In this PoE Mercenaries of Trarthus Guide, you’ll learn everything about the new league mechanic — Mercenaries. These fully-geared companions can be hired, customized, and built into tanks, DPS boosters, or Magic Find supports using player-grade gear. Whether you’re farming loot or pushing Uber bosses, this guide covers how to recruit, gear, and optimize your Mercenaries in PoE 3.26, helping you survive the toughest content and maximize rewards in the Secrets of the Atlas expansion.
4.9PoE New Mercenaries
Mercenaries are the headline feature of the Trarthus League, and they’re not just another minion. These fully-geared companions fight by your side, use active skills, and even drop loot, all while bringing new support mechanics and defensive tools to your build.
Unlike Animate Guardians, mercenaries don’t lose their gear when they die. If they fall in combat, they simply retreat and return in the next zone, fully equipped and ready to go. No more losing that expensive chestpiece just because you blinked during an Uber boss fight.
What really sets mercenaries apart is the gear system: they can equip weapons, armor, jewelry, and shields, just like players. You can build them to support your magic find, scale auras, curse enemies, or just tank the entire screen. In the right hands, they’re a second character that you fully control through gear.
📌 Note: They’re not minions! Mercenaries don’t benefit from minion nodes or support gems. That means you’ll need to rely on gear-based scaling, block chance, regen, and other direct stats to keep them alive.
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PoE Encountering Mercenaries
Every zone in PoE 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas can contain a Trarthan Mercenary NPC. These encounters trigger a special interaction window where you can:
- Inspect the Mercenary’s gear, skill gems, and pockets
- Choose one of three actions: Hire, Take Item, or Exile
To get your reward, you’ll first need to defeat the Mercenary in a duel. If you lose, they disappear, and the opportunity is gone. This makes every choice matter, whether you want to recruit them, loot an item, or shape future encounters.
📌 Note: You only get one chance per Mercenary — win or lose, there’s no second attempt.
PoE Hire Mercenary
Choosing Hire lets you permanently recruit the Mercenary as your follower in Path of Exile. They’ll join you in every area, supporting your gameplay throughout Secrets of the Atlas. Hiring costs Gold and requires winning the duel. You should hire a Mercenary if:
- They have a unique support item like Kingmaker or Garb of the Ephemeral
- You’re looking to build a tank, aura bot, or MF setup
- Their skills and gear complement your build
📌 Note: You can only have three Mercenaries at a time. Hiring a new one replaces the weakest in your squad.
PoE Mercenary Items
The Take Item option lets you challenge a Mercenary for one of their equipped pieces — including weapons, armor, jewelry, or even Trarthan Gems. Win the duel, and the selected item drops. This is one of the best methods in Path of Exile 3.26 Patch to target-farm powerful gear early on, especially items with exclusive modifiers from Secrets of the Atlas. Reasons to choose Take Item:
- They’re holding rare loot (e.g., Gilded Supports, Dying Breath, Kaom’s Binding)
- You don’t want the Merc, just the gear
- You’re in SSF or want crafting bases early in the league
📌 Note: Some Mercenaries carry Infamous gear with modifiers unavailable anywhere else in PoE.
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PoE Exile Mercenary
Exiling a Mercenary prevents others of the same attribute type from spawning for the next 10 zones. This option is perfect if you’re hunting specific archetypes or trying to force certain builds. In Path of Exile 3.26, only two attribute types can be exiled at a time. You can use this strategically to:
- Avoid underwhelming Mercenary types
- Narrow the spawn options to force better gear drops
- Increase odds of seeing desirable Merc builds (DPS, MF, or tanky ones)
PoE Mercenary Party Fights
When playing PoE 3.26 with a group, party members can choose to join or skip Mercenary encounters. The more players join, the harder the fight becomes — but the rewards scale too. Each teammate who participates in defeating the Mercenary has a 50% chance to get an extra item drop, usually from the Merc’s pockets.
PoE Mercenary Archetypes
Mercenaries in 3.26 belong to different archetypes, each with a specific stat focus and skill set:
- Strength-based Mercs – High HP, melee skills, tanky playstyle
- Dexterity-based Mercs – Fast, evasive, sometimes use ranged or poison
- Intelligence-based Mercs – Focus on curses, auras, and elemental skills
You can exile up to two types to control which ones spawn in future zones.
PoE How to Use Mercenaries
Once you’ve recruited a Mercenary, they’re ready to support your build in almost every part of the game — from basic maps to the deadliest encounters in Secrets of the Atlas. But to get real value from them, it’s important to understand how they function in combat, what affects their survivability, and how to scale their impact.
Confused about how Mercenaries work in PoE? We’ll show you how to build, gear, and use them effectively in Secrets of the Atlas. Our PoE Сoacher will help you understand Mercenary mechanics, choose the best roles (Tank, DPS, MF), and avoid costly mistakes.
PoE Mercenary Death Mechanic
One of the biggest quality-of-life improvements in PoE 3.26 is that Mercenaries do not lose their gear when they die. This makes them a much safer investment than Animate Guardians or traditional minions.
- If a Mercenary dies, they’re removed for the rest of the current zone, but will revive automatically in the next one.
- You don’t need to re-summon them or re-equip their gear.
- Their performance and survivability depend entirely on their equipment, not on your passive tree.
Minion passives, auras, or minion life nodes do not affect Mercenaries. You must scale them like a second player with gear, block, recovery, and resistance stacking. In high-end Path of Exile 3.26 content, especially Tier 17 maps or Uber bosses, many Mercenaries will die without proper defensive setups. Survivability becomes the number one priority if you want them to last.
PoE Mercenary Party Scaling
When you’re playing in a party in Secrets of the Atlas, Mercenaries work on a per-player basis, which means:
- Each player can bring their own Mercenary into a map.
- Mercenaries don’t stack — only your own Merc affects your gameplay.
- In group Merc duels, the difficulty and loot scale are based on participation. Everyone who joins has a chance to receive loot, including exclusive Mercenary items.
Tip: In group play, coordinate Mercenary loadouts. One player can run a tanky Merc with auras, another with MF gear or curses.
PoE Mercenary Building
In Path of Exile 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas, Mercenaries offer incredible support — but only if they live long enough to help. Unlike minions, they don’t benefit from tree passives, minion life, or damage nodes. You can gear them. Mercs scale entirely through gear, meaning poor choices in equipment will get them deleted in Tier 17 content or by Uber bosses.
📌 Note: Mercenaries function more like Animate Guardians with no passive support. That means their survivability is only as good as the armor, block chance, and recovery you give them.
The golden rule in PoE 3.26 a dead Mercenary is a useless Mercenary. They won’t lose gear when they die, but they do disappear until the next zone — and that can ruin your boss attempt or map run
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PoE Mercenary Gear Builds
The Mercenaries of Trarthus system are incredibly flexible. Depending on the gear you give them, they can play wildly different roles. This is especially powerful in Path of Exile 3.26, where party synergy and loot optimization are key. Common Mercenary roles include:
- Tank — Designed to absorb aggro or survive tough content like Uber bosses;
- DPS Support — Built around Kingmaker, Crown of the Tyrant, or Legacy of Fury;
- Magic Find Merc — Carries rarity/quantity gear and uses Gravebind to convert kills into player drops;
- Budget Hybrid — Cheap setup that mixes tankiness and utility with SSF-viable gear.
In Secrets of the Atlas, Mercenaries are also a way to carry league mechanics with you, providing buffs, resistances, and even on-kill effects without needing gem slots or tree investment.
PoE Tank Merc
For players pushing Tier 17 maps, facing Uber bosses, or just diving deep into dangerous content in Path of Exile Secrets of the Atlas, survivability becomes priority number one. That’s where the Tank Mercenary comes in.
Built to endure, this setup focuses on block chance, life regeneration, damage mitigation, and ailment immunity. With the right combination of gear, your Mercenary can soak up hits, recover life instantly, and survive even the nastiest map mods. It’s the perfect fit for builds that rely on a constant support presence without having to babysit them.
| Slot | Best Item | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Sign of the Sin Eater | Redirects ailments to you, makes Merc immune to shock, chill, etc. |
| Shield | Rare Shaper Shield | Life Gain on Block + high block chance = infinite sustain |
| Alt Shield | Killa Lava Blaster | Up to 90% elemental res cap, ailment avoid, solid base stats |
| Helmet | Wul’s Vision | +10% max life + regen if no corrupted gear |
| Chest | Doppelganger’s Guise | -40% phys/chaos damage taken, life regen on hit |
| Alt Chest | Gruthkul’s Pelt | Tons of regen, life, and tank stats (if spell use isn’t needed) |
| Gloves | Asenath’s Gentle Touch | AoE blind + corpse explosions, soft crowd control |
| Boots | Ralakesh’s Impatience | Grants max endurance charges → big armor and resist boost |
| Amulet | Shaper’s Seed | Grants 4% life regen and sec to allies (including your Merc) |
| Ring 1 | Call of the Void | Applies chill, slows enemies and causes shatter on death |
| Ring 2 | Rare Vermillion Ring | Life + resists, optionally Aspect of the Spider or curse-on-hit |
| Belt | Pyre | Converts phys to fire, improving synergy with defensive gear |
PoE DPS Support Merc
In Path of Exile 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas, Mercenaries aren’t just tanks or loot mules — they can massively boost your damage. A well-geared DPS Support Merc can apply debuffs, reduce enemy resistances, grant bonus damage, and enable powerful kill-based effects.
This setup focuses on aura amplification, resistance shredding, and offensive utility. Whether you’re running a crit-based Deadeye or a lightning-shot Ballista build, this Merc will make everything around you hit harder, while staying alive just enough to do it again next map.
| Slot | Best Item | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Kingmaker | +30% item rarity, Fortify, Culling Strike, +50% crit multi |
| Alt Weapon | Dark Seer | Applies Malediction, blinds enemies, boosts curses and AoE |
| Helmet | Crown of the Tyrant | -Resist aura + flat damage by socket color |
| Chest | Doppelganger’s Guise | Keeps your Merc alive while staying close to you |
| Alt Chest | Gruthkul’s Pelt | High regen, good for budget-friendly DPS Mercs |
| Gloves | Rare Gloves Implicits | Exposure on hit, attack speed, or curse-on-hit |
| Boots | Legacy of Fury | Scorches nearby enemies = -20% fire res + explosions |
| Amulet | Perquil’s Toe | Hits are lucky for nearby allies (great for crit/lightning builds) |
| Ring 1 | Call of the Void | Adds chill + shatter, reduces incoming damage indirectly |
| Ring 2 | Rare Aspect of Spider | Slows enemies + reduces evasion rating |
| Belt | Kaom’s Binding or Rare Intimidate Belt | Grants Intimidate or reduces enemy resistance |
PoE Magic Find Merc
If you’re all about farming loot in Path of Exile Secrets of the Atlas, then building a Magic Find (MF) Mercenary is the ultimate power move. These Mercs are designed to boost your item rarity, help you trigger MF mechanics, and even convert kills into your drops, without you needing to wear low-power gear.
The trick is simple: use Gravebind to transfer kill credit, stack item rarity on your Merc, and keep them alive just long enough to clean up mobs. Whether you’re farming white maps for div cards or juicing content with Scarabs, your MF Merc can turn every run into a loot explosion.
| Slot | Best Item | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Kingmaker or Obliteration | Kingmaker grants MF aura, Obliteration adds on-kill explosions |
| Shield | Rare w/ Resists or Life Gain on Block | Keeps Merc alive to sustain the Gravebind effect |
| Helmet | Leer Cast or MF Rare | Leer gives +50% dmg, Rares can roll IIR suffixes |
| Chest | Doppelganger’s Guise or Rare Evasion Chest | Keeps Merc alive, Gravebind needs some tankiness |
| Gloves | Gravebind | Transfers enemy kill credit to you → activates Magic Find |
| Boots | Ralakesh’s Impatience | Endurance charge uptime + bonus survivability |
| Amulet | Perquil’s Toe | Lucky hits = stronger drops, great synergy with MF |
| Ring 1 | Gold Ring w/ IIR Roll | Adds rarity, use Essence or fossils to craft |
| Ring 2 | Kikazaru or MF Rare | Kikazaru for curse resist, rares for life + IIR |
| Belt | Pyre or MF Rare Belt | Phys → fire conversion, adds MF support and scaling |
PoE Budget Hybrid
Not everyone starts a league with exalts to burn — and thankfully, the PoE 3.26 Mercenaries of Trarthus system allows for strong, affordable setups. The Budget Hybrid Merc is designed to deliver value without relying on expensive Uniques. It blends decent survivability with moderate utility, making it perfect for early mapping, SSF players, and anyone testing out the new mechanics.
This build leans on cheap uniques, self-found rares, and efficient scaling gear to keep your Merc alive and useful. It’s also modular — you can upgrade pieces one by one as your stash grows
| Slot | Best Item | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Sign of the Sin Eater | Redirects ailments, offers utility, usually cheap league-start |
| Shield | Killa Lava Blaster | Solid resists, some block, high uptime on defensive stats |
| Helmet | Wul’s Vision | +10% life + regen (amazing value for its price) |
| Chest | Gruthkul’s Pelt | Massive life and regen, good durability for low cost |
| Gloves | Rare Gloves w/ Regen/Res | Easy to craft, provides baseline tankiness |
| Boots | Ralakesh’s Impatience | Grants endurance charges passively = very strong defensively |
| Amulet | Shaper’s Seed | Grants regen aura to allies, synergizes with other regen gear |
| Ring 1 | Kikazaru | Curse resistance + regen = value packed in a cheap ring |
| Ring 2 | Rare Vermillion Ring | Adds life, resists — SSF/craft-friendly |
| Belt | Pyre or Shock Belt | Cheap phys-to-fire conversion + evasion or life bonuses |
4.9In this PoE Mercenaries of Trarthus Guide, you’ve learned everything about the new league mechanic introduced in Path of Exile Secrets of the Atlas. We covered how to find, recruit, and gear your Mercenaries, explained their unique scaling through equipment, and broke down the best builds for tanking, damage boosting, Magic Find, and budget setups. With this knowledge, you’re now ready to take on high-tier content, push Uber bosses, and make the most of the Mercenaries system throughout the Secrets of the Atlas expansion.
