Risk of Rain 2 – The Mercenary – Character Guide

by Falagar / Articles, Risk of Rain / 30 Mar 2019

The Mercenary – Character Guide

Mercenary

HP: 140 (+42 per level)

Damage: 12 (+2.4 per level)

Speed: 7 m/s

The mercenary is somewhat harder to unlock. You need to finish the last map, the Abyssal Depths, then you’ll loop all the way back to the first map. Keep finishing zones until a “Celestial portal appears”. It’ll be next to a teleporter; jump in the portal, jump the platforms and obliterate yourself at the obelisk. Mercenary is yours!

The Mercenary is the only melee class in the game. Therefore, he is the best melee character in the game! While melee characters might seem like an odd idea when this game has a lot of flying, out of reach enemies, just stay a while and listen, because Mercenary won’t let himself be downed by that. A very agile, combo-intensive character that uses plenty of i-frames to get out of situations a ranged character wouldn’t need to face

Cybernetic Enhancements

Passive

Cybernetic Enhacements allows the Mercenary to jump twice. Now this may just seem like a free Hopoo Feather. It’s.. totally that. But the mercenary really needs it, to reach those high-up wisps! More Hopoo Feathers are obviously welcome, due to the nature of Mercenary.

Laser Sword

Cooldown: None

Real talk: Where is Mercenary different from a Jedi? Seriously? Same. Thing. Don’t let that fact distract you from Laser sword‘s ability to deal 130% per hit, and every 3rd hit is a crescent who deals 300% damage. The crescent is very large and can take enemies at a broad angle, so that’s sweet. Soldier Syringe works great here, mostly because the faster you go, the more often the 300% damage crescent move will proc. On-hit items are not very effective, due to the attack being somewhat slow compared to other basic abilities like MUL-T’s or Huntress’.

Whirlwind

Cooldown: 3s

While Whirlwind won’t reflect back the lasers of the Siths, Mercenary’s main enemies, it will cause Mercenary to dash forward and deal 2×200% damage horizontally. If this is used mid-air, the slashes are vertical instead. When mid-air, there is no forward dash, but you do hop upwards a tad, increasing your air time. Backup Magazines will allow you to thus remain airborne as long as you got something to it.

Blinding Assault

Cooldown: 7s

Blinding Assault is Mercenary’s “Utility” skill. The word Utility must have a different meaning to Jedis, because this deals 200% to enemies in a line, and stuns them. If you hit an enemy with Blinding Assault, you can perform it immediately again for the next second, up to three times in a row before it goes in the cooldown. A Bandolier is great here because Blinding Assault can easily kill multiple targets in a group when hit all together, so you can remove the cooldown ASAP. The attack can be done in any direction too, so you can chain the Wisps together and take care of them. Fun!

Eviscerate

Cooldown: 6s

Eviscerate is Mercenary’s Special ability. Mercenary embraces his inner anime and goes faster than the eye can see, attacking nearby enemies multiple times for 110% damage. During the ability’s casting, Mercenary is completely invulnerable. On-hit items like Tri-tip dagger are great for this ability. The sweet low cooldown renders Bandolier less useful, but resetting cooldowns never hurts. You can trigger Eviscerate right before strong attacks and entirely dodge them! Useful.

Mercenary remains our favorite jedi and a great character able to combo between all of his abilities. Everything just fits together like little legos, and it’s very satisfying. Use the i-frames effectively, because some adversaries like the Elder Lemuirian or the Imp Overlord are vicious in close range.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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