Mercenary Guide

Mercenaries were introduced with the DLC Vessels of Hatred and are NPC companions, very similar to the Companions or Mercenaries from Diablo 3 and Diablo 2.

In Diablo 4, you’ll be able to recruit two types of mercenaries: a Primary Mercenary who is with you at all times and a Reinforcement Mercenary who aids in situational scenarios.

Mercenaries also have standing with you, which will improve by using your mercenaries. Having a high rapport with your mercenaries gives you access to upgrades, barter opportunities, and more.

Keep in mind that only players with the Vessel of Hatred Expansion will be allowed to play with Mercenaries, as their recruitment Hall is located in Nahantu, the new region brought with Vessel of Hatred.

Mercenaries are available in the Mobalytics Build Planner for Diablo 4 for your theorycrafting needs!

This guide was written by Blyndside.

In order to obtain a Mercenary, you must first start the main quest of the Vessel of Hatred Campaign, and this will lead you to your Mercenary’s Den and your first Mercenary, Raheir. You’ll also be introduced to the stories behind the four available Mercenaries.

Once at least one of the characters on your account has completed the Vessel of Hatred campaign, through to the final chapter, all future characters can skip the Vessel of Hatred Campaign. They will have mercenaries available from level 1 at the Mercenary Den in Nahantu.

You can access the Mercenary Window through your Character Screen by clicking on the Mercenary Icon.

In this window, you’ll be able to check the skills and rapport of both your primary mercenary and your reinforcement mercenary.

In Diablo 4, you can recruit two different types of Mercenaries: a Primary Mercenary and a Reinforcement Mercenary.

• The Primary Mercenaries will be with you at all times as long as you are playing Solo. They’ll be the most useful Mercenary as they’ll have access to a wider selection of their skills and will provide an array of support through their perks and passive skills. They also gain rapport significantly faster than the Reinforcement Mercenary, so keep that in mind.
• The Reinforcement Mercenary is like your backup and will appear when you’re both Solo and in a group, but it will not always be active like the primary. These Mercenaries are situational and typically appear under specific conditions, such as appearing upon the trigger of certain Legendary Aspects.

The Mercenary Den is located in the northern center of Nahantu. You’ll have access to it early in the Vessel of Hatred Campaign.

Inside the Mercenary Den is where you can recruit and speak with your Mercenaries. You can choose whether to hire the Mercenary as a Primary or Enlist the Mercenary as Reinforcement.

Seeing as increasing the rapport with Mercenaries gives you rewards, you’ll want to level them all as you play, so swapping them out, even to try them out, is beneficial.

Rapport is a system that is linked to each one of your Mercenaries. As you increase their rapport, they will become more powerful in combat, gaining skill points to invest in their respective trees.

There are a total of 10 Ranks of Rapport, but any additional ranks gained past this will reward you with Pale Marks that are used for bartering with the Mercenaries.

Rapport is gained by having your Mercenaries as either your Primary or Reinforcement Mercenary, defeating enemies, and completing activities with them. Remember that the Primary Mercenary gains the most rapport.

Mercenaries will be instantly available to the players in Season 7 by visiting the Mercenary Den in Nahantu.

Keep in mind that if you haven’t finished the Vessel of Hatred Campaign, you will have to complete it first in order to start the campaign quest. The first quest, A Fist of Fire, is available in Kyvoshad.

There are 4 Mercenaries in total so far in Diablo 4, and each has access to three different abilities.

• Perks: These are passive abilities that give non-combat-related perks and can only be applied to the Primary Mercenary (Hired Mercenary).
• Active Abilities: Each Mercenary has four available active skills, two core skills, and two iconic skills. These skills will determine what weapons your mercenaries use and what combat actions they’ll perform. You can choose one Core Active skill, one Iconic Active Skill for your Primary Mercenary, and one Active skill for your reinforcement Mercenary.
• Passive Abilities: Each Mercenary has four Passives, two Core Passives and two Iconic Passives. These can be either buffs to you or debuffs to your enemies. You can choose one Core Passive and one Iconic Passive for your Primary Mercenary.

As seen in the Image below, we have our Primary Mercenary (Hired Mercenary), Raheir, and the Reinforcement Mercenary Varyana. Raheir’s Perk is Valiance, which we gain just from choosing Raheir. We are then given a choice between two Mercenary Core Skills, Shield Charge and Ground Slam; in the image shown below, we’ve opted for Ground Slam. Ground Slam gets a choice between two passives and then is given a choice between Two Iconic Skills, ours currently being Bastion, which then also gets given two passives.