the first part being very basicly how to do the tip/trick and the second part being more advanced techniques in order to reap better results or make things go faster.

DISCLAIMER: IN ORDER TO DO MOST OF THE TRICKS I WILL BE SHOWING YOU, A BACK-UP SAVE WILL BE NEEDED. A GOOD AMOUNT OF FREE TIME IS ALSO NEEDED.

With all of that out of the way, let's jump into it!

1- Back-Up Saves (Basic)

Back-Up saves are needed for most of the things i will be showing you. In order to make a Back-Up the following steps are necessary;

1. Go to Windows (C:) from there go to Program Files (86x) find the steam folder, then go to userdata, then this is a little different for eveyone, but find your main steam id number, then go to that folder, then folder 356190 then finally, remote. In the remote folder should be your Shadow of War (it will in the future be called SoW for time purposes.) save file. To clarify one more time it goes;

Windows (C:) ----> Program Files (86x) ----> Steam ----> userdata ----> The Steam account you're playing SoW on ----> 356190 ----> Remote

2. Copy this save file and save it somewhere else (A seperate folder is recommended)

3. If you ever want to replace your current save with the old one, all you have to do is copy the save you stored somewhere else then find your remote folder again, and then paste in there. (Make sure when it prompts you to to replace all of the old file in the remote folder)

That's it! There are a few more ways to have a more efficient Back-Up save system, which will be covered in the advanced part of this section.

1- Back-Up Saves (Advanced)

Now, having just one copy of a save isnt enough for somethings. We want to create a whole save file system. We can do this simply by making a folder, (Call it something you'll remember has your SoW save file(s) in.) making another folder within that folder, then copying the SoW save file from the remote folder into that folder.

You can then fool around as much as you like in your game without fear of consequences or, even better, delete your saved game and start a new game if you want to without losing your old one!

(When you start up the game when you press play there's a button to delete save game.)

For example, my main folder is called "SoW Saves". Within that folder i have a folder called "Main Save" where i store, you guessed it, my primary save. I then have a folder called "Brutal Run" where i play a game on brutal difficulty, and another called Act 2 which is a game right at the start of Act 2 (That's for a later trick.)

If you have done it right, you can now have multiple playthroughs, or do something you were afraid to do before. Back-Up saves are amazing and i hope you realize that too.

2- Warpaint, Skin, Decoys, and Gangs (Basic)

Now that we have all of the save file information out of the way, let's get into the meat of this guide. This section will show you how to use gangs in order to manipulate the Class, Skin Color, Warpaint and basic body type and facial appearance. It's a 3 step process.

1. Decide what you want your Orc to be. Here's a list of Warpaint colors. All colors are going to be listed in most common at the top, with the most rare at the bottom. I wish i could list off other appearance traits, but there are just so many types of each one.

Warpaint
:Black (Can be found on around 1/4 of Savages.)
:Red (Can be found with commanders Banner-Holders and enemies at sieges.)
:Yellow (Can be found on some BoG Orcs.)
:Purple (Can be found in Orcs with the title of "The Regal" or in gangs to the title of "The Painted".)
:Blue (Can be found only in Orcs with the title of "The Blue".)
:Green (Can only be found in Orcs with the title of "Frog-Blood".)
:Gold (Can only be found in Orcs with the title of "Gold Tooth".)
:Brown (Can only be found in Orcs with the title of "The Brown".)



2. Get an Orc with your selected appearance traits with a gang. In this example, i will be using Ashgarn the Exterminator to help understand how to use this trick. In this case, Ashgarn has a gang of Savages.



3. Die to one of your selected captains gang members. They will be Promoted and keep many of thier Captains traits. If you're lucky, they may shift warpaint or skin color upon promotion. (It's very rare) I died to Grisha here and he got promoted to the Tark Slayer







You're done! If you want to know some more effiecient ways to do this, continue to the other half of this section.

2- Warpaint, Skin, Decoys and Gangs (Advanced)

This half of the section is for making the procces i showed you in the last half yield better results and go quickly. For each step in the last guide, I'll make some advanced tips here for the same step.

1. When deciding your captains appearance traits you might want to check if there's a Trickster on the hierarchy. If there is you can make near clones of him by dying to his decoys. Everything will stay the same, only title, combat traits, tribe, and personality will change.

Also, if you want a pale captain you can try to give the captain with the warpaint you want the Cursed scar, which makes him, and therefor his gang, albino.

2. When itching for a specific class. what you can always do is give one of your branded Orcs a training order for the gang type of your choosing, then betray the captain. (Give the captain the gang, then make him a Bodyguard and hit him multiple times.)

3. If you want a certain body type and facial structure, you can choose which gang member looks the best to die to. Doing it that way will give you much better looking captains.

A good thing to do when trying to die to a gang member, is to switch to brutal difficulty and to make sure you have an extra last chance in case you die to something that isn't what you want.

3- Scars (Basic)

Making Captains cheat death is a lot easier then you think. This will show you how to make your captains cheat death, and get scars for both appearance and performance. I reccommend watching Uruk's Hollow's video on this subject.

(Really go watch it, it describes everything I will talk about in an easier to digest video format)

Or go read his Mega-Thread on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/shadowofmordor/comments/7sz550/scars_guide_for_shadow_of_war/

Okay, i guess you want to read the text guide then. As always it will be in step-by-step format.

1. Select the captain you want to give the scar to. This works well with Captains who you have generated with the method from the last section.

2. Decide what kind of Scar you want to give to that captain. For most Scars there are many variants of each Scar type. Very basicly, here are some of the scars you can give:

Common Scars

:Face Cuts, achieved by melee and stealth kills
:Slashes, achieved by abandoning a folower in a rescue mission for Uruks, and being killed by beasts for Ologs
:Cursed, achieved by being killed by Purified or Cursed (This makes an Orc pale)
:Exposed Brain, achieved by mele and stealth kills
:Missing Eye, achieved by being shot
:Amputated Leg/Arm, achieved by having an arm or leg choped off in a QTE

There are many, many more, but i dont have the time right now to list them all. All of them are listed on Uruk's Hollow's guides however.

3. Let the captain build up Nemesis score with you. (Be killed by him, have him betray you, flee from him, etc.)

4. Kill the Captain in the way you want to.

5. Wait 20-30 minutes for the captain to return. He will ambush you around when the time is up.

Yay! If you followed the steps you should now have a scared Orc. Here's my example orc real quick.

3- Scars (Advanced)

Yada Yada Yada, you know the drill by now. Here are the advanced tips.

1. When deciding what Orc you want to give a scar to, also keep in mind how many Orcs have already cheated death in your game. If the number is 5 or 6, it's very unlikely that your captain will cheat death with the same amount of Nemesis Score you would've needed in the early game. It may be worth it to back up your save file and start a new game, get to act 2 and take Sharkburz then import your Orc from the Garison. (It took me about 2 and a half hours to do this with Grisha.)

2. If you don't care so much about the look of the Scar, there always is a performance aspect of scars too. Is your Orc afraid of burning? Burn the Orc, and when he comes back he might have a hate or immunity to burning. If not, you can always Alt+f4 during the ambush when the Orc attacks you and try again.

Also, because there are multiple variants of most scars, you can Alt+f4 then to re-roll the scar.

There are also Legendary and Special Scars, which change the captains personality armor and appearance among other things. I got that 3 times with Grisha.



If you want to avoid that, you have to use a backup. (Always make Back-ups) If the scar keeps happening an you dont want it, try giving it to an other Orc first.

3. Being killed 2 times or being killed once and a betrayal seems to be enough for a captain to cheat death in the early game. (5 betrayals or fewer) Here's what I did with Grisha



(Betrayed him)

4. It seems to be worth it to be on Nemesis difficulty to make this step a little bit easier.

5. You have to wait 20-30 mins in-game, not in the pause menu either.

4- Copies of Orcs and Legendary Followers

You can make all your followers Legendary with a simple trick. It's very easy and takes almost no time at all. There are 8 steps

1. Have 21,000 + Mirian

2. Make a backup of your current save

3. Select the follower you want to become Legendary. Select training orders.

4. (Optional) If you have 25,000 + Mirian, you can give your follower an epic trait first. e.g. Thick Skinned, Great Strength, Elemental Mastery etc.



5. Using 20,000 Mirian, purchase a Legendary Training Order. (The trait(s) your Orc will get is random)



6. Send the Follower to the Garrison.



7. Load up the save you backed up on step 1.

8. You should now have the Legendary Follower in your Garison, and keep all of your Mirian.



What i learned from this is that the Garrison is global between all saves, Mirian is local, meaning if you have even more Mirian you can give your followers basic training orders too, to give them specific gangs, Elemental Weapons, or even level them up.

NOTE: This can also be used to transfer an orc from one playthrough to another playthrough. Which also means if you have Shadow of Mordor and couldn't decide on an Orc to send with you to SoW, you can send as many as you like depending on how far you're willing to get throught the game again.

[Kârbol of Lithlad]

@an LRAS
Just make a custom orc and then shame him repeatedly

[an LRAS]

no way to make a custom orc that is a maniac or deranged?

[Bluebarian ❦]

I am currently working all 5 forts being a single paint. Black and red are easy with the dark and slaughter tribes spittin red painted orcs at ya all the time. But I am farming blue, yellow, and brown for the other forts. I die to the gang they have. There is a bit of a limit to what a random grunt can become. I got all the things covered like rhymer and poet, beholder and executioner on blue squad. Gotta find myself a yellow to start farming. Browns can sometimes show up as outlaws. I plan to have the leaders be The Red, The Brown, The Blue, The Black, and lastly one that actually is not painted but the rest of the fort will be yellow.. The Golden.
I will get the painted aka purple, the desolace or jungle-rot for the greens, and white and greys like the snowflake will all be sent to minus. Ill throw unashammed and of the hand out there too.

[Duggy]

@BigFatJuicyMonkeys
you get what you get and dont get upset

[BigFatJuicyMonkeys]

No guide on how to get them to have the traits you want?

[Kârbol of Lithlad]

@561-674-3059 That'd be a Blade of Galadriel orc. You can get these by purchasing the Blade of Galadriel DLC, or by interacting with another player who has it.

[561-674-3059]

what is a BoG orc? I just lost a natural Spider Hawk orc with decoys and was getting clone suntil one of the blue decoys I had made killed him. So wanna figure out what the BoG means and get working on that asap

[Kârbol of Lithlad]

You have to turn your captain into an enemy. Cast him, though that might make him lose his followers, so it's better for you to just hit them until they turn against you

[Myth]

I'm not sure if that would affect it. You'd probably need to have yourself on low health first, assuming you don't already. But yeah, try brutal or gravewalker, grunts can 2-3 shot you there.

[Tabachiiisan]

@Myth They die before they could kill me, should I perhaps change the game difficulty?