Mercenaries

Veterans have journeyed to Wraeclast from the lawless cities of Trarthus. They're ready to offer their sinister services, but not for free. A Mercenary can be found in each area, each with their own personalities, as well as individual builds, skills, and items.

Upon meeting a Mercenary, as per Trarthan tradition, they will challenge you to a duel to test your strength. Inspect these Mercenaries before the duel to make an informed choice. If you decide to duel them you may choose a reward for your victory: Hire them, take one of their items, or exile them.

Only one Mercenary can accompany you at a time, but you can have up to three total in your service. Having varied options is useful, as there may be situations where you need specific backup, like a difficult boss fight!

You can replace the items equipped to active Mercenaries, or those in reserve, with ones of your choosing. Mercenaries don't level up like Exile's do, so you should keep an eye out for more powerful Mercenaries as you progress through the Campaign and Endgame.

• Mercs count as half a player for the purposes of drops and mob difficulty. Jonathan mentions 9-player difficulty and loot, but says there are some differences to the way that that works now (!). If you have a bad build, merc could carry you; if you have a very good build, then at worst merc gives you more loot. There’s a floor on either side that’s gonna be beneficial to every player.
• If you defeat a merc a pick currency as reward from their “currency pouch”, you actually get all the currency they have, not just one item.
• There are about 30 different merc archetypes (striker, chaos mage, curses, auras, etc), also a lot of new different NPC skills. They don’t level up or have a passive tree, so you don’t have to micromanage anything other than equipment. No upkeep gold cost.
• Mercs don’t count as minions for the purposes of stuff affecting minions, but they do get the damage reduction from some aoe boss attacks the same way minions do.
• Mercs automatically heal to full life when out of combat.
• You can bring mercs anywhere in the game, including pinnacle bosses.

Drops

• Azadi Crest
• Binds of Bloody
• Hand of Heresy
• Scornflux
• Howlcrack

Equipments

• Kingmaker
• Dying Breath
• Victario's Charity
• Brinerot Flag
• Crown of the Tyrant
• Leer Cast
• Garb of the Ephemeral
• Saqawal's Nest
• Doppelgänger Guise
• Ralakesh's Impatience
• Legacy of Fury
• Perquil's Toe
• Shaper's Seed

FAQ

How does equipping Mercenaries with items work? Can any Mercenary be equipped with any item?

Each Mercenary is associated with Attributes. Mercenaries will generate with gear that matches the Attributes they are associated with, and will only be able to be equipped with new Armour gear that matches their Attributes in the following way:

For Mercenaries with a single Attribute, any Armour gear that requires that Attribute is valid. For Mercenaries with multiple Attributes, any Armour gear that requires an Attribute not associated with that Mercenary is invalid.

As an example: A Strength Mercenary will be equippable with gear requiring just Strength, Strength + Dexterity or Strength + Intelligence. A Dexterity/Intelligence Mercenary will be equippable with gear requiring just Dexterity, just Intelligence or Dexterity + Intelligence.

Mercenaries do not need to meet attribute requirements outside of the above rule. Mercenaries need to be within 70% of level requirements of an item to equip it.

Mercenaries also have preferred weapon types, and will not equip weapons that do not match their preferred types. Generally, they are going to prefer weapons that they can actually use their skills with.

Will Map modifiers affect rewards from Mercenaries?

Increased Quantity on a Map Area from Map Modifiers will increase the chances that you find an Infamous Mercenary in that area.

Are Link skills able to target allied Mercenaries?

Yes, you can link to an allied Mercenary. Just make sure they don’t die on you.

Can Gold appear as a reward in a Mercenary's pouch?

No.

Can Mercenaries be renamed?

No.

Can Mercenaries use items with influenced trigger skills (like Shaper weapons with Cast on Crit)?

Short answer - No.

Longer answer - Mercenary Skills are not socketed into gear in the way that player skills are. They are inherent to the Mercenary rather than being the result of a socketed gem, so in the case of something like a Cast on Crit weapon, it would be hard to determine what skill should even be triggered - or indeed, do the triggering.

Will Mercenaries be tradable with other players?

Mercenaries are not tradeable.

Are Mercenaries account bound or character bound?

Account bound.

Can I immediately use a high level Mercenary I've previously recruited when levelling a new character?

No. If you are 20+ levels lower than a Mercenary, they will not follow you. You are not worth their time.

Do Mercenaries get passive skills from gear, such as the anointed notables on amulets or keystones from Uniques?

Anointed passive skills will work. Keystones from Uniques also will work.

Will the Trarthan gems also appear in the Divine Font at the end of the Labyrinth, or are they only available from Mercenaries?

Trarthan Gems are only available from Mercenaries (starting in level 68+ areas), and each individual Gem is only available from a specific variety of Mercenary.