Overview
The goal of this guide is to aid in finding the rarest of uruks and ologs in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. After spending many fruitless hours searching online, we found precious little on this topic. This guide will focus on unique uruks and ologs we find to be rare, unique, or just plain cool looking. Middle-earth: Shadow of War’s Nemesis system is tremendous and vast, allowing for incredible variety in appearance and personality dependent upon myriad factors. We will be including DLC such as Ar-Kaius the Architect as well as content that crosses into modding territory such as Zog the Eternal. As of now this guide is most certainly a work in progress.
Introduction
This guide focuses on showing you every orc type you can get in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Please remember a few things before we begin with the guide. First, almost every orc role has both a uruk and olog version we will only be showing one of these two versions. Second, there is only two people working on this guide so it might take a while to be updated but it will be in time. Third, if there is an orc type we have missed please post it in the comments also please try to be polite, we promise we will update the guide. Fourth, there is some orcs that you have to obtain through using programs like Cheat Engine. We understand that there is differed opinions on cheats and we will be using Cheat Engine for this guide. Fifth, have fun and feel free to comment if you have any questions about the guide or orcs in Shadow of War. Also, sorry for bad image quality for some of the pictures throughout this guide. Last thing I would like to make sure to credit the creators of this guide UrGhastXM the publisher and ThunderGodDevo the editor. Thanks to everyone who helped make this guide.
Story Specific Orcs
This section of the guide focuses on orcs that are set in stone in every game of Shadow of War. This will include spoilers for the base game and Blade of Galadriel expansion.
Bruz the Chopper
Bruz is a funny, loving, and strong olog and your first ever recruit. He helps you conquer your first fortress and gets you through the basics of your army. Eventually he betrays you and takes over your fortress, in response Talion and Celebrimbor shame and derange Bruz to the point of his mind breaking.
Akoth Slayer of the Dead
Akoth is a orc you meet in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. By the time you meet him he is already the overlord of Talion’s fortress. He adorns a black cloak and a quiver to hold his spears.
Editor’s Note
Akoth is by far ThunderGodDevo’s favorite orc in Shadow of War due to his appearance being somewhat of a mix between an uruk and Nazgul which is just all kinds of win, I mean come on!
Ar-Kaius the Architect
The Architect is a lovable and artistic olog you meet in the Blade of Galadriel DLC story path that helps you through your story. You must help him defend his monuments and constructions to earn his trust and he will later help you in the final battle against the Nazgul sisters. There is also a choice to be made between the Architect and the Digger later on in the campaign but both UrGhastXM and ThunderGodDevo find it impossible to pick the Digger over Ar-Kaius.
Ogg Bow of Morgoth
Ogg is a very elder orc that’s been around since the First or Second age and used to be ruled over by Sauron’s master Morgoth. He is a trained sniper that is first seen shooting uruks that are trying to cross his path. He later joins your army and fights for you and helps Talion and Eltariel defend the fortress during the attacks of the Nazgul sisters.
Ar-Baruk the Thrall
Ar-Baruk is an olog you meet in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. He is first seen in a quest where you have to help him take out a few captains based around killing spiders, like the Spider-Hawk, Exterminator and others. He is seen with a huge spider on top of his head and later helps out Talion, Eltariel, and works under Shelob. He protects the fortress and defends for it valiantly, fighting against the Nazgul sisters.
Krimp the Enchanted
Krimp is a lovable and loyal orc to Eltariel the first time they meet. Krimp acts as your bodyguard through the entirety of the Blade of Galadriel campaign after you meet him. He dons an elven circlet on his head, and an elven blade. He’s extremely loyal to Eltariel and says he’s been looking all over Mordor to find her. We assume this is just because she’s an elf and he seems to love elves.
Torz Tinder
Tinder is a very joyful orc that you meet in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. He is a pyrotechnic along with his brother Flak Flint. He is first seen when you help him and Flint blow up an entire outpost. Him and Flint later help you and Talion defend your fortress. During the fortress siege Flint is killed causing Tinder to go insane. Flint along with Tinder have burn and scar marks along their entire bodies from blowing things up, they are also mostly deaf apparently.
Maku the Fixer
Maku is an uruk you meet in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. He is seen wearing a black and white mask, with a large black sword. He is first seen when he stops you on a path to inform you he is on your side. He later helps you and Talion with protecting the fortress. He is seen as a mysterious yet loyal orc that loyally fights on your side.
Golm the Digger
Golm is an uruk you first see when he asks why there’s always so much racket above his tunnels. You have to choose between him and Ar-Kaius the Architect at this point. Both UrGhast and ThunderGodDevo have never seen what happens if you don’t choose the Architect at this point. We assume that he helps you defend your fort. If you don’t choose Golm the Ar-Kaius will kill him.
Basic Orcs Part 1
This section of the guide focuses on captain orcs that have a random chance of appearing. Some of these will commonly appear two to three times a game, others you’ll be lucky to see once.
the Steady
The Steady is an orc who is seen wearing heavy armor, he is quite common. We’ve seen him with spear and shield, bow, and sword. He doesn’t have that many unique lines besides the normal “I’ll kill you tark.”
Caragor Slayer
Caragor Slayer is a common orc who dons caragor fur, a shield and spear made partially from caragor bones, and caragor bone armor. He usually just uses normal orc lines, but he does say some things about caragors, like you’d expect.
the Driver
The Driver is an orc that wears a head dress made of spikes. He usually is seen with a sword, but sometimes he has a spear and shield. He has some armor not quite as heavy as the Steady’s but still pretty heavy. He doesn’t have any special lines besides the normal orc ones.
Hot Head
The Hot Head is an uruk that has an armor set with a torch burning atop his head. He is a fairly common uruk and can usually be found at least once throughout the story. Usually he wears other armor such as shoulder pads, a leather tunic, and boots. We’ve seen about every class as a Hot Head. He just has normal orc lines most of the time, although some are about fire.
the Strong
The Strong is an uruk who has spiked shoulder pauldrons, and leather straps going across his torso. We’ve mostly just seen him as a berserker, although there could be other classes of him too. His lines are mostly just about his strength and how he’s going to beat you.
the Neck Snapper
The Neck Snapper is an uruk from the Slaughter Tribe who wears a butcher uniform. He can be seen with multiple accessories including a caragor skull shoulder pauldron, a belt of cleavers, and more. His lines are just the normal uruk lines from what we can tell.
Who Flees
Who Flees is an uruk that has a cage-like metal helmet, a feather necklace, and more of the signature Mystic Tribe accessories. He is a very common uruk, we’ve mostly only seen the olog version but there is an uruk version as well. He is known for fleeing like his namesake says. His lines are just the common Mystic Tribe lines.
the Wanderer
The Wanderer is an uruk who dons silver armor and shoulder pads made of bones and fur. His lines are mostly just basic orc lines, with a lot themed around his tribe. He is a quite common orc who is usually seen early on in a playthrough.
Slave Keeper
The Slave Keeper is an uruk who is seen carrying a spear and shield. He has a tunic made of skin and bone shards. His lines are mostly common uruk lines, but there are some about slaves. He is a very common uruk who I’ve seen three of in just the time of the Act III.
the Rugged
The Rugged is an orc who is shown to have multiple scars along the course of his entire body. He is quite a rare orc, I have only seen him a few times myself. His wounds are presumably from that of a caragor or ghul. He wears simple leather clothing and sometimes a helmet.
the Gambler
The Gambler is a quite unique looking uruk that has black tattoos all over his body, A rag around his head, and many golden and expensive trinkets all over him. His lines are mostly about riches and sometimes directed towards Talion’s equipment and mirian.
Champion of Gorgoroth
The Champion of Gorgoroth is I assume the champion of Gorgoroth. I assume he has earned respect from the fight pits in Gorgoroth as its champion fighter. He dons a very high equipment set. Even as an archer.
the Bloodstoker
The Bloodstoker is an uruk who has a large metal helmet with feathers protruding from it. He is a quite common orc that I’ve seen on numerous occasions. He has the basic orc lines as well.
the Filthy
The Filthy is a common orc who has dirt all over his face. He has muck and grime on all his clothes, armor, and body. His lines are mostly about being gross. He just is based around the fact that he is dirty.
the Blade Sharpener
The Blade Sharpener is a orc who presumably has the job of sharpening other uruk’s swords, axes, and other weapons. He dons leather armoring and metal shoulder pauldrons, he also has a toolbelt with tools used to sharpen weapons in it.
the Brilliant
The Brilliant is an orc who has many scrolls and writings in a pouch he carries on him. He presumably is brilliant because of his high intelligence compared to other orcs. He has a few different voice lines that are mostly about his intelligence.
the Pain-Bringer
The Pain-Bringer is an uruk who has a set of metal armor that has sharp edges and spikes on it. He also talks about bringing everyone pain. He has an obsession with bringing Talion pain throughout his dialogues.
Who Watches
Who Watches is an orc with a banner on his back. His dialogues are all about him having watched Talion and studied his techniques. His appearance has silver armor with a banner on his back. He is quite a unique orc dialogue wise, but look-wise he isn’t that special.
the Manhunter
The Manhunter is an uruk who hunts men down. He has a silver mask and also dons some of his trophies from the men he’s killed. His lines are unique, he mostly talks about how many tarks he’s slain or how he’s gonna add you to that list.
the Warborn
The Warborn is an olog who wears a large metal helmet, and heavy armor over his body. His lines are all about him fighting across many wars, in many areas, and winning them all. He has quite a cool story for a simple captain. He appears quite frequently for the olog captains however.
the Wall
The Wall is an uruk who has heavy metal armor, and is always a defender class. He is one of the most tanky captains I’ve ever fought personally. He’s a rarer orc than that of the Steady or the Defender but has roughly the same look and the same lines.
the Berserker
The Berserker wears a helmet with a skull nailed to it. He wears spiked armor, and is always a savage class. His lines are about killing soft-skins in various gruesome ways.
Spider Hawk
The Spider Hawk is an orc from the Blade of Galadriel DLC and is seen when helping the Thrall. He is killed during this interaction however they can randomly spawn in the base game as well as long as you have the Blade of Galadrial DLC installed.
Basic Orcs Part 2
the Blood Guzzler
The Blood Guzzler is an uruk that wears a leather cap. He’s part of the slaughter tribe and thus his lines are mostly about butchering, devouring, or making Talion bleed. He has blood all around his mouth and some armor which is pretty heavy for the slaughter tribe.
the Archer Trainer
The Archer Trainer is an uruk who uses a bow. He presumably is who trains most of the archer’s around his camps and region. He has the ability sniper shot everytime I see him. His armor is quite heavy for a normal archer. His lines are mostly the normal archer lines.
the Bold
The Bold is an olog who wears a very small amount of armor for an olog and is very brave. His lines talk about Talion either being weak, scared, or if you kill him strong. His appearance is quite unique by being so bland. He has very little armor and little in the ways of unique looks.
the Soothsayer
The Soothsayer is an uruk in silver plated armor with grenades strapped to it. His entire gimmick is that he is a soothsayer meaning he can see the future. This is probably not true, but he says that in the future he sees Talion dying by his hands.
Special Orcs
This section is orcs that are special in a certain way. Most of these will be due to them being extremely rare, but some are because of other reasons as well.
Nemesis Orcs
Some orcs are only obtainable by doing something special for instance killing them in a specific way and having them cheat death. There’s also some where you have to do a certain task, or use a certain ability.
the Bitter
The Bitter is an uruk variant you can get once you shame or shun an orc. This will cause the orc to become bitter and he’ll have new lines about how you shamed him and he gets bullied now.
the Brewer
The Brewer is an orc who you can get by destroying a certain amount of grog barrels. He’ll eventually ambush you saying you destroyed his precious grog. All of his lines are about grog, making grog, and Talion destroying his grog.
the Golden
The Golden is an uruk who’ll eventually ambush you after you pick up enough treasure. That being gems, mirian, or gear. He’ll ambush you saying something like that’s his treasure, or he’ll take the treasure from your dead corpse.
the Greedy
The Greedy is pretty much a continued Golden, he can ambush you for the exact same thing. He also has black facepaint on unlike the Golden or at least in my case he does. His lines are the exact same as the Golden’s.
the Grog-Maker
The Grog-Maker is an olog version of the Brewer. He also yells about you destroying his grog. He does yell quite louder though. I assume because he is an olog. His arms are also covered in black markings, I assume from making grog.
the Infested
The Infested is an orc you can get by dropping a morgai-fly nest on top of an uruk. Either having the uruk flee or killing it with the morgai-flies will give you this scar. However having it flee will not promote it to legendary immediately.
Iron-Arm
Iron-Arm is an orc who you can get by cutting off an orc’s arm. This is quite a common uruk to get from orcs cheating death as a large amount of executions end out with you lopping the orc’s arm off. He has the same lines as the orc previously did with the added I survived.
Limp-Leg
This is the same thing as Iron-Arm but instead with the leg. This is a bit harder to do due to less executions incorporating chopping of the uruk’s leg.
Maggot-Nest
The Maggot-Nest is an orc you can acquire by simply killing an orc. He is a rarer orc to get but just have a bunch of uruks cheat death and it should eventually work. His lines are mostly about how the maggots have given him more power or shown him the true meaning of life.
of the Flies
Of the Flies is another name for the Infested. You can get him the exact same way and he also just tells you about how he can hear the morgai-flies inside of him.
of the Spiders
Of the Spiders is an orc you can get by having the Spider Song skill equipped and detonating fire pits. If you do this enough of the Spiders will eventually ambush you.
One-Eye
One-Eye is an orc who you get by simply headshotting an orc to kill him. This can result in that orc coming back with only one eye. He just has the simple cheated death quotes however.
the Pain Seeker
The Pain Seeker is an olog you can get by dealing enough damage. After you deal a huge amount of damage he’ll eventually ambush you. His lines are about how he wants to feel pain from you. He tries to get you to do as much damage as possible to him.
the Ruined
The Ruined is an orc you can get by shaming or shunning an orc. He will start to just scream in a very high pitched tone. He no longer will be able to speak to you.
the Survivor
The Survivor is an orc you can get by just killing an orc. Sometimes they’ll cheat death and the survivor is the basic name for this. They just have lines about surviving you.
the Unashamed
The Unashamed is an orc you can acquire by repeatedly shaming an orc. He will eventually have an entirely different appearance and become legendary. He says that he’s embraced his shaming mark.
the Unkillable
The Unkillable is another version of the Survivor and pretty much has the same lines and you get in the exact same way.
the Worm-Licker
The Worm-Licker is an orc you can get by killing an orc. He is the exact same as the Maggot-Nest. He has the same lines and you get him in the same way.
the Stitch
The Stitch is an olog you can get by having an olog cheating death after chopping his head off. This is quite a hard one to get and a legendary scar. If you get nemesis points with a few ologs and kill them with an execution you should eventually get him though.
Unobtainable Orcs
There a few orcs that are unobtainable throughout the entirety of Shadow of War and you can only get them through hacking or exploiting the game in some way. For the purpose of this guide we have them listed here but remember that you cannot obtain them legitimately in Shadow of War due to having a permanent Iron Will effect or the Unbreakable effect. Or they’re just not in the army menu.
Gaz the Ocker
Gaz the Ocker is an olog that you meet at some point after you finish the Bruz the Chopper quests. He along with Baz will ambush you at a random point after Bruz’s quests. Gaz is seen with heavy armor including a head dress styled with horns. The reason for Gaz and Baz’s ambush is because they are trying to avenge Bruz for what you did to him, whether it be shaming, breaking, slaying, or torturing him. They used to be part of Bruz’s gang and would go around with him. Gaz is shown to be the more serious one that takes war as a threat not to be toyed with.
Baz the Ocker
Baz the Ocker like Gaz is an olog that you’ll meet after the Bruz quest lines. He and Gaz will ambush you after the completion of the Bruz quests. While Gaz sports a head dress donning horns, Baz instead sports one donning feathers. He is seen as a more playful olog than Gaz and treats war as an everlasting party.
Zog the Eternal
Zog is an uruk who is first seen in the Carnan quest line in Shadow of War. He is a necromancer that through his quests is trying to resurrect the balrog, Tar-Goroth. He is killed during the quests and resurrected later on by his followers. After his resurrection he takes some of the uruks who you’ve had the greatest vendetta with and turns them into zombified revenants who fight for him. After you kill him in this encounter he can later be seen at random times. He will always have the unbreakable trait making him impossible to recruit without hacks.
the Pretender
The Pretender is a rare uruk who dons similar armor to that of the Tower which is the one who he’s pretending to be. His armor is far heavier than that of the Tower’s but it’s doesn’t seem to cut into his skin as much as the Tower’s. He has a lispy voice like that of the Tower’s. He is seen with a heavy shield and spear. He is rendered unobtainable due to him always spawning with the skill Unbreakable.
the Unbreakable
The Unbreakable is an olog who looks quite similar to that of Baz the Ocker. He appears to have the same helmet as him. He wears a large fur coat with an animal’s skull on the front. He has many gold touches on his armor compared to that of Baz’s. The reason he is unobtainable is because like his name-sake he has the Unbreakable skill.
Ending
Thanks for viewing the guide, please like if this helped. Also if you have any questions about a certain orc feel free to ask in the comments below. If there’s an orc we missed please let us know, we will add it in time.
We used Cheat Engine for the purpose of completing this guide and having certain orcs in our collection, this is not to actually cheat in online play or gain an advantage. Please use this respectfully.