Updated for Patch 3.29.1 (Curse of the Allflame), verified 7 August 2026. GGG shipped 3.29 on 24 July 2026 and reworked the Mercenary system again in 3.29.1 (31 July). Every mechanic below is checked against the official patch notes on pathofexile.com and the Mercenaries of Trarthus guide on maxroll.gg. Warrant and unique prices float weekly, so this guide gives you the systems and ratios — verify live rates on poe.ninja before you buy or sell.
Quick answer: how do Mercenaries work in PoE 3.29?
From Act 3 onward you run into veteran Mercenaries of Trarthus inside your areas. Beat one in a duel and you pick a reward: hire them temporarily for gold, take a piece of their gear, or claim a Warrant that lets you (or a buyer) summon that exact Mercenary again later. A hired Mercenary fights alongside you as a companion for a few areas, using its own skills and auras. The catch: normal Mercenaries are temporary rentals — the only way to keep one permanently, gear it, and stack a whole team is to play the new Luminary Scion ascendancy and allocate Noble Blood, which gives you three permanent Mercenary slots (one active, two reserved in your Hideout).
If you'd rather fund a strong Mercenary team fast, you can buy Path of Exile currency directly and gear it out instead of grinding the Warrant market for days.
This guide covers the full loop: how to hire, what Warrants actually do, how permanent hiring works on Luminary, and how the 3.29.1 patch changed the meta.
What are Mercenaries of Trarthus?
Mercenaries of Trarthus are elite NPC fighters that spawn in your areas starting from Act 3 and continuing into the endgame. Each one has its own name and a type, and the type is everything: it locks in which weapons and skills the Mercenary uses. An "Eruptor," for example, wields two-handed axes and fire skills like Volcanic Fissure and Infernal Cry. You can't rewrite a Mercenary's skills, so hunting for a good type-and-skill combination is the core of the chase.
A few facts that shape every decision you make with them:
- Attributes gate their gear. A strength Mercenary can only use items requiring strength (or STR/DEX and STR/INT hybrids); a dexterity/intelligence Mercenary can use DEX, INT and DEX/INT items. Plan a build around what your Mercenary can actually equip.
- They spawn with better-than-average gear, and occasionally with Unique items — some of which only ever drop from defeating that Mercenary.
- Their skills can roll special Support Gems players can't get. Gilded Fortification Support, for instance, makes their Vigilant Strike hits Fortify the Mercenary and nearby allies, including you.
- Their auras affect you too. A Mercenary running Determination is buffing your character's armour, not just its own.
- Infamous Mercenaries belong to one of the four major Trarthus families and can carry special "Infamous" modifiers — these are the rare, high-value versions worth chasing.
How do you hire a Mercenary?
When you find a Mercenary of Trarthus, you challenge them to a duel. Win, and you choose the outcome — and importantly, some of these can be combined. There are three results:
- Hire them. This costs gold and is not refunded if you lose the duel. The hired Mercenary joins you as a companion, but only within the map you found them in (a few areas during the campaign). You can have one temporary Mercenary accompanying you at a time.
- Take an item. Grab a single piece from their equipment or inventory (the whole inventory counts as one "item" for this). Gems and supports aren't up for grabs, but you'll occasionally find special Trarthus skill gems.
- Take a Warrant (Rematch). The Mercenary drops a Warrant you can use later to summon that exact Mercenary again. This is the option that turns Mercenaries into a tradeable economy — more on it next.
Because a hired Mercenary costs gold and only sticks around for a few areas, most players treat campaign Mercenaries as disposable muscle — useful buffs and extra damage while leveling, nothing you build around. The system only becomes a build in the endgame, once you can keep them.
What are Warrants, and how does trading Mercenaries work?
A Warrant is a promise to duel one specific Mercenary again on a later map. Use it alongside a map and that same Mercenary — same type, same skills — appears in the area, but with a freshly rolled set of items. The two rules that make Warrants a market:
- One Warrant per Mercenary, ever. You can't farm the same Mercenary endlessly; each one grants a single Warrant, so a great loadout is a finite asset.
- Warrants are tradeable. They're bundled as items you can inspect (skills, support gems, starting gear) before buying, so if you know exactly the loadout you want for a permanent slot, you can buy it off another player instead of grinding duel RNG for days.
That tradeability is why "which Warrant should I buy" is one of the hottest questions in the league right now. Players hunting a specific Infamous loadout for their third permanent slot routinely skip the RNG and buy the Warrant outright. You inspect the Mercenary's skills and gear on the trade listing first, so you know precisely what you're paying for — no gamble.
Player tip (r/pathofexile): you don't have to over-invest in Mercenary Scarabs to complete the Mercenary-hunting challenges — most players report the specific Warrants they want are priced in a similar, affordable range on the trade site, so buying the exact one you need is often cheaper than juicing spawns and hoping.
How do you keep a Mercenary permanently?
Here's the part everyone gets wrong at league start: normal Mercenaries cannot be kept. They're temporary. The only way to permanently hire a Mercenary, change its gear, and run a team is to play the Luminary — the new third Scion ascendancy added in 3.29, sitting alongside Ascendant and Reliquarian.
The Luminary's identity is Mercenaries, and its opening node Noble Blood is what unlocks everything:
- Permanent hiring + gear control. With Noble Blood allocated, hired Mercenaries become permanent and you can freely swap their equipment (normally locked once hired).
- Three permanent slots. As maxroll's Mercenaries of Trarthus guide puts it: "Up to 3 Mercenaries can be hired permanently with 1 being active and 2 reserved in your Hideout. You can have a permanent and a temporary Mercenary hired at the same time."
- The rest of the Luminary tree deepens it: Legendary Arms lets you equip Mercenaries with Unique weapons, shields and quivers (small connecting nodes add amulet/ring/belt/glove/helmet/boot slots); Oath of Fealty and Golden Glory open Link Skills tied to your Mercenary; Loyal Bodyguard and Bestowed Knighthood make the Mercenary tank for you and boost its auras.
The framing that clicks: on Luminary, your build is another player. You can run a support character where the Mercenary deals most of the damage, or a strong character with a Mercenary bodyguard soaking hits. One rule dominates gearing — prioritise the Mercenary's defence first. A dead Mercenary costs gold to resurrect, so an alive Mercenary is always better than a glass-cannon one.
The 3-slot cap is the league's most-debated limitation — plenty of players want more room to collect loadouts, but three permanent hires plus one temporary is what the ascendancy gives you today. Budget your Warrant spending around filling exactly those slots.
Which 3.29.1 changes buffed Mercenaries?
The 31 July 3.29.1 patch leaned hard into the Mercenary fantasy, smoothing the early-game penalty and making the good Mercenaries show up more often. The changes that matter:
| Change | What it does |
|---|---|
| Permanent-Mercenary damage penalty now scales gradually | The penalty is negligible before level 45, so leveling a Luminary no longer feels crippled early |
| Infamous Mercenaries spawn 50–100% more often | Rate scales with map tier — higher maps see far more of the valuable Infamous versions |
| Revived Mercenaries can rejoin areas | A Mercenary that dies mid-map can come back rather than being gone for the run |
| Permanent hires scale off Golden Lanterns | Golden Lanterns collected in Charts and Voyages grant your permanent Mercenaries quantity and rarity buffs |
| New Atlas notable: Contract Killers | Baked the Mercenary lane into Atlas juicing (quoted below) |
The new Atlas passive spells out how committed GGG is to the Mercenary lane:
"Allied Mercenaries in your Maps deal 100% more Damage against Mercenaries and Rogue Exiles." — Path of Exile 3.29.1 Patch Notes, "Contract Killers" Atlas notable, 31 July 2026
The takeaway: a Luminary that runs the league's own Charts and Voyages loop is double-dipping — the Golden Lanterns you scoop up down on the seafloor directly power up your permanent Mercenaries, so the farming character and the Mercenary team feed each other.
How do you farm currency with Mercenaries?
Mercenaries aren't just a combat gimmick; they're a currency engine, which is exactly why they map onto timesaver.gg's currency and boosting services. Three angles pay out this league:
- Sell Warrants. Every good Infamous Mercenary you defeat can be itemised into a tradeable Warrant. Roll a desirable skill-and-gear combo, list it, and let another exile pay for your RNG.
- Flip Mercenary Uniques. Some Uniques only drop from defeating specific Mercenaries — a genuine chase-item farm that other players will buy.
- Juice the Atlas. With Contract Killers and Trarthan Scarabs you can build a Mercenary-focused map strategy that converts kills into currency and Golden Lanterns, which in turn buff a Voyage-farming Luminary.
Everything you farm eventually gets priced in orbs, because Path of Exile has no gold for trade — the whole economy is orb-based barter. You convert Warrants, Uniques and bulk drops up into Chaos and Divine Orbs on the trade site. Prices inflate through a league as currency floods the market, so never anchor to an old number — check the live rate on poe.ninja before every big trade. And if you'd rather gear your Mercenary team or push pinnacle bosses without the grind, timesaver.gg delivers Path of Exile Divine and Chaos Orbs at the current best rate, plus leveling and boss-carry services to skip straight to the fun.
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FAQ
How many Mercenary slots do you get in PoE 3.29? Three permanent slots — one active companion plus two reserved in your Hideout — and only on the Luminary Scion ascendancy after you allocate Noble Blood. You can also have one temporary (non-Luminary) Mercenary hired at the same time. The three-slot cap is fixed and is the most-debated Mercenary limitation this league.
Can you keep a Mercenary permanently? Only as a Luminary. Normal Mercenaries are temporary rentals that leave after a few areas. Allocating the Luminary ascendancy's Noble Blood node is the single requirement to make hired Mercenaries permanent and to change their gear — no other class or ascendancy can do it.
What is a Mercenary Warrant? A Warrant is a one-time item, dropped when you pick the Rematch reward from a defeated Mercenary, that summons that exact Mercenary (same type and skills, rerolled items) on a later map. Each Mercenary grants only one Warrant, and Warrants are tradeable — you can inspect a Mercenary's skills and gear, then buy the loadout you want instead of grinding duels.
How do you hire a Mercenary in Path of Exile? Find a Mercenary of Trarthus in an area from Act 3 onward, challenge them to a duel, and win. Then choose to hire them (costs gold, joins you for a few areas), take one of their items, or take a Warrant for a rematch. Hiring and one of the other rewards can be combined.
Are Mercenaries worth it for currency farming? Yes, especially on Luminary. You can itemise good Infamous Mercenaries into Warrants and sell them, flip Mercenary-only Uniques, and run a Contract Killers Atlas strategy. Golden Lanterns from Charts and Voyages also buff your permanent hires, so a Mercenary team pairs naturally with league-mechanic farming.
Do Mercenaries make maps harder like a party member? No. Regular Mercenaries do not count as party members, so they don't add monster life, item quantity or item rarity the way a co-op player would — they're pure upside: extra damage, tankiness and shared auras with no scaling penalty on the map.
