Mercenary

Mercenary is a playable character in Risk of Rain 2.

Tips

 * Whirlwind can be used on slanted edges / ramps that you can walk up to launch the player vertically.
 * Whirlwind when used on the ground dashes you forward, when used in the air it acts like a double jump. Use it in the air to stay airborne, but use it on the ground to be evasive as it covers more distance faster.
 * There is a short delay before attacking again after the third hit in the Laser Sword combo. Activating Whirlwind immediately after the hit connects can cancel this delay.
 * 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.
 * Your Blinding Assault cooldown reset leaves just enough time to use Laser Sword twice or combo Whirlwind + Laser Sword before you need to dash again. You have just enough time to Eviscerate between Blinding Assaults, if you do it immediately without any delay between dashes.
 * Your longest distance jump combo is Sprint-Jump-Whirlwind-Blinding Assault-Eviscerate-Double Jump-Whirlwind.[Verify]
 * Prior to Build ID #3731106, Eviscerating directly into the ground when airborne would cause you to take heavy fall damage.
 * Some bosses have heads which act as solid platforms, which the Mercenary can stand on to resume attacking the boss without as much danger from the swarm of enemies below.
 * boost applies for Mercenary's first two jumps, whereas other survivors can only receive the boost on their first jump, even with the
 * Using your Primary attack on enemies such as the while airborne also noticeably reduces your rate of descent.
 * With the right positioning, Blinding Assault can be used to position Mercenary inside of an enemy's hitbox. For flying enemies, this can be exploited, pushing them away at high speed. Enemies that are pushed will take huge damage when hitting a wall, which is very effective for dealing with flying bosses such as and.
 * Blinding Assault can be canceled mid-dash by either Whirlwind or Rising Thunder in order to shorten the length of the dash.
 * Hitting enemies with either Whirlwind or Rising Thunder directly after the third strike of Laser Sword will apply Exposed (it will not apply Exposed if that same third strike already applied Exposed to that monster). This can be more difficult with Rising Thunder due to the cast time of the ability.
 * The two above tips can be combined in this order: Laser Sword (third hit)-Blinding Assault-Whirlwind or Laser Sword (third hit)-Blinding Assault-Rising Thunder in order to apply Exposed after using your dash.
 * will apply a second expose, and is currently the only method for doing so.

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.".