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

How Mercenaries of Trarthus Work

Mercenaries can appear in areas from Act 3 onward and challenge you to a duel. Before accepting, inspect their skills and equipment to decide whether the potential reward is worth the risk.

Winning a duel earns the wagered reward and allows you to hire the Mercenary as a temporary ally. Losing forfeits your wagered gold and reduces your Renown. Walking away without completing the encounter also costs Renown, but you can return to the same area and fight the Mercenary without this penalty.

Certain campaign areas guarantee Mercenary encounters, including The Sceptre of God, The Grand Arena, The Ridge, and The Hidden Underbelly. These encounters do not provide Rucksack items, making them more useful for learning the mechanic and recruiting early allies than for targeting endgame loot.

In maps, Mercenaries can offer equipment and Trarthan skill gems. If you do not want the available rewards, you can request a Mercenary Warrant when the option is offered. A Warrant lets you challenge that Mercenary again in a future map, with the same skills but a new selection of items. Each Mercenary grants a Warrant only once.

Where to Find Mercenaries

Choose your approach according to your farming goal:

• Campaign areas: Use guaranteed encounters to learn the mechanics and recruit early allies.
• Endgame maps: Invest in Mercenary-related Atlas passives to support your preferred farming strategy.
• Trarthan Scarabs: Add encounters or target specific Mercenary rewards.
• Mercenary Warrants: Save Warrants for Mercenaries whose skills or potential equipment make another encounter worthwhile.

Inspect each Mercenary before committing to a duel. If you are looking for a particular skill gem or equipment upgrade, focus on encounters that offer what you need instead of treating every Mercenary as equally valuable.

Best Trarthan Scarabs for Farming

Each Trarthan Scarab supports a different strategy. Choose one based on the encounters and rewards you want.

Which Scarab Should You Use?

For Unique equipment: Trarthan Scarab of Renown is the most direct option because it makes all equipment items carried by Mercenaries in the area Unique. This does not guarantee valuable drops, so item rolls and market demand still matter.

For Infamous Mercenaries: Trarthan Scarab of Infamy adds two Wild Mercenaries and makes Mercenaries Infamous. The additional enemies can make encounters more demanding, so use it when your build can handle the extra combat.

For Rogue Exile farming: Trarthan Scarab of Surprising Alliances can complement Rogue Exile-focused Atlas passives. It can create encounters involving additional Mercenaries, but the extra combat may slow down builds that struggle with dense packs.

Compare Scarab costs with your expected rewards. Map difficulty, clear speed, and the value of the items you can realistically sell all affect whether a strategy is worthwhile.

Which Mercenary Rewards Should You Choose?

Your best reward depends on your character's needs and your farming goals.

Do not choose equipment just because it is Unique. Check its stats, build compatibility, and trade value. A high-damage Mercenary may not be the best choice if its skills do not fit your playstyle.

Use Warrants only when another encounter is worthwhile. Each Mercenary grants a Warrant once, so save them for valuable targets.

Need gear upgrades faster? Browse MMOSO’s Path of Exile items to find gear that fits your build.

Is the Luminary Ascendancy Worth It?

The Scion's Luminary Ascendancy allows you to hire permanent Mercenaries rather than relying only on temporary allies.

You can maintain up to three permanently hired Mercenaries, with one accompanying you in combat while the others remain in reserve. Permanent hires also let you customize their equipment, giving you more control over their combat roles.

The main advantage is long-term customization: you can select Mercenaries whose skills complement your build and invest in their gear over time. The trade-off is the effort and resources needed to find suitable hires and equip them effectively.

Luminary is worth considering if you enjoy optimizing allied characters and are prepared to invest in their equipment. If you only need occasional support while mapping, temporary Mercenaries may be more convenient.

Latest Mercenary Updates

Recent 3.29 updates have included fixes for permanent Mercenary recruitment, Mercenary support skills, and Wild Mercenary loot behavior.

Patch 3.29.3 fixed an issue that could prevent players from hiring a third permanent Mercenary when they already had two permanent hires and one temporary Mercenary. It also corrected a problem that allowed Wild Mercenaries from Trarthan Scarab of Infamy to drop loot without being defeated.

Another fix addressed Mercenary Wither on Hit supports that were applying Withered for only a frame instead of the intended two seconds. These changes improve recruitment and combat behavior rather than fundamentally changing the core reward choices or Scarab strategies described above.

Common Mercenary Farming Mistakes

• Ignoring skills and equipment: Inspect a Mercenary before committing to a duel. Its skills and potential rewards may matter more than its difficulty.
• Using Scarabs without a goal: Decide whether you want Infamous encounters, Unique equipment, or Rogue Exile rewards before investing.
• Overinvesting in difficult maps: Extra enemies can reduce efficiency if your build struggles to clear them quickly.
• Assuming Unique drops are profitable: Unique items vary in demand and value, so assess potential returns before investing heavily.
• Ignoring encounter difficulty: More Mercenaries do not automatically mean better profit if the additional combat slows your clear speed.

Final Farming Advice

Focus on Mercenaries your build can defeat consistently and choose rewards that match your goals. Use Trarthan Scarabs to target specific encounters or equipment, while balancing map investment against clear speed and realistic returns.