Mercenary

Collection of mercenary and main portraits. First row (from left to right): Swordsman, Princess, Archer, Elementalist, Knight, Witch. Second row: Viking, Monk, Beast Trainer, Mage, Prophet, Spearman. Third row: gunner, artilleryman, exorcist.

A Mercenary (aka Merc) is a Character that a player can recruit to fight alongside their Main Character in a Formation.
You can see all available mercenaries, their Skills, Stats and Upgrade crystals/jewels, in-game in the Encyclopedia's Class tab.

Contents

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1. Recruiting Mercs
2. Character Portraits
3. Legion Mercenaries
4. Mercenary Grades
5. Mercenary Type
6. Mercenary Skills
7. Mercenary List
8. Mercenary Storage
9. Firing Mercenaries

Recruiting Mercs

You can recruit mercenaries in various ways: hiring them outright, performing a recruitment Quest, buying them from the Market, winning them as an event reward, buying them from the Item Mall.
If you follow the link to any merc's page, it will tell you how that merc can be recruited.
You can find Mercenary Recruitment quest lines in game in the quest log's Sub Quest > Recruit section. Also see our Mercenary Recruiting category.
Tip: Some mercenaries are event mercenaries and while you can occasionally obtain them, you may not be able to get skills for them, or the skills may be obtainable, but prohibitively expensive; which makes them far less useful than another merc that you can fully skill up. Check the market and with other guild and nation members whether skills are available for any given merc before you recruit that merc.

Character Portraits

The portraits at the bottom toward the right side of the screen shows a portrait for each Character currently in your Formation. Press 1 - 9 to select another character in your formation (1 is always your main character). See the Character page for more info about characters and character portraits.

Legion Mercenaries

Some of these mercenaries belong to the Diabolic, Shadow or Shaolin Legions. Some can be can be obtained by completing mercenary recruitment quest chains, some can be won from events. Most can be bought from the market.
You can find detailed info about each Legion and Legion Mercenaries in the Legion Info window (Alt+U).
Legion Mercenaries are named Trainee XYZ, because there are, in many cases, also NPCs with the same name as the Mercenary. This makes it easy to tell the difference. Trainee XYZ is the mercenary and XYZ is the NPC.

Mercenary Grades

Mercenaries are assigned grades to give players a rough idea of how good a particular merc is. Grade A is the highest (best) grade and D is the lowest. Often the grade also reflects the cost associated with owning and leveling up a particular merc. Grade A mercenaries have the highest crystal/jewel upgrade cost and often the most expensive skills.
Don't rely only on a mercenary's grade for determining the quality of a merc. A lot more matters, including how well that merc fits into your formation. Particularly for PvE, you don't need a team of only Grade A mercs to be able to reach maximum level.
Grade D Mercs
Some of these mercenaries can be found wandering around in towns or on roads. You can recruit Grade D mercs Archer, Gunner, Shaman, Spearman and Swordsman after level 5 from NPCs Jang Gil San, Ou Yang Feng, Shuichi or Im Guk-jung for 5,000 gold each.

Mercenary Type

The list below categorizes Mercenaries by Magic, Melee or Ranged. You can, of course, classify mercenaries in many other ways. We have done so in a few places on the AO Wikia. For example, see pages discussing Healers, Resurrecting and Stun.

Mercenary Skills

Each Mercenary, like each Main Character, can have multiple Magic Skills. See the page for each mercenary to see what skills he or she can use. Also see the Skills page for a discussion of skills and links to Skill lists.

Mercenary List

The following tables lists all of the available mercenary classes, grouped by grade, and their statistics at their initial recruitment.
You can see all available mercenaries, their Skills, Stats and Upgrade crystals/jewels, in-game in the Encyclopedia's Class tab.
Level indicates at which Main Character level a Mercenary can be recruited, either via a Quest or Sealed Orb. See the mercenary's page for details. Many mercenaries can be obtained by completing mercenary recruitment quest chains.

Class		Legion	Grade	Level	Type	Weapon	Str	Int	Dex	Vit	Def	MDef	Attack
Archer (Robin Hood)		none	D	1	Ranged	Bow	160	230	220	140	80	250
Artilleryman (Napoleon)		none	D	30	Ranged	Cannon	200	220	160	210	100	275
Astrologer (Quilla)		none	A	150	Magic	Staff	180	332	150	215	132	565
Automaton (Gigas)		none	A	100	Ranged	Cannon	259	308	338	287	155	320
Bai Xian		Shaolin	B	1	Ranged	Gun	167	254	384	202	240	395
Bai Yigai		Shadow	B	1	Ranged	Cannon	120	330	360	192	160	320
Bard (Sadko)		none	A	1	Ranged	Instrument	120	330	360	160	160	320
Beast Trainer (Zhu Rong)		none	C	44	Melee	Axe	280	170	290	160	700	175
Beggar Su		Shadow	B	1	Ranged	Whip	166	304	371	248	120	406
Bounty Hunter (Jessica)		none	A	1	Melee	Power Saw	354	153	221	332	256	215
Cannoneer (Goemon)		none	C	87	Ranged	Cannon	230	240	190	225	120	280
Centaur Archer (Chironia)		none	A	100	Ranged	Bow	166	304	371	226	40	406
Champion (Odysseus)		none	A	110	Melee	Sword	409	181	291	310	853	250
Ching Ya		Shadow	A	1	Magic	Staff	204	401	175	244	199	530
Ching Yue		Shaolin	B	1	Melee	Sword	305	280	245	273	450	310
Chiu Hong		Shadow	B	1	Ranged	Instrument	230	240	209	225	120	280
Chueh Shui		Shadow	B	1	Melee	Spear	341	122	220	274	363	100
Clown (Harlequin)		none	A	1	Melee	Sword (Dual)	431	164	291	264	211	210
Dark Archer		none	C	100	Ranged	Bow	220	342	370	290	415	250
Dark King Arthur		none	A	100	Melee	Sword	450	190	330	310	845	230
Demeian Guardian (Sylvie)		none	B	1	Ranged	Cannon	246	276	266	258	142	340
Dharma		Shaolin	B	1	Magic	Staff	120	292	250	195	65	500
Druid (Naruk)		none	A	100	Melee	Axe	386	150	244	350	768	200
Elementalist (Pocahontas)		none	B	100	Magic	Staff	152	292	160	194	50	250
Empress (Himiko)		none	B	100	Ranged	Bow	145	265	323	197	50	400
Empress Tianmo		Diabolic	A	1	Melee	Sword	437	181	291	341	853	280
Exorcist (Michael)		none	C	57	Melee	Sword	290	240	170	240	160	285
Fangzhang		Shaolin	B	1	Melee	Fist	358	122	220	239	289	100
Folklorist (Bothers Grimm)		none	A	1	Ranged	Cannon	252	332	344	272	150	330
General (Guan Yu)		none	A	110	Melee	Spear	460	151	326	277	516	200
Goddess (Roro Kidul)		none	B	100	Magic	Staff	204	264	175	213	199	530
Gou Chen Nam		Shadow	D	1	Melee	Axe	325	153	221	308	634	185
Guangmo		Diabolic	D	1	Melee	Fist	305	280	245	341	450	310
Gunner (Oichi)		none	D	1	Ranged	Gun	150	220	220	170	80	225
Heisha Modi		Diabolic	B	1	Melee	Power Saw	355	96	109	273	132	50
Hualin		Diabolic	B	1	Magic	Staff	180	365	150	215	165	565
Hwarang (Kim Yoo Shin)		none	C	112	Ranged	Bow	172	221	281	186	76	270
Inventor (Da Vinci)		none	C	84	Ranged	Gun	160	275	240	190	100	400
Janissary (Hassen)		none	C	96	Ranged	Gun	157	225	270	198	98	380
Kim Choon Sam		Shadow	B	1	Melee	Sword	376	181	291	341	953	250
Knight (Arthur)		none	A	100	Melee	Sword	450	190	330	310	845	230
Lady Knight (Joan of Arc)		none	C	95	Melee	Sword	370	160	260	280	750	145
Lich (Grim Reaper)		none	A	1	Melee	Axe	362	244	616	150	322	220
Maitreya		Shaolin	B	1	Ranged	Instrument	193	316	350	164	155	305
Master Lian Hua		Shaolin	A	1	Melee	Spear	475	151	326	304	516	200
Minstrel (Paganini)		none	C	100	Ranged	Instrument	180	246	220	192	100	270
Mo Chien Lang		Diabolic	B	1	Melee	Sword	363	149	320	307	540	225
Monk (Dharma)		none	D	18	Magic	Staff	190	260	140	160	50	500
Necromancer (Riva Faust)		none	A	1	Ranged	Instrument	150	310	375	171	200	310
Nightshade		Diabolic	B	1	Melee	Sword	290	240	178	240	176	285
Ninetails		none	A	100	Ranged	Whip	223	384	514	264	622	435
Northern Viking		none	C	100	Melee	Axe	478	250	158	445	658	120
Nymph (Dryad)		none	A	100	Ranged	Whip	223	384	514	264	622	435
Oracle (Anck Su Namun)		none	C	76	Magic	Staff	170	250	150	170	150	500
Patriot (Washington)		none	A	100	Ranged	Gun	167	254	320	215	240	395
Pirate (Anne Bonny)		none	B	100	Melee	Sword (Dual)	407	175	286	234	50	145
Princess (Isabel)		none	C	63	Magic	Staff	150	300	130	180	80	475
Prophet (Cassandra)		none	C	70	Ranged	Bow	170	240	210	190	100	450
Punisher (Frank Reade)		none	C	102	Melee	Power Saw	355	96	94	249	116	50
Puppeteer (Rin)		none	B	1	Melee	Power Saw	426	100	158	224	98	200
Sage King Arthur		none	A	100	Melee	Sword	450	190	330	310	845	230
Shaman (Okuni)		none	D	1	Magic	Staff	150	230	130	150	80	450
Shao Xian		Shadow	B	1	Ranged	Gun	157	247	270	198	114	380
Shen Hong		Diabolic	B	1	Ranged	Whip	145	265	387	197	75	400
Sheriff (Christine)		none	B	1	Ranged	Gun	178	284	301	209	164	380
Slave Warrior (Tania)		none	A	1	Melee	Fist	305	245	450	280	341	310
Soranggoon		Shaolin	D	1	Melee	Axe	294	160	170	290	665	175
Sorceress (Mwindo)		none	A	100	Magic	Staff	206	350	199	244	118	550
Spartan (Leonidas)		none	B	100	Melee	Spear	341	122	220	244	263	100
Spearman (Zhao Yun)		none	D	1	Melee	Spear	310	120	210	240	230	110
Swordsman (Gyebaek)		none	D	1	Melee	Sword	340	130	240	250	300	125
Taoist (Jeon Woo-Chi)		none	B	1	Melee	Spear	378	124	244	246	249	150
Tarkan (Attila)		none	B	1	Melee	Axe	354	153	221	332	747	185
Valkyrie (Morrighan)		none	A	100	Melee	Sword	439	149	340	307	810	225
Vampire (Carmilla)		none	B	1	Ranged	Instrument	193	316	350	164	148	305
Viking (Bluetooth)		none	D	20	Melee	Axe	330	140	110	310	180	-50
Warlord (Khun Phaen)		none	B	100	Melee	Sword	305	280	245	273	200	310
White Witch		Diabolic	B	1	Magic	Staff	204	290	175	213	199	530
Witch (Morgan le Fay)		none	C	51	Magic	Staff	120	280	250	180	50	500
Xuanzang		Shaolin	B	1	Magic	Staff	206	350	199	256	129	550

The Main Character cannot be removed from the Formation, occupying one spot at all times. A formation can consist of any combination of Grade D Mercenaries. Mercenaries of Grade C, B, or A are limited to one each. Exceptions to this are Dual Beast Trainer, Lady Knight, Oracles, Janissary, Hwarang, Canoneer, Minstrels and Punisher. The Sealed Orbs used to hire these mercenaries show these limits.

Mercenary Storage

The maximum number of mercenaries that a player can hire is dependent on a combination of the player's hero level and available Mercenary Storage.

Firing Mercenaries

Players can also fire unwanted mercenary to make room for new or better fitting merc in their formation. Be aware that by firing, you lose this mercenary and any investment you have in that mercenary (e.g. growth vials, experience gained, skills learned). If possible, you may be better off storing or employing the merc instead, if possible, to retain your investment.