We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Rune, Talion, rune: Shadow of Mordor’s weapon upgrade system detailed

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor runes

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s sulky wraith-ranger Talion has more than a few tricks up his sleeve to make slaughtering orc warchiefs and their snivelling minions a wee bit easier. 

The latest trailer shows off the rune system, that empowers the rangers three weapons with shiny, magical properties which allow him to murder orcs with greater ease. I suspect that this was not part of Tolkien’s vision. 

Slap your eyes on the video below. 

These runes, which just so happen to drop from enemy captains and warchiefs, actually do sound a bit nifty, even if they’re likely to make someone who has devoured the Silmarillion and quotes from The Children of Húrin vomit profusely.

It’s more how Talion gets them than how they are used that’s intriguing. Exploiting a specific weakness when facing an enemy captain – in the trailer it’s a stealth kill, so obviously the orc in question is hard of hearing or something – influences the type of rune they drop.

And the big ones, the powerful epic runes, well they can only be nabbed from dead warchiefs, and only after a death threat has been made against them, allowing them to put up a better defense. Talion’s got to take some major risks to get his hands on the best swag.

Shadow of Mordor is out on October 7th, when you’ll be able to murder poor green fellows for their lovely runes yourself.