Woohoo the first episode is here! I hope you're ready for high level companions :) I have a lot of the work done for episode 2 and 3 so I'll be able to get them both out quicker. Also, I'll be posted the database ASAP once it's ready. I'll have it posted on the Discord until the website is up!!

You probably put more thought into this video than TaleWorlds did into their companion growth mechanics. Great job!

I just cant believe, i passed the whole day looking for some guide on companions and found nothing, now just grabbed my phone and fou d this, THANK YOU SIR

You be delivering that information so clearly with just the right amount of humour then back to the tips. I love it

I'd like to let you know that I was taking a drink at 0:35 and you very nearly killed me with that edit. Thanks a ton.

Awesome! Thank you my friend!! Im looking forward to watch the others chapters! :D

Hey. Just popped up on my feed, always excited to see new content from you. Keep up the great work buddy!

I have waited this for so long, you are my inspiration to play Bannerlord. Along with your guide for more fun.

i'm impress by all your videos. really good job. thanks man !

I really love the passion you put on your videos Strat, you deserve more subs!

love your videos really! High quality stuff!

Always like your videos before watching so your channel can grow faster, your videos really good quality.

You do amazing videos bro!

I was playing bannerlord right now, and this pops in my recommended. Nice!

Good vid man I’m excited for the next vid on family

That's incredible. Thank you!!!

Strat, you've done it again! Bravo

What I do for leveling companions in hideout battles is I craft a wooden sword or a blunt spear. Then I smack the enemies with that weapon, which stuns the enemy from a distance away, but doesn't knock out the enemy. This lets my companion score free hits, and I am far enough to not block my companion's swings. I prefer preparing my swing to interrupt the enemy's swing rather than use my shield to block them because my shield will often block my companion's swings too (but sometimes I use my shield anyways if it gets frantic)

Your guides are phenomenal. Thanks for all the effort, and I'm looking forward to what's coming next. As a side note, I love the little bloopers at the end, they're good fun!

i got my siege skill from zero to 134 with 5 focus points and 5 in intelligence. the change is great. good video

Just stuff i needed 2 months ago in my wc :D. Nice video.

Great video as always! thank u.

Learned so much! Thank you!!!!

This goes perfectly with my companion only run. Thanks!!

Man, leveling companion in Bannerlord is almost 1:1 like rising a child ahaha. Best parenting tutorial on KZfaq right here :D

to make companion parties more likely to attack others, go to clan, the parties then click on party and look for were their gold icon is. under that its thier stance, neutral, can be changed to be defensive or aggressive. dont know it it was there before when you made the video a year ago :D

I love the humour in your videos, only adds to what is probably the most informative channel on youtube for Bannerlord. Keep doing what you're doing dude :)

This is amazing content man and I haven’t seen such feedback with an audience in many people before. The passion shows and it’s such easy to follow content. Great vids and thanks for the smile brotha! Keep it up!

Dude! WHAT A GUIDE!!

Great work man! After you finish revisiting your guide series, I'd love to see a video on how to take over a kingdom from the inside!

Still loving your vids man. Keep up the good work👍

Man, your videos are amazing. Thank you. Bannerlord is such a deep game, and every single day my understanding of it grows. And a lot of the information i now know about the game would still be unknown to me if it was not for you! Again, thank you so much! :D

10/10 keep the bloopers at the end for future vids if you have them :)

@ Bonus2: A similar method may be used to improve relations with a given companion / clan member as long as they're in our party. Not necessarily sure whether these relations actually matter much (well maybe, just maybe it has some effect on for instance pregnancies?? Would be weird to fool around with a wife who hate your guts). This way or the other - if you wanna be on good terms with your associates - take them to your party and engage in barter (I have a proposal that may benefit me both). All of you share the same inventory, so you can basically just give them everything you like (relations will go up) and after trading the stuff will still be in your pockets waiting for you to do whatever you desire.

3:48 didnt know that you can change companion to do the smithing, thanks, that changed all the perks

Every single guide you do, you outdid yourself! I hate companions in this game, they are so generic and uninteresting... I start to use them because I want to manage my own retinue in Serve as a soldier and create a gang of ex soldiers using furberie, so this is a very welcome one.

Lol this is a nice video. Ive been playing like ive played mount and blade warband trial and error . I just go with the flow and it is fun i got bannerlord on xbox when it came out And have jumped back into it. Right now im helping the southern empire to make all kindoms weak so i can make my own kingdom while building my clan. Got 8 or 9 heirs already 2 feifs and about 100 k gold saved up Having a blast with banner lord its so fun

Damn i was about to ask about a companion guide, but hey, this works.

You can just make a 0 troops infantry groups and add your companions to it with plus in the UI. Then just send them into onager or ballista and they will shoot with it

Sir Humpsalot has declared the creation of a new realm, The ZERO PULLOUT GAME. Dude I'm dying over here!!!!!

Big daddy left us a long video

Best Bannerlord guides

Right now in 1.8 if companion parties are in your army they are not taking food and will not gain steward. If you release them they will grab food and gain steward so watch for this. ALSO for leveling trade, make a party and join as a merc, then hand items to party leader and leave kingdom so they don't get pulled into an army or defeated i battle and no relation loss, then when they're done selling join as a merc, rinse and repeat

Nice one!

So for leveling engineering, there is a much easier way. I dont know if this is because of the official release and you already knew this, but here goes Make a new control group, make the companion you want to lead it like how you assign a captain, reduce the slider to 0, and boom. That group only has your selected companion. Also, if you find that your companion didnt man the equipment. Equip it yourself to get the current guy off it (shoving them aside doesnt seem to remove them). Then get off it and select the control group with your chosen companion, hover over the equipment until the gears icon shows up, left click This can get companions 50 engineering easily. Sieges are also easy to force by conquering a castle or town, leave it with less than 100 garrison and stick around the settlement. An army will usually come to siege it. Wait until they actually start attacking, break in, hope the settlement had time to build some equipment

On the subject of steward xp for companions, i have found that the amount gained is alot higher, like if they are assigned the role in your own party, if you make the companion the leader of their own party, then go up and talk to them, pick "i would like to assign a new role for you" and then steward. This can only be done for one role at a time.

I’m late! But I am sure I will end up watching these multiple times like the others. Bannerlords must be knowledgeable.

Good job you did great on it

Damn, I hope TW watches your stuff. If I was a dev, this would invaluable info!

Love u. Also love Srat gaming math

Great guide! Thanks for testing out the ways to grind companion skills. Smithing is still the fastest way to level them up as it's really challenging to level some of the other crucial skill trees. Side note, With the ability to reset the perk choices in 1.8.0, now there's the option of shuffling the attribute and focus point perks in the Endurance tree once you hit the skill point limit. It's not going to be a huge impact but may be useful to grab a few extra perks when you have no interest to invest more points in those relevant skills.

Great video. I'd love to see a video explaining how companion parties are leveling up their troops. When left alone, even with unlimited budgets, they don't seem to upgrade their troops very quickly. I usually have to do it manually for them by forming an army with just companions, attacking things, pulling their troops, leveling them manually, give them back, etc. If you know of a better way, I'd like to see it. I'm also wondering if it has something to do with their leadership skills?

I’ve found that the best way for levelling the three melee skills + athletics is actually just to do tournaments. Once you’re in a duel with the companion you kill off any other enemies so it’s just you two and then you can block their attacks for as long as you want to level them. Remember that blocked attacks still gives xp. Could also work for levelling up player melee skills I suppose? The companion just has to have high skill so they block most hits.

Good show, old boy!

Have you done a video on how you distribute your companions yet? There are way more roles than you get companions after all, and with captains getting buffed with banners, constant skilk and perk rebalances, and the money earners constantly fluctuating, it's hard to keep track of how you should allocate your limited number of companions.

Ty

9:34 cracks me up every time :D

RBM mod is a blessing on this game.

A minor complication of training engineering is enemy armies coming in and attacking you. A good way around this is rebel cities. They wont have any sizable relief force to stop you, and you can siege as long as you like. This can be done even if you havent joined a kingdom yet. In fact, it is even easier if you are independent, as it removes any possibility that an enemy army unrelated to the city you are sieging will come along.

Could you do an overview on which companions to recruit for what? I tried some methods but a big downside of some of the better companions is that they start the game over their own softcap making it real difficult to level. O.0

About leveling engineer skill in field battle. Is it possible to assign your companion as a captain to formation that has one man in it and then put them on a ballista? PS: great guide, waiting for more amazing videos

Is it just my youtube that acts funny or those time "things" disappeared? Like "chapters" of the video, where one starts, where another starts. And OMG THANK YOU for the tip to level up Engineering in defensive sieges. I unequipped bigbro's bow (he refused to use ballista when had a ranged weapon, took me quite some time to figure it out), set him as a comander of a separate infantry category (with just him in it), placed him next to ballista and in a single fight he levelled up his engineering from 23 to 154!

Damnit man. I've probably watched this so much in the last few weeks I could rehurse it. I hate how grindy it is to level up skills in this game. I ain't got hours to kill like this.

Been loosely following your 16 years campaign and referencing your guides constantly, and the gameplay has been immensely more enjoyable, kudos and thanks! OP tier content, sir Edit: possible suggestion, guide or campaign only making money through passive sources, towns, caravans, workshops, etc; Smithing and trade feel so exploity, curious to see how hard it would be to manage large armies/wars/town improvements without 1bn denars in the bank.

Hi, do you know if the +1 party perk, +1 companion perk, the final perk from medicine and leadership stacks?

There really needs to be NPC companion "skill trainers" that you can pay for tutoring.

Yeee🔥🔥🔥

Yes

Hey @stratgaming, quick question why do the aserai troops in your playthrough/campaign look different ?( 10:57 ) I checked i am on beta patch 1.8.0

Not sure if it's just me but when giving melee weapons to companions to grind combat skills, I find swing speed >> reach due to how bad the AI is at keeping distance to maximize weapon damage. On horseback, AI companion struggles a lot esp with melee that I just resort to ranged weapons instead. At some point, I had to smith a 98 reach voulge with 88 swing speed to use for leveling companions' Polearm skill on foot.

I'm not understanding the leadership XP move. It won't let me donate troops over their cap. Another thought. If I donate ready to convert troops over to my buddy, will that help them increase their leadership skills quickly? My character is old on my first play though, so I'm trying to prepare my heir.

What about surgeon in your party to level up medicine? Btw is sending companions on missions to level them up effective? Which companions are better low level or high level ones?

I wish TaleWorlds added so much more options and variety of none combat skills, quests and the like. To add more unique flavour, but to flesh out the world. Example: In order to heal wounded troops. If a troop was rendered unconcious via slashing/stabbing wounds. Medicine is needed, along with bandages. Etc. Blunt damage needing surgery to ensure broken bones can heal. In a game called Battle Brothers, in order for your men to heal. You need to buy medical supplies, herbs, bandages, etc. Even if its something simple like that. It would add an important role and flavor to the setting. Adding the ability to go around and be a doctor, applying your trade to help others, would be amazing. Just like that doctor in the quest campaign. If bandits stop you. You could possibly barter, and they demand you to come fix some of their wounded lads. And if you do, maybe a small, small percentage they try to take you captive or try to have you stay and help fix their wounded. And if you are a roguish doctor, get xp for stealing medical supplies from towns/doctors. Or selling "snake oil." Potions. Or selling actual healing medicines, givimg medical and trade exp. AND! Once you become "renown". Aka reaching a high skill in medicine. Imagine the lords and ladies of the land sending you messangers, asking you to tutor their children or their own companions in medicine. Or to help safely deliver their children from their spouses. Imagine being able to start up your own university for healing and medicine and doctors, surgeons. Where once this happens, say a 10% buff to hp for all units in the faction or the holder of the town. And faster prosperity increase. Theres so much flavor that could be added TaleWorlds. You could make this an awesome rpg game like you spouted. Where we could be what we wanted to be. But yet all we do is the same thing, all the time. And whats sad is, some of their promises still aren't kept. Like the ability to start your own gang in cities. Like what was showcased in the trailer footages for Bannerlord over 2-10 years ago! And the ability to transform villages into towns/cities. And the ability to set up your own hideout, just like in Viking Conquest, and other mods in Warband. To build it up, set up special functions. And maybe you can have a few restrictions, like you can only have one-two unique buildings tied to your renown. Max renown giving you full unlocks. Blacksmith. Making it cheaper to upgrade troops and to purchase/sell weapons/materials. As well as to be a blacksmith. Brewery for making stiff drinks, a new resource for your men to purchase, to improve party morale. Mining: For ores. Training grounds: Troops stationed can gain xp and level up. Prison: Holding prisoners.

Strat you are a f'ing gem. Thank you so much. A question for fellow players. If I start an A culture kingdom, promote a B culture companion, give them an A culture fief. Does the fief get -3 loyalty hit? Thanks in advance

Is it true that you can reset perks in taverns now for main chars and companions? I havent found how to do it if its possible

Anyone know why my clan members charm is not increasing? He has 10 points in social and 5 focus points in charm. I have left him in one of my fiefs for a month and his charm skill has not moved from 11.

The amount of gamey methods one has to use in this game staggering.

Strat, are you from Kazahstan originaly? Your Kazahstanian is very nice!

Why the companions dont receive any xb just by participating battles?

will u do any full campain soon ?

Having risk of death for companions, when you want them to level up is just insane. :D

Can you test (or just confirm/deny) if they get Tactics XP when you set them as sergeant and call for sergeants in charge?

You can now assign heroes to a unit without making them a commander

Low medicine is a great way to "lose prisoner nobles" without the execution penalty.

Is there a way to level up companions on horseback but without all 200 of my other troops .. bandit camps help for everything else tho lol

1:00 Remember you can blacksmith craft a really bad weapon that does minimal damage so you can use more than shieldbash/kick.

Does that roguary method still work??

In the most recent patch, all NPCs now ransom prisoners for coin. So leveling rogue is easy peezy

I wish the devs would allow us to spend the absolute excess of gold we get in late game to purchase training for our characters, companions, and family.

This Chad deserves some kind of PhD in Bannerlord 2 ;)

How do my family member sell items to get trade xp? I'm lost

Did some testing with tactics and the benefit of skill is very mediocre. The only good perk to take for companion is 9th perk increasing our party power by about 300% (sounds broken as hell). However 0 vs 300 tactics came up with about 30-50 troops difference (in 1000 enemy army vs 1000 T1 companion army). You could make a video about tactics on our allied parties.

what if we use rts camera and controll them for more kills :)

How do we kit them

For the combat skills I currently run around with a melee front line of 10 companions, I let them solo all the looters, bandits and hideouts I can find. my dream is to have a 40 big companions melee front line, need a few kids to grow up before that though... :D

Why do you not do the boss fight fight? Wouldn’t that give even more exp?

Sir Humpsalot and Zero pullout games: m dead,

I might just be a little daft, but telling me the amount of xp gained doesn’t really help me. I don’t know how much xp it takes to advance 1 level in a skill, or if it increases with each level. And there’s the option of leveling like 200+ times for each skill?

I still wonder why the high rank imperial infantry never throws theit pilum.

I'm on PS5 and TW just released a new update that changed the wording on the perk that allows heroes to generate shared exp. Now it says +5% exp from battles shared with the troops in your party... Did they remove the heroes generate shared exp ability from the game? Why would they do that? It's not like it breaks the game, just adds more cool features like growing your companions together wtf love the content strat thanks for doing what you do brother