Path of Exile 3.29 Trarthus Mercenaries Guide: Duel Rewards & Allflame Tips

category:Path Of Exile

Jul-28-2026 Source: MMOSO

PoE 3.29 Trarthus Mercenaries are core mapping content within Curse of the Allflame. For most players, natural spawns suffice while progressing through the Atlas. Reserve Trarthan Scarabs for high-tier maps, and only craft Warrants for mercenaries with strong skill sets. The Luminary Scion ascendancy is viable solely for builds built around a permanent mercenary ally.

Curse of the Allflame centers on Charts and Voyage mechanics, with Trarthus Mercenaries offering additional map encounters. Mercenaries spawn within zones to initiate duels. Combat is generally straightforward, yet your choice of reward after victory heavily impacts your mapping gains.

Where Trarthus Mercenaries Spawn

Mercenaries of Trarthus went live July 24 in PoE 3.29 and have become permanent gameplay content. You can encounter them through natural map spawns, Trarthan Scarabs, and relevant Atlas passives, alongside support from the Luminary Scion ascendancy.

Players first meet mercenaries in Act 3. Four campaign areas guarantee mercenary duels: The Sceptre of God, The Grand Arena, The Ridge, The Hidden Underbelly. Campaign mercenaries do not drop rucksack loot, and temporary story mercenary hires only persist for a maximum of 3 zones.

Important mechanics to note:
Mercenaries do not count as party members. They will not increase monster health or adjust loot quantity and rarity.
Crucially, mercenaries are separate from minions. The vast majority of minion damage and defensive modifiers do not function on them.

Rewards You Get From Mercenary Duels

Every duel rolls gear and mercenary skill sets independently. Great gear can pair with weak skills, and vice versa. Choose your reward following this priority:

Grab the highlighted item if it upgrades your gear or has decent trade value.
Hire temporarily if the ally improves your upcoming map runs.
Create a Warrant for map encounters when skills are powerful but gear rolls poorly.

Important rules:

Temporary mercenaries leave after a limited number of areas.
Warrants are single-use tradable tokens. If you lose the duel after summoning via Warrant, that mercenary vanishes forever.
Each mercenary chain only yields one Warrant.

Luminary stands apart: this Scion ascendancy unlocks permanent mercenary recruitment, with gear swappable after hiring. It only works if your build relies on a mercenary ally.

When to Pick Item / Temporary Hire / Warrant

Take the item: It upgrades your gear or has decent trade value
Temporary hire: You need extra damage/aura support for the next boss fight
Craft a Warrant: Mercenary skills are strong, but dropped gear is useless
Skip Warrant creation: Weak skill sets with no resale value

Trarthan Scarab Comparison

Scarab Type	Official Effect	Best For	Avoid If
Basic Trarthan Scarab	Spawns 1 Mercenary in the area	Fast clear mapping, atlas progression	Slow boss-focused builds
Trarthan Scarab of Infamy	Spawns an Infamous Mercenary plus 2 Wild Mercenaries	Seeking rare Infamous mercenary skill sets	Pure speed-focused mapping builds
Trarthan Scarab of Renown	Mercenary gear drops are all Uniques	Farming mercenary unique equipment	Regular currency farming
Trarthan Scarab of Surprising Alliances	Rogue Exiles have 50% chance to spawn a Wild Mercenary; extra mercenaries scale difficulty	Exile-dense maps, group play	Glass-cannon builds / maps with few Rogue Exiles

Trarthan Scarab of Surprising Alliances does not directly spawn mercenaries. It only affects Rogue Exiles found within the map. If your chosen layout contains very few Rogue Exiles, this scarab delivers minimal value. Difficulty scaling only applies to spawned Wild Mercenaries and does not affect all monsters in the zone.

Stick to natural mercenary spawns while unlocking your Atlas. Ignore Warrants until consistent mapping starts.
For most players, start with basic Trarthan Scarabs on fast-clearing layouts. Use Renown only when farming unique mercenary gear. Infamy scarabs extend fight time — avoid them on slow boss-focused builds.
Check Atlas passive tooltips before respeccing. Disabling other map mechanics cannot boost mercenary spawn rates.

Loot or Warrant? Quick Decision Guide

Take the item if it fills an immediate gear gap during levelling or mapping.
Craft a Warrant only for skill kits you plan to reuse or trade. Do not waste Warrants just for attractive random loot.
Skip temporary hiring if you plan to portal out right after fighting a single boss.

Many mappers treat Warrants as deferred rewards. Save strong mercenaries for high-profit maps, or sell the Warrant if the skill set does not fit your build.
Repeatedly farming high-value mercenary Warrants takes lots of map time. If you want to skip tedious farming loops and focus on mapping progression, you can buy PoE currency on MMOSO to grab suitable mercenary gear and scarabs quickly.

Is Luminary Worth an Ascendancy Slot?

Luminary is Scion’s third ascendancy and the only permanent mercenary recruitment path.
Noble Blood lets you store up to three mercenaries: one active ally, two reserved in town or hideout. You can swap reserves out of combat.

Mercenaries scale to area level, capped at level 68. A critical restriction: the maximum item level of gear for a Luminary recruit is locked to the zone where you first hired them. Recruit in high-level maps for endgame gear potential.

Skip Luminary unless your build has a clear role for the mercenary (aura support, damage carry or defense buffer). Temporary hires and Warrant trading work better for all other setups.

Valdo modifiers that reduce damage based on equipped item count also apply penalties to Luminary mercenaries and their minions. Keep this in mind for low-equipment builds.

Quick Mercenary Strategy Cheat Sheet

Levelling builds: Fight campaign mercenaries naturally, grab useful gear upgrades, ignore Warrants until mapping unlocks.
Standard mapping builds: Run basic Trarthan Scarabs on fast layouts. Only craft Warrants for high-value mercenary skill sets worth reusing or trading.
Luminary permanent ally builds: Recruit mercenaries within high-level maps first to unlock maximum gear potential. Lock in your ally’s combat role before spending ascendancy points.
Trade-focused builds: Farm Infamy or Renown scarabs if duels run fast, stock premium Warrants for league trade. Avoid Surprising Alliances unless you run exile-heavy map layouts.

Final Mercenary Mapping Tips

Do not overinvest into mercenary encounters if they drag down your Atlas clearing pace. Temporary mercenaries and Warrants are flexible supplementary rewards, not mandatory content for every build.

Watch out for common pitfalls: Mercenaries are not minions, Warrants are single-use, and you lose that mercenary forever if you lose a Warrant-triggered duel.
Endlessly replaying mercenary duels wastes valuable mapping hours. Prioritize your clear speed first, and treat mercenary rewards as a welcome bonus instead of your main farming target.