Mercenary

Escaped : ..and so he left, with dreams of good food and a peaceful night.
Vanished : ..and so he vanished, reduced to fable.

**Mercenary** is a playable character in Risk of Rain 2.

A highly mobile and maneuverable fighter, the Mercenary strikes swiftly and rapidly to devastate enemies, gaining both invincibility and mobility with his various attacks. Due to his skills' low cooldowns (which are further reduced by his signature  debuff), his playstyle focuses on repeatedly chaining together attacks to stay on the offensive in any situation.

Completing the True Respite challenge will unlock Mercenary as a playable survivor.

## Skills

Passive

 Description
 * The second jump's height is slightly lower than the first.
* The  jump boost applies for both of Mercenary's base jumps.
* Additional jumps granted by the  follow the same front flip animation used by Mercenary's second base jump, a trait unique to this Survivor.

Primary

 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * The base swing speed is 0.42s per swing, with a 0.64s recovery window after the third swing which artificially reduces the base swing speed.
* Any bonus attack speed will decrease the time spent in the recovery animation, but it cannot be fully removed.
* When using another skill during the third swing's animation, the recovery animation is canceled. This also causes the third swing's hitbox to remain active while using that other skill.

Secondary

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * The animation speed is improved with attack speed, which also reduces the time taken to cast other skills.

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * Unlocked via the Mercenary: Demon of the Skies Challenge. *(As Mercenary, don't touch the ground for 30 seconds.)*

Utility

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * The color of the icon will change depending on how many uses the skill has before going on cooldown; Blue for three, Yellow for two, Red for one.
* The animation speed and total distance traveled is improved by attack speed bonuses.
* The player has 2.66 seconds to use this ability again after striking an enemy (while a charge is available).
* Grants invulnerability for ~0.3 seconds and a lingering ~0.3 seconds at the end of each dash, for a total of 0.6 per dash and a total of 1.8 seconds of invulnerability for all dashes combined.

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * Unlocked via the Mercenary: Flash of Blades Challenge. *(As Mercenary, use 20 abilities in 10 seconds.)*

Special

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * Lasts for 1.3s after casting. The player is invincible during this time, and for an additional 0.6s seconds afterwards.
* Damages enemies 7 times at base attack speed. The amount of hits increases with bonus attack speed, but the duration does not.
* If no enemy is targeted, Mercenary simply dashes forward.

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * Unlocked via the Mercenary: Ethereal Challenge. *(As Mercenary, complete a Prismatic Trial without falling below 100% health.)*
* Deals 8x100% damage to up to 3 enemies, for a total of 3x800%, or 2400% damage (excluding the Exposed proc)

## Behaviors

*For an explanation of how these behaviors are implemented read about Enemy AI. This section only applies when the character is controlled by AI.*

1. **Use special**: Mercenary must be within 20m from the target, have line of sight, and be aiming at it. The behavior is active for 1 second and cannot be selected twice in a row. Since the behavior is not explicit about which version of the skill is to be used, this means that even Slicing Winds requires Mercenary to get in close range, even though for an intelligent agent the skill could be useful from further away.
2. **Use secondary**: Mercenary has to be within 8m from the target.
3. **Use primary**: Mercenary has to be within 6m from the target.
4. **Use utility**: Mercenary has to be within 5-30m from the target, have line of sight, and be aiming at it. Since this behavior is implicit for all skills that can occupy the utility slot,  is used in the same way, i.e., within proxity of the target and to get even closer, not to get away to safety while low on health or surrounded by dangerous enemies.
5. **Chase**: no requirements.

## Techs

* When using another skill during the animation for Laser Sword's third hit, its hitbox remains active during that other skill, even if Mercenary moves. This is commonly referred to as an "M1 extension," and it enables fast combos and negates the endlag of the third strike.
	+ This is most valuable when combined with Mercenary's utility skills, allowing the player to Expose a long line of enemies or deal great burst damage to them. It can also be used with Eviscerate to deal more damage to the targeted enemy.
* Whirlwind can be used on slanted edges or ramps to launch Mercenary vertically, gaining a large amount of height for looking around, reaching high areas, or using the .
* If Mercenary ends Blinding Assault or Focused Assault inside of a flying enemy's hitbox, it will be pushed away at high speed and take colossal damage when colliding with stage geometry. This is extremely effective for dealing with flying bosses such as the  and , often killing them instantly.
	+ Small enemies can be shoved and slammed in a similar manner using Rising Thunder, which knocks the enemy upwards. However, this force is not enough to move medium or large enemies.
* Blinding Assault can be canceled mid-dash by using either Whirlwind or Rising Thunder, shortening the length of the dash. This is useful primarily to avoid overshooting or in order to precisely end a dash for, say, a slam (the tip above).
* can apply a second Expose stack when triggered by a skill that inflicts Expose, and is currently the only method for doing so. It can also Expose other enemies caught in its explosion, although this usually is not quite as relevant without stacking multiple Behemoths, as the explosion radius is somewhat small.
* The animation of Slicing Winds can be cancelled by using Whirlwind, Rising Thunder, Blinding Assault, or Focused Assault.

## Tips

* Strafe around enemies and try to stay behind them at all times. Few enemies can attack behind themselves, and most of them cannot keep up with the player constantly strafing.
* Prioritize enemies that are immediate threats, but also remember to flee if things get dicey. Do not constantly rely on Mercenary's invincibility frames to completely negate damage; stay dodgy and avoid being hit altogether when possible.
* Although Whirlwind is smoother and easier to combo with than Rising Thunder, Rising Thunder itself has higher damage output (550% compared to Whirlwind's 400%) and can be more adaptive with dodges due to its quick vertical movement.
* Notably, only Mercenary benefits from hitting an Exposed enemy. If a non-Mercenary character or ally hits an Exposed enemy, the Exposed is not removed and the ally does not deal more damage or get cooldown reduction.
* When fighting bosses, Mercenary can stay safely in the air above their heads for a very long time by chaining together Whirlwind→Eviscerate→Whirlwind along with Laser Sword attacks and double jumps. Laser Sword also has a slight vacuum effect and can be used to stick to and strafe around larger enemies.
* Mercenary actually receives downsides from having bonus attack speed, narrowing the window to perform Laser Sword extensions and shortening the distance that Whirlwind and Rising Thunder move him. Attack speed can still be useful as it shortens the cast time of his skills and gives additional Eviscerate hits, but these losses should be taken into consideration as well.
* Both Whirlwind and Rising Thunder have short enough cooldowns that a single  will allow them to be used continuously, allowing them to be used as a re-usable dash or to ascend upwards indefinitely. Note that without a  this will lower overall proc chances.
* Blinding Assault's cooldown reset leaves just enough time to use Laser Sword twice or combo Whirlwind + Laser Sword before needing to dash again. There is also just enough time to use Eviscerate or Slicing Winds between Blinding Assaults, if used immediately without any delay between dashes.
* Well timed uses of Blinding Assault can enable the player to maintain invulnerability with only their utility. This can also be achieved with Focused Assault, albeit this skill requires more finesse for the same results.
* Some bosses have heads which act as solid platforms, which the Mercenary can stand on to fight the boss without as much danger from enemies below.
* Slicing Winds is a very effective single-target and area-of-effect tool for Mercenary, as it has a higher general damage output than Eviscerate, as well as inflicting Expose at the end of the skill. Slicing Winds deals 1150% (800% + 350% from Expose) damage on a single target and up to 3450% total damage against 3 targets (1150%x3 targets, as it can Expose those 3 targets). By comparison, Eviscerate deals 770% total damage to a single target, and does not properly hit multiple targets.
	+ Although Eviscerate deals more damage with higher attack speed, it needs around ~30  to match Slicing Winds.
* Eviscerate prevents the player from using other skills during its duration, while Slicing Winds does not. This means that the player can attack and use other skills while Slicing Winds is active, and with a  or other method of reducing cooldowns (such as a  or getting enough cooldown reduction that the cooldown finishes before the skill ends), it's possible to chain multiple uses of Slicing Winds.
* Although Slicing Winds is a ranged attack, its projectile is a bit slow, so it's most effectively used at melee or close range. Make use of its wide hitbox to strike many enemies.
* Mercenary is one of 2 Survivors with a 1.0 proc coefficient on every single skill, making Mercenary fairly decent at procs in any regard.
* Mercenary can be a difficult character to master next to , and thus requires patience and practice. Learn to chain his abilities and follow up your attacks on exposed enemies to reduce your skill cooldowns.
* Mercenary can easily exploit most enemies with enough stacks of  to knock the cooldown Eviscerate down to one second, allowing him to effectively spam Eviscerate until an enemy dies due to a full Eviscerate lasting more than one second
	+ With enough stacks of , Mercenary can also basically fly by getting enough  to get his cooldowns to where he can fly by spamming and alternating between Eviscerate and either Blinding Assault or Focused Assault.

## Lore

```
The europian noble paced around in his chambers, nervously glancing at the antique clock adorning his wall. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The riots had been escalating and showed no signs of slowing down. Effigies burned, statues were torn down, and countless politicians turned their backs on the once-prestigious nobility of Europa. The people have had enough. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

It was only a matter of time– either the noble would have to flee, or the mob would finally breach the palace. Even his bodyguards began to show signs of betrayal. Time, the noble thought, was something he did not have. The antique clock kept ticking, working upon the noble’s mind. Keeping him distracted - just long enough. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

And as the antique clock kept ticking, the noble’s body hit the floor. The Mercenary sheathed his blade. His footsteps were unheard as he left the palace– masked by the rhythmic ticking of the clock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
```

## Version History

PS4 & Xbox One Patch
* Bug Fixes
	+ Solved an issue where the Mercenary  utility skill would not apply the  debuff.

PC Patch v1.1.1.2
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fixed the tracking for the  challenge

Anniversary Update
* Major Content
	+ A dded New Skill Variant:
		- . Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and  enemies after 1 second.
	+ Added New Class Challenge:
	+ Added New Lore Entry: Mercenary
* Gameplay Changes
	+ - 🌧 Now has a lingering 0.2s invincibility to help chain together Blinding Assaults in high-latency online games

PC Patch v1.0.1.1 (Build ID No.5440050)
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fix Mercenary’s  duration scaling from attack speed
	+ Fix Mercenary’s  having missing iframes on startup
	+ Reduce Mercenary’s  hitpause duration to 0.1 from 0.15 to match pre-1.0 hitpause values
	+ Fix Merc  mechanic not awarding cooldown reduction to non-host players over the network

Early Access Content Update 5
* Gameplay Changes
	+ *Developer Notes: The Mercenary was always supposed to be the highest skill-cap survivor. However, in actual gameplay he became very flow-charty, using abilities directly off cooldown while holding down M1. The intent for all these changes is to allow skill expression, dynamic cooldowns, and higher risk vs reward in fight with the new ‘Exposed’ debuff. The hope is that the character will be stronger for advanced players, but weaker for new players.*
		- Base Health: 140 (+42 per level) ⇒ 110 (+33 per level)
		- Base Regeneration: 2.5 health / second ⇒ 1 health / second
		- NEW Debuff:
			* Striking an Exposed target reduces all cooldowns by 1 second and deals an additional +350% base damage
		- * Third Strike Damage: 300% ⇒ 130%
			* Third hit now applies ‘Exposed’ debuff
			* The second and third hit of the combo can no longer be started in the middle of other attacks
		- * Ground Speed Multiplier: 6 ⇒ 8
		- * Cooldown: 7s ⇒ 8s
			* Can now be canceled mid-attack by both Whirlwind and Rising Thunder
		- * Last hit now applies ‘Exposed’ debuff
* Quality of Life
	+ Reduced brightness of some Mercenary effects to they are less white and have more color

Early Access Artifacts Content Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ - Cooldown: 7.0s ⇒ 6.0s
		- *Developer Notes: Cooldowns aren’t displayed anywhere in character select, and are generally a lame way to balance similar Skill Variants*
* Sound & Music
	+ Fix Mercenary  not playing SFX for anyone but the client playing as Mercenary and not applying forward self-force when playing as a non-host client

Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fix Merc  sound not playing over the network

Early Access 'Skills 2.0' Content Update
* Major Content and Changes
	+ Added New Skill Variant:
		- Unleash a slicing uppercut, dealing 450% damage and sending you airborne.
	+ Added New Skill Variant:
		- Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage.
	+ Added New Skin:   Mercenary
	+ Added New Class Challenge:   Mercenary: Mastery
* Gameplay Changes
	+ Add 2 new skill variants
	+ Add 1 new skin

Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3961583)
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fix Mercenary's  sometimes having double cooldowns
	+ Hitting Immune characters or  attacks no longer applies on-hit effects
		- This is especially important for Mercenary, who was previously recieving debuffs like  and  while Immune

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ ☂ Add true  during  and .
	+ ☂ Add lingering invincibility for 0.6s after  ends.
	+ ☂  deducts 1 from stock when timed out rather than resetting it all to 0.
	+ ☂ Add “Safe Movement” during  and  to reduce the chance of clipping through geometry

Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3731106)
* Gameplay Changes
	+ Extend timeout duration to recast  from 2s to 3s
		- *\*Small QoL. Allows Merc to be able to cast his other abilities between recasts of Blinding Assault without losing his recasts.\**
* Bug Fixes
	+ **[Community Found]** Fix  being able to take major fall damage during dashing attacks. \*\*This is actually a significant portion of blazing deaths - you dash in, get set to 1, and then get ticked for that last point of health.\*\*

Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3703355)
* Bug Fixes
	+ The Mercenary is now properly targeted by enemies after he uses a non-primary skill.

## Gallery

* Default
* Oni

## Trivia

* Mercenary was one of the playable characters in the first Risk of Rain.
* Prior to the Anniversary Update, Mercenary's ending phrase was "..and so he left, with terrible power in shaking hands."
	+ Unlike other epilogues revised in the Anniversary Update, Mercenary's original epilogue was not a reiteration of his epilogue from the first Risk of Rain, which was instead "..and so he left, never to become human again."
* Prior to Build ID #3731106, Eviscerating directly into the ground when airborne would inflict heavy fall damage.
* Prior to the 1.0 Update, Expose did not exist for Mercenary, and as such Slicing Winds would not inflict Expose at the end of its duration. This meant its single-target total damage was 800% and multi-target total damage was 2400%.
* Mercenary is probably a bounty hunter hired by the  Captain to help out in case of danger on the rescue mission.