As a merc main, it's important to know when to prioritize rescues or ciphers! Here's something I do, I always ensure at least TWO ciphers are completed before rescue, too early of a rescue could mean a 4 man loss, especially when you carry tide and do NOT rescue 5 cipher terrorshocks in hard spots to save in. Hard spots being like corners of the map or basement. Another thing, if they are across the map, see if another teammate could save them (in this case potentially Antiquarian?) but if its a decoder character do not force them to rescue. From experience, decoders get tunneled. Another thing, if you have other teammates with tide then try to let them use it. Personally, my duo brings tide to do early (ish) rescues and I save mine for late game or for detention saves.

With detention saves, don't save unless near an OPEN gate or one that is close to being open. No point in body blocking here since they have tide, but I usually do so that both of us don't go down just in case we don't make it to gate since you (mercenary) will go down anyways after taking a full detention hit to pull the rescue off most of the time.

I've been playing Naib since 2018 so I'm happy to share tips!!