In addition to the main quest, hunting for gear, trying to track down collectibles, farm materials, ad maintain your ship, there’s a few other things going on in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. These include Mercenaries, which add a Shadow of Mordor style twist to the game and the Conquest mode. So, uh… let’s dig into these, shall we?
MERCENARIES
Mercenaries are procedurally generated named unique characters in the game. These are all over the map, and most of them are not hostile. Generally, they’re doing what you are doing: fighting the War, and carrying out Bounties.
That said, those Bounties can also be placed on you- commit crimes against Civilians, for example, and you raise your “Wanted Level”, which causes Mercenaries to track you from your last known location. The higher your level, the more Mercenaries look for you (up to four at a time). Facing these Mercs in battle is a right pain in the hindside, because they can be very tough to take down. If you try to escape them by taking to your ship, they can follow you there, and be every bit as annoying in naval combat as they are on land.
The easiest thing to do is to simply pay off the Bounty placed on your head by going to the map. You can also try to find and kill the person who placed the Bounty on your head, or just try and avoid them and wait for the Bounty meter to subside, at which point they give up.
But if you can’t, or don’t want to, and/or want to fight the Mercenaries tracking you, below is a list of every possible Weakness and Strength a Mercenary can have. You won’t know which ones apply to your Mercenary until they get close to you, or until you take out another Mercenary that knows the stats of the Mercenary tracking you. Once you know their strengths and weaknesses, you know what to look for.
A Merc can have any of the following strengths and weaknesses in any combination: a strength ad a weakness, two weaknesses, and two strengths:
Weaknesses
- Death from Above – Ranged Attack Damage Increased
- Heart Condition – Assassination Damage Increased
- Soft Flesh – Melee Attack Damage Increased
- Pyrophobia – Fire Damage Increased
- Afflicted – Poison Damage Increased
Strengths
- Brawler – Melee Attack Damage Decreased
- Relentless – Won’t flinch
- Plains Traveler – Has a lion as a companion
- Fireproof – Fire Damage Decreased
- Rage – Enters a heightened state of rage when HP is critically low
- Night Hunter – Is accompanied by a wolf
- Fangs Chewer – Has lynx as a companion
- Awareness – Assassination Damage Decreased
- Shell Skin – Ranged Attack Damage Decreased
- Pyromania – Will use Fire Attacks
- Mithridatism – Poison damage decreased
CONQUEST
Conquest is a new activity in Odyssey that basically lets you participate in the ongoing Peloponnesian War. Since you’re a Mercenary, you don’t have a side in the war between Athens and Sparta- which is what makes things so fun.
- So, first off- different parts of the map are in control of either Athens or Sparta. You can hover the cursor over a region to see who controls it, as well as its Nation Power. Nation Power is basically the “HP” for that region- by whittling it down, you can take over that region.
- You can have Nation Power lowered by killing the soldiers belonging to the faction that controls the area, looting Nation Chests, burning War Supplies, or killing the faction leader for that area. If the region is a fortified region, the leader, who is already difficult to take down, will be guarded heavily. Usually, it’s best to lower the Nation Power of a region low enough to where it’s not fortified before attempting to take down the Leader.
- Once you lower the Nation Power enough, you can participate in a Conquest Battle. You can either side with the defendants (i.e. the ones you’ve been working to overthrow all this time)- this gives you low rewards, but is an easier battle to win; or on the attacking side, which gives you high rewards, but is a far harder battle
- In battle, focus only on the captains when they are marked. When they are not, take out weaker enemies until they are. Mercenaries may attack you if you are on the invading side during battle too- try to dispatch them quickly (to make your life easier, clear your Bounties before starting a Conquest battle)
- The Blue Bar in battle represents the Nation you have sided with, while the Red represents the one you are fighting. Get the Red Bar to zero without letting the Blue Bar down, and you’ll win