This guide applies almost exclusively to Arena Mode, but the Hireling Orders sections also apply to stages of the Story Campaign where you are playing with Deimos and Sanford in singleplayer.

To start out, you must finish the Contract Mission "Pilot Episode" at least once before Bossman will be able to gather possible recruits. Once you've met the requirements, talk to Bossman in the lobby and he'll give you a first-time's-free pool of three to four possible recruits you can hire. After that, you must tell Bossman to Summon New Recruits to get a new pool of possible recruits; this will dismiss the existing pool of possible recruits and cost you a cool fifty bucks. Once a pool is dismissed, they're gone for good.

Possible recruits come in four separate classes and at random levels - higher level recruits will cost more, naturally, but can't be higher than one-half of your current hireling level cap. They can also come with "junk" armor that only they can wear, which shows up as red on their armor sheet. Despite the label, junk armor has the same stats as if you bought it from the quartermaster. If you want to replace junk armor with better gear, the junk has to be removed from the hireling first, and that one item will be destroyed.

At the beginning, your hireling capacity is quite limited. You can only recruit one, and that hireling can only reach level ten. This is just fine for starting out; the first hirelings you will see are capped at level five and are often below that, and you can only bring one with you on Helipad Missions. When you complete the Contract Mission "The Goods" you will be able to bring three hirelings along, and after completing "Fickle Friends" you will be able to bring five with you.

There are two upgrades in the dorms that directly affect your hirelings, and they're both on the left-hand side of the room. Of those two, the upgrade panel on the right increases how many hirelings you can have at once by adding more bedding one at a time. The upgrade panel on the left increases your hirelings' maximum level cap by four levels at a time. Upgrading the level cap also lights up one star above Chef's head, and lets you see at a glance how many times you've upgraded it. At max upgrades, hirelings will cap out at level 30 and you can house 16 of them.

For the full list of upgrade costs and benefits, please see the Hireling Upgrade Tables section.

Possible recruits come in four different classes, and each class focuses in one category and is weak in another - just like you! Except for the Noob origin of course which has no focus or weakness, but that doesn't apply to hirelings. However, while each hireling class always has the same focus, the weakness can be any of the other categories.

• Gymnast - focus in acrobatics, Endurance + Dexterity
  
• Gunman - focus in ranged weapons, Dexterity + Tactics
  
• Thug - focus in unarmed fighting, Strength + Endurance
  
• Clubber - focus in melee weapons, Strength + Tactics

After a hireling gains enough xp, their class name changes to the veteran version. This change appears to be entirely cosmetic.

• Gymnast becomes Stuntman
  
• Gunman becomes Hunter
  
• Thug becomes Bruiser
  
• Clubber becomes Duelist

The Gymnast class currently has the best chances of making it through a stage alive. Their high Endurance stat lets them wear the heaviest armor, their high Dexterity stat lets them move and attack quickly, and their acrobatics focus makes them more nimble and able to dodge enemy attacks.

While each hireling class has two stats that it focuses on, those two stats can still vary in which one is higher. When recruiting a Gymnast or Thug, the Endurance stat is the make-or-break detail. It should be higher than Dexterity and Strength, respectively, or you may end up with a level thirty hireling that can't equip the best armor, diminishing their odds of surviving late-game. Ideally, level 30 Gymnasts should have 60 Endurance for 41 encumbrance, and level 30 Thugs should have 62 Endurance for 42 encumbrance.

Aside from any junk gear they're wearing when they are hired, hirelings are completely dependent upon you to equip and outfit them. This means armor, weapons, and back weapons.

Armor works the same for hirelings as it does for you. Each piece offers the same protection to either the head or the body and weighs the same amount of encumbrance. You may be tempted to over-encumber them with the heaviest gear possible, but they'll get more survivability out of being able to dodge and sprint. Ideally your non-Gymnast and non-Thug hirelings will eventually reach 40 or 41 Endurance, with an encumbrance of 28 or 29, which hits a sweet spot of good bonuses and excellent protection without going overboard. Note that armor with + Magazine bonuses only affects weapons they are equipped with through the inventory screen before a stage starts.

Weapons also work the same for hirelings as they do for you. It's like they're almost people! There are a few details to take note of when equipping their weapons:

• Give the Gunman class ranged weapons.
  
• Give the Clubber class melee weapons.
  
• Give the Thug class something they don't have a weakness in because unarmed damage is vastly inferior to ranged or melee until late-game*.
  
• Give the Gymnast class ranged weapons until late-game where some specific melee weapons become viable**.
  
• Give everyone back weapons. These include throwing daggers and axes all the way up to shurikens and madarangs. Do not give them AoE back weapons like 'nades; they will happily throw these at your feet without remorse if you're next to an enemy.

*Once you have unlocked the Claws and P.Unker glove armors which offer substantial bonuses to unarmed damage, and the Headband and Ghi armors which give a bonus to unarmed speed, equip your Thugs with those and remove any melee weapons they have.
**Gymnasts are predisposed towards throwing their melee weapons, even at 100% durability. After Gymnasts learn the Shuriken Arc skill in tier 3 acrobatics, they are able to use melee weapons that return after being thrown, even if dual wielding them. These weapons include the Scrap Boomerang, Okay Boomer(ang), Meathook, Hook, Grappling Hook, Crescent Sword, and Throwing Disc.

For the purposes of dual wielding, weapon sizes are classified by a range of values for weapon weight; this Large weapon may require a few more Strength points than that Large weapon, but both of them would require less Strength than a Huge weapon. From smaller to larger, weapon sizes are ranked as such:

• Tiny
  
• Small
  
• Medium
  
• Large
  
• Huge
  
• Massive
  
• Giant

Dual wielding Huge weapons requires a Strength of 60 or more, while most Massive and Giant weapons can only ever be used with two hands.

At the time of writing this on game version v1.02.a, there is a non-permanent inventory-breaking bug that may occur if you equip a hireling with too many pieces of armor. To stay safely clear of that, do not equip the Eyebrows, Scarf Cape, and Niqab items onto hirelings who have every other armor slot filled. The loss of customizing is regrettable, but it is only an issue from late-game to the end.

If you did give your hirelings those pieces of armor, you can recognize the bug by these effects:

• Hirelings are not present in the HQ on loading your save.
  
• Hirelings are not present on the helicopter when you return from a mission.
  
• Hirelings do not properly gain experience when you return from a mission.
  
• Hirelings' equipment does not move from the storage list to the equipped list, and vice versa.
  
• Hirelings' armor and encumbrance stats do not update while swapping equipment.

If this is already happening to you, don't despair; as previously mentioned, this is a non-permanent bug. Go through your hirelings and unequip the armor pieces stated earlier, as well as anything else that is in those slots, even the Director's Cape. Then go and complete any Helipad Mission, and you should be back to normal.

While Skinner is only too happy to sew you back together after you die (don't think about what might have happened while you were unconscious), your hirelings cost you a premium to cheat death. If they're killed in combat, they can be healed in one of two ways in the medbay.

If you haven't upgraded it with enough cloning tanks for all your dead hirelings, they wind up in an ICU bed and cost a moderate amount to recover right away, but the price drops significantly after fifteen minutes of bed rest and bandages. This is the boring way.

If you have upgraded the medbay with enough cloning tanks for all your dead hirelings, they can be restored immediately for a very small amount. This is the fancier way.

Cloning tanks will get your hirelings back on their feet faster and cheaper per death than sitting in an ICU bed, but they do have a hefty initial investment. When you're upgrading the cloning tank capacity, there really isn't much reason to go past three cloning tanks upgrade past the highest number of hirelings you can bring to a Helipad mission. There's no reason to leave anyone floating in the tanks and taking up space in between deployments, so a fourth extra cloning tanks are an expensive and unnecessary upgrade.

So you've got your hirelings all kitted out with fancy gear and sharp toys, and it's time to put them to use. When selecting a Helipad Mission, at first you only have the option of adding one hireling to your squad. After finishing the Contract Mission "The Goods" this number increases to three hirelings, and then to five hirelings after you complete the Contract Mission "Fickle Friends". Unless you specifically want to go in with fewer of them, taking a full squad will give you the best chances of completing stages quickly.

When the bullets start flying, hirelings will generally take care of themselves without your intervention. They'll throw back weapons and fire at enemies they have line of sight to, they'll engage in hand-to-hand combat when enemies are up close, and they'll usually perform takedowns if a dizzy enemy is within their reach.

Your hirelings will actually hold back from attacking an enemy that you are fighting hand-to-hand. They'll cluster around and start watching if they have nothing better to do, and if you stop attacking that enemy they'll jump in to finish the job. This generally means they won't kill-steal from you, but if you're performing a slow melee finisher move, they might decide you're taking too long and will nail the guy themselves with whatever they have available. They can also get caught up watching you pound an enemy into goo and ignore the other enemies around them until your target is dead. Even in Nevada, rubberneckers are still a hazard.

With the exception of AoE weapons, you cannot accidentally harm your hirelings and vice versa. Feel free to fire wildly into a melee as long as you aren't hitting it with rockets or flames or something. Sometimes a little supporting fire will get them out of a pinch or provide an opportunity for them to attack a distracted enemy.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't currently give much instruction on controlling your hirelings (or your partner in the Story Campaign). You're given "Command/Swap Squad" and a button. Here's the refinement on that, assuming you have a full squad with you in a Helipad Mission and that you're using the default keyboard binds.

At the start, you will see a list of the hirelings in your squad on the right side of the screen. When you press Ctrl, you will see an arrow appear next to each of their names, and the rings under their feet will light up. Any orders you issue right now will be given to the entire squad.

If you hold Ctrl + RMB on either a hireling's name in the list or their model, it will change so only that hireling is selected and the others are deselected; their arrows will disappear and the rings under their feet will dim. If you hold Shift + Ctrl + RMB on either a hireling's name or their model, it will either add or remove only that hireling from the selected units. With Ctrl + RMB and Shift + Ctrl + RMB, you can give specific orders to only the hirelings you want to.

Ctrl + LMB will send the selected units (by default the entire squad) to wherever you click. If you click on a weapon with a single hireling selected they will go and pick that up, dropping whatever they are holding; with a squad selected, they will all try to pick up new weapons close to where you sent them to. After you have sent them to a position with Ctrl + LMB, their icons will turn into white checkmarks and they will stay there and engage enemies normally, but will return to you if you move far enough away that they are off-screen. You can also use Ctrl + LMB on yourself and they will follow you until they reach your current position, but they will then stay at that spot until they are off-screen or you issue new orders.

If you use Ctrl + LMB on an enemy they will move directly towards it and attack it until it is dead, then will behave the same as if you sent them to a position with Ctrl + LMB. While they are focused on that enemy, their icons will turn into crossed swords.

If you use Ctrl + LMB on the floor in front of an opened medical cabinet with a single hireling selected, they will go and use the supplies there, even if they are not injured (the supplies will not be consumed in this case). You may need to do some brief trial and error to find the right position. With a squad selected, they will all go there and mostly get in each others' ways and one of them may try to use it, even if that hireling is at full health already. Try to only send individual hirelings to medical cabinets.

If you use Ctrl + LMB in front of a "Next Wave" button with a single hireling selected, they will move towards it and press it once they are in front of it. This allows you to pick your desired starting position for the beginning of each stage, provided that the mission has such a button.

Ctrl + MMB (middle mouse button) is largely the same and will send the selected units to wherever you click, but they will hold position once they get there no matter how far away you go; their icons will turn into a hand in the classic "stop" sign. If you use Ctrl + MMB on yourself however, they will continuously follow your movements, even after they reach your current position.

If you use Ctrl + MMB on an enemy they will move towards that enemy and attack until it is dead the same as before, but will then remain at that position with the crossed-swords icon by their names. In this mode, your hirelings' behavior becomes much more aggressive. They will open fire on any enemies within their aggro radius, but every class will home in on the nearest enemy and begin attacking it hand-to-hand once in range, regardless of what they are holding. They will chase an enemy they are focused on as far as they have to until that enemy is dead; in other words, they have no leash distance. They will then prioritize attacking nearby enemies above returning to the position you sent them to, but they will eventually return when they have nothing left to attack.

Alright, now it's time for the neat stuff. You should be familiar with how to select units and what Ctrl + LMB and Ctrl + MMB are used for. Let's add Shift.

Shift + Ctrl + LMB will send the selected units to a queued waypoint. They will move towards each place you click in order, and engage any enemies they see on the way; they will pause moving to a waypoint to fire at anything reasonably close, and will continue moving once enemies in their line of sight are dead. They will then wait at their last waypoint like a regular Ctrl + LMB.

Shift + Ctrl + MMB will add a patrol route waypoint. Once two or more places have been selected, they will move towards the next waypoint, hold position there for a few seconds while engaging any enemies near them, and then will move on to the next waypoint if they are only fighting enemies at range or if there are no enemies around them. They will then continuously patrol along this set of waypoints until you give them new orders. If you set up a patrol route and end it with Shift + Ctrl + MMB on yourself, they will patrol the route once and then follow your current position until you give new orders.

Pretty fancy, huh?

One of the biggest benefits you get from hirelings (aside from them being meat-shields of course) is being able to focus on one xp category per stage of a Helipad Mission. If you defeat one enemy with unarmed attacks, and then your hirelings defeat all the other enemies, you will get 100% of the stage's xp towards unarmed, including new wave bonuses.

Punching, throwing daggers, shooting, and slashing can all be used to take advantage of this. It is an incredibly useful way to level up acrobatics, which is usually the harder category to gain xp for.

As you complete imprint runs and gain more stat bonuses, your hirelings gain them as well! This bonus is pre-applied to all hirelings before you recruit them, so it is largely invisible and in the background. Rest assured though, they are growing at the same rate you are.

When playing a Helipad Mission with your hirelings, as long as they are alive at the end of a stage, they will always gain xp from it, even if they're at the current level cap. What this means is that hireling xp is not lost even if they cannot level up. Consider this example: if you play through a slew of endless stages in a single run, amassing tens of thousands of xp for each category, but your current hireling level cap is ten, the hirelings that were alive with you will all level up to that cap and stop there. If you then go and upgrade the level cap to eighteen from the terminal in the dorms, the next time you return to the HQ from a mission your hirelings will immediately level up to eighteen, provided they had enough xp to reach that level.

Hireling upgrades are done through the two terminals on the left-hand side of the dorms. The level cap terminal requires completing the Contract Mission "The Goods", and then leaving and returning to the HQ one more time, for the terminal to be usable.

Hireling Level Cap


Hireling Capacity

"The food here's...Great."

Hirelings have a surprising amount of versatility that isn't apparent at first, but it still has limits. I originally thought they continued to train skills with xp gained after reaching level 30, but that is not the case. If your hireling gets to 30 without a specific skill, even the four core skills, then they will never get that skill. Their growth is halted and locked in place.

Hirelings will help you progress through Arena Mode, but they still depend on you to take charge. Strive to be the best you can, and remember that 'endless stages' really does mean endless stages.

https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2638837952
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https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2706994200
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https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2708634031
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2708636334
I've tried to keep this guide short and sweet without a load of images. If something isn't clear and would benefit from an in-game screenshot, let me know.

For help with the newest Arena Mode map, check this out: https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2713379669

Many thanks to the Madness developers and animators through all the years. See you Somewhere in Nevada!