Shadow of War Fortress Assault - How to Take Down an Overlord, How to Win in Online Conquest, Fortress Assault upgrades
Here's our beginner's guide for Shadow of War, including how to save, essential tips and tricks, and more.
In Shadow of War, a major part of the later stages of the game are the Fortress Assault missions, allowing you to assemble an army of elite Orcs under Talion and take down Fortress Overlords and the Warchiefs under them. In this Shadow of War Fortress Assault guide, we'll be running down all you need to know about the massive siege missions, including the best preparations you can make before undertaking a Fortress Assault, as well as the best upgrades you can choose for your army.
Shadow of War Fortress Assault Guide
The first thing you need to know about the Fortress Assault missions in Shadow of War is that it's a good idea to take down the Warchiefs under the Overlord before you head into the actual Fortress Assault. Any Warchiefs you don't take out, you'll have to fight as mini bosses once you've breached the walls of the Fortress, but if you can eliminate them before you head into the Fortress Assault mission, you can take down the strongest enemies standing between you and the Overlord. Head back to our Shadow of War main guides page above if you need tips on taking out Warchiefs using the Nemesis System.
Shadow of War Best Fortress Assault Upgrades
The first thing you'll have to do before you head into a Shadow of War Fortress Assault mission is choose your followers and upgrades. As you can see in the screen below, you'll have to select from any dominated Captains to take with you on the Fortress Assault, as well as picking out and purchasing upgrades using Mirian.
You should always aim to take your most powerful followers with you in the Fortress Assault mode. You can see the level of your follower Captains when you go to select them in the Nemesis System-style screen as you're preparing for the Fortress Assault. The higher level Captains you take with you, the higher your rating becomes, and the easier the assault becomes.
As for the Fortress Assault upgrades, it's basically up to you what you pick to spend your Mirian on. There are a litany of different upgrades to choose from, including Caragors, Shock Troops, War Graugs, and Siege Beasts, but we'd recommend you choose an upgrade that focuses on an enemy type that you struggle fighting against. If you struggle against Caragors for example, then you should purchase the upgrade that reinforces your army with spear-wielding troops to deal with the beasts.
Once the Fortress Assault has kicked off, head straight for the walls of the Fortress and scale them, taking out the archers atop of them as quickly as possible to stop them from picking off your troops below. Jump down into the main courtyard, where you'll be tasked with capturing a number of zones, one after the other. In this phase of the fight, all you have to do is stay alive, and stay within the designated zone for a maximum of 30 seconds, and then press down on the d-pad to capture the zone.
This phase of the Fortress Assault is actually pretty simple, as you can leave the hordes of defenders to be dealt with by your attacking army, while you capture the zones. There'll be either three or four zones to capture within the Fortress itself, and we'd recommend travelling between zones via rooftop, so you can take out the pesky archers sniping at your army from above.
Once you've stood in each zone long enough to capture it, the defending army will surrender, and it'll be time for Talion to head into the heart of the Fortress, and face off with the Overlord.
Shadow of War Fortress Overlord Boss Guide
For the Fortress Assault Overlord boss fight, we'd highly recommend that you have gained intel on the weaknesses of the Overlord before heading into the actual Fortress Assault. Overlord's are some of the most powerful individuals that Shadow of War can throw at you, so it's imperative that you know their weaknesses before fighting them.
The Fortress Overlord will also surround himself by a number of followers, most of which you should probably try to avoid getting weighed down by. We've encountered, Ologs, Caragors, and Orcs when facing off against an Overlord, but we should note that these minions will always respawn whenever you defeat them, so you definitely shouldn't worry too much about the followers, and focus on the Overlord.
You ideally want to try and beat the Fortress Overlord as quickly as possible in the final stage of the Fortress Assault. We've generally found that the longer the fight goes on, the more Talion will be overcome by the followers surrounding the Overlord. There are a variety of minions such as archers, and Orcs that carry shields and spears, so we'd recommend trying to whittle down their numbers very quickly at the start of the fight, and then focusing purely on the Fortress Overlord themselves.
Once the fight is over and the Overlord lies dead at the feet of Talion, you'll have successfully captured the Fortress. Now, you'll have the option to take on the Fortresses of other players online, but rest assured that while they can also invade your own Fortresses, nothing in your play through of Shadow of War will be affected as a result of being invaded.
How to Promote an Overlord in Shadow of War
As soon as you've successfully defeated the defending Fortress Overlord, Shadow of War will prompt you to promote one of your own Captains to fill the now-vacant position of Overlord in the Fortress. This is a fairly simple process, and you generally want to pick your most powerful Captain for the role, or alternatively, go with the one that has the least weaknesses, so they'll be able to stand their ground against any player invasions.
Don't worry about promoting any Captains to the role of the Warchiefs however, as Shadow of War will automatically assign two of your more powerful followers to fill the vacant Warchief positions under your new Overlord. It's these Warchiefs and the Overlord that will stand up to any invasions from other Shadow of War players, so try your best to make sure your Captains survive the Fortress Assault.
This is all the info you need to succeed in the Shadow of War Fortress Assault mode, so now all you need to do is take all the information we've given you here, and put it into action.
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.