Diablo 4 Mercenary Bartering Guide: Tips And Tricks

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred introduced so many new mechanics into the game but none are as revolutionary as the Mercenary system. It's an old mechanic from previous games but the addition of Diablo 4 Mercenary Bartering adds a new depth of strategy to it entirely.

On this guide, we're going to show you a few important tips on how you can get the most out of mercenary bartering. Before anything else though, let's talk about what it is first.

Diablo 4 Mercenary Bartering And How It Works

To begin with, the key to Mercenary bartering is of course, getting the mercenaries themselves. We did a complete mercenary recruitment guide last week at RPG Stash. So you might want to check this out if you've yet to meet Subo and the gang. If you want a quick guide, here it is:

you'll unlock your first mercenary, Raheir, after finishing the Act VII main quest, The Hand Remembers the Blade.

Along with Raheir, you'll also be able to get to The Den, which serves as a personal hub. As you recruit more mercenaries, additional features become available, including an occultist, a blacksmith, a jewelry vendor, and a bartering system.

There are four mercenaries in total, and each one is unlocked by completing their specific quest, which becomes available after you've unlocked The Den:

• Raheir: Complete the Act VII quest, The Hand Remembers the Blade.
• Varyana: Complete the priority quest, Slayer's Retribution.
• Aldkin: Complete the priority quest, A Nameless Mystery.
• Subo: Complete the priority quest, A Feather on the Scale.

Mercenaries grow stronger with the Rapport system. The more you keep them around with you while playing, the higher their Rapport goes up.

Bartering won't be allowed immediately. Before you unlock it, you can check out our Diablo 4 gold reserves so you don't have a tough time getting good items before bartering arrives.

How to Start Bartering with Mercenaries

To get bartering, you'll need to reach level 5 with any mercenary but since you get Raheir first, we suggest focusing on using him. Once done, talk to Fayira who'll be at the Den.

Bartering isn't that difficult to understand. It's the same as any other merchant system in the game currently but the item selections here are better. You can refresh the shop once a day for free and succeeding refreshes will cost Pale Marks which we'll talk about later.

If you want better items on the shop, you're going to have to increase your Rapport level with all of the four mercenaries. Here's what you're getting with each Rapport level:

Ranks I-IV: Gain 1 Skill Point for the mercenary you're leveling.

Rank V: Earn 50 Pale Marks and unlock bartering once you reach Rapport V with any mercenary.

Unlock a Legendary Aspect Cache from the merchant, determined by the mercenary:

• Raheir: Defensive
• Varyana: Mobility
• Aldkin: Resource
• Subo: Utility

Rank VI: Earn 50 Pale Marks and a Legendary Cache, with contents based on the mercenary.

Rank VII: Earn 50 Pale Marks and a Masterworking Cache, tailored to the mercenary.

Rank VIII: Earn 75 Pale Marks and an increase in the bartering stock.

Rank IX: Earn 75 Pale Marks and a Summoning Cache, with contents tied to the mercenary.

Rank X: Earn 100 Pale Marks and a Grand Cache, whose contents vary by mercenary.

Rank X+: Earn 100 Pale Marks for each additional rank.

As you can see, the Pale Marks are a constant reward for increasing Rapport. These are what's used to barter on the Den with. Other than leveling Rapport, you can also get more Pale Marks by beating Mercenary Events while exploring the world.

Mainly, you acquire them through a rapport track that's similar to the seasonal reward tracks from Season 4, Season 5, and so on.

You play with mercenaries or have them enlisted as reinforcements, and as they rank up, you get Pale Marks. This is the currency we use for gambling on the bartering feature.

Every once in a while, you collect what you've got from your mercenaries. You can also swap them around—each has their own track—and they also have an infinitely repeatable Pale Marks reward.

So, you basically never run out of the stuff. Blizzard has also said that once a day, you can log in and restock the vendor's inventory for free. Otherwise, the restock option costs 50 Pale Marks, which is relatively pricey because some rewards cost between 30 to 50 Pale Marks.

The good thing about this system is not so much the individual items. Sure, here and there, we might get lucky and get a Legendary item that we need, but the big thing here is the caches.

There are utility caches, resource caches, augment caches, salvage material caches, and even boss material caches. These are relatively cheap for what you get out of them, and they're what we're aiming for.

For example, the Resource Aspect Cache gives you only jewelry. This is nice because rings and amulets are some of the hardest items to get in general, and they will all have resource aspects on them.

This is important because resource aspects are some of the hardest to hit, especially in the early game. You can get offensive aspect caches too, trying to get a specific key aspect for your build while leveling up.

Some caches and rewards have to be unlocked as part of the rapport track on certain mercenaries. They augment the vendor after you reach a certain rank, which gives you a permanent upgrade to the vendor.

From that point on, every time you restock, you'll have a chance to get one of those caches. Each mercenary has a certain affinity with a specific aspect type. For example, Aldkin is for resource aspects, Varyana for offensive, and Subo for utility.

As you upgrade the mercenaries, you unlock their skills, vendor upgrades, and more opportunities to collect Pale Marks.

Mercenary Bartering Strategies

In our case, we've been playing with the mercenaries for a while, and we have 1,150 Pale Marks. Since restocking costs 50 Pale Marks and caches cost 30 to 50, you can get quite a lot.

We wouldn't recommend running back every hour with your 100 Pale Marks and buying one thing at a time. Instead, keep playing, don't worry about it for a while, and eventually, when you've stacked a thousand or so, go back and do a big shopping spree.

Early in the season, after your first character gets a few hundred Pale Marks, It's worth using them as soon as you unlock some caches.

If you know you're starting a build—say you're playing Chain Lightning Sorcerer and need the Recharging Aspect on a ring—then go with Alkin to unlock the resource cache reward. You can use Pale Marks to get that aspect early on.

In the past, Blizzard has introduced more and more aspects each season, diluting the total drop pool. This made it very hard to get the specific aspects we needed. But with this system, It's easier, especially for hard-to-get and build-defining aspects.

Druids, for example, will really benefit from this during early leveling by getting key aspects like Shockwave.

If you're leveling and you unlock the mercenaries, make sure to use them, stack up Pale Marks, and get those caches to power up your build.

Sometimes, it's worth checking individual items for their aspects, as you can see the names of the aspects. For example, if you spot a ring with the Umbrella Aspect, it could be a good one for early game builds.

Start Diablo 4 Bartering Today!

This new Diablo 4 Mercenary system shakes up gameplay in many ways. Lots of players are sure to enjoy their time getting those Pale Marks. If you want to get stronger in other ways, check out how RPGStash's Diablo 4 shop can help you out!