Hiring mercenaries

Hiring Mercenaries - Taverns and Tavernkeepers

Mercenaries hang out in Taverns, structures that generate naturally in plains biomes. Each tavern is staffed by one Tavernkeeper, who sells useful items.

Interacting with a Mercenary will tell you who they are and how long contract lasts.

To hire a Mercenary, simply right-click them with a Contract item.

From the Tavernkeeper you can buy:

• Contracts, which are needed to hire Mercenaries. There are two kinds: a Temporary Contract (hires for a fixed stretch of time and can be used again to extend) and a Permanent Contract (binds a Mercenary to you for good, but only once they've served you long enough).
• Maps to structures from Iron's Spells & Spellbooks
• Food and drink
• A Room for the night, you can buy a Sleeping Pass to sleep in one of the Tavern's beds. Sleeping in the Tavern grants you Absorption and Resistance effects

Players can also interact with the Tavernkeeper giving him an emerald to get either useful information or some chit chat.

Working with a contracted Mercenary

Once a Mercenary is contracted to you, interacting with them will tell you how much longer they will remain contracted for and triggers some chit chatting related to their Personality. When shift + right clicking them a menu will pop up, and inside it you can:

• Change their equipment - armor, weapons, off-hand items. Mercenaries can use spells from their equipment if they are on their Class' spell list.
• View their combat stats - full Attribute breakdown (HP, armor, spell power per school, resistances, vanilla stats) plus their Personality traits.
• See their inventory - what they've picked up off the ground, plus what they're carrying for you.
• Give Orders - there's a button to switch between Following you and Patrolling the area.
• Choose their displayed Title - a selector showing every Title they've earned. Pick one to display above their name, or none at all.

Mercenaries also react to other Mercenaries you've contracted nearby. Hired Mercenaries interact with eahch other acording to their their Personalities, which will apply a temporary buff to them based on their Archetypes (rivals, friends, etc.). archetype interactions can be configured via Datapack: see Custom archetype interactions.

A Mercenary's Quirks also drive in-world behavior, for example: a Mercenary with the cant_swim Quirk will not be able to swim in water, a Mercenary with the animal_friend Quirk receives Stat Bonuses when around Animals, a Mercenary who is afraid_of_the_dark becomes weaker and slower in dark places, and so on.

Titles

Instead of levelling, Mercenaries earn Titles for the things they actually do. Killing two hundred skeletons, walking into an Ancient City, surviving ten thousand points of damage, or simply staying under contract long enough will each earn something.

Every Title carries its own rewards. Some are straightforward Attribute boosts; others are more characterful - extra damage against a particular type of monsters, a passive effect, a chance to inflict something on hit, immunity to a status effect, or a bonus that only applies while wielding a certain kind of weapon.

Titles are permanent once earned, and a Mercenary can hold as many as they qualify for. Their effects all apply at once, so a well-travelled veteran ends up meaningfully tougher than a fresh hire - but only in the ways they earned.

When a contracted Mercenary earns a Title you'll be told about it. One Title at a time is displayed above their name, and as their contractor you choose which one from the contract screen. By default the most prestigious one is shown.

Titles are entirely datapack-driven, so packs can add, retune, or replace the whole set - see Custom titles.