Mercenaries
Astonishia Story mercenaries guide — how the Round Up and Recruit system works, every confirmed optional recruit with unique skills, and how to build your party by talking to everyone.
Introduction
Beyond the fixed story party, Astonishia Story hides a cast of optional mercenaries behind its Round Up and Recruit system. These characters do not join automatically — you find them by exploring thoroughly and talking to everyone, from villagers in towns to figures on the edges of the main route. Each mercenary brings their own unique skill set, which means the party you field is a real choice shaped by who you found and recruited. The Mercenaries hub documents the confirmed optional recruits, explains how recruitment works in the classic and the remake, and gives practical advice on which mercenaries to prioritize as your party grows. Because the western release is still ahead, confirmed details anchor this page while softer recruitment hints stay clearly labeled as historical or community knowledge.
Mercenaries Worth Recruiting
The confirmed optional recruits of the Round Up and Recruit system — each one brings a unique skill set and joins when you explore and talk to everyone.
Patton
Recruit Tip: Off the main path — exhaust every town's dialogue to find him
Herzo
Recruit Tip: Joins during the elven conflict arc as the story reaches Ferarin
Dryden
Recruit Tip: Unusual circumstances — revisit locations and exhaust optional dialogue
Recruit Spotlights
Patton
The mercenary captain with a veteran squad behind him
Herzo
The elven military commander who joins as war looms
Dryden
The mysterious figure whose motives surface late
Core Mechanics
The Round Up and Recruit system is Astonishia Story's answer to party flexibility. In both the classic design and the remake, optional mercenaries sit off the main path: they appear in towns, at road junctions and in the margins of story events, and the way to find them is consistent — talk to everyone and explore everything. Each mercenary brings a unique skill set, so recruiting choices translate directly into battlefield options. The system rewards the social, curious play style the game encourages everywhere: every NPC conversation is a potential lead, every revisited location a possible new encounter, and every story beat an opportunity for a recruit's dialogue to change how you build your final party.
Advantages
Recruiting mercenaries makes the party genuinely yours rather than a fixed story lineup. The optional recruits add classes and skills the story cast may lack, letting you adapt to hard battles that punish a narrow team — more physical presence, more range, more flexibility on the grid. The hunt itself is also part of the fun: the talk-to-everyone loop gives towns and routes a second life, and the confirmable roster gives completionists a clear checklist. For players who want replay value before launch, knowing who is optional and roughly where they hide turns the first playthrough into a proper expedition.
Challenges
The mercenary pool has an unavoidable documentation gap: the western remake has not launched, and the original sources describe several recruits only in passing. Only a few optional characters are firmly confirmed with names and roles — like Patton, Herzo and Dryden — while others remain undocumented, so this roster is shorter than the full in-game list will be. Exact recruit timings, dialogue conditions and skill details will need hands-on verification after release, and anything marked as historical knowledge should be treated as a lead rather than a guarantee for the 2027 build. The talk-to-everyone advice in the guides remains the best practical strategy for finding recruits, and the hub will be expanded as soon as the western version is in players' hands.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I recruit mercenaries in Astonishia Story?+
Can I miss mercenaries permanently?+
Are mercenaries better than the story party?+
How many mercenaries are in the game?+
Quick Tips
Make the talk-to-everyone rule a habit from hour one: NPCs who look unimportant today can become recruitment leads after the next story event. Mercenary recruitment in Astonishia Story is often triggered by dialogue choices or returning to a town at the right moment, so check back regularly. Keep a mental map of who asked you for what, and review the characters hub before moving to a new region to see which recruits remain open.
Add one mercenary at a time and learn their skill set in a low-stakes fight before trusting them in a boss battle. A recruit's starting level and equipment may lag behind your main party, so spend one random encounter checking their damage, range and survivability. If a mercenary fills a role your roster lacks, invest in their gear quickly; if they simply duplicate a favorite, keep them benched until a map calls for their particular strength.
Use the mercenaries to fix lineup holes rather than replacing favorites — an archer recruit covers what a party of melee units cannot. Before you recruit, look at your current formation and identify the weakest role, then pick the optional character who fills it. This keeps your core identity intact while making the roster genuinely more flexible, which matters on maps that punish a single strategy.
Revisit older towns after every major chapter; the game's design rewards checking back, and new faces appear as the story widens. A town you cleared hours ago can hold a new shop, a follow-up side event or a mercenary lead that only unlocks after a certain plot flag. Weave backtracking into your exploration windows between chapters so you never miss a recruit who is available for only a short span of the game.
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