V Rising Merciless weapons and armor are special, improved weapons that can be crafted by players who unlock the specific crafting recipes, done by either researching at your Castle or hunting enemies for random drops. From there, you can craft merciless versions of all the V Rising best weapons and armor, including the renowned Nightstalker armor and Hollowfang armor sets. However you choose to do it, most of this process will be done be back at the Castle, and require a lot of prep work and resources. We'll cover in further detail how to get the Merciless weapons and armor in V Rising below.
How to get Merciless weapons and armor in V Rising
Merciless gear, armor and weapons in V Rising can only be crafted, rather than found. For that you need a Merciless recipe, which can be found in one of two ways:
- Researched at your Castle
- Found as random drops from certain enemies
Merciless weapons are basically enhanced, superior versions of existing weapons and gear. For example, a Merciless Copper Sword functions the same as a Copper Sword, but with better stats and numbers attached.
Researching Merciless recipes
We'll cover researching Merciless gear at your castle first, as it's slightly more reliable as a process. To do this, you'll need a LOT of V Rising Paper, or even the rarer, higher-value V Rising Scrolls. Once you have either, build a Research Desk or the Study, depending on what you want to get.
- Research Desk (requires 50 Paper): Merciless Copper Weapons, Merciless Nightstalker armor
- Study (requires 75 Scrolls): Merciless Iron Weapons, Merciless Hollowfang armor
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At time of writing, there are no other Merciless variations of weapons/armor, though it's entirely possible that more will be added in the future (likely accessible via the Atheneum, which already has its own special gear).
The big issue here is randomness - submitting Paper or Scrolls to the two research objects gives you an entirely random new research, not guaranteeing that you'll get anything Merciless. That means you're essentially rolling a dice each time, though keep going and eventually you should get what you need - or at least some of it. Each Merciless weapon and armor piece is researched individually, so you'll likely accrue the sets piecemeal, one at a time.
Finding Merciless Recipes
The alternative is finding recipes dropped by mobs and enemies along the way. Again, there's a lot of randomness involved here, so the best thing you can do is go on an absolute slaughter through (specifically human) enemies, rolling the dice each time they die. You can get the recipe, then bring it back to the Study or Research Table to submit it and get the recipe. What you want should alter where you look, as these recipes are tied to enemies in certain locations:
- Farbane Woods: Merciless Copper Weapons, Merciless Nightstalker armor
- Dunley Farmlands: Merciless Iron Weapons, Merciless Hollowfang armor
Crafting Merciless weapons and armor
Once you have the recipe, head back to either the simple workbench, if you're crafting Merciless Copper and Nightstalker armor, or to a Smithy, if you want to create Merciless Iron and Merciless Hollowfang armor. The exact recipe requirements will change depending on what you're crafting, but each of these generally require the base version of that weapon or armor to craft it, along with additional resources. Still, it's definitely worth it, as you'll come away with superior gear and little downside.
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