correct me if im wrong...

[g0jira]

... but recruits later in game are having better stats than starting mercs?
when i should start looking for replacement of my old mercs?

[warrgood]

As soon as you notice the difference and desire to make the change. No law says you have to keep your core 4, or any other merc you're tired of.

[g0jira]

i dont like the idea that starting mercs are worse, i usually RP in such games, meaning one of mercs is my avatar. and i dont like that my avatar is worse than others

[mardavrio]

I kept my same core of Mercs from start to finish, levelling up/gearing up/crafting up, seemed to keep my squad fully balanced and up to speed no problem at all.

[titanopteryx]

Well there's a skill you can learn with a knowledge point that adds an aptitude point to a new recruit and another that lets you increase the stars on a attribute when leveling up. At the start of the game you don't have either of these yet. However the advantage of the starting mercs is you can pick their traits. Meanwhile the traits on later recruits are random and you have to hope you get lucky.

[Dorael021]

My starting 4, in particular the one I RP as, is the strongest in my team. The main thing, which i learned after my first playthrough, is to not invest any points in the beginning. basically dont even level up your starting characters until you've found enough knowledge points to unlock the extra points for renown exchange thing. I usually get 3-4 knowledge in the beginning just exploring, and even more if you craft simple starting items at the workbench. Doing that you can get the ones for lower recruit cost, aptitude point, etc. I find its more helpful to get those as a headstart before grinding.

[Alattir]

They can be much better with 2 percs like Solitary and Hardiness which give you +20% damage in total. And also can comes with 15 will.

I'm not sure about the name of this perk "Hardiness". Because I'm not playing in English. I mean the perk that adds +10% damage to targets that haven't made their turn yet this round.

Such a mercenary will definitely be stronger than the starting ones.

And I don't understand why you can't choose these perks for starting mercenaries.

[g0jira]

yeah but when you find mercs with proper attributes, they will have more points thanks to perks that you can learn before recruit them, isnt it?

[Jack Jester]

Originally posted by g0jira:

yeah but when you find mercs with proper attributes, they will have more points thanks to perks that you can learn before recruit them, isnt it?

In addition, the starting soldiers receive additional attribute points when interacting with members over time that's a lot of points but here too, the right decisions are important in the camp. So they can even have more attribute points than what appears later. Of course, this assumes that they also interact with the group in some way and that you ensure that they have all the amenities . Only then will such discussion options pop up in the camp.

Putting them somewhere alone in a corner will certainly not help.

[g0jira]

gotcha, good to know, a lot of information nowhere to find, thanks

[Alattir]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Thats not correct, your starting team has additional traits and attribute points if you make the right decisions. In addition, the starting attributes are better distributed.

New recruits can have a poor attribute distribution, so I often had the problem that they only joined with 6 willpower or 6 strenght because more attribute points end up elsewhere and mostly exactly where you don't need it. What does a ranger want with more hit points and less dex?

New mercenaries can get exactly the same additional points "if you make the right decisions".
And +1 point right after you get em (if this technology is open).

For sure if you see bad merc with bad will you not need to hire him. The captain =)

What Im doing - I hire only mercs who got 15 will and nice traits like Solitary etc. So they have +5 will compare to starting mercs, +1 level to stats coz technology, + damage compare to starting mercs coz of best traits.

If you hire mercs who have 6 will - it is only your own problem.

[Alattir]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Originally posted by g0jira:

yeah but when you find mercs with proper attributes, they will have more points thanks to perks that you can learn before recruit them, isnt it?

In addition, the starting soldiers receive additional attribute points when interacting with members over time that's a lot of points but here too, the right decisions are important in the camp. So they can even have more attribute points than what appears later. Of course, this assumes that they also interact with the group in some way and that you ensure that they have all the amenities . Only then will such discussion options pop up in the camp.

Putting them somewhere alone in a corner will certainly not help.

Events are available for all mercenaries, not just the starting ones. There is absolutely no difference.
Hire the right mercenaries at the beginning of the game and they will not have a gap in events.

[Alattir]

If you want to min/max your team right from the start:

1. Choose a team with a bonus of +150 gold.
2. Pick up all the loot on the way to Tiltren.
3. Craft all possible items to open a technology for +1 attribute point for new mercenaries (3 knowledge points will be needed).
4. Buy a tavern and start developing it.
5. Put everyone in the tavern, except for 1 mercenary (preferably a thief), because he will steal items on cooldown.
6. Start resting day after day. You will have a free dish from your tavern = free food and very soon your tavern will bring more money than the salary of 1 character and you will begin to accumulate gold.
7. On cooldown, look for new mercenaries in the tavern until you have all the necessary ones.
8. Finish with cool mercenaries, a lot of gold, pumped up paths.

At some point during this process you can move your tavern to Vertuse and Gosenberg.

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by g0jira:

... but recruits later in game are having better stats than starting mercs?
when i should start looking for replacement of my old mercs?

Only stat that varies is Willpower. All other stats are fixed.

There's a growth by level for Str, Dex and Cit hit for each class and a scaling stat bonus based on your class specialisation (armor type).

For example all Rangers have a starting Crit Hit of 3 and an "UpTo" value of 10, meaning they have 3% base crit hit and 10% at level 12 (of course dex also increases crit hit chance)
The game then calculates an exponential function ( f(x) = c*a^x, where x is the level ) with these two values/points.
That's how it's coded in the game and what they use for any level sclaing in the game; weapon stat scaling, armor/guard scaling etc...

Willpower is random (3-15) and does not scale with level. Movement does not scale and is a fixed (starting) value for each class (usually 8 and 6 for archers).

---

I hired a Pugilist in Belerion, because he had great stats, but the moment I added him to my party his stats were adjusted and he had the same stats as my other pugilist (and terrible willpower).
Why did he have great stats? Because on Expert (higher difficulties in general) NPCs get a stat boost, which is removed when they join your party, as they no longer count as NPCs.

[Jack Jester]

Originally posted by Alattir:

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

In addition, the starting soldiers receive additional attribute points when interacting with members over time that's a lot of points but here too, the right decisions are important in the camp. So they can even have more attribute points than what appears later. Of course, this assumes that they also interact with the group in some way and that you ensure that they have all the amenities . Only then will such discussion options pop up in the camp.

Putting them somewhere alone in a corner will certainly not help.

Events are available for all mercenaries, not just the starting ones. There is absolutely no difference.
Hire the right mercenaries at the beginning of the game and they will not have a gap in events.

The question was whether new recruiting is better. They are not!
The only thing that can happen is that they have 2 points more in Willpower but they don’t have them every time, but completely arbitrarily and then they should also have positive traits. Finding a mercenary with the 2 points more is like hitting the jackpot especially if they still have positive traits .

So now you can have endless discussions about it and spend endless amounts of time trying to find exactly this mercenary...

Or you just play the game. It would be easier to simply edit the save games or search for a suitable mod.

[Sкiткj3ll]

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

Well there's a skill you can learn with a knowledge point that adds an aptitude point to a new recruit and another that lets you increase the stars on a attribute when leveling up. At the start of the game you don't have either of these yet. However the advantage of the starting mercs is you can pick their traits. Meanwhile the traits on later recruits are random and you have to hope you get lucky.

This.