Today I will show you how to play the Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2. In this comprehensive Mercenary guide, I will be laying out his strengths and weaknesses, the best items on the Mercenary, and the best abilities of the Merc with no mouth.
Wanna see where the Mercenary sits compared to the other survivors? Check out my Risk of Rain 2 tier list. Otherwise, settle down and get your blades ready future neckbeards Mercenary mains.
Updated for Survivors of the Void DLC.
Table of Contents
How Does Mercenary Play
Mercenary is a mobile survivor in Risk of Rain 2, in fact, his mobility is only second to Loader who can grapple across the map instantly, so not much of a fair fight. Because of this mobility, the Mercenary can do things most other survivors can’t and reach places that other survivors simply can’t go. This hastens the stages up a bit so it is slightly easier to rush through stages with him.
Sadly, the Mercenary has to pay a large price for all of his mobility, and that comes in the form of squishiness. Unlike Loader, the Mercenary can’t tank the entire instance without a care in the world and blazing elites end up being the Merc’s worst enemy. That’s not to say he doesn’t have survivability, though. As you will find out in the next section, the Mercenary has lots of built-in survivability with his skills as long as you choose the correct loadout for him.
So, all in all, the Mercenary is a fast-paced survivor in Risk of Rain 2 who likes to use his mobility to not only keep him alive but also to help him clear stages incredibly fast.
Mercenary’s Abilities
As always, I will be going over every Mercenary ability currently available in this section. I already have a guide on the best loadouts for every survivor, so go check that out if you are instead looking for the most optimal loadout for the Mercenary.
Mercenary Passive: Cybernetic Enhancements
It gives you a double jump, that’s about it.
Mercenary’s Primary: Laser Sword
Laser Sword is the Mercenary’s primary ability. It works similarly to Acrid’s primary where you can combo your attacks after a certain number of hits. For Mercenary, every third hit will do more damage and hit in a larger AOE.
The one thing to know about the Mercenary’s primary is that no other abilities cancel the Laser Sword attack. Meaning you can hold down the Laser Sword attack and continuously attack which increases your DPS drastically.
Also, there is a delay between the last attack on the Laser Sword which you can cancel with Whirlwind (Merc’s secondary skill). This makes the attack go off instantaneously and can increase your DPS even further.
Mercenary’s Secondary: Whirlwind & Rising Thunder
Mercenary has two options for his secondary abilities. The first, Whirlwind, is the vastly superior ability in just about every way, which is outline in my loadouts guide, but I’ll explain each ability here.
Whirlwind makes the Mercenary slice either horizontally or vertically based on whether or not he is airborne at the time. Each slice does 200% damage and has a proc coefficient of 1, meaning that items proc normally on both swipes.
Rising Thunder pushes both Mercenary and enemies in range into the air, dealing 450% damage to all enemies hit by the attack. Think of how Huntress’s Ballista knocks her in the air, it is roughly the same idea.
The main reason that Whirlwind is better for Merc has to do with damage potential and also the fact that having Backup Magazines makes Whirlwind much better, but Backup Mags don’t make Rising Thunder that much better.
Mercenary Utility: Blinding Assault
Blinding Assault is Mercenary’s utility skill, which allows him to dash across the map several times while also doing damage to every enemy he comes into contact with.
Your dash will stun enemies and do 300% damage, plus, every time you hit an enemy, you can dash again, up to three times. You can tell how many more dashes you have left by looking at the ability in your hot bar. Blue is three, yellow is two, and red is one. Oddly enough, stacking attack speed makes Blinding Assault go further, so make sure to bring more Soldier’s Syringes if you really want to go the distance.
Mercenary’s Special: Eviscerate & Slicing Winds
Mercenary has two special abilities to choose from and the choice is always Eviscerate over Slicing Winds. Never ever ever use Slicing Winds unless you are completely memeing.
Eviscerate targets any nearby enemies and attacks them for 110% damage over the course of the ability. During the attack you cannot be hit. Notice how it says cannot be hit and not cannot be damaged. This is because any debuff you have on you, say from a fire elite, will still do damage and can kill you even during this attack.
Slicing Winds is the second option the Mercenary has which allows you to fire a cone attack in front of you that attacks three enemies for up to 8×100% damage.
Eviscerate is the bread and butter of the Mercenary due to the I-frames it gives you. Always choose Eviscerate.
Mercenary Rotation
The basic rotation for the Mercenary is as follows:
- Laser Sword Attack
- Dash
- Laser Sword Attack
- Whirlwind
- Laser Sword Attack (finished combo)
- Dash
- Laser Sword Attack
- Dash (final dash)
- Laser Sword Attack
- Eviscerate
To explain the combo fully you need to understand that the Laser Sword’s second attack can be cancelled by Whirlwind, so we are effectively using Whirlwind to animation cancel the second Laser Sword attack and that way we can use the third stronger attack quicker.
The dash between attacks is because you have just enough time between each dash to either use the Laser Sword twice or to use the Laser Sword + Whirlwind combo. Because we want the Whirlwind to attack to cancel the animation of the Laser Sword, we dash after the initial swipe. This is the highest DPS combo you can do.
Eviscerate can be used at any point after the dashes or at any time where you find you need to dodge attacks. You would preferably do it after your dashes are on cool-down so you can maximize your survivability and DPS.
Best Items for Mercenary
I already have a Risk of Rain 2 tier list for items, so this will be items that are good on Mercenary, rather than just good items.
- Backup Magazines – Literally one of the best items on Mercenary period
- Focus Crystal – A melee survivors best friend
- Solider’s Syringe – Every ability that Mercenary has is boosted by attack speed
- Tougher Times – You need as much help as you can get since you are a melee boi
- Hopoo Feather – Double jumps are old, try triple jumps
- Brainstalks – No CD after killing an Elite, Mercenary loves this
- Harvester’s Scythe – You need some form of life steal as Mercenary and this is one of the best
- Bandolier – Always in melee range, so you can pick up the CD refreshing ammo packs
Again, these are just some of the better items on Mercenary rather than best items all around. Lens Makers Glasses would be here otherwise, because who doesn’t want to crit?
Now that the Survivors of the Void DLC has come out we have a whole new batch of items to play with. Keep in mind that every item on this list will belong to a paid DLC, so basically pay to win.
- Light Flux Pauldron – Good for reducing your CD on abilities
- Polylute
- Plasma Shrimp
- Lysate Cell – gives you charges on your special ability
- Shuriken – gives you a ranged attack
End
And that is it for this Mercenary guide for risk of rain 2. I will make sure to update this guide so it will always be useful to anyone reading it. Hopefully, this helps you Merc lovers play the best techno-samurai possible.
Thanks for reading!
