Mercenary System

Overview

The Mercenary System, not to be confused with the Mercenary class, allows players to hire an NPC to fight at their side, similar to the Homunculus System but any player can use Mercenaries. A contract is made with a Mercenary and scrolls are used to call them into battle. Both Homunculus and Mercenary can be used by a player at once. Mercenaries are all of the Demi Human race.

Einherjar Changes

• Scrolls are now Storable and Cartable
• Scrolls Level Requirement increased from 0 -> (Tier-1)*10
• Cost increased from (7000*Grade) -> (7000*Grade*Grade) zeny
• Loyalty Check changed from [0,0,0,0,0,0,50,100,300,500] -> [0,0,1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128]
• Loyalty cost of Grade 10 reduced from 400 -> 5

Summoning a Mercenary

• The Spearman Mercenary Guild is located in Prontera prontera41337
• the Bowman Mercenary Guild is located in Archer Village, Payon pay_arche99167,
• and the Fencer Mercenary Guild is located in Izlude izlude47139.

• The cost of scrolls increases with higher grade Mercenaries.
• The player's level must be at least five levels higher than the mercenary's level.

Controling the Mercenary

Manual Functions

The following are keys used to control Mercenaries:

Enemy Targeting - Alt + Left Click (on monster)

Left clicking once will cause the Mercenary to queue up the monster. Left click again and the Mercenary will immediately switch targets.

Moving - Alt + Left Click (on ground)

Alt and Left Clicking on the ground will cause the Mercenary to stop everything and move to the target cell.

Standby - Ctrl + T

In standby the Mercenary will stop everything and wait for orders at the contractor's side.

Information - Ctrl + R

Opens the Mercenary Status Window.

AI

The Mercenary System is very similar to that used by the homunculus, as both are run by an user-customizable AI on the client side. Mercenaries by default use a non-aggressive AI and only attack targets hitting the player or targets the player is attacking. The AI itself is located in the /AI/ folder in the RO directory. Where as Homunculus normally executes 'AI.lua', Mercenaries use a separate file 'AI_M.lua'. Users can and are encouraged to customize their Mercenary AI by modifying the files in the /AI/USER_AI/ folder. Instead of configuring it with /hoai command in-game, players use /merai instead to configure custom AI.

End of Contract

The following are the 4 conditions in which a mercenary will leave its master. In each case, the game will display a message in the chat box as to why the mercenary left:

Contractor Dies

The player summoning the Mercenary has died.

Mercenary Dies

The Mercenary summoned has died.

Contract Ends

The Mercenary contract lasts 30 minutes, after which the Mercenary will leave.

Contract Canceled

The player manually dismisses the Mercenary.

Loyalty

Fighting Together with Mercenary

When a suitably strong monster is killed by a player (more than ½ the Base Level of the contractor), their Killcount goes up by 1. It doesn't matter if the player or the Mercenary kills the monster, or if they work together to kill it. For every 50 killcount, they gain one Loyalty Point.

Successfully Completing a Contract

If a player and their Mercenary successfully survive the full duration of a 30 minute contract, they gain one Loyalty Point.

Mercenary Dies

If the Mercenary is killed while bound by contract to a player, they lose one Loyalty Point.

Monster Mercenaries

Monster Mercenaries do not gain any Loyalty Points.

References

• Doddler's Guide on episode 11.3