Mercenary

Mercenary
The Mercenary is a high skill melee survivor that uses his many dodges to weave in and out of combat.
Health	110 (+33 per level)
Health Regen	1.5/s (+0.3 per level) 1/s (+0.2 per level) 0.6/s (+0.12 per level)
Damage	12 (+2.4 per level)
Speed	7 m/s
Armor	20 ( 90)
Category	ImmuneToExecutes
Unlock	True Respite
Internal Name	Merc
Umbra Title
Hired Blade
Ending Phrase
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 ExposeExpose (Debuff)
Hitting exposed enemies reduces skill cooldowns and increases damage.Hitting exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1 second and deals an additional 350% damage. 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

Cybernetic Enhancements
	Type	Passive
	Description	The Mercenary can jump twice.
Notes
The second jump's height is slightly lower than the first. The Wax Quail'sWax Quail Jumping while sprinting boosts you forward. Jumping while sprinting boosts you forward by 10m (+10m per stack). jump boost applies for both of Mercenary's base jumps. Additional jumps granted by the Hopoo FeatherHopoo Feather Gain an extra jump. Gain +1 (+1 per stack) maximum jump count. follow the same front flip animation used by Mercenary's second base jump, a trait unique to this Survivor.

Primary

Laser Sword
	Type	Primary
	Proc Coefficient	1.0
	Description	Agile [ Agile ] The skill can be used while sprinting. . Slice in front for 130% damage. Every 3rd hit strikes in a greater area and Exposes [ Expose ] Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage. enemies.
Notes
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, staying front of Mercenary as the skill moves him.

Secondary

Whirlwind
	Type	Secondary
	Cooldown	2.5s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0 x 2
	Description	Quickly slice horizontally twice, dealing 2x200% damage. If airborne, slice vertically instead.
Notes
The animation speed is improved with attack speed, which also reduces the time taken to cast other skills.

Rising Thunder
	Type	Secondary
	Cooldown	2.5s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0
	Description	Unleash a slicing uppercut, dealing 550% damage and sending you airborne.
Notes
Unlocked via the Mercenary: Demon of the Skies Challenge. (As Mercenary, don't touch the ground for 30 seconds.)

Utility

Blinding Assault
	Type	Utility
	Cooldown	8s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0
	Description	Stunning [ Stunning ] Interrupts enemies and briefly stuns them. . Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
Notes
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 (depending on fps) 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.

Focused Assault
	Type	Utility
	Cooldown	8s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0
	Description	Stunning [ Stunning ] Interrupts enemies and briefly stuns them. . Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Exposing [ Expose ] Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage. enemies after 1 second.
Notes
Unlocked via the Mercenary: Flash of Blades Challenge. (As Mercenary, use 20 abilities in 10 seconds.)

Special

Eviscerate
	Type	Special
	Cooldown	6s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0 x 7+
	Description	Target the nearest enemy, attacking them for 110% damage repeatedly. You cannot be hit for the duration.
Notes
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.

Slicing Winds
	Type	Special
	Cooldown	6s
	Proc Coefficient	1.0 x 8
	Description	Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. The last hit Exposes [ Expose ] Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage. enemies.
Notes
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, ShadowfadeShadowfade (Utility)Fade away, becoming intangible and gaining +30% movement speed. Heal for 18.2% (+18.2% per stack) of your maximum health. Lasts 3 (+3 per stack) seconds.
   Survivor: Heretic 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 H3AD-5T v2H3AD-5T v2
  Increase jump height. Hold 'Interact' to slam down to the ground.
  Increase jump height. Creates a 5m-100m radius kinetic explosion on hitting the ground, dealing 1000%-10000% base damage that scales up with fall distance. Recharges in 10 (-50% per stack) seconds..
• 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 Wandering VagrantWandering Vagrant
  Gentle ProtectorHP: 2100 (+630 per level)
  Damage: 6.5 (+1.3 per level)
  Class: Ranged
  Speed: 6 m/s
  Armor: 15 and Alloy Worship UnitAlloy Worship Unit
  Friend of VulturesHP: 2500 (+750 per level)
  Damage: 15 (+3 per level)
  Class: Ranged
  Speed: 7 m/s
  Armor: 30, 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).
• Brilliant BehemothBrilliant Behemoth
  All your attacks explode!
  All your attacks explode in a 4m (+2.5m per stack) radius for a bonus 60% TOTAL damage to nearby enemies. 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 PurityPurity
  Reduce your skill cooldowns by 2 seconds. You are unlucky.
  All skill cooldowns are reduced by 2 (+1 per stack) seconds. All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for an unfavorable outcome. 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 57 Leaf Clover57 Leaf Clover
  Luck is on your side.
  All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for a favorable outcome. 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 Soldier's SyringeSoldier's Syringe
    Increase attack speed.
    Increases attack speed by 15% (+15% per stack). 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 BrainstalksBrainstalks
  Skills have NO cooldowns for a short period after killing an elite.
  Upon killing an elite monster, enter a frenzy for 4s (+4s per stack) where skills have 0.5s cooldowns. or other method of reducing cooldowns (such as a BandolierBandolier
  Chance on kill to drop an ammo pack that resets all skill cooldowns.
  18% (+10% per stack) chance on kill to drop an ammo pack that resets all skill cooldowns. 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 ArtificerArtificerThe Artificer is a high burst damage survivor who excels in fighting large groups and bosses alike.
  Class: Ranged
  HP: 110 (+33 per level)
  Damage: 12 (+2.4 per level)
  Armor: 0
  Umbra: Herald of the House Beyond, 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 PurityPurity
  Reduce your skill cooldowns by 2 seconds. You are unlucky.
  All skill cooldowns are reduced by 2 (+1 per stack) seconds. All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for an unfavorable outcome. 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 PurityPurity
    Reduce your skill cooldowns by 2 seconds. You are unlucky.
    All skill cooldowns are reduced by 2 (+1 per stack) seconds. All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for an unfavorable outcome., Mercenary can also basically fly by getting enough PurityPurity
    Reduce your skill cooldowns by 2 seconds. You are unlucky.
    All skill cooldowns are reduced by 2 (+1 per stack) seconds. All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for an unfavorable outcome. 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

Patch v1.3.8

• Bug Fixes
  • Mercenary’sMercenaryThe Mercenary is a high skill melee survivor that uses his many dodges to weave in and out of combat.
    Class: Melee
    HP: 110 (+33 per level)
    Damage: 12 (+2.4 per level)
    Armor: 20
    Umbra: Hired Blade swing/slash animation will now properly play when performing a primary attack just after performing Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary.

---

PS4 & Xbox One Patch

• Bug Fixes
  • Solved an issue where the Mercenary Focused alternativeFocused Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Expose enemies after 1 second.
    Survivor: Mercenary utility skill would not apply the exposeExpose (Debuff)
    Hitting exposed enemies reduces skill cooldowns and increases damage.Hitting exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1 second and deals an additional 350% damage. debuff.

---

PC Patch v1.1.1.2

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the tracking for the Mercenary: Flash of BladesFocused Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Expose enemies after 1 second.
    Survivor: Mercenary challenge

---

Anniversary Update

• Major Content
  • A dded New Skill Variant: Mercenary UtilityFocused Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Expose enemies after 1 second.
    Survivor: Mercenary
    • Stunning
      [ Stunning ]

      Interrupts enemies and briefly stuns them.
      . Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Exposing
      [ Expose ]

      Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage.
      enemies after 1 second.
  • Added New Class Challenge: Mercenary: Flash of BladesFocused Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 700% damage and Expose enemies after 1 second.
    Survivor: Mercenary
  • Added New Lore Entry: Mercenary
• Gameplay Changes
  • Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary
    • 🌧 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 Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary duration scaling from attack speed
  • Fix Mercenary’s Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary having missing iframes on startup
  • Reduce Mercenary’s Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary hitpause duration to 0.1 from 0.15 to match pre-1.0 hitpause values
  • Fix Merc Expose
    [ Expose ]

    Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage.
    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: Exposed
      [ Expose ]

      Hitting Exposed enemies reduces all skill cooldowns by 1.0s and deals an additional +350% damage.
      • Striking an Exposed target reduces all cooldowns by 1 second and deals an additional +350% base damage
    • Laser SwordLaser Sword (Primary)Agile. Slice in front for 130% damage. Every 3rd hit strikes in a greater area and Expose enemies.
      Survivor: Mercenary
      • 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
    • WhirlwindWhirlwind (Secondary)Quickly slice horizontally twice, dealing 2x200% damage. If airborne, slice vertically instead.
      Survivor: Mercenary
      • Ground Speed Multiplier: 6 ⇒ 8
    • Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
      Survivor: Mercenary
      • Cooldown: 7s ⇒ 8s
      • Can now be canceled mid-attack by both Whirlwind and Rising Thunder
    • Slicing WindsSlicing Winds (Special)Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. The last hit Expose enemies.
      Survivor: Mercenary
      • 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
  • Slicing WindsSlicing Winds (Special)Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. The last hit Expose enemies.
    Survivor: Mercenary
    • 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 WhirlwindWhirlwind (Secondary)Quickly slice horizontally twice, dealing 2x200% damage. If airborne, slice vertically instead.
    Survivor: 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 Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary sound not playing over the network

---

Early Access 'Skills 2.0' Content Update

• Major Content and Changes
  • Added New Skill Variant: Mercenary SecondaryRising Thunder (Secondary)Unleash a slicing uppercut, dealing 550% damage and sending you airborne.
    Survivor: Mercenary
    • Unleash a slicing uppercut, dealing 450% damage and sending you airborne.
  • Added New Skill Variant: Mercenary SpecialSlicing Winds (Special)Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. The last hit Expose enemies.
    Survivor: Mercenary
    • Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage.
  • Added New Skin: Mercenary
  • Added New Class Challenge: Mercenary: Demon of the SkiesRising Thunder (Secondary)Unleash a slicing uppercut, dealing 550% damage and sending you airborne.
    Survivor: Mercenary
  • Added New Class Challenge: Mercenary: EtherealSlicing Winds (Special)Fire a wind of blades that attack up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. The last hit Expose enemies.
    Survivor: 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 Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary sometimes having double cooldowns
  • Hitting Immune characters or blockedTougher Times
    Chance to block incoming damage.
    15% (+15% per stack) chance to block incoming damage. Unaffected by luck. attacks no longer applies on-hit effects
    • This is especially important for Mercenary, who was previously recieving debuffs like burningBurn (Debuff)
      Damage over time, disable health regeneration.Applies a percent of damage over time, and disables health regeneration.
      (stackable) and malachite poisoningHealing Disabled (Debuff)
      Disables healing.Disables all healing, including base health regeneration and item regeneration. while Immune

---

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update

• Gameplay Changes
  • ☂ Add true invincibilityHidden Invincibility (Buff)
    Become invulnerable.Become immune to all attacks. during EviscerateEviscerate (Special)Target the nearest enemy, attacking them for 110% damage repeatedly. You cannot be hit for the duration.
    Survivor: Mercenary and Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary.
  • ☂ Add lingering invincibility for 0.6s after EviscerateEviscerate (Special)Target the nearest enemy, attacking them for 110% damage repeatedly. You cannot be hit for the duration.
    Survivor: Mercenary ends.
  • ☂ Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary deducts 1 from stock when timed out rather than resetting it all to 0.
  • ☂ Add “Safe Movement” during EviscerateEviscerate (Special)Target the nearest enemy, attacking them for 110% damage repeatedly. You cannot be hit for the duration.
    Survivor: Mercenary and AssaulterBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary to reduce the chance of clipping through geometry

---

Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3731106)

• Gameplay Changes
  • Extend timeout duration to recast Blinding AssaultBlinding Assault (Utility)Stunning. Dash forward, dealing 300% damage. If you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to 3 total.
    Survivor: Mercenary 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 MercMercenaryThe Mercenary is a high skill melee survivor that uses his many dodges to weave in and out of combat.
    Class: Melee
    HP: 110 (+33 per level)
    Damage: 12 (+2.4 per level)
    Armor: 20
    Umbra: Hired Blade 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
• 
  The Prisoner
• 
  Seekers of the Storm - DLC Content
  This content is part of the Seekers of the Storm DLC. It is only available if the DLC is enabled when starting a run.
  Click for more info.Frail

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."
• The Prisoner skin of the Mercenary is a reference to "The Beheaded" from the game Dead Cells.
• 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.
• Mercenary is left-handed.
• Mercenary currently has more skins than any other survivor, due to being the only one getting an extra skin with the Devotion Update.