Merc Group

The Merc Group is a gameplay mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. By sending unused s on Merc Missions through the Merc Group, the party can earn, EXP, items and many other rewards. Using the Merc Group can also be a requirement to complete certain s and helps in the growth of the Blades sent on Merc Missions. The Merc Group first unlocks during the Main Story Quest, Vandham's Last Wish, after beginning, and is fully available right after finishing the quest.

Overview
Sending Blades on Merc Missions through the Merc Group can be broken in to three phases: creating a squad, sending the squad, welcoming back the squad.


 * Creating a squad - First, the player must choose a region and a Merc Mission available in said region. Afterward, the requirements that must be met for a squad to be sent on the job will be shown. Enough Blades that fulfill these requirements must be assigned to the squad before it can be send on the mission. A maximum of six Blades can be assigned to the same squad, though less than six Blades can be sent on a mission as long as the requirements are fulfilled. After the squad has been formed, a "leader" must be chosen, with the squad's name being named after them.
 * Sending the squad - After the squad is assembled, the Blades will go complete the their assigned job. As such, they will be unavailable until the mission is completed. However, they can be recalled at any time, either by selecting the mission they were sent on, or by engaging one of the sent Blades to their Driver, though their mission will be canceled as a result. The time needed to complete the mission can be shortened by assigning Blades that fulfill optional requirements for the mission while creating the squad.
 * Welcoming back the squad - Once the time needed to complete the mission has passed, a notification on the right side of the screen will appear, along with the squad's leader announcing that they are back with a voice line. Upon opening the Merc Group menu, the squad will appear, with a window summing up the result of their mission. After confirming that the mission was completed, some of the squad member's nodes requirement will be randomly advanced, with the Affinity Chart being shown if any nodes were unlocked, and some Trust will be awarded to all of them.

Unlocking and choosing Merc Missions
At first, the variety of missions that a squad can be sent on will be limited. However, many more missions can be unlocked, both regular, repeatable, missions and one-time only event missions. As their name suggests, repeatable missions can be completed an unlimited amount of time, albeit with lesser rewards than the first time they are completed, while event missions can only be completed once as they usually serve to progress a quest or award unique key items upon completion.

More missions will be unlocked based on a varied number of factors, such as a region's development level, the Merc Group's level, progression of the story or of quests, the development of certain Rare Blades' Affinity Charts, or by talking to specific.

While inside the Merc Group menu, each region will have its own sub-menu, symbolized by the region's crest, where every missions available in this region will be listed. Repeatable missions will be listed first, with the missions unlocked primarily by raising the region's development level and the Merc Group's level first and the missions with other requirements afterward, followed by event missions, sorted the same way as the repeatable missions. A mission that has already been completed once will have a golden laurel wreath next to its name. Additionally, an event mission that was already completed will be grayed out and a mission whose requirements cannot be met will also be grayed out.

List of Merc Missions
A list of all 274 Merc Missions that can be completed in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 can be found on the Merc Mission page, organized by the region the mission is found in and its order in a fully completed Merc Group.

Assembling and dispatching a squad
To complete Merc Missions, a squad of up to six Blades must be assembled while fulfilling the mission's requirements. Said requirements mostly consist of certain s being needed, but may also be sending a number of Blades of a certain gender, type, strength, or with a specific weapon.

Most Merc Missions have a required time, the maximum amount of time that the squad will take to complete the mission. This time can appear rather long at time, with some missions taking up to two hours, and can be significantly reduced by assigning Blades with suggested Field Skills, optional requirements that will speed up the mission's completion depending on the combined levels of the suggested Field Skills that the assigned Blades possess. Each level of a Field Skill will lower the mission's duration by 6%, up to a maximum of time reduction of 75%, which is rounded down to the minute. As an example, if a Blade with Fire Mastery level 3 is sent on a Merc Mission with a Blade with Wind Mastery level 2, and both are suggested Field Skills, the mission's required time will be reduced by 30%, meaning that if the mission takes 40 minutes to be completed, it would instead take 28 minutes.

Story Blades cannot be sent on Merc Missions at first. This restriction is completely lifted in and can be gotten around for some story Blades using a late-game method. Due to the nature of Poppi and her forms, sending one of her forms on a Merc Mission will completely disengage her other forms from Tora for the duration of the mission.

The squad's name depends on its leader, with a squad lead by a Common Blade being named after them (e.g. if Hokuto is the leader, the squad will be named "Team Hokuto"), while squads lead by Rare and Legendary Blades have unique names depending on the Blade (if Ursula is the squad leader, the squad's name will be the infamous "Ursula's New Groove"). Certain missions require a specific Rare Blade to be the squad leader for the squad to be sent. At first, only one squad may be sent on a mission at a time, with another slot being unlocked by reaching Merc level 2 and one more slot unlocked by reaching Merc level 4, for a maximum of three squads sent at a time. Multiple squads cannot be sent on the same mission.

Once enough time has passed, if the player is on the field, a notification will show up, signaling that the squad returned from their mission and it was completed, along with a voice-line specific to the squad's leader. To receive the rewards and be able to re-engage the squad's Blades, the player must go to the Merc Group menu to see the result of the mission. There a window will show up, showing the rewards obtained and, if the mission was an event mission, a result text summing up the mission's result.

Rewards
Completing Merc Missions will give many rewards, the most common of which are, Bonus EXP, Merc Points which serve to further develop the Merc Group and Dev points that increase the region's Development level. These rewards are always awarded after completing a Merc Mission. Some Merc Missions also reward items, such as, unrefined Aux Cores, key items, info items and, rarely, s.

Completing Merc Missions will also help in the development of the Blades sent on the mission. As such, every Merc Mission will award a set amount of Trust upon completion, and random affinity chart nodes' conditions will be progressed. Moreover, certain Rare Blades' key affinity rewards and Affinity Chart nodes require a specific Merc Mission to be completed, usually with them as the squad's leader.

Some Affinity Chart nodes cannot be progressed by sending a Blade on a Merc Mission, these include:
 * "???" conditions, even if the condition ends up as an acceptable condition later.
 * Dealing a certain amount of in one attack or healing a certain amount of damage in a single.
 * Conditions that cannot be partially cleared.
 * Visiting a certain, or Secret Area.
 * Viewing a specific
 * Reaching a certain amount of Trust, most likely as some Trust is already awarded upon completing a mission.
 * Quest or Merc Mission related conditions (completing or starting a specific Blade Quest or Merc Mission)
 * Defeating a specific.
 * Conditions that consider previous instances (such as jumping a certain amount of time)

Merc level
By completing Merc Missions, Merc Points will be gained. Gaining enough Merc Points will level up the Merc Group, up to level 5, offering many rewards in the process:
 * Raising the Merc level will increase the number of squads that can be sent at a time, with 2 squads sent at the same time after reaching level 2 and 3 squads sent at the same after reaching level 4.
 * Some Merc Missions require reaching a certain Merc level to be unlocked.
 * The number of Common Blades that can be awakened will increase, with 24 more Common Blades able to be awakened for each Merc level, up to an increased capacity of 120 Blades at Merc level 5. Rare Blades and higher are not counted in this cap.
 * The Merc level will increase the amount of Gold and EXP received after completing a Merc Mission, with the bonus increasing the higher the Merc Level is.
 * More of an Affinity Chart node's condition will progress depending on Merc level.
 * Some NPC dialogue will be unlocked by reaching a certain Merc level, while some NPCs will only show up in Garfont after reaching after reaching a specific level.
 * Roc's key affinity rewards will unlock based on the Merc Group's level.

After enough Merc Points were gained to increase the Merc Group's level, will have a quest at the Garfont Village Mercenary HQ which, upon completion, will raise the level of the Merc Group by 1. Gaining Merc Points gained after reaching a level's cap but before completing the relevant quest are not lost and will be added after increasing the Merc Group's level.

Strategy
Since completing a Merc Mission can progress a Blade's Affinity Chart condition, sending Blades on very short Merc Missions, such as Ursula's Vocal, Looks and Soul Lessons, can be a very efficient and passive method of raising a Blade's Affinity Chart.