Caragors

The Gravewalker on his steed

Caragors are an aggressive, tameable beastial species encountered in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Bestiary

Terrifying creatures of the Hunt, the Caragor prowls the landscape of Mordor, searching for prey to feast upon. They, more often than not, travel in packs to take down larger prey, like Graug, or a large pack of enemies, like Uruk Hunters. They can also be found, caged, in or around Strongholds, ready to be let out, with a well-placed Elf-shot, to tear off the limbs of their unlucky captors.

Characteristics

Caragors attack with uncounterable attacks, which require Talion to dodge them. They can overpower any common Uruk in close combat, provided the mauling of their victim isn't interrupted.

Talion is able to use his Wraith abilities to dominate Caragors, forcing them to fight with him, providing him with valuable but unpredictable allies.

Dominating Caragors mounts them, enabling Talion to ride them, granting increased movement and climbing speed. In addition, Talion can still use his Sword and Bow from the back of the beast and can also instruct it to maul enemies, restoring the health of his mount on success. Talion can also perform a combat-leap from the back of his Caragor, which is lethal to all common enemies. Upon dismounting a Caragor, it will remain friendly towards Talion, fighting at his side. It can also be re-mounted at will.

The Gravewalker takes his Dire Caragor

Riding a Caragor does not prevent it from triggering fear or hate in Uruk Nemeses.     

In addition to freeing them from cages, Caragors can be lured by shooting Caragor bait.     

In some rare instances, Talion may encounter a Dire Caragor. They act as the leaders of a small Caragor packs. The only difference between dominating a Dire Caragor and a regular one is that the QTE circle is smaller. When mounting a Dire Caragor, nearby Caragors will follow Talion and aid him in combat.     

Trivia

• Exact etymology is unknown, but caragor is likely a combination of the Sindarin word carag ("spike, tooth of rock") and gor ("horror"), meaning "spiked horror".
• Caragors are often confused with Wargs, which are mentioned in many of The Lord of the Rings books.
• In a demo with the lead designer, it was said that a Warg is to a wolf what a Caragor is to a lion.
• Uruk soldiers will often make comments, mostly when Bait is dropped to draw Caragors into nearby Strongholds, some of which include: "Caragor!" or "I'll feast on your corpse, Caragor!". Nemeses' opening statements may even reflect Talion's riding of a Caragor to attack them, if the latter does so when he meets a Nemesis in Mordor.
• It is advisable when encountering a Nemeses along with a caragor, to kill the caragor before the nemeses does or else he will regain health and increase his power (especially an uruk with monster slayer trait) unless the uruk is vulnerable to mounted beast.

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