Hirelings are in the demo. Kill the Dark Lord and Osric the Almoner opens his ledger in camp, and your first hire is free.
In What Waits Past the Gate we said hirelings were for the full game. We have moved that gate too.
Osric will not take your gold early. Visit his Hiring Post before the kill and he tells you why. Every sword in camp has buried friends in that graveyard, and none of them will walk the road while the Dark Lord still holds it. Bring him down and the ledger opens.
Three candidates stand at the Post, and the three change over time. A Templar and a Witch are always among them, with names like Brother Anselm and Ysolde of the Fen. Each has one calling, a single skill tree to draw from, and none will outlevel you. They level beside you and wear the gear you hand them. You keep one at a time.
Open Inventory, Character, Skills or Talents on your hireling and the window gets a steel-blue frame and a HIRELING strip on top. Right-click the hireling's plate on the HUD and the same four windows are one click away.
Out of combat your hireling holds a spot a few steps behind you and stands still when you stop. Move, and they walk back to it. In a fight they take on what threatens you and do not chase packs across the map. A Templar hireling steps between you and whatever is hitting you. A Witch stays back and casts. A ring at their feet makes them easy to spot, and Settings can swap it for a border or a chevron.
Monsters now pick a target by who is hurting them most. A hireling who pulls a pack holds it until you join in, and if you stand back they keep it. Run, and within a few seconds the pack turns on them instead. Healing draws a little attention too, so you cannot hide behind them and heal for free.
The first hire is free. Every later hire costs gold, and so does raising a hireling who has fallen, a little less while you are still climbing.
Between the map and a companion, the demo now has a second way to play after the Dark Lord falls.