Mercenaries have returned in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, albeit with some major changes this time. These characters are now pre-established characters that can accompany you on your solo adventures. They have powerful abilities, useful utility effects, and strong passive effects that you'll want to take advantage of while playing alone.

But Mercenaries aren't just for solo players. You can also hire one as a reinforcement to accompany you in battle, regardless of how many players are in your group. In this guide, we go over how Mercenaries work, how to unlock all four of them, and explain how their unique Rapport system works.

How Mercenaries Work In Diablo 4

A Mercenary is an NPC companion that will accompany you under certain conditions, such as playing solo or upon activating a certain skill. Unlike Diablo 2, Mercenaries are pre-established characters with unique abilities and dedicated skill trees. You'll find four of them throughout the Vessel of Hatred campaign, one of which is unlocked from the main quest.

All of your Mercenaries will hunker down in The Den, an isolated hub area where you can configure your Mercenaries and modify your gear in peace. You'll unlock this hub area once you recruit Raheir, the first Mercenary you'll gain access to in the campaign.

Mercenaries can be placed in one of two categories:

Hired Mercenary: This character will appear while playing solo, acting as a party member. They'll use their full suite of allocated skills and passive.

Reinforcement: The Mercenary will appear under your set condition, triggering a skill before leaving. Reinforcements can be used in multiplayer.

You may only have one Hired Mercenary and one Reinforcement at a time.

If you're playing in a party, you'll only have access to your Reinforcement.

Hiring A Mercenary

You can manage your Mercenaries in The Den hub area in Nahurst. Upon speaking with any Mercenaries you've found, you can hire or enlist as a reinforcement. Hiring them will bring them along as a dedicated party member in solo play. Your second option, enlisting, will mark that Mercenary as your dedicated reinforcement that'll appear under a specific condition you set.

These conditions can be modified through the Mercenary menu (Shift + S on PC). This menu allows you to modify your hired Mercenary's skill tree and reinforcement's chosen ability without revisiting The Den. You cannot switch Mercenaries outright through this menu; you'll need to make a trip to The Den.

Mercenaries are found in the following missions:

Raheir: During the Vessel of Hatred campaign; cannot be missed.

Aldkin: A Nameless Mystery

Varyana: Slayer's Retribution

Subo: A Feather on the Scale

Skill Trees

A hired Mercenary has access to a modest skill tree that unlocks as your character earns XP. Each Mercenary has a passive effect and six abilities, two of which may be allocated at a time. Unlike the base skill tree for playable classes, Mercenary skill trees lock you down a particular path. For example, if you pick the left skill in a Mercenary's tree, you must progress down that branch; you can't deviate to the right.

You may respec a Mercenary's skill tree anytime from the Mercenary menu. This doesn't cost any Diablo 4 Gold.

Skill points are earned through Rapport, a reputation system that's identical to seasonal vendors. The first four Rapport ranks will always give skill points, allowing you to allocate two skills and a passive augment for each.

Reinforcements

A reinforcement behaves closer to a Runeword than a proper companion. When you first hire a reinforcement, you'll need to select a Mercenary skill and a proc condition. The proc condition determines when the Mercenary will appear and use its chosen skill. You have a few options for these proc conditions, including:

When you cast a specific skill.

Whenever you cast any skill in combat.

When you become crowd controlled.

When you lose 30%+ of your HP from a single hit.

Reinforcement skills do not benefit from passives allocated in that character's passive tree.

Your chosen reinforcement can only have one skill primed for reinforcement. Once that condition is met, your mercenary will appear, use the skill, and then disappear. Reinforcement skills have a short cooldown before they can be used again. You can reduce this cooldown through a Legendary Aspect; otherwise, it's tied to the skill's cooldown.

Mercenary Rapport

Each Mercenary in Diablo 4 has its own reputation system called Rapport. It works exactly like seasonal vendors, granting rank-up rewards as you earn XP with that Mercenary in your party. You can earn Rapport for both hired and reinforcement characters, although reinforcements earn Rapport half as quickly.

Rapport ranks and rewards can be found in the hired Mercenary menu for any character in The Den. Select the "Rapport" tab and claim your rewards. Most characters have the same Rapport rewards, as shown below.

Bartering For Items

Diablo 4 Bartering For Items

All Mercenaries in Diablo 4 trade with Pale Marks, a new currency type you'll earn through the Rapport system. These marks can be used to purchase items from Fayira in The Den. Despite the name, you don't haggle for Diablo 4 items or lower prices in this system; it's a simple vendor shop.

Fayira's stock refreshes every day, but you can force a reset by selecting the "Reset Stock" option under the vendor panel. Doing this is free for your first reroll, but subsequent rerolls in the same day cost 50 Pale Marks each.

What Fayira sells is dependent on Mercenary upgrades. Rapport ranks 5 and 8 will upgrade the bartering shop with additional options, usually loot caches. Each Mercenary has two upgrades, totaling eight shop upgrades if you get every character to Rapport 8 or higher. The good news is that your Rapport progress is account-bound, so you only need to do this once per season.

MMOexp Diablo 4 Team