Middle-earth: Shadow of War will have loot boxes, microtransactions

If you want to speed up your progress in Middle-earth: Shadow of War, you can head to the Market and purchase new loot new Orcs for your army, and even an XP boost.

The Market is a new feature Warner Bros. just announced for Shadow of War. It’s an in-game store that lets you spend in-game currency or real-world cash to buy an assortment of chests, boosts and bundles.

Here is exactly what you’ll be able to buy in the Market store:

• Loot Chests contain Gear (weapons and armor) of varying rarity. Equipping and upgrading these weapons and armor enhance Talion’s character abilities. Loot Chests can also contain XP Boosts that help level up Talion faster.
• War Chests provide Orc followers of varying rarity to help forge a strong army. They can also contain Training Orders to level up and customize Orc followers.
• XP Boosts are consumables that help level up Talion faster.
• Bundles package up Loot Chests, War Chests and Boosts together at a great value.

To purchase these items, you’ll either have to spend Mirian or Gold. Mirian is an in-game currency which you can earn by simply playing the game. It can be acquired by finding Mirian around the map, destroying gear and defeating “Treasure Orcs”.

Gold can also be earn in-game, but in much smaller amounts. You can get more Gold through microtransactions. Naturally, Gold can buy you getting gear and Orcs than Mirian can.

War Bros. emphasizes that everything that can be purchased in the Market can also be found in-game by simply playing it. You won’t have to buy anything to enjoy the complete game experience. The option is there for players who are willing to fork over a few bucks to save some time.

Also, since we are talking about chests of “varying rarity”, you can’t buy a specific piece of gear or an Orc solider. It all relies on RNG, so you can’t just buy the best items and sail through the game.

Microtransactions have become more and more present in AAA games in recent years, and it’s getting a bit hard to ignore. On the other hand, you can’t really blame publishers for adding new, non-mandatory revenue streams to their games.

However, I still get annoyed by them in single-player games. I can understand microtransactions in multiplayer games, where you get more and more content (often for free). But it always feels kind of cheap in a single-player only game.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War comes out October 10 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.