Livewire is a must take just for her unique perk knowing were every enemy is on the map with intel is broken, Mouse is actually really good as an Shotgun Assualter she is mobile as hell and Barry's Perk shaped charges are strong as hell
Livewire is awesome - I just can't handle her voice. It feels like someone sticking needles in my spinal column. That's not a reflection on the actress, just that the voice she used has *just* the right frequency for it to feel really uncomfortable to me.
also lifewire has 50 medical which is enough for starting. so u do not need any medic in ur first 4 mercs. and her extremly high wisdom makes her great for training all her skills even further and become a good sniper later on. and she never fails any mechanics check for repairing, hacking, disabling traps or picking locks ever thanks to her high stats and the mr.fixit trait. also she gains additional intel from hacking through her PDA, which is especially usefull with her special perk
I highly recommend to make your own custom merc AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, mid first mission if you follow this guide. You pay a one time fee of 6700 and NEVER have to rehire. I have not tried, but I guess you can make a whole team of custom mercs. Drop two skills that you are not going to use on that character like Explosives and Mechanics to 0, and you will have plenty of points. I made an assassin, but you can make whatever you want/need. If you don't know, you go to command, then browser and finally to I.M.P web. Remember to select manual creation.
You did NOT generate your OWN mercenary! It's one time purchase and will not add to your cost during the campaign. So it is actually the best merc available
Not necessarily. It has no personality compared to the other written characters that will react and banter, which is one of my favorite aspects of JA. And second, they’re cheaper long term but at 7k they’re more expensive when money matters most: in the first 2 weeks compared to Fox, Barry, MD, etc. The only thing IMPs stand out for is 85 leadership for far less than Raider and arguably just as much personality.
I'm a big fan of starting with just Ivan and Kalyna. Ivan is an absolute unit who just crush like 3 or 4 people at a time, and Kalyna can be turnt into an amazing sniper by stealing a better gun on the starting island and putting a scope on it. Put a suppressor on it and you can essentially skirt around the edge of the map taking out stragglers and really make your engagements easier. Find an MG (not the one you get in the bunker on H3, give that to what his face in the town at H2) and bipod it up with Ivan for massive damage. I've taken the island and the whole first content with Ivan + Kalyna on Mission Impossible and no other Merc's.
What most people forget about FOX, she has 100 dexerity. This means, she's super stealthy and deadly with a knife. I killed an entire sector with her. If you use Fox + Blood, you can clear entire squads just with knives.
I am not a fan of Fox and those other silly mercs but yea she and Mouse probably good mercs for melee but my favorites are Blood & Igor by far. Later on in the game you can hire Shadow (1 of the best stealth mercs in the game)
I equip to Blood & Igor as secondary weapon with sharpened machetes (higher crit chance) or "The Thing" after the prison break, Pierre has also a unique machete called "Legion`s Pride" so once i get Pierre i would also build him up as a melee merc. @@23lizardking
Pretty good picks but I would argue Livewire would be a better choice for mechanic over Kalyna. The training perk that Fox and Wolf get seems to far outweigh leadership so they will be better trainers than Kalyna. Livewire's unique trait and item highlights all enemies on the map if you have Intel for the area and gets bonus money rewards from hacking. Kalyna is better in combat initially but her low Wisdom means she will take much longer to train her skills. Part of the fun is all the potential combinations of mercs and perks that are possible.
Get both IMO. Kalyna for the OP rifle that is easily modded early with improved ladder sights and improvised can. Stealth kills to open a fight become almost guaranteed vs trying to do them up close with anyone that isn't blood.
Always go Raven over Wolf. She is an absolute goddess of death (be sure to pick your custom merc first, otherwise she gets more expensive). She'll hit 100 marksmanship while you're still on tutorial island (with magazines, of course). Vicky is an expensive option for a mechanic, but she does have an infinite tool and automatically repairs equip without taking the action. She also has better fighting stats (D/A/M) than Wolf. True, she is more expensive, but ultimately she costs only 500 per day more than Wolf+Kalyna while outclassing both of them. She also pays for herself by saving time repairing and flawlessly upgrading weapons (give her a fully upgraded weapon and she is even better than before). Also, her cost is deceptive, she has one of the highest medical costs (one time payments). Lastly, MD is better than he looks. Like Barry he's very cheap yet he makes every medical and every wisdom check. Due to his high wisdom he also levels up quickly. Though I'd say he shines as a medic for players that are strong enough to never need one. If you're not constantly stitching limbs back to the mercs who lost them, you can train him up so he soon eclipses Fox.
IMO you want to create your IMP merc on day 1. Max Agi/Wis/Dex and either str, explosives or marksmanship depending on whether you are going guns or melee or bombs. Pump ladership after that, dump med/mech to 0. Wolf is overkill for the first island IMO. I like him a lot later for his unique perk. I start with Barry, Livewire, Kalyna and then either Fox or MD. Both are good for the money, MD is really bad in combat due to low agi and mediocre marksmanship. It's too bad Steroid hates communists (won't join you if you have Igor or Ivan anywhere) and lots of other mercs seem to hate him.
Barry: All things considered, price, Wisdom, perks, stat average, he is the strongest merc in the whole game. Second best bang for the buck: Ice. Depending on difficulty, you have less funds; - MD is in that case, with 94 Wisdom/ 91 Medicine, a fairly solid replacement for Mouse/Fox, who are both rather similar. Wolf is of course fantastic; especially with less funds, Igor or Buns are both way more cost-efficient at the very beginning , though. Or, if you really have to: Ice, of course. Kalyna is actually about as terrible as it gets as a starting mercenary: 48 Wisdom guarantees that she will never really improve over the course of the whole game. Her job is, later on, solely to cheaply train militia. Cf: Ira in JA2. And, randomly repair some equipment. - In the starting team, the player avatar should have 85 in at least Health/Agility /Marksmanship, and Leadership; so , an additional militia trainer is not really immediately required: Livewire ftw!
I like my mercs with high wisdom to have them improve quickly, so I used Livewire, Barry from cheap section and Buns (sniper) and Thor (medic). All above 80 wisdom, most over 90.
In my opinion as a Jagged Alliance veteran, btw finished the game since it release 6 times and 2 times in Ironman. I would go any day with those 4 mercs in the start ; IMP (with high leadership as a leader with good agility, dexterity,wisdom, marksmanship, would keep Mechanical, Explosive & Medical as low as possible) so the other 3 would be most definitely Barry (imo the best explosive merc in the game, has good overall stats; comes with high dexterity and wisdom already which means you can get him into a elite merc half through the game), then Igor is a must and imo the best all arounder of the game, with a lil improvement he becomes just like his uncle Ivan or even better half of the game. As for mechanic Livewire is surely the best option as a recruit (she can become also a elite merc in mid game due very high wisdom with some training) but her cartoony voice lines really goes into my nerves (we cant mute the mercs either like back in JA2) like we are playing a child game, so is Kalyna imo so i would go with Steroid but mid of the game i would take surely Vicki into my first team, she is the best mechanic of the game imo with good shooting stats + wisdom. I would also highly recommend to get Flay as soon as possible after finishing the Ernie Island, i would directly go to the north and track him down, his probably the best sniper of the game with a lil training agility and dexterity, his shooting % is never below %90 with me, also recommend to keep his Winchester Lever Action Rifle still end game as its really effective especially later with the AP & Hollow bullets. So my starting team on Ironman run would be with IMP, Barry, Igor & Steroid. Mid to end game first squad would be IMP, Barry, Igor (as i said he becomes better than Ivan around mid game), Flay, Vicki or Steroid (if i still keep him and train his agility), then as a 6. merc i would go either with Blood or Fidel (i like Fauda but i think she is overpriced, she supposed to be on Elite imo). As for doctor, i try to avoid to take a doctor with me in my squad, the strategy am playing is to get hit as less as possible and with a merc who has around 50 medical (Blood, Buns, Flay, Livewire, Wolf etc....) can also get the job done well enough but if i had to take a medic with me from start of the game it would be surely MD (he has also very silly voice lines) i tested all the doctors already and i must say Thor is the best overall medic imo, also comes with overall good stats, if not Thor then Dr.Q (he can also improve his stats quickly due good wisdom and can become also a very good stealth killer) but the only time i really needed a medic was for those medical checks to be honest in the Refugee Camp, Sanatorium and few other locations.
I have trouble after a squad is made and played a while and then when I hire a single merc to join up with my existing squad it winds up in a different squad name and then I don't know how to join up the two squads? How can you link up two different squads under the same name? I understand you can never have more than 6 mercs in a squad, so that's not an issue. Thanks.
Using mouse and keyboard - if you click on the squad in the top left when in the exploration/zone map menu you can drag mercs to and from different squads by holding left click! Hope that helps!
I would like push for Fox. She adds conversation alternatives and her perk rendering attacked enemies surprised instead of alert, basically gives her two shots at enemies, before they can retaliate.
Otherwise I ran Livewire, Kalyna and own character in really early game and added Fidel and Raven late early/early mid game. Livewire does however NOT like Raven.
The best starting lineup for me is Barry, Livewire, Fox and Wolf. For Leadership, I would use the IMP Merc with Leadership maxed out. Kalyna is nice but unfortunately she has a tendency to fail mechanical and leadership checks as they are not high enough. I use her for my 2nd squad.
Blood is a God of War. Teamed with Raven he’s Death. Her marked on overwatch talent is crazy. Blood has so many attacks and they all crit in her overwatch.
@@DrZaius3141 yeah he's not that great really, but early and start game you need someone who passes all mechanic checks and someone handy to be a punch bag and take a load of bullets without dying.
@@DrZaius3141 he's still passed all mechanic checks for me mid game and is over 90 in mechanics and I've save a lot of cash with him being the cheapest by far. But his agility/dexterity is starting to be a downfall though. I've got almost half a million saved up so I can get a full 2nd squad. One I'm gonna have a better mechanic, medic with Barry for explosives, with my created imp who is over 90 for the main stats, a couple of marksmen. 2nd squad is gonna keep training the militia and chasing convoys and keeping the invasions away.
@@steve323f When I said that he was outclassed by everyone else, I didn't mean they had a higher mechanic skill than him (as you can read in those brackets), but that they're cheaper (Kalyna, Livewire) or vastly superior when it comes to fighting (Vicky, Magic) than Steroid. I'd argue that even Kalyna and Livewire are better at fighting than Steroid, because what they lack in marksmanship they compensate easily with agi/dex. Livewire also has super high wisdom, so two training sessions and she has more accuracy than Steroid.
Cheap but high wisdom characters are the best investment I think because they learn fast. I had my 80 ldrship and marksmanship merc train livewire and barry for 2days and they got 6-7 levels of marksmanship.
I disagree with kalyna beeing the better choice at the start. That little Leadership (52) is outshined by Fox or Wolf who both have the "Teaching" Perk which decreases the training time A LOT. Merc with 55 Leadership takes - 1d 14h for training. Merc with 89 Leadership takes - 1d 05h for training. now if u have the "Teaching" Perk: Fox with 44 Leadership - 21h 15min Starting Merc with lets say 95 Leadership - 14h 15min So I take Livewire all the time instead. When she Hacks u get Intel around your area. (saves you time from Scouting Operation) and the MAIN REASON u want her : WALLHACK her Unique Perk Inside Dope reveals all Enemies on the Map, as long as u have Intel on that area. U also can make her a Moral Buffer onwards. Shes also Cheap - 14 Days cost u 7.000$ Kalyndas Perk is nice later on when u have for example Hollow Point Rounds for that 50% extra crit but losing Penetration doesnt affect this Skill
Kalyna is for me used purely as an early game marksman. Starting setup.. Barry, Mouse, Kalyna, Livewire and Grizzly. If playing with more starting funds I go Red instead of Barry, though I would argue Barry is potentially better because of his crafting of shaped charges. You do not really need a dedicated medic until later game, which I would then recommend Dr. Q while dropping Kalyna. As for leadership, do that on your main character alongside Teaching. You will want to drop Kalyna as you hit level 3+ though as she will stagnate badly because of her lack of wisdom and stats in general.
@@gangr3l I mean you can train anything, wisdom included. Wisdom is not OP like it was in JA2. Agility is the more important, by far, combat stat and this is a combat game. edit: Just realized wisdom is the only thing you can't train, or one of a very few things you can't train. That said I never have trained much, I don't have enough mercs to go around and I always have higher priority operations.
Best Starting MUST have Blood - its a fucking Killer, who statistically have 3 times more frags, then any one else) My MUST HAVE mercs in the beginning - Blood, Kalina, Barry (and 4ts Ice, Igor, or Grunty)
Very True: some mercenary come with medical insurance that you just deposit once. If they leave, you get your money back. When you extend their services, you won't have to pay that fee again, while other mercs, like Barry, and Kalyna come with a cash only option and their cost scale linearly with the time you pay them for. Buns, which is a much better sniper then Kalyna and has 92+ wisdom, and actually costs less the first if you rent her for 2 weeks. Kalyna is also as dumb as a box or rocks, will fall behind in levelling soon, is overall expensive and comes with just an old rifle, soon to become obsolete.
save you money in the long run you get a discount the longer you hire them for the price of a 14 day contract is way less they 2 7 day contracts back to back
Hiring Kalyna is a bad investment she has EXTREMELY low wisdom its just not worth imo while on the otherhand livewire has EXTREMELY HIGH wisdom this is useful for alot of things but most importantly its how you fast you level up abilities she also can serve as a backup medic which is extremely important imo. Livewires ability is also extremely useful because she can see all enemies if she has intel and fun fact if you use her for intel gathering she has a better chance because of her unique item to get Intel. Meanwhile Kalyna is trying to be a sniper but why would you ever need a sniper with an ability to PIERCE armor for alot of armors snipers just pierce it normally and if not you can have armor piercing rounds which snipers use very little of because they are one shot one kill weapons "MOSTOFTHETIME" Nightops is useful until you realize night vision goggles exist and why would you need head armor for your sniper that SHOULD be in the best position far away or high up or my favorite Far away and high up. However at the end of the day what matters is who you like more so pick whoever it'll work out if you're good enough :D!
Kalyna is maybe a merc you dont need to keep forever - like a rifle boost starting class. Livewire - well i need to mod her portrait and big portrait first - i cant have that "the sims" look of some mercs. xD
May be good just to hire her for 3 days, just to take her gun. It's way better then other starting weapons. Her ignore armor perk is nice but so is Livewires where you can see all enemies
MD / Livewire / Barry. 90+ wisdom char with 80+ specialist. 4th char pick your imp with 85 leader/wisdom/agility/dext /mark with no spec. You want at least the perk academic with you imp livewire and MD will catch up really fast with few training. As Soon you finished the first island, take wolf and rush the first diamond mine. ;o)
"Doesn't like Barry" >> Immediately proceed to click on that upper-right little cross OFF my screen. That'll show for his insolence. Now if y'all please, "Forgive me for taking life.
My teams MVP are: Mouse with a close range rifle; she slays so much. Grizzly with a MG kills so many aswell when setup. Red with his 100 in demolition is a group killer with grenades and clears all mines.
As others mentioned, Kalyna is a bit of a newbie-trap. Yes, she is a good mechanic and sniper early on, but due to her low wisdom she will fall behind soon. On the other hand, I feel a lot of folks are underestimating Mouse. If you like going sneaky, she is an excellent early choice.
I have to disagree with Kalyna. She is a killer on the M24 99.9% shots hit and her perk bypassing amor is just insane. Saved me so many deadly encounters with armored dudes
Start with your char with high expoisves stat. 2nd will be with medic (Fox or MD) and 3rd mechanic (Kalina/Livewire) I'll say "Blood" is great for begining as 4th if u wanna save ammo and take enemies in stealth. He can be backup medic and scout as well, throws granades in long distance and is strong enogh to pass strenght tests. He has unlimited throwing knives which hits harder than pistols and u can throw like 4 of them in one turn, basically killing even harder enemies in 1 turn. You can just take him instead of expolive expert if u'll make explosive expert as your free char. Good choice for 5th/6th member (when u'll go to mainland) is to take Buns, she is incredible efficient in shooting. Another 5th/6th i'll recommend Wolf.
I honestly didn't think to add in I was so focused on starting characters and did not realize you could make your own at the very start on any difficulty level!
Is Wisom also basically the most important stat in 3 like it was in 3? Can't say I remember all of my 'fav' team in 2, but it was mostly high wis cheap people that started out meh when you don't need them to be strong, but got outrageous by the end. I know Fox and Buns were in the starting lineup though.
Wisdom is extremely good, yes. It's not only the primary stat for mercs' growth, it's also the main stat for spotting hidden things, like loot or traps.
It is cool how many of the Xcom likes released over the last few years have tried to deviate from Overwatch spam from Xcom. This game on the otherhand, prioritizes the use of Overwatch. This game has a very good combat system, but it is in need of a lot of help from the modding community and Devs to make it easier to utilize.
yea, realtime mode is like: set up overwatch for all mercs and go in with 1 merc to try to stealth kill. When he gets detected you can go and make a coffe till overwatch show is over xD
I'm really looking forward to the modding tools and campaign creator tools they are going to release. Pretty sure we'll see some awesome campaigns from the community
Get good marksmanship on 3 characters and give them rifles - no need for overwatch anymore. Essentially, you outrange everyone so you just let them come into your field of view and pick them off as they approach. Overwatch is just unnecessary hassle.
Fox and Buns is not the best combination either as Buns dislikes Fox being a bit "lose" and flirty xD Buns is a great marksman with a rifle though! Always hitting her target.
With $7,470 left you can make your own custom merc, and with Wolf's 65 mechanic, you might consider make your custom merc the leader, and instead of hyring Kalyna hire Blood. But I got to admit she got a god tier perk, but her low wisdom makes her slower to level up at the second half of the game. I think it all depends on what you do with your custom merc. But make your custom merc at the start, as he $6900, and one time purchase. No contract, as he is kinda you.
Only quitters and losers restart because they fail to adapt to hardship. You get the cards. Deal with the deck. It will teach you how to deal with the worst better.
@@dantauche7917 I was talking about starting with whatever characters you have access too. I still save scum. But it's with the cards I'm dealt. Think of it like Xcom with whatever people come along.
![Jagged Alliance 3 - Before you start: Things to know! [EN] by Kordanor](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ll0aNrCbP2E/mqdefault.jpg)
Livewire is a must take just for her unique perk knowing were every enemy is on the map with intel is broken, Mouse is actually really good as an Shotgun Assualter she is mobile as hell and Barry's Perk shaped charges are strong as hell
Livewire also pays for herself through hackables
I use Mouse to just go wild with the combat knife. I gave her the free move after melee perk and she can kill up to five every turn!
Livewire is awesome - I just can't handle her voice. It feels like someone sticking needles in my spinal column.
That's not a reflection on the actress, just that the voice she used has *just* the right frequency for it to feel really uncomfortable to me.
also lifewire has 50 medical which is enough for starting. so u do not need any medic in ur first 4 mercs. and her extremly high wisdom makes her great for training all her skills even further and become a good sniper later on. and she never fails any mechanics check for repairing, hacking, disabling traps or picking locks ever thanks to her high stats and the mr.fixit trait. also she gains additional intel from hacking through her PDA, which is especially usefull with her special perk
Kalyana is good to hire for minimum days just to get her rifle, IMO
My advise is to hire Blood, his throwing weapon ability is ridiculous good because you need no ammo only cheap 3AP!
Good call out - haven't used him much tbh
And is versatile. For my game he use shootgun and even sniper rifle (good dexterity and marksman). Very cool merc.
I highly recommend to make your own custom merc AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, mid first mission if you follow this guide. You pay a one time fee of 6700 and NEVER have to rehire. I have not tried, but I guess you can make a whole team of custom mercs. Drop two skills that you are not going to use on that character like Explosives and Mechanics to 0, and you will have plenty of points. I made an assassin, but you can make whatever you want/need.
If you don't know, you go to command, then browser and finally to I.M.P web. Remember to select manual creation.
You can make only one custom merc.
@@MarvMarvensen Make sense, I don't think I would have done it even if I could. You would miss out on all the cool banter.
@@MarvMarvensenis this true, just one custom merc?
You did NOT generate your OWN mercenary! It's one time purchase and will not add to your cost during the campaign. So it is actually the best merc available
I was just about to ask this. I'm about 10 hours in and I have a food setup, but I'm starting over with new own mercs
He has still 7k left, so he can get his own merc
Not necessarily. It has no personality compared to the other written characters that will react and banter, which is one of my favorite aspects of JA.
And second, they’re cheaper long term but at 7k they’re more expensive when money matters most: in the first 2 weeks compared to Fox, Barry, MD, etc.
The only thing IMPs stand out for is 85 leadership for far less than Raider and arguably just as much personality.
@@hedekbass the IMP is the best merc if played as a knife CC guy. He is also essential in the highest difficulty.
I'm a big fan of starting with just Ivan and Kalyna. Ivan is an absolute unit who just crush like 3 or 4 people at a time, and Kalyna can be turnt into an amazing sniper by stealing a better gun on the starting island and putting a scope on it. Put a suppressor on it and you can essentially skirt around the edge of the map taking out stragglers and really make your engagements easier. Find an MG (not the one you get in the bunker on H3, give that to what his face in the town at H2) and bipod it up with Ivan for massive damage. I've taken the island and the whole first content with Ivan + Kalyna on Mission Impossible and no other Merc's.
How about also adding the one custom Merc from IMP ?
afaik you even only pay a one time fee and can skill the merc how you like.
Yup, I’d say the custom merc is a must have in the starting lineup.
@@BluishGnome absolutely
What most people forget about FOX, she has 100 dexerity. This means, she's super stealthy and deadly with a knife. I killed an entire sector with her. If you use Fox + Blood, you can clear entire squads just with knives.
I am not a fan of Fox and those other silly mercs but yea she and Mouse probably good mercs for melee but my favorites are Blood & Igor by far. Later on in the game you can hire Shadow (1 of the best stealth mercs in the game)
@@lobonocturno420 yes! Blood and his unlimited knives + special attack that costs close to nothing in AP is something something!
I equip to Blood & Igor as secondary weapon with sharpened machetes (higher crit chance) or "The Thing" after the prison break, Pierre has also a unique machete called "Legion`s Pride" so once i get Pierre i would also build him up as a melee merc. @@23lizardking
Pretty good picks but I would argue Livewire would be a better choice for mechanic over Kalyna. The training perk that Fox and Wolf get seems to far outweigh leadership so they will be better trainers than Kalyna. Livewire's unique trait and item highlights all enemies on the map if you have Intel for the area and gets bonus money rewards from hacking. Kalyna is better in combat initially but her low Wisdom means she will take much longer to train her skills.
Part of the fun is all the potential combinations of mercs and perks that are possible.
livewire is always tired. probably because of her low health. I want my mechanic to fix weapons, not rest the whole damn time.
I actually like livewire better overall and agree to previous comments on leveling up/perks later game!
Get both IMO. Kalyna for the OP rifle that is easily modded early with improved ladder sights and improvised can. Stealth kills to open a fight become almost guaranteed vs trying to do them up close with anyone that isn't blood.
Always go Raven over Wolf. She is an absolute goddess of death (be sure to pick your custom merc first, otherwise she gets more expensive). She'll hit 100 marksmanship while you're still on tutorial island (with magazines, of course).
Vicky is an expensive option for a mechanic, but she does have an infinite tool and automatically repairs equip without taking the action. She also has better fighting stats (D/A/M) than Wolf. True, she is more expensive, but ultimately she costs only 500 per day more than Wolf+Kalyna while outclassing both of them. She also pays for herself by saving time repairing and flawlessly upgrading weapons (give her a fully upgraded weapon and she is even better than before). Also, her cost is deceptive, she has one of the highest medical costs (one time payments).
Lastly, MD is better than he looks. Like Barry he's very cheap yet he makes every medical and every wisdom check. Due to his high wisdom he also levels up quickly. Though I'd say he shines as a medic for players that are strong enough to never need one. If you're not constantly stitching limbs back to the mercs who lost them, you can train him up so he soon eclipses Fox.
Raven was one of the best startup merks in JA2 I believe.
IMO you want to create your IMP merc on day 1. Max Agi/Wis/Dex and either str, explosives or marksmanship depending on whether you are going guns or melee or bombs. Pump ladership after that, dump med/mech to 0. Wolf is overkill for the first island IMO. I like him a lot later for his unique perk. I start with Barry, Livewire, Kalyna and then either Fox or MD. Both are good for the money, MD is really bad in combat due to low agi and mediocre marksmanship. It's too bad Steroid hates communists (won't join you if you have Igor or Ivan anywhere) and lots of other mercs seem to hate him.
Barry is the best explosive experts for me tbh.
Super Cheap too
He is an auto take for me.
tried him out yesterday and damn, even his grenades are legit
Barry is very good - just his commentary and pacifist attitude....
Shaped charges are god tier. Love me some Barry.
Kalyna, Barry, MD and Livewire plus the selfmade one are my best starting options.
Honestly I like MD - he's so positive.
Also cheap and wise.
Barry: All things considered, price, Wisdom, perks, stat average, he is the strongest merc in the whole game. Second best bang for the buck: Ice. Depending on difficulty, you have less funds; - MD is in that case, with 94 Wisdom/ 91 Medicine, a fairly solid replacement for Mouse/Fox, who are both rather similar. Wolf is of course fantastic; especially with less funds, Igor or Buns are both way more cost-efficient at the very beginning , though. Or, if you really have to: Ice, of course. Kalyna is actually about as terrible as it gets as a starting mercenary: 48 Wisdom guarantees that she will never really improve over the course of the whole game. Her job is, later on, solely to cheaply train militia. Cf: Ira in JA2. And, randomly repair some equipment. - In the starting team, the player avatar should have 85 in at least Health/Agility /Marksmanship, and Leadership; so , an additional militia trainer is not really immediately required: Livewire ftw!
I like my mercs with high wisdom to have them improve quickly, so I used Livewire, Barry from cheap section and Buns (sniper) and Thor (medic). All above 80 wisdom, most over 90.
In my opinion as a Jagged Alliance veteran, btw finished the game since it release 6 times and 2 times in Ironman. I would go any day with those 4 mercs in the start ; IMP (with high leadership as a leader with good agility, dexterity,wisdom, marksmanship, would keep Mechanical, Explosive & Medical as low as possible) so the other 3 would be most definitely Barry (imo the best explosive merc in the game, has good overall stats; comes with high dexterity and wisdom already which means you can get him into a elite merc half through the game), then Igor is a must and imo the best all arounder of the game, with a lil improvement he becomes just like his uncle Ivan or even better half of the game. As for mechanic Livewire is surely the best option as a recruit (she can become also a elite merc in mid game due very high wisdom with some training) but her cartoony voice lines really goes into my nerves (we cant mute the mercs either like back in JA2) like we are playing a child game, so is Kalyna imo so i would go with Steroid but mid of the game i would take surely Vicki into my first team, she is the best mechanic of the game imo with good shooting stats + wisdom. I would also highly recommend to get Flay as soon as possible after finishing the Ernie Island, i would directly go to the north and track him down, his probably the best sniper of the game with a lil training agility and dexterity, his shooting % is never below %90 with me, also recommend to keep his Winchester Lever Action Rifle still end game as its really effective especially later with the AP & Hollow bullets. So my starting team on Ironman run would be with IMP, Barry, Igor & Steroid. Mid to end game first squad would be IMP, Barry, Igor (as i said he becomes better than Ivan around mid game), Flay, Vicki or Steroid (if i still keep him and train his agility), then as a 6. merc i would go either with Blood or Fidel (i like Fauda but i think she is overpriced, she supposed to be on Elite imo).
As for doctor, i try to avoid to take a doctor with me in my squad, the strategy am playing is to get hit as less as possible and with a merc who has around 50 medical (Blood, Buns, Flay, Livewire, Wolf etc....) can also get the job done well enough but if i had to take a medic with me from start of the game it would be surely MD (he has also very silly voice lines) i tested all the doctors already and i must say Thor is the best overall medic imo, also comes with overall good stats, if not Thor then Dr.Q (he can also improve his stats quickly due good wisdom and can become also a very good stealth killer) but the only time i really needed a medic was for those medical checks to be honest in the Refugee Camp, Sanatorium and few other locations.
Barry is the best value. Can meet all the wisdom and diffuse checks and Creates the best grenades in the game for free..
Agree! And his commentary has grown on me...!
I have trouble after a squad is made and played a while and then when I hire a single merc to join up with my existing squad it winds up in a different squad name and then I don't know how to join up the two squads? How can you link up two different squads under the same name? I understand you can never have more than 6 mercs in a squad, so that's not an issue. Thanks.
Using mouse and keyboard - if you click on the squad in the top left when in the exploration/zone map menu you can drag mercs to and from different squads by holding left click! Hope that helps!
Thank you! @@ShadowcoastGaming
you forgot to add your own character
Yes, good call out focused on starting chars you can select and completely missed creating your own!
I would like push for Fox. She adds conversation alternatives and her perk rendering attacked enemies surprised instead of alert, basically gives her two shots at enemies, before they can retaliate.
Otherwise I ran Livewire, Kalyna and own character in really early game and added Fidel and Raven late early/early mid game. Livewire does however NOT like Raven.
mouse is the best. 99 agility and 95 dexterity. after the bunker fight she had 100% accuracy, 9 kills, 8 stealth kills.
Yeah she is good with a Shotgun how mobile she is
The best starting lineup for me is Barry, Livewire, Fox and Wolf. For Leadership, I would use the IMP Merc with Leadership maxed out. Kalyna is nice but unfortunately she has a tendency to fail mechanical and leadership checks as they are not high enough. I use her for my 2nd squad.
Yup, I think Livewire overall is better actually!
Blood is a God of War. Teamed with Raven he’s Death. Her marked on overwatch talent is crazy. Blood has so many attacks and they all crit in her overwatch.
Thank you :)
I’d agree in general, but I prefer snipers over all-rounders. Later in the game with sniper rifles they become really deadly…
Steriod, Barry and Kalyna is my go-to. You can add Buns for wisdom check
Hire steroid then md and you will get a price penalty. Hire md first then steroid after. No penalty, no issue. This applies to a few characters.
Or never ever hire Steroid, ever. He might just be the worst merc available.
@@DrZaius3141 yeah he's not that great really, but early and start game you need someone who passes all mechanic checks and someone handy to be a punch bag and take a load of bullets without dying.
@@steve323f Yet virtually every other mechanic outclasses him (either by being cheaper or by being a fully viable combat merc (Vicky
@@DrZaius3141 he's still passed all mechanic checks for me mid game and is over 90 in mechanics and I've save a lot of cash with him being the cheapest by far. But his agility/dexterity is starting to be a downfall though. I've got almost half a million saved up so I can get a full 2nd squad. One I'm gonna have a better mechanic, medic with Barry for explosives, with my created imp who is over 90 for the main stats, a couple of marksmen. 2nd squad is gonna keep training the militia and chasing convoys and keeping the invasions away.
@@steve323f When I said that he was outclassed by everyone else, I didn't mean they had a higher mechanic skill than him (as you can read in those brackets), but that they're cheaper (Kalyna, Livewire) or vastly superior when it comes to fighting (Vicky, Magic) than Steroid. I'd argue that even Kalyna and Livewire are better at fighting than Steroid, because what they lack in marksmanship they compensate easily with agi/dex. Livewire also has super high wisdom, so two training sessions and she has more accuracy than Steroid.
Cheap but high wisdom characters are the best investment I think because they learn fast. I had my 80 ldrship and marksmanship merc train livewire and barry for 2days and they got 6-7 levels of marksmanship.
I disagree with kalyna beeing the better choice at the start.
That little Leadership (52) is outshined by Fox or Wolf who both have
the "Teaching" Perk which decreases the training time A LOT.
Merc with 55 Leadership takes - 1d 14h for training.
Merc with 89 Leadership takes - 1d 05h for training.
now if u have the "Teaching" Perk:
Fox with 44 Leadership - 21h 15min
Starting Merc with lets say 95 Leadership - 14h 15min
So I take Livewire all the time instead.
When she Hacks u get Intel around your area.
(saves you time from Scouting Operation)
and the MAIN REASON u want her : WALLHACK
her Unique Perk Inside Dope reveals all Enemies on the Map,
as long as u have Intel on that area.
U also can make her a Moral Buffer onwards.
Shes also Cheap - 14 Days cost u 7.000$
Kalyndas Perk is nice later on when u have for example Hollow Point Rounds
for that 50% extra crit but losing Penetration doesnt affect this Skill
I agree - after a few different campaigns, I've decided Livewire is way better for the long run!
Kalyna is for me used purely as an early game marksman.
Starting setup.. Barry, Mouse, Kalyna, Livewire and Grizzly.
If playing with more starting funds I go Red instead of Barry, though I would argue Barry is potentially better because of his crafting of shaped charges.
You do not really need a dedicated medic until later game, which I would then recommend Dr. Q while dropping Kalyna.
As for leadership, do that on your main character alongside Teaching.
You will want to drop Kalyna as you hit level 3+ though as she will stagnate badly because of her lack of wisdom and stats in general.
Only thing, Livewire dislikes Grizzly :(
@@TheAWSMPrinceBashd
They work well together in my playthrough now.
IMO Wisdom seems much less important in JA3 than in JA2. Agility is by far the most important stat and I would hire on that before hiring on wisdom.
@@MidnightHozz
No.
Agility you can train, wisdom makes you train faster.
@@gangr3l I mean you can train anything, wisdom included. Wisdom is not OP like it was in JA2. Agility is the more important, by far, combat stat and this is a combat game.
edit: Just realized wisdom is the only thing you can't train, or one of a very few things you can't train. That said I never have trained much, I don't have enough mercs to go around and I always have higher priority operations.
Best Starting MUST have Blood - its a fucking Killer, who statistically have 3 times more frags, then any one else)
My MUST HAVE mercs in the beginning - Blood, Kalina, Barry (and 4ts Ice, Igor, or Grunty)
be careful - you dont save money for all the mercs if you increase the contract duration
Very True: some mercenary come with medical insurance that you just deposit once. If they leave, you get your money back. When you extend their services, you won't have to pay that fee again, while other mercs, like Barry, and Kalyna come with a cash only option and their cost scale linearly with the time you pay them for.
Buns, which is a much better sniper then Kalyna and has 92+ wisdom, and actually costs less the first if you rent her for 2 weeks. Kalyna is also as dumb as a box or rocks, will fall behind in levelling soon, is overall expensive and comes with just an old rifle, soon to become obsolete.
save you money in the long run you get a discount the longer you hire them for the price of a 14 day contract is way less they 2 7 day contracts back to back
Good call but I think in most cases you do save money in the long run for almost all mercs?
Hiring Kalyna is a bad investment she has EXTREMELY low wisdom its just not worth imo while on the otherhand livewire has EXTREMELY HIGH wisdom this is useful for alot of things but most importantly its how you fast you level up abilities she also can serve as a backup medic which is extremely important imo. Livewires ability is also extremely useful because she can see all enemies if she has intel and fun fact if you use her for intel gathering she has a better chance because of her unique item to get Intel. Meanwhile Kalyna is trying to be a sniper but why would you ever need a sniper with an ability to PIERCE armor for alot of armors snipers just pierce it normally and if not you can have armor piercing rounds which snipers use very little of because they are one shot one kill weapons "MOSTOFTHETIME" Nightops is useful until you realize night vision goggles exist and why would you need head armor for your sniper that SHOULD be in the best position far away or high up or my favorite Far away and high up. However at the end of the day what matters is who you like more so pick whoever it'll work out if you're good enough :D!
Yes, bought Kalyna for a new game and she is underwhelming (and gets on my nerves with the spiritual stuff)
Kalyna is maybe a merc you dont need to keep forever - like a rifle boost starting class.
Livewire - well i need to mod her portrait and big portrait first - i cant have that "the sims" look of some mercs. xD
@@TheAWSMPrinceBashd they chose the most realistic voice lines to embody annoying spiritual people lmao because I hate her
Agree - I think Livewire is better for mid-late game and was focused on Kalyna since you get the rifle at the start.
Just hire kalyna for 3 days and take her gun and then hire someone else to replace
You get no discount hiring Kalyna for a longer period. Same daily cost whether 3 day contract or 14.
Good call out - I’m not as impressed with Kalyan entering mid-game. Think Livewire is better now
May be good just to hire her for 3 days, just to take her gun. It's way better then other starting weapons. Her ignore armor perk is nice but so is Livewires where you can see all enemies
@@brianbalcergood call out!
Steroid worked just fine with MD in my playthrough… What does that “pain in the butt” even mean?
MD / Livewire / Barry. 90+ wisdom char with 80+ specialist. 4th char pick your imp with 85 leader/wisdom/agility/dext /mark with no spec. You want at least the perk academic with you imp livewire and MD will catch up really fast with few training. As Soon you finished the first island, take wolf and rush the first diamond mine. ;o)
"Doesn't like Barry" >> Immediately proceed to click on that upper-right little cross OFF my screen. That'll show for his insolence. Now if y'all please, "Forgive me for taking life.
must 3 livewire/barry/md then i took grizzly for HW and ice for AW. imp just made a sniper with nops/teach and high leadership..
I had exaclty the same starting team. But except for Barry I picked Grizzly. This dude is insane on the machine gun.
My teams MVP are: Mouse with a close range rifle; she slays so much. Grizzly with a MG kills so many aswell when setup. Red with his 100 in demolition is a group killer with grenades and clears all mines.
I find Barry does just about everything Red does just as well, plus free grenades and he's cheap as chips.
No I.M.P.?
Created separate video on recs and how to create your I.M.P. char! Good call out!
As others mentioned, Kalyna is a bit of a newbie-trap. Yes, she is a good mechanic and sniper early on, but due to her low wisdom she will fall behind soon.
On the other hand, I feel a lot of folks are underestimating Mouse.
If you like going sneaky, she is an excellent early choice.
Mouse is my biggest killer just with her knife. Saves a lot of resources of ammo.
I have to disagree with Kalyna. She is a killer on the M24 99.9% shots hit and her perk bypassing amor is just insane. Saved me so many deadly encounters with armored dudes
You can also create your MC merc, in the I.M.P. tab, don't tell me you've missed that ? ^^
There is a long going thread on the Steam forums about Kalyna. Surprising how polarizing she is.
After playing a fair bit more I prefer Livewire - both for gameplay and commentary!
Start with your char with high expoisves stat. 2nd will be with medic (Fox or MD) and 3rd mechanic (Kalina/Livewire) I'll say "Blood" is great for begining as 4th if u wanna save ammo and take enemies in stealth. He can be backup medic and scout as well, throws granades in long distance and is strong enogh to pass strenght tests. He has unlimited throwing knives which hits harder than pistols and u can throw like 4 of them in one turn, basically killing even harder enemies in 1 turn. You can just take him instead of expolive expert if u'll make explosive expert as your free char. Good choice for 5th/6th member (when u'll go to mainland) is to take Buns, she is incredible efficient in shooting. Another 5th/6th i'll recommend Wolf.
Is there a reason why you ignore I.M.P?
I honestly didn't think to add in I was so focused on starting characters and did not realize you could make your own at the very start on any difficulty level!
I started with the same team exept for Kalyna, I had my IMP character instead of her. Good starter team!
I would only hire three then make thr fourth yourself
Is Wisom also basically the most important stat in 3 like it was in 3? Can't say I remember all of my 'fav' team in 2, but it was mostly high wis cheap people that started out meh when you don't need them to be strong, but got outrageous by the end. I know Fox and Buns were in the starting lineup though.
Not IMO. Agility this time around. Gives free move range as well as governs APs, which every combat build needs.
Wisdom is extremely good, yes. It's not only the primary stat for mercs' growth, it's also the main stat for spotting hidden things, like loot or traps.
It is cool how many of the Xcom likes released over the last few years have tried to deviate from Overwatch spam from Xcom. This game on the otherhand, prioritizes the use of Overwatch. This game has a very good combat system, but it is in need of a lot of help from the modding community and Devs to make it easier to utilize.
@@mislav2002if you have to decide to shoot ONCE or overwatch an area with enemies where you can shoot multiple times, I think it's worth often
yea, realtime mode is like: set up overwatch for all mercs and go in with 1 merc to try to stealth kill. When he gets detected you can go and make a coffe till overwatch show is over xD
I'm really looking forward to the modding tools and campaign creator tools they are going to release. Pretty sure we'll see some awesome campaigns from the community
Get good marksmanship on 3 characters and give them rifles - no need for overwatch anymore. Essentially, you outrange everyone so you just let them come into your field of view and pick them off as they approach. Overwatch is just unnecessary hassle.
first 3 until the first settelment ur i.m.p merc livewire (tec + doc + op passiv ) nails after settelment grunty buns after first d-mine ivan
Fox and Buns is not the best combination either as Buns dislikes Fox being a bit "lose" and flirty xD Buns is a great marksman with a rifle though! Always hitting her target.
Excellent tips. Someone posted that you can creat your own merc. Is this true, and/or advantageous?
yes but not until a little bit later in the game
the merc you create will not cost any salary, saving you a ton of money
u can create ur merc right at the beginning
@@mislav2002 well i did start game on normal diff so maybe that's that
@@robertlandingham @mislav2002 You can create your own Merc at the very beginning and at any difficulty level.
With $7,470 left you can make your own custom merc, and with Wolf's 65 mechanic, you might consider make your custom merc the leader, and instead of hyring Kalyna hire Blood. But I got to admit she got a god tier perk, but her low wisdom makes her slower to level up at the second half of the game.
I think it all depends on what you do with your custom merc. But make your custom merc at the start, as he $6900, and one time purchase. No contract, as he is kinda you.
Only quitters and losers restart because they fail to adapt to hardship.
You get the cards. Deal with the deck. It will teach you how to deal with the worst better.
Cool bro you do you. I'ma save scum till I get the best outcome every time :-)
Ha fair enough!
@@dantauche7917 I was talking about starting with whatever characters you have access too. I still save scum. But it's with the cards I'm dealt.
Think of it like Xcom with whatever people come along.
It's a video game not life.
“Only quitters and losers restart because they fail to adapt to hardship.”
Then proceeds to say “I still save scum.”