Talk:Affinity/@comment-76.7.200.55-20130802140225/@comment-5166842-20130802150715

Unless you mess up her quest none are required. I'll usually give her 1 or 2 if I have them on me at the end of her quest, but if you do everything right and get her Silver Rapier she'll be maxed.

Problem is that if you do any other quests afterwards that max out other NPCs' affinity (especially Quina and Aelinore) it's tough to get Mercedes in the end (so to speak). The easiest way to get Mercedes is doing a speedrun.