Shadow of War Loot Boxes - Marketplace Removed in Update - What Has Been Removed? Do you Need to Buy Loot Boxes?

In this Shadow of War loot boxes guide, we'll be walking you through all the possible rewards you can get from purchasing Shadow of War loot boxes, as well as debating whether or not the loot boxes in the game are actually worth spending your hard earned cash on. Do you need to buy loot boxes in Shadow of War and are loot boxes worth buying? If Loot Boxes aren't your thing, we'll also show you how to disable loot boxes in Shadow of War. Update: The Shadow of War Marketplace is gone. All the details are below.

Shadow of War Updates to Market - July 2018

On July 17, 2018, a big update to Shadow of War removed the Market from the game and made numerous changes. We've detailed those changes below:

• The Market is removed from the game, replaced with an updated Garrison menu that allows access to your Garrison Orcs, Chests, Training Orders and Boosts.
• The Spoils of War Rewards and Community Challenge Reward Chests no longer contain Orcs. Instead, they now focus on Training Orders.
• You can now purchase Training Orders directly with Mirian.
• Captains recruited during Online Vendettas and Ranked Conquests can now be found in your Garrison when you return to your world.
• Captains killed during Online Vendettas and Ranked Conquests now drop gear, the same as Captains killed in your world. You still receive a Gear Chest at the end of the mission, in addition to any gear dropped by Orcs.
• With the removal of the Market, any unspent Gold currency has been converted into Gold Loot Chests.

With Shadow of War's in-game Market no longer in the game, much of the content below is outdated. We are leaving it here as a record of how the Shadow of War Marketplace worked prior to the July 17, 2018 update.

How to Disable Loot Boxes in Shadow of War

If Loot boxes aren't your thing and you'd rather they weren't in Shadow of War at all, you do have a way to remove them completely. Sadly, this trick only works when you start a new game, so if you're already a significant way through the campaign you'll have to think carefully about whether or not this is worth doing.

Disabling Loot boxes in Shadow of War is actually very simple. On the Shadow of War Terms of Service agreement page, all you have to do is uncheck the box that would confirm you agree to the terms of service. By leaving this unchecked and then accepting, you'll get a pop-up that warns you that you will be unable to access online functionality, including the in-game market. With this confirmed you can play through Shadow of War without loot boxes. Hurray!

Shadow of War Loot Boxes Guide

As soon as you start up a playthrough of Shadow of War, you can find the Shadow of War market within the pause menu, which will bring you to the screen just below, complete with an Orc salesman rubbing his hands together in anticipation of a purchase - assuming you didn’t disable loot boxes using the trick just above.

Creepy Orcs aside, this is where you'll go to purchase any Shadow of War loot boxes, all of which can help you on your journey to conquer Mordor. Before we proceed however, it should be noted that you won't get to use the contents of any loot boxes until Act 2 of Shadow of War commences, where you meet Bruz and start building your Orc army.

Shadow of War Market - How to Buy Loot Boxes

Just below, we've listed all the purchase options within the Shadow of War market, as well as what they contain.

• Loot Chests - Contain weapons and armor of varying rarity. These can be equipped to enhance Talion’s character abilities. These Loot Chests can also contain XP Boosts to level up Talion faster.
• War Chests - These give the player Orc followers. They can also contain Training Orders, which level up and customize Orc followers.
• XP Boosts - Consumables that help level up Talion faster.
• Bundles - These include a combination of Loot Chests, War Chests and Boosts at a great value price.

We should note that the Shadow of War Loot Chests and single War Chests can be purchased with Mirian, while higher level War Chests and Bundles can only be purchased with Gold, the microtransaction currency. Just below, we've listed every Gold item you can buy through PSN, Xbox Live, and Steam:

Shadow of War Gold Prices

• 500 Gold - $4.99
• 1,000 Gold (+50) - $9.99
• 2,000 Gold (+200) - $19.99
• 5,000 Gold (+750) - $49.99
• 10,000 Gold (+2,000) - $99.99

We should note that you can earn relatively small amounts of Gold through partaking in online activities, these being Online Fortress Conquests, or Community Challenges, both of which can be found in Shadow of War's Quest menu.

Shadow of War Loot Boxes Rewards

Once you can put together your army in Act 2, the contents of the Shadow of War loot boxes will come into effect. Whenever you purchase a loot box, you'll find 2 Orcs and one Training Order within, all of which can be used to bolster your army. The Orc followers you can find in the loot boxes range on the rarity scale of Common, Rare, and Legendary, and it's entirely up to chance as to what rarity follower you'll find.

What isn't left to chance however, is the fact that the Orc followers you find within the Shadow of War loot boxes will always be right around Talion's level at the time of purchasing. So for example, if you purchase a loot box when you're level 35, you aren't going to get Orc followers that are level 40.

To put the contents of a Shadow of War loot box into effect, you'll have to go to the top of the market screen, select the option that lets you view all your Orc followers gained through loot boxes, and select one of them for deployment by hovering over them and pressing A/Cross. After this, you'll be prompted to select a region, and if there's a vacant Captain position within that region, you can immediately insert the Orc follower in there as your own Captain.

To put the Shadow of War Training Orders into effect, you'll need to go to the Army screen within the pause menu, and hover over your desired Captain. Now, press Y/Triangle, and then X/Square, bringing up a list of Training Orders that you can equip that Orc with. Training Order upgrades include perks like being granted a group of Olog followers, or providing them with a Cursed weapon, dealing out bonus damage.

Should You Buy Shadow of War Loot Boxes?

This is a debate you're extremely likely to come across a lot, and it's particularly relevant with Shadow of War loot boxes. There's a different aspect to the loot box debate with this game however, as you can purchase one of the best loot boxes available with 1,500 Mirian.

Mirian is earned purely through playing Shadow of War, and you're extremely likely to earn it through either killing Orcs with white markers above their heads, or through dismantling unwanted gear in the inventory screen. Therefore, it's not actually that difficult to get your hands on some nice Orc followers and Training Orders, while not spending a single coin.

We'd highly recommend you stick to purchasing Shadow of War loot boxes with Mirian instead of real world currency, and you ideally want to start stockpiling Orc followers early on, whenever you can spare some Mirian. This is because the Shadow Wars endgame mode relies heavily on you having a powerful army with which to defend your Fortresses, so if you're going to purchase loot boxes, stockpile them early on, but don't spend your hard earned cash on them.

If you need anything else to do with Shadow of War, why not head over to our guides on how to beat the Frozen Flame Balrog boss fight, or our complete guide to the Shadow Wars endgame mode.