Mercenaries Of Trarthus Guide
Last Updated:June 13, 2025|Changelog
In the new Mercenaries of Trarthus league you find veteran Mercenaries in your maps, challenge them to a duel and hire them for gold. Once hired they accompany you as a skilled companion using their own abilities and providing buffs. Make sure to equip them with items which let them survive, make them stronger, and provide additional benefits for yourself.
3.26 Secrets of the Atlas league introduces Mercenaries of Trarthus. Much is still a lot unknown about them and this guide will be updated as we learn more. Pin this page to be notified of any updates.
Encounter
You encounter a Mercenary of Trarthus in each area once. Once encountered you can challenge them to a duel and decide the result if you win.
First result is hiring the defeated Mercenary. This costs gold and is not refunded if you lose the duel. Don't worry if your Mercenary dies in the future; you can resurrect him for extra gold. You can have only 1 Mercenary accompany you but you can store up to 2 additional ones in the reserve. You might want to consider hiring multiple Mercenaries for different situations and make use of them only when you need them.
Second result is taking one of their equipped items as a reward. You get to decide which item you want to take as a reward, but this is limited to their equipment and inventory which for this purpose counts as 1 item. Gems and their supports are not for grab, but rarely in their inventories you might find special Trarthus versions of certain Skill Gems.
Third and last possible result is Exiling the Mercenary. This makes the Mercenaries of this attribute type not appear for the next 10 Mercenaries encounters. You can have up to two Mercenary attribute types (STR/INT/DEX) exiled at the same time. Use this option to make it more likely that the Mercenaries of your choice appear in your maps.
Mercenary Overview
Type
Every Mercenary of Trarthus has their own name and a type. Type of the Mercenaries determines the abilities and gear that they use. For example the "Eruptor" uses two handed axes and fire themed melee abilities like Volcanic Fissure and Infernal Cry.
Sometimes you might encounter "Infamous" Mercenaries which means that they are a part of one of the four major Trarthus families and can have items with special "Infamous" modifiers equipped.
Gear And Attributes
Mercenaries of Trarthus generally spawn with better quality gear than what you find from killing monsters. However once hired you can equip them with gear of your choice. By doing so their base gear gets destroyed and replaced with gear that you gave them. At any point you can unequip the gear that you gave to your Mercenary.
Mercenary attributes determine what type of items they can use. For example, a Mercenary with strength (STR) attribute can use only items that require any amount of strength (STR), strength/dexterity (STR/DEX) or strength/intelligence (STR/INT). Mercenaries with double attributes can use items which require either of the two attributes. For example, a Mercenary with dexterity/intelligence (DEX/INT) attributes can only use items that require any amount of dexterity/intelligence (DEX/INT), dexterity (DEX) or intelligence (INT).
Mercenaries can spawn with Unique items equipped and occasionally they might have equipped Unique Items that can be obtained only from defeating them.
Skills
Type of the Mercenary determines which Skills it can use. You cannot replace their Skills so once you find a Mercenary with a powerful combination of Skills make sure to keep them. Pay attention to their Auras like Purity of Elements which also affect your character!
Skills used by the Mercenaries have a chance to be supported with special Support Gems that are not available for players. These Support Gems change their Skills in a unique way, for example Gilded Fortification Support makes hits with Vigilant Strike Fortify the Mercenary and his nearby allies (including you!) for 8 seconds.
Renown
Successfully defeating Mercenaries of Trarthus increases your Renown among the Trarthan by 1 up to maximum of 3. When you lose a fight or back out of one you lose 1 Renown rank. Backing out of the fight means that you check the equipment and the Skills of the Mercenary but don't accept the duel. Every rank of Renown increases the chance to encounter an "Infamous" Mercenary
Gearing Up Your Mercenaries
When equipping your Mercenary with gear prioritize their defense first. Remember that a good Mercenary is an alive Mercenary! If your Mercenary dies, you have to spend gold to resurrect it and it cannot enter back the area where it died. Make sure it has 75% to all resistances, and other sources of defense like armour, evasion, energy shield or block chance. Mercenaries have a high amount of Life as a base so items with + to Maximum Life are generally not helpful.
After you sort out defenses, focus on items that increase their damage or make him provide you additional benefits. For example, equipping your Mercenary with Dying Breath makes you deal 18% increased damage, increases effect of his Auras and increases effect of all Curses on nearby enemies which buffs both yours and your Mercenary damage. Make sure that gear used by your Mercenary synergizes with their abilities; for example, if they use any Warcry Skill, Redblade Banner makes it have infinite power.
Here is an example of cheap generic gear suitable for most of the mercenaries with strength attribute:
- Dying Breath - Makes you deal 18% increased damage, increases effect of your Mercenary Auras and increases effect of all Curses on nearby enemies which buffs both yours and your Mercenary damage
- Perquil's Toe - Makes damage with your hits lucky which makes it roll twice choosing the higher value.
- Lightning Coil - Converts 50% of Physical damage taken by the Mercenary to Lightning. With 75% Lightning Resistance this reduces Physical damage taken by 37,5%.
- Kaom's Binding - Has similar effect to the Lightning Coil except this one makes nearby enemies Physical damage converted to Fire which means it reduces Physical damage taken by both Mercenary and yourself.
- Giantslayer Helmet - Good amount of Armour and Resistances.
- Amethyst Ring - Provides Resistances.
- Leviathan Gauntlets - Good amount of Armour and Resistances.
- Leviathan Greaves - Provides Increased Movement Speed, good amount of Armour and Resistances.
Loot
Any time you encounter a Mercenary, you can choose to take one of their items after you win the duel. Rare items equipped by the Mercenaries are generally better quality than the ones found on the ground, so these can be very useful, especially at the League start. Occasionally, Mercenaries might have equipped a Unique Item. Even more rarely, this Unique Item can be one of the special Unique Items obtainable only from the Mercenaries.
If none of the items equipped by the Mercenary interest you, you can choose to keep the content of their pockets which usually contains some currency items and scarabs. Occasionally, you might find in their pockets one of the special Trarthus Skill Gems which are similar to the Transfigured Skill Gems.
Infamous Mercenaries
Occasionally, you might find one of the Infamous Mercenaries. These special types of Mercenaries have better loot in their pockets, more powerful Rare items, always have equipped one Unique Item and are the only source of items with special "Infamous" modifiers on them.
Summary
- Look out for Mercenaries of Trarthus and challenge them to a duel
- Choose to hire a Mercenary after winning a duel.
- Gear up your Mercenary to keep him alive, make him stronger and let him support you.
- Earn Renown amongst the Trarthan to encounter "Infamous" Mercenaries more often.
- Choose to keep one of the Mercenary's items as a reward on a successful duel if you don't want to hire them.
- Look out for special Trarthan Skill gems, Mercenaries specific Unique Items and Rare items with "Infamous" modifiers.
Video
Credits
Written by: Zen_M
Reviewed by: Boiler