How to earn Merces

Merces is the new currency introduced in Hitman Freelancer. As Agent 47 completes objectives and missions, he’ll earn Merces that can be used to buy more weapons and items for his gear wall. Here are all the ways you can earn Merces in Freelancer.

You'll earn significantly more Merces when you take down a Syndicate versus when you complete one of the setup missions.
Source: IO Interactive

There are several ways to earn Merces in Hitman Freelancer. I’ll give you a quick list to glance over, then get into more detail throughout this guide.

Elimination Payout
Payout Objectives
Prestige Objectives
Opening Safes
Killing or pacifying Couriers

Payout, Prestige, and Elimination

You can see the details of the map you're about to load into, including how many Couriers and Safes are on location.
Source: IO Interactive

The primary way to earn Merces in Hitman Freelancer is by completing missions and the Payout Objectives that are included with each. When you set out to eliminate a target, you’ll see your objectives listed in the top left corner of the screen. Here there will be a listing for Elimination Payout, as well as Payout Objectives. If you eliminate your target, and complete each of the Payout Objectives, you stand to earn considerably more Merces. Once you get through the first syndicate in any given campaign, you’ll also unlock Prestige Objectives that can be activated from your Safehouse prior to any mission.

In the screenshot I’ve included above, you can see that I have an Elimination Payout of 250 Merces, but the Payout Objectives offer a huge bump in earnings. If I can complete all three Payout Objectives, I stand to earn an additional 3,500 Merces. The key to completing Payout Objectives is getting lots of weapons and gear. If you don’t have the appropriate tool for the job, you can’t very well complete the Payout Objectives.

Couriers and Safes

Prestige Objectives will unlock after you take out your first syndicate in a campaign, giving you some very specific ways to earn more Merces.
Source: IO Interactive

Note: You can find about 4,000 Merces in the vault in New York.

Additional ways to earn Merces include tracking down Couriers and opening Safes while you’re on a mission. When you bring up your map in Agent 47’s Safehouse, you’ll see location intel that shows you everything I’ve discussed already, but also how many Couriers and Safes can be found at that location. Find any Couriers wandering the map and either pacify or eliminate them and they’ll drop some Merces. Likewise, locate and open any Safes on the map and you’ll collect even more Merces.

Now that you know how to earn Merces in Hitman Freelancer, be sure to check out our Hitman: World of Assassination page on Shacknews. We’ll be digging into Freelancer and working on a plethora of guides to help you upgrade that Safehouse all the way.