Mercenary
Mercenaries, also known as mercs, are NPPs that are hired onto a ship when a crew member of officer rank or above clicks the "hire jobbers" checkbox, provided there are less than a specific number of yellow-named pirates on the ship. Compared to swabbies, mercenaries perform better at duty puzzles, in sea battle frays, and can also fight in haunted seas and atlantis frays.
In order to be hired, each mercenary requires 5 rum spice aboard in addition to rum, and they will consume both as the voyage progresses. Mercenaries will leave the vessel if the amount of rum spice falls below 5 per mercenary.
The number of mercenaries available depends on the ship.
- Sloop: 5
- Cutter, Dhow, Fanchuan :10
- Longship: 13
- Baghlah, Junk: 16
- Merchant Brig: 18
- War Brig: 22
- Merchant Galleon: 28
- War Galleon: 32
- Xebec: 36
- War Frigate: 54
- Grand Frigate: 75
Upon a ship being configured for a blockade, the number of mercenaries will reduce.
Mercenaries are also called aboard the ship when players leave in the middle of a sea battle or sea monster hunt, but only if a player leaves outside of a break and if there's sufficient rum spice aboard.
Performance
Mercenaries perform better than swabbies, achieving better scores in duty reports, and can perform duty navigation. They also try to team on swordfight or rumble melees.
Historical notes
- Mercenaries were introduced with release 2023-03-28.
