MENACE How to Hire More Squad Leaders: Recruit Guide

MENACE How to Hire More Squad Leaders: The Two Routes

Need another infantry commander or vehicle pilot? MENACE how to hire more squad leaders has two answers: identify and hire regular leaders through the Black Market, or earn faction trust to unlock Honor Guards. Understanding MENACE how to hire more squad leaders helps you pursue the character your force needs and plan around the different recruitment requirements.

The distinction matters because Weiwu, Harlan Corlain, and Roisin Murdock follow the faction route. Searching the Black Market for those three sends you toward the wrong recruitment system.

Recruitment route	Characters covered	Requirement
Black Market	Regular recruitable squad leaders	Identify the character, then hire them through the Black Market
Backbone trust	Weiwu	Earn trust with the Backbone
Dice of the Gods trust	Harlan Corlain	Earn trust with Dice of the Gods
Zayn-Beecher trust	Roisin Murdock	Earn trust with Zayn-Beecher

For regular recruits, begin with the Black Market. For an Honor Guard, focus on the corresponding faction and its trust requirement.

Choose your target before committing to an Honor Guard. Hiring one pushes back the availability of the others, so recruitment order affects how soon you can bring additional faction characters aboard.

Official page: MENACE (menacegame.com)

Use the Black Market for Regular Squad Leaders

The Black Market handles the identification and hiring of regular squad leaders. It also contains the Recruitment Effort entry, which received a price adjustment in the v0.7.16 balancing update.

Image: Steam / Overhype Studios

For the regular roster, MENACE how to hire more squad leaders starts with checking recruitment opportunities at the Black Market rather than pursuing an Honor Guard’s faction requirement.

Keep these Black Market details separate:

Black Market feature	Relevant detail	What to check
Regular leader recruitment	Characters are identified and then hired through this route	The identity of the recruit you are pursuing
Recruitment Effort	Trade value decreased from 60 to 50 in v0.7.16	The current entry and its displayed terms
Restocking	SL Update 1 added restocking for a fee	The fee before choosing to restock

Read Recruitment Effort Carefully

The number 50 refers to Recruitment Effort’s trade value after the balancing update. Avoid treating that figure as a universal hiring price for every squad leader.

Read the recruitment entry before spending, and distinguish its displayed terms from the character you ultimately want to hire. That distinction keeps a general recruitment purchase from becoming an assumption about a specific leader’s cost or availability.

MENACE puts you in charge of a strike force with limited resources. Compare recruitment spending with the equipment your existing force needs before committing to either.

Restock With a Purpose

The Black Market can be restocked for a fee. Check that fee against your remaining resources before using the option.

Keep your target in mind while browsing. If you want Corlain, Weiwu, or Murdock, return your attention to faction trust. Their recruitment requirements remain separate from ordinary Black Market hiring.

Use the market route to pursue regular leaders, and plan faction recruitment around the Honor Guard you actually want.

Unlock Honor Guards Through Faction Trust

Honor Guards arrived with SL Update 1, v0.7.6+19301. The update added three faction-affiliated characters and worked with existing saves.

Image: Steam / Overhype Studios

These recruits have direct loyalties within the Wayback system. Bringing them aboard requires enough trust with their respective factions.

For faction characters, MENACE how to hire more squad leaders becomes a question of faction relationships and recruitment order.

Honor Guard	Associated faction	Role and defining mechanics
Weiwu	The Backbone	Infantry leader whose abilities reward surviving damage and defeating enemies
Harlan Corlain	Dice of the Gods	Concealment-focused infantry leader with objective and sidearm abilities
Roisin Murdock	Zayn-Beecher	Vehicle pilot with bribery, technical disruption, and secondary-objective utility

Plan Around the Rising Requirement

The first Honor Guard becomes available relatively quickly, but recruiting one pushes back access to the others.

Choose your preferred character before taking the first available option. Compare the role you need with each recruit’s abilities, then prioritize the faction attached to that character.

If you want Corlain’s objective tools, keep Dice of the Gods in focus. If you want a pilot with Murdock’s utility, pursue Zayn-Beecher trust. If you want Weiwu’s damage-and-survival kit, work toward Backbone recruitment.

Avoid treating those choices as interchangeable. Each character adds a different set of tactical options, and hiring one changes the timing of the remaining Honor Guards.

Weiwu’s Level-Three Unlock

Weiwu’s SL Update 1 unlock is tied to reaching level three with the Backbone.

Keep that requirement connected to Weiwu. Honor Guard recruitment also includes the rule that hiring one delays access to the others, so plan around your recruitment order instead of assuming every faction character follows an identical timetable.

The Honor Guards were introduced as level-two characters with slightly stronger starting stats and five unique perks, compared with four for other characters. Examine those unique abilities when deciding which faction relationship to prioritize.

MENACE How to Hire More Squad Leaders: Choose Your Target

A larger roster gives you more characters to work with, but these three recruits serve different purposes. Compare their mechanics with the jobs you want another leader to perform.

Image: Steam / Overhype Studios

When planning MENACE how to hire more squad leaders, choose between infantry leadership, objective utility, and vehicle support before deciding which Honor Guard to pursue.

Choose Corlain for His Objective and Concealment Tools

Harlan Corlain combines close-range concealment with abilities that directly affect mission objectives.

His In and Out base perk provides several distinct benefits:

• Sabotage costs zero action points.
• He counts as two units inside capture zones.
• He gains accuracy against designated elimination targets.
• Neutral units he rescues receive reduced movement costs.

Use him to handle those objective interactions when the mission presents them. Check the briefing for capture, sabotage, elimination, and rescue tasks before choosing his assignment.

His other unique perks support operating close to enemies. Door to Door adds concealment in medium or heavy cover, while Ice in the Veins converts concealment into defense and damage reduction.

Equip a projectile sidearm when building around Backup Plan. That perk improves projectile-based accessories and gives eligible non-rocket sidearms Counter-Strike.

Treat Nothing Personal as a reason to plan the end of his turn carefully. Killing a nearby enemy grants substantial concealment, but taking another action besides ending the turn removes that bonus.

Choose Weiwu for His Damage-Response Kit

Weiwu’s abilities revolve around taking punishment and continuing to fight.

Dare to Die lets him survive otherwise fatal damage once per mission and become invulnerable until the next round. Destination Known increases damage as his unit loses hit points.

His remaining unique abilities reinforce that pattern. Divination by Combat builds damage reduction through kills or suppression, and The First Sacrifice grants benefits after the first squaddie falls to enemy fire.

Use those mechanics to assess how Weiwu fits your infantry plans. Keep track of whether Dare to Die has already triggered before exposing him to another dangerous attack.

For an adjacent-enemy build, examine Spear of the Spine. Moving next to an enemy can grant action points and critical damage once per turn.

Plan the movement and follow-up attack together. The perk rewards a specific position, so check the destination before moving him into close combat.

Choose Murdock for Vehicle and Mission Utility

Roisin Murdock joins as a vehicle pilot. Her unique abilities combine situational combat advantages with tools that affect mission outcomes.

Buyout can recruit civilians or certain low-ranking enemy combatants to your side once per mission. Check the target’s eligibility before planning around a bribe.

Insurance can fulfill one unfinished or failed secondary objective. Consider that ability when assigning promotions and preparing for operations with secondary tasks.

ZB License Agreement disables a technical unit for a turn. Short Squeeze rewards positioning an enemy between Murdock and an ally, while Overtime can trigger a free follow-up attack when she reduces an enemy’s health sufficiently.

Build her role around the vehicle you intend to field and the utility you want available. Compare those tools with your existing pilots before prioritizing her faction unlock.

Prepare New Recruits for the Current Balance

Recruitment is only part of expanding your roster. Promotions and perk changes also affect what your newly hired character can do.

For a current MENACE how to hire more squad leaders plan, account for the v0.7.16 balance changes when preparing recruits and returning characters.

Change	Version	Practical effect
Recruitment Effort trade value reduced to 50	v0.7.16	Updates the Black Market recruitment entry’s value
Promotion points refunded	v0.7.16	Existing promotions need to be assigned again
Murdock receives Minimize Silhouette instead of Fortify	v0.7.16	Changes her available defensive perk choice
Short Squeeze range increases from 10 to 12 tiles	v0.7.16	Expands the range for its positioning condition
Short Squeeze checks an area three tiles wide	v0.7.16	Broadens the area used to evaluate the ability

Reassign Promotions Before Deployment

The v0.7.16 update refunded promotion points because several perks changed or were replaced.

Open your leaders’ promotion options and assign those points before deploying. Review the actual perk choices, especially if you are returning to a campaign after the update.

For Murdock, account for Minimize Silhouette replacing Fortify. The reworked Minimize Silhouette also received additional damage reduction and increased defense per tile.

Review Short Squeeze’s current positioning requirements before arranging a flank. Its updated range and wider checked area matter when deciding where to place Murdock and an ally.

Match Equipment to the Recruit’s Mechanics

Prepare Corlain’s concealment and sidearm setup together. His cover bonuses, defensive conversion, and accessory benefits interact, so consider the whole kit when assigning equipment.

For Weiwu, review his unique survival and damage perks before selecting a close-range assignment. Keep his once-per-mission protection in mind throughout the fight.

For Murdock, prepare the vehicle and promotion choices around the utility you intend to use. Inspect eligible Buyout targets and technical units during deployment planning.

Use this recruitment checklist:

• Identify whether your target uses the Black Market or faction trust.
• Check Recruitment Effort’s current terms before spending.
• Choose your preferred Honor Guard before recruiting another.
• Review and assign refunded promotion points.
• Equip the recruit around the abilities you plan to use.

FAQ

MENACE how to hire more squad leaders: where should I start?

Start with the Black Market for regular squad leaders, who can be identified and hired there. For Weiwu, Harlan Corlain, or Roisin Murdock, pursue trust with their corresponding factions.

Can I recruit Honor Guards through the Black Market?

Honor Guards use faction-trust recruitment. Weiwu belongs to the Backbone, Corlain to Dice of the Gods, and Murdock to Zayn-Beecher.

What faction level unlocks Weiwu?

Weiwu’s SL Update 1 unlock requires level three with the Backbone. Recruiting an Honor Guard pushes back the availability of the others, so choose your recruitment order carefully.

Do I need a new campaign to recruit the SL Update 1 characters?

SL Update 1 is compatible with existing saves. Continue your campaign and work toward the faction-trust requirements for the Honor Guard you want.