Skyrim talk:Mercenary

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Different race[edit]

I found a mercenary that was a dark elf. Lucien LachanceDB 04:32, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

I found an imperial mernary ~anonymous — Unsigned comment by 92.23.197.60 (talk) at 11:21 on 13 April 2012
The mercenary I found was a Nord. — Unsigned comment by Byerman (talkcontribs) at 02:17 on 15 May 2012

Death[edit]

I had killed a Mercenary with thunderbolt and the disintegrate perk. The corpse disappeared upon death making it unlootable. However, I reloaded and attempted to reach the corpse before it disappeared which seemed to work, but the corpse had still disappeared upon death. — Unsigned comment by 211.28.228.67 (talk) at 11:27 on 19 January 2012

Merc appears at level 25+ / or after a certain number of random world event encounters[edit]

I've replayed the game a few times and so far, ive noticed that during your travels outside of holds, you're very unlikely to meet this mercenary at low levels AND until you've had at least 10 random occurrences happen (world events such as "challenger" challenging you to a magic duel, or meeting a scavenger, or a random NPC who says she's been attacked by vampires and asks you for a cure disease potion) in your presence, the smart thing to do, if you wish to find out exactly where you're being pointed towards, is to level up quickly without discovering a lot of new locations, so when you do come across this mercenary, chances are you'll know that the new place that the merc marks on your map -- hasn't been found previous to your encounter with the merc, however there is no way to tell what location she marks or whether or not clearing a dungeon or killing enemies on the road is the true objective, due to the fact the location she marks is unknown. Whether or not it shows up as a location you can fast travel too, or is simply markable and therefore has to be walked too, is unknown. It seems to be a blunder on part of Bethesda, I believe at one point I googled possible locations that the mercenary marks on the player characters map, and I read in a thread on the bethsoft forums that one of the administrators actually apologized for this mess up and it's not going to be fixed anytime soon.

A few things are known though.

  • The merc usually appears in orcish or ebony / leveled armor.
  • Your screen will always display the map updated message even though seemingly no new discovered location is accessible.
  • The merc will continue walking to an unmarked location and simply stand there waiting for nothing if you do not interact with them in any way.
  • Killing the merc in the presence of others will yeild a bounty.
  • All 3 types of bribes seem to work regardless of your speech skill, this was likely intended.
  • The merc appears at higher levels, assuming you've done some dungeon delving, it may be hard to actually even find this merc as they may never appear, possibly being killed by local wildlife or bandits while walking around. ( the game randomizes encounters just outside of your field of view and then generates them as the landscape loads while you progress forwards in any direction, meaning there still is a chance you will encounter the lonely merc, however slim it may be. )
  • If you leave the area long enough and come back, the merc will have disappeared from the area and you may encounter a completely different race but with the same options and dialogue

— Unsigned comment by 24.63.171.231 (talk)

The "map updated display" happens all the time whenever anything attempts to update your map, regardless of whether it actually does so. This isn't specific to the merc encounter updating it - go to any in-game map showing the red/blue flags for holds and villages like you'll find near a Jarl. If you click on them it will say "map updated" each time.
I've encountered a merc well before level 25 and without having had many encounters. Several times on different playthroughs. The armor was level appropriate (not orcish or ebony). I've failed persuade checks (as I said, low level), at which point I wasn't given the option to try again or use another method.
"A few things are known" sort of suggests you are saying "here are a few things that are commonly known to be true", which really isn't the case. I think you're reading too much into having come across them at a higher level, and not giving enough weight to it possibly being simple chance. -Vardis 00:37, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
I said it's very unlikely, which implies that the chances are slim, secondly, I stated it's level dependent and at higher levels it's (tada, ebony and orcish), thirdly, you correcting me on something as basic as a map updating is you merely trying to come up with things to correct me on so you can feel smarter about yourself, it's a simple observation to add to the weight of the mystery surrounding this merc, fourth, i'm not here to get a psychological evaluation, keep your opinions of me personally to yourself " "The merc appears at higher levels, assuming you've done some dungeon delving, it may be hard to actually even find this merc as they may never appear, possibly being killed by local wildlife or bandits while walking around. ( the game randomizes encounters just outside of your field of view and then generates them as the landscape loads while you progress forwards in any direction, meaning there still is a chance you will encounter the lonely merc, however slim it may be. ) -- You will see the merc eventually, if you play long enough at a low level and go without leveling, I guess I just couldn't leave basic insight to it's own accord in assuming you know that as you progress your chances of having a new encounter rise as you continue playing. Oh, in case you didn't see , " I've replayed the game a few times and so far, ive noticed that during your travels outside of holds " That implies these are the things i've experienced, If I meant what YOU'RE trying to assert I actually meant -- I'd have said " These are the things that happen " and wouldn't have said " I'VE " ,I'm simply employing these ideas to text to see if anyone else has similar experiences, no need to get your panties in a twist. I don't plan on deleting threads, mucking up discussions with essentially endless ranting and ego battles, which these forums and discussions seem to be utterly full of, or having essentially valueless and inert discussions, I think you actually should re-read my entire post 1 or 2 more times to actually get a feel of what im saying, because I think that YOU Think I said that the merc itself only appears at higher levels, instead of what I'm actually saying, is that at higher levels when it appears it may never be found as it can be killed, lol doofus..24.63.171.231 06:02, 7 February 2012 (UTC) sorry, forgot to sign my post..
What you wrote still looks to me more like you're making assertions based on your experience than offering conjecture, but whatever. The encounter minimum level isn't close to 25, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the number of random encounters a player has had. It's probably just restricted to certain stretches of road. The part about the NPC having leveled gear might be noteworthy, as is what it does if you don't interact with it. The other stuff is either wrong or isn't specific to the mercenary encounter.
Just an FYI, but this isn't even the right talk page. This page is for the mercenaries that appear at Goldenglow estate. -Vardis 10:08, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
Okay, when we're about sharing experiences, here are mine:
  • Leveled heavy armor: check
  • Level requirement: can't say, did not keep track
  • Random encounter requirement: unlikely, unless I trigger a lot of them and miss them afterwards due to looking in the wrong direction. Merc used to be one of the most common encounters I had unlike e.g. a magic challenger which I never met
  • New location: I don't think it ever marks it "visited", so you would always have to find your way there like with any other location.
  • Bribing: always worked for me, whatever I chose (usually I do persuade though, I just bribed or intimidated for the achievement) not saying that it always does though
  • Revisiting: never tried that
What I do not understand is where this should be a "mess" - it is a minor encounter which is supposed to give you a map location, that it does. What would be wrong with this encounter? Or was it meant to be a radiant mini quest actually requiring you to do the job (i.e. clearing out a cave or a cell)? --Ulkomaalainen 12:49, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
The encounter has a min level of 5, and can be triggered on the road in some areas. Heavy armor, as was noted. This still is the wrong page for this discussion. :) -Vardis 01:40, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
Vardis, that's less than helpful. I landed on this page because the NPC I was looking for info about was labelled Mercenary, and nothing else, in the game, and this page is labelled Mercenary, and nothing else. If you know the proper page for this discussion, please be professional enough to post the link here. Evil-i 20:22, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

() This page was set up for the Goldenglow Estate mercenaries, as Vardis pointed out. Unfortunately, no page was created for the mercenaries referred to in this discussion until now. The new page can be found here, so please take any further discussion to the talk page there. ABCface 17:09, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Renamed NPCs[edit]

I've removed this description from the page because this page is set up for the fourteen mercenaries encountered at Goldenglow Estate, not the generic mercenaries randomly encountered in the wilderness.

"Mercenaries are non-hostile NPCs who can be found wandering in the wild. They can be persuaded or bribed to mark a random dungeon location on your map."

However, it is true that there's a random encounter in which you come across an NPC named "Mercenary" in-game, and the description above is accurate for that NPC. I'm wondering how we should deal with this, especially since there are three more "Mercenary" NPCs added by Dawnguard, which I'm in the process of creating a page for. Should we set up a disambiguation page and have separate pages for "Mercenary (Goldenglow)", "Mercenary (Wilderness)", and "Mercenary (Dawnguard)"? Anyone have an opinion on this?

I've actually been wondering how to address the "renamed" NPCs already, due to other Dawnguard NPCs which use this function. Is there a precedent for this somewhere on the wiki? While it's a more general (but still related) topic, I would be interested in advice on how to deal with that in other instances as well (which if it's too unrelated can go to my talk page). ABCface 03:47, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Hey ABCface.Sorry about my description.There was a link to the Mercenary page on the World Interaction page so I assumed it was the Mercenary you can meet in the wild.I think it would be a good idea to create seperate pages for the Mercenaries.--Skyrimplayer 14:47, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
Don't be sorry, your edit was correct, but it just doesn't match the stats listed on this page. That's why I was proposing that we create a separate page and a disambiguation page for these different mercenaries. It would help for many players who come here looking for very different NPCs than what's listed here. I'm just waiting for more input so we can reach consensus before creating that page. ABCface 14:56, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
There is a page for the Dawnguard Mercenarys.The link is at the top of this page.There is not a page for the Wilderness Mercenaries.I believe that if the Dawnguard Mercenaries get a page,the Wilderness Mercenaries should get their own page.--Skyrimplayer 15:02, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
Yeah, I created that page and put that link there. :P I am just waiting for more consensus from others before taking any action. ABCface 15:09, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
Ok.^_^--Skyrimplayer 15:12, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

() This page should probably be turned into a disambiguation page, and the content moved to "Mercenary (Goldenglow)" as you suggested. That way we can document the ignored kind of merc, while cutting down on the current confusion. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 15:21, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I kind of figured that's what we'd end up with, and I've just now figured out where the stats are listed in CSList. I'll go ahead and set up the third Mercenary page, and then get to the disambig. Hopefully I can find the other "renamed" NPCs in the game I've been wondering about too. ABCface 15:54, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
All three pages have now been set up, along with a disambiguation page, and relevant discussions have been moved. ABCface 17:09, 28 July 2012 (UTC)