Should i be killing mercenaries or recruit them?

[stevewashere]

I have been trying to recruit mercenaries but ive already killed 10 - 12 so far. should i only be recruiting Legendary mercenaries?

[Dweller Beyond the Threshold]

Do whichever you want. You can kill them all or recruit them all. There no right way to play it.
It's good to recruit legendary mercenaries with 3 perks though.

[helldweller]

New lieutenants will continue to have improved stats over your old ones of the same rarity as you increase in levels and enemies scale to you. As of v1.0.7, lieutenants can have up to 7 perk levels, which you won't see until the enemies you're fighting are around lvl61.

Short version, you'll be recruiting throughout most of the game if you want to keep your ship at maximum effectiveness. Unless you just ignore the whole system as many have -- it's super buggy.

[stevewashere]

i see, thanks guys :)

[STuRoK]

I had recruited at least a dozen legendary Ltnt's before any were good enough to assign. Don't just assign a legendary over epic. the "drop rate" for good stats is much lower than non-ideal stats, but epics seem to get them easier than legendaries. I've played 50+ hours and haven't found a legendary with ideal stats. (even after reloading a save-game a 100 times.... wtf)

I think getting "+ arrow damage" and +Javelin dmg together is impossible. I've yet to find it. Has anyone else?

[EbonHawk]

Originally posted by Storm:

I had recruited at least a dozen legendary Ltnt's before any were good enough to assign. Don't just assign a legendary over epic. the "drop rate" for good stats is much lower than non-ideal stats, but epics seem to get them easier than legendaries. I've played 50+ hours and haven't found a legendary with ideal stats. (even after reloading a save-game a 100 times.... wtf)

I think getting "+ arrow damage" and +Javelin dmg together is impossible. I've yet to find it. Has anyone else?

Nope, me neither. I've never seen that perk on the same person.

[kro32]

All you need is + to ram and rowing speed and you are good to go.

[Mehhh]

Mercs are worth recruiting, IMO, especially in early game, and especially on nightmare. Not just for the epic stats, either. Those stats do make it easier to chew through ships, but the other reason is that mercs are excellent fighters when boarding. Nothing tears down an elite ship captain like 3-4 crew with special abilities.

[wearewindflowers]

I have two with +20 arrow smg and +25 jjavelin perks. One is an epic merc the other a legendary. It's all randomly generated isn't it? So any number of varied stats can show I guess.

[Shobloth]

another thing to consider is how they fight. The large melee mercs are amazing when you board, archers and smaller mercs suck

[Kabob]

Don't overlook Polemarches either - even State Leaders can be useful - Ikaros knows these things....

One of my 1st legendaries was a Daughters of Artemis camp leader. Others have used the Ares camp leaders.

[Grand]

all enemy has chance they are legendary. from thug, daughter of artemis, polemarch, strategoi, marksman, leader, etc.

always scout with ikaros first before eradicating area.

ps: dont recruit people after finishing sidequest. they are not worthed since they only have 1 perk (always normal or blue quality).