Path of Exile 2: Best PoE 2 Mercenary build

Here’s the best Mercenery leveling build, with an emphasis on grenades

Image credit:Grinding Gear Games

Looking for the best Mercenary build in Path of Exile 2? The Mercenary is a new class in Path of Exile 2 that shares some initial similarities with the Ranger in that they both use ranged weapons. But while the Ranger relies on bow strikes, the Mercenary is all about rapid-fire tactics with his crossbow, which can shoot seven bolts in a row along with some really big explosives.

The Mercenary requires you to position yourself well and deal with the obstacle of reloading. If you can master this, the class is a lot of fun, especially in Path of Exile 2’s endgame. In this guide we’ll give an explanation of the best Mercenary build for PoE 2 with an eye towards leveling fast with brain-shattering grenade damage.

Best Mercenary build in Path of Exile 2

For those who want to level up fast as the Mercenary in Path of Exile 2, invest in the following Grenade build, which emphasises explosives. For anyone who likes injecting a little artillery into your dark fantasy game, the skills presented here are a joy to run, and you can expect impressive AoE damage and superb crowd control with this build. The tradeoff is mobility, as you’ll need to constantly zig-zag in order to ensure that the trajectory of your shots hits true. The Mercenary relies upon Dexterity and Strength, so do your best to equip gear that bumps up those two stats to make the most of your ranged shots and to soak up any stray hits that come your way as you’re wiggling into position. See our guide to Path of Exile 2’s Attributes and crafting system if you’re having any trouble wrapping your head around how to best outfit the Mercenary.

The Witch Hunter’s an easier Ascendancy unless you’re in the endgame or used to fiddling with gems. Plus, he looks like Van Helsing. |Image credit:Grinding Gear Games

When it comes to your Ascendancy as the Mercenary, both Witch Hunter and Gemling Legionnaire can work well with this build, though Witch Hunter is probably better for newbies, especially if you take the Zealous Inquisition skill, which amps AoE effects on enemies. The Gemling Ascendancy is superior for Path of Exile 2’s endgame, as it’ll let you cut more gems to improve your build in the long run.

Mercenary leveling build: Best skills

The following skills offer the most literal bang for your buck as you pepper the arena with explosive effects of all types. There’s some room for experimentation the more you get familiar with the Mercenary’s skillset, but I found these six the most useful:

Explosive Shot

Explosive Shot loads your crossbow with flaming bolts that go boom on impact. This is a good starter skill that will feed into many of the others here, as the explosions it creates will also cause grenades in the area of effect to detonate as well.

Oil Grenade

Oil Grenade doesn’t do much damage on its own, but it does drench everything around you in oil, increasing susceptibility to ignition. Combine this skill with Explosive Shot and Explosive Grenade to take advantage of the lowered resistances your enemies will have to fire attacks when they’re oiled up.

Flash Grenade

Flash Grenade lets loose a bouncing projectile that ends in a blinding explosion, and it’s a very useful skill for staggering bosses and smaller mobs. The Mercenary is the closest thing that Path of Exile 2 has to what I like to call a ’tricky bastard’ class, and Flash Grenade equates to playing dirty in the best way. Once you get used to stunning enemies, it’s hard to go back - just be aware that this skill stuns allies in multiplayer matches as well.

Explosive Grenade

This is the bigger cousin of Explosive Shot, and a no brainer once you get access to it later in Act 1 of the campaign. You’ll utilise Explosive Grenade for more powerful blasts, for igniting oil, and for taking bosses down a notch after you’ve staggered them with Flash Grenade.

Gas Grenade

Similar to Oil Grenade, Gas Grenade is for slapping your foes with a status effect - in this case, poison damage thanks to the cloud left behind after the gas fuse expires. Explosive Shot and Explosive Grenade can both be used to detonate the poison cloud for additional damage.

Cluster Grenade

You have a few more grenade options available in Path of Exile 2’s later game, most notably Voltaic Grenade (think lightning grenades) and Cluster Grenade, which is my preferred choice. Cluster Grenade fires out a grenade that explodes into an additional nova of miniature grenades, which fits in very well with our mission to fill the arena with lots of grandiose pyrotechnics. Use this one to give you an advantage against bosses and to clear tight rooms packed with enemies.

Grenade build: Best support gems

With gems like Matrial Tempo, you’ll be able to unleash skills like Explosive Shot more frequently - which means additional AoE blasts and lots of loot to pick up. |Image credit:IGN/Grinding Gear Games

The support gems worthy of your time and attention are all about supplementing the AoE damage of your grenades, making your shots faster, or amplifying effects like the poison inflicted by your Gas Grenade. Try experimenting with the following options:

Martial Tempo

Martial Tempo’s a good, simple support gem that grants 25% more attack speed. Insert it into Explosive Shot to ensure that your bolts fly faster and never let up.

Pierce

Pierce is another useful support for Explosive Shot, making your projectiles pierce an enemy. Damage will be reduced somewhat, but the idea here is to make your regular attacks as effective as possible, hence the need for piercing.

Nimble Reload

Firepower comes with a price, and reloading is the bane of the Mercenary. The more you play with this class the more you’ll get used to reloading, but if you want to take some of the stress off your back, invest in the Nimble Reload support gem, which offers up to 60% crossbow reload speed.

Persistence

Persistence is an excellent support gem that increases any skill with a duration by 40%. You’ll want this for skills like Oil Grenade, to ensure that your pools of combustible oil linger just a wee bit longer on the field.

Strip Away

Any skill which applies exposure to enemies will have 30% increased effect when you equip Strip Away. This is another good support gem to combo with Oil Grenade, which applies fire exposure to any foes who get stuck in your oil streaks.

Encumbrance

For Oil Grenade to become even more effective, stick Encumbrance on there. This gem assists any skills that inflict slow, guaranteeing that your opponents will be wandering around in circles like slugs while you pick them off from afar.

Corrosion

Corrosion goes hand-in-hand with poison, breaking armour equal to 80% of poison damage dealt. As you might expect, this is a great support gem to work alongside your Gas Grenade.

Scattershot

Scattershot is a very reliable support gem that I often find myself prioritising for the majority of my ranged and spellcasting builds no matter the class. In this case, you can use it with Flash Grenade to create additional blinding projectiles that will barrage across the screen, ensuring that at least someone in your way gets staggered.

Overpower

Overpower supports any skill that hits enemies, causing 50% more stun buildup. This is a great gem in general, but it’s going to become even better when we arrange it with Flash Grenade. Expect this to make a nice difference when you’re up against bosses.

Fire Infusion

Fire Infusion’s a fine supplement to all of your flame-based attacks, giving them 25% extra fire damage. The tradeoff is 50% less cold and lightning damage, but this build thankfully doesn’t rely on either!

That’s a wrap when it comes to blowing stuff up as the Mercenary! For more on the mechanics that power Grinding Gear Games’ epic ARPG, see our guides to the Passive Skill Tree , Attributes , and crafting . We’ve also got a look at the best character class for beginners , as well as a list of what to do first if you’re just getting started with Path of Exile 2’s early game. And if you’d like to learn how to take your class to greater heights, see our guide on how to Ascend via the Trial of the Sekhemas .

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

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