Jagged Alliance 3 - Breaking Down All 36 Mercs
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- In this video I provide a breakdown of all 36 mercs in Jagged Alliance 3.
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![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Not having Lynx in the base game is a crime against humanity. Trevor is also dearly missed, two of my all-timers. I can't remember a single playthrough without them.
Yeah, lynx and his mini-14 was always my go to.
Interesting I never played the original games so I wasn't looking for any particular characters.
@@SlanderedGaming For me it's like releasing the new MK without Raiden, or the new SF without Ken.
@@SlanderedGaming just one more stuff to mention since you said you didn't play the original games: other than Scope who is I beleive featured in this game, Lynx had the highest MKS rating in the game with 99. He also was a very easy-going guy, good personality, not too cheesy, not a psycho, carried himself like a "regular" guy which made him really likeable for me at least. JA2 mercs were pretty much over the top in one way or the other but Lynx felt he could have been an IMP merc.
Lynx? Never took him, cuz I always take Buzz.
The thing about Kalina is that she's not a mechanic who can shoot, she's a sharpshooter who can fix your stuff. Since you can pick up the Dragunov early, and Inevitable Strike means she can just wreck everyone with the infinite supply of 7.62x39 HP you can buy from Fleatown, but her low wisdom will limit her growth and available perks even with training. Meanwhile, Livewire is weak at the start, but her high wisdom means that Wolf will quickly turn her into a killing machine. Give her the morale perks, and she will sew crazy panic in enemy forces with every shot.
Three things I don't like about Kalyna after a playthrough with her.
First, she doesn't give discounts for longer contracts, which start to become expensive for a recruit-level merc in the late game. It's like she doesn't know math enough to calculate percentages so she doesn't bother with discounts.
Second, she has low overall stats, coupled with low wisdom so she is very difficult to train. Her marksmanship is okay, but she doesn't get much benefit from her Dex stat for aiming until you spend way too much time training her.
Third, her unique perk might seem amazing, but it's nothing that another merc with precise aiming onto fleshy parts or armor piercing rounds can't replace.
Oh fk it, fourth thing I don't like is that her Night Ops perk is a joke without adding mods to nerf night time accuracy. So you're really getting almost nothing impressive by hiring this merc, and for a recruit she's not that cheap as she starts gaining levels. You'd have to really like her personality to choose her over other mercs.
She is the best new merc because she is so sweet and FUNNY, haha
She is annoying like sh..t. Can't stand her. She is just dumb (very low wisdom makes her learning very slowly). Rifle is nothing special. You will have Mauser like that after the second mission.
taking steroid with you depends on if there is a mission you need to escape with a chopper
😂😂
Choppa'!!!
Come with me if you want to lift
I thought he is more a parody of Duke Nukem.
Or if you run out of bubble gum
Fox is surprisingly good when it comes to stealth killing with a knife. She has more than enough agility to sneak upon an isolated target, excellent chances to succeed an instakill thanks to her 100 dexterity, and even if she fails the stealth kill, her special perks prevents the enemy from becoming aware and triggering the enemy squad. Which allows her to use brutality on him, stabbing him repeatedly. I'm still at the beginning of the game and haven't left the starting island, but so far she's incredibly useful.
Livewire is mostly utility at the start of the game because of her subpar marksmanship, but she has an impressive 94 in Wisdom. I'm not 100% sure it works the same as before, but in previous iterations of the game, Wisdom is the stats governing stats growth, and the only stats which can't be improved. Meaning that Livewire has an excellent growth potential through combat experience and training, like all mercs with 90+ Wisdom (MD, Barry, Buns among many others).
Fidel and other Psycho mercs are unreliable, because they sometimes decide to use different attacks, ie using full auto instead of a single shot for example. Which can leave them out in the open without AP. And I've heard that someone had Fidel leave his team because he didn't get any kill during a fight.
Great notes all the way around. I can confirm that Wisdom does increase with use like the rest of the stats but not clear if it governs stat growth.
@@SlanderedGaming It governs stat growth, along with how much you are using that stat.
For example my sniper with 85 Wisdom has yet to receive +1 Agility point after 15 hours of gameplay. Livewire with a pistol who moves a lot has already received 3 Agility points and she has 94 Wisdom. :)
@@8wayz2shine I dont think the stat growth its that big of a difference since it mostly grows where you dont want to go. My custom merc got 5 stat ups evenly between Agi, Dex, Str and Marks with 50wisdom and my Livewire got 9 4 of those on her Mechanical stat, 2 on Health, 2 in Med and a single point in Dex. I only put her to heal ppl faster twice and got a point for each...
@@NF-nv3xw It depends on how you use your characters. My Livewire moves a lot and she already has +6 points to her Agility. I often make use of the Run and Gun skills, as well as simply running from cover to cover. Dexterity is raised if you aim a lot. Health mostly comes from receiving wounds and treating them.
So you can make a merc train a specific attribute, we just need to experiment and find all the actions that make it grow.
Livewire is also crazy just in terms of utility. Her talent and the extra intel she gets from hacking with her PDA synergise together and knowing the whereabotus of all enemies upon just entering the sector is a massive advantage. Her dexterity and agility are good, 94 widom means she improves rapidly with some training, and 50 medical means she's a good secondary team medic to boot.
On a sidenote, the training operation is very powerful on high wisdom mercs, as long as the trainer has good leadership and the stat you want to train. Making your IMP merc high leadership and good in a few stats can really help improve a team of low-cost, high-wis mercs. Like, a good trainer/trainee combo can easily raise stats by 10-15 in just two or three days.
Thanks for the overview! I'm a fan of the older games and I love how each merc has their own personality and can clash or gel with their squad mates. I also loved hiring a bunch of cheap flunkies at the start and slowly molding them into unstoppable killing machines by the end game.
My pleasure!
@@SlanderedGaming Good video, many good things to hear. Though what you said about Fox, that free weapon swap is ABSOLUTE PURE GOLD, if you spec her as an overwatcher with 4 extended peacemakers: 2 APs and 2 HPs : Double .44 crits at 26 range are not a thing to frown upon. Also, her 100 DEX mainstat (acting as an INCREMENTAL multiplier) makes her the best field medic in the game, basically, even if 99% Jagged Alliance newcomers have yet to realise it.
Also by extension, DEX governs all three assertives tasks, repair, medical and explosives. Considering her wisdom, she'd be the absolute MVP, if Grizzly wasn't hre to stand himself as the best argument to have her in your crew: they're excellent friends, and also Steve Bornell happens to double as 10 men extra, with that machine gun in hands.
Agility governs things like AP and close range combat (Igor's jam, good thing Mouse is here to teach him everything, also)
As for the rest, they're pretty much self evident, like wisdom helping with health or teaching (that work both ways, students with teaching also get to profit the bonus)
In short, Skills that are on the right column shouldn't be taken at face value, except maybe for skill tests during the game narrative : each increment from main stats give them a certain multiplier, until th next threshold is fulfilled. And then, the multiplier rises in accordance with the new 'bracket', up until the skill max score. Hence Fox with 100 DEX being ultimate field medic, if you look closely, and it becomes OP when you start rising her medical skill. Easy to grasp, really.
Also I subbed you, man. I chose to sub all Jagged Alliance interested channels so as to celebrate the fact the game of my dreams is back... For REAL, this time!! God bless. 🙏
EDIT: "skip Grizzly" Good Lord, you're in for retreat, as soon as you get to realize what he has under the hood, me Grizzly. This game is not about the stats, and also, it's an RPG disguised as a tactical, not a tactical game per se. Though it simulates tactics in a rather role playee sort of manner.
EDIT 2: Also, the spiritual trait is stackable in the team. Meaning Omryn + Barry makes is so both of them double their chances to accomplish miracles.
EDIT 3 : Barry? Best special in the game? Then how about Blood's special with unlimited heavy knives, litterally negating all body armor in the game, then? Barry's good, but not that good.
Blood? Blood is OP, yes.
Same here - for some reason the thought of hiring legendaries isn’t as fun as building up a team of noobs!
I am a big fan of this play style, there are few things more satisfying than sculpting a sclub like Gumpy into a one man army, and he has some of the most hilarious lines "I tried smoking, you know.".
It is quite cool how different experiences and tactics seem to work with your choices in the game. Now, as a disclaimer, I played the first two games as well, and had favorites going in, but new people who make new things happen is really nice to see.
I myself felt you sold a lot of people short here, and seemed to have misunderstood some of the abilities a little, which makes them a lot worse than they sound. What I am mostly referring to is when you mentioned running around outside cover for Reactive fire. This is not what it does, taking cover is a specific action you take (which makes you hunker down, and therefore not return fire). Reactive fire works from cover, just not when "Taking Cover". Now, I partly blame the programmers for that one, as the wording is really damn confusing.
I myself found Ice and Reaper to be rather mediocre for what I expected, while Ivan is still one of the most consistant powerhouses when I play. Blood was insane towards the end of my playthrough, scything through the enemy camp almost by himself to save the president while the rest of my guys sorted a diversionary tactic.
As things stand, you also seem to value wisdom a lot less than I do, but wisdom is perhaps the strongest of the traits in my opinion, since it affects your mercenaries growth throughout the game. More wisdom means that you level skills more, both in training and in active (what they call field experience in the game), which means if you aim to make a campaign with a longer mindset, it is absolutely a vital thing to have, as is leadership, as you regularly earn more action points of it due to morale bonuses.
While all base traits are important, I would value Wisdom as well as Agility and Dexterity among the most important traits, then followed by Marksmanship, Health, Leadership, then the others, as they get plenty of extra training along the road anyways.
My first setup was Fox, Grizzly, Igor and my random merc. Barry I remembered as just being a repair/prepare guy in the old game, so I did not read how cheap he was (for all newcomers, Barry is a bargain, and you want him on the team). Livewire is great. Grunty is a weird sleeper, but is a very good merc, working kinda like a glue character in a team. Raven, Raider, Red are all great for their roles. Gus is overrated. He offers very little that the others do not when you finally can recruit him, in my opinion.
But it is cool how different experiences are. And it means the game is deeper and has more replayability than one might think at first look.
One thing that was ignored in this video is that Livewire and MD have ridiculously high Wisdom, which increases how quickly your characters improve their stats
So even characters with lower stats in some areas have the ability to bypass specialists if their wisdom is high since they will stat up more quickly.
90+ Wisdom allows MD and Livewire to decently quickly overcome their lower marksmanship and start excelling above others
Grunty is meant to be used with Machine guns, since the AP reduction and MachineGun Overwatch work with his trait
Grunty is absurd with machine guns
Livewire, Barry and either Fox or MD is basically the early game trinity. You get top-tier mechanics, medical and explosives experts, and all of them have through the roof wisdom and can be easily trained into being adequate even on their worst stats, too. (MD has become a genuinely good second-line marksman with a Winchester in my current game.) And Livewire basically pays for herself with that PDA.
Also bringing Blood against early game enemies is probably a warcrime.
Fauda isn't bad, she's inflexible. She really wants to do one specific thing, but at that one thing she's truly great: The assault squad. As in, she *is* the assault squad once you kit her out for it.
Requirements for this:
1. The heaviest armor you can get. Full heavy armor with weave/plates is highly preferred.
2. A light machinegun. RPK
Good points. I think another aspect with Fauda just falls by the wayside because of how often some people are a bit too min/max focused and don't think of characters you take on that have some added flavor especially if they're just a more assault character. Idk I think she's neat and I used her in a similar way/a more advanced version of the cheapo option where you try to play Meltdown on a Machinegun.
Wait, I used to watch your guides for Pathfinder and just realized it halfway into the video.
No wonder your voice sounds familiar.
Good job, keep the guides up
Having played through once with Livewire and once without the amount of power she brings to the team is tremendous. Intel is life. Intel is the "best" secret caches, Intel for Livewire means knowing exact position of your opponents. Most importantly extra intel means not needing to spend time scouting - and as time is money she saves a TON of money in the long run. Curiously, while niche, Steroid still works as a mechanic and a combatant. Toss a +overwatch stock on a gun and set him in permanent overwatch status. His high firearms makes him clutch in that role.
Isnt steroid only good for direct fire? Because of low dex, hes gon miss alot of reaction fire iirc.
Fox has definitely been my most useful merc, and my kills leader. though I finished only half of the game, and didn't try that much mercs. Give her a weapon with a silencer, and calculate your sneak attacks well, she will easily trim down the enemy before the combat really starts, especially if helped with another merc with decent accuracy. So if Fox fails to kill the enemy he/she can.
Good shoutout for considering Red as a 2nd Explosions guy with Barry. I recently did that in a run and had a very good time especially putting the hurt on The Good Place forcing enemies into choke points by littering molotovs everywhere. Also Barry likes Red and there's some fun flavor banter between them some time. It can be a lot of fun to have 2 people who are excellent with explosives.
Awesome glad it worked out well for you!
Incredibly helpful tips to let me know how the game mechanics work 💚 My game started with Fox locked and mouse seemed to have a decent medical stat so I chose her for healing lol. She’s honestly been fun to sneak in with and use her silent pistol (she came with it) up close
I took and kept Steroid in my current first playthrough. Not because of his skill, but because of his character. Didn't regret it so far. 😂
I dont even know the game or topic, and i watched for 30 minutes, your voice is soo good
Thank you! I appreciate it.
Worth noting that Leadership stats directly translates to Squad Map Movement, which makes Raider an S-tier pick.
Or you can use your IMP for that, plus Teaching perk to whip those quick-learning rookies like Livewire (if you can stand her voice), MD and Barry into shape.
@@ViolosD2Ilivewires voice is the only reason why she’s never part of my squad
You neglect to mention that Wisdom is the all in all god stat in the Jagged Alliance series, some of the picks you say are skips have 90+ Wisdom, those will very rapidly match the others with a day or two of training.
EXACTLY! Even in the 2nd game (although I was playing with the 1.13 mod at the time), I still kept my early AIM mercs and some of the free rebels (Ira) due to them honing their skills (which was marksmanship for most of the time) throughout the campaign.
Mouse also has the perk that she comes with a silenced weapon straight off the bat. Her high dex and ability to get very close to bad guys counteracts her poor firearms to an extent. I've used her since the start of my current campaign, and she's been a star performer for me.
I used Mouse primarily as melee stealth assassin and she has a crazy chance for stealth kills both with knife and with silenced sniper rifle. She also has twice more kills under her belt as the next second merc in my team.
@@Lorifel0 Nice. I've had her with a pistol and SMG/carbine so far, and she's proven to be a great close-in assassin and infiltrator. I just need to remember that she doesn't trigger Overwatch and exploit that more often.
I've used her as a sniper and she's good at remaining in stealth for the next kill during combat. I've never used her overwatch nullifying perk as a sniper, but just her high stats makes it worth not needing to have a unique perk. Just having stealthy perk is enough as it adds into all the stealth kill perks from the Dexterity line. With "stealthy" I find she scales way better than Fox into late game where enemies have higher hp and armor. Fox is better early game with her second chance at stealth killing, but she's not as good at remaining in stealth and getting 1 shot kills like Mouse can in late game.
@@MegaSJ I haven't used Fox yet, I took Buns as my sharpshooter and they don't get along.
I'd definitely pick Buns > Fox. She's such great value on the team and her prices don't go up that much when levelling. Definitely S-tier character and I wouldn't want to drive up her price by putting in someone she dislikes working with, so I see why you haven't picked up Fox yet.@@malusignatius
Fox is great with bladed weapons and two pistols/submachine guns. You use her to sneak up on someone, kill them with a sneak attack and then she can either go on Overwatch or close in for another kill. She is a fan-favorite for her dialogue lines as well.
Livewire can learn really, really fast. You can use her mainly on Overwatch to cover other characters when moving. Give her mostly single-shot weapons, pistols work great for a start. She gets quite a few kills, usually as a finisher.
Nice okay if I do another playthrough I might have to use Fox more.
i dont see how fox is good with bladed weapons, i think strenght affects accuracy with melee weapons and her STR is only 56 , she is a very good stealth killer tho so making her a ranged stealth hitman is pretty cool and what im trying to do with her.
@@SoFasT99 Ah, seems like you are new to the Jagged Alliance franchise. :)
For hand to hand combat (including with bladed weapons), Dexterity governs your chance to hit and the Aim bonus you receive from aiming in both melee and ranged attacks. Strength gives you extra damage *when you hit*.
So someone like Steroid (97 Strength and 48 Dexterity) will have a very hard time hitting anyone. In JA2 Steroid was really, really bad in melee combat despite his huge strength but was ok for grenades and opening doors. When he hits he does huge damage though - that is why in JA3 they gave him a special attack via a talent that says that instead of Dexterity it uses Strength to determine chance to hit.
So Fox with her 100 Dexterity and 85 Agility will have at least 12 AP to start with and almost every melee attack will hit. Add to that her special talent that gives her an extra round to kill someone and reimburses the AP used for the sneak attack, and you have a very potent killing machine that does not use any ammo.
Dr. Q is also great but no one can beat Fox at the start for stealth kills up close. :)
@@8wayz2shine haha yes im new. Loving the game so far. Thanks for clearing things up. Im scared a little playing fox upfront as shes my main medic also and i dont want her being stuck in front by failing a stealth attack or geting downed in a tricky position. I will experiment with what you said. But i use igor and my main charactrer mostly for stelth kills.
The only bad thing about Livewire is her abysmal Strength, which means she cannot carry a lot of things and a for a general non-combat specialist like her you generally want them to carry their specialty items at all times.
Some small corrections :) Mouse isn't good in melee combat, but she doesn't have to given her starting weapon comes with silencer and you are supposed to keep this trend running. Also, IIRC, perks that aren't working when Taking Corver still work when you are in cover since Taking Cover is specific action.
Oh interesting I hadn't considered that regarding the perks thanks.
Mouse is a great early option if you are going for a sneaky playstyle.
Yes, she isn't great at melee, but I never found melee combat really useful anyway.
Enemies should drop dead before they reach you.
She is also a decent secondary/backup medic.
@@MarvMarvensenYep. Watch RetconRaider's Let's Play. Mouse is his scout/ambusher. He sets her up for silenced pistol shots, which routinely means combat never opens when attacking outlying soldiers.
@@shawngillogly6873 I still wouldn't say she's good though, I mean for that role early game I'd definitely still use someone like Igor instead since her marksmanship is so bad, and coming with a silencer isn't that big deal at all, they are only 20 scrap to make without any special items.
@@MarvMarvensen try drQ or igor, or Blood for melee. Its eye opening.
i did my first commando run with kalyna, barry, grizzly, md and hitman (+imp guy). they were pretty much all bangers for the price. this gives you >90 explosives, strength and wisdom, >80 medical, useable mechanics (i had kalyna fail pretty much no hacks for some reason), 2 marksmen (kalyna and hitman), 2 mid range guys (grizzly & my imp guy), 1 granade guy and 1 medic. It is also worth mentioning that Kalyna has 50 leadership and starts with a rifle both super good reasons to pick her up. In fact Kalyna and Hitman are the only 2 cheap mercs with useable leadership. MD cant hit for shit but i was mainly going for price and he was good in the first month just playing backline and patching people up, plus doing medic checks, when necessary. I also had my Imp guy as a generalist so he could help with healing, repairing or training when necessary. This combination allows you to hire 6 mercs for 20k and then after taking the outpost give everyone 14 day contracts for 30k. Thus, I'd highly recommend it and I cant see much room for improvement considering money limits. E.g. Ice or Fox hare 1.5k more expensive than MD or Hitman and if you lose Grizzly you lose >90 strength + the heavy weapons trade makes him super deadly with a machine gun.
Oh no, shadow had such an awesome stealth makeup in JA2, that made him almost invisible. Apart from that, great video!
Nice and thorough breakdown. This will be useful to help any player spend their money wisely.
Thanks glad you enjoyed it!
Love your video ,;)
Also you should get a price for mispronouncing "Überraschung" the worst in history xD
😂😂😂
It should be noted Raider and Raven are married. Raider’s skill makes more sense when you know he’s supposed to be covered by Raven. He also used to be one of the better militia trainers in JA2.
Oh nice I didn't know that!
They were absolutely hilarious. It was so funny how Raider would lose it if other mercs hit on Raven in his presence. I also loved their reactions when one of them died. Raider is utterly devastated if Charlene dies. If it‘s the other way around, Raven goes „Oh no Raider, how am I supposed to go on now? Eh, better you than me I guess...“.
@@the_vanguard5314getting Raven to cheat on Raider with Malice, and then having Raider join their squad was classic
@@dudestep Awesome 😁
Yeah, usually Raven was one of the first mercs I hired. She is a great sniper, but still super cheap early on.
Shadow also sneaks much faster than anyone else, super useful.
Fox, Ice, Blood, barry and livewire will be my core team I think, with an own merc added.
So far it's working great, blood for stealth kills before opening up with fox as a sniper with medic capabilities, ice as a great (budget) marksman, barry obviously as a grenadier/explosive expert which he is perfect for.
Livewire just as a mechanist, but considering I'd already picked her up im keeping her. I think Kalyna refused to join me for some reason.
Btw I started with only fox ice and blood for the initial mission.
Livewire hss the most OP unique perk in the game. Knowing where the enemy is meand you always have advantage.
Raider is the best Merc you can hire regarding Leadership. You will want one guy who is good at that in each of your squads as it influences your squads speed on the strategic map.
Great synopsis a few things:
Raider is the perfect merc to hire for either team training or militia training. If you’re running team of mostly recruits, he can be hired to train them for a little bit with his high stats and leadership.
Nails is a pretty terrible companion due to his chest slot being locked with sub par armor. It can take awhile to get his melee train rolling but melee is suboptimal anyways.
Or you can use your IMP for that at no charge. Go in with max Leadership and Teaching perk to whip those quick-learning rookies like Livewire, Barry and MD into shape in no time.
(Buns is good for that too, but max Leadership makes it even quicker.)
Train his Agility and Free Move, Shotgun. Roam across the map blasting people. Also Blood upgraded can take out like 3 guys in 1 turn
Not sure if it is just my game but DR Q is either OP or bugged because he can sneak up to a dude and almost have infinite melee attacks then move a little bit again and have more attacks and I often kill 2+ people in the same turn with him. You can even run up and knock them out then run to another and melee them to death then another, of course they have to be close to each other but it seems to me strange because everyone else can not do so many melee attacks it's almost like his melee is zero AP.
I even thought it must work like this and made a squad thats melee only to find they can not attack so many times so it's just him.
I now have him and everyone else using sniper rifles and have conquered the first two islands and have $1,000,000 with one squad sitting on the dock which is in the water area that the attack squads have to pass and DR Q's squad clearing the other areas and I must admit it works but not what you call the most fun to be had as it's basically just :
Find enemy and position snipers.
Send in Dr Q to kill as many as possible and then run to the sniper zone.
Snipers kill everyone that follows.
Yup I just found this bug in the last couple of days as well. He's absolutely massaccering people. LOL
I've been running with my custom merc, Fox, Mouse, Livewire, Kalyna and MD. I have Barry in the south harvesting junk and making ammo with Hitman, who I use to train militia. Seems I've made some poor choices but we're doing ok and having fun to be fair. Not sure I've been utilising perks so looking forward to my next playthrough with a new squad. :)
My starting team are:
Fox: with a sniping rifle for opening shots, and dual pistols
Mouse: with a pistol and an SMG. I use her for stealth shots. Use a supressor and it's unli stealth
Igor: Melee tank guy
Barry: He gets almost unli grenades early on
Livewire: AK and Machinegun. I use her for area denial. She is almost always on overwatch
Custom character with full dex, mark, str, agi who I use as a sniper (named her Quiet)
I respectfully disagree about the section on Mouse regarding her strength stat. Sure, it's low, but it doesn't affect her chance to stealth kill with a knife. Strength only matters for regular non-stealth melee damage, so she can still oneshot kill stealth kill enemies whether throwing a knife or in melee no matter the target's health pool. It's dexterity that affects stealth kill chance along with perks and traits, and she has 95 dex. Her 99 Agility along with her stealthy trait allow her better chances to remain in stealth after a stealth kill. She starts with an equipped silenced pistol, so you don't even need to use knives at the beginning of the game to stealth kill with her, so the whole strength stat being low is a moot point, unless you're talking about her bag space being smaller.
To me, It's her unique perk that I find not that useful, since I usually have her out of harms way with a silenced sniper rifle getting stealth kills, I've never had her have to travel across enemy overwatch cones. So I'm basically just getting a merc with insanely high Agi/Dex, decent health and decent wisdom who has enough skill in Meds to help with heals. The marksmanship can use some training, but that's one of the easier skills to train, so she'd have 80-90 marksmanship quickly. I'd advise against taking both Fox and Mouse, because I found out Mouse absolutely hates Fox, and they fill each other's roles as stealth killers anyway. Other than Fox, Mouse doesn't have issues with anyone, but doesn't have anyone that she prefers being on the team.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on Mouse. Thanks for the video!
Meltdown. (15:10) Yeeeesssssss... :3 Norma is just so great, and she swears like an old sailor..
😂
Great video, super helpful! Thank you!
My pleasure!
Abandoned a First Blood run to start a Commando and am one map away from winning. Debating whether or not to start an MI game as I tend to avoid the top difficulty level in all games as they usually are for masochists, which I am not.
I started my team with IMP (dumped mech/med/explosives to 0. STR and Health were sub 85, everything else 85) Barry, Fox, Livewire, Kalyna.
Barry/Fox are endgame caliber mercs. Fox is just crazy good, like great stats/perks and dirt cheap. Best combat medic in the game IMO and worth taking along just for her dialogue. Barry I think is the best explosives merc in the game. His shaped charges were difference makers in most of the tougher fights.
Livewire I used until I could afford Magic. She's very good with a great unique perk and well voiced. Kalyna I let go after 2 weeks, she's pretty decent all around and worth grabbing just for a rifle on day 1, but has such bad perk attributes she's useless at higher levels unless you train the hell out of her and I don't play that way.
Ivan was my first big spend. He has been my favorite merc since JA1 and he does not disappoint here. I gave him an HK21 and he killed everything he could hit, usually with interrupts.
Magic was my next big spend. He might be the best merc in the game. His stats are so good. Wish they kept the old voice though.
For my 6th slot once I could afford whoever I tried to rotate in as many mercs as I could but I would get stuck on some that I liked for whatever reason. I liked Meltdown, Nails, Fauda, Raven, Wolf, Shadow. Reaper is great on paper but he flaked on me in both games, opting out of a contract re-up to visit the astral plane...I didn't like Fidel as much as in previous games either.
From what I have experienced Fidel also has the best albeit slightly dark jokes ... mostly involving blowing up ppl :)
LOL Awesome!
Steroid is level 1, of course he doesn't have traits for ranged weapons, but you can pick some up as he levels...
You cannot pick up traits, only perks.
Grunty was a hyper-value HOUSE in JA1. He and Ivan were the day-1 all timers.
This is a truly great game at its core that needs balancing and patching. With the addition of Steam Workshop support, this game will be great within a years time. I might have finally found a replacement for Xcom2.
Yup I have really enjoyed it.
There are some good mods that fix or improve many aspects, but I won't touch them for a long while. Constant forced updates keep breaking them.
It’s heartwarming to witness the rise of Tex- from joke character in JA1, to an affectionate addition in JA2 Unfinished Business, to elite AIM member in this game. In the few entries in which he appeared, he had no positive or negative relationships with anyone. Hopefully, he now has the respect of other members of his cohort/posse. In the first game, he started with poor Marksmanship but became quite a respectable gunman after becoming a movie star in the second.
Nice that's awesome.
wow this breakdown has almost nothing to do with insight. it's just opinion garbage.
night ops is actually good to have for stealth runs and tilting hitchances in your favor. And yes you can influence which daycycle is in missions.
"Blood" is not good for stealth kills 'cause of his fixed low damage knives. Yes Raider is mediocre combat wise, but the high leadership means extreme fast teaching and movement in tactical map
Manually changing the time cycle to night before every fight is a waste of time and consequently Night Ops is trash. I had no problems completing stealth kills with Blood. Fast teaching and movement is not a good enough reason to bring someone along who is a drag in combat. It's consistently the rude ones who have nothing of substance to say.
@@SlanderedGaming 2-3 night ops characters can stealth kill every enemy on a map ensuring you never go into turned based combat. It is absolutely worth it. Its a waste of time to never let the enemy shoot back at you? Letting the game run 30 seconds longer to ensure you arrive at night on the map screen you save 10-15 minutes bypassing turned based combat, and also 1 day healing up characters that get shot at.
Grunty is set up to be awesome gunner, cmon. Also he can assist with stealth, making -2 at the beginning of the fight.
I use raider and wolf as a special training team if you have them follow your main squad they can train militia in a flash anytime you capture anything.
Oh interesting that makes sense.
yeah, once you train Wolf's leadership up a bit with Raider, you're looking at around 10h training cycles for militia. great to park them in Cacao and send militia squads all around the map with
Raven is such a powerhouse don't underestimate her. The overwatch ability works with machine guns, since they automatically apply overwatch when set up. I often let her set up out of combat and engage combat with somebody else and she will finish off at least 3 Goons with a machine gun when they start to move. Combine that with Barry's cone grenade at the start of combat and you can easily finish 6-7 Goons before the first turn has even started for ~30 ammo and 1 grenade. Of course Raven can also be a sniper, but she is cooler as a commando. The first merc that is better than her is Ivan for almost 20k. That is how good she is, imho. She is worth the 12k at the very start of the game even if that just means 7 days. She can solo sectors. On top of that she synergizes with her husband Raider, but i made my I.M.P. Merc a leader so i haven't tried that out, yet.(playing commando)
Raven and Raider come into their own if you take them together, their traits dovetail nicely.
Power couple of JA3
I'm sorry I have to defend Mouse here. Melee isn't based on strength except for damage. She is very good at stealth killing in melee because of her perks, high agility, and high dexterity. even normally when she isn't stealthed and melees she has so many action points she can stab someone enough times for them to die on top of her great free movement for getting in close and then getting out once she's level one with the ability to use her massive free movement after a melee attack. Also she has enough wisdom and marksmanship to over time make her a great stealth sniper. This is all ignoring the fact that she can run out of overwatch for free. My apologies but i gotta defend my girl.
Defend your girl I am not mad at it. LOL
I love how Steroids' best perk is being hilarious! Still totally woth it! 🤣
Its a shame Steroid doesn't have more perks he is my favorite merc in the game
Livewire has the highest wisdom. Give u acces to all discovery on maps while exploring. A must! But maybe in the second team.
Fox is the best stealth sniper in the game, because even when she fails she triggers the surprise state instead of aware and get her AP back, so she get another chance to kill the target.
Don't look at the traits they are born with and try to make a merc that use them all, you don't need to make Fox carry dual pistols...
There is one broken character that can ruin a higher difficulty game "Red" due to his pessimist trait that triggers all the time and ruins your ability to get high moral. You really need to read up on what moral do.
4:15 I believe Fox is also a playboy centerfold model back in JA2..
She isn't anymore.. Most the mercs got fat and have a double chin
@@Someinsanegenuis the march of time is definitely the reason why.
Steroid may be mistaken as a Schwarzenegger spoof, but he is actually Blazkovicz from the Wolfenstein series due to being a Polish national.
He's a mashup IMO. He definitely has dialogue that is derived from Ahnold's movie films.
I agree with most of the review except for Raven and Livewire. Raven should NOT be built like a marksman/ sniper. She's the queen of overwatch. Raven should be equipped with a AR or MG. A well placed overwatch before initiating combat can clean up a group of enemy fast. She's also great at protecting your snipers against fast melee enemies. I wish I could demo this in a video. Raven is very very strong. Livewire might be weak in early game but once you get good AR with Mod or sniper rifles she's very combat effective but the main reason for getting her is her intel and lockpicking.
You are wrong, give mouse a machete and enjoy the carnages she can do.. She has crazy movement
They should have gave more importance to the characters ,voice acting, and their interactions. That's how people get hooked to the second game.
keen for this game because the it reminds me of a modern version of an ssi game called soldiers at war i last played like 25 years ago.
@@Carnefice I just can't keep up with the crazy way they name sequels these days.
I thought steroid would be great if you train his agility but it turns out his steroid smash is not passive. It can only be used once until he kills something to recharge it
Are there any MERC agent? And where's Lynx?
I didn't see this posted but Buns refused to join my crew since I had Fox in it already. Not sure if there are others that do the same.
You forgot something important about Steroid and Grizzly, that very high Strength. Strength means more effective crowbars and best of all make them excellent pack mules AKA bigger storage space. If you can't lockpick it, crowbar it and Steroid can do both very well. Something not immediately apparent is each merc has people they like and hate. Steroid has big problem with that, that is he hates Russians so something to keep in mind if you plan on picking up any Russian and there are already 2 of them in the first page. Grizzly is not exactly that picky, but he hates Dr Q, something to keep in mind.
For Grunty, MGs don't count as heavy weapon and that free MG burst will always seriously hurt someone, he is better than Grizzly in every way except Strength. There is only two caveats of this perk that is not immediately apparent: There is very little control when he will use so you better know when he will use it. First he will use it if he happens to be on sight on an enemy right when combat starts, this may break stealth if he is equipped with an unsuppressed weapon and I don't think you can put suppressors on MGs. Second is he will use it when a new turn starts, and he will still do it even if it may cause friendly fire or collateral damage.
I find it funny how Steroid doesn't like Ivan and Igor, but they themselves do not have a problem with him.
Also Grunty likes Ivan and Igor, and they like him for some reason.
I wonder what's the story behind that. Maybe because he's a german communist from the former DDR or something.
Kalyna is expensive over time as you do not get a discount for hiring her longer.
Kalyna is so more wacky than i expected xD
Yup she's really cool.
Way too tryhard with the quirky behaviour actually, she is just total cringe. Definitely the worst mercenary in the entire history of the franchise to the point were i wish Reuban was back and he would use his cordless hedge trimmer and do her like he did Ivan in JA1
@@ShadowAngel-lt8nw only merc deserving of Ruben treatment is Livewire, she's the epitome of being added just to annoy you
Dr Q is amazing at game start. One hit, one down badguy! Can down 3 badguys in one round.
Scully was Australian. He was always the guy with the big knife and knew how to use it.
No, Scully never was australian. That is a common misconception about him because he uses a heavy cockney slang but even in the first game his nationality was british. Trevor Colby was the australien.
If you read his in game bio it further clarifies it: He is British but moved to Australia and quickly integrated and adapted to life there to the point where people who don't know he is British just assume he is Australian. In other words, mistaking him for being Australian is canon and 100% intentional by the devs. Remember Jagged Alliance as a series is a parody of 80s action movies, and mistaking Brits for Aussies and vice versa was a common trope. So he's filling that role.
The best sharpshooter is Shadow. Yeah, in JA2 he was much better cuz of his talent. But even in JA3 he is superior for stealth and for sniping! Just change his weapon to riffle and he will not let a chance to enemies!
Scope is also impressive. But take away a riffle from her and she will be like the Shadow but without a stealth ability.
Hey, quick question in regards to the merc "Ice".
Does his talent/perk "Ice Storm" only work with machine guns? Or with any assault rifle, like the AK?
It also works with single Shot weapons Like the early WW2 rifle you find
@@hansiwashere ty!
What's better in yalls opinion? Jagged Alliance 3 or Xcom 2?
DO NOT SKIP MOUSE! BAD ADVICE. With her good wisdom, train her marksmanship. She already comes with a modified weapon (silence). Give her another pistol that is silent and she becomes an AMAZING STEALTH KILLER! She has more kills than every other merc I've used. 💯 👍🏾
The main reason to skip mouse, despite her being pretty good as a stealth killer, is she doesn't like Fox, which means her morale takes a hit, and she costs more money, and Fox is S tier. You can replace Mouse with Igor, who can also serve as your stealth killer. I say this as someone who first picked Mouse and relied heavily on her during my first playthrough. She's good, but replaceable.
@@daetheI took MD as much as I hate him... However, I trained his marksmanship and now I can at least tolerate him. 😂 😊
Then I had mouse train my imp in dexterity and agility 💯 👍🏾
I'm using Rider and Raven on my 2nd run. Bonkers. The moment I added Ivan It feels like cheating.
Is Fox's dual wielding guns worth it? I just let her roll Jackhammer's shotgun and a machete.
It can be worth it but requires some investment.
Trying to remember my starter team in JA2 but I know I had Ice, Wolf, and Grizzly.
Funny to see Tex. He was in JA1 I think, but skipped out on JA2. I played a mod for JA2 where he showed up.
He made his return in JA2: Unfinished Business. Amazing that they dared to putt him in, considering how unwoke he is and sure is going to rile up some lefties.
In JA1 he was barely usable but still funny to listen to. He became a true badass in Unfinished Business.
Team start maps in stealthmode always!! That ur 1st action: press H!
Fox with a silencer rifle kill 2 badguys even before the combat start.
Then Barry send green adds and kill 4 badguys. because Livewire told u where they were.
What fight?? vinividivici no sweat.
Hey There! If you cannot hire a Merc at the beginning, how soon can you hire more later?
As soon as you feel like you can afford their fee on a weekly basis. I can buy into a mid tier merc after getting my first diamond mine. I havent felt comfortable enough yet to purchase the 20K necessary to get legendary mercs.
Igor is a must to keep ammo use down. (he is a tank and can survive closecontact)
And cheap all the way. Only minus is that he is ruSSian and drink all the booze.
No Raven, Raider, Hitman triangle 😢
Drinking game: Take a shot every time you hear "Faantaaastic!"
😂
I took along Red, along with 3 rookies. Before watching yout video. He was reasonably priced and i have gkt s long of mileage out of him because his marksmanshio isnt bad in a pinch. Wish i had taken another instsad though.
At the end of the day you can finish the game with any of the mercs
@@SlanderedGaming your comments were really useful, yeah the nice thing is the ability to have different playthroughs. I had no problem getting through mines etc and took our Pierre really easily by being able to scout fully and position red as sniper on roof for example.
MD is absolutely useless. I swear i want one of my other mercs to shoot him (or stab him to save ammo).
About livewire and her PDA.
She must be the hacker or just be in the squad?
She must be the hacker.
why would u ever hack with somebody else? Livewire is basically the best hacker in the game
You missed important information but you did pretty good, things you missed were for example calling out steroid for being bad at everything you forgot to mention his roll is high str for item muling, also you forgot to mention that the merc you make on the website doesn't have upkeep costs, also there's another free merc on h9 that you didn't cover who also has no upkeep costs, all in all I give your video a B+
8:08 It would have been so nice if you let us see everyones stats for a little while. I appreciate the video otherwise.
Good feedback thanks. I'll be more careful about that in future videos.
@@SlanderedGamingnice of you to take note. 👍 I just want to be constructive.
If all the recruits die, can I still recruit others if I have the funds?
In most cases yes but in some cases mercs might charge more or refuse to join your team if you develop a reputation for carelessness.
Where Lynx and Trevor
Haven't seen any mercs with those names. Maybe they'll add more in DLC.
Good news is the mod tools they are releasing includ full merc creation
Need the Roachburns, scully, leo Kelly, and the ones that show up in the jagged alliance 2 add on.
@@Zombie1Boy Scully is in.
@@Iymarra whoops, I meant spike scallion 😶
I understand puff videos are important content for influencers. So i know you had to make this video, but the problem is you really dont understand the core mechanics of the game enough. For instance Steriod is really a piss poor character, agi and dex are so bad he disappoints over and over in every clutch situation. Then you slag Livewire and MD for low marksmanship. However their wisdom (and talents) makes them apt students. For instance in one contract, 14 days, MD gained 11 marksmanship during merc training. The teacher? Another character you dismissed without understanding their true value. Raider. Leadership is super rare and extremely helpful. Its important to understand this mechanic and know which seemingly bad mercs are easily moldable into elites.
Another note was Meltdown, probably the best possible machine gunner there is. Her high agi/dex is fantastic as she is one of the few MG who can swiftly setup shop in a completely different spot at great distance. Sure sure you can simply load save to avoid bad situations, but not everyone enjoys that style of cheese play. Meltdown can help with a bad start and readjust to lay down huge areas of MG fire that completely change the combats outcome.
Id even say that helpinf Biff uptop in Hilltown, is near impossible without her. You get 10 seconds between waves and in Ironman (or even just playing Brassman, as i call it, where you try to not be a save/load whore) youre absolutely screwed.
Anyway sorry to knitpick and i know this is a fluff opinion piece, so youre not claiming to fully understand the game. But experimenting with all the characters, besides anyone with 50ish dex, theyre basically worthless.
Yet again it is proven the ones who are rude for no reason are also the people who have very little to say.
I made it clear I don't like Steroid and leave him on the bench. Not sure what your issue is there.
So what you can train Livewire and MD to have higher stats? Their combination of talents and traits is still sub par compared to other options you can get. All the training in the world will not change this.
THAT IS THE ISSUE and I state it clearly in the beginning of the video. MD is not a better option than Fox. Livewire is not a better option than Vicki.
Fauda has way more Agility than Meltdown and only slightly less Dexterity. She is CLEARLY a better machine guns specialist.
I am all about taking criticism and improving. But if you are going to call one of my videos a puff piece you damn well better know what you are talking about. Have a good day.
As an OG Jagged alliance 2 player this game turns me off for 2 big reasons. First, the cheesy skype calls where the crucial part of the game, i used to spend hours just calling mercs and hear them cuss you out or hang up on you . Second, some OG mercs are not in the game.....like Lynx 😲😲😲
Skype calls? That's hilarious. LOL
@@SlanderedGaming yeah the voicemail thingy, with their animated faces. Its the funniest shit ever! watch what happens when you call mercs like Fidel or Meltdown 😂🤣
what is the best weapon for Fox? I use semi dual and she miss alot
She will continue to miss until you are able to raise up her Marksmanship.
@@SlanderedGaming thanks for the tips. i raised it to 90 and she's perfect.
no Mike?😁
I think the official canon is that he died in Jagged Alliance 2, being killed by your mercs when you encounter him working for Deidranna. JA3 takes place in 2001, after those events.
As @ShadowAngel-It8nw said, Mike is gone but there's actually a mod that brings him back while adding some fan lore that he actually survived
Does the legendary mercs have likes and dyslikes of outher mercs.?
I haven't played with them enough to know.
same as before
I took a bunch of cheap great ones ... And Ivan. I need Ivan in ja xD
Steroid looks like what you get if you order Duke Nukem off wish.
Sehr gutes Video, die Infos haben mir noch gefehlt dazu...aktuell absolut unspielbar, für echte Fans
_Protects them against Capitalism_ So..... he is free and you pay him with bread lines?
Well, he pays back by being the most ridiculously strong merc in the series from the start. Make no mistake, Ivan is the guy built of Swartzenegger as an action star.
The redering of the portrairs are well done, but I dislike how they changed the facial characteristics of certain mercs.
Some of them look significantly different?
@@SlanderedGaming yes. For example Fox was a redhead, obviously indicated by the name. Scully had curly hair, which I found suited him well and he was one of my favs. Gus was a black guy. Magic was not a black guy. Etc...
Ice, my other fav guy just looks too young and not gangsta enough here. He aged backwards, while Hitman was aged like in JA2.
In JA1 Ice and Hitman were my hit-team! I just loved the guys.
Nice to see Blood getting into the roster. I like what they did with him, but he was more like a Wesley Snipes look alike. (Blood = Blade)
Scully was basically a Blonde Crocodile Dundee Rambo, that's why he had to have curly hair. 😅 "Drop him in the jungle with a knife between his teeth and he will do the job" I'm paraphrasing but that was his description.
Gus actually a black guy in JA3, and Magic - actually a black guy in JA2 (just less dark shades of skin in each game), also because of light on the photos.
It’s also easy to check because of the face features - they’re still the same
Combine Raider with his wife Raven providing overwatch and you get a bonus to accuracy against targets in her overwatch with the first hit being a crit...very nice combo.
You also get quite entertaining commentary out of this married couple.
That's awesome, if I do another playthrough I might run with them.
Raven gets even better when you add Fox to your team. You can set up her overwatch on surprised enemies who are all out of cover.
36 mercs is really it? Disappointing because even the first game had far more then that and the selection grew in Jagged Alliance 2. Also it seems like the selection of weapons Mercs can start with is much slimmer, and much older with the latest models I recognized being from the mid to late 1960s. Even the first game had starting weapons from the mid to late 1970s.
I don't know when this is set but logically it has to be lates 1980s at the earliest due to when AIM was founded and the amount of Internet use in game suggests at least the mid to late 1990s
Interesting, I haven't played the previous games so wasn't sure how large those squads were. Maybe they plan to add more in DLC.
JA3 seems to have A LOT more chatter than the past games did. I'm honestly surprised they put in the effort for 36 mercs, not to mention any NPC's found in mission, if any.
@@SlanderedGaming Jagged Alliance 1 had 60 recruitable mercs, Deadly Games added 10 more. Jagged Alliance 2 had 40 on AIM, 10 on Merc and 14 recruitable NPCs in game, including a robot, but already less than Deadly Games offered. JA2: Unfinished Business added 2 more on MERC and 4 mercs that can be found and recruited in the world on top of everything from the main game.
So, yes, the roster is very small. Altough alongside AIM there are also some NPCs you can recruit depending on your choice in some dialogues.
JA3 is actually set in 2001
And JA2 includes ww2 weapons like the M1 Thompson
@@OperatorMax1993 Yeah some but most of the arsenal was Cold War era or later, and I don't remember any weapons from the 19th century. And most Mercs came equipped with post World War II weapons at the start. In this only a few high level Mercs and the player character start with post World War II Guns with many characters using weapons designed in the World War I era or late 19th century.
livewire is best in game
I think a disclaimer, that its just an opinion should be present. Otherwise you dismiss very unique and powerful skills and combos of mercs.
All of my videos are inherently an opinion. You could put a team together of all the mercs that I say are trash and still win the game with good tactics.