Mercenary Prestige looks like a straightforward monster-killing event, and mostly it is. The part that costs people a whole cycle is that one of your choices is irreversible, and the reward table is not what most chiefs assume it is. Century Games publishes five short answers about this event; between them they settle nearly every question worth asking.
1. Difficulty is a one-way door
The publisher’s wording is precise: the difficulty can be selected at the beginning of each Mercenary Prestige event and cannot be changed while the event is ongoing. After clearing a difficulty, the next difficulty will be unlocked in the next season.
Read those two sentences together and the strategy writes itself. Over-reaching costs you the whole cycle, because you cannot drop back down once you realise you cannot clear it. Under-reaching costs you too, because the tier above will not open until the next season regardless of how easily you cleared. The correct pick is the highest difficulty you are confident of clearing — this is a promotion exam, not a challenge run.
2. Alliance Elite Monsters expire, so summon them when people are awake
Century Games: after the designated number of Alliance members have successfully challenged the individual monsters of the designated difficulty, R4 and R5 members can summon the corresponding Alliance Elite Monster. The help centre then adds its own tip — the summon has a time limit, so summon it when there are many members online.
That tip is the whole operational rule. An R4 who summons at 4am because they happened to be online will simply burn the monster. Alliances that post a summon time in chat clear these; alliances that summon on impulse do not. If you hold R4 or R5, treat the summon button as a scheduled event, not a reflex.
3. The four rewards — and why owners should stop trying to lead
This is the part almost everyone gets wrong. There are four reward types for killing monsters, and they key off whose monster it is, not how hard you worked.
| Reward | Who gets it (publisher’s wording) |
|---|---|
| Ownership Reward | Owners will only obtain this reward regardless of whether the player initiates or participates in the rally. |
| Rally Call Reward | Non-owners, after helping others (as the Captain) by initiating a rally. |
| Rally Participation Reward | Non-owners, after joining a help rally or a rally initiated by the owner. |
| Support Item | Used by the Captain to help others attack event monsters. |
The first row is the one to act on. On your own monster, leading the rally and joining someone else’s rally pay exactly the same, so kill it whichever way is fastest — there is no reward argument for waiting around to be Captain. On someone else’s monster the opposite is true: taking the Captain slot earns the Rally Call Reward, and hanging back earns the smaller Rally Participation Reward. So: be quick on your own, be the Captain on other people’s.
4. Rewards arrive by mail, and the Alliance Boss drop is random
Alliance Boss rewards in Mercenary Prestige are issued in real time via mail, with a separate message covering your damage contribution. If your bag looks empty after a kill, open the mailbox before opening a ticket.
And the perennial complaint — "why is it always Epic Hero Shards?" — has a one-line official answer: rewards are random. No drop table has been published. We have logged that in the gaps section rather than guessing at rates.
5. What to do this cycle
Pick the highest difficulty you can reliably clear, since you cannot change it. Push enough members through the designated difficulty to unlock the Alliance Elite Monster. Have an R4 or R5 summon it at a posted time when the alliance is online. Kill your own monsters fast, and take the Captain slot on other people’s. Then check your mail.
Sources: Century Games’ English help centre — selecting monster difficulty · unlocking the Alliance Elite Monster · the four individual-monster rewards · Alliance Boss reward randomness · how rewards are delivered · Mercenary Prestige section. Checked 2026-07-30.