Companions from Vessel of Hatred
Mercenaries are permanent companions from the Vessel of Hatred expansion. After you meet Raheir you hire one companion; once more mercenaries unlock from the Den you also fill a reinforcement slot — two different people in different roles: one hired to stay with you, one reinforcement who appears when a condition you set is met.
- Expansion
- Vessel of Hatred
- Slots
- Hire + Reinforcement
- Roster
- Four mercenaries
- Gold to hire
- None
- Patch 3.2.1 did not change the mercenary system. Seasonal advice is only to pick someone early and swap later if you want.
- Build pages assume you know hire vs reinforcement. This page is the dictionary; the build is the pairing.
The Den, and Raheir first
You meet mercenaries through the Vessel of Hatred campaign and the Den — their hideout in Nahantu. Raheir is the first hire. The other three unlock through key quests from the Den.
Once more than Raheir is unlocked, you can fill both the hire slot and the reinforcement slot. There is no gold cost to hire.
Two slots, two jobs
Once both slots are open, you field two different mercenaries. They are not two copies of the same role.
| Slot | What they do | Skill tree |
|---|---|---|
| Hired | Fights beside you continuously. Can take a knee; you can revive them like a player. | Full tree — core skill, passives, iconic skill and iconic passives as the tree allows. |
| Reinforcement | Appears on an Opportunity trigger you set — for example when you cast a chosen skill, when you are Injured, or when you are crowd-controlled — then uses one chosen skill. | Short tree. The reinforcement skill is the base skill; it is not powered by the merc's passives the same way the hire is. |
- Hired and reinforcement must be different people.
- In a party, the party leader's hire is the one that applies. Do not invent a hard rule that mercenaries vanish in groups — follow what your build page says if it makes a special note.
Who does what
Short cards only. Exact skill ranks and Opportunity picks stay on the build pages.
Raheir — Shieldbearer
Defence and staying alive. Builds cite Valiance, armour and resist tools, and skills such as Ground Slam, Raheir's Aegis, Bastion and Inspiration. Bastion is the common reinforcement pick when you need damage redirected and a short Unstoppable window.
Subo — bounty hunter
Utility and ranged pressure. Seeker reveals the map and marks enemies and materials. Builds often run Molotov with Scorched Earth for more damage over time from you, or a Wire Trap / Cover Fire / Opening Fire line for critical strike setups.
Varyana — Berserker Crone
Melee tempo and farm speed. Massacre tracks a kill streak. Bloodthirst is the frequent reinforcement for attack speed when your build already clears packs and wants a damage button on a shout or charge.
Aldkin — Cursed Child
Caster support and crowd control. The safe default reinforcement across many of our builds is Field of Languish: it slows enemies and cuts the damage they deal for a few seconds while you keep moving.
Numbers you will see on build pages
When a build quotes Field of Languish, Bastion or Scorched Earth with percentages and durations, those figures are the ones that build is using — not a second system. Follow the build page for the pick; this primer only names the hooks.
Ranks, then barter
Fighting with a mercenary builds Rapport. Each mercenary has 10 Rapport ranks. Early ranks unlock skill points on that merc's tree; later ranks open barter upgrades and Pale Mark caches in the Den.
- Reinforcement still earns Rapport while a hire is active, but at half the rate of the hired merc.
- Pale Marks are the Den barter currency. Stock types differ by mercenary — defensive, mobility, utility, resource caches and similar.
- Rapport resets each season. Progress within a season is shared across your realms for that season's structure; start the season by picking someone and playing with them.
“Hire … Reinforce …”
On every endgame build page you will see a Mercenary line that names a hire with their skills, then a reinforcement with one skill and usually a trigger.
- Hire X with A, B, C, D means X is your always-on companion on that full skill set.
- Reinforce with Y using Z, triggered by … means Y appears on that Opportunity and casts Z.
- Swap notes (“if you are dying, flip hire and reinforcement”) are build-specific — follow them when they appear.
Pick a mercenary early on the Season 15 checklist. You can change freely later as Rapport is progress inside the season, not a permanent lock.
Left off this primer on purpose
- Exact skill ranks and which Opportunity skill to bind
- Farm vs push swaps for a named build
- Full mercenary skill trees