Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends/Mercenary Mode

Mercenary Mode (傭兵演武) in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends is a mode added to Samurai Warriors 2 through its expansion title. Players choose a character and act as a mercenary force, joining randomly generated battles for different major clans of the Sengoku era. During these battles the player earns gems from completing battles and missions during the battles. These gems are used to hire vassals from among the playable cast, upgrade mercenary levels, purchase unique missions, buy four of the ten precious swords, and officially join a clan.

Between battles the player can participate in events, assign guards, view their collection of precious swords, enter the shop, and save/quit the game mode. There are two main objectives in this mode: either unify the land under one of the feuding clans or collect the ten precious swords and beat the special battle to prove oneself the greatest warrior in all of the lands.

Mercenary Types
Every playable character is categorized into three different categories: Spear, Musket, and Cavalry. Each group has an unique ability that benefits the character on the battlefield, for both the player and their bodyguards. The categories are:


 * Spear: Yukimura Sanada, Oichi, Okuni, Nō, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Tadakatsu Honda, Kotarō Fūma, Musashi Miyamoto, Toshiie Maeda, Kojirō Sasaki, and Katsuie Shibata
 * Musket: Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi, Magoichi Saika, Masamune Date, Ina, Ieyasu Tokugawa, Sakon Shima, and Yoshihiro Shimazu
 * Cavalry: Keiji Maeda, Kenshin Uesugi, Shingen Takeda, Hanzō Hattori, Ranmaru Mori, Mitsunari Ishida, Nagamasa Azai, Ginchiyo Tachibana, Kanetsugu Naoe, Nene, Motochika Chōsokabe, Gracia, and Yoshimoto Imagawa

Mercenary Skills
With this new mode comes a new type of level: mercenary level. Mercenary levels range from 1-4, growing through participation in battles and then purchased as part of an event for gems. The number of gems required for mercenary level 2 is 10 gems, mercenary level 3 requires 15 gems, and mercenary level 4 requires 20 gems. Each mercenary level adds a new mercenary skill to the character. Each character can learn up to four mercenary skills. These skills range from utility to combat buffs.

List of skills:
 * Acceleration - movement speed is maximized
 * Adulation - Receive one extra gem for every 50 enemy defeated
 * Amnesia - Cancels effect of battlefield rules
 * Antidote - Nullifies enemy poison attacks
 * Bounty - Luck is maximized
 * Charisma - Receive extra gems upon mission completion
 * Extinguish - Nullifies enemy fire attack
 * Healing - Recovery items appear more frequently
 * Inspiration - Upon order unit defense strength increase
 * Leadership - Upon order unit strength increase
 * Lockpick - Unlock prison/garrison doors
 * Marksman - Increase power of musketmen
 * Momentum - Attack strength increase after storming enemy
 * Musou Wall - Press select with full musou to create a barrier
 * Poise - Nullifies enemy stun and blowback attacks
 * Rage - Attack strength increase when life is low
 * Reload - Shorten musket loading time
 * Resilience - Life gauge refills over time
 * Sandbag - disable enemy quagmires
 * Stimulus - Upon order musou gauge stays full for a period of time
 * Stonewall - Damage received reduced
 * Stun - Stun enemies with spear barrier
 * Tenacity - Defense strength increase when life is low
 * Thrust - Increase strength of spear barrier
 * Willpower -  Musou gauge refills over time

List of characters' mercenary skills


 * * The first level up, to level 2, takes twice as many battles

Battles
Battles in Mercenary Mode are randomly generated between nine different clans: Date, Uesugi, Takeda, Imagawa, Tokugawa, Oda, Azai, Chōsokabe, and Shimazu. The battlefield is chosen randomly from the pool of stages available in the game. The type of battles also is random, be it rescuing struggling allies, defeating the enemy force, defending supply storehouses, capturing enemy supply storehouses, winning a three way battle, or defeating an advance force to keep the main body from arriving. Each battle will also randomly select a handicap, such as no guarding or 2x damage for each battle.

Winning a battle advances the stage number. Each stage offers three battles to choose between who to aid that stage. Whichever clan is listed first in the battle description is the clan the player will fight for. The first time the player aids a clan, they will offer a random reward of gold or gems in the next stage's events. Each clan will also offer another random reward of gold or gems after five battles on their side. Once seven battles on one clan's side have been fought, they will offer an event in the next stage to join their clan as a retainer, for the cost of 50 gems.

Once a clan is joined, no other clan will offer further rewards for service in their army. However, the clan the player joined will continue to reward service with the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth battle fought for their cause. After the fourteen battle, the first option of the three available battles will become (and remain until this adventure is completed) the unification battle, which will unite Japan under the rule of the clan the player has joined, completing the mode's campaign. The other method of winning Mercenary Mode is by becoming greatest in the land, which is further explained in the precious swords section.

Alongside the three randomized battles, a special fourth battle can be unlocked by paying an entry fee of gems at certain stages of the campaign. These fourth battles have a unique mission assigned to the player to achieve in order to win the battle and they tend to award more valuable prizes then standard battles, including over half of the ten precious swords.

List of the special battles that can be unlocked in events:


 * * Requires Rescuing the Princess to unlock
 * ** Requires Guarding the Princess to unlock

When a battle begins, side objectives are randomly generated. These side objectives award gems, gold, or an orb upon completion. They range from rescuing an isolated ally to defeating an encroaching third army. Isolated allies appear either trapped inside a garrison/castle or surrounded by an ally officer who has turned traitor. Spy Captains can also spawn with submissions, enemy Spy Captains requiring their defeat, while ally Spy Captains will either request help escaping or ask the player to deliver secret documents to an allied officer. If he is not on the battlefield already, Kenshin Uesugi will occasionally appear, trying to deliver salt to one of the allied officers. There can also be enemy transport units to track down and defeat, or an enemy officer themselves can act as a transport unit. The encroaching third parties either rush towards the allied army's commander or the player. They will automatically join any current third army (the yellow forces) if there are any of them still on the battlefield.

Each clan has a "strategist" officer. They will perform one of three strategies to try and hurt the allied army. These officers only trigger their traps when the player draws close to them. The officers to watch for are: Kojūrō Katakura (Date), Sadamitsu Usami (Uesugi), Kansuke Yamamoto (Takeda), Yasutomo Asahina (Imagawa), Masanobu Honda (Tokugawa), Hidemasa Hori (Oda), Tsunachika Kaihō (Azai), Chikayasu Kōsokabe (Chōsokabe), and Tadamune Ijūin (Shimazu). Each strategy can be foiled by a different mercenary skill.

The three possible strategies are:
 * Fire Attack - Deals 75% damage to the player and all allied officers within range as one attack, blocked by mercenary skill Extinguish
 * Poison Gas - The player and allies within range begin to steadily lose health until the officer who triggered it is defeated, blocked by the mercenary skill Antidote
 * Quagmire - All allied officers within range have their movement speed cut dramatically until the officer who triggered the attack is defeated, blocked by the mercenary skill Sandbags

Events
Events are essential for completing this mode. Vassals are recruited and upgraded through different events, and the unique battles are purchased in events with gems. Certain milestones, in both stages cleared and battles fought for different clans, also award the player gold and gems for free. When an event says the strength of your officers has been increased, it means that the tally needed for completed battles in order to increase mercenary level has been increased by four battles. Five of the Precious Swords are received directly from events. Four of them are through events with high gem costs, and the last from the reward event of the last princess quest.

Guards
Every playable character in Samurai Warriors 2: Xteme Legends can join the player as one of their guards. Up to five characters can join as vassals at a time. If a sixth is recruited, one of the five already in service must be let go. Of the potential five vassals, only two can join the player in battle at any time. Each battle a guard completes increases their experience towards their own mercenary level. The player is able to make use of the guards' mercenary skills during battles. In battle, the guards will attempt to follow the player and engage enemy forces within the player's vicinity. Increasing their mercenary level also increases their aggressiveness in combat. When guards possess the same skills, if they can, their benefits stack.

Precious Swords
The other major way to win the gamemode is to prove oneself the greatest in the land. The unique battle will only become available after all ten of the Precious Swords are acquired. These blades are scattered throughout the stages of mercenary mode. Six of them are earned through completing unique battles purchased through events. The other four are directly purchased through events after certain milestones in the number of stages completed. It will take until stage 99 to finally get all 10 swords at minimum, with the final battle becoming available at stage 100. The swords are not acquired in order of their display.

How to acquire each Precious Sword: