One of my first deaths was to a random Orc archer who was promoted to Captain and became my first revenge target. Naturally i spent a lot of time trying to kill that Captain and it felt satisfying when i finally put an arrow through his head.

Later on however i ran into that same Captain again(i dispatched him pretty easily). How is it some Captains are able to return from death and how to you kill em for good?

Basically unless you cut there head off theres a chance they will come back. You have to get there health low then use your Y+B finisher on them, or i think a shadow strike works too but not positive.

I once had an orc whose title was "the unkillable" and sure enough he came back twice until i finally chopped his head off. So in that case i felt it kind of fit.

Lethal Shadow Strike does work as well.

I had a guy named "Metal-Beard" who wore a helmet with a chin guard that I guess looked kind of like a beard on it. After I killed him the first time he had lost the helmet and seemed pretty bummed about it when I ran into him again.

I killed that dude two more times, and all told probably fought him about 10 times. By the end he was pretty much an Uruk God who shrugged off everything except fire, and the little moodlet thing in his description read something along the lines of "Wary at the thought of having to fight Talion again..." I felt like I had lost a friend when he disappeared for good.

I'll admit, it actually made me kind of emotional when he showed up and I finally chopped off his head in the scripted nemesis showdown.

Is there a fictional reason they come back unless you decapitate them?

@lukeweizer: Magic.

@lukeweizer: Yes. There's some lore entry for Orcs who can heal those who nearly die in battle, but I forget their names.

Now that i think about i remember the guy i mentioned saying "You should check your kills." the next time i encountered him.

@sanity@corevi: Does the Grab Finisher(after you interrogate someone) not kill them permanently?

@jedted: It does not. With Captains it doesn't do the head explode it does on grunts. Same with Flurry Kills.

Ugh.

That makes more sense.

@corevi: Good to know. I killed a few Captains that i intended to brand but they weren't decapitations so i guess i'll have another chance to turn em.

I wonder what happens if you decapitate every Captain in the game... does it just stop populating Sauron's Army with new blood or does it start resurrecting once headless Orcs?

The resurrections are kind of a good thing, in that the orcs keep their old vulnerabilities and you aren't required to get more Intel on them (so far as I've been able to tell). Less time collecting intel (which can be sparse at times) and more time killing orcs.

It generates new Orcs.

I had to kill the Chef three times before I got his head. Each time he came back with more and more bandages and rags on his face and he mad comments about how messed up he was because of it.

@corevi said:

Yeah, I figured that would be the case and was mostly wondering if it would reuse the same models — but, I just found out that the character models are also stitched together randomly. That's really impressive, because the models look terrific and don't really give off the impression of being generated from constituent parts.

If we say they are healed with magic, will this slowly become a classic Simpsons bit?

Hey, the question was for a "fictional" explanation, so I gave a "fictional" explanation.

@lukeweizer: The TvTropes page on Shadow of Mordor Uruks mentions Uruk medicine is very effective, but very painful. They can be brought back from near-death, but they're likely to be very pissed about it.

I might be misremembering or misinterpreting one of the strengths, I thought one of these states something along the lines of sometimes comes back from badly wounded.

If you look at the "Sauron's Army" screen, or the nemesis screen if you prefer, you'll see either a corpse of the captain or a head on a pike. The former means they might (probably will) come back. The latter means you decapitated them and they're dead for good. I don't think there's any way to cut their heads off for sure, it's just random.

I don't think there's any explanation for it other than "orcs are tough motherfuckers."

Edit: The whole nemesis system is just genius. It's a great way to give your enemies personality and continuity. I expect many games will "copy" it.

Wait, so decapitation ACTUALLY guarantees them not coming back? I asked this in another thread somewhere and nobody gave a clear answer. But are we sure about this? Pretty ridiculous if it's not the case.

Talion keeps coming back, so it's only fair that the Orcs get in on the resurrection action too!

Yes, you decap them they are dead. There are other conditions too. Like Warchiefs are always dead, one kill is all it takes. They will immediately be replaced by someone else, well after you reach a certain story point anyway. Also if you get a lesser ranked orc through brand to fight a higher ranked one and they win the duel/excution/whatever they take their spot over which again locks the kill. Likewise I have never seen an orc come back from a "last chance" style kill where you have to finish them, they always seem to end in decaps. They seem to survive regular damage kills, bow shot kills, and stealth kills pretty effectively though. Also I don't think any uruk can make it through three deaths, at least, none I have killed three times stayed around for round 4.

Damn straight, they deserve a cut of the action too.

True but Talion is possessed by a scary ghost monster that keeps him alive. I don't think that is the case with the orcs.

I've put swords through their skull and they've come back a few times. Also I think someone in the Bombcast said that they've had orcs come back despite their head being chopped off.

I have one called Otha the Swift that I killed in the early game but his body never gets replaced. I've since finished the game but it's still just laying there so I guess it may have bugged out.

I've been seeing repeated names for a while now. Must have killed too many uruk.

Not necessarily. It's possible that there simply was never an appropriate uruk to get promoted and take his place. This is more likely if you don't spend a lot of your time dying.

So I actually tried advancing time until all the slots on the board were full, but sure enough he's still lying there, at this point I really hope I run into him again somewhere.

If that is the case that does just sound like a bug. There's a very specific animation and battle report difference if you decapitate a foe.

They can totally patch up a longsword through the brain but if you take a head clean off and get the head on a pike result then they should stay gone.

They can resurrect no matter how they die. Same reason you do. Borderlands logic where death means nothing,

Skoth the Biter. Fought him 10-15 times throughout the entire run. He became more and more powerful because he kept beating me, and ended up at the nemesis fight obviously. The cool thing was, at the end of every battle when I would stab him through the chest or something, he would say to give him a befitting death for a captain. I was a bit sad when I cut off his head at the end of the nemisis battle.