Are the crystal mercenaries worth using?

[rpgfreakiod]

The biggest downside I think the crystal mercenaries have is that due to them only going to the farmstead, they will never advance in time, which means they will never get new perks. I guess if you really need a certain max level hero they can fill the slot, but without being about to gain perks they seem really bad if you are trying really long endless mode runs

[Curious Fox]

As far as I know, they don't take up a slot.

Just treat them like a temporary mercenary for early runs.

[RopeDrink]

They're there for those who don't have the roster to partake in new content. Once the Miller is dead (which can be done before you have teams of legendary heroes to throw at endless), you can recruit shard-mercs who have each and every skill, armor/wep and camping skill unlocked right out of the gate (and as Fox mentioned, they don't take up a slot, yet you can only recruit a set amount.

Their negative non-shard quirks can be removed, so if you happen upon one with solid 4x positive quirks, you should snag them anyway as a backup option and remove their negatives if you want to maximize them.

The cost is, of course, using them reduces your shard income and they never really progress beyond their given potential, as you said yourself. They're handy to use for the early stage of shard-gen/trinket farm before you tailor-make your legit roster for that purpose, which is very costly if you're not already at end-game.

I have yet to lose anyone in endless that isn't a shard merc - I know mercs return eventually but I wonder what happens if a standard hero is deafeated in endless. I assume they too come back later, but I haven't the heart to test for myself.

[Rūshi]

I just grab 4, send them in then discard them and grab new 4. Pure profit.

[No One]

Standard heroes also don't die.

In a non-post-game situation, shard mercs make endless generate free money. Recruit them, run, and if they need stress housing, just dismiss them and hire another.

[RopeDrink]

I find the profit there abysmal (at least if you're feeding them supplies to try and push a little further). Given the weeks do not progress there, if gold was a concern I'd typically favour doing standard content for both gold, heirlooms and a fresh week.

After you've secured the initial Miller-trinket, the statue gives anything from a paltry 350gold gem to a blue-trinket, which won't refund any serious supply-expenditure, let alone generate a profit, unless we're talking deep-dives -- though I say this as someone who only does occasional runs and has only seen the second boss. You tend to have 40'ish crystals by then, some of which goes towards said mercs.

[No One]

Quest completion - I haven't paid much attention to when it counts as complete - is 24000 gold, plus some crests. Not exactly chump change. I expect there's tiers of completion.

[rpgfreakiod]

I wish there was a way to get new perks on them though

Like maybe you could pay some money or crystals or something and it would spend a week to roll a perk on people you don't want to take out