Mercer is a playable Hero Character in The Walking Dead: No Man's Land. Mercer is unlocked only through acquiring 500 of his specific Hero tokens. When unlocked, he starts at 4 stars.
He is of the Assault class and has the Hero Leader trait of Man-At-Arms. He also has Iron Skin, Marksman, Dodge and Lucky.
Only one thing that gets my heart up. When I’m out there, battling the dead.
Leader Trait — Man-At-Arms[]
Mercer has a 50% chance to deal {1}% of the enemy’s current HP as extra damage ({2}% for melee survivors). Additionally, Mercer has a {3}% chance to resist any status effect.
As a leader, all team members gain these bonuses.
| Level | + % of Target's Health (Ranged) | + % of Target's Health (Melee) | Status Resistance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 10% | 20% | 30% |
| 4 | 15% | 25% | 32% |
| 5 | 20% | 30% | 34% |
| 6 | 25% | 35% | 36% |
| 7 | 30% | 40% | 38% |
| 8 | 35% | 45% | 40% |
| 9 | 40% | 50% | 45% |
| 10 | 45% | 60% | 50% |
How to use Mercer[]
Mercer is one of the best heroes in the game, with his ability to deal damage based on the target's Health, meaning he can take down high level walkers very quickly. Men-At-Arms can activate at any attack, be it regular, charge, overwatch or a special attack like T-Dog's extra Punish. The chance of activating is boosted by Lucky. Mercer's LT gets very much better with higher LT level, so he is one of the most important heroes to maximize the amount of pink stars.
Mercer is naturally a damage dealer and is usually badged offensively, with 3 Damage and 3 Critical Damage badges.
Recommended traits are Lucky, Marksman and Ruthless.
Mercer's fourth trait is subject to a lot of debate, and the best choice here will depend on a few things. The fourth trait is usually Bullet Dodge, Vigilant or Sure Shot. Sure Shot improves the chance of critical hits and will add the most damage, but it requires both that Mercer doesn't move before shooting AND that he uses a weapon with Piercing, as all hits against high level walkers will be guaranteed body shots (and therefore added critical chance is of no use). Many assault weapons don't have Piercing so if your favorite weapon doesn't have it, Sure Shot is completely wasted.
The other choice to increase damage is Vigilant, which doubles his damage on overwatch attacks (which Mercer will do almost every round as long as you have a Primed armor on him, which you should). However, overwatch damage is normally halved, and body shot hits as well, so the added damage will in reality be quite small. A normal Mercer at lvl 30 will have around 20 k in damage, so that would mean around 5 k for overwatch bodyshots - which would be increased to 10 k with Vigilant. And 5 k in damage is not very much against high level walkers.
As neither Sure Shot nor Vigilant will have any effect on Mercer's main damage output (Men-At-Arms), some players have opted to make him a strong PvP defender and reroll his traits to be of the defensive kind, with the fourth trait being Bullet Dodge. Some players have taken this even further and include also Retaliate & Revenge as well as Defensive Stance or Iron Skin in addition to the previously mentioned Bullet Dodge. Dodge is less often used as it only works against melee attacks. In this case the player will rely pretty purely on Men-At-Arms to do damage, which can be good enough when he is at high pinks, and especially if you use him together with heroes with incendiary weapons (as Men-At-Arms has trouble taking out that last 10% of health).
Mercer is usually used together with Yumiko, as her LT will allow Mercer to make one extra attack per turn (with Yumiko as a team member). For GW, Distance or other game modes where you can choose the leader freely, he pairs best with Connie, Sasha or Guardian Carol.
Using Men-At-Arms with Carol's Cookies[]
One of the most powerful things with Mercer is that Carol's Cookies also boosts Men-At-Arms. That means that it's possible to one-shot walkers of any level, as long as Men-At-Arms activates, and Cookies is at level 2 or higher.
For example: Mercer's LT is at level 9 and Cookies is at level 3. You do a normal attack with cookies activated, and Men-At-Arms activates (50% + up to 65% luck so over 80% chance to trigger). Damage will be (bodyshot damage + 40%) * 2.1 = bodyshot * 2.1 + 84 % of target's health. If this was a charge attack, damage would be (critical damage + 40%) * 2.4 = critical * 2.4 + 96% of targets health, which usually will be enough to take it out in one shot.
If Mercer is the team leader consider equipping Carol's Cookies on a melee survivor, especially if you don't have him at LT lvl 10 and Cookies at lvl 4 or higher, as the damage boost is higher for melee survivors.
Due to this combo, Mercer is the one hero you should prioritize over all other heroes when making phone calls. With his LT at lvl 9 AND Cookies at lvl 3, charge attacks will often kill all walkers (as long as Men-At-Arms activates). When you get Mercer's LT to lvl 10 (i.e. he is fully maxed) AND Cookies to lvl 4, all normal attacks will kill all walkers, regardless of health, as long as Men-At-Arms activates. With 65% lucky at LT lvl 10, its activation chance is a very good 82.5%.
Status Resistance[]
Mercer has in addition to his potential damage bonus a chance to resist any status effect. This is boosted by Lucky. Note that this resistance is a separate roll, so if a Tank hits Mercer, he gets one roll to resist the stun from his LT, and a potential other roll from Stun Resistance armor. This part of his leader trait is mainly useful for scenarios where he is used as a PvP defender, as he then gets a free stun and burn resistance, allowing you to equip an armor without stun resistance. It's also useful in Last Stand to withstand the stunning effect of exploding Goo walkers.