With a game that can move slowly and crawl like a RTS then Move quickly in all 3 dimensions like an old arena shooter, it is important to understand pacing as it relates to the games integral choke points and killing fields. this guide is mainly aimed at low tier players who are looking at getting a merc that their favourite youtuber said not to, or are wondering why everyone is yelling at them for playing free week vassili, or wondering why when they play that one funny scotsman they constantly hear "I NEED AMMO!" before they die while charging an enemy. middle tier players who have more than Free mercs at their disposal can also learn a thing or two, as well as learn what can actually defeat Rhino


For those of you who don't want to read a guide, The key breakaway is that you should pick your characters for multiplitudes of situations, not just because "One's a medic, One gives ammo, and the last guy kills things"

With all of the different paces that mercs can move at, you will never be able to predict what will come around the corner at what speed, but you can always make an educated guess, just like knowing what can engage you at the frontlines, and what can snipe you from that infuriating spot behind cover. I consider there to be 5 paces, each with their own unique traits that make them special at what they do.


While annoying mercs have good speed, it isn't speed which makes you a flanker. With Twitch style shooting, Decent aim, Great movement, and Target Prioritization are required to be a good flanker. you have to be on your toes and on your game at the same time to be sucessful. While good to know but not necassary to have, game sense can fill a gap where aim is lacking.


With your main lines extending decently far in this game, aggressors are meant to push and make a tide with the enemy, allowing headway to be made amidst the chaos. Although mostly consisting of Assaults, this can even be held by a few Fire Supports and a specific Engineer. Aggressors are meant to get up close and personal, so Situational awareness, Target prioritization, and Movement are a key. If you can aim well enough as an aggressor, you can drop an amount of target prioritization as long as you know how and when to tank damage.


While it's nice to go balls to the walls, or snipe with impunity, there always needs to be someone that can stay at the midrange and either hold ground or take some. While Aggressors are great at taking ground they may not be the best at holding it. that's where the Midliners come in. With all around stats, and most likely a decent Primary weapon to contend with all targets, Aim is starting to become into importance again. Pair that with a good sense of game sense for probing the frontlines with your aggressors and movement for quick retreats, and you can have yourself a great game.


With your teamates in the enemies attention, a tempo support needs to be able to gauge their battlefield and supply their buddies with whatever they need. this pace can be the least rewarding if played in pubs. With an emphasis on support, you can drop your aim and prioritization for Situational Awareness, Game Sense, and Movement, which are essential for an easier time in managing respawns with cooldowns and objectives.


While not an essential for any team, a backfielder with an overview is always great to have, as long as they can use proper reconaissance techniques and get essential picks. With an understanding of how the frontlines work, a sniper can pick off the supports and aggressors who are doing to well to leave their team in an adventageous position to get an objective done. Great Aim coupled with good Target Prioritization and a dash of situational awareness will give you a good combinination for this laid back approach. While you should never drop in situational awareness, a few long rangers can trade in a handful of game sense to Drop aim.

With an obvious name and guns to make you scream, you would think that they would be obvious aggresors, but Assaults can do much more than what's on the can.
From Highest Health Down:

Health: 200
With a great health pool, a gadget that spews lead, and shotguns that everyone forgets about, Rhino makes for a good aggressor, although slower than others. he plays just fine as a corner defender or a moderate damage dealer and tank at midrange. Nitro doesn't really change the way he revs up to the competition, but Different loadout cards can allow you to get back in the fight quicker when he's almost down thanks to tough or stay in it for longer thanks to Ice Cold.

Counters: Explosions. All of them. A good Proxy or Phantom can alway slip by and whittle him to death as well. Other than that, Prioritize his medics if you have a numbers advatage.

Health: 160
With still a large amount of health, a room clearing assistant, and choices between a lawnmower, a midrange power house, or a long range headhunter, Thunder can really vary his pace by the weapon runs. With the MG, a good plan, and medics down, you can clear an objective before the enemies can say "I'm blind", and at midrange, he can peck away with automatic fire. with the Timik, you can afford to be comfortable midranging any opponent while extending your reach into tapping range with headshots and using you flashbang to help other frontliner, while still having the capability to lay DPS down upon the heathen that entered your CQC safe bubble. With the Stark, you play passively, using headshots and burst damage at mid range to get enemies to learn sessons, while driving the point home with concussions for everyone while you support your medics by tanking sniper fire. With the MG, a MA42 card is reccomended. for stark play, the S41 is most likely your best bet, and an all round good timik card is the T45

Counters: A decent amount of explosives will always do, but keep in mind, he will often not be hindered by a distance. Speedey mercs can always get the best of him, and he has a soft spot for his own grenades, make use of that window. Remember, turn away from the flash to avoid blinding.

Health: 140
Fragger may have pinned the donkey with his quote on traffic ontrol, as he lacks in ways he can effectively slow an opponent. While starting to get out of "I win 1v1s based on the fact that I'm fat" territory, he still has enough health to leverage wins in extrordinary places. While it may seem like you have 3 choices, Drop the BR-16 in favour of the all round M4A1 or an aggresive K121 Playstyle. With The AR, you have the option of going grenade focused and support midline damage with main armaments. with the MG you have to either Watch corners or hipfire around them, as slow sighting speed, movement, and fraggers large hitbox will get in the way of transitioning.

Counters: A good set of ears should be able to hear the ticking of his grenade, even in mid fight, and always be aware of his coldown. his health can actually be fought against, as long as you posses a tactical high ground. due to his lack of sustainability without support, if he's running the M4 he can run out of ammo often.

Health: 120
While the queer grenadier(Look it up) may seem squishy, all of the other categories can only barely match her in health, and trade off their movement speed and firepower as a result. With Nader being the only Assault with the option of SMGs as a primary weapon, you can leverage their more speedy pace and wedge yourself into the flanks of your enemy. while all can do both her frontal assault and side jobs fine, the Crotzni lends itself to be played among friends, the SMG-9 is a good pick for either role, and the high ammo count of the Hochfir allows it to be used in a spray and pray heaven. with nader's ability to bounce her 40mm eggs around corners, she holds a great place in your squad for angle watcher, and can also be used as a distraction piece with mismatched firing directions and damage indicators when launched through an enemy. you can make your self a living proxy mine too if you get downed behind a corner while flanking.

Counters: with lower health, as long as she doesn't have a grenade launcher out, and you have an assault rifle or MG, you can most likely trade with her with a better DPS.

Engineers are, in a shellnut, objective specialists with traditionally defensive systems. with practical frontline experience. you can push objectives as a midline support or leverage their above average utility to flank and spank the enemy.
From highest health down:

Health: 110
Sharing alot in common with another certain Texan, Bushwacker can play a backline and secondary objective support, while also leveraging his decent selection of SMGs to work the midrange. The blishlock allows for great CQC defense potential against lone aggresors, while the Kek-10 opens up a midrange DPS role. the SMG-9 allows for a more personal attempt at chaotic objective defending. Aditional Health on the turret through steady allows for better objective holding while lock on allows for chokepoint defence.

Counters: Nader, Fragger or Phantom can easily disable his turret non Line of sight style with bouncing grenades or EMP it death.

Health: 110
Fletcher, as he wishes to be called, has excellent selection in passive and active viability, but lacks versatility when not aggressing or setting traps. as long as you go fast and use your sticky bombs like 2 stage grenades, you can pull of an aggressor or flanker need. with manual activataion, you can sucessfully defend and control the midrange as a trap layer. Meatball man has excellent selection in either shotguns or the blishlok. Shotguns will cover tier 1 and 2 speed, while the blishlock at 4 will help control with great head damage and that clear sight. Reccomendations are Lock on and springy for close quarters chaos, with a dose of tough or drilled to be decent at working the lines.

Counters: Nigeria must be oblivious, because his audio cues are obnoxiously loud, use these in accordance with map knowledge to know where traps are and get out of the way. when he goes CQC, know that he still is relatively squishy, and he focuses on burst rather than sustained damage, so take your time and get your shots in.

Health: 90
With second highest speed in the game, proxy can get stuff done up close and personal without fear of repercussion due to great burst potential. Leveraging shotguns with mine placement will make your enemies paranoid about when the respawn is, and will slow them down from getting the objective. she can also use strafing and a small hitbox to gain an upper hand with the hochfir at midrange, although hard to nail down. Same a fletcher, shotguns are to be used when flanking, but don't be afraid to run away, because you don't have the health to fight. the hochfir relies on body shots more then head due to high fire rate and poor damage with moderate kick. use this to your advantage and shake around the battlefield like it's a club. at midrange, use throwable momentum carry to catapult your mines into the enemy, then put a round or two to use it as a nuclear pancake. Lock on is a great utility for that tempo role of objective placement, while drilled or chopper/quickslash will get you through the snuggle zone.

Counters: with her low health, if you survive her initial attack, or see her coming, just blow her out of the water before she can retaliate. Listen for the beeping of the mines, and if you can see it, youy can long jump over it to avoid most of the damage.

With a flexible name and varience in weapon variety, fire supports have the ability to make or brake a match. with the ability to resupply at the front lines, and otherwise limeted ammo shortages, you can turn tides witgh just one more mag to a friendly. A general tip I can give is that all mercs have capacity for one more ammo bag than default, even with spares, so if you have Skyhammer or arty, throw one out there at the beggining of the round. also with the bags, throw them at teamates for a cooldown reduction to their abilities, applicable only once per resupply.
From highest health down:

Health: 120
With the quickest cooldown ability and a selection of long range rifles, lay down the hurt and don't look back. with all of your guns, stay less aggressive than you would with full auto guns. with it's quick cool down, you can choose to "waste" a few strikes on side objectives or even players. if you aim down the recticle for the airstrike, it calls all you have in automaticly with no cooldown, at the cost of having to go through the 18 seconds. He is one of the more capable fire supports, but doesn't have the full compliment to quite become an aggressor. With the Dreiss, you can sit back further and use the better damage per bullet to land consistent headshots, or play foward and support with bodyshots. with the stark, try and play more passively, and work the light recoil and tube scope to leverage headshots for easy counter sniping strategies. with the BR-16, play a mid range and leverage the best non shotgun body dps in game with decent hipfire performance to get you shots to count. Explodydendron is always nice, and extra supplies are even better for leveraging your Arty against enemies. Focus is great for the stark, and an all round good perk would be drilled, with the sub optimal reload of the BRs in combat.

Counters: He takes longer to set his marker when he is being shot, so take every opportunity you can to delay his strike. there is a bright red indicator that comes up to chest height to declare the middle of his attack, so stay way from it. he is not the best at close range combat, so close your distance, just be careful to not provoke him to shell himself. Stay indoors, as there are no ways that he can shell you there.

note: He's better than skyhammer to understand the role of a fire support, so if you are having a tough time, and dont feel like fire supports suit you, pick him up.

Health: 120
Don't let your gun go hungry, feed it, feeeeeed iiiiit with an introduction so welcoming, it's a wonder why so many love the challenged scotsman. with decent health and a powerfull ability, he is the players introduction to the power that is the fire support class. with a good selection of 2 fully automatic ARs and a Burst rifle that can pull it's weight in the dps department, it's a shame they had to hole him back with the longest cooldown ability in the game. although claimed to have indoor utility, the people who would lose to you with the 90 less health from the marker would be running away. However, once the thunder comes raining down, the royal pain in the arse does indeed lay down the hurt, and is the king of oneshotting EVs. With sky hammer, those who would use him will most likely not find a difference between the Timik and M4 as a aggressive/ midrange role, but the BR- 16 allows for either a midranger or tempo role with the ability to tap away at a targets health and a decently good recoil pattern to keep you on target. Extra ammo is great for those who party and leave all the cartridges in spawn at the beggining of the round, while extra supplies can help shave that Minute and 10 second cooldown to 56 seconds. Explodydendron is great for side EV healing engineers and ohterwise causing collateral damage.

Counters: Play under a roof if you know he is around, otherwise, count the time on his cooldown. if you have an EV almost repaird, wait about 5 seconds to see if he wastes it. Skyhammer is almost always played by lower level players, but is picked back up in favour of EV wiping and fully auto weapons. be careful when facing one of these mystical gealic animals.

Health: 120
The humble officer has a great place in many players squads as the only viable fire support for the map underground. with so many ways that his molotov can be applied, it's a wonder he wasn't swiss. with the same compliment of Full autos that Skyhammer has, and the switch from BR to stark, he extenuates each gun into it's niche. the Timik becomes the close range full auto power house that it's meant to be, with either flush ability from his flame or area denial, you can bring the hurt while enemies lie crying as they can't help their comrades. The M4 becomes an all purpose with it's easily used recoil and good output, with the grenade being used in it's full capacity as eith AoD, full damage, objective takedown, or even suppressive use for making enemies back of as it rains from the roof above them. the stark applies itself wonderfully in stokers caring hands, as his ammo station accompanied with the medium long range powerhouse make him a house that all your teamates stop by for milk and cookies. Extra supplies is a godesnd with the 32 second cooldown for the molotov, and good application of drilled in combat scenarios is always welcome.

Counters: With the great british barbeque tryiong to claim you, jump to the edge of the fire, and prance around the walls nexto to it, as the ticks of damage won't apply unless you are in it fully. If he tries to get too aggressive, you can always wait for him to mis his main ability cooldown, then go in with your own.

Health: 90
With one of the weaker abilities and more applicable weapons, you will see higher level kieras leveraging the pillar of lazer as a distraction as they run in banzai syle with the weeabo stick(made in USA) and turn in at the end of the game top of leaderboard with 6 or 7 aces. you are not that person. use her weapons at the appropriate ranges, until the enemy is truly distracted, then flank. Make sure to use her ammo station in a good place before getting into a good position to snipe or provide covering fire. don't be afraid to go for headshots, as all three weapons share arty's characteristics, but can applythemselves in a hit and run role thanks to her amazing speed. the BR-16 is most likely the best suited for the CQC because of the great DPS. Cards with Extra supplies that contain the 10 second cooldown reduction are a godsend, and explodydendron can help catch those high mobility mercs. double time isn't a bad choice for the on the go 20th century girl.

Counters: Roofs, other than that, close the distance, and don't let her get away with her life, as she can long range annoy or close range harrass you. don't be afraid to engage her in honourable melee fighting, as if you skip around enough, a teamate will kill her.

Always on the front line, with an ability to dish out pain and a side of salt as well as provide the much needed health that your team needs, the medic is not a role that new players should jump into lightly. with great staying power and an unbelievable amount of versatility, medics can make or break your game the easiest of all the classes. A few good things to note, is that when reviving at full charge across the defibrilators or the Revifle, your teamate gets a 2 second invulnerability period, or until they do damage.
From most health down:

Health: 110
With a great single target heal that also acts as a stationary object, sawbonez has great utility in health giving and being able to walk away from the fight and still be useful. an all round good medic with decent choices in personal defense, he is a good pick if you don't know what side of the objective you are on. An extra 10 health above the nearest merc allows just that slight edge in survivability, and keeping good speed helps with staying alive. With the SMG 9, you can afford to be close to the front lines and move in with your team, just be prepared to fall back if you can't get it on the first or second push. with the blishlock, you can use the stupedous accuracy to help boost your long range damage and single out targets while your team comes to you for healing. Application of the crotzni is an aggresive medic who deals as much as he gives, and the capability to out damage rifles if you stay mobile and use your medpacks wisely. CR-73 is by far my favourite loadout, with get up and potent packs, as well as mechanic for when the engineer taps out. A good thing to keep in mind with sawbonez is that full application is rarely achievable, so don't overextend, also keep in mind that enemies can steal health, so keep your packs behind friendly lines, and out of flankers lines of sights.

Counters: With an above 100 health pool, sawbonez can be a pain to deal with, so wait until you see him with 2-3 health packs out before taking him on. Explosives can do the trick with his slower than average move speed, but keep in mind his ability to get to full even from 1%. Aim for any medic first, as an assault will consistently be refueled by their pocket. you can stay at range and plink him away with a rifle, or shotguns will work just fine in CQB, just stay out of his mid range sweet spot.

Health: 100
An independent man who don't need no ethics, phoenix has great self healing capability as well as AoE for his team. A great medic for full team pushes, he can reach for the lowest common health among teamates with a flexible healing option, and standard defibs for application of shockingly good times. His self revive is a decent application for suprise objective runs, but is rarely useful as the suprise factor has mostly worn off, and he doesn't get the spawn protection. a better front liner than most medics, with good application of backline healing, he plays the reverse of sawbones, while still being decent at the same ranges. With the Hochfir, you can focus on your healing while allowing your magazine to spray in the general direction of the enemy. The Kek-10 is great for application of midrange damage while staying behind friendlies, and the Crotzni rounds it out with good frontline damage. healing reach is a great application for group phoenixes, with potent packs and extra supplies being good for phoenixes on the run.

Counters: With health right on the buck mark, Tanking isn't a thing he is good at. A good serving of bullet rations will take care of a frontliner while a good rifle shot will take him down at range. REMEBER TO FINISH HIM OFF WHEN HE IS DOWNED, as he can self revive.

Remember to thank the spanish inquisition! he does great art, and medics even better!
Health: 80
As a starting merc, aura is seemingly an odd choice to go with due to A high skill cap with not a lot of room for error on the lower end of it, and an application of speed that necessitates movement. That perhaps is why they chose londons tied fastest woman to begin the new player experience in the one at a time mentality of Shoot, Scoot, Heal repeat. With Great AoE heal that remains stationary, her backline capabilities are great, while lines close in, as long as that health station is in a hard to hit place, it can serve even into the close range fights. With great manuverability, she can serve as a flanker as well, while leaving her healing stations to allow allies to heal themselves. Her shotguns allow her to protect herself At the close ranges he lands herself in, while the blishlock has midline potential for backing up her station. Healing reach is a great solution for contested areas or hiding her station a bit further in the corner, while flying pig or springy can help with an on the go playstyle.

Counters: with a stationary healing source, you can indeed spam explosives at it, and apply further until she is dead. try and keep your distance in field fights, but otherwise stick to bodyshots, as a small hitbox complied with a fast move speed make her a nightmare to hit.

Health: 80
With a not so contriversial paradox in sight, the high speed russian has great potential in those who can leverage her speed with capabilities of aim to revifle their teams way to victory. As the only medic capable of reviving at more than an arms reach, she can play an important role on open maps like Trainyard, Overground, or even Chapel. With an underwhelming heal option, teamates shouldn't look to you for heals, but rather natural regen or other medics. Her small hitbox and high speed can also be leveraged to get around the flank for 2-3 revives and or headshots from the revifle as she scurries along as the enemies look to see where the tracers came from. Her selection of Primaries is drawm from the ranks of Machine pistols, and should really only be taen out in self defence, but an exception goes to the Empire-9 with it's above average Firerate, reload speed, and accuracy ratings. the 383 is still the domineering loadout for medic sparks, While the 342 can help flankers get health back faster.

Counters: when engaging in CQB, go for bodyshots as headshots will drive you crazy with inconsistant results. When in close quarters against her teamates and also under overwatch from her, try and go for quick jabs with the knife for finishes, and never stop moving from underneath her watching eyes. She has great self heal and best speed, so unless you can get behind her in an enclosed space, don't bother trying to chase her.

While others moan about the overpoweredness of the PDP, or hate the slow paced snipers picking off their proxy mid objective, or even the old phantom nerf haters, recon has always been a touchy subject to many players, even myself. today, I will stand tall and give them their due dilligince, and even recomend them for certain points. keep in mind, I am not giving you an out button saying "The steam guide said I should play this!", I am giving you an oppurtunity to fix what is wrong with your setup, and why it isn't always good to have one of these in your squad. If, and Only if your team has a competent pair of medics that is supporting the other 4-6 which consist of at least 2 midliners, and an aggressor, then, and only then, do you pick a sniper for your team for benefit. Phantom is the obvious outlier, but we will get to him in a moment.
From highest health down:

Health: 120
While sitting at a very comfortable health and having good choices for primary weapons, red eye stands out as a good character to have on the front lines. With your placement of smoke, you can make or break your game. when using smokes, try an lob them to midway between you and your enemy, allowing a maximum arc to be swung for you to engage, while hiding any trace return and keeping you hidden. If their is a choke point, stay on your side of it, while starfing to avoid return fire. With the dreiss you can afford to stay in close range and plink away with body shots and a decent rate of fire, while the Graduer forces you to pace yourself at an awkward distance between rifles and snipers while giving headshots key. The PDP is his long range option, giving him follow up potential shots, also infuriating opponents.

Counters: you can blow out hte smoke with 2 or more explosives, while applying a liberal amount of bullets to find his healthbar amidst the cloud.

Alright, other than an annoying 10 year olds personality, what does phantom offer? quite a bit, actually! with an EMP effect added to his cloak, and permanent spotting of enemies, phantom actually became a utility for a team needing information and enemy reinforcements downed to ruin. while most looked to him for his application of the katana, i looked to him for the ability to tank more than his fair share, while hiding in plain sight. If you can remain at the front lines or in them at all times phantom can be an asset to his team and score.The Kek-10 is good for aggresive work, while the alpha of the blishlock being great for flanking, the crotzni allows itself to be used inside groups of enemies for maximum effective chaos. Undercover as part of the 2nd generation cards was a grand gesture, and players should abuse not only it's stealth potential, but also it's additional armour too. Phantom is the only merc I can heartily reccomend bomb squad on for the excellent findings of goodies hiding at the edges of your FoV.

Counters: With the buzzing in your ear, you should know that a phantom is near. also, if he is cloaked, and running by you, don't shoot until the shimmer comes toward you, as you probably don't have the DPS to go through both his sheild and health. He sucks at midrange, even with the blishlock, so don't be afraid to take him on uncloaked and ready to dance.

Health: 110
Yes, the only merc with 1 ranking, due to his lack of options in mobility, utility and support, vassili, as far as I am concerned, can take his sniper to the back of the map and try to take shots by himself. I almost feel like the developers left him in as a joke or a punishment towards higher speed people. Yes, you can support with his heartbeat detector, but it does have limited utility, only able to spot in a pretty small radius, while also having a very large red glow for enemies to shoot at. If you do not have good aim to leverage his capabilities, do not pick him. His snipers appear to be limited in choice, and you should just pick based on performance of follow up shots, obne shots, or team clearing. his secondaries can be applied quite capably for CQC defence. If you care at all for this game, pick him with spotter, as this increases your utility as a long range support.

Counters: Any long range explosive like arties arty can clear him out of a nest in a hurry. a good counter sniper with a stark can clear him out quicker, and ignoring a bad one all toghether can make your day.

Health: 90
Ms. Chic has access to the only damage buff in the game, making her a great choice for those who want to support their team at the front lines while also leverage their aim to land critical shots against enemy MVPs. With the Fel-ix and PDP-70 as pure snipers, and the granduer taking that same finesse headshot role, don't be afraid to get just a bit closer to front lines to really support your friends. with 125% DPS for all of your aggressors, you can shake up combat and allow your team to win firefights where they would've lost before. Spotter is a great choice for allowing your little birdie to peek just a bit further, and springy can help you get in those hard to reach places.

Counters: Her snitch can easily be shot down mid flight due to possible lock on/ lag detection services, allowing for easy pickings against her main ability. if you do get hit, back off and cycle through with what's right behind you, then get back in the fight. another great way to counter her is anything that would apply to vassili, just keep in mind she has a escape mechanism in the form of her speed.

there is always room for improvement, and stay tuned for more mercs, pictures and Map layout and Pacing's strange relationship. If you have any questions based on this or any helpful improvements on the guide, don't be afraid to message me.