good/useful companions ?

[bumbeyarraq]

what are your opinions on companions ? I recruited a bunch but I can't decide on who to take with me.

[dq_177]

The Leader of the Herbology Sect is a great supporter, who also has many events tied to her in terms of quests that make her useful to have around even outside of combat.

The Innkeeper from the Nameless Village is similarly a character who is useful for her passive abilities, she makes you free food each day and if you Bond with her she makes it twice a day as well as giving you a once-per-day boost to your Stamina and Mood.
The Princess you can marry is another one who is useful for her unique passive effects. Just by marrying her you get some free money each day and if she's in your party she gives you even more, the only downside is that by marrying her its harder to build relationship with ANY female character.

The young leader of Tiger Escort is a wild tiger in battle, she is useful to have around and you would want her in your party while rescuing the Emperor for the benefits it brings.
Apart from Tiger Escort's boss there's another useful combat character who also uses blades (which seem to be generally useful as a weapon type) and that's the Butcher in Daliang City, his recruitment quest you get after befriending him doesn't seem too difficult, he even has a purple-tier weapon you can trade back off & have him equip which specifically syncs with one of his techniques.

[bumbeyarraq]

wow thank you I will keep these in mind !

[bumbeyarraq]

Now besides the butcher, nameless village inn girl, tiger escort girl I have Dugu Jianyi and Mu Zaixing. I had Yang Yao Er which was good and tanky, but I'm trying different builds.

[dq_177]

The wounded monk wanted by the law in Lin'an City is a pretty tough fighter as well.
You need either medical skill or multiple medical potions to give him to help him heal up over multiple days but is worth it, on being recruited he also gives you the Golden Bell internal manual which when learned and used as your passive reduces the damage one takes.

[Slothrop]

If you're on a higher difficulty like free, and you aren't just min-maxing a lone wanderer build, you'll want a crowd control ally like music or i think a plum blossom spear. Music users are super fun as companions.

Ling Menglie is really fun if you like building someone up since she maxes martial arts so fast.

The blade users are all fast, which helps early-mid game (butcher, masked constable, escort chief).

The three main sect successors can all be strong if you invest time in building them up. But powerful order is Zhang, Lai, Cai.

If you get a Jianghu Master token, you can recruit a sect leader to help in difficult fight.

If you're using mods, Dusk Candle has one where the first wife gets a growth trait and it's great with a handful of characters as first wives.

[dq_177]

The Blind Spearman defending the people at the ferry dock is a good goto fighting recruit, its not hard to get decent spear/spear techniques if you know what quests to do and he is strong.
Particularly good at clearing out swarms of mooks, since he begins each battle with the ability to fire off his ultimate move which has a long wide aoe.

The one thing you should know about recruiting him is DON'T help the first time baddies show up, just watch as he fights them (you control him alone in the following gameplay battle).
Then next when more enemies show up to attack the area offer to help him, win the fight and he'll offer his services.

- - -
Off-topic but I want them to add one of those automatons as a party member (the tomb guardian things, primitive robots), they are really cool.

[bumbeyarraq]

Originally posted by dq_177:

The Blind Spearman defending the people at the ferry dock is a good goto fighting recruit, its not hard to get decent spear/spear techniques if you know what quests to do and he is strong.
Particularly good at clearing out swarms of mooks, since he begins each battle with the ability to fire off his ultimate move which has a long wide aoe.

The one thing you should know about recruiting him is DON'T help the first time baddies show up, just watch as he fights them (you control him alone in the following gameplay battle).
Then next when more enemies show up to attack the area offer to help him, win the fight and he'll offer his services.

- - -
Off-topic but I want them to add one of those automatons as a party member (the tomb guardian things, primitive robots), they are really cool.

I have that guy and and find him very good in fights. I teach him the technique which is required to make him join (don't remember the name now) and find him very good.

[Yaldabaoth]

Ling Mengdie in the confucian sect is a combat genius with swords (or whatever you want to train her as, but sword is already the best). She only needs 10xp to learn ANY skill from start to finish and gets double the stats from attack skills, meaning her weapon stats go through the roof. You just need to recruit the herbology lady first and do a little quest.