Mercenary : Melee

[Mercenary Grade]

[D Class Mercenaries]

Swordsman, Spearman, Viking, Archer, Gunner, Artilleryman, Shaman, and Monk.

[C Class Mercenaries]

Exorcist, Lady Knight, Witch, Princess, Oracle, Beast Trainer, Inventor, Janissary, Prophet, Cannoneer, Hwarang, Minstrel, and Punisher.

[Class C Mercenaries]

Pirate, Elementalist, Spartan, Empress, Sheriff, Vampire, Warlord, Tarkan, Goddess, and Taoist.

[A Class Mercenaries]

Druid, Champion, General, Valkyrie, Sorceress, Automaton, Patriot, Centaur Archer, Necromancer

[Mercenary Type]

[Melee Mercenary]

These mercenaries attack the enemy with melee strikes. They are generally physically strong, and have high vitality and defense. Their action power varies with each class of mercenary but on average melee mercenaries generate less action points than other types of mercenaries.
Swordsmen, spearmen, vikings, beast trainers, exorcists, lady knights, northern vikings, spartans, pirates, punishers, druids, champions, generals, valkyries, warlords, and taoists are all considered melee mercenaries.

[Long Range Mercenary]

These are mercenaries that attack the enemy at long range. Their physical strength is generally weak, but their action power is high.
Archers, gunners, prophets, inventors, janissaries, dark archers, hwarangs, minstrels, empresses, sheriffs, vampires, centaur archers, patriots, and necromancers are considered long range mercenaries.

[Magic Mercenary]

These are mercenaries who specialize in wielding powerful magic. They are physically weaker than other mercenaries but on average they generate more action points.
Shamans, monks, witches, princesses, oracles, and elementalists belong to this category of mercenary.

[Bombing Mercenary]

Mercenaries that do a wide range of damage using cannons are called bombing mercenaries. They are less precise than long range mercenaries but can damage a much larger group of targets.

Artillerymen, cannoneers, and automatons are bombing mercenaries.

[Hiring Mercenaries]

[Tutorial Quest]

You can hire basic mercenaries during the tutorial quest. You get to choose 2 mercenaries for your party (swordsman, gunner) for free during the tutorial.

[Merchant NPCs]

You can get additional mercenaries after level 5 from Jang Gil San, Ou Yang Feng, Shuichi or Im Guk-jung.
They will let you hire mercenaries like Swordmen, Spearmen, Gunners, Archers and Shamans for gold.

[Wandering Mercenaries]

You can recruit all class D mercenaries (except Vikings) by finding them wandering throughout the world. They can be seen on roads or in towns. You have to greet them and give them gifts to convince them to join you.
When your party is full and you convince a wandering mercenary to join you, they will instead give you a Mercenary Box.

[Mercenary Quests]

You can get advanced classes of mercenaries like monks, beast trainers and witches by completing mercenary recruitment quests.

Merc. Name Quest NPC Start Lv.
Monk Huike 19
Beast Trainer Beast Trainer Nari 44
Witch Vivian 51
Exorcist Iris 57
Princess Eva 63
Prophet Hecuba 70
Oracle Nefertiti 76
Inventor Francesco 84
Cannoneer Kaguyahime 87
Lady Knight Janet 95
Janissary Al Feren 96
Minstrel Susan 100
Spartan Ancient Spartan Hero 100
Pirate Mary Read 100
Elementalist Wise Orenda 100
Empress Sumi 100
Druid Raging Wind 100
Punisher Christine 102
Champion Officer Odysseus 110
General Yunchang 110
Hwarang Kim Yoo Shin 112
Goddess Goddess Roro Kidul 113
Sorceress Mwindo 140
Automaton Gigas 145

[Firing Mercenaries]

After you click on the magnifying glass in your inventory, you can click on the [Fire] button to fire a mercenary.

You must provide a certain amount of retirement fees to fire a mercenary. Take note that you cannot cancel once you have fired a mercenary.

[Character Advancement]

[Gaining Levels]

After gaining a certain amount of experience, you will automatically advance to the next level. The stats for characters are set, and increased stats are applied automatically when leveling up.

You get one [Skill Point] and one [Bonus Point] when you move up a level.

Skill points are used to increase any of your magic skills by one level by using the appropriate book for that magic skill.

A bonus point is used to randomly increase one stat. To spend a bonus point you must use a Growth Vial. One bonus point will be subtracted and one of the stats of the character who uses it will randomly increase by 5.

Growth Vials are divided into levels [I], [II], [III], [IV] and [V]. The level of the Growth Vials that can be used depends on how many Bonus Points you have already used on that character.

Skill Books are divided into levels [I], [II], [III] and [IV].
Each can increase skills up to level 20, 40, 60, and 80.* To raise your skill to lv. 61 and higher, you must upgrade your character level to [Hero II].
* To raise your skill to lv. 71 and higher, you must upgrade your character level to [Hero IV].

[Upgrade]

When you reach a certain level, you can upgrade.
Upgrades are possible at lvls. 20, 50, 80, 100, 120, and 130.

Ashen/Giant/Phoenix/Redemption/Dragon Crystals are needed for Lv. 20 and Lv. 50 upgrades, and Ashen/Giant/Phoenix/Redemption/Dragon Jewels are needed for Lv. 80 and up.
To upgrade an advanced mercenary, you need Giant/Phoenix/Redemption/Dragon/Multi-Hued Soul Crystals or Jewels.

[Mercenary's Magic Skill]

All mercenaries come with 1 basic magic skill when hired. Depending on the mercenary type, they can learn up to 5 magic skills.

[Using Magic Skills]

* You can use the first basic skill by right-clicking on an enemy in battle.

* You can also use the shortcut keys (Q, W, E, R, T), or by clicking the magic skill's icons located at the bottom right hand corner of the screen, to cast a magic.

[Types of Magic Skills]

* Passive - Automatically activated when the condition is met.

(Skills such as Toxic Sword, Concentrate and Mana Shield are Passive Magic.)

* Active - A player must manually cast this magic.

(This includes all magic skills other than Passive Magic.)

[Effects of Magic Skills]

* Duration - Number of turns that magic affects the target after activation

* Cool Down - Number of turns before you may cast the magic
(You can "accumulate" up to 4 turns, which your magic's cool down will consume when you cast it.)

* Action Power Cost - Action Power consumed when casting a selected magic skill

* Magic Cost - Magic Points consumed when casting a selected magic
(You cannot cast a spell if you don't have sufficient magic points.)

* Range - Area which selected magic can affect

* Increase your level up to [??] using Charms - Maximum magic level with equipment

* Effect - Explains the effect of selected magic

Mercenary Independence

When a mercenary reaches level 100, he or she can be independent. You can do it through Fugger, who is northeast of Lisbon.

In order to be independent, the mercenary cannot have any equipment or items.

The mercenary must be younger than 50 years of age.

One user can make a maximum of 10 independent mercenaries.
Unfortunately, once they become independent, you cannot hire them again.

[Friendship with Independent Mercenary]

Independent Mercenaries will send you mail every month. (1 per day in real time) This might be a request or just a thank you letter.
If you fulfill one request, your friendship will increase by 1. However, friendship cannot exceed 100

An important thing to remember is that if you ignore the request, you will lose 2 points for friendship.
However, the friendship level will never decrease below 1.

[Independent Mercenary's Retirement]

Independent mercenaries will age just like the other characters in the game.
If the independent mercenary gets older than 60, he or she will retire and be released.
Once they are released, you won't be able to rehire them or receive mail from them. It will be more beneficial for you to hire younger mercenaries.

[Releasing Independent Mercenary]

You can choose to release independent mercenaries.
You should release a mercenary after carefully analyzing each mercenary's information from NPC Fugger who's in charge of giving independence to mercenaries.
Carefully review your decision because once you release them, you will no longer receive correspondence or items from them.

Rewards

[Rewards from Independent Mercenary]

Independent Mercenaries will send rewards every 6 months in-game time (6 days in real time).
Among these rewards, you can find important materials, expensive items or rare material items to acquire B-level mercenary.

It's also important to maintain Friendship since you cannot get material items to acquire B-level mercenary unless your Friendship reaches 100.
Just like that, the kinds of rewards sent from independent mercenaries differs depending on the mercenary's current Friendship or its Might.
So, the higher the independent mercenary's Might (Might without any equipment), or the higher the Friendship, you will receive larger quantities of items as rewards.