# 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. [[include:Infamous_Modifiers]] [[include:Trarthus_Gems]]