Rogue Trader Unfair Companion Guide 1.3

Guide for playing and leveling companions for unfair difficulty in Rogue Trader on patch 1.3

Introduction

This is a guide aimed at giving newer players a skeleton to work with so they dont have to worry too much about optimising and enjoy playing through. It can also be used by more advanced players that as they deep dive mechanics want builds to compare their own plans to.

For this I will explain the roles of each companion. The options you have to build them and what I choose to play them as. These wont be their most optimised end game build but playable 1-55 builds not reliant on end game items to work but something that will never require a respec with loot giving power spikes rather than coming online at ridiculous late levels or being solely reliant on companion buffs.

This spreadsheet will have all the builds covered, some alternative builds, builds for your rogue trader, builds from other creators, loot tables and some information to help you with space sections.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rskX4sYcNm6Wqt4rtm8EQqRR4__yrEuxCEzjwoKlHOY/

You can also find guides for my pyromancer rogue traders here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3399032797

Characteristics

In Rogue Trader there are 9 characteristics that you have the option to level up through play. This is a table designed to explain what they do and their benefits:

Skills

There are 13 skills in rogue trader, not to be confused with the 9 characteristics. These skills are used for various RNG roll checks throughout the world via intractables, dialogue and story book narratives.

You can maximise two skills in each of the three level tiers per companion. Some classes can also take one point in a third skill. You want your team composition to cover as many of these 13 skills as possible to get the best results, exp, rewards and bonuses to encounters.

When I plan my parties I think about what companions can effectively cover these checks based on the characteristics that best enhance it.


For my example team I am planning to bring the following five companions: Abelard, Idira, Cassia, Argenta, Pasqal. Based on the skills they can cover this means my Rogue trader will need to cover Medicae, Commerce or Coercion.

The checks increase in difficulty on higher difficulties which require more min-maxing to get the best results.

Jae has some unique bonuses that come from gaining reputation with the various vendors:
Drusians: +(2x reputation level) % to all resistance tests and +(4x reputation level) to Lore (Imperium)
Explorators: +(2x reputation level) % to armour and +(4x reputation level) to Tech-Use
Kasballica Mission: +(2x reputation level) % to dodge and parry and +(4x reputation level) to Commerce
Fellowship of the Void: +(2x reputation level) % to critical hit chance and +(4x reputation level) to Coercion
The Imperial Navy: +(2x reputation level) % to cover efficiency and +(4x reputation level) to Persuasion

Companion Roles

Based on their origins, starting stats, homeworlds and base archtypes the 11 companions has various roles that they can be built to fulfill. Whilst you dont have to lean into them and can build them differently. This is the setups that I have found trivilise the game the easiest:

Abelard

Abelard starts with heavy armour and a chainsword. He is vital for tanking the chaos spawn in the prologue on unfair and potentially very helpful for tanking the act 1 boss on unfair. As you progress into act 2 and the game opens up, tanking becomes almost obsolete as you start to single turn encounters with officers, extra turns, high damage combinations and the game's difficulty drastically drops off.

Abelard can either be built as a defensive melee utility character or a high mobility offensive melee character. Regardless of how you build him he will fall further and further behind the damage of psyker companions or executioners. Whilst Abelard can be built into executioner, not having access to biomancy and pyromancy limits him somewhat. Abelard also has points into iconclast meaning he can take advantage of two very powerful items, Malpain shroud and chainsaws. Together they allow for very high damage when stacking temp hp.

Early game Abelard can be used with the talent defensive stance (not to be confused with the ability defensive stance), to gain 20 extra armour and absorb damage for the party. Using endure and brace for impact Abelard can also stack deflection for more damage mitigation. As you level through warrior you can pick up an AoE taunt, a high damage melee hit or a knockback melee hit whilst also investing into charge to up Abelard's attack economy.

Later on you have the option to pick between focusing on chainsaws for burst melee attacks, hammers/sword two handers for additional strength bonuses with larger area attacks and or dual weapon fighting to increase Abelard's attack economy. Previously I had built for a two handed hammer for aoe knock downs when combined with get off me upgrade for Abelard's brace for impact and chainsaws for high damage when combined with malpain shroud and temp hp. You can also dual weild axes or maces to get additional attacks or focus more on knockdown mechanics which can also generate temp hp. However this becomes less useful later when you will want to just 1 turn encounters with chainsaws.

The most reliable way to build Abelard is as an arch-militant but most people want to role play Abelard as a vanguard. The main issue with melee vanguard is it becomes stuck after melee strikes which means it is very reliant on daring breach too clear encounters. However if you mostly want to just use Abelard as a melee blocker for your squishies then Vanguard can be very useful early on due to the ability defensive stance to counter attack successful parries. Paired with damage stacking via temp wounds and malpain shroud this is a much easier way to play. Ideally you want to charge up, use your AoE taunt then use defensive stance and endure. Later when you have higher armour you can add in aoe knocks downs via hammers and get off me or, as I build him here, using shove with a mace and dual weapon fighting to take on hordes.


Gearing for the early levels will be foucsing on 2 handers, likely the sword given to you by Kibellah in act 1. You will upgrade to the heavy armour dropped by the heretics in the monestary until around act 2 when you start getting some bigger upgrades. On footfall you will find your first thunder hammer with some upgrades being around act 2 and the dlc. By level 24 you will be swapping from 2 hand charge into your second dual weapon set to hit with axe bleed and hammer shove both for 1 ap.

Arch-Militant alternative:
Personally this is how I build and run Abelard as I am not a big fan of Vanguard. This build focuses more around being hyper mobile and aggressive whilst also very tanky

Idira

Idira is an operative unsactioned psyker. Being an unsanctioned psyker means everytime you click a force power you have a % charge to proc perils of the warp regardless of veil degradation, which can do everything from making funny noises, instantly killing Idira, summoning a daemon or an aoe knockdown that stuns you and your companions. She does however get higher psy rating, start with two psyker school abilities and have access to very powerful unique gloves which increases her psy rating everytime she procs perils of the warp.

Idira can be built several ways. Grand strategist to go first to buff allies. Executioner to pair with ranged pyromancy. Infinite buff loops with bounty hunter. Or direct damage abuse with Assassin. The most common easy to make build is grand strategist and spam buffs. The most effective route is bounty hunter to either focus entirely on buff looping or focusing on high damage whilst also buff looping. Whilst the spreadsheet has both versions of bounty hunter buff looping, I will be focusing on the more offensive based version for this guide.

Early levels you will focus on using a sniper as you do not want to wipe your own party by summoning a daemon or exploding allies. This is not wasting any late game potential as the talent psychic barrage allows you to channel ballistic score into your damage. With talents like backdraft and pain-channelling you can spread out a lot of AoE via Idira's psyker staff early game and later staves will do some very impressive things.

Mid game you will prey and savour the kill to generate additional turns to further buff allies. As warp perils proc Idira's warp conductor gloves from act 2 will increase her psy rating causing your buffs to become stronger. With spirit drape for the first round of combat all non offensive psyker powers costs are reduced by 1. This means you have a big turn of 0 AP buffs which with a second bounty hunter can be used six additional times on top of Idira's normal turn. By stacking resolve via word of the emperor Idira can then some very impressive damage with the act 2 sanctified staff and aftershock.


Gearwise Idira will focus early game on range with the initial burst rifle, offering AoE support via her psychic staff. In Act 1 you will upgrade to use the longlas and the charged staff. You still need to be careful early game as heavily relying on psyker abilities can cause idira to explode or summon daemons. Early into act 2 you will get Idira's warp conductor gloves which really start to super charge her and from footfall you can pick up her end game staff the sanctified staff.

Offensive Alternative:
Lately I have been running Idira a lot more offensively

Idira with a glock

This setup uses biomancy idira with guns to go into executioner. You are far less likely to explode and also get the chance to do some ranged fun things. Biophysical distortion always applies toxin to bullets, you can also use merciless verdict here, you can use pistols plus pyromancy to increase attack economy with pair holster, dual-weapon combat and fire within. If you want you can still use bloodrinker staff with spirit drape to do some turn 1 buffs for 0 AP then go to town with shooting. If you find range to be an issue you can still secondary a burst rifle.


Gearwise we build into heavy armour to use psyker's breastplate along with warp conductor gloves, if you want to forgo psyker stuff altogether then replace these items. Recoil warboots will help with the burst fire of both pistols and rifles. These items will really stack up dots to shred the enemy. Use physical guns with merciless verdict early on then swap out to whatever shoots the most once you have biophysical distortion. The backpack with armour piercing ammo will be a big help for adding bleeding to your shots so you can apply all 3 dots.

Argenta

Argenta is a very reliable companion whom unfortunately turns out to be a better space marine than the space marine companion. This is because Argenta does not have gear limitations with Ulfar, the space marine, being locked out of the best heavy gunner gear.

Argenta can use a wide variety of weapons but her soldier talents focus on burst and area weapons, the most effective with her origin allowing her to have proficiency being bolters and flamers. You can potentially build idira into being a dual weild pistol user but I find this to be more effective on a fortress world rogue trader. In my opinion the best option is to go arch-militant and very much lean into heavy weapons.

Argenta's starting bolter has 50 recoil, more than the heavy bolter, so I recommend in the prologue you immediately drop it for the trash carbine burst rifles that the enemies are using then pick up a las gun until you are able to get to the act 1 explorator vendor to buy a proper bolt rifle. For the early game you will be focusing on using shotguns for close combat and burst fire for range. By the end of act 2 you should be swapping over to the heavy bolter and DLC heavy flamer then in act 4 progressing to the improved heavy bolter and Judex.

Arch-militant allows Argenta to move and shoot so she can be mobile, react to the flow of battle and best position herself with the available cover. Once you are an arch-militant swapping between single damage and area attacks will increase your versatility. By end game you will use a 1AP flamer stream and then a 2AP burst fire. (The power armour to make this 1ap is exclusive to the rogue trader).

I have made an alternative build plan for if you want to level into Argenta's heavy guns early. Personally I make the swap around level 34 as the bolt rifles you get before then are actually very good whilst you build ballistic skill. The alternative path marked by the "/" goes into heavy weapons from 12.


Due to playing on unfair I tend to rely early game on non heavy weapons. Starting with the burst rifle from the prologue (not Argenta's default rifle) then using a las rifle in act 1 until you get to the explorator shop to buy the first decent bolt rifle. There are two other bolt rifles you can pick up on footfall which are very good and there is natural progression all through act 2 using the bolt rifles from the vendors then upgrading to the heavy bolter at level 34. However it is understandable people playing on lower difficulties will be able to and want to upgrade earlier so with the alternative level path you can take the stolen auto cannon in act 1 from the dlc. Upgrade to the heavy bolter in act 2 then the improved bolter in act 4 which is the same time as the unfair path.

Early game I use shotguns until I can use the heavy flamer but you can use sword and hand flamer for early game. I focus on lore imperium as there are both accessories and armours that greatly benefit Argenta based on lore imperium which her origin boosts.

Cassia

Fish wife. Good life.

Cassia is the strongest officer companion in the game and the most reliable companion to always have in the party. She can use officer buffs and unique navigator talents to turbo charge your damage dealers allowing you to 1 turn encounters even on max sliders. If you are struggling at any point and Cassia is not in your party. That is why.

The build is simple. Use voice of command on your damage dealer. Make sure you are holding your infusing staff then use reveal the light on your damage dealer. Next use bring it down on your damage dealer then watch them win the combat. Cassia also has access to the power lidless stare which a stacking damage aoe stun. It can add burning by using the daemon tool from act 1 but by the end off act 1 you will likely replace this with medal of alacrity to give 3 ap bonus turns to allies. Her finest hour heroic action gives an additional turn with no attack limit.

Later levels you will take Grand Strategist to always go first during encounters so your team always has the offensive momentum. Cassia will learn abilities to group up enemies, place zones that buff allies and debuff enemies. Cassia's mend reality will AoE apply infusing buff to allies which stacks with the one placed by reveal the light.


Cassia will use an infusing staff then secondary staff type will depend if you want to debuff enemies or damage them. If you plan to debuff enemies use a castigating staff if you plan to do the damage use a devastating staff.

Cassia will want to focus on taking any gear that boosts persuasion and fellowship. The thrice-pioneer's bracers and daemon tool are great early items for her lidless stare.

Pasqal

Pasqal is usually an auto pick on the team not just for his hilarious dialogue but because until late act 2 he is the only one that can pass the very high tech-use and logic checks on unfair difficulty. Pasqal is an interesting beast as he starts as the support class operative. Many confuse this class for a primary damage dealer when it is infact a support class. It adds damage will doing partial buffing and partial debuffing. Pasqal has the unique feature that every plasma weapon shot increases damage of followup shots that stack for the entire battle.

When using pasqal you will want to build up exploits then drain them via tactical knowledge to give the party armour and increase pasqal's damage. You will be able to use expose weakness to reduce the armour of enemies to give your companions an easier time to deal damage. Due to pasqal low starting perception enemies can often dodge his attacks so precise attack becomes quite important to landing shots early game. If however you do not care for shooting then you can use joint analysis to add his intelligence bonus to companions damage. Grenadier is very useful for getting additional damage to clear up weaker enemies or debuff grenades to help deal with stronger enemies.

Pasqal starts with quite low perception. So early on you will want to use his precise shot. It will gain perception when hitting exploits.

Act 1 I mostly build up exploits on one enemy. Use tactical advantage. Then those stack of exploits become ally armour.

As you get his upgrades for machine spirit communion it will help when you start shooting. Act 2 you will use hunt the pray as it always lands. Analyse enemy. Precise shot. Then shoot someone. When you have the AP you aoe exploit with machine spirit communion which will lower ally recoil. Increase dodge chance but also increase enemy recoil and lower their dodge chance

Mid game pasqal can go into assassin, bounty hunter, grand strategist or executioner. Through testing I have found assassin and executioner to be underwhelming due to operative's low attack economy and grand strategist to be the lazy option for people that do not know what to do with pasqal. However building into bounty hunter using savour the kill can allow for additional turns when prey is killed which pasqal can use further buffs/debuffs. Pasqal's unique machine communion is very useful in this scenario. Pasqal can even use hot on the trail to debuff enemies and gain an additional turn. With claim the bounty pasqal can also increase his attack economy which allows him to rapidly build up damage of his plasma weaponry. With two bounty hunters pasqal and the other bounty hunter can swap bonus turns between them as the other gets kills. Unfortunately when another ally gets a kill there is no way to pick which bounty hunter gets the turn from savour the kill. Hopefully a feature owlcat will add in the future.


Pasqal is an act 1 companion. Early game I use him with Sniper rifles, swapping to his plasma pistol for the monestary but back to sniper rifles for the end section as there are the only parts of the game that you really need someone with range. From act 2 onwards use whatever the best plasma weapon you have. You will want to take any items to either help his single shots, intelligence, medium armour and his exploits. As you move away from snipers be sure the more the sniper gear over to Yrliet when you recruit her in act 2.

Missionary Oath Pasqal

So this setup uses what seems like an okay DLC item to create a very overpowered setup tool. Basically you use pasqal to go first with grand strategist. Not use any AP then give your whole party an extra turn with 4 MP and 1 AP. This really comes together later as all the exemplar talents apply giving what is essentially a free bring it down turn to the entire team.

The other nifty thing is when you combine this with grand strategist cassia you can take advantage of her bring it down to loop the turn to pasqal whom will also get a full turn after. Making this very abusable. If you prefer you can still do this with a bounty hunter but I wanted to use some of the grand strategist abilities here.


Gearwise you will want anything that can enhance your first turn setup. I opted for data-tether mask but that is very late game, you can use the single shot items for slow and anything that enhances his operative abilities also.

Heinrix

Heinrix is an inquisitor psyker that comes with two schools, biomancy and sanctic. Heinrix is the only companion whom can be built effectively with any of the advanced classes put in front of him. Unfortunately his base class of warrior makes him not suited for sword of faith which is what one might assume is a good option for a sanctic psyker. Purge soul and by extension sword of faith is the most underwhelming ability in the game and in direct competition for overall worst ability as of writing during 1.3 patch.

Early game Heinrix is somewhat squishier than Abelard as he comes preloaded with defensive manoeuvres and does not start with heavy armour. Potentially he was intended to be a dodge tank build but that was before bladedancer was added which is infinitely better at that than warrior. Heinrix also has fairly low toughness but with how we intend to build Heinrix, this will not be a problem. It is also somewhat mitigated by the iron arm ability. Early game Heinrix will take pyromancy to have an option to charge in on the enemy and use his biomancer staff at range to drain a enemy or blast them with ignite. Once Heinrix has picked up body of flames and relentless blaze he will be able to Ignite himself, cast orchestrate flame to channel that fire damage into his weapon and then charge in on the enemy. Which daring breach Heinrix can easily clear encounters solo with self/ally buff support.

Once you have ignite, orchestrate flame and body of flames. Heinrix will ignite himself using his staff to increase willpower. He will then use orchestrate flame to add his self burn to his melee. As you used his attack action you will need to use charge to get an attack for the first round. If you have additional ap you can use iron arm to increase strength and toughness. Endure would further reduce self damage from ignite but AP is limited early on.

Ideally you want cassia to use voice of command and reveal the light on heinrix with an infusing staff. You can then use bring it down to give him a bonus turn. If you have medal of alacrity he will gain 3 ap if not just 2. This 2 ap can be used to ignite and orchestrate. If you have the pneumo boots you can charge in for 1 ap rather than 2.

Later acts when you have more AP this combo will be easier to setup. Finest hour and daring breach can be used to remove the attack limit so all your ap can be used for attacks. For now he will just be a harder hitting Abelard in act 1.

Act 2 when you get executioner he starts rocketing. Dogmatic 2. Biophysical Distortion and chainsaws are all massive damage spikes.

The highest damaging class in the game is executioner and Heinrix can use this very well with a chainsaw to make him the highest damaging companion in the game putting kibellah to shame. By focusing on his pyromancy with chainsaw's heinrix can do high damage bursts for low ap. As he gains bleed on hit, fire dots from dogmatic 2 and toxin damage from biophysical distortion, every hit of heinrix will instantly proc dots that are applied due to forced repentance. Once a high enough stack of dots has been achieve Heinrix can use where it hurts for a massive explosion of damage. This can also be used on ignite or firestorm.

By end game you will have further defensive options with shield of the emperor, further offensive options with hammer of the emperor/molten beam and turbo charge your damage with void born's pride and reckless abandon.


Heinrix and Abelard have some gear overlap. They both enjoy heavy armour and the charge boots. However Heinrix can stick to high armour light armour until you get the psyker's breastplate if you desire but there are quite a few decent act 1 and act 2 heavy armours as of 1.3.

Weaponwise you will use a two hander with his biomancy staff until you get a chainsaw from the DLC and his biomancer staff upgrade on kieva gamma. You will want to take items that enhance his executioner arch-type, anything to add willpower damage and any items for psykers.

Jae

Jae unfortunately come level locked at 15 which means you cannot change these levels without cheating or modding. Her build is not what I would have gone with considering her unique gunslinger origin but we can work with this to make Jae a very useful support build and a decent secondary damage dealer.

The preset build unfortunately goes for the movement ability and the increased aim ability rather than picking up air of authority or get back in the fight!. Jae also does not take the -1 ap upgrade for her finest hour upgrades which has led to many overlooking her. On top of all that she has had her gunslinger origin nerfed a few times and her supporting gear nerfed. So no more infinite pistol turns for Jae.

What Jae can do is as a master tactician build up high stacks of tactical advantage then give out very decent damage buffs to allies via inspire or to herself by abusing fervour. The start of act 2 she will work on juicing up allies but by the end of act 2 once you have access to more powerful pistols like the hot shot las gun you will start buffing Jae herself to clear encounters. Unfortunately she does not have the movement options to reliably solo so you will tend to use allies.

With Jae you will want to Linchpin a high attack economy or burst fire ally. Give them a turn via bring it down so they can build some stacks then you can inspire another ally with high damage. Jae can also Linchpin herself to build these stacks when using the pair holster for two pistol bursts.

When Jae's damage is low your rotation will look like this: Linchpin, Inspire Ally, bring it down then use their generated tacticial advantage to press the advantage then attack with a burst fire.

Once you have your damage you will use linchpin and inspire on yourself, Burst fire once. Press the advantage then burst fire again with pair holster. When you then have fervour the rotation evolves somewhat: Linchpin -> inspire -> fervor -> inspire -> linchpin pin -> burst fire -> press the advantage -> burst fire.

By end game Jae has some very powerful fellowship items and can cover most skill checks thanks to cold trader.


Jae is your first act 2 companion. Until you have some recoil gear her burst fire is not going to be the best. So you want to focus on buffing allies early on, then as you get some better pistols and the recoil gloves from janus you can start joining the fight with burst fire. Act 3 has a lot of very good fellowship gear upgrades for Jae.

Act 2 you can use the pair holster for Jae or save it for Ulfar in act 3. Footfall will have some useful items for grenadier cloak and gloves which you can use early on until you get some decent recoil gear. The Act 2 dlc has a medium armour called the breachers armour that when paired with the helm of determination can give Jae some very high armour score. The armour of the undaunted is a secondary option for armour if you do not have the dlc. Act 3 you get the Commissar cap which is amazing. Act 4 the commander's chrono will allow jae to act first for buffing even as a master tactician.

Yrliet

Yrliet is an Aeldari companion with access to unique Aeldari gear. Prior to 1.3 she could not fully utilise human gear but as of 1.3 there are only a few restrictions. Yrliet act as a support build by picking off weaker enemies from great ranges as a sniper whilst apply debuffs to key enemies. Previously I always built her as an assassin but with the changes from launch, Yrliet is much more effective as a bounty hunter. If you are using 1 other bounty hunter in the party she is great with savour the kill if you have two other bounty hunters you may want to skip that talent.

Yrliet comes level 15 so her initial build is locked and ffully set on being a sniper. By going into bounty hunter you can take party in hilarious bounty hunter buff loops, increase Yrliet's attack economy and get a few uses from her unique ability. You can end your turn and build up extra attacks on enemies that all come into effect at the start of Yrliet's main turn. This unique origin is almost as underwhelming as sword of faith and could use a buff or rework.

If you do not side with Calligos you will want to take Drukhari Weapons to use the deadshot splinter rifle. If however you do side with him to get the Eye of Hecaton you do not need drukhari weapon proficiency. Yrliet can also use heretic 2 to generate a very large number of attacks when an ally bounty hunter procs savour the kill but this could also be a bug.

Yrliet's turn will look something like this. Mark 3 prey. Use claim the bounty to attempt to kill said prey. An ally bounty hunter procing savour the kill may refund claim the bounty which in turn could also generate AP with heretic 2. As long as you keep getting kills you can loop this with the other bounty hunter also marking 3 prey. You will then take a deadeye shot with wanderer's potent which if it crits will allow another sniper rifle single or deadeye shoot.


Yrliet got a huge gear buff in 1.3 opening her up to many of the human restricted gear from earlier patches. Now she can use the analyst helmet in combination with the target designator which will carry you for most of the game. There is not too many ranged support items so progression can feel slow with most of the items being locked behind specific gameplay paths such as the eye of hecaton.

Curious Case of Burst Fire Yrliet

If a weapon only has one sort of attack be it Deadeye, burst or melee burst (like chainsaw), all abilities to attack will use that. Such as killing edge with chainsaw will apply a burst killing edge multi hit, it will do a dead-eye shot on wanderer's potent but just like that it will also do a burst attack on guns that only have burst attacks.


This is where burst fire weapon like splinter rifles and shardcarbines come in. As an assassin you can use death whipser or killing edge with a burst fire weapon getting multiple hits off against targets which all benefit from the base effects. If we change Yrliet to an assassin or bounty hunter we can abuse this. However testing damage Assassin really shines and outside of death aura and chainsaw this is a fantastic use case for having an assassin on the team. This setup changes Yrliet from being very Mediocre to being quite the powerhouse in her own right.


The reason I have included this as a separate build is there is a very good chance that this is a bug and the developers will nerf it as soon as they become aware of it.

The concept is simple. Create an opening. Death whisper with your carbine. Move to then dead-eye shot with wanderer's potent. Then start killing edge everything in your path with your 8 shot shardcarbine turning everything in your sights to dust. By picking up drukhari equipment and weapons this build is a very strong yrliet setup.


Gearwise with the upgrade in 1.3 we can take a lot of gear not previously avaialble to yrliet. By taking gear to reduce her recoil, up her damage based on rate of fire and to lower her reloads with good positioning this setup can clear most encounters on unfair with great ease.

Ulfar

Due to gear limitations Ulfar is unirionically the weakest companion in the game. Something that becomes more apparently on each increase in difficulty. However that does not mean he is a weak character just out of everyone the weakest. Ulfar can very much solo encounters and is at the end of the day a stereotype space viking with a heavy bass nordic accent.

Owlcat seem very intent on forcing you down the path of using flamers and pistol+melee setups for ulfar with his build being locked to level 20. Whilst nerfing his heavy gunner gear to make the playstyle unusable they did add a new very powerful flamer to the act 4 shop. Owlcat give as owlcat take. However by leaning into this we can tenderise enemies to increase the damage of follow up hits to either kill with ulfar's unique knife which generates ap or burst enemies down with the surprisingly powerful astartes pistols. No it does not feel as good as when we had heavy gunner ulfar build before patch 1.3 but that is my own bias, some of you may enjoy burning down heretics then running in with a chainsword/axe firing off pistol blasts to be far more enjoyable.

Confident approach also saw heavy nerfs so is never worth taking unless you are a psyker using sanctifed staff. So for Ulfar we pick up wild fire and reckless rush. We do not need the upgrade all out as ulfar can move and shoot as part of his origin. In exemplar levels we pick up demolition engineer and concentrated fire to further boost his area damage potential. Ulfar can also setup a very devestating combo with a psyker biomancer using metabolic overcharge. Ulfar can bank that additional AP with entrench so he can safely use it on his next turn with run and gun withoout taking damage, ideally by an officer ally giving him a turn via finest hour so he has no attack limit allowing him to generate AP with pair holster and combat knife.

If that seems too complicated, use ulfars flamer, charge in with a chainsword/axe, squeeze off a burst fire then hit something with your melee weapon again. Items like Soldier Aquila Pendant and chainsaw bayonet are very useful early on in act 4.


Ulfar does not have a lot of gear options. Most of his helmets are terrible. He cant change his gloves or boots. He has very limited cloak and armour options. The helmet that allowed heavy guns to be viable got nerfed in 1.3 but owlcat also added a very powerful new flamer to the shop for ulfar. Due to this I pivoted his build to be a flamer with mixed attacker set. So ulfar can either abuse best pistol with his knife to generate AP or take whatever highest damaging melee you have.

You can use the pair holster if you focus more on the pistol side of things to generate more attacks but you will need to use wildfire to get a pistol crit which will then make his burst fire costs 0 AP if you have attack actions.


Alternatively I do have an Storm/Annihilating bolter build and a heavy gunner builds on the spreadsheet at the top

Marazhai

Marazhai went from being a gimmick companion to a pretty damn strong one. For his build to "come online" it does unfortunately require you to pick up his unique incubus blade armour in act 3 by killing the drukhari on the motorbikes before you go to the pit and picking up notes on weakness from the act 4 vendor.

As Marazhai is locked level 29 as an assassin, arguably the worst advanced arch-type in the game, a lot of work is required to get Marazhai up and running. Using break through, shearing strikes, malign influence and then causing as many willpower checks as possible, notes on weakness can turbo charge lethality to do a lot of direct damage causing enemies to die by Marazhai simply walking towards them if you get the colony reward fiend of vheabos VI. Other willpower checks like lethal threat or taunting scream will also cause direct damage to proc which will be boosted by lethaliy and notes on weakness.

Marazhai's turn will look something like this. Joyful Torture, Taunting scream a pack of enemies, activate break through, use reckless strike if you have a two hander (once shearing strikes bug is fixed you will use dual weapons), then walking up to enemies using slash to move through them. When you approach them they will take damage due to a willpower test from fiend of vheabos VI, when you shearing strikes them lethal threat will cause additional two willpower tests. Then anything that isnt instantly killed you will pick off with death whisper then killing edge. Procing daring breach will allow Marazhai to generate MP on kill and when using slash via slicing symbol. Incubus blade armour will also proc aoe damage.

Whilst waiting for the shearing strikes bug to be fixed where it uses all MP regardless of rigorous training. You can offhand an aeldari melee weapon.


Marazhai has some very specific gear that he needs to make his death aura build work. Incubus Blade Armour from act 3. Slicing Symbol and Notes on Weakness from act 4. The Hekatarii blade of bloodthirst is a very good primary hand weapon for Marazhai with an aeldari weapon being required in his offhand until shearing strikes gets fixed. The secondary slot can be a decent 2h or another status dual set. Due to high weapon skill enforcer's light boots or fencing boots are a great option for marazhai. Look for any gear that causes enemies to make willpower tests!

Kibellah

Kibellah is a blade dancer that would be such a great companion if she had a better haircut and wasnt voidborn. She is still a very high source of damage thanks to being a blade dancer but nothing will every shake off the disappointment that cut brings or how underwhelming voidborn is.

After testing all her options for secondary arch-types, Executioner is by far the best option. High damage. High mobility. Ability to wipe the entire map. Adding Drukhari toxin weapons she is an absolute beast. They even had to nerf kibellah by changing drukhari bleed swords to be daggers so her blade dancer abilities and talents did not benefit from them. Even then she is still very damn powerful right behind Heinrix.

Kibellah requires a bit of understanding to not get stuck. Blade Dancer's rely on blood rush and blood oath to keep moving, generate ap and additional attacks. Whilst she can use two weapon fighting as kibellah requires swords she cant drop her offhand attacks down to 1 ap. However it is not like that matters when blade dance shreds everything in sight. death from above will also benefit from the passives on your primary weapon. Early game you will be blender. Mid game you will be a blender that also procs instant damage of time abilities and end game you will still continue to stomp.

You turns will go something like, death from above a group of enemies, mark a low hp one with blood oath, use blade dance to kill the group and gain an additional attack, charges of death from above and ap. Then use blood oath to generate mp to death from above around then hit a few more targets. When you progress into executioner after you have built some dots you will use where it hurts to explode enemies. Pain resonance will also give an aoe dot proc that can be used for additional damage which does not count towards your attack limit.

Kibellah will apply bleed from being executioner. Toxin from drukhari venom swords and fire from dogmatic 2 ability. With 1.3 you can easily rank 5 one conviction whilst hitting 2 in the others.


Kibellah will want to use two swords for her bladedancer talents during act 1. Luckily all swords count be it primitive, power, chain or drukhari. In act 2 you will progress into drukhari venom blades around the end of the act so potentially at 30. There are some to be grabbed on vheabos VI. Armour you will want to progress whatever is the best light armour and Kibellah will also greatly benefit from any gear that increases medicae or enhances her executioner arch-type.

Compositions

When building my team I pick my Rogue Trader's role first then rotate members that fill certain roles for combat and cover as many skill checks as possible.

For example here I am using a pyromancer blade dancer roogue trader:

In this example I will want cassia and pasqal which leaves options for Abelard/Heinrix to act as frontline, Idira/Yrliet to act as backline with Argenta/Jae acting as mid range damage. Alternatively I can also swap in kibellah for either front or mid.

When we pick up ulfar in act 3 he can act as our mid line with Marazhai also able to act as frontline but he does not have the defensive stats of Heinrix or Abelard.

You want to try to spread as much of the 13 skills as possible. Until act 4 cassia and Pasqal will be your core party members to win when playing unfair+ difficulties. Officer Grandstrategist is the main strategy of the game. Go first, stack buffs, have your damage dealer go before enemies. Have your party pick off the rest. You will want to plan your initial combat start with this in mind, it is okay to start further from the enemy to force them to come to you as the AI won't make smart use of cover. Cassia's zones can be used defensively or offensively based on the needs of the encounter.

I try to have 1. Cassia and 2. Pasqal act as the support core. Then I tend to go with two front line which prevents my softer targets being rushed. No I'm not even thinking about tanking just more survivable damage dealers like Kibellah, heinrix, Abelard and to an extent marazhai/ulfar. So that will make up 4. The last two slots will usually be ranged damage and support. So Argenta/Jae and Idira/Yrliet.

Jae's cold trader does give her the unique spot of being able to cover many intelligence checks with her fellowship. So she can be put in as a skill monkey that is also an officer to cover many checks. So this is a strategy to consider when building your party.

Your rogue trader will fit somewhere here and you will swap people out depending on what they are doing.

Warrior? Drop Abelard.
Blade dancer? Drop Kibella
Officer? Drop Jae maybe Argenta
Operative Drop idira or yrliet. Maybe pasqal if you can cover tech/logic

Something to note. Heinrix is the highest damage companion by far. Cassia is the strongest support companion by a large margin. Argenta is the highest ranged damage companion but can be tricky to use if your melee is in the way. Heinrix and Kibellah will out perform Argenta but Abelard wont. Idira whilst she can self destruct is the strongest buffer by a large margin.

Companions like pasqal, yrliet, ulfar, jae and marazhai are far less impactful until very late game. Whilst Abelard is tankier than Heinrix in act 1 by act 2 you will notice Abelard is one of the weakest companions due to his homeworld/origin/class. Don't fall for reddit memes. Plan your team according to your experience.

The following are some video guides on gear progression for these builds:

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Lastly here is a sneak peak at what my Rogue Trader build can do that is shown in the above videos

[Revan619]

Sheet is correct, screenshot is not. Will update in a bit

[anarchist.23]

Kibellah has Perfect Anatomy twice in her build right now (31 and 40). Maybe an error?

[Revan619]

I have had confirmation from the community manager over at Owlcat that a 1.4 balance patch will come after DLC2. I have been doing testing with some mechanics and found some interesting things which are now reflected in build updates for many companions.

[Lordken]

Ok, apparently executioner and bladedancer classes are DLC exclusive stuff., perhaps you can pute note in spreadsheet and/or here?

[Revan619]

Grenades are very powerful and allow you to bypass entire fight mechanics. Look up iron eye grenades and tears of repentance

[sublime vision]

why do you take grenadier perk in several of your companion/rt build? isn't grenades useless in this game or this talent unlocks some useful perk?

[yipes]

damn, you don't play around... tons of killer info, thanks much!

[Rubaboo]

The one thing I am still not understanding after reading through your guide is how to make it so that the player goes first every round?

I understand the grand strategist + officer for an extra turn for other allies. But the actual initiative calculation seems to make the order very random. I'm only at level 21 but even if I have 50 for both perception and agility, that is only a +5 to initiative and a lucky roll for the AI (which is almost guaranteed when I tested higher difficulties to see what changed) will guarantee the ai going first..

So having my entire team go towards the end of every initiative is common. Is there something I am missing or is this a endgame thing when your team can manage higher initiative consistently?

[Revan619]

If it is bugged... I mean currently stronger than previously intended... night have to work it into some builds

[HozzMidnight]

It felt like it was proccing more than once a round. I can't be sure of that, I will look at the logs. Appreciate the response.