In Vessel of Hatred, the Mercenary system was added to Diablo IV. This new system allows you to have an NPC follow you around while helping you battle the forces of evil. Although this feature has been in past Diablos, this version has a bit more meat on the bone as you can level the mercenaries up and then use their skill points to fill a role.

This is great for solo players, and a welcome addition for anyone who wants to farm gear and materials with a bit of help. Read on to find out how you can unlock mercenaries and what they can offer you.

Table of Contents¶

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How To Unlock Mercenaries¶

You unlock the first mercenary, Raheir, relatively early on during the main story quest, “The Hand Remembers the Blade”. At some point, the quest will have you meet Raheir in The Den, which just happens to be the hub area for your mercenaries.

Raheir will take you to The Den, which you can just teleport to, and you’ll unlock mercenaries, although you’ll only have access to Raheir for now. To enlist a mercenary, select the companion you want to use and select “Hire Mercenary”, which will then place them in your party.

Unlocking more Mercenaries¶

Once you have access to the mercenaries, you can accept three priority quests to unlock the remaining three mercenaries. Examining the Brutal Note at the back center of the room will unlock the Slayer’s Retribution quest that unlocks Varyana. To the left of that, you have the Muddy Letter, which gives you the “A Feather on the Scale” quest, unlocking Subo.

Finally, you have the Archive of Kuo Chosah to the right of Raheir, which unlocks the “A Nameless Mystery” quest, unlocking Aldkin.

Mercenary Classes¶

As of right now, there are four mercenaries to choose from, with more to come later. They are Raheir, Varyana, Subo, and Aldkin. Each one is a different class and can be further upgraded to perform a specific role within that class.

For example, Raheir is the Shieldbearer class, and within the class he can either be a tank, provoking enemies of you while enhancing your armor, or he can help knock down enemies. Here is each mercenary and their class.

• Raheir: Shieldbearer: Tanks or Knocks down Foes.
• Varyana: Berserker: Physical damage that uses bleeds.
• Subo: Bounty Hunter: Uses Traps and Ranged Attacks.
• Aldkin: Cursed Child (Sorcerer): Uses either Fire or Dark Magic to attack or control foes.

The descriptions of the classes above are not as detailed as where you put your skill points will shape them, so the description just gives you a rough idea of what to expect from them. We like Raheir as he has a passive that will bolster your armor by 15%, but they’re all good for different reasons.

Reinforcements¶

Reinforcements are a second mercenary you can have in your party. However, these are different to mercenaries because the latter is with you at all times, while the former is only with you when pressing a skill or another trigger is met. Although they’re not as good as mercenaries, they can still be used if you join a party, when mercenaries won’t be.

Another downside to reinforcements is they can only use one skill, although you can choose that skill, and change it whenever. Mercenaries and reinforcements are taken from the same pool of NPCs, and when one is selected as your mercenary, it can’t be selected as a reinforcement and vice versa.

To select a reinforcement, simply talk to one of the four mercenaries and select “Enlist Reinforcement”. Once you have chosen your reinforcement, go to the Mercenaries tab on the main menu, and select Reinforcement. Here, you’ll be able to select a skill you want them to use and an Opportunity.

More skills unlock as they rank up, and Opportunity allows you to set a trigger on when the skill is used, however, there is a cooldown on them using the skills. For example, you could set Subo up to use the Wire Trap skill if you use a specific skill of your own. Each time you press that skill, the reinforcement will use theirs, depending on the cooldown.

Rapport and Ranks¶

Whenever you bring along a mercenary or reinforcement they will earn experience points, and when the bar reaches the end, they’ll rank up. You can gain experience points from completing most activities. If they are mercenaries, they’ll gain a skill point, which you can place on their skill tree. However, if they rank up as a reinforcement, you must change them to a mercenary before adding the skill point.

Remember that reinforcements obtain only half of the experience points a mercenary would earn. Aside from the skill point, they’ll also unlock Rapport items at every rank, and each rank will offer you a cache of some kind, with the higher ranks being a better cache. You can obtain this by selecting Rapport under the Mercenaries tab in the main menu.

Bartering and Pale Marks¶

When you rank up one of the mercenaries to Rank 5, you’ll unlock Bartering. This allows you to purchase equipment from the mercenaries for Pale Marks. You can access this inside The Den by talking to Fayira in the center of the room.

This shop allows you to purchase rare and legendary gear for Pale Marks, and if you don’t like what they have to offer, you can restock the supply. The first restock is free, and subsequent restocks will increase in price, costing Pale Marks.

The bartering system can be enhanced by increasing your rapport ranks with the various mercenaries. Pale Marks are the currency that the mercenaries prefer to use, and you can acquire them from Rapport rank-ups, Battle Pass, and other activities.