Talk:Mercedes Marten/@comment-71.178.20.202-20131011001450/@comment-5166842-20131011010725

You can do her escort quest if you want, but it isn't necessary. You can gift her Cloudwine, which isn't necessary but helps. The 2 most important things in getting Mercedes as your LI, in my experience, are not interfering during her duel with Julien, which should make her give you her Silver Rapier as a gift (I usually gift her a few Cloudwines after this, which doesn't hurt), and making sure to not raise affinity with Quina, Aelinore or Madeleine after completing Mercedes' quest, which unfortunately means skipping all of their final quests. Be sure to also lower their affinities (and any other NPCs you're worried about) if you've done any of their early quests. The game leans heavily to making one of those 3 your LI, and since Mercedes leaves the game before any of them it makes it tough.

Speedruns are a relatively easy way to get Mercedes, since she seems to be the most likely LI from necessary quests.