A rewarding new economy
Middle Earth: Shadow of War’s in-game mirian-based economy has been introduced through a stream on Monolith’s YouTube channel. Creative Director and game developer, Michael de Plater, delved deep into the game on a 30-minute interview on Twitch. The mirian currency will be familiar to players of Monolith’s previous game, Shadow of Mordor. The announcement about the economy came after many questions from fans eagerly awaiting the new game’s release.
For those who are not familiar with the game, the in-game economy includes the resources you can earn in the game or get otherwise and the things you can spend your resources on in the market. Players get currency through the game by doing missions, killing treasure orcs or having a marauding tribe as overlords, among other ways. You can also break down gear, pick up mirian in the world and loot chests. Mirian can then be used to upgrade gear and fortresses, increase the size of an attacking force, add garrisons to have more warchiefs, etc.
Shadow of War features a series of chests (silver, gold and mithril), from which one can get follower orcs and a variety of training orders. The gold and mithril chests offer legendary orcs and training orders. Even if one of your legendary followers were to die, you can still loot their legendary gear, another perk of the Nemesis System introduced in Shadow of Mordor. But one may wonder why, if you can get all these things while in the world, you would bother going to the market to purchase them. Plater says that the economy allows the game to adapt to different playing styles.
War chests give you training orders and potential followers, like the legendary orcs seen here.
Some players may find it difficult to kill orcs and get followers (and so they can get them through purchasing chests), while others kill everything in sight, leaving no potential followers alive to recruit.
Shadow of War also includes featured chests, which are themed (e.g. contain bounty herders, assassins, fire weapons, etc.) so that players seeking specifically those things can get them. With the accolades it won at E3 and this intricate in-game economy, Shadow or War’s October release is hotly anticipated.
