As one of the founding characters of Armello, and one that has hands deep in other players’ pockets, Mercuro, the rat, is popular amongst opportunistic players and those who believe in the power of money!
Lore
The Rat Clan – an animal clan of the Kingdom of Armello that is devoted to chasing gold and an even more valuable commodity: information. None of its members embodies these ideals quite like Mercurio, one of the four original playable characters of Armello!
Given his fine-looking clothes, leather gloves, and golden earrings, Mercurio gives off the air of being a lord. He would be happy if you believed that. Instead, he was born into poverty in the Rat Clan capital. Mercurio rose from the slums, through the social ranks, and bettered his economic situation through the only means he knew: lying, cheating, and happily relieving others of their gold in the process.
You, the player, can control him for his greatest heist yet – the throne of Armello.
Stats
There are a few key things to note about Mercurio’s base stats. Let’s start with his Fight and Body stats.
Mercurio’s base Fight stat is 4. This is a middle-of-the-road number, putting him below Fight-oriented characters such as Fang and Hargrave. His base Body stat is 5, which is the same as characters like Thane and Amber.
These stats combined make Mercurio an above average fighter. Despite his smaller size compared to beefier characters, he can still put up a decent enough fight. While we wouldn’t go out seeking conflict on every turn, he can more than hold his own, especially with the right build and items.
The other stat Mercurio benefits from is his Wits stat. With a starting value of 5, you’ll never wish you had more cards in your hand! Having all those cards will allow you to wreak havoc on the board with Trickery Perils. Due to the Wits stat also mirroring the number of dice you roll when encountering Perils, Mercurio’s higher value will have you moving around the board with relative ease compared to characters like Magna and Sana.
In addition, you won’t have to worry about the cost of playing all the cards you’ll be drawing. Mercurio starts with six Gold, giving you a nice bit of moolah that, when managed properly with his other abilities, can lead to you to consistently play Trickery Perils every turn.
One of the main drawbacks of playing as Mercurio is his low Spirit. Needless to say with his Spirit stat at 2, he won’t be casting many spells. Such cards cost at least 3 Spirit to cast. This severely limits your options when it comes to getting the most out of the many cards you’ll be drawing thanks to his high Wits.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means that, when playing as Mercurio, a winning strategy most likely won’t be based on drawing and playing spell cards. There are other ways to get the most out of this mischievous rat!
Abilities
Mercurio’s Hero Ability, “Scoundrel,” is derived from the very core of his swindling nature. He takes 1 Gold from an opposing character when he captures one of their settlements.
1 Gold might not seem like much, but it can add up over time. This can be useful towards building up a nice little stash of Gold that allows you to play more cards over the course of a standard game of Armello. This will also frustrate your opponents to no end, limiting the number of cards they can play from their own hands — gold makes Armello go ’round!
Don’t forget you’ll already be starting with 6 Gold. The extra provided by this ability is truly more money in the bag!
General Playstyle
One of the surest paths to victory for Mercurio is based on two actions: capturing settlements, and making the board a pain to navigate by playing Perils.
Capturing your opponent’s settlements activates Mercurio’s Hero Ability, which as mentioned earlier steals 1 Gold from that opponent. Even just 1 Gold can seriously mess with your competitors’ plans to cast spells, play Perils to sabotage you (or others, or both), and equip items for battle.
Mercurio’s Hero Ability enables the rest of his kit to work quite nicely together. As you begin traveling from quest to quest, take the extra moves needed to capture settlements along the way.
The Gold generated from doing this will allow you to play more Trickery Perils than other characters. You’ll be able to play them frequently, damaging and frustrating your opponents as they try to complete their quests. This will also make the board difficult to navigate in general. Your opponents will have to decide to risk their health or Gold, or to take the extra moves required to avoid your Perils. This leaves you free to focus on your own path to victory!
While all types of victories are possible with Mercurio given his balanced stat sheet – Spirit not withstanding – a prestige victory is probably one of the easier types to achieve. Given his high Wits stat, he has an easier time dealing with Perils put into place by the King or other players. You shouldn’t walk into every peril space on the board, but if it’s easier to get to a quest by going through one, you don’t have to worry about it too much.
After taking a settlement or two in the first few turns, feel free to start tackling quests or even battling banes and other players to raise your prestige. When you do feel ready to attack, wait until night to gain one extra dice for your rolls.
Suggested Loadout
An aggressive, offense-focused loadout works well when playing as Mercurio. This includes the Ruby Ring, which allows the first rolled Sword die in battle to explode. The Black Opal Ring is also a nice option, granting stealth and +1 Sword whenever you’re in a settlement. We often couple either of those rings with the Scratch amulet, which raises Mercurio’s base Fight stat of 4 up to 5.
If you happen to have The Rivals DLC, you can also consider the Cat’s Eye Ring, giving you a 1 Gold discount on the first Trickery Card you play each turn. This will stretch Mercurio’s already sizable Gold reserves further.
Be A Rat
If you’re an Armello player who likes to pester opponents at every opportunity by stealing their Gold and slowing their progress around the board, then Mercurio is a great option to try out! Sneaking around and getting surprise attacks in on your opponents with the Black Opal Ring loadout is a fun way to play, too! Combined with a focus on gaining prestige around the land, Mercurio can be a great character to lead you to victory and the throne of the Kingdom of Armello!
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