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.
Mercenaries are affiliated with the Crimson Company, and can be identified by their bright red name, and their unique feisty name adjectives.
Contents
[hide]Hiring
Mercenaries can be hired in the configure voyage menu, using a slider similar to the swabbie hiring slider. 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. In sea monster hunts, they participate in frays, but do not perform treasure haul.
They do not participate in most expeditions or cursed isles, except for stationing during the sea battle. They also cannot generate maneuver tokens.
Pay
In addition to consuming rum spice, mercenaries also take the same share of booty during division as a regular pirate. During sea monster hunts, they take a share of treasure chests equal to the ratio of mercenaries to pirates. For example, if there are 30 pirates and 30 mercenaries aboard, the mercenaries will take 50% of the hauled chests as their share. This is done as the chests are hauled aboard, and is announced to those on board.
During blockades, mercenaries are paid the same jobber pay as other pirates. If there are insufficient funds set aside to cover jobber pay, or insufficient rum spice, the mercenaries will leave the vessel immediately, and cannot be jobbed back until the vessel is out of battle.
Historical notes
- Mercenaries were introduced with release 2023-03-28.
