Mercenary

In-game description:
"When a mercenary crosses your path, there's only one thing that can save your life: offer him more money than he can get by killing you. If you gain the favor of the mercenaries, you will be able to combine the power of all races at once."

The Mercenary Faction

The Mercenaries were implemented in the After Life expansion (v1.3), and differ from the other factions: Unlocked at R3, they are available in all alignments, and can combine the power of all the other unlocked factions by letting you choose 2 spells and 3x4 faction upgrades. This enables you to create powerful cross-faction mercenary builds. However, this comes with the downside of high Faction Coin requirements, and initial gem requirement to reach E55 coins with unbonused alignment buildings only.

Spell Selection

Upgrade selection

• Alignment: Any
• Faction Spell: Custom (depending on alignment)
• Spell Upgrade: see below
• Heritage: Increase the production of all buildings based on the highest amount of coins you gained in a single game.
  Formula: $floor(5 * log(1 + x))$  where x is your Coins Gained (Max) stat.
• Bloodline: None - See Bloodstream
• Challenge: None
• Unique Buildings: Good: Mercenary Camp (from Knights Jousts)
  Evil: Tyrant Garrison - (from Evil Fortresses)
  Neutral: Freemason's Hall - (from Alchemist Labs)
• Research: R75
• Faction Unlock Requirements: R3+ see below

Mercenary Tier Upgrades

The Tier upgrades enable to choose from the all the existing faction upgrades. These cost coins and Faction Coins. The FC type necessary depends on your selection: For a Fairy upgrade, it will cost Fairy coins; for Elven upgrade, it will cost Elven coins; and so forth.

Tier 1 Upgrades

Tier 1 Upgrades
Name		Cost	Effect
	Mercenary First Contract	50 Spd (5E55)	Unlocks Tier 1 Upgrades.
	Mercenary Magic Contract	50 Ocd (5E58), 1,000 FC	Pick an available Spell from any faction. The choice depends on the alignment you have chosen.
	Mercenary Upgrade 1	1,500 FC	Pick an available Tier 1 Upgrade from existing factions. The choice can depend on the alignment and spells you have chosen.
	Mercenary Upgrade 2	3,000 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 3	4,500 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 4	6,000 FC

Tier 2 Upgrades

Tier 2 Upgrades
Name		Cost	Effect
	Mercenary Second Contract	25 Vg (2.5E64)	Unlock Tier 2 upgrades.
	Holy Crusaders (For Good Alignments)	25 Uvg (2.5E67)	You gain additional Crusader Assistants based on the amount of spells cast in this game. Increase clicking reward by 1000% for each active spell. Formula: $floor((\sqrt{(1 + 0.8 * x)} - 1) / 2)$  where x is your Spells Cast (This Game) stat.
	Heresiarchs (For Evil Alignments)	25 Uvg (2.5E67)	Increase the production of Evil buildings based on your most built Evil building. Formula: $round(1.15*x^{0.85})\%$  where x is the number of the most-built evil building you own.
	Trade Lords (For Neutral Alignments)	25 Uvg (2.5E67)	When assistants finds a faction coin, they also find a faction coin for every other faction. Increase mana regeneration based on faction coins gained in this game. Formula: $floor(10 * log(1 + x^{1.5})) / 10$  where x is your Faction Coins Gained (This Game) stat.
	Mercenary Upgrade 5	3,000 FC	Pick an available Tier 2 Upgrade from existing factions. The choice can depend on the alignment and spells you have chosen.
	Mercenary Upgrade 6	6,000 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 7	10,500 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 8	13,500 FC

Tier 3 Upgrades

Tier 3 Upgrades
Name		Cost	Effect
	Mercenary Third Contract	5 Tvg (5E72)	Unlock Tier 3 upgrades.
	Mercenary Sorcery Contract	5 Qavg (5E75), 25,000 FC	You can purchase a spell from any faction. You will not be able to change it during the current run. The choice will depend on the alignment you have chosen.
	Mercenary Upgrade 9	4,500 FC	Pick an available Tier 3 Upgrade from existing factions. The choice can depend on the alignment and spells you have chosen.
	Mercenary Upgrade 10	10,500 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 11	16,500 FC
	Mercenary Upgrade 12	22,500 FC

Unlock Requirements

Unlocking the Mercenaries requires the third reincarnation, the following can be unlocked in different abdications.

Mercenary Unlock Requirements
Name		Cost	Description
	Mercenary Tribute	At least (minimum): 1 Nod (1E60) Coins 100,000 of each Faction Coin (Price increases with time, but is reset at Abdications.)	Pay the mercenaries a tribute to unlock their powers. Be quick though, the price increases over time!
	Mercenary Oath	1 Tvg (1E72) Coins.	By reciting the Oath of the Mercenaries you will be able to join mercenaries for the rest of your existence. Not even Reincarnations will strip you of this right. You will be able to take any alignment and become a Good, Neutral or Evil mercenary, therefore determining your building set, and from there on you will be able to take any spell or ability from any other faction.

Unlocking The Mercenaries:
The cost of the "Mercenary Tribute" rises very quickly and gets reset at abdications. Aim for a run where you can quickly gain enough FCs to buy it before it gets too expensive. Do it when you have enough gems to afford ~100 or more excavations. Suggested faction to do this is Titans with at least 1 No (1_E30) gems - and make save files before in case you want to start over and get your excavations back.

Coin Formula: $1e60 * (ceil (1+x)/60))^{3.5}$  where x is your playtime stat in seconds.
FC Formula: $100000 * (ceil((1 + x)/60))^{0.5}$  where x is your playtime stat in seconds.

Once it is purchased, you have unlocked the mercenaries and their trade treaty, the "Mercenary First Contact", will show up in all your future games, alongside other Faction Trade Treaties of the same alignment.

See also "Unlocking Mercenaries" in why_amihere's guide.

Joining the Mercenaries for the first time will grant the Mercenary Oath Secret Trophy. (You will need at least 1 No (1_E30) gems to do this, and to not join any other faction!)

Unique Buildings

At R75, the buildings can be upgraded to a Unique Building depending on your chosen alignment, which are required for some research quests and upgrades.

• Good: Mercenary Camp - Upgraded from Knights Jousts
• Evil: Tyrant Garrison - Upgraded from Evil Fortresses
• Neutral: Freemason's Hall - Upgraded from Inns

Mercenary Research

Upon reaching R75, the game advisor tells us that the Mercenary Lord himself has come to speak with you.

"He is a man of uncomparable strength and influence... From what I heard, he wishes to task you with the retrieval of an Obsidian Shard, the legendary material of which Mercenary Blades are made."

To gain access to Mercenary research, you will need the Secrets of the Warriors upgrade. This upgrade will appear once you have bought a unique Mercenary building and found the Obsidian Shard artifact.

Mercenary Research Unlock Requirements
Name		Type	Description	Requirements	Cost
	Mercenary Encampment Quest	Quest Upgrade	We salute you, commander. Your strategical skills had not gone unnoticed within our ranks. We have decided to offer you a chance to establish a formal encampment within your boundaries... Build more structures to strengthen our city. Required once throughout the entire game play and does not count towards the bought upgrade stat.	R75 + 125K buildings	10 Notg 1E121
	Mercenary Camp	Allegiances Upgrades (Good)	Upgrade Knights Jousts to Mercenary Camps, boosting their production based on the amount of Non-Unique buildings you own and unlocking more unique perks for the building. Formula: $1.5 * (1 + x)$  where x is the number of Non-Unique Buildings you own.	Mercenary Encampment Quest	10 Dqag 1E130
	Tyrant Garrison	Allegiances Upgrades (Evil)	Upgrade Evil Fortresses to Tyrant Garrisons, boosting their production based on Offline Production Bonus and unlocking more unique perks for the building. Formula: $0.5 * \log_{10}(1+x)^{4.5}$  where x is the Offline Production Bonus.	Mercenary Encampment Quest	1 Tqag 1E132
	Freemason's Hall	Allegiances Upgrades (Neutral)	Upgrade Alchemist Labs to Freemason's Hall, boosting their production based on the highest amount of assistants you had in a single game and unlocking more unique perks for the building. Formula: $2.5 * x^{2.5}$  where x is assistants you had in a single game (This R).	Mercenary Encampment Quest	1 Tqag 1E132
	Obsidian Shard	Quest Artifact	Unlocks the Secrets of the Warriors upgrade	R75+, 8000th Excavation
	Secrets of the Warriors	Upgrade	Unlocks research for Mercenaries and increases their production by 1000%.	Obsidian Shard artifact, Unique Building	100 Qiqag (1E140) Coins, 10 Qa (1E16) FCs of each faction

Other Upgrades

Other Mercenary Upgrades
Name		Type	Description	Requirements	Cost
	Round Table	Spell Upgrade	Upgrades Tax Collection to Share Benefits. Increases the production of all buildings and Faction Coin find chance based on this spell tier level for 20 seconds. Can be cast up to 35 tiers. Formula: $20 ^{(0.25 * x)}$ (FC chance multiplier)} Formula: $((2.20 ^x) - 1) * 100$ multiplicative (production multiplier) where x is tier.	Mercenary Camp	1 Qaqag 1E135
	Good Mercenary Upgrade 13	Upgrade	You can purchase any upgrade from any Good Faction for an increased price.	Round Table
	Dark Covenant	Spell Upgrade	Upgrades Tax Collection to Reap Interests. Additional casts of Reap Interests increase its seconds worth of production. Formula: $y ^{(1 + 0.2 * \log_{10}(1 + x))}$  where y is TC original power and x is amount of TC casts. (Extra time from reap interests does apply to S50. S50 tax collections do increase reap interests.)	Tyrant Garrison	1 Qaqag 1E135
	Evil Mercenary Upgrade 13	Upgrade	You can purchase any upgrade from any Evil Faction for an increased price.	Dark Covenant
	Secret Exchange	Spell Upgrade	Upgrades Tax Collection to Appraisal Vantage. Generates additional Faction Coins per cast. Formula: $(2.5 * x^{2.5})$  where x is original Faction Coin chance.	Freemason's Hall	1 Qaqag 1E135

Related Items

Related Trophies, Artifacts & Upgrades
Name		Type	Description	Requirement	Cost
	Mercenary Spirit	Trophy & Upgrade	Increase the production of all buildings by 15% per reincarnation.	Reincarnate while playing as a Mercenary	1 Ocd 1E57
	Harlequin	Trophy & Upgrade	Increase the production of all buildings based on the amount of different factions involved in your mercenary upgrades. Formula: $x^{3}\%$  where x is the number of different factions you've bought upgrades from.	As a Mercenary, purchase upgrades from 11 different factions in one run. (See Joker merc Build)	5 Qivg 5E78
	Lucifer	Trophy & Upgrade	Increase the production of all non-neutral mercenary buildings by 300%.	As a Good Mercenary, purchase only Evil mercenary faction upgrades or vice versa.	50 Vg 5E64
	No Recruiting	Trophy & Upgrade	Increase Mercenary production by 1% per Reincarnation	Reach 1 Novg (1E90) gems in a Reincarnation without ever affiliating with the Mercenaries	1 Tg 1E93
	Helden Sterben Nicht	Trophy & Upgrade	Increase the mana regeneration and maximum mana by 10%.	Join Mercenaries, then Undead, then Angels within 15 minutes since the beginning of a new run in a single game session.	5 Qavg 5E75
	Know Your Enemy, Part I	Artifact & Upgrade	Increases the production of all buildings based on time spent as Non-Mercenary. ("Time allied with..." in the stats) Formula: $(0.5*x^{0.75})\%$  where x is your time spent as non-mercenary factions stat in seconds.	R12+, Play with upgrades from 11 different factions. Chance: 10%	100 Vg 1E65
	Know Your Enemy, Part II	Artifact & Upgrade	Increases the production of all buildings based on time spent as Non-Mercenary. Formula: $0.065*x^{0.65}\%$  where x is your time spent as non-mercenary factions stat in seconds.	R76+, Play with upgrades from 12 different factions. Chance: 10%	100 Noqag 1E152
	Veteran Figurine	Artifact	The warrior of a thousand battles, ultimate champion of the Realms. Allows Mercenaries to benefit from all Challenges.	R90+ Chance: (1,000,000 seconds This Game)%

See Also

• Faction Upgrades
• Faction Upgrades by Effect
• Merc Builds: tested combinations of spells and faction upgrades.
• Bloodstream

Notes

• Divine Games had planned a kind of Mercenary Tax, payable at regular intervals in mana or gold. This was visible in the game code but wasn't implemented - and hopefully, never will be!