As the VA for Heinrix, I approve this transmission.

Completely disagree. Abelard is essential to EVERY party. Without him, who will announce your lordship to the peasants?

Being absolutely biased towards Cassia the only thing I would change is put Cassia on rank 1 and slide the rest down. Cassia is a absolute beast on the battlefield and her sweet disposition and the way you can fluster her when you are open about your flirtations and how she opens up, even though knowing that many would find her mutations hideous is just do adorably sweet. And yes, I like myself some sweetness, I like to think Cassia acts as a haven of light for my Rogue Trader while being sorounded by heresy and death at every turn, which only strengthens his resolve.

I am really happy you are making these videos as so many people stopped making any guides day two of this game. The last patch was really great and the next patch is even bigger.

I've played through this once but I had no idea the other Rogue Traders or Uralon were recruitable.🤣 My personal favourite is the Sister of Battle Argenta herself as she just absolultely destroyed every enemy for me with her bolter and flamer. Thanks for the video Slandered!

Yrliet is bae - shes breaking the generational cycles of trauma and abuse lmfao

I'm super in love with ulfar. In the last battle escaping commorragh, Ulfar beat the heresy out of the entire enemy force, when my original party got wiped out at the first 3 rounds and only took down a couple of drukhari and did damage to the one grotesque. He actually 1vthe entire enemy force, and i believe that is because he had a ton of stacks of versatility giving him 200+ weapon and ballistic skill while his cape is actively nerfing the opponents, so he would dodge and parry everything while his strikes would decimate everything in melee range. That and considering one of the heroic acts gives him an extra attack per turn he really did wipe the floor with all the enemies.

People say that Iconoclasts can get Calligos but in my Iconoclast run this was assuredly not the case, I ended up getting Chorda after essentially calming her down instead of enabling her zealotry

Pasqual's writing does indeed rock. I was already mega-biased towards Yrliet and Idira, and ran a Forge World Operative 'trader on top of that, but Pasqual's character never had me second guessing whether 4 Operatives in the squad or INT-skill redundancy was at all worth benching him.

Jae is one of those characters who I think is a lot better if you do her romance as if you do she gets much more of a character arc than she has normally. I honestly found it quite good and quite interesting given the various contexts she has operated in. I won't say too much more to avoid spoilers, but her past and her character make much more sense and fit the story much better once you learn her backstory, and the romance plotline gives her a lot more character development as it is focused on her attempting to figure out who she wants to be and who she can be given the extremely rigid society of the Imperium. That being said, having her character arc so tightly tied to her romance is a point against her, though it does make sense why she wouldn't let the rogue trader close otherwise.

Strongly disagree on the Yrliet take. The slow burn romance works well for an interspecies relationship between two xenophobic races and the pay off is very satisfying. That being said the ending slides dont make sense and do her character dirty. Your top two choices are spot on tho

Abelard, announce my favorite companion as Cassia for best girl. And Magos as the runner up. Make it grand and lavish. Only the best for the best

I'm playing a primarily dogmatic trader for my first playthrough, but with exceptions made such as consorting with Yrliet and actively trying to save her people, the character believes in a strict adherence to imperial law, but doesn't relish in unnecessary suffering, even that of the xenos. She was willing to give Idira a chance until Idira caused the death of many of her crew during a warp jump, at which point Argenta was allowed to carry out an execution. Marazhai was tolerated as useful during the escape, useful enough that she was willing to give him an opportunity to repent and make good on his deeds. Right up until he inadvertently allowed She who thirsts into the ship and slaughtered a bunch of crew. I didn't see locking him away as safe enough, and the other options were... unappealing. Thus, a summary execution was carried out. Normally, I'd hate doing that sort of thing on a first run because it cuts you off from content and reduces the overall experience. But I already know I'm destined for at least 3 full runs of this game and there'll be plenty of time to absorb all the extra content.

Not being able to romance Argenta is the biggest shame. I love the SoB zealotry. They're so passionate.

I’m only in Act 1 (just did my victory parade and the fallout from it), but so far, I’d like to just clone Argenta and Cassia. When I get Argenta buffed and positioned right, then hit Finest Hour, god damn. I really love the art design in the game. Major credit to the art team. Excellent all around. Voice acting is solid too, although it would benefit so much from BG3 style closeups and motion capture. I also like how, generally unlike BG3, your companions feel free to interrupt your conversations. Cassia to be snobby, Argenta to be like “why are you still talking to this asshole can we just kill him already?”, etc. Argenta gets real annoyed when you actually talk to bosses before a fight. 😆

28:30 “AS. BEFITS. ITS. PURPOSE.”

I'm still in Act 2 so my opinion may change but Cassia has been my favorite so far. Mechanically, she never seems to run out of really useful things to do with her AP. As a character, I think her grimdark take on the "sheltered princess" archetype is hilarious. She is basically "What if Sansa Stark was horrifying?"

Excellent summary list of Party Members! Thx for the video!

Thank you for showcasing their builds! I've had the hardest time figuring out what the Secret Companion builds actually are, since there isn't much info about the starting builds for companions on the wiki that I've found. I'll hopefully get around to updating that sometime soon, since it is useful information to have.

I'm still about to get the game, so such videos only fuel my desire to play. Interesting that the highest ranked characters (at least in your opinion) are those you get early on. This is actually nice - you get the powerlifters early on so you get the choice to continue demolishing enemies with them or later you can branch off to other curious characters for the novelty. Also reading other people's comments those early characters are also among the ones with better story development and with more conversations.

Space Marines feel awkward in this game, because of their 2x2 size in constricted spaces. E.g. Uralon the Cruel used his unique Space Marine charge ability to get close to Abelard, which caused him to path around weirdly and eat 3+ attacks of opportunity. Ulfar would regularly get blocked in by cover/obstacles and not be able to get to the enemies, sometimes not even leave the starting area (in a certain voidship defense map).

Cassia can be built to be absolutely broken. She has some equipment that allows two navaigator abilities per turn, as well as an ability that causes more damage to enemies already suffering from an ability of hers. Within one turn, the mobs have been entirely wiped out in any given battle with that cone attack. She can also stay in the front lines if you invest in some agility to dodge attacks and take the talent that replaces the HP calculation with Willpower instead of Toughness. Then, after all of that, she will buff a party member and send them off on another attack too.

In my Dogmatic playthrough, Heinrix was an absolute menace, especially once I acquired the ancient power sword in those ruins. And Argenta felt more like a Space Marine than the actual SM, which is kinda sad, cause I love wolf-boy.

Heavy Bolter Argenta carried me through the entire game. Her damage is utterly insane and capable of shredding even bosses.

It's funny how Ulfar is completely different for me. He is near unkillable from the start to finish, dodges and parry 90% of attacks despite his heavy ass, even better than Marazai and easily tank the rest. On top of that he deals respectable damage both single target and melee. On the contracy, Henrick was pretty useless as he dies way too often even with high dodge chance. He is my bottom 3. Cassia is by far the best for me, she deals the most AoE damage by far and Huge single target, can control, can support and with the right build she dodges most of the attacks. She is always the second hardest to kill in my party behind Ulfar.

They needed like 300 nerfs to push Cassia down to 3rd place :D

My current party on my second play through is: Cassia, Heinrix, Abelard, Marazhai, Ulfa and I a pyromancer deathworld warrior build. It so op I just have 2 swords and an epic fire staff! Molten beam until I can't and I then stab whatever is left, I could have given myself a higher damage sword/s. But one auto-counter attacks and the other reduces dodge success. It was fun messing around wit Heinrix, it so cute how he warned me of an upcoming encounter wit his boss. Had to choose between Heinrix and Jae at one point too but I went wit Heinrix because last time I chose Jae. Missed out on fun times Marazhai this time unlike in my first playthrough.

Interesting take. For me, Argenta was the Destroyer of Worlds. Also loved her party banter and combat chatter. But not a lot going on quest wise. I was surprised and disappointed that her late game quest did not upgrade her to power armor. If Argenta was overwhelming power, Abelard was the unbreakable shield. You say melee isn't useful, and maybe his damage was not great, but in the rare cases where Argenta needed more than 1 turn to finish the map, Abelard would brick wall everything else. Always felt wrong going somewhere without him there to announce me. I understand you not liking Yrliet, but she was very much in line with how I played my Rogue Trader. He was one of the few humans in the galaxy that was allowed a degree of curiosity. One of the few able to explore, and think for themselves. And one of the few licensed to deal with xenos on more than a "purge the heretic" level. Of course he would embrace the opportunity to learn about Aeldari culture. His pragmatism would allow him to use that knowledge to seek mutually beneficial arrangements, or to exploit weaknesses. The big hit sniper was fun in combat too, although she was nowhere near Argenta.

If you don't have Cassia in the 1st place then you know nothing sir! Not only is Cassia unique, you can make a custom Heinrix (warrior/parker) but you can not make a navigator, but cassia is also very seriously powerfully with Officer/Master tactician. Absolute beats of a character

TLDR: Marazhai became a token evil teammate and now he's in the party more often than Abelard because Pas + Marz commenting on events is far funnier than it should be. Basically on my first run I swore I would kill Marazhai - but after chapters of everyone fauning over my Rogue Trader (and him being about as into that as Yerilth is into humans) Marazhai being an unrepentant goblin just had my guy going, "You know what? I'm keeping him. He's creepy and evil and he doesn't want to _fall in love with me."_ _But of course,_ my first Rogue Trader has all the Awareness of a deaf bat and (like me) has not realized he has taken all the romance options with Marazhai that would puts him in an _Archon position_ in a manner of speaking. At this point my guy 100% has pissed off some greater daemon of Slannesh and all his attempts to be helpful or courteous to others, their lives, their cultures, is instead taken as romantic interest _which he does not notice nor realize is happening._ This is TTS Russ enters the bar to kill demons with flirting and ghosting levels of friend zoning my guy is doing. My second run is currently "unrepentant goblin" with side of "for the Golden Throne" and it will be mostly Argenta and Marazhai, with a _very_ distraught Heinrix, and two rotating slots.

Really hope they will update the late game companions, lots of potential, just needs full respecability & some dialogue & a late game personal quest and they should be fine. :)

Pasqual and abelard will forever live in my heart, but hendrix is one that i've learned to appriciate more and more during the campaing; since i was playing often "on the edge of heretical" when it comes to diplomacy with xenos and the like i expected his character to just be mad...instead there was always a degree of "respectful politeness" where you both understand your position and are both aware that if pushed too much, something will break. Also, a bit sad i've never heard much of marzhal...the moment i stepped on the ship i asked hendrix to throw him out of the closest airlock.

I was able to recruit Chorda as Iconoclast (with a few dogmatic points) I think her and Caligos are exclusive though.

Uralon bugged out when i removed his armour and couldnt put it back on......I'd rate that at #13.

My boy Passy is the one companion that I always needed to have right by my side. He gets incredibly OP.

Can't really agree that melee fighters are less effective than ranged, it's just that you only need 1 or 2 melee fighters. Melee fighters are great at getting into the thick of combat and distracting enemies or forcing them to move, causing reaction attacks, they are also good at blocking choke points. They also deal good damage, my melee fighters are almost always my highest single target DPS dealers and have really good mobility thanks to their charge attack. Overall, I feel like Abelard is an absolute must if you aren't planning to make your MC the main melee tank, personally I like to make him an arch-militant to make him deal more damage.

A Space Wolf not being great at melee combat? Heresy! [Blam!]

i can not help but Yriel was allways a must pick in my parties, she is simply a so damn deadly sniper and high dmg so you want something dead it will die

I am very conflicted on Yrilet. I hate her personality but she is amazing single target damage dealer. She can single handedly deal with bosses but God-Emperor help me, if she calls me mon-keh one more time! >

See i would rate Yrliet a LOT higher, but then im an Aeldari fanboy. As a party member she throws out a LOT of damage, 1k+ crits are not unreasonable from her and she was only ever outdamaged by Argenta in my playthrough, i also think shes an incredibly well written Aeldari character, the Aeldari story is ultimately a tragedy, and Yrliets frustration and sadness at the plight of her people despite her best efforts is palpable, and incredibly well written, i also enjoyed her romance because it was so very different to the usual crpg fare. Marazhai didnt survive my first run, same with Idira so im doing a new one to try experience them, both are hard to justify from a roleplay perspective so im just going with it knowing that its probably tje only time i'll ever keep them alive :D

Awesome video. My PC is an old potato, but I'll be upgrading soon enough. Glad to see a more recent update on this type of content to reflect patch balancing that's been made.

Really wanna watch this video, but no spoilers before I buy rogue trader when it goes on sale...

I have choosen every iconoclast option there is in the game, exatly 0 heretic options and some minor dogmatic ones when no iconoclast was around. Still, Winterscale was not added to my retinue. What did I do wrong, I could not find anything about that online anywere.

What class and orgin is your main character in this video? I started playing this game yesterday and i already started new game 3 times, because i cannot decide who i want my main character to be 😅

Can't recommend this game enough... awesome game. Banged Jae n Cassia but my heart belongs to Argenta. 😅

Regarding builds of companions, since last big patch you can respec from level 0 even changing first archetype. So all of their genetic ails now can be mended). Wish they could add that in Wotr with the last dlc. Thx for the video

I would Put heinrix to Highest dd There are two items thet (together) give you 8*psi Rank meele DMG + An Helmet that gives you +psi Rank per Dogmatik Rank I had him Deal 300 + DMG with one Hit As an dual weapon assasin He rampages threw the later Acts

This is really good! I’m still in chapter 3 and enjoying it a lot! I made Cable and Bishop from X-Men as custom companions for this play through.

Ngl, I'm biased for Yrliet. I love dialogue and character too much to care about how well she actually performs. Not like her performance matters, when my Rogue Trader is a living blender as a Warrior/Arch Militant.

Honestly, Ulfar is my fav by far. Maybe because I already like the Vlka Fenryka more than the other factions in the game but I think they nailed him for the most part. Also disagree with him being better at range. He's fine in melee with an axe and pistol imo which is how space marines fight in melee. Yeah he might be more optimal if he was a warrior, but he's up there as a melee fighter for me. I do agree they flubbed him narratively and mechanically with how he reacts to the world as a space marine but to be fair, Henrix, Yrliet, and Marzy also are treated equally as poorly. Like the inquisition should strike fear in the averages citizen. An interrogator just being there should make people feel nervous and he doesn't pull rank as much as he should. The xenos should be met with fear and aggression likewise. Feels like most of the time it's like, "of is that an Eldar? That's cool, anyways...". Which is weird since for some reason most people can't tell the difference between an aeldari and drukhari. Mechanically I get the decision making, power scaling is completely messed up in this game for the sake of variety. So Ulfar, a Wolf Guard, should just win the game for you but they don't want it to be Ulfar and the Rouge Trader show so he's tone back. I feel like that's also why they were easy on the acts of faith with Argenta. But if you did it right, you limit yourself on what you can put in and it kind of limits player choice. Like the game Darktide you get more or less the same weapons, but you never fight more than minor daemons and a skilled cultist with a refactor shield. Scaling was way better and if I saw a CSM in that game I would panic hard but that was a shooter, so it didn't need as much variety.

Yirliet gets penalty marks for not liking humans... meanwhile Marazhai is halfway across the party.

Pasqual is that dude. I usually place him off by a wall with a sniper rifle and give him extra turns picking off lower level enemies or placing traps during combat. But I absolutely love the idea of creating party members for 1 Profit Factor. Currently creating a nice little army.

Nice video! Could you do a video on the best weapon types you can find in the game? I feel this game has the same problem the pathfinder games had with weapon variety...

Plasma pascal and flamerbolter argenta are my 2 main damage dealers. The SOB is incredible, dodges everything and can attack so many times it's ridiculous.

Yrliet is so good, no way is she this low. She has extreme range and can break armor where others do 0 damage, she does a ton of damage. She can single handedly kill bosses.

I failed to meet the requirements for any of the secret characters during my playthrough, but here's my list in order of favorites combining story, personality, and combat effectiveness. I would say there is a drop off after 1 and 4, as Argenta is an "all timer" of a character for me that stands alone here, and the top 4 I would consider my "core party" for the game. Ulfar wound up taking Abelard's spot in my party and I liked his quest more, although I did love Abelard's personality and his introductions were hilarious. I built Abelard as an assassin, not vanguard, and he was a beast. 1 Argenta 2 Casia 3 Heinrix 4 Pascal 5 Ulfar 6 Abelard 7 Marazai 8 Yrilliet 9 Idira 11 Jae

Argenta is disgustingly OP when combined with an support characters. I cleared every single encounter, except for some boss fights which force you to end your turn, in a single round once you start getting your second profession.

New comer to both the game and video. Love video like this.

I hope they add more xeno companions, I’d LOVE to see an Ork Kommando or if not than I’d take a Mek boy

Argenta is better as a sniper? I always give her the best rapidfire wepon and she regularly emptys multiple 60 round heavy bolter magazines a round in my current run

I was profoundly disappointed by the fact that there was only two xeno companions and both of them were Eldar. Owlcat has a knack for missed opportunities when in comes to their companions. Also the fact that the three secret companions are basically just personality-less mercenaries is also extremely disappointing. Owlcat is very hit or miss when it comes to the implementation of companions in their games.

Wow. You placed Yrliet just like I would've done. Truly amazing, you're one of the RT youtubers with enough integrity and self-esteem to do that!

Abelard one shots rooms with the Heroic Act I took on him. I'm very confused that you say melee isn't effective.

Argenta does have one of the most broken gear combos with her quest reward armor and hymn of vegeneace

Excellent review

Argenta with las build is probadly the most powerfull damage dealer. I when i played She could deal over 1000 damage in one round

I feel that Uralon and Calligos are not given enough respect, but there's no point I can dispute on them.

Something i always recommend is the Toybox mod You can enable an option to respec characters from lvl 1 I made Ulfar a Warrior/Arch Militant I find it so dumb hes a Soldier. Space Wolves are very clearly supposed to be melee Owlcat builds characters for RP, but that doesnt make for good characters in gameplay Other build adjustments i make: Jae into a soldier, she doesnt really feel like an officer Abelard into a an Officer, he feels way more like a leader Marazahi to operative + asassin.does absolutely insane burst dmg

You can have Chorda as Iconoclast as well

We appreciate your content Slandered!

Nah, Yrliet killed last boss(and all adds it spawned) on max difficulty in 1 extra turn she got from the officer, my MC psyker(and yes Idira can do even more damage) can kill entire room of enemies in 2-3 casts, Argenta cant come even close to such results.

Trying to constantly apease someone who despise you => yeah, that's called a redhead tsundere, and she's an elf where's the problem ?

I never found Heinrix super useful.

I would much more prefer an ogryn bodyguard than a space marine that feels out of place and it would be awesome to have characters from the elucidian starstrides like an assassin or a guardsman

Great video, thank you. =]

Great breakdown.

Very helpful, thank you .

My top 5: Argenta, Abelard, Cassia, Heinrix, Yrliet, Pasqal. Oh, I did 6. Nvm lol. I think you underestimated Yrliet. I think her personality is interesting and I like talking to her even tho I'm playing a dogmatic character. Plus I was playing her wrong and I chose horrific skills for her. So I got a guide on yt and holy s**t now she's doing god tier dmg.

the only way to out class idira as a psyker is with a certain helmet that gives you +1PR for every rank in dogmatic (usualy i would give that to heinrix)

Incendia has my first RT's build (I just finished that run). If you are running an Astra Militarum Commander origin Soldier first class archetype RT, it links in reeeeeeeally well for Regimental Tactics. I often ended sticking my gun girlies (Argenta and my RT Vinia) somewhere behind cover, Heinrix hanging around to be melee cover and general "midfield" defense for the gun girlies so they could focus on the pew pew (Abelard and Pasqal on forward, generally melee attack). Sticking Regimental Tactics on those 3, or even just gun girlies and they just obliterated everything. My RT out damaged Abelard, and the lasguns can do some ridiculous damage in the right hands. I often kept Ulthar around, cause he was really good at floating in and out of combat, and him provoking AoOs with his stupidly high combat stats mean he would rarely get hit. It was either him or Cassia. Didn't get to keep Idira around, and you do a Dogmatic run, and 2 of your potential recruits, the very nice Interrogator says to nope on (and, well, he has very pretty eyes and knows more about Xenos than you do), you nope on them. Oh well, time for new runs; Heretic and Iconoclast.

Gonna buy it in some months🔥

"Abelard, if you will.."

I was max iconoclast and couldn’t recruit Caligos that’s super weird. He’s an interesting character though. Ulfar pissed me off though I did everything I could to recruit him in the Comorag and then he was like “No” and I check 1 choice I made of asking 1 question out of order locked me out of his content. He should be at the bottom of the list because that is dumb as heck and if I do another playthrough I am massively tempted to skip him cause I didn’t miss him at all or feel like having a space Marine to lug around would have been more fun. Yrilet being so low hurts too she was one of my favorites cause she gives such unique perspective and is so awesomely written and an amazing sniper

I think your ranking is correct, but I don't think Yrliet makes a better sniper than a proper RT built for it.

Hmmmm, Sounds like my party ended up being very weird... your top ones I disliked... My party was weird but I loved it... Abelard,Jae, Yrliet, Marazhai, Me and Argenta. I disliked Ulfar, Henrix and Pasqal. But I did enjoy their side quests! Fuck Henrix, I never wanted someone gone so much!!! Talking down to me! does he not know who I am! (I wasn't heretical)

1. Abelard. 2. Everyone else.

My ranking is acceptable.

Well done brother

Not really in a position to play the game, but still love your breakdowns

I don't know What happened then, but I got Insendia in a pure Iconoclast run, and Calligos was just like, "I ll never fight again! See ya!" XD And she is only who I got. And to be honest, I really don't like this WH40k word. I can't stand the constant dogmatic, human supremacy bs, and thats why I would swap Arg with Yrliet, and thats one of the only things I don't like about Heinrix. Don't get me wrong, he is an amazing character, just he is dogmatic, and his personal quest feels like you are just there to carry his ass to places. Also this is maybe the only game where I would play an evil, chaos run, but it is seriously lacking in content. It needs like an extra 2 companions at least. Also the Iconoclast companion should have been Nocturne of Oblivion. XD

My Tech priest bless this channel using a sacred comment to raise the algorith favor on you. Praise the omnissiah and the algorith god

I've been waiting for more patches before I play. It's kind of annoying to know that the first companions you basically start with are the best. oh well

pascal is my pal too

I thought the other 2 rogue traders were so awesome

One of the biggest issues is the amount of romanceable companions. If you are into girls you only have cassia (mutant so it can screw your rp as an asshole) and yrilet. If you are into guys you only have the dark elf and heinrix. How many female players wanted to end qith Abelard? How many male players wish they could find their tech priestess? I want more companions and more customization optiond (what if i was tech priest adjacent?)

To be honest, I love/hate Abelard. Amazing tank, I always have him in my party but omg he annoys the shit out of me. Humanities Nobelity are a bunch of moronic, ineffective wastes of space and if I could, without destabilizing the entire sector, I would have most of them turned into servators. Dang apparently I just missed Ulfar in my playthrough, Marazhai I killed in the arena cause f*** that guy.

Do you even read the text if it is your 3d run?

Woot i didnt know you could recruit inceda chorda,

Clearly dogmatic Wildcat believes in the divinity of the Emprah

Having a xeno companion is heresy.