Middle-earth: Shadow of War has a new multiplayer component that sounds pretty kewl: you’ll be able to invade other players’ captured fortresses and defend your own from similar assaults.
Eurogamer reports the mode is called Social Conquest. After defeating all the Orcs controlling a fortress, you can take control and customize it. You’ll be able to install commanders and captains from your own Orc army, and you can buy upgrades to make it more difficult to capture.
After customizing it you can then share your fortress online. This allows other players to then attack it, attempting to kill your followers and capture the base. The mode has two variations: friendly conquests, which allow the attacker to retain all of their followers after combat, and ranked conquests, which let you rise a leaderboard with each successful conquest but at the risk of permanently losing followers.
If a player succeeds in Social Conquest, they’ll get a loot chest and spoils of war, which can be redeemed for spoils of war chests. They’ll contain followers and other items. It’s unclear at the moment what the outcome is for a defender that loses a battle.
Shadow of War also features Vendettas, missions that originally appeared in Shadow of Mordor. These are essentially revenge missions: you can challenge an Orc that killed a friend to battle. The new Vendettas, however, are more complicated; players must complete objectives first to attract the Orc that killed their friend.
Shadow of War launches on October 10 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
