Avowed's Companions: A Ranked Guide from Worst to Best
Beyond their narrative roles and dialogue, Avowed's Companions offer significant gameplay advantages, from pathfinding to combat prowess. This guide ranks each companion, from least to most effective.
4. Marius
Marius proves a less-than-ideal companion for most playstyles. While his early-game utility in locating items and plants is helpful, he quickly becomes outmatched. His combat effectiveness is limited. Here's a breakdown of his abilities and upgrades:
- Blinding Roots: Roots enemies (upgradeable to stun, trap multiple, and inflict Bleed).
- Heart Seeker: A piercing shot that always hits (upgradeable to hit two enemies, increased damage vs. low-health enemies, and reduced cooldown).
- Shadow Step: Vanishes and strikes an enemy (upgradeable to instantly kill stunned enemies, increased damage vs. low-health enemies, and increased target count).
- Wounding Shots: Inflicts Bleed Accumulation (upgradeable to reduce enemy damage reduction, slow enemies, and further reduce enemy damage).
Marius' abilities primarily focus on crowd control and weakening enemies. Effective against certain enemy types, particularly when paired with a melee Envoy, his overall impact falls short for most of the game.
3. Giatta
Giatta, a support-oriented Animancer, excels at healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While lacking in raw damage, her utility shines in challenging encounters. Her protective abilities are invaluable during boss fights. Her abilities include:
- Purification: Heals allies (upgradeable to increased healing, enemy interruption, and increased ally damage reduction).
- Barrier: Provides temporary health to allies (upgradeable to increased temporary health, healing on barrier expiration, and protection from melee attacks).
- Acceleration: Increases ally movement and attack speed (upgradeable to damage reduction, extended duration, and ability cooldown reduction).
- Reconstruction: Heals allies with attacks (upgradeable to increased healing for low-health allies, temporary health for full-health allies, and ally revival on enemy kill).
Giatta also activates Essence Generators, opening late-game areas. She synergizes well with magic-focused Envoy builds.
2. Kai
Despite being an early companion, Kai remains consistently useful. A formidable tank, he delivers substantial damage with minimal player intervention. His abilities are:
- Fire and Ire: Blunderbuss attack with high stun and taunt (upgradeable to ignite target, increased stun, and reduced cooldown).
- Unbending Defense: Health regeneration and damage reduction (upgradeable to increased damage reduction, increased regeneration, and a damaging shockwave on expiration).
- Leap of Daring: Stunning and taunting area-of-effect attack (upgradeable to increased area of effect, temporary health per hit, and bonus attack damage per hit).
- Second Wind: Self-revival (upgradeable to increased health restoration, attack speed burst, and ability cooldown reset).
Kai's abilities are effective against various enemy types, offering both single-target and crowd control options. His self-revival further enhances his value. He can also use fire to clear obstacles.
1. Yatzli
Yatzli, a powerful Wizard, boasts high damage and excellent crowd control. She provides a form of "air support" in combat. Her abilities are:
- Essence Explosion: Explosive arcane damage (upgradeable to increased blast radius, fire accumulation, and reduced cooldown).
- Minoletta’s Missile Battery: Volley of homing missiles (upgradeable to increased fire rate, range, and shock accumulation).
- Arduos Delay of Motion: Slows enemies (upgradeable to intensified slow, area-of-effect slow, and frost accumulation).
- Blast: Area-of-effect damage on hit (upgradeable to explosive damage for breaking blocks and walls, shattering frozen enemies, and increased stun chance with status effect application).
Yatzli's potent abilities and obstacle-clearing capabilities make her the top companion choice. Although recruited last, she's invaluable throughout the remainder of the game.
Avowed launches on PC and Xbox on February 18.
