Hi there, my name is Cubes, and this is my first ToL guide. Merc is one of my favorite classes to play. She can have a powerful impact for whichever side she gets marked with, acting like an extra member for the Blue Dragon (BD) or Unseen/Cult. Working closely with your Mark is vital to your success, as you are in a dangerous position as a neutral.

Acronym guide

N1, D2, N2- Night 1, Day 2, Night 2, etc.

BD- Blue Dragon

MM- Mastermind

CL- Cult Leader

Merc- Mercenary

Obs- Observer

CW- Court Wizard

• The Mercenary is a neutral Support class.
  
• Between 0-2 spawn per game.
  
• Each Merc has a mark, which they must protect throughout the course of the game. The Merc's win condition is making sure thei target is alive at the end. Note that the Merc herself does not need to be alive, only their mark.
  
• Your Mark will have a symbol next to their number and name that looks like this.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You can have any class and any faction as your Mark. However, your first mark will never be a Fool, Scorned, King, or another Merc.
  
• The Merc is the only Neutral class that can be converted, into the Sellsword/Ritualist, by the Unseen/Cult respectively.

This is a passive ability that lets you contract a second Mark if your first Mark happens to die. The other role has to accept your offer. They will not know who is offering the contract. You have 3 days to find a second Mark, or you will commit suicide.




This is a passive ability where if both your original and second Mark die, you will commit suicide at night. Consider this a courtesy kill to get you out of the game faster. If you are converted, you will not commit suicide.




An active day abiltiy, that lets you offer a new contract to a second Mark, only if your first one dies. You can use this as many times as you need, and you can offer your contract to anybody, including the King.




An active night ability, you protect your Mark from any and all visitors. This will make them immune to all deaths and visitors, protecting your Mark from things like conversion, occupation, negative abilities, and Healing. It also makes you immune to death and occupation, but not conversion. Your Mark will see a message that says specifically that a Mercenary stood outside their door. You can use this ability 4 times, and you do not get more charges upon gaining a second Mark.




An active night ability, you kill a player that accused your Mark of treason during the previous day. This will work even if your Mark was executed or somehow killed. You can only use this ability once.

If you are converted to the Unseen, your class will change to the Sellsword. You lose all your Merc abilities, while gaining some new ones. Once converted, you will no longer have a Mark, nor will you commit suicide if they die, but your Mark is not made aware of this.




An active night ability, it protects any Unseen player and prevents others from visiting them. It is similar to Stand Guard in that it makes your target immune to death as well as any negative effect, but it does not make you immune to death. You have 3 charges.





An active night ability, this lets you kill any target that accused an Unseen member of treason during the day. Works exactly like Rebound. You can use it once.

One of the biggest advantages of being a Merc is how easy it is to prove yourself. I like to use this ability to secure my position, both with my Mark, and with the Table as a whole.

I generally play Merc the same way N1 and D2. On N1 I will use a charge of Stand Guard, protecting both me and my Mark, and letting my presence be known. Then at some point on D2 I will send them a whisper that will look something like this:

hey I'm your merc, will follow your votes, role/side?

This accomplishes 3 things

1. It will establish yourself as their Merc, which should be obvious considering you protected them N1
   
2. It lets you take an active role in ensuring their win, which means they'll be more incentivized to keep you around and help you win
   
3. It can give you more information that can potentially keep you alive

It's ok if your Mark doesn't respond to you at all, or doesn't reveal any info. Your job is to support them, so just vote how they vote and use Stand Guard if you think they're alive.

If your mark does let you in on their faction, it can break the game open fast as suddenly the BD or Unseen/Cult have one more pseudo-member than expected.

The strategy from here on out is how aggressively do you use your remaining Stand Guard charges.


If your first Mark is BD, the main use of your Stand Guard will be to prevent conversion or killing. If your Mark reveals that they are a high-priority target (Prince, Paladin/Sheriff, Psychic, or Phys), you'll want to use your Stand Guard aggressively, particularly for Paladins and Sheriffs. For other BD members, you can save your Stand Guard unless they ask for it.



If your mark is evil, the strategy is really dependent on their role and faction.

For Unseen, the ideal Mark is the Assassin, as your Stand Guard will prevent occupation and death to them. This can be absolutely devastating to the BD if played right. Having a MM as your Mark is very redundant, but also very safe, as your target can't ever be killed at night. You would only need to use Stand Guard if you think the MM will be visited by an investigative class.

For Cult, the CL is the best Mark by far. You can prevent them being occupied or killed, allowing them to convert and kill at will. Getting a regular Cult member is the worst outcome, but they can become CL at some point if the original CL dies, so I would save charges of Stand Guard here if possible.



These games are the toughest. Either your Mark is someone who doesn't need your help (Reaper, Possessor), someone who is likely to die (Alchemist), or is just not invested in helping you win. Your best bet is them dying so that you can get a second Mark, but don't be afraid to work with a Neutral Killer if they're trying to be cooperative.

If your first Mark dies, you get a chance to contract a second Mark. Unlike your first Mark, you get to choose who you contract, and you can contract anybody, including the King, Fool, Scorned, or another Merc.

Depending on how involved you were with helping your first Mark, you may be restricted on who to choose for your second Mark.


If you haven't helped either faction, then you're free to choose basically whoever. In that case, choose the faction you think has the better shot of winning. A solid choice is to choose a trusted King or a revealed Prince, as they are one of the safest roles. Sometimes your choice is taken away from you by having to prove yourself at the Table, but it's worth it if it means you get to prove yourself and avoid being executed.



Here, you need to keep allying with that faction. Otherwise you make an easy target to kill, especially to the Evil faction. Sometimes, you want to keep helping the Evil faction but are forced to contract BD to prove yourself. There's little you can do in this case, but thankfully this is pretty rare.



It's pretty safe to contract as soon as you can, but there are advantages to holding off, such as waiting to see if one faction will pull ahead, and saving charges of your Stand Guard. The biggest risk in waiting though is dying without having made a Mark, which means you automatically lose. Remember that you have 3 days to find a contract or you will commit suicide; the game will tell you when it's the last day.

When your Mark is a key BD role (such as Prince), and is outed/revealed, you have an important choice to make. You either need to step up and protect, or lay low.



You need to quickly prove yourself as their Merc, and then organize when to protect them. Ideally, you will use all your Stand Guard charges first, to free up the other BD, and then reveal in your Journal as well as in Table Chat when you run out of charges to protect. Once you've run out of charges, there's little else you can do as a Merc, but you can still help as a Town with voting and catching the Evil faction in their lies.

Note: If this is your second Mark, you HAVE to step up and protect.



If you think your target won't survive, or that their faction won't win, it might be better to lay low and hope they die early, so that you can contract a 2nd Mark quickly. In this case, just stay quiet. This won't always work, since your Mark might call on you to protect them, and failing to do so will probably result in the Town turning on you. It's the riskier strategy, but it can pay off big time with a better Mark if done right.

When you're being asked for your role, the safest way to clear yourself is to tell the truth. If you have a Mark, you can have that Mark confirm that you're a Merc. If you're looking for a second Mark, you can offer a contract to prove yourself. However, if you're afraid you'll get lynched by an anti-Neutral Table, the safest claim is a Knight or a CW.



This is usually safe to reveal that you're a Merc, but it can be safer more often to just claim Knight or CW, since you never really know who the other person in Psychic chat is.



This is the only time where I think you should lie almost always. Claiming Merc means little to a Prince, who can execute you anyways without fear of losing the ability to kill. The only times I would reveal the truth are if you think the Prince is your Mark, if you think/know the Prince can't kill you, or if it's very late game, and you're likely to just be jailed again tomorrow night.

Your journal when completely true, will often look like this:

N1- Protect Mark
N2- Protect Mark
N3- Nothing
N4- Nothing
N5- Protect Mark
N6- Nothing.

If you end up proving yourself as Merc early on, and getting accepted by the table, there's generally no need to keep up a fake journal.

However, until you can successfully prove yourself, keeping up a fake will can get you out of a jam when you're on the spot.

The easiest journal to fake is Knight, as you already sort of function as one. Let's assume your Mark's number is 8. Let's modify the will above so that it's easy for you and your Mark to see the truth.

N1- Protect 8
N2- Protect 8
N3- Protect King
N4- Protect King
N5- Protect 8
N6- Protect King

With this journal, you simply look like an erratic, bored Knight. You will also be matching the truth as close as possible, so that if an Obs happens to follow you on the night you guarded your Mark, your journal will check out.



Mercs often like to write who their Mark is in their journal. This doesn't really help you at all, as you can always check who your Mark is. Instead, what you can do is write down information that you think will help your Mark and their faction WITHOUT revealing who your Mark or what their faction was.

If your Mark is evil, don't put down who you think or know is evil. If your Mark is BD, don't list key roles like Prince or Sheriff/Paladin that you've confirmed or think are likely. The goal of any notes you write down in your Will is to help your Mark win in case you die. Never forget this.

Mercenary is the only Neutral class that can be converted by the Unseen/Cult. When you've been converted,

• Your win condition changes to that of your new faction i.e. eliminate all BD and NK
  
• You will no longer have a Mark
  
• You will not commit suicide if your former Mark dies

Being converted as a Merc puts you in a tough spot. If your Mark is BD, it will look suspicious if you don't protect them when they ask for it, or after a few nights. You can say that you're out of Stand Guard charges, but depending on how much information you've shared, it may not even be possible to lie about that.

Your best bet is to ask your faction to kill off your mark ASAP. Then, you can fake making a contract later if you need to, to keep up the guise of Mercenary.

Thanks for reading this guide, if you have any thoughts or questions feel free to comment. If you think there's a section or piece of information that should be added let me know, I wrote this whole thing on the fly.