Người Đồng Hành

**Followers** are NPCs that follow you around and help with attacking enemies. They will draw enemy fire, and their attacks are more powerful than those of pets. However, unlike pets, most of the followers will die permanently when they run out of HP.

Followers fall in the following three separate categories.

## Summoned Minions

Currently, the following methods can summon followers:

* Staff of Skeleton can summon skeleton soldiers that lasts for ~15 seconds or if it runs out of health.
* Snowman Eagle can summon tiny snowmen that lasts for 3 seconds upon critical hit.
* Staff of Illusion can summon a copy of your character for the current level or two with staff buff.
* Using skill after worshiping Statue of the Knight can summon a small knight for ~20 seconds or until it runs out of health.
* The Engineer can use his skill to deploy a turret that lasts for ~10 seconds. The turret may be destroyed by enemy fire.
* The Druid can use his skill to summon two wolves. These wolves are more like pets, that will not get killed but instead deactivates for 30 seconds when out of health.
* During the Easter Update, encountering an Easter egg at the beginning of the floor can spawn 1-5 rabbits which function like typical pets.

## Characters as NPCs

At the starting room of levels, one of another unlocked characters may appear. If it is one of the following, it will assist the player for the rest of current floor. Their services are free of charge:

* Rogue - With Jack and Mary equipped.
* Assassin - With the Blood Blade equipped.
* Elf -  With the Ancient Bow equipped.
* Berserker - With the Boxing Gloves equipped.
* Druid - In his case he does not join, but summons 1 wolf to assist instead.
* Note that their weapons are not affected by character upgrades.

## Mercenaries

They can be found in small rooms at most of the levels.

* The room in which they appear will also be indicated by a big yellow exclamation mark  in the mini map, same as the Gold Mine, Crystal Mine, or an All-Champion Room.

They can be hired at a cost of gold, which scales up with the level progress (15-30) and can be reduced with the Sales buff.

The player can only hire one mercenary at a time. If the current mercenary has been killed, future potential mercenaries don't spawn until the next level.

* If the player has the “Increase number of bonus rooms” condition, it is possible to have two mercenaries in the same floor, but the one that was hired first will disappear in the next floor.

The player can find a Drillmaster to make mercenaries stronger, by paying some gold.

A mercenary comes with a default weapon.

* Each mercenary has a suitable weapon list.
	+ However, they can only equip Blue/Rare weapons or lower rarity by default. They can equip better weapons after trained by Drillmaster, or if the player has Pet buff.
* To change their weapon, bring them to the weapon, if it is suitable, they will comment on the new weapon and equip it 2 seconds later.
* If the mercenary dies, the weapon they carried is lost (cannot be picked up by the player).
* All mercenaries can equip all Misc weapons. Examples include Badminton Racket, Basketball, Bassball Bat, Broom, Carrot, Fish, Football, Green Onions, Heavenly Sword, Meat, Plunger, and Umbrella. This does not include certain Legendaries such as Shield due to the fact that they can't equip them without Drillmaster Upgrades/Pet Buff.

As of now, there are 7 different mercenaries:

### Royal Knight

* He looks like a common Elite Knight in level 2-x, but with blue decorations and a small blue shield.
* His basic health is 70, the highest of all mercenaries.
* His default weapon is the Royal Knight's Short Sword.
	+ He wielded the Carrot instead during the 2018 Easter Update.
* He can equip mainly melee weapons (most specifically swords).

* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"Need help?"*
	+ Favor: *"Yes, master"*
	+ No Money: *"God bless you"*
	+ Suitable Weapon: *"Hah, a fine weapon"*
	+ Random Talking: *"Don't feel comfy with hi-tech"*
	+ Clearing Room: *"I will protect you"*
	+ Death: *"...."*

### Headgear Hero

* He seems to be in the costume of some masked hero, reminiscent of Batman.
	+ Because of this, he's commonly referred to as batman in the community.
* His basic health is 50, the lowest of all mercenaries.
* His default weapon is the Headgear Hero's Machine Gun.
* He can equip other Pistols and Rifles.
* He shoots in either bursts or single-shots. Therefore, giving him burst firing weapons or Sniper Rifles may be advantageous.
* All of his quotes are kaomojis.

* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"=v="*
	+ Favor: *"=3="*
	+ No Money: *"TAT"*
	+ Suitable Weapon: *"=w="*
	+ Random Talking: *"=o="*
	+ Clearing Room: *"=o="*
	+ Death: *"TAT"*

### Mercenary Intern

* He wears a dark, horned helmet and armor with a purple visor, similar to the boss room icon.
* His basic health is 60.
* His default weapon is the Mercenary Intern's Shotgun.
* He can equip other shotguns and certain launchers (like Cluster Missile).
* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"What?"*
	+ Favor: *"Don't get in my way."*
	+ No Money: *"No money? Get out!"*
	+ Suitable weapon: *"This weapon suits me"*
	+ Random Talking: *"I like this gun"*
	+ Clearing Room: *"I like this gun"*
	+ Death: *"...."*

### BarbarQ

* Added in version 1.5.0.
* He seems to be a dwarf with a red beard and viking helmet.
* His basic health is 65.
* His default weapon is the Raw Axe.
* He can equip melee weapons (except for spears).

* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"Got some mushrooms?"*
	+ Favor: *"Food time"*
	+ No Money: *"I'm starving"*
	+ Suitable Weapon: *"Hah, a fine weapon"*
	+ Random Talking: *"Hah, giant monster"*
	+ Clearing Room: *"Monster meat for diner"* (Currently with a typo)
		- If set to Chinese language, he will comment on another character from the same game instead.
	+ Death: *"...."*

### Legendary Apprentice

* Added in version 1.7.5.
* He looks like a common goblin in the Forests, but with a mask of different color.
	+ This may explain that most of his quotes are "hmm"'s.
* His basic health is 55.
* His default weapon is the Legendary Apprentice’s Magic Staff.
* He can equip other staffs, bows and spears (Laser, Trident, and the Pitchfork).

* Quotes
	+ Interaction: "*Hmm*"
	+ Favor: "*Hmm~*"
	+ No Money: "*Hmm...*"
	+ Suitable weapon: "*Hmm!*"
	+ Random Talking: "*Hmmmm*"
	+ Clearing Room: "*Hmmmm*"
	+ Death: "*.*"

### Sootsoot

* Added in Update 1.7.5.
* He has the apperance of a humanoid purple monster, with an apron and a chef hat.
* His basic health is 55.
* His default weapon is the Monster Cuisine.
* He can equip throwing weapons and railguns, despite all of them are not edible according to one of his quotes.
	+ However, with throwing weapons that have melee function, he can only perform the melee attack.

* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"Do you like Monster Cuisine?"*
	+ Favor: *"You are now my master!"*
	+ No Money: *"Can't even afford this?"*
	+ Suitable Weapon: *"Is this edible?"*
	+ Random Talking: *"New ingredients to cook with!"*
	+ Clearing Room: *"What shall we cook today?"*
	+ Death: *"...."*

### Mad Scientist

* The actual name of the mercenary is not known. However, before the crowbar was renamed, its name might imply that his name is "数学天," or "Math Expert."
* Added in Update 2.0.0.
* He looks like a typical crazy scientist from movies, with a long blouse, messy hair and a weird-looking face with rotating eyes.
* His basic health is 55 (unless he betrayed.)
* His default weapon is the Crowbar.
* He can equip most Laser weapons.
* This is the only Follower that costs 0 gold to hire.
	+ However, be cautious that when you try to hire him, he may betray you instantly after you hire him, and you can either just go away or kill him. This is currently the only mercenary with such property.
		- If this happens, he would have 50 health, can deal 4 damage, and will always drop 4 gold, 32 energy and his Crowbar when killed.
	+ Training him at the Drillmaster costs the usual gold.
* His quotes are full of symbols and gibberish.
* Quotes
	+ Interaction: *"!@#$&^%×-/+{|"*
	+ Betray: *"^%,\.]/×#@@?:|{</!!!!"*
	+ Favor: *"(λ)"*
	+ Suitable Weapon: *"!#@$%?"*
	+ Random Talking: *"^%,\.]/×#@@?:|{</!!!!"*
	+ Clearing Room: *":)&^$#@×&#"*
	+ Death: *"0x5330756C4B6E316768744E6F31......"*

## Trivia

* Before version 1.5.0, mercenaries couldn't equip other weapons found during a run. And as of then, the player's buffs will also apply to their weapons.
* The Follower Mercenary Intern is likely to be inspired by the video game ”Doom.”
* Sootsoot comes from another game called *Monster Chef*.
	+ His quote of encounter was only added in version 1.8.2.
* BarbarQ comes from another game, BarbarQ.
	+ He can also be seen as a guest in a New Year Dinner. In this case, he holds the Meat.
* Before version 1.7.6, the Royal Knight and the Headgear Hero were able to pick up the Boomerang, a throwing weapon.
* The mad scientist Follower is probably a reference to the game franchise Half-Life, indicated by its quote *"(λ)"* and the weapon being a crowbar, specifically, referencing the protagonist: Gordon Freeman, a scientist at Black Mesa Research Facility.
	+ The quote he says upon death can be translated from "0x5330756C4B6E316768744E6F31o" to "S0ulKn1ghtNo1," which reads "Soul Knight No.1."
* Before version 2.1.0, if the follower Mad Scientist betray the player, he would not drop his Crowbar upon death.
	+ Sometimes, when killed his sprite does not change and instead just remains there playing it's regular animation.