To unlock Merciless upgrades for Copper and Iron gear in V Rising, players must farm regional V Blood Carriers for drops or research random Recipes.

The "Merciless" variants of weapons and armor in V Rising are the upgraded and enhanced versions for the Copper and Iron gear sets. For example, the Merciless Nightstalker Armor and Merciless Copper Weapons are the enhanced pieces of equipment for Copper. As for Iron, Vampire adventurers can acquire Merciless Iron Weapons and Merciless Hollowfang Armor, which have a higher Gear Score than standard Iron battle gear in V Rising.

Having stronger variants of Copper or Iron armor pieces will allow Vampires of V Rising to confidently take on more challenging foes, such as the high-level V Blood Carriers of Dunley Farmlands and Silverlight Hills. Moreover, a higher Gear Score will grant players access to more Bosses via the Blood Altar within one's Castle. Naturally, Merciless Copper and Iron Weapons will also have an effect on the Gear Score prerequisites for certain Carriers, but this enhanced weaponry offers even more practicality in the open world, specifically for gathering resources.

Related: V Rising: How to Find (& Defeat) Beatrice The Tailor

"Attack level too low!" is a red notification pop-up that will appear whenever a Vampire in V Rising is attempting to harvest an Iron or Silver Ore vein without the proper tools. For instance, the red message will appear if players strike an Iron node with their Copper Mace. This predicament can be solved by upgrading the Mace to the Merciless Copper Mace. Similarly, players looking to mine Silver Ore will need a Merciless Iron Weapon to extract the resource successfully.

The process for unlocking the Merciless Copper and Iron upgrades in V Rising is heavily dependent on chance. Accordingly, the game offers two RNG-based methods of acquiring the pieces of Merciless gear. The first method is through research via the Research Desk or the Study. For 50 sheets of Paper, Vampires can discover a single random Recipe from the Research Desk, one of which can be a Merciless Copper or Nightstalker schematic. On the other hand, the Study requires 75 Scrolls for a single research discovery but will potentially provide players with a Merciless Iron or Hollowfang Recipe in V Rising.

Alternatively, Vampires of V Rising can randomly find Recipe books or pieces of the Merciless battle gear in the wild. These items have a minuscule chance of dropping from basic enemy mobs, but they have a much higher possibility of spawning in V Blood Carrier loot. Therefore, the best way to farm the Merciless upgrades in the open world of Vardoran is by slaying Carriers in Farbane Woods for Merciless Copper gear or Bosses in Dunley Farmlands for Merciless Iron equipment.

Next: V Rising: How To Get Servants (& How They Work)

V Rising is available on PC.

Ethan is an American from California and holds a double-major degree in Business Admin. and Media & Comm. While adept in writing a variety of articles, he currently focuses on writing game guides for Screen Rant. He has a lifelong purpose of conquering his Steam backlog someday.