Jagged Alliance 3: Best Mercenaries to Start With

When starting the campaign in Jagged Alliance 3, players will be called to select mercenaries and form their starting squad.

With each mercenary having different perks and stats, not all of them are equally useful. The best setup involves choosing a Medic, a Mechanic, an Explosives Expert, and an all-rounder.

In this guide, I will list the best mercenaries to start with in Jagged Alliance 3 to help improve your squad’s early-game performance.

Combine this with our guide on how to make money in Jagged Alliance 3 and you’ll be good to go for most of the early-game content.

Best Startings Mercenaries in Jagged Alliance 3

The first thing to note is that when starting a new game, some random mercenaries will be offline and you won’t be able to get them.

In that case, you can start a new game and new random mercenaries will be selected. Thus, if you want to get the exact mercenaries I’ll recommend, you may need to restart your session once or twice.

For the ideal setup, you want to aim for 3-4 mercenaries and make sure to hire them for 14 days (instead of the default 7), as you’ll save a lot of money this way.

I recommend starting with a Medic, a Mechanic, an Explosives Expert, and an all-rounder.

With that in mind, here are the best starting mercenaries in JA 3:

1. Fox – Best Medic

Best starting mercenary in Jagged Alliance 3 - Fox.

Fox starts with a lower Medical stat (69) than MD (81) but comes with useful perks such as Opportunistic Killer, Ambidextrous, and Striking Looks.

With these, Fox has increased Crit Chance and Accuracy, while also being more effective at using Overwatch.

2. Livewire – Best Mechanic

Best starting mercenary in Jagged Alliance 3 - Livewire.

Livewire’s personal trait allows her to highlight all enemies on the map if you have Intel for the area while also gaining extra money from hacking.

With 85 Mechanical and 94 Wisdom, Livewire is a better mechanic overall and easier to train compared to Kalyna, who has 67 Mechanical and 48 Wisdom.

While Kalyna has a better Leadership stat, that’s a stat that we will include on our all-rounder unit, so you don’t have to sacrifice your Mechanical stat for it.

3. Barry – Best Explosives Expert

Best starting mercenary in Jagged Alliance 3 - Barry.

Barry is the best starting mercenary for dealing with explosives since he comes with an Explosives stat of 92 and Wisdom of 91.

Combined with his extremely low price and average all-around stats, Barry is considered one of the best early-game mercs in Jagged Alliance 3.

With his Boutique Explosives Perk, Barry can craft a special type of Explosives every in-game week that explodes in a directional blast.

4. Recruit your Own Merc

Best starting mercenary in Jagged Alliance 3 - How to create a custom mercenary.

The best starting mercenary in Jagged Alliance 3 is your own custom merc. From the starting menu, you also have the option to create and recruit a custom mercenary by selecting the “I.M.P. Web” option from the top menu and then selecting stats manually.

There are two core benefits to this strategy. First, you can allocate their stat points in any way that you please. Focus on anything that’s missing from your other mercenaries, which in this scenario is Leadership and Marksmanship.

Second, the cost will be extremely cheap as it’s a one-time purchase and won’t add to your cost during the campaign.

Wrapping up

To sum up, these are the four best starting mercenaries in Jagged Alliance 3. Focus on a good Medic, Mechanic, and Explosives Expert, and create a custom merc that has any stats your other mercs are missing.

With this setup, you’ll be ready to tackle any scenario without spending a fortune on the more expensive mercenaries when you’ve got low funds.

Who is your favorite mercenary to start with? What was your starting squad? Feel free to share your starting squad in the comments below.

For more early-game content, check out our guide on how to turn on Forgiving Mode in Jagged Alliance 3.

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Harry

Harry has been a fan of video games from a very young age and writing allows him to share that passion with others. His favorite genres include MMORPGs, survival, and FPS.

He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, which allows him to always come up with a fresh approach to solving in-game puzzles and challenges, but also to create content that’s to the point, clean and easy to follow.