The best team to start with

Cooperation will lead you to success, but for that you need the right mercenaries at your side. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to put together the best team for the start in Jagged Alliance 3.

In Jagged Alliance 3, you can create your own character and customize their mercenary stats to a preset extent. On top of that, there are 36 predefined fighters to choose from that you can hire. But which stats have priority, how many mercenaries should you take with you on the first mission, and which ones pay off? You will find the answers below.

Start with cheap mercenaries

On the standard level of difficulty you have to use one Starting sum of $40,000 keep house That may sound like a lot, but it can quickly fizzle out with the daily costs of a mercenary. We therefore recommend that you initially avoid using expensive veterans and elite mercenaries. Backing recruits can pay off even late in the game. This is because their continued use tends to increase their stats and skills more than their contract costs.

Example: Recruit Barry Unger starts at level 2 and costs $2,990 per week. At level 7, his stats aren’t all that different from a legendary mercenary, and his contract cost is $10,300. For comparison: Legendary mercenaries already cost you between 17,000 and 32,000 US dollars at level 5 or 6.

Important mercenary stats

In Jagged Alliance 3, each Mercenary has ten stats: Health, Agility, Dexterity, Strength, Wisdom, Leadership, Marksmanship, Engineering, Explosives, and Medicine. All of these stats have their merits, but some of them we found more useful than others for the first few hours of gameplay:

• agility determines the number of action points a mercenary has to perform actions. The more AP a mercenary has, the further he can move and the more often he can use attacks or abilities. Agility is the cornerstone of a useful mercenary.
• wisdom is essential for increasing all mercenary stats through experience and training. So the higher the wisdom of a character, the faster it becomes a real all-round talent. In addition, a high Wisdom value makes you more likely to see hidden objects and enemies. This value is important for your own character.
• marksmanship Determines how well a mercenary can aim their firearm. This stat is beneficial for all mercenaries on your team.
• leadership quality is important mainly because there are very few predefined mercenaries equipped with it. With high leadership quality, you can train militias faster and train mercenaries faster. Above all, the time saved in repeating militia training also saves you money for contract extensions in the end.
• Technology represents a mercenary’s ability to repair items, pick locks, and operate machinery. This value is of particular advantage because it allows you to disarm explosive traps. A mercenary in your squad should have a high Technique rating.
• medicine describes the ability to care for the injured. This affects both the treatment in combat with first aid kits and the treatment of the wounded in the satellite view. You’ll often need to heal your comrades after a battle, so having a Mercenary on your team with a high Medical stat is a huge benefit.

Assemble a mercenary team

In order to put together a good mercenary team, you should cover as many values ​​as possible in the high range. We make a recommendation for the following recruits:

• Kalyna Sokolova is a good example engineer and shines in terms of accuracy and mobility.
• Cynthia “Fox” Guzzman is a relatively good one medic and brings enough agility, marksmanship and wisdom to earn a permanent contract. Her maximized Dexterity also makes her perfect for stealth.
• The explosive value is not a must, but can prove helpful in many situations. Barry Unger likes to make shaped charges in his spare time and is therefore always well equipped with grenades. Due to his low contract costs, you should consider including him in your team.
• Endowed with strength, health, wisdom, and marksmanship also represents Steve “Grizzly” Bornell an excellent one all-round talent in your team.

On the default Die Hard difficulty, it’s enough to start with overall to hire four mercenaries. With three mercenaries, the fights are often a bit exhausting because the number of opponents in many areas is simply too high. With five mercenaries, on the other hand, you can play it safe if you prefer a more relaxed gaming experience.

In your team may your own character of course not missing. You can take part in a personality assessment test on the IMP-Web, where you can answer some funny questions. At the end of the test, your character will receive the stats that match your answers. However, you can also simply skip the test and set the values ​​yourself as you wish.

Pay particular attention to choosing values ​​that your mercenary team does not have. Marksmanship and agility are two values ​​that always stand the test. However, you could already have mercenaries with high tech, medicine, and explosives on your team, so you don’t need to have those skills. Invest the points in other talents instead. Since only a few mercenaries have a high leadership quality, your character would be well advised to do so.

Important: Health, agility, dexterity, strength and wisdom are values ​​that grant advantages after a level increase from 70 invested points. You unlock another set of perks with 80 points and the best perks with 90 points. However, as you level up, you must first work your way up to the better perks, no matter the value.

Example: A learned Dexterity Perk is enough to unlock more Dexterity Perks, as long as you have a high enough Dexterity Score.