Mercenary Class — Release Date, Price and Abilities Status

What we know about Mercenary

Mercenary is the newest class in Drill to Earth’s Core — number 27 on the roster — and it is live. The game updated on 26 September 2026 and the class’s unlock badge began awarding within the hour, ending two and a half days of the class sitting in the game’s data unclaimed.

That gap is worth explaining, because it is how every date on this site is verified. The developers create a badge when a class is added to the game — Mercenary’s, Unlock the Mercenary class, dates to 23 September 2026 — so the badge list is the one source that does not lag behind the way a hand-updated wiki does. The class itself only became reachable on 26 September.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Every blank in that table stays blank on purpose. A made-up price sends you grinding toward a number that does not exist, and a made-up kit is worse — it changes what you save for. Both get filled in from the same badge data and creator tests that produced the rest of this site.

How the class went live

The signal was the badge, not a patch note. Mercenary’s badge was created on 23 September and then sat at zero unlocks for two and a half days — the game had the class in its data but no way to reach it. On 25 September a second badge appeared: an NPC called the Lieutenant (“Talk to the Lieutenant”), also unclaimed. On 26 September the game updated (05:48 UTC) and both badges started awarding within the hour.

That pairing matches the precedent. On 3 September the developers created Prospector (Unlock the Prospector class) and Shopkeeper (Talk to the Shopkeeper) minutes apart, and both shipped in the same update. A class badge and an NPC badge appearing together, both unclaimed, is what an update in staging looks like — and both going live together is what its release looks like.

What to expect on price and kit

Both classes added earlier in September — Prospector and Samurai — sit in the Tier 5 band at 30,000 Cores, so budget for the top of the ladder until the price is verified. If you are already playing, the Academy in the lobby shows the exact number; we publish it here as soon as a source confirms it.

The kit follows a fixed shape: every class in the game has four levels, and Level 4 is always a team bonus that helps the whole 30-player server. Mercenary’s four passives get added here once creators have tested them. The all classes page has the full price ladder from Miner at 100 Cores upward, and the get Cores guide covers the fastest ways to bank them.

How this page updates

This site’s class data comes from the game’s own badge API, re-checked every day. When the price, starter gear and the four passives are verified, this page switches to the same level-by-level format as the Samurai and Prospector guides. Until then, the best classes tier list ranks everything that is playable today.