How to Unlock Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2

The Mercenary is one of Risk of Rain 2’s playable characters. His playstyle focuses on technical attacks and taking advantage of the invincibility that his skills grant. As such, he’s among the most challenging characters to master.

If you’re looking to learn how to unlock the Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2, you’re in luck. We’ll cover the methods for unlocking him and his skills.

The Mercenary’s Basic Information

Wielding a Japanese katana, the Mercenary is a melee-only character. As a melee-only character, you may think that ranged attacks are a significant weakness. However, he has several attacks that let him practically teleport towards his enemies or grant him invulnerability.

Having these abilities is what makes the Mercenary a challenging character to master. He has a ranged attack, but it’s a skill that has six seconds of cooldown. The long cooldown period isn’t reliable in certain situations.

Instead, you have to move around enemy attacks and choose the moment to strike. Thankfully, he deals a lot of damage with his attacks, making him a high-risk-high-reward character. Those who master the Mercenary’s skills can wreak havoc on the battlefield.

The Mercenary isn’t available at first. To play as him, you have to get him into your roster.

How to Unlock the Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2

The Mercenary is very popular, and many players would love to add him to their roster, but obtaining him is another matter. There’s an element of chance that you need to unlock him. The process involves finding a Celestial Portal.

Celestial Portals are easier to find after clearing Rallypoint Delta, which is the case for most players. However, some players have spoken up, reporting they didn’t encounter one after beating Rallypoint Delta. For these players, they found Celestial Portals at random points of the game.

Some even say that they found one before even clearing Rallypoint Delta. Regardless of these reports, one thing is sure. As a player without the Mercenary, you have to keep playing until you find one.

With this element of luck and chance explained, let’s take a look at the steps:

Finding a Celestial Portal and Entering

1. Enter a Celestial Portal should you encounter one.
   
2. Wander around until you find an Obelisk.
   
3. Approach the Obelisk.
   

If you manage to find the Celestial Portal early, you should enter it. You might never be this lucky again.

Interacting With the Obelisk

1. When you approach the Obelisk, you can interact with it.
2. You’ll face the option of “obliterating yourself from existence.”
   
3. Select the option to obliterate yourself.
   
4. Watch as your character sacrifices themself.
   
5. After the sacrifice, you’ll unlock the “True Respite” achievement.
   
6. You’ll unlock the Mercenary after this ordeal.
   

The process will result in your run ending prematurely. However, the reward of unlocking the Mercenary is worth it.

If you managed to find the Celestial Portal before beating Rallypoint Delta, then you were fortunate. For those who had trouble finding the portal, you’ve experienced some terrible luck. The consensus is that Celestial Portals appear randomly but beating Rallypoint Delta increases your chances of appearing immensely.

How to Unlock the Mercenary’s Skills in Risk of Rain 2

Unfortunately, unlocking this coved character doesn’t necessarily you can use him “out-of-the-box.” The Mercenary doesn’t come with all his skills, and there are a few that you must unlock by completing challenges. Let’s take a look at all of the skills that need unlocking.

Rising Thunder

Rising Thunder is important to unlock. To get it, you need to complete the achievement named “Mercenary: Demon of the Skies.”

The challenge sounds simple, but in reality, it requires some preparation. You have to stay airborne for 30 full seconds.

The items that you need to stay afloat for the 30 seconds are:

• Some Hoppo Feathers
  
• An H3AD-5T v2
  
• As many Backup Magazines as you can bring
  
• Some Hardlight Afterburners
  
• Some Alien Heads
  

Find somewhere high up to jump off, such as a cliff or tall building. After jumping off, you can double jump and use both Blinding Assault and Eviscerate abilities to send yourself upwards. If both skills aren’t available, Whirlwind works in a pinch.

Remember that if your feet make contact with flying enemies, you have to start over. It would help if you chained your Blinding Assault ability so that you won’t land on anything. The best sequence is to use Eviscerate, then use Blinding Assault before ending with Whirlwind.

Try to prioritize starting with Eviscerate.

When done right, you’ll be airborne the whole time and unlock Rising Thunder.

Slicing Winds

The achievement associated with the Slicing Winds ability is called “Mercenary: Ethereal.” This achievement requires players to beat a full Prismatic Trial run without losing any HP and getting hit. Shields don’t count as getting hit, so you can bring them along with you to unlock Slicing Winds.

As Prismatic Trials change frequently, we can’t tell you all the details. However, the goal is simple, avoiding damage and complete a trial.

Since the trials are fixed, you only have to master one trial to beat it and unlock Slicing Winds. Keep practicing until you manage to beat the Prismatic Trial without receiving damage.

Blinding Assault

Blinding Assault is relatively straightforward to unlock. It would help if you also had it to unlock Rising Thunder because you won’t be able to float for 30 seconds in the air without it. The achievement to unlock Blinding Assault is “Mercenary: Flash of Blades.”

When you play as the Mercenary, you only have to use 20 abilities within 10 seconds. You can equip some items that make unlocking Blinding Assault trivial.

• Visions of Heresy
  
• Backup Magazines
  
• Hardlight Afterburners
  
• Brainstalks
  

These items will let you use skills quickly, and by the time the 10 seconds pass, you’ll have used more than enough skills to unlock Blinding Assault.

Additional FAQs

Who Is the Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2?

The Mercenary’s identity is a mystery. According to the game, the Mercenary inspires terror in all who hear about him. Beyond that, we don’t know much else about him.

What Are the Mercenary’s Skills in Risk of Rain 2?

The Mercenary has quite a few skills to offer if you’re willing to do the work to obtain them. They include:

• Cybernetic Enhancements

• Laser Sword

• Whirlwind

• Rising Thunder

• Blinding Assault/Focused Assault

• Eviscerate

• Slicing Winds

Obliterate Yourself From Existence

The Mercenary is genuinely a mysterious figure, with almost nothing known about him. Even the way players unlock him is bizarre. However, once you have him on your roster and master his skills, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and use him to obliterate enemies on the battlefield.

When did you find your first Celestial Portal? What was your reaction when you obliterated yourself? Tell us in the comments section below.