Mercenary-based Leveling

Since most players are more focused on leveling their third job characters, finding party members is challenging at lower levels. In an effort to help new players start their Ragnarok journey, GGH released the level-up box, and with it comes the Alice Mercenary amongst many other beneficial items. The introduction of the Alice mercenary made mercenary-based leveling viable to support players to reach level 80 where most of the players are now doing party-leveling. This guide is primarily intended to help players maximize the use of their Alice mercenary and a general introduction to other easily obtainable mercenaries in the game.

This leveling guide is intended for starting players with minimal to no access to other resources that would make leveling easier. Some additional tips are sometimes given, but in general, the advice is for new players. The guide also assumes that players will depend on the mercenaries on their way to level 80. The higher-level maps might not be optimal but still acceptable given the dependence on mercenaries. Damage-dealing classes should diverge from this guide once they get their damage-dealing skills.

Obtaining a Mercenary

This guide will focus on the Alice Mercenary and the 6th Grade Mercenaries from each mercenary guild since the lower grades are rarely useful and the higher grades have additional requirements, which will not be covered in this guide. 

Players get the New User Box (1) upon the creation of a new character. Opening this box will provide several consumable items and a New User Box (10), which can be opened upon reaching level 10. A New User Box is given as part of the package until level 90. The table below summarizes the items relevant to this guide. A full list of the items could be seen in the official announcement for the Level Up Box.

In this guide, the most important items are the Alice Scroll, the Unlimited Fly Wing (2 hours), and the Time Keeper Robe and Shoes. Overall, 14 Alice scrolls are obtainable until level 60. This is sufficient enough to reach level 80 as will be discussed later. Unlimited Fly Wing is crucial since finding and luring monsters is the priority in this leveling approach. The Time Keeper Robe and Shoes provides 300 HP, which is helpful in staying alive.

The normal mercenaries could be obtained through their individual Mercenary Guild Managers. The managers are always accompanied by a Mercenary Merchant who sells Mercenary Potions.

• Spear Mercenary Guild in Prontera (prontera 41, 337)

• Sword Mercenary Guild in Izlude (izlude 47, 139)

• Bow Mercenary Guild in the Archer Village in Payon (pay_arche 99, 167)

Each 6th Grade Mercenary cost 60,000z and could be purchased upon reaching level 65. In general, the cost of Mercenary increases by 10,000z per grade.

Alice Mercenary

Alice is the best option until level 80, but there are only 14 free Alice scrolls. As previously mentioned, this should be enough to help players reach level 80 even without an experience boost. However, it is best to save 3-4 scrolls for level 60+ leveling upon transcending. Therefore, ideally, players should only use 10 Alice Scrolls until level 80. 

Alice is a very strong Mercenary and it could handle monsters until the level 65 monsters. It has two high damaging skills, but Brandish Spear has more damage than Magnum Break and at a lower SP cost. Despite all these, Alice is a bit sluggish and it takes a bit of patience to wait for her to walk and attack. Its attack animation is very slow. Often, it will not be able to follow, which makes the unlimited Fly Wing essential since it will teleport with you. 

Spear Mercenary

The 6th Grade Spear Mercenary is the next most viable option since it also has Brandish Spear. Prior to the release of the Alice Scroll, this mercenary was the main option for mercenary-based leveling upon transcending (more details later). 

Its attack is a bit lower but its SP regeneration is so high that it seldom runs out of SP. However, its flee is very low and it often takes damage from monsters around its level. 

Bow Mercenary

The 6th Grade Bow Mercenary has access to level 7 double strafe, which makes it the best mercenary for single-target monsters. Given its attack range, it can snipe stationary monsters like Geographer, and at the same time, it does not waste time approaching moving monsters like the melee mercenaries. 

This bow mercenary has low flee though so it usually takes much damage. It is best used in higher-level maps with the support of classes with access to Heal. 

Sword Mercenary

The 6th Grade Sword Mercenary has no high damaging skill, but its high Flee makes it handle monsters without taking damage better compared to the other 6th grade mercenary. 

This Sword Mercenary is best used to provide additional damage for auto attack classes (thief, merchant, agi monk), but in such gameplay, players are often better off just killing the monster on their own. This mercenary is not very useful for the purposes of this leveling guide. 

Controlling a Mercenary

The expiration of the mercenary can also be seen from the Mercenary Window. Each mercenary scroll has a duration of 30 minutes. This timer stops whenever a player is logged out. Players can have a break by simply logging out.

Use Alt + Left Click on a monster to manually attack the monster. This is not necessary when using a mercenary AI. 

Use Ctrl + T to force your mercenary to stand by. This is an important control command when using the custom mercenary AI. It stops the mercenary from attacking monsters. 

Mercenary AI

The majority of players in renewal servers use the AzzyAI created by Dr. Azzy. It provides users with a graphical interface to modify the User AI for both the Mercenary and Homunculus systems in Ragnarok Online. It was last updated in November 2014 since Dr. Azzy stopped playing Ragnarok Online in mid-2016. However, with the current update of GGH, it is still fully functional. 

A GGH Admin said that the use of AzzyAI is allowed and is not considered as an illegal third-party software (source). Therefore, there should be no issues with using this tool. This tool is not considered as a third-party program primarily because it does not interact directly with the game client. It simply modifies the Lua files inside the AI folder and in turn, the game client loads these Lua files. 

Installing the AzzyAI

1. Download AzzyAI 1.551 from the official site. Download only the Download AzzyAI 1.551 since we are only modifying the USER_AI in this guide. Based on experience, this ensures that your default AI is the same as what the GGH admin intended. This precaution is important since there are instances when the customized AI is lagging.

NOTE: If the official download site is not accessible, you can also download the unmodified Azzy AI 1.551 from this link (this is the author’s personal website).

2. Extract the zip file to a location that you can easily access. Windows Explorer can easily open zip files now.
3. Locate your Ragnarok Online folder. Typically, it should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Gravity Game Hub\RagnarokOnline
4. Find the USER_AI folder located under RagnarokOnline\AI\USER_AI. Copy the contents of this folder to another folder that you can easily access. This will serve as a back up in case something unexpected happen because we have to delete everything to install AzzyAI. 
5. Now, delete all the files inside USER_AI.
6. Copy the contents of the AzzyAI 1.551 into the USER_AI folder. If you did everything correctly, your USER_AI folder should look like the image below (there are more files, but that is the general content). The set-up is now complete.

Loading the USER_AI

1. In the game, type /merai. The prompt should read The Mercenary will follow custom AI. (To return to the basic AI, just type /merai again.)
2. Character select to load the new AI.
3. If you did not encounter any errors, you have successfully customized your AI. Congratulations! Else, please repeat the initial setup.

Basic Setting Modifications

1. Mercenary is not attacking. Inside the User AI Folder open the AzzyAIConfig.exe. Go to the 4th Tab Mercenary Tactics and click Default Summon. Change the Basic Behavior to Attack (high).
   
   
2. Use AOE Skills even on a single target. If you are using the free Alice Mercenary or 6th Grade Spearman Mercenary, their SP regen is so high that they can easily spam their AOE skills without running out of SP. It is best to use the AOE skills even on single targets.
   
   
3. Mercenary keep using Provoke. If you do not want the Mercenary to cast Provoke, go to the 2nd Tab Mercenary and find UseProvokeOwner and change this to Never. You may want to do this if you are not attacking. Provoke has some benefits too (I will leave you to read on that).
   
   
4. Mercenary is not defending the player. Edit the RescueOwnerLowHP to 100. This will force the Mercenary to always rescue you whenever you are attacked, which makes the mercenary more responsive when you are luring.
   
   

Precautions & Useable Items

The mercenary despawns if the player dies. Given the limited amount of Alice Mercenary, players should do their best to stay alive while luring monsters. 

The mercenary will also despawn if it runs out of HP. Classes with access to Heal could heal the mercenary even if they are not the contractor (a friendly Priest could heal your mercenary for you). Alternatively, players could buy the Mercenary Red Potion at 2500z. This cost is significantly higher than player Potions so it is best to use this as a last resort. 

Alice and Sword Mercenary will barely need any support while fighting monsters below level 70 (monsters’ level range in this leveling guide below). However, the Bow and Spear mercenary take damages starting from monsters in Orc Dungeon so keep 2-5 potions when you are using these mercenaries. 

Mercenary Red Potion	2500z
Mercenary Blue Potion	5000z
Mercenary Concentration Potion	800z
Mercenary Awakening Potion	1500z
Mercenary Berserk Potion	3000z

Leveling Guide (beginners)

The routine for leveling with mercenaries revolves around finding monsters, luring monsters to your mercenary, and letting your mercenary use its AOE skills to kill the monsters. Fly Wing and teleport are helpful in finding monsters and it is best to use the free Unlimited Fly Wing (2 hours). Just use your Fly Wing until you find a good number of monsters and then let your mercenary kill them. The duration of the Unlimited Fly Wing is fixed so to maximize its use, it is better to make sure that you will be playing for at least an hour (~2 mercenary scrolls). 

Each mercenary scroll has a duration of 30 minutes. Unlike the Unlimited Fly Wing, the timer pauses whenever you log out so if you want to rest in the middle of the gameplay, just log out. To maximize the duration of the Mercenary Scrolls, you should preferably stay on one map as much as possible within the duration of the scroll. Of course, refilling your potions is crucial so the distance between the Kafra or Tool Dealer was considered in selecting optimal leveling maps. 

It is important to emphasize the level gap penalty in renewal servers. Essentially, it is best to fight monsters between 15 and 5 levels above you. You get an experience penalty if there is a huge level gap between your character and the monster. This is the primary reason why you cannot immediately go to high-level maps. 

The table below summarizes the important maps and the ideal level range that you should stay in those maps. The list is separated into two parts. In the early game, you should proceed to the next best map as soon as you are within 15 levels with the monsters and leave after 10 levels (green region). You can stay there but you will suffer some experience penalty. For the late game (level 60+), there are limited options for mercenaries so it is advisable to stay on the map until right before the 85% exp (yellow) or 60% exp (orange).

Until First Job Change

Finish the tutorial and change to your desired first job. Follow the Dancer/Gypsy Leveling Guide until you reach Job level 10 via the quick quest. Return to this guide once you change job. Remember: always go to the guild house of your desired first job to get the free quest skills. 

Level 6 – 29: Payon Cave (pay_dun00)

Payon –upper right→ pay_arce –upper right→ pay_dun00
Loot Priority: Jellopy, Grape, Opal, Skull Ring, Cursed Ruby. Selling Opal and Skull Ring to any NPC will help you in accumulating Zeny. 
Warning: Only attack Zombies until you reach level 12 to avoid experience penalty from the other monsters as detailed below. 

The level of monsters in this map varies a lot. Normally, it is not advisable to move to this map immediately, However, since Alice can deal huge damage, you can move to this map right after you change to your first job. Until you reach level 12, ignore all monsters except for Zombies. You have to be level 12 to get more experience from Skeletons. The experience will slow down a bit at level 28, but staying on this map is better than moving to other maps until you reach level 30. 

Use your Fly Wing whenever there are no monsters since this is more efficient than walking. After reaching level 10, immediately open your New User Box (10) and use the Unlimited Fly Wing (2 hours). This Fly Wing will be enough until you reach level 40. Make sure that you can play for at least 1 hour more though since your next free Unlimited Fly Wing (2 hours) will be released through the New User Box (30) so you have to reach at least level 30. 

Start to learn how to lure monsters. In this map, Zombies and Familiars are aggressive so they will attack you without provocation. For Skeletons and Poporing, you have to hit them once for them to attack you. Tip: lure the aggressive mobs toward the non-aggressive mobs so the AOE damage will hit them both. If you get lucky, you will find pockets of areas where there are plenty of mobs like in the video below. 

Level 30 – 39: Orc Village (gef_fild03 or gef_fild10)

Prontera –Kafra Warp (Orc Dungeon)→  gef_fild03 (1st option) –lower right→ gef_fild10(2nd Option)
Loot Priority: Orcish Voucher, Cyfar, Large Jellopy, Iron, Rough Oridecon. Get as many Rough Oridecon as you can. You can then combine 5 rough Oridecon into an Oridecon and sell each Oridecon for around 40,000z to 50,000z to players in Prontera or Eden Headquarters. This is necessary for the next step in the leveling guide. 
Warning: Be careful of the boss monsters in these maps. Once you see Orc Lord and Orc Hero, use your Fly Wing asap. 

This leveling area is the easiest and fastest. You will only stay here for around 30 minutes/one Alice Scroll. The approach is the same, find and lure monsters and let your mercenary do the kills using the AOE skills. Kill all types of Orcs in gef_fild03. Orcs hit harder so always make sure that you have sufficient potions. The free Red Slim potions would be sufficient for this map. 

Moving to gef_fild10 is optional, but you can get more experience in this map especially when gef_fild03 is crowded. The mobs are the same but there are more Orc Ladies here and they hit stronger than Orc Warriors. 

Additional Preparation 

Up to this point, the potions from the level up box will be sufficient. However, you need more potions for the succeeding levels. Sell all the loots that you got so far and buy around 1200 orange potions (60,000z without merchant discount). Store these in your Kafra for easy access (Payon has the closest Tool Dealer to the Kafra). You might have to return to Prontera from time to time to replenish your potions. 

This is also a good time to check your class progression since you might reach job level 50 in the middle of using an Alice Mercenary. GGH has a class job change guide in the official webpage. For some second job, you can easily go to the guild house and change job, but some guild houses like the Blacksmiths’ and Hunters’ are far from Prontera. In these cases, it is better to continue leveling until your Alice Mercenary expires.

Level 40 – 68: Orc Dungeon 2 (orcsdun02)

Typical Route: Prontera –Kafra Warp (Orc Dungeon)→  gef_fild03 –upper left→ orcsdun01  –lower right→ orcdun02
Quicker Route: Prontera –Kafra Warp (Orc Dungeon)→  gef_fild03 –mid right→ orcsdun02  
Loot Priority: Zenorc’s Fang, Rough Elunium, Rough Oridecon, Buster [2]. Similar to Orc Village, loot all the Rough Oridecon and Rough Elunium. You will need this to continue funding your potions. 
Warning: Avoid Orc Archers as they can kill your mercenary. If you ran out of Alice Scrolls, you can also use the 6th Grade Spear Mercenary here, but you have to be more careful with Orc Archers. 

Before going to Orc Dungeon, carry as much Orange Potion as you can (up to 89% weight). You will not use any skills so you do not need SP regen. 

Focus on the Orc Skeletons and Zenorcs. You should be more skilled in luring monsters now. The tactic remains the same, so you have to lure monsters and let your mercenary do the kills. Lure the Orc Skeletons towards the Zenorcs to maximize the AOE skills. Zenorcs are also looters so they will usually rush to pick up loots after monsters die. 

Stay here until you reach Job Lv50. If the guild house of your intended second class is far (check here), continue leveling until Alice expires to maximize its use. After you change job, you can return to this map to gain your initial second job skills. 

Level 69 – 73: Stay in Orc Dungeon 2 or Move to Payon Cave F3

Notice: For damage-dealing classes, after you get your damage-dealing skills, you may want to check the class-specific guides as relying on mercenaries beyond this point is slower than using your skills. Proceed only if you really have to rely on your mercenary to level up. You can also save the remaining Alice Mercenary for when you transcend. 

The experience in Orc Dungeon is still acceptable until level 73 (-15%). You can also move to Payon Cave to fight Munak and Bongun. The tips for level 74 – 78 will be the same. However, as of writing, there are very few players in Payon Cave resulting in fewer monster respawns. Decide based on the number of monsters. When in doubt, stay in Orc Dungeon.

If you are running low on Alice Scrolls (< 5), purchase 6th Grade Spear mercenary scrolls. Hopefully, you were lucky enough to get sellable loots since you need 60,000z per mercenary. As a second job, you can lure better with higher HP so the Spear mercenary will be enough. I prefer to stay in Orc Dungeon until level 74 since there are more monsters here. At level 74, it is better to leave Orc Dungeon.

Level 74 – 78 Payon Cave F3 (pay_dun02)

Payon –upper right→ pay_arce –upper right→ pay_dun00 –lower right→ pay_dun01 –lower right→ pay_dun02
Loot Priority: Rough Oridecon, Old Portrait, Shoes [1], Girl’s Diary [1], Apple of Archer, Munak Hat, Ninja Suit, Bongun Hat

Reminder: For damage-dealing classes, after you get your damage-dealing skills, you may want to check the class-specific guides as relying on mercenaries beyond this point is slower than using your skills. Proceed only if you really have to rely on your mercenary to level up.

This is the farthest map in this suggested leveling route, but this is the best map to avoid the level gap penalty in Orc Dungeon. As of writing, this seems to be the last map where you can fully rely on your mercenary, but you can only rely on Alice on this map. The other 6th Grade Mercenaries cannot one-shot the monsters here anymore. 

Kill Archer Skeleton, Munak, and Bongun. Skip Soldier Skeleton since they are low-level mobs. Avoid Ninetales as they can kill your Mercenary. 

Level 79 Options

At this level, it is difficult to depend on Alice, but this is the last hurdle to reaching the level 80 milestone. You need 230,000 base exp to finish this part. You have the following options if you still have to depend on your mercenary. 

1. [Alice] The easiest way would be to stay in pay_dun02 if you still have Alice Scrolls. You will only get 60% of the monster’s exp at this point. You might need 2 more Alice Scrolls to achieve this. 

2. [6th Grade Spear Mercenary] If you run out of Alice scrolls, return to orcsdun02, but it will take longer since you will only get 35% of the experience at this level. It might take 3-4 more 6th Grade Spear Mercenary. The only redeeming factor in returning to this map is that you can easily semi-afk at this point. Read some of the class-specific guides while your mercenary is doing the damage. Just be careful of the Orc Archers. 

3. [6th Grade Spear Mercenary] You can also try to use the 6th Grade Spear Mercenary and go to pay_dun02. It will have more difficulty in maintaining HP so you might want to buy some mercenary potions if you already have Zeny. 

Level 80 – 99

At this level, you can now join parties in Stapo. Please check the class-specific guides for your class. Upon reaching level 80, there are leeching services that you can use or you can leech your own character. Leeching is the easiest approach for non-damaging non-support classes like brewers, forgers, and tankers. 

[Alternative] Level 33 – 43 : Sograt Desert (moc_fild03)

Payon –middle down→ pay_fild01 –left→ moc_fild03  
Loot Priority: Cobweb, Strawberry, Bug Leg, Iron Ore, Iron, Wind of Verdure, Rough Elunium

This is a good alternative to Orc Village if there are too many people on that map. However, since Orc Village is easily accessible via Kafra Warp, it is more advisable to move there once you reach level 30. 

[Alternative] Level 40 – 66/71: Orc Dungeon 1 (orcsdun01)

Prontera –Kafra Warp (Orc Dungeon)→  gef_fild03 –upper left→ orcsdun01
Loot Priority: Rough Elunium, Rough Oridecon, Buster [2], Emperium

This map is an alternative to orcsdun02. Some players prefer to stay on this map first since Orc Archers are tough to handle at low levels. Move here if you are having problems in orcsdun02. You should try to do orcsdun02 again at Lv50. 

[Alternative] Level 42 – 65/72 Undersea Tunnel F4 (iz_dun03)

Loot Priority: Gill, White Herb, Rough Oridecon, Rough Elunium, Aquamarine, Mystic Frozen
Eden Headquarters –eden warper→ iz_dun02 –top right→ iz_dun03

This is a good alternative to Orc Dungeon when there are too many players on those maps. The level range is almost the same. It was previously hard to get to this map since players have to walk several maps from Izlude. However, GGH implemented the Eden Warper and you can go to iz_dun02 by paying 3000z. From iz_dun02, you can easily go to iz_dun03.

Leveling Guide (transcendent)

The leveling guide is generally the same once you transcend. However, some preparations would make the leveling easier. Note: players could transcend as long as they have less than 500 weight so they can bring mercenary scrolls with them. Check the full transcendence guide here. 

Preparations before Transcending

1. Purchase 1 6th Grade Bow Mercenary (or 1st Grade if on a budget)
2. Purchase 8 6th Grade Spear Mercenary. If you saved some Alice Scrolls, subtract the number of Alice Scrolls from this number. You generally need around 8 high-level mercenary (Spear and Alice) Scrolls to reach level 65 and then you can purchase more. You need less if there is an experience boost or you are leveling with a Battle Manual. 
3. Finish as many level 80-90 board quests as you can. The suggested board quest list below is the easiest way to reach level 80 from level 70 with at least 50% experience boost or from level 73 without experience boost. If you are a non-damaging class, it is better to do this before transcending since you can party with other people to accomplish these quests.

Until First High Job Change

Use the Bow Mercenary scrolls to help you change to your high first job. The Bow Mercenaries are the optimal choice since you will initially level up in the Spore Map (to the right of Payon) and the range of the Bow Mercenary will make the leveling quicker. Once you reach level 12, change jobs and dismiss the Bow Mercenary. The Spear Mercenary is more efficient in the next steps. Base level 12 is needed for optimal leveling in Payon Cave. Do not worry about your job experience as you will barely waste any of them. 

Level 12 – 39: Payon Cave & Orc Village

Use the Spear Mercenary. It is more optimal to use the Spear Mercenary on this map since its attack animation is faster. Follow the leveling guide for the maps above (Payon Cave until level 30 and Orc Village until level 40). 

Level 40 – 70/73: Orc Dungeon & Payon Cave

Use Alice or the Spear Mercenary but use your Spear Mercenary first. 

You can stay in Orc Dungeon from level 40 until you change to your Transcended Second Job and even until level 70 or 73 depending on the experience boost. Alternatively, if you have some Alice Scrolls left, you can move to Payon Cave after you change job.

You can then submit the board quest and you will reach level 80 or higher. Depending on the experience boost, you can leave Orc Dungeon or Payon Cave at level 70 or 73. If there is at least 50% experience boost, you can stop leveling at level 70 and submit the quests with Battle Manual. Check the computation in the table above. Otherwise, finish until level 73. You may also opt to maximize the Orc Dungeon Map and stay there until you reach level 74 (this is what I often do) and you can reach level 81/82 with the quest. Remember to use a Battle Manual (exp +50%) before accepting all the rewards.

Questions and Suggestions

Feel free to ask questions via the post below or in the newbie channel (#concierge) and Geneticist channel (#geneticist) in GGH Discord. I usually lurk in those channels.

-Matthew/Mashuu

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