Any difficulty friendly builds for every companions. Updated for 2024 patches. Intro ********************************** Current Update Status : Need rework for patches 1.5 changes (for the better). ********************************** The goal of this guide is to provide future proofs good builds within a balanced party as well as gameplay explanation for the characters you are gonna use. The Core Party is as Follow : - Cassia Grand Strategist - Jae Master Tactician - Argenta Arch-Militant - Pasqal Bounty Hunter Those 4 members cover all skills (with the exception of Carouse) to a decent level as well as providing the core damage and support necessary for all difficulties. Feel Free to build your rogue trader however you want and bring anyone as your last party member. _________________________________________________________ The rogue trader is nonetheless expected to be the "Face" of the party (ie : need High Coercion, Commerce, Persuasion). Jae or Pasqal can do it in a pinch, but either a Fellowship build or a Forge World / Calculated Relations / Int build Rogue Trader fit better from both a gameplay and RP perspective. If you want to deviate from those skill distribution, feel free to adapt the relevant builds. _________________________________________________________ Patches summary: >Officers nerfed several notch. They are still the best class in the game, but they now do not scale on top of each other anymore, and missing Finest Hour (IV) doesn't make Jae a "wasted" officer. The best party now only need 2-3 officers instead of 5. Serial buffs have also bumped Ulfar from terribad to actually good. >Melee Pyromancer slap DLC 1: >Blade Dancer x Executionner is very good but lack reach. Can one turn a lot of boss on unfair. >Dots are a strong gimmick, but a gimmick nonetheless. They CC not enough vs killing the enemy dead + require more brainspace/setup. DLC2: >No massive balance sweep >Shields are gimmick >Familiar look good for the psyker >Vanguard made more viable Portrait link[www.nexusmods.com] _________________________________________________________ Rant on CRPGs Pen and papers RPG ruleset are meant to be a tool for a GM and it's players to create stories and engage with each other while drinking beer and eating pretzel among other nerds. The rules exist as a framework, are not absolute, and ultimately are here to give shy nerds a mean of interaction with other people they can understand as well as providing some guidance/boundaries to the over-imaginative social friends in your circle. Of course, it also won't prevent autistic midwits to try and create optimized builds, rule lawyer on RAWs, and generally speaking try to break the game that a bunch of other sweaty, nerdy midwits have lazily copypasted without much testing or understanding of balance in order to sell more paper, resulting in content bloat that drown beginners in options and make it very easy to pick a "wrong" option. The bloat also force players to theorycraft a build in advance and then follow the talent picks each level up, encouraging netlisting and removing RP in favour of an adeptus-mechanicus worthy ritual of progression. Sadly, when transitioning to Computer, a key element that could make sense of this whole mess has been lost : The GM. And while a competent GM in pen and paper could sprinkle appropriate loot and challenge to your party, fudge the dice in the right direction, and forge compelling narrative out of whatever event was happening, no such thing in a video game. Instead, as a best effort to prevent ragequitting over bad dice rolls/to appeal to the completionist soul of the people playing such game, the savegame feature exist and can be used very often. As a side effect, this also allow owlcat to get away with completely bullsh*t, unbalanced encounters and mechanics because "just load a previous save lol". This mean owlcat RPGS are not hard. Ever. They are tedious. It's a long preplanned checklist of actions, and if an encounter goes wrong ? Reload and try again. Encounters are also not fundamentally different than basic skill checks : the whole system, lifted from P&P Rpgs, is about stacking buffs/improvement on a dice so that you pass the roll. Harder difficulties can be summed up as needing to stack more buffs on those rolls, ultimately making gameplans where the roll are too unreliable worthless but also needing more creativity and perusing of game mechanics in order to understand how to increase the likelihood of success of any given check/encounter. And if it still doesn't work ? Just reload lol. The best builds are ultimately just time-savers in order to not have to reload. The best build is still not as good as a faster Hard Drive in term of how good you are at the game. While barrelmancy a la Larian doesn't have an equivalent here, you can still start a fight with a long range attack (instead of walking to it), as well as retreating out of sight from the enemies and build up buffs/defeat foes piecemeal. This should solve most of the hard fight in the game. With all of that said, let's dive into what a good build mean in the context of Rogue Trader. General Considerations Most builds you'll find on the internet sucks or are built around bug exploits/outdated. The main reason is that 99% of it is clickbait by someone as good as the game as a game j*urnalist *spit* can be, with the target of getting audience, not to git good. Even worst, some of them are straight up hours long youtube video. Not practical at all when you know, you are within a game and want to select which talents next. I started to use internet builds because I knew nothing about the system, but very fast I realized the talents picks were barely above random in term of effectiveness, and just what the author think looked cool rather than any deep thought on it. Nonetheless, it kinda worked due to the absolutely broken state of some interactions in the game, especially Versatility Stacks from Arch-Militant being granted at around 4x the correct rate and the inconsistency of the game when it comes to consider Burst attacks to qualify for AOE talents and abilities... For new players, tough luck, those published build sucks, have always sucked, and just stumbled upon broken interaction that would make any random build work, and now you are faced with the daunting task of finding an updated build that doesn't suck. If you wanna bug exploit just use toybox. Less setup, more lore friendly. Pretend it's an Act of Faith or something. Rogue Trader is a very standard CRPG, using flat D100 Roll under as a basis for nearly every action. An encounter is subdivided in rounds. Each round, every character gets a turn, sorted by agility. Some abilities have turn cooldowns (eg : Limit of one attack per turn), some per round. Character can get activated out of normal round sequence following certain effects and ability. Like any CRPG ever, the core of "winning" at the game encounters is action economy abuse. The party that take the most actions, have their actions succeed more often and crucially prevent their enemy from taking any action/have them fails win. In previous owlcat titles, it meant AOE terrain effect CC. In Rogue Trader, it mean using officers/master tactician to buff/give extra turn to your DPS who then shoot everyone dead as early as possible. There is no such thing as "tanking". CC/Taunting is too unreliable vs simply killing the enemies dead. The skill checks are like any other game : Rather than a team of jacks of all trades, you are much better off having your party specialize in 2-3 skills per characters. Unfair difficulty is making the encounters more difficult by inflicting huge malus on to-hit probability, especially behind cover, increased ennemy HP and damage, and finally making ennemy pass their own stat-check much more easily. This mean that you cannot relies on enemies failing their check and that dodge is more interesting than in normal difficulty. Moreover, any +hit % (or dodge/cover reduction) is way better in Unfair difficulty than in lower difficulties. Contrary to other CRPG (ahem, DnD, Pathfinder, etc...) making unfair build can still be very theme and lore friendly in rogue trader, and outside of some small utility powers, there was not much hard CC to begin with. Instead, the action economy abuse is coming mostly from self buff. In Rogue trader, there is (roughly) three encounters roles : >Officer >Carry >Better than nothing (Support/Bruiser/Etc...) The role of a Carry is to kill the enemies dead or make the party immortal. They generally spend their turn shooting at enemies, and when they don't it's to get some self buff or setup a wombo combo. The role of an officer is to buff the carries and make them take as many action as possible. There is no "true" tank role. At best you can have a bruiser/disruptor, but taunt is too unreliable of a mechanic, you have limited way to increase tankyness and control the enemy AI. You can however build your rogue trader as a decent enough dodge tank/CC machine thanks to planetary projects. The best class in rogue trader is, by far, the officer. It can grant free turns/shoot to others, and buff allies at the same time. Many class scale well with a retinue of officers. They are the wombo combo enablers. Non-Psykers Officers themselves loves getting into Master Tactician as it allow them to buff the carry even harder, get some FEL, and they benefit hugely from a single high resolve character taking many turns. Psyker Officers should go Grand Strategist, as the most useful feature of the class is gotten at lvl 1 (free extra Go First turn), and then they can pick only their warp talents and abilities without losing much. Arch Militant can stack their versatility with each attack and scale exponentially well off it, and hence make fantastic extra turn dumps for officers. Operatives can use the extra turns from officers to setup as many exploit on a target as possible, then cast Tactical Knowledge, making the party near impervious to damage and giving themselves a huge damage boost. Bounty Hunter and their savour the kill talent allow them to take extra turns whenever one of their preys get killed, or simply with Hot on the trails to enable big chains of Operative Exploit Stacks. Not direct damage dealer carry, but combo very well to setup Tactical Knowledge.Vanguard is the only subpar class. The class get weaker the more you win, as opposed to every other class that snowball. It is dependant on enemy taking actions to be useful and does not offer much wombo combo potential. You need very specific items/build to make it work well (psyker + mid/late game stuff). You only really need a tank/disruptor in higher difficulty for the first few rounds, and even then a Dodge Operative/Assassin is more reliable and disruptive than a Vanguard. To completely and absolutely break the game, use mercenaries. At this point though, you are playing a puzzle game and are likely using toybox to cheat in respecs anyway, or are instead following a complex, step by step flowchart and not really "playing" anymore. This is not the goal of this guide. The goal of this guide is to use only the regular companions. Not rely too much on convoluted buff loops for every encounters. Have balanced builds that complete each other while at the same time allowing people to just lift a single build and use it for their own games. Build Help & Party Composition Scaling Summary : Weapon Skill Parry, Parry Reduction (half), Melee Crit Chance Ballistic Skill Ranged hit chance = 30+BS% Strength 1pt = +5% 1H melee Damage, +10% 2hand, Athletics Toughness 1pt = +10% Wounds, Carouse Agility Turn order (Initiative), 1pt = 1% dodge chance, 0.5% melee dodge reduction, Demolition Intelligence 1pt = 5% ranged aoe damage (non-burst). Lore(All), Logic, Medicae, Tech-Use Perception 1pt = 0.5% dodge reduction (melee/ranged), half the worth of agility for turn order. Awareness Willpower Nothing by itself. Linked to a lot of psy power, either to cast or resist them. Fellowship Persuasion, Coercion, Commerce Class Summary : Officer S tier but need a carry to buff Master Tactician Natural continuation of officer, with even more buff generation and ap dump to buff your team. Soldier Ranged dps. By very concept the best carry mid game. Suck very early game due to low BS, less broken than psyker/companion specific stuff late game. Warrior Melee dps and by concept worse than soldiers as they need to invest in survivability and mobility, not just damage. Arch-militant The correct choice for scaling either soldier or warriors in the mid/late game. Blade Dancer S+ tier but pidgeonhole you into dual swords melee gameplay. Allow Medicae to scale of WS. Scale insanely with AGI. Executionner S+ tier if going medicae to wounds, serviceable otherwise. Either use it for the dot "gameplay" on a pyromancer/biomancer, or for the insane medicae scaling to wound on any other class. Operative For INT build. Due to the INT investment, you cannot go melee, you'll be too squishy. Bounty Hunter For getting free non-offensive turns when allies kill preys. Bounty hunters stack very well with each other as preys are shared. Assassin For offensive high agi/perception operatives. Grand Strategist The real value is in the free extra turn at the beginning of the fight. The micro management of zones is not worth the talents nor the real life time investment. Good build are supposed to make fights faster and requiring less decisions, not slower and more tedious. Good dump class for navigator/other specialist that need the talents slots. Vanguard Dump class similar to grand strategist. Only bring marginally better tanking. Workable with a melee Psyker. Psykers/Navigator are by themselves several different subclass, depending on which spells and the scaling you want to have, as they'll need to take talents and ability slots away from your normal class. To add to the complexity, one of the best psyker gear in the game is a heavy armour. On Unfair, enemies have +20% dodge. To fully negate their ranged dodge, the hard cap is hence (40 + twice the enemy agility) pts of Perception (and/or Agi if melee) as well. WS is a pretty good melee offensive as well as defensive stat as foes will need twice yours to negate it, even on unfair, and will not be reduced by armour (unlike dodge from agility). Party Composition : A good party in rogue trader is at least one win condition setup to solve encounters ie. Kill/Hard CC every foes or become Immortal yourself. Since the nerf, officers went from wanting 5 in every party to wanting 2-3 in every party (one per carry). Then you have the choice of win condition : -Snowball hypercarry (Arch militant receiving lots of turns, Caster getting absurd level of psy rating/wp, Kibellah one turning the boss, etc...) -Turtling away from the encounter and picking opponents one by one as they come -Operative Tactical Knowledge Stacks -Actually solving the encounters as the devs imagined it would be (lol jk) The first one can be achieved by any arch-militant, but work best with Argenta, as you get her early game and hence her build is not gimped. The Tactical Knowledge combo can be achieved in different way : >Ranged assassin with death whisper getting the officer extra turns, cleaning trash mob around a single exploit target and then casting Tactical Knowledge on it >Bounty hunters using On the Trail or Savour the Kill to take many empty turns and accumulate exploits before casting Tactical Knowledge Ranged Assassin works well with either Pasqal or Yrliet, Bounty hunter with any Operative and does not require to be the extra turn targets as much as Asassins. Hence, my builds exist along the following core party : - Cassia Grand Strategist - Jae Master Tactician - Argenta Arch-Militant - Pasqal Bounty Hunter This party can setup either win conditions, fetch every member early game, and allow for two flex slots of other party members. Moreover, your party should contain a dedicated a character for each skillcheck to be passed. The most abundant skills checks in the game are : Awareness > Tech Use > Demolition > Athletics > Lore Xenos (Janus & Act III) > Everything else从上述内容可以看出： 杰伊是一名出色的技能专家，这得益于她多数技能的同伴加成以及冷酷商人特性使声望能提升她的技能。 一个由魅力型行商浪人、卡西娅、杰伊、阿金塔、帕斯卡尔组成的队伍可以覆盖所有技能，留下1个灵活位置可随意配置。 再次强调，上述仅为一个可行且能以不公平难度通关游戏的队伍建议。你完全应该带上自己最喜欢的角色，并且除了医疗/异形学识用于刽子手/黑暗灵族武器专长外，每个技能都完全取决于队伍的技能检定协同效果。我个人认为，只有负面惩罚的纸笔角色扮演游戏技能检定机制并不适合电脑游戏。如果你准备好为了优化流程或反复读档刷技能检定，不如直接用玩具盒（Toybox）让你的队伍在技能检定时总是掷出1。这样可以节省你枯燥的加载时间。在单人游戏中按F8并不难，你不会错过多少盯着加载屏幕的“游戏体验”。 《诡术师：行商浪人》：贵族军官 - BuildLiterally me This build allow you to RP as the most "typical" kind of upstart rogue traders, rich people used to have other people doing things for them becoming filthy rich people having other people do everything for them. Character CreationHomeworld : Imperial World. Humanity's Finest : Fellowship Origin : Noble Triumph : Illustrious Glory Darkest Hour : Grim Portents 177013 Stats : Fellowship, Willpower, Agility Portrait : The most attractive one in your collection Sex : Yes Archetypes Archetype Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Officer 1 Voice of Command 2 - Officer 2 Commerce 3 - Officer 3 Bring It Down! 4 - Officer 4 Finest Hour! Focus! 5 - Officer 5 Fellowship CT: Fellowship 6 - Officer 6 Lasting Impression Fellowship 7 - Officer 7 Air of Authority Ready to Serve 8 - Officer 8 Inspiring Speech Commerce 9 - Officer 9 Finest Hour! (IV) 10 - Officer 10 Persuasion Willpower 11 - Officer 11 CT: Agility Agility 12 - Officer 12 Take Aim You. Do something 13 - Officer 13 Commanding Voice Persuasion 14 - Officer 14 Agility It Will Not Die 15 - Officer 15 Finest Hour! (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Master Tactician 1 Tactical Advantage Press the Advantage 17 - Master Tactician 2 Linchpin 18 - Master Tactician 3 Hidden Advantage 19 - Master Tactician 4 Orchestrated Firestorm 20 - Master Tactician 5 Ap Increase Fellowship 21 - Master Tactician 6 Fellowship Reliance 22 - Master Tactician 7 Inspire 23 - Master Tactician 8 Unwavering Motivation Commerce 24 - Master Tactician 9 Agility Nimble 25 - Master Tactician 10 In the Hero's Footstep 26 - Master Tactician 11 Commerce Agility 27 - Master Tactician 12 Orchestrated Firestorm (II) 28 - Master Tactician 13 Comfort in Conformity 29 - Master Tactician 14 Persuasion Willpower 30 - Master Tactician 15 You. Go On. Fervour 31 - Master Tactician 16 Against All Odds 32 - Master Tactician 17 Willpower Carouse 33 - Master Tactician 18 Nerves of Steel 34 - Master Tactician 19 Willpower Swift Movements 35 - Master Tactician 20 Orchestrated Firestorm (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Eager Subordinates Be Vigilant! 37 - Exemplar 2 Commerce Logistical Superiority 38 - Exemplar 3 Fellowship Stronger Together 39 - Exemplar 4 Move, Move, Move! Commerce 40 - Exemplar 5 Attention! Stand Resolute 41 - Exemplar 6 Fellowship Inspire Courage 42 - Exemplar 7 Assign Objective Agility 43 - Exemplar 8 Primary Objective CT: Willpower 44 - Exemplar 9 Carouse Firebrand 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Decisive Responset Carouse 47 - Exemplar 12 Personal Oversight Carouse 48 - Exemplar 13 Heroic Inspiration Agility 49 - Exemplar 14 Willpower Carouse 50 - Exemplar 15 Perfection Under Fire Armour of Contempt 51 - Exemplar 16 Ally Coordination Carouse ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Iron Discipline Base Skill Commerce ? 53 - Exemplar 18 Get Back in the Fight Willpower 54 - Exemplar 19 Flagbearer ? Wounds Are No Excuse! 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Rogue Trader: Noble Officer - Howto BasicsWeapons ? That's for decoration and prestige, not actually using them. Spend all of your AP buffing allies and giving them extra turns, extra damage, faster heroics buildup, etc... Become a complete simp/stan for a carry and watch them melt encounters. GearArmour : Light. Your buffs scale off Fellowship and a bit from Willpower. For the rest equip whatever look the most fashionable and that your party doesn't need. Using a sword will grant you slightly better melee protection. Your defence is entirely Agi/Dodge based. Abilities You. Serve Me Slap on Argenta as the first action of the first turn. She get bonus stats. Voice of Command Cast on argenta as early and often as possible. Bring it Down The best ability in the game. Priority target is Argenta. At level 36, get 3Ap but if she consume it all, she will suffer some dmg that scale with the rogue trader willpower, so use the extra AP with caution. Air of Authority Slap on argenta as soon as you casted voice of Command on her, then spread to the rest of the team, Ideally a bounty hunter/anyone with extra turns afterward. Take Aim! Situational. Cast it on a ranged DD to let it kill a target behind cover. Press the Advantage Don't. It will ruin your TA stacks to give your measly damage a one off % increase. Linchpin Cast it on the target that gonna get the most turn before your next turn (Usually Argenta or Pasqal). Do not cast it before && in the same turn as Inspire. Inspire Cast it the turn after a Linchpin target gave you lots of TA stacks. If You wanna cast Linchpin this turn, do not cast inspire or make sure you cast it beforehand. Fervour At the end of the first (and maybe second) turn to get early TA stacks. Do not cast anything after it. Wound cost too great for regular use. Totally not a Warlock life tap. Move, Move, Move Reposition allies, Extra free turn. Assign Objective Only useful to get the snowball rolling. The target enemy killer's will generate momentum and get +5 all stat untill the end of the encounter, non stackable. Get Back in the Fight! Purge dots/stunned on an ally. Heroic Actions Finest Hour! Cast on Argenta. Nerfed from being the best ability in the game to now only be the best ability in the game. Orchestrated Firestorm Extremely situational. You can ignore it. Spammable though. Rogue Trader: Psykautismo - BuildMore dots, more dots. This warlock-style build focus on fighting at range and applying dots. Until late game, this specific build doesn't posses the raw AoE power of a lot of the other carry build. It's also very fragile early game, with 0 investment in any defensive stats outside of wounds. Nonetheless, it is excellent at picking up trash or doting elite to death. An another distinctive feature of the build is being Int => Calculated relation, meaning nearly every skills are naturally covered. Simply slap Kibella for extra battle synergy (Executionners stacks very well with each other) and Skill-Check Synergy (Demoltion/Athletic) and pick whoever you want for the rest of your party without worrying about skills. Character CreationHomeworld : Forge World - Analytic System Origin : Sanctionned Psyker - Pyromancer Triumph : Illustrious Glory Darkest Hour : Grim Portents :.|:; Stats : Willpower, Int, Perception Portrait : Mom took it Sex : No Autism : Extremis Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Operative 1 Analyse Enemies 2 - Operative 2 Tech-Use ? 3 - Operative 3 Expose Weakness 4 - Operative 4 Dismantling Attack Psyker Minoris 5 - Operative 5 Willpower Calculated Relations 6 - Operative 6 Backdraft Willpower 7 - Operative 7 Biomancy Tech-Use ? 8 - Operative 8 Biophysical Distortion Second Sight 9 - Operative 9 Dismantling Attack (II) Medicae 10 - Operative 10 Medicae Intelligence 11 - Operative 11 Uncanny Sight Logic ? 12 - Operative 12 Orchestrate Flames Psychic Barrage 13 - Operative 13 Joint Offense Intelligence 14 - Operative 14 Perception Psyker Majoris 15 - Operative 15 Dismantling Attack (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 Choice 3 16 - Executionner 1 Forced RepentanceScourging StrikesWhere it Hurts 17 - Executionner 2 Enfeeble 18 - Executionner 3 Hardened Body 19 - Executionner 4 Carnival of Misery 20 - Executionner 5 Ap Increase Willpower 21 - Executionner 6 Willpower Anatomy Expert 22 - Executionner 7 Warp Speed 23 - Executionner 8 Spark of the Greater Flame Medicae 24 - Executionner 9 Intelligence Psyker Terminus 25 - Executionner 10 Blazing Inferno 26 - Executionner 11 Intelligence Medicae 27 - Executionner 12 Carnival of Misery (II) 28 - Executionner 13 Acute Pain 29 - Executionner 14 Perception Tech-Use ? 30 - Executionner 15 Firestorm Melting Armour 31 - Executionner 16 Does it Hurt ? 32 - Executionner 17 Perception Tech-Use ? 33 - Executionner 18 Sower of Distress 34 - Executionner 19 Perception Psyker Extremis 35 - Executionner 20 Carnival of Misery (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Cataclysm Tide of Excellence 37 - Exemplar 2 Medicae Relentless Blaze 38 - Exemplar 3 Willpower It Will Not Die 39 - Exemplar 4 Inflame Medicae 40 - Exemplar 5 Combat Meditation Fire Within 41 - Exemplar 6 Willpower Offensive Pattern prediction 42 - Exemplar 7 Molten Beam Intelligence 43 - Exemplar 8 Battle of Attrition CT: Willpower 44 - Exemplar 9 Tech-Use ? Flesh Wounds 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Fires of the Forge Tech-Use ? 47 - Exemplar 12 Deterioration Logic ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Fragile Playthings Intelligence 49 - Exemplar 14 Perception Logic ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Perfection Under Fire Burning Blood 51 - Exemplar 16 Racking Weakness Logic ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Perfect Anatomy Nimble 53 - Exemplar 18 Reckless Abandon Perception 54 - Exemplar 19 Know-It-All Master of Torture 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Rogue Trader: Psykautismo - Howto BasicsTweaked down skill malus in unfair mean an Int/Calculated Relations character is an excellent skill monkey. Executioner Dot gameplay is kindof playable on a ranged character, as you do not need to invest in melee/mobility talents like a bruiser would need to. This build is an exception in term of party composition as if you combine it with Kibellah, most skills are covered to a good enough level to have a chance at passing every skill check in the game without the need of any other party members. It should be however noted that Cassia/Idira have access to excellent Willpower buffs for this build on top of completeting it's realtively weak early game AOE, and that ofc it being a carry build Jae round it up well for extra turns. Moreover, several executioners stack well together, and Carnival of Misery goes from meh on Kibellah to pretty good if casted twice in a fight. The gameplay is to mostly be a buff bot and use one damaging power a turn. By virtue of being relatively independent from companion selection AND a psyker, this build is perfect for heretical playthroughs. Currently NOT optimized to fetch psyker's breastplate. If you want it, respec at higher level and put enough in str to then get Heavy armour proff. Not worth building for it beforehand. GearArmour : Whatever bump willpower/psy rating the most Amulet : Daemon Tool can be acquired early game and increase your burning. Weapon : Your best staff. Staff of Blood is a strong contender, and so is the early Pyromancer's staff in Act1. Make sure to not have ranged weapons equipped once you are Exemplar. Abilities Ignite Your bread and butter attack if not using Pyromancer's staff. Castable without ending your movement. Iron Arm Buff Str (melee damage) and Toughness of you or an ally. Kibella loves it. Orchestrate Flame Buff/Debuff that allows you to attack still. Pretty funny on any melee party member, complete very well your Ignite/Firestorm and trigger more burning damage. Warp Speed Excellent buff on any carry. Yourself is a carry. Allow Kibellah to do absurd things. Molten Beam Beam Aoe and your main source of damages. On weaker enemies/Repeated use, can also put enemies aflame. Where it hurt Next attack consume all the dot to deal extra 3x all dots effect extra damage. Situational compared to Kibellah, as you are most often better off attacking new targets to dots them. Enfeeble Debuff enemies in the aoe to take extra damage and be easier to hit. AP dump. Inflame Cast to make burning more powerful, and recast every turn to trigger a tick. This + Carnival of misery can solve late game encounters. Reckless Abandon By the time you unlock it, allow truly absurd dots damage boost for no downsides. Use it every time you run out of temp wounds. Feel free to take it earlier in the build, but be aware that the %itself depend of your number of wound and hence is not that impactful vs more aoe/warp speed if taken earlier. Analyse Enemies Generate more exploit stack if you got nothing else to do Expose Weakness Use it BEFORE molten beam on a target you want to set aflame. Use inspect to see if the armour reduction is enough (or save scum to save your IQ points). Heroic Actions Dismantling Attack You need to equip a pistol/gun to be able to cast it. Main use is to add more exploit to the enemies and debuff the target. Use the staff heroic instead early game, never even look at it once you have Carnival of Misery. Carnival of Misery Double all dot damages for the rest of the encounter. One of the highest damage potential ult in the game, but it doesn't have the instant CC of killing the enemy dead >right now< Death Waltz/Finest Hour have. Rogue Trader: Living Saint - BuildThis build is very similar to the noble officer, in that you will mostly be hanging around in the backline and babysitting your carry and the team with buffs/extra turn, but with one key difference : endgame, you can actually deal very good damages, both at range, melee and AoE. The build is nonetheless much harder to play, as you'll constantly need to fight your bloodlust and resist sending into melee what is ultimately a very squishy character with no real parry/dodge/damage mitigation to speak of. Character CreationHomeworld : Imperial World. Humanity's Finest : Fellowship Origin: Sanctionned Psyker - Biomancer Triumph : Illustrious Glory Darkest Hour : Shadow of Torment Stats : Fellowship, Strength, Weapon Skill Portrait : The most glorious one in your collection Sex : Chaste Archetypes Archetype Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Officer 1 Voice of Command 2 - Officer 2 Commerce 3 - Officer 3 Bring It Down! 4 - Officer 4 Finest Hour! Focus! 5 - Officer 5 Fellowship CT: Strength 6 - Officer 6 Lasting Impression Fellowship 7 - Officer 7 Air of Authority Heavy Armour Proficiency 8 - Officer 8 Inspiring Speech Commerce 9 - Officer 9 Finest Hour! (IV) 10 - Officer 10 Carouse Weapon Skill 11 - Officer 11 Commanding Voice Weapon Skill 12 - Officer 12 Sanctic Powers Strange Vitality 13 - Officer 13 Steel Resolve Carouse 14 - Officer 14 Toughness Psyker Minoris 15 - Officer 15 Finest Hour! (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Master Tactician 1 Tactical Advantage Press the Advantage 17 - Master Tactician 2 Linchpin 18 - Master Tactician 3 Hidden Advantage 19 - Master Tactician 4 Orchestrated Firestorm 20 - Master Tactician 5 Ap Increase Fellowship 21 - Master Tactician 6 Fellowship Reliance 22 - Master Tactician 7 Inspire 23 - Master Tactician 8 Unwavering Motivation Commerce 24 - Master Tactician 9 Weapon Skill Psyker Majoris 25 - Master Tactician 10 Psyker Terminus 26 - Master Tactician 11 Commerce Weapon Skill 27 - Master Tactician 12 Orchestrated Firestorm (II) 28 - Master Tactician 13 Nerves of Steel 29 - Master Tactician 14 Carouse Toughness 30 - Master Tactician 15 Psalm of Heroes Purge Soul 31 - Master Tactician 16 Duelling Mastery 32 - Master Tactician 17 Toughness Carouse 33 - Master Tactician 18 Against All Odds 34 - Master Tactician 19 Toughness Psyker Extremis 35 - Master Tactician 20 Orchestrated Firestorm (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Eager Subordinates Ready to Serve 37 - Exemplar 2 Carouse Undisputed Advantage 38 - Exemplar 3 Fellowship Blade of Light 39 - Exemplar 4 Hammer of the Emperor Commerce 40 - Exemplar 5 Firebrand Sanctified Slayer 41 - Exemplar 6 Fellowship Edge of Dawn 42 - Exemplar 7 Sword of Faith Weapon Skill 43 - Exemplar 8 Personal Involvement Combat Master 44 - Exemplar 9 Commerce Peak Condition 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Hymns of Hatred Carouse 47 - Exemplar 12 Eternal Glory Athletics 48 - Exemplar 13 Destined Weapon Skill 49 - Exemplar 14 Toughness Athletics 50 - Exemplar 15 Tough as Steel Heroism 51 - Exemplar 16 In the Hero's Footstep Athletics 52 - Exemplar 17 Stacking the deck Swift Movements 53 - Exemplar 18 Enfeeble Toughness 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire Sanguine Siphon 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Rogue Trader: Living Saint - Howto BasicsI swear living saints are totally not the Emperor's Demon. The gameplay with this build is to babysit a carry with buffs, and you are barely less good at it than a noble officer. You are very squishy, with even less EHP than other backliners. You can still hit things in melee fine in lower difficulty, but don't expect tons of damage. At level 30, you acquire purge soul, which allows you to finally deal decent damage even at range. At level 42, the build really comes online with Sword of Faith. NB: This is >NOT< a damage dealer build. You are still going full commit into support buff. The Sword of Faith is a nice little thing for the endgame, but by the time you unlock it your actual carries will be able to solve the encounter in the time it takes you to kill a trash. GearArmour : Heavy and then Psyker Breastplate. This is your BiS. Weapon : A good melee weapons that other chars don't need, and then a Force Sword. You can try to use a staff, but you don't have any WP to make good use of it. The rest of the gear should just stack as much resolve/Psy rating as possible. Keep in mind that : Resolve = more momentum generated each turn/kill Full momentum bar = Heroic action Abilities Voice of Command Stat buff. Cast on Carry, then whoever needs it Bring it Down! Best ability in the game. Cast on whoever gonna make the best use of it. Air of Authority Resolve buff. Cast on the last target of the Voice of command for extra AP. Iron Arm Str/Toughness buff. The toughness is great for pseudo-healing allies. Word of the Emperor Stackable AOE resolve buff. Try to catch most of your allies and yourself turn 1. Press the advantage. Useless until late game where you can use it to do lots of damage as a boss finisher. At level 43, allow to ignore dodges. Linchpin An another resolve buff. Cast in on yourself or the carry Inspire % damage buff. Cast on a DD. Purge Soul A single target nuke that scale multiplicatively between your resolve and psy rating. Start off weak, can get pretty significant late game as you can stack them indefinitly (Psyker's Breastplate x Word of the Emperor) Hammer of the emperor Excellent buff for any DD in the team. Cast it every round they attacked. Sword of Faith The best self buff in the entire game. Castable every turn, adding+resolve to the damage. Damage is multiplicative between your psy rating and your resolve, and then again with any inspire/press the advantage cast. With enough setup, can one shot anything in the game. Enfeeble You'll only get access to it very late game. % damage increase on enemies in an area. Heroic Actions Finest Hour The best heroic in the game. Cast it on the carry. Orchestrated Firestorm Ignore entirely Rogue Trader: Firefighter - BuildThis build differ from the other build for the rogue trader presented in this guide, as it is >not< a party face rogue trader. Instead, it focuses on being a brutally effective melee bruiser. At the core this is a Warrior/Arch militant build, dipping into Pyromancy and Sanctic to boost melee damage output. Two caveats to the build : Blade of Light is specifically not picked. If you want to use a force weapon, feel free to pick the talent. Overall, better melee options are often available. If you want to use the halo device, ditch willpower entirely and replace it with more AGI/TGH/STR. From a RP perspective, keep in mind that the immortality of Halo Devices come at a price.[warhammer40k.fandom.com] Character CreationHomeworld : Deathworld Origin : Psyker - Pyromancy Triumph : Apex of Brilliance Darkest Hour : Grim Portents You just Lost the Game Stats : WSx2, TGHx2, WP, AGI Portrait : Hot Sex : Torrid Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Warrior 1 Charge 2 - Warrior 2 Medicae 3 - Warrior 3 Endure 4 - Warrior 4 Daring Breach Thick Skin 5 - Warrior 5 Clenched Teeth Weapon Skill 6 - Warrior 6 Break Through Athletics 7 - Warrior 7 Weapon Skill Psyker Minoris 8 - Warrior 8 Athletics Shearing Strikes 9 - Warrior 9 Daring Breach (II) 10 - Warrior 10 Blade Flurry Strength 11 - Warrior 11 Orchestrate Flames Relentless Blaze 12 - Warrior 12 Strength Carouse 13 - Warrior 13 Heavy Armour Proficiency Carouse 14 - Warrior 14 Agility Psyker Majoris 15 - Warrior 15 Daring Breach (IV) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Arch-Militant 1 Versatility 17 - Arch-Militant 2 Reckless Rush 18 - Arch-Militant 3 Always Ready 19 - Arch-Militant 4 Steady Superiority 20 - Arch-Militant 5 AP Increase Weapon Skill 21 - Arch-Militant 6 All Out Weapon Skill 22 - Arch-Militant 7 Wildfire Melting Armour 23 - Arch-Militant 8 Athletics Flashfire 24 - Arch-Militant 9 Strength Psyker Terminus 25 - Arch-Militant 10 Discipline 26 - Arch-Militant 11 Athletics Strength 27 - Arch-Militant 12 Steady Superiority (IV) 28 - Arch-Militant 13 Carouse Dependable 29 - Arch-Militant 14 Toughness Blazing Inferno 30 - Arch-Militant 15 Firestorm 31 - Arch-Militant 16 Adaptability 32 - Arch-Militant 17 Willpower Carouse 33 - Arch-Militant 18 Critical Versatility Willpower 34 - Arch-Militant 19 Willpower Psyker Extremis 35 - Arch-Militant 20 Steady Superiority (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Eager for Battle Sparks of the Greater Flame 37 - Exemplar 2 Athletics Body of Flames 38 - Exemplar 3 Weapon Skill Brutal Hunter 39 - Exemplar 4 Molten Beam Athletics 40 - Exemplar 5 Peak Condition Fire Within 41 - Exemplar 6 Weapon Skill Crowd Kill 42 - Exemplar 7 Sanctic Powers Toughness 43 - Exemplar 8 Accustomed to Glory Edge of Dawn 44 - Exemplar 9 Carouse Perfection Under Fire 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Easy Target Carouse 47 - Exemplar 12 Sanctified Slayer Awareness ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Psalm of Heroes Toughness 49 - Exemplar 14 Toughness Awareness ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Flesh Wounds Hymn of Hatred 51 - Exemplar 16 Destined Awareness ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Eternal Glory Backdraft 53 - Exemplar 18 Inflame Toughness 54 - Exemplar 19 Tough As Steel Burning Blood 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Rogue Trader: Firefighter - Howto BasicsDespite being a "psyker" origin, this build is not a caster/buffer build, but instead a melee carry build. You'll be playing like you would a normal melee arch-militant, but with extra damage and tools built in. Every psy power can be woven in to increase versatility stacks. A major difference with other Rogue trader build in this guide is that this is NOT a party face rogue trader. Refer to the skill table in a previous section to decide how to compose your party. Cassia/Jae are both very interesting addition for this Rogue trader, as they cover the missing skills as well as providing buffs/Extra turn that you'll take full advantages of. GearArmour : Heavy, you can use Psyker Breastplate. Weapons : Two 1H weapon. Noble Sword can be used in mainhand to trigger Disturbed on AoA, but is not meant to be used as your main attack cast. Chainaxes are great. The second set should be a staff with high WP, that you swtich to (x default keybind) every time you cast a power. Overall, you make great uses of a lot of Melee attack/Psy rating gear. If going for a Halo device, do not take any willpower but more AGI/STR/TGH Instead. Abilities Ignite Your main dot/attack at range tool. Doesn't end movement. Abuse it. Orchestrate Flame Cast it on yourself Asap. Tremendously increase your melee output, and later allow to setup firestorm. Charge Movement tool more than a damage one. Endure Use it every turn you expect to take damage Break Through Make sure you have 2 1H equipped. Mobility+very decent damages Reckless Rush Instant MP. Starting level 21, allows you to attack without ending move Wildfire Extra attack. Use it on your big AP attacks. Firestorm Cast on yourself or a burning ennemy to ignite stuff around. Molten Beam More damage than ignite but only set aflame enemies stripped of armour already Word of the Emperor Resolve buff. Your crit chance scales of resolve too. Mostly an AP dump though. Santic utility is in the talents we are taking. Inflame Trigger flame debuff tick. Ap dump, can get spicy if multi-pyro party. Heroic Actions Daring Breach Situational over Steady Superiority. More instant dps, attacking doesn't stop move anymore. Restore all MP/AP. Steady Superiority Situational over Daring Breach. More remaining turns dps and much faster versa buildup, but attacking will still end movement. Abelard: Ladies' Knight - BuildA masculine and traditional older white man positive role model ? In a western video games ???While not having higher difficulty hypercarry potential like some of the other builds here, he is still very decent as a brawler, being able to move around the battlefield, endure punishment and dispatch foes on his own without much support. Abelard is held back at a conceptual level by being melee instead of being ranged/psyker. His origin ability with the right talents is a very potent wombo combo enabler, especially for Cassia as even very early game she will receive a massive +35 Willpower buff. Abelard T2 archetype options are Vanguard, Assassin and Arch-Militant. Vanguard has very poor damage outpout and the only things it does well is getting attacked. Outside of vanity/rp build, this doesn't have much use in the current game. Assassin is serviceable, but a bit schizophrenic as Lethality doesn't play well at all with any kind of armour and Abelard doesn't have the agility to pull off tanking without it. Arch-Militant, on top of being the most versatile, allow us to swing a Warhammer 40.000 times per turn. Sold. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Warrior 1 Charge 2 - Warrior 2 Athletics 3 - Warrior 3 Endure 4 - Warrior 4 Daring Breach Thick Skin 5 - Warrior 5 Defensive Stance Weapon Skill 6 - Warrior 6 Sworn Enemy Athletics 7 - Warrior 7 Weapon Skill Swift Movements 8 - Warrior 8 Medicae Hardened Scars 9 - Warrior 9 Daring Breach (III) 10 - Warrior 10 Get Into Cover! Toughness 11 - Warrior 11 Taunting Scream It Will Not Die 12 - Warrior 12 Toughness Carouse 13 - Warrior 13 Ramming Speed Carouse 14 - Warrior 14 Strenght Ready To Serve 15 - Warrior 15 Daring Breach (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Arch-Militant 1 Versatility 17 - Arch-Militant 2 Reckless Rush 18 - Arch-Militant 3 Always Ready 19 - Arch-Militant 4 Steady Superiority 20 - Arch-Militant 5 AP Increase Toughness 21 - Arch-Militant 6 All Out Weapon Skill 22 - Arch-Militant 7 Wildfire Know No Heresy 23 - Arch-Militant 8 Athletics Flashfire 24 - Arch-Militant 9 Toughness Duelling Mastery 25 - Arch-Militant 10 Dependable 26 - Arch-Militant 11 Athletics Weapon Skill 27 - Arch-Militant 12 Steady Superiority (IV) 28 - Arch-Militant 13 Carouse Awaiting Orders 29 - Arch-Militant 14 Agility Power Weapon Expert 30 - Arch-Militant 15 Devastating Attack 31 - Arch-Militant 16 Breaking Attack 32 - Arch-Militant 17 Agility Carouse 33 - Arch-Militant 18 Ingenious Agility 34 - Arch-Militant 19 Agility Combat Master 35 - Arch-Militant 20 Steady Superiority (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Lethal Threat Disarm 37 - Exemplar 2 Athletics Adaptability 38 - Exemplar 3 Weapon Skill Perfect Timing 39 - Exemplar 4 Reckless Strike Athletics 40 - Exemplar 5 Perfection Under Fire Dismantle 41 - Exemplar 6 Weapon Skill Clenched Teeth 42 - Exemplar 7 Cautious Approach Toughness 43 - Exemplar 8 Survivor Characteristic Training: Weapon Skill 44 - Exemplar 9 Carouse Flesh Wounds 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Reckless Fury Carouse 47 - Exemplar 12 Interception Medicae ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Accustomed to Glory Tougness 49 - Exemplar 14 Agility Medicae ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Steel Shell Easy Target 51 - Exemplar 16 Critical Versatility Medicae ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Desolation Dual Weapon Combat ? 53 - Exemplar 18 Confident Approach Agility 54 - Exemplar 19 Tough As Steel Calm And Steady 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Abelard: Ladies' Knight - Howto Basics When deploying, huddle everyone around him so that he can cast Brace For Impact! and buff everyone. Use the free turn to position better. Afterward, optionally buff his Strength/Toughness and unleash him on foes. He doesn't mechanically interact as much with other party members as the other builds in this guide, and hence won't need much babysitting. DLC Update : Get him Silent Verdict ASAP (you get this 2H blade from meeting Kibellah). This weapon lift him from an early game meh to an absolute unit. GearArmour: Heavy Weapon: Thunder-Hammers and other 2-hand melee weapons. As a secondary weapon, a shotgun can work but you really are better off not attacking and Endure + Defensive Stance instead. He scales off WS, TGH, STR, AGI. Abilities Brace For Impact! Very obvious defensive buff but not only. This is Abelard most exploitable ability and the reason game-breaking teams use him. Gather the party around him and use this on the first round. After level 10, every member of your team will get a free extra move turn. This will instantly grant Cassia a whopping +35 willpower bonus. Charge Movement tool, damage is a bit underwhelming. Use it to position yourself where you want to be. Often, this is in melee anyway so might as well do the damages. Endure Abelard main survivability tool. Very often, it's better to cast this than to attack, as it will also activate Defensive Stance. Sworn Enemy Very RP. Use it on whoever deserve the AP spent. Taunting Scream What could have been an amazing tool is instead situational. Ennemies are taunted, but only if they fail a willpower test. You do not need to taunt enemies on lower difficulty, enemies will resist it at the worst moment on higher difficulty. Pure savescum bait. After level 33 though, the main use of it is to debuff the enemies ability to resist spell from other characters, such as Cassia. Versatility Read the tooltip and understand what it does. You build stack by alternating single target and AoE attacks. Reckless Rush Use it everytime it's free. WildFire Free attack. Build a versatility stack even if you did not weave your attack kind. Devastating Attack Lore accurate thunder hammer attack. Use it if you wanna CC/Debuff the enemy. Reckless Strike AP dump if you wanna kill someone dead. Cautious Approach Endgame, your attack taunts. Use this to tank. Heroic Actions Daring Breach No limits on attack this turn. Past level 9, also guaranted taunt of whoever you hit this turn. Steady Superiority One more attack Every turn. Don't forget to alternate the attacks kind for versatility stacks. Idira: Sad Psyker from Outer Space - Build>be me >be brown >be into some voodoo crap >really like that purple juice >be some rich white woman housepsyker >the police is always watching me and wanna shoot me even if I dindunuffin >I'm actually an escaped dangerous criminal and the police is justified in doing so What next owlcat, watermelon and fried chicken for the complete scholar-american bingo ? Anyway, Idira can do tons of damage. Very straightforward and powerful to use once you get the hang of how mark the prey works. Was slightly nerfed by the Saviour the Kill patch, as now you cannot melt brain during the free turn of it. Being an unsanctioned psykter of slightly heretical tendencies, she also get access to exclusive gear. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Operative 1 Analyse Enemies 2 - Operative 2 Awareness 3 - Operative 3 Expose Weakness 4 - Operative 4 Dismantling Attack Uncanny Sight 5 - Operative 5 Willpower Second Sight 6 - Operative 6 Tide of Excellence Willpower 7 - Operative 7 Sensory deprivation Lore (Warp) 8 - Operative 8 Pain Channelling Psychic Barrage 9 - Operative 9 Dismantling Attack (II) Lore (Warp) 10 - Operative 10 Awareness Perception 11 - Operative 11 Psyker Minoris Lore (Imperium) 12 - Operative 12 Prescience Advice and Guidance 13 - Operative 13 Fresh Target Perception 14 - Operative 14 Intelligence Fatebringer 15 - Operative 15 Dismantling Attack (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 Choice 3 16 - Bounty Hunter 1 Hunt Down the Prey 17 - Bounty Hunter 2 Foreboding 18 - Bounty Hunter 3 Savour the Kill 19 - Bounty Hunter 4 Wild Hunt 20 - Bounty Hunter 5 Ap Increase Willpower Psyker Majoris 21 - Bounty Hunter 6 Willpower It will not die 22 - Bounty Hunter 7 Psychic Assault 23 - Bounty Hunter 8 Ready To Serve Lore (Warp) 24 - Bounty Hunter 9 Perception Mental Breach 25 - Bounty Hunter 10 Mind Siege 26 - Bounty Hunter 11 Lore (Warp) Perception 27 - Bounty Hunter 12 Wild Hunt (II) 28 - Bounty Hunter 13 Weak Hearts 29 - Bounty Hunter 14 Lore (Imperium) Intelligence 30 - Bounty Hunter 15 Psyker Terminus Mind Rupture 31 - Bounty Hunter 16 Power Conduit 32 - Bounty Hunter 17 Intelligence Lore (Imperium) 33 - Bounty Hunter 18 Visions of Doom 34 - Bounty Hunter 19 Thriving in Peril 35 - Bounty Hunter 20 Wild Hunt (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Malign Influence Passive Learning 37 - Exemplar 2 Lore (Warp) Aftershock 38 - Exemplar 3 Willpower Predicted Downfall 39 - Exemplar 4 Biomancy Lore (Warp) 40 - Exemplar 5 Extermination Psyker Extremis 41 - Exemplar 6 Willpower Sanguine Siphon 42 - Exemplar 7 Invigorate Perception 43 - Exemplar 8 Biophysical Distortion Adrenaline Surge 44 - Exemplar 9 Awareness Cataclysm 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Pulse of Life Lore (Imperium) ? 47 - Exemplar 12 Confer Immunity Lore (Imperium) ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Warp Minds Perception 49 - Exemplar 14 Intelligence Lore (Imperium) ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Contagion Deterioration 51 - Exemplar 16 Strange Vitality Awareness ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Ballistic Calculation Obscured Threat 53 - Exemplar 18 Warp Speed Intelligence 54 - Exemplar 19 Flesh Wounds Unnatural Luck 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Idira: Sad Psyker from Outer Space - Howto Basics Bit worst than at release. Still your main prologue DD for the fight against the Spawn in unfair, and your main source of damage until Argenta get enough Ballistic Skill. On unfair and until deep in chapter 2, she will most likely be your main DD due to psy never missing and her overkill spilling to other mobs. Psykers are kinda anti-synergic with each other. Early game, they share a common resource trough the veil and might underperform if you bring several in a team. Late game they all want the same unique items. It is of course completely irrelevant on easier difficulties where you can faceroll anyway. Idira is not as brainless as before, as savour the kill extra turns cannot be used for more dakka anymore. Instead, Focus on buffing the party and debuffing elite enemies rather than the pure nuker she used to be. GearArmour : Light, ideally one that scale with Psy She get access to exclusive gloves (Warp Conduit), give it to her. She scale off WP, PER, INT. Abilities Forewarning Situational, if you know someone gonna get heat Psychic Shriek Single Target nuke. Analyse Enemies Very situational on Idira. Better use your spare AP for buffing/dmg. Expose Weakness Very situational on Idira. Useful if you want the rest of your party to nuke someone. Sensory Deprivation Excellent single target soft CC, as the worst outcome is a blinded target. Prescience An excellent buff on anyone. First cast should go to your carry because of Advice and Guidance/Fatebringer. Many situational use. It's buff of felowship is good on Officers/Abelard before he cast prepare for impact. Willpower is ofc excellent on Caster, on Argenta before Litany of Hatred, and Int on Pasqal/Operatives/Any non burst ranged attacker. Hunt Down the Prey Mark the preys on your first activation. Let allies kill them. After lvl 18, Get a free 2AP turn every time it happen, where you can cast some more spells. Foreboding Very good AOE dodge area. On higher difficulty, consider taking it earlier. Psychic Assault Aoe Cone damage that inflict hard CC. Excellent spell. Mind Rupture Wololo. Cast this first then Sensory Deprivation on elite enemies. Decent chance of CC even on highest difficulty. Iron Arm Cast this on melee, or characters that need the Health now. Invigorate Heal + Purge in one spell Warp Speed All that speed, and nowhen to put it. Heroic Actions You will spend entire playthroughs where you never cast any heroics with Idra that are not the staff spell, as you need an appropriate weapon to perform them. Dismantling Attack Debuff the target Wild Hunt Cast it to regain 3 preys marker. Argenta: Divine Guidance - BuildBetween "bugfixes" to versatility/concentrated fire and the more recent officer exterminatus level of nerf, gone are the day where Argenta could single turn every encounter in the game. She is now also very weak in the early game where she cannot hit the side of a barn unless buffed by VoC. Due to multiple nerf/reduction in the way she used to scale, her damage output is now a shadow of what it was late game. She is can still be quite strong if only because it's a ranged dps companion you get early in the game and are free to properly build. If you are playing in unfair, you can replace some agility with perception. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Soldier 1 Run and Gun 2 - Soldier 2 Demolition 3 - Soldier 3 Revel in Slaughter 4 - Soldier 4 Firearm Mastery Rapid Reload 5 - Soldier 5 Ballistic Skill Alacrity 6 - Soldier 6 Ballistic Skill Rapid Fire 7 - Soldier 7 Agility CT: Ballistic Skill 8 - Soldier 8 Unfaltering Fire Demolition 9 - Soldier 9 Firearm Mastery (II) 10 - Soldier 10 Fired Up Agility 11 - Soldier 11 Concentrated Fire Athletics 12 - Soldier 12 Willpower Litany of Hatred 13 - Soldier 13 Swift Slaughter Bolt Weapon Expert 14 - Soldier 14 It Will Not Die Athletics 15 - Soldier 15 Firearm Mastery (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Arch-Militant 1 Versatility 17 - Arch-Militant 2 Reckless Rush 18 - Arch-Militant 3 Discipline 19 - Arch-Militant 4 Steady Superiority 20 - Arch-Militant 5 AP Increase Ballistic Skill 21 - Arch-Militant 6 All Out Ballistic Skill 22 - Arch-Militant 7 Wildfire Know No Heresy 23 - Arch-Militant 8 Demolition Awaiting Orders 24 - Arch-Militant 9 Agility Swift Movements 25 - Arch-Militant 10 Always Ready 26 - Arch-Militant 11 Demolition Agility 27 - Arch-Militant 12 Steady Superiority (IV) 28 - Arch-Militant 13 Athletics Critical Versatility 29 - Arch-Militant 14 Perception Heavy Weapon Proficency 30 - Arch-Militant 15 Confident Approach 31 - Arch-Militant 16 Calm and Steady 32 - Arch-Militant 17 Perception Athletics 33 - Arch-Militant 18 Heavy Gunner Strength 34 - Arch-Militant 19 Perception Breaking point 35 - Arch-Militant 20 Steady Superiority (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Extermination Muzzle Velocity 37 - Exemplar 2 Athletics Accustomed to Glory 38 - Exemplar 3 Ballistic Skill Overpower 39 - Exemplar 4 Entrench Athletics 40 - Exemplar 5 Cataclysm Ingenious 41 - Exemplar 6 Ballistic Skill Unpredictabe 42 - Exemplar 7 Cautious Approach Agility 43 - Exemplar 8 Survivor Melta Profi (Judex) OR Flame Expert(Eruption) 44 - Exemplar 9 Demolition Critical Velocity 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Tenderise Demolition 47 - Exemplar 12 Demolition Engineer Awareness? 48 - Exemplar 13 Flensing Faith Agility 49 - Exemplar 14 Perception Awareness? 50 - Exemplar 15 Pinpoint Accuracy Point-Blank 51 - Exemplar 16 Adaptability Awareness? 52 - Exemplar 17 On the Double Melta Wpn Expert OR Nimble ? 53 - Exemplar 18 Dash Perception 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire Tactical Disengage 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Argenta: Divine Guidance - Howto BasicsShe has been nerfed directly or indirectly every single patch since release, and will still likely be the main carry of your party if you don't run a pyro or Kibellah. Her concept (weapon dependant ranged dps) simply need to be viable in the game for most of the combat mechanics to even make sense, and you getting her early prevent owlcat from making her garbage. Argenta is the closest companion to a mercenary you can have. She trade not being from a Fortress World with being able to wear sororitas power armour and faster momentum generation than a mercenary. This build focus on pure high ROF bolter shooting for early/mid game. Late game, she use the Improved heavy bolter and your choice of either Heavy flamer or Heavy Melta. GearWhen you get her, she is equipped with an autopistol, which is very weird for a Battle Sister ;) Swap it to a bolt pistol for style points. Give her blessed bolter casing as soon as you get it. It tremendously open up her options until you get confident approach. Then, her equipment is roughly as follow : - Early game - Weapon Set 1: Sword/Bolt pistol OR Some kind of sniper rifle. Weapon Set 2: Boltgun with high rof and enough dmg Armour: Light - Mid/Late Game - Wpn Set 1: Sword and Hand Flamer / Heavy Stubber for 20 damage 50+ shots per wildfire Wpn Set 2: High Rof Boltgun or Heavy Bolter / Precise Bolter Armour: Light or Sororitas Power Armour - End Game - Set 1: Improved Heavy Bolter Set 2: Judex or Eruption Armour: Soritas Power Armour She scale off Ballistic Skill, Perception and Willpower. Her defence is entirely Agi based. Abilities Run and Gun As often as possible. Basically free extra attack every round. The malus and cooldown can instantly be reset by Revel in Slaughter. Revel in Slaughter Just after Run and gun to remove the winded debuff. At level 13, can be cast after 2 kills instead of 3. Rapid Fire Before your must buffed burst fire of the round. make sure to have enough rounds in the bolter. Concentrated Fire Before using an attack flagged as area attack. >DOES NOT WORK WITH BURST ANYMORE<. Reckless Rush An another movement tool. Pop it to increase versa stack until end of turn. Wildfire Once per round, extra attack. Use it after Reckless Rush to reduce cost. Confident Approach Situational. Starting lvl 31, toggling this ability on makes you lose roughly 2/3 of the bonus damage from Versatility stacks but allows you to make every hit a crit and ignore dodge and covers while active Entrench Before popping run and gun. The next cast of Run and Gun will reset other soldier cooldowns, allowing 2 use of them per rounds. Dash Fleeing melee Cautious Approach Self purge/Heal. Toggle it off for damage dealing again. War Hymn/Litany of Hatred Pop it once using it will allow the momentum bar to go over 175, to use Argenta's heroic action. If you already can, use Litany of Hatred anyway for extra dmg until end of round. Heroic Actions Firearm Mastery As early in the encounter as possible. Between level 19 and 27, if you have a High ROF bolter, Firearm Mastery is better than Steady Superiority but build versatility stack worst. Use both afterward. Steady Superiority As early in the encounter as possible. Between level 19 and 27, if you have a low ROF bolter, steady superiority is better than Firearm Mastery and build versatility stacks much better. Use both afterward Kibellah : Latex Goth GF - BuildI can fix her. She can ruin me. Very fun to use, pretty good damage output at any difficulty, great tanking potential, will bear your children. Dots damage is honestly overrated despite the space they occupy in the talent tree. This build pretty much ignore them and focus on alpha strike damage instead. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Bladedancer 1 Blade Dance 2 - Bladedancer 2 Medicae 3 - Bladedancer 3 Death From Above 4 - Bladedancer 4 Death Waltz In Footsteps of Death 5 - Bladedancer 5 Nimble Agility 6 - Bladedancer 6 Blood Oath Medicae 7 - Bladedancer 7 Agility Promises of Blood 8 - Bladedancer 8 Athletics Combat Master 9 - Bladedancer 9 Death Waltz (II) 10 - Bladedancer 10 Rising Tempo Weapon Skill 11 - Bladedancer 11 Acrobatic Artistry Death Warden 12 - Bladedancer 12 Weapon Skill Athletics 13 - Bladedancer 13 Duelling Mastery Demolition 14 - Bladedancer 14 Strenght Blood Rush 15 - Bladedancer 15 Death Waltz (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2Choice 3 16 - Executionner 1 Forced RepentanceScourging StrikesWhere it Hurts 17 - Executionner 2 Reckless Abandon 18 - Executionner 3 Anatomy Expert 19 - Executionner 4 Carnival of Misery 20 - Executionner 5 Ap Increase Agility 21 - Executionner 6 Agility Invigorating Screams 22 - Executionner 7 Pain Resonance 23 - Executionner 8 Everlasting AgonyMedicae 24 - Executionner 9 Weapon Skill It Will Not Die 25 - Executionner 10 Perfect Anatomy 26 - Executionner 11 Weapon Skill Medicae 27 - Executionner 12 Carnival of Misery (III) 28 - Executionner 13 Fragile Playthings 29 - Executionner 14 Strength Lore (Xenos) 30 - Executionner 15 Gift of TormentDrukhari Weapon Proficiency 31 - Executionner 16 Sower of Distress 32 - Executionner 17 StrengthAthletics 33 - Executionner 18 Does it Hurt? 34 - Executionner 19 StrengthBloody Mess 35 - Executionner 20 Carnival of Misery (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Examplar 1 Peak Condition Bloody Requiem 37 - Examplar 2 Medicae Revelling in Suffering 38 - Examplar 3 Agility Dual Weapon Combat 39 - Examplar 4 Captive Audience Medicae 40 - Examplar 5 Cataclysm Deep Lacerations 41 - Examplar 6 Agility Grand Performance 42 - Examplar 7 Terrifying Strike Weapon Skill 43 - Examplar 8 Hardened Body Grenadier 44 - Examplar 9 Athletics Critical Velocity 45 - Examplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Examplar 11 Duellist Athletics 47 - Examplar 12 Dance partners Athletics 48 - Examplar 13 Master of Torture Weapon Skill 49 - Examplar 14 Strength Carouse ? 50 - Examplar 15 Flesh Wounds Blade in His Hand 51 - Examplar 16 Unbeaeable Presence Carouse ? 52 - Examplar 17 Slip Away Dance of Blood 53 - Examplar 18 Oath of Vengeance Strength 54 - Examplar 19 Destroyer Blood Bonds 55 - Examplar 20 AP Increase Kibellah : Latex Goth GF - Howto Basics A very mobile unit that can soak quite a bit of attacks thanks to high dodge/parry/HP pool. Her damage are also very good as long as you give her a pair of blade that combo well with each other. The drukhari weapons have a lot of toys for that. Bladedancer is a very solid mobility/damage base for any dual wielding melee character. What makes the build completely nut though is the insane amount of Wound a character can acquire trough Blade Dancer/Executioner thanks to making them scale off medicae + medicae scaling off WS (!), and then comboing it with Reckless Abandon/Peak Condition to reach excellent, turn 1 ready amount of damages. The highly advertised feature of the new archetypes (Dots/Blood Stacks) are completely overshadowed by Death Warden/Anatomy Expert and all the crazy efficient scaling they unlocks. For this reason, i'm expecting this build to eventually be completely gutted by owlcat in a future patch, to the point of uselessness. GearHelm : Face of the Sovereign will carry you most of the game. Armour: Light. You wanna dodge. Weapons: A Pair of 1H swords. Many viable DE weapons. Special mention to Blackhaze Venom Blade / Virulent Slicer. Abilities Raining Blood Complete Gimmick. Like sure, you can spend the AP if you can spare it, but not worth the brain space and AP for a measly % damage increase. Compare to talents like cataclysm. Short version is any party member that moves into the blood receive stacking, temporary 2% damage buff. Enemies same to damage received. Blade Dance The main reason Bladedancer is so good even early game. Scale insanely well with AGI and two equipped swords. Late game, you'll be doing at the minimum 12 attacks per cast of this ability. Don't use this next to allies. Death from Above Excellent repositioning tool. Allow to get in the best position for blade dance. Do stupid amount of aoe damage on doted enemies. Blood Oath Next attack is autohit. Refund Hp, AP and attack slot if it kills the enemy. Excellent against trash and boss alike. Acrobatic Artistry An another excellent ability. Allows you to play very aggressive with the DCA and safely return behind cover for 1AP. The extra damage is a nice bonus lifting this ability from good to very good. Downright broken after Death Waltz. Where it Hurts Extra burst of damage instead of applying dots. For 0 AP Always consider it on enemies already doted. Reckless Abandon Possibly one of the best ability in the game. Recast it every time you run out of temporary wounds. It's free insane extra % damages. There is no real downsides to it. Pain Resonance You use it for the blind, not the damages. Combo very well with toxic weapons. Gift of Torment AP dump. Moderately boost your defences for a turn. Scale with toughness, so maybe get buffed first by your friendly biomancer. Captive Audience Jump into a pack of trash mobs. Captive Audience + Aoe melee on trash => Full cover from ranged. Fun, but still gimmicky. Terrifying Strike Battlefield control. For OAP it's fun, but not that useful. Oath of Vengeance Sound great on paper, but easy fights don't justify it's wound cost and in hard fights you'll want to save Kibellah HP pool. Overall situational. Can be taken much earlier on lower difficulty. Heroic Actions Death Waltz An Ult scaling directly with your Agi. Pretty good burst. Ofc less good than finest hour, but nonetheless one of the better ults. Combine with Acrobatic Artistry for maybe the highest single turn, no setup damage in the game. It will win boss fights for you in unfair. Carnival of Misery Very meh. Maaaaybe if you are running a pyro alongside Kibellah. Cassia: Purple Lane Shipgirl - BuildOverall the strongest standalone companion, but there is not a lot of varieties to her build : Navigator powers are too good to justify dipping more than the bare minimum in any other archetype. Grand strategist is the better 2nd tier archetype here. It allows her to take two turns at the beginning of every fight, buff the entire team with zones, and require 0 investment other than picking the archetype, making you free to focus on her navigator powers and talents. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Officer 1 Voice of Command 2 - Officer 2 Persuasion 3 - Officer 3 Bring it Down! 4 - Officer 4 Finest Hour!] Inspire Courage 5 - Officer 5 Willpower Mastery of Time 6 - Officer 6 No Respite Willpower 7 - Officer 7 Waking Nightmare Eye of Oblivion 8 - Officer 8 Ebb and Flow Awareness 9 - Officer 9 Finest Hour! (IV) 10 - Officer 10 Lore (Warp) Perception 11 - Officer 11 Undam the Sea of Souls Perception 12 - Officer 12 Zone of Fear OR Held in my Gaze Perilous Ways 13 - Officer 13 Blood Augury Lore (Warp) 14 - Officer 14 Fellowship Mind Over Matter 15 - Officer 15 Finest Hour! (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Grand Strategist 1 Combat Tactics 17 - Grand Strategist 2 Reveal the Light 18 - Grand Strategist 3 Strange Vitality 19 - Grand Strategist 4 Take and Hold 20 - Grand Strategist 5 Ap Increase Willpower 21 - Grand Strategist 6 Pass Unscathed Willpower 22 - Grand Strategist 7 Point of Curiosity 23 - Grand Strategist 8 Lore (Warp) Tonicity 24 - Grand Strategist 9 Perception Unnatural Allure 25 - Grand Strategist 10 Open to the Warp 26 - Grand Strategist 11 Perception Lore (Warp) 27 - Grand Strategist 12 Take and Hold (II) 28 - Grand Strategist 13 The Course Untravelled Intelligence 29 - Grand Strategist 14 Intelligence Awareness 30 - Grand Strategist 15 Notch of Purpose/Mend Reality 31 - Grand Strategist 16 CT: Willpower Stable Routes 32 - Grand Strategist 17 Awareness Intelligence 33 - Grand Strategist 18 Intelligence Guide of Souls 34 - Grand Strategist 19 It Will Not Die 35 - Grand Strategist 20 Take and Hold (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Malign Influence Steel Resolve 37 - Exemplar 2 Lore (Warp) Thread and Faults 38 - Exemplar 3 Willpower Under My Protection 39 - Exemplar 4 Warp Curse Unleashed Lore (Warp) 40 - Exemplar 5 Eager for Battle Fire at Will 41 - Exemplar 6 Willpower Iron Discipline 42 - Exemplar 7 Immolate the Soul Perception 43 - Exemplar 8 Point of Interest ? Swift Movements ? 44 - Exemplar 9 Awareness ? Cataclysm 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Commandiong Voice Awareness 47 - Exemplar 12 Blood of Martyrs Awareness 48 - Exemplar 13 Sniping Zone ? Perception 49 - Exemplar 14 Intelligence Lore (Imperium) ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Combat Meditation Decisive Response ? 51 - Exemplar 16 Personal Zone ? Lore (Imperium) ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Focus! ? CT: Perception ? 53 - Exemplar 18 Glimpse of Fate ? Intelligence 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire Physical Encouragement ? 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Cassia: Purple Lane Shipgirl - Howto BasicsThe core of Cassia gameplay is to stack Willpower early rounds level thanks to Mastery of time bumping it by 5 every time someone get an extra turn, and then aoeing the entire encounter to death. GearArmour : Light Infusing staff are meh unless you picked Reveal the light as your first power. Devastating Staff is how you get Cassia to deal even more absurds amount of damage. She Scale off Willpower and Perception. Abilities Voice of Command Give temp stat boost to the target and allow to cast Bring it Down on them even if they move out of range. Do not use on Argenta, other officers do it better. Bring it Down The best ability in the game. Priority target is a carry Lidless Stare Aoe Trash Mob cleaning. Can stun on lower difficulties. Waking Nightmare Aoe debuff that remogh toughness (hence even though it's technically not damage you are reducing ennemy HP) and make enemies more likely to fail WP resistance test. Also trigger other passives, such as armor reducing from Undam the Sea of Souls, etc... Zone of fear Move enemies out of cover and damage them Point of Curiosity Gravity pull. Cluster and damage the enemies Notch of Purpose Cannot be resisted. Pull an enemy out of cover so Argenta can Bring It Down! Reveal the Light Cast it on Argenta before she pop her first War Hymn/On anyone that scale of Willpower. Also work great on anyone in the team to bump their wound amount and trigger Cassia's passive buff to allies Frontline Put ennemies in there Backline Put your exposed teammates in there Rear Put ranged carry and navigator there Warp Curse Unleashed Cast on Boss/Elite as early as possible. Free extra dmg Mend Reality Prevent Inra/Henrix heads from exploding Immolate the Soul Lazor Heroic Actions Finest Hour! Cast on carry. Take and Hold. Not really usable. Encounters punish you for grouping up, yet this power want you to group your team AND enemies in a big brawl. At best marginally better than Finest Hour!, but require tremendous setup. Pasqal: Weather Hacker - BuildPasqal is a strong contender for best character in the game, outshining mercenaries and the Rogue Trader and fighting for top dog spot with Cassia. He can do every role but officer very well. The core reason he is so good is the all the unique goodies he get : - Unique plasma related talents ( Filtering Protocols) - Machine Spirit Communion for Argenta - Extra heal and perception talents - Operative - Int build and access to Calculated Relations can also make him an excellent skill monkey/party face. Several ways to build him : - Assassin (Highest dmg, low utility) - Bounty hunter (Damage, CC, Debuff, and stack very well with other bounty hunters) - Grand Strategist Pasqal, where he will act first instead of taking more extra turns with bounty hunter. This is the bounty hunter build. You can optionally bench Argenta and use the officer turns on Pascal instead, with roughly the same end result. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Operative 1 Analyse Enemies 2 - Operative 2 Tech-Use 3 - Operative 3 Expose Weakness 4 - Operative 4 Dismantling Attack Passive Learning 5 - Operative 5 Ballistic Skill Aiming Protocols 6 - Operative 6 Uncanny Sight Ballistic Skill 7 - Operative 7 Tactical Knowledge Tech-Use 8 - Operative 8 Improved Tactics Pinnacle of Weaponry 9 - Operative 9 Dismantling Attack (I) Logic 10 - Operative 10 Logic Intelligence 11 - Operative 11 Tide of Excellence Medicae 12 - Operative 12 Joint Analysis Filtering Protocolst 13 - Operative 13 Continuous Analysis Intelligence 14 - Operative 14 Perception It Will Not Die 15 - Operative 15 Dismantling Attack (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 Choice 3 16 - Bounty Hunter 1 Hunt Down the Prey 17 - Bounty Hunter 2 Claim the Bounty 18 - Bounty Hunter 3 Savour the Kill 19 - Bounty Hunter 4 Wild Hunt 20 - Bounty Hunter 5 Ap Increase Ballistic Skill Overcharge Protocols 21 - Bounty Hunter 6 Ballistic Skill Claim and Maim 22 - Bounty Hunter 7 Cull the Bold 23 - Bounty Hunter 8 Flay the Bold Tech-Use 24 - Bounty Hunter 9 Intelligence Plasma Weapon Expert 25 - Bounty Hunter 10 Share the Spoils 26 - Bounty Hunter 11Tech-Use Intelligence 27 - Bounty Hunter 12 Wild Hunt (II) 28 - Bounty Hunter 13 Heightened Concentration 29 - Bounty Hunter 14 Logic Perception 30 - Bounty Hunter 15 Machine Spirit Scan Protocols Ensnare the Prey 31 - Bounty Hunter 16 Hunter's Ambush 32 - Bounty Hunter 17 Perception Logic 33 - Bounty Hunter 18 Persistence of the Forge 34 - Bounty Hunter 19 Medicae Mechadendrite 35 - Bounty Hunter 20 Wild Hunt (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Extermination Fresh Target 37 - Exemplar 2 Tech-Use Pounce 38 - Exemplar 3 Ballistic Skill Scanner Mechadendrite 39 - Exemplar 4 Perfect Spot Tech-Use 40 - Exemplar 5 Cataclysm Critical Chain 41 Exemplar 6 Ballistic Skill Instant Exposure 42 - Exemplar 7 Piercing Shot Intelligence 43 - Exemplar 8 Pierce and Ruin CT: Ballistic Skill 44 - Exemplar 9 Logic Know-It-All 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Joint Offence Logic 47 - Exemplar 12 Comprehensive Analysis Medicae 48 - Exemplar 13 Cut to the Chase Intelligence 49 - Exemplar 14 Perception Medicae 50 - Exemplar 15 Pinpoint Accuracy Sharpshooter 51 - Exemplar 16 Gruesome Killy Medicae 52 - Exemplar 17 Ballistic Calculation CT: Intelligence 53 - Exemplar 18 Raid Perception 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire Kill Squad 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Pasqal: Weather Hacker - Howto Basics Gameplay changed trough the patches. On Easier encounters, just use pasqal as a ranged point and click carry. On Tougher one, use him to setup tactical knowledge. GearArmour: Medium Weapon: Plasma. Pasqal scale off Int, Ballistic Skill, Perception. Abilities Machine Spirit Communion First round, try to put Argenta and the dangerous ennemies with burst weapons within it. Then as needed. Analyse Enemies Cast it on the same isolated enemy, without attacking it, for several turns before casting Tactical Knowledge on it. Expose Weakness You enventually get it for free. Overall good AP dump when you want your team to kill a target. Machine Spirit Banishment Useful late game where target get 40%+ damage penalty for one round. Joint Analysis Next turn mean until Pasqal next round's natural activation. Amazing AP dump. Carry extremely hard early game. Tactical Knowledge Either cast it on a group of 3+ ennemies as often as possible or on an isolated target with 3+ stacks. Enemies need to be in line of sight for stacks to be consumed If properly setup, will make your team near immortal (Armor mitigation Cap at 90%) and Pasqal a damage god. If you survive any encounter long enough, Pasqal will win it for you. Hunt Down the Prey The ability that require the most brain of this whole guide. > The first way to use it is by marking preys one by one, using Pasqal to snipe them, and racking in the bonus for the kill. If only one target is marked, the bounty hunter heroic ability will deal tremendous damage to it. > After lvl 18, The second way to use it is to mark the preys and letting your allies kill them. You will get a free extra half AP turn immediatly after your ally turn. You cannot attack during those "half" turns, but you can use all your other abiltites, and use it to buff/generate more exploits and seting up a Tactical Knowledge bomb. Claim the Bounty One Free Attack per round. Cull the bold Repeatable anti-elite/boss combo that do not rely on accumulating stack of exploits. Designate the target as prey, then use a Cull the Bold + Attack from Pasqal on it. Then, Cast Raid and end your turn with Hot on the Trail. Let your party melt the target before it's your natural turn again. Perfect Spot If you have spare AP and wanna shoot from there/need to survive the next turn. Raid Bonus damage on preys by the party until Pasqal's next natural turn. Situational. Precise Attack Buff the next attack ignore cover. Medical Mechadendrite Heall an ally. Once per fight. Heroic Actions Dismantling Attack Situational, to create more tempo in a fight. Generate more Exploit stacks, cast on a boss to snare and cripple them (Hello Aurora) Wild Hunt Situational, to finish the fight faster. Mark as many prey as possible before using it or at lvl 35+ make sure you see only a single prey. Heinrix: Un Postiche? - BuildPsyker dodge tank. The build name is a reference to OSS 117 While Abelard is Hammer Time, Henrix is can't touch this. As you can see, I'm just as good with plays on word as Henrix. The build i've settled on is an Arch-Militant dodge tank. Arch militant will allow him to perform well if you decide to stack buff and extra turns on him, but it's main use is as a disruptor that enable your party to do their sheninagans. This build allow him to play the early game as a buffer/scrapper, and starting mid game act as an excellent melee unit able to do damage as well as tanking them. Do not over-expose him on higher difficulties though. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Warrior 1 Charge 2 - Warrior 2 Coercion 3 - Warrior 3 Endure 4 - Warrior 4 Daring Breach Defensive Manoeuvres 5 - Warrior 5 Psyker Minoris Agility 6 - Warrior 6 Shield of the Emperor Athletics 7 - Warrior 7 Agility Nimble 8 - Warrior 8 Athletics Thick Skin 9 - Warrior 9 Daring Breach (III) 10 - Warrior 10 Rigorous Training Weapon Skill 11 - Warrior 11 Taunting Scream Duelling Mastery 12 - Warrior 12 Weapon Skill Lore (Xenos) 13 - Warrior 13 Adrenaline Surge Lore (Xenos) 14 - Warrior 14 Strenght Psyker Majoris 15 - Warrior 15 Daring Breach (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Arch-Militant 1 Versatility 17 - Arch-Militant 2 Wildfire 18 - Arch-Militant 3 Always Ready 19 - Arch-Militant 4 Steady Superiority 20 - Arch-Militant 5 Ap Increase Agility 21 - Arch-Militant 6 Flashfire Agility 22 - Arch-Militant 7 Hammer of the Emperor Blade of Light 23 - Arch-Militant 8 Lore (Xenos) It Will Not Die 24 - Arch-Militant 9 Weapon Skill Psyker Terminus 25 - Arch-Militant 10 Accustomed to Glory 26 - Arch-Militant 11 Lore (Xenos) Weapon Skill 27 - Arch-Militant 12 Steady Superiority (IV) 28 - Arch-Militant 13 Athletics Ingenious 29 - Arch-Militant 14 Strenght Edge of Dawn 30 - Arch-Militant 15 Sword of Faith 31 - Arch-Militant 16 Dismantle 32 - Arch-Militant 17 Strenght Athletics 33 - Arch-Militant 18 Focal Point Toughness 34 - Arch-Militant 19 Toughness Psyker Extremis 35 - Arch-Militant 20 Steady Superiority (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Tricky Defence Psalm of Heroes 37 - Exemplar 2 Lore (Xenos) Sanctified Slayer 38 - Exemplar 3 Weapon Skill Hymn of Hatred 39 - Exemplar 4 Enfeeble Lore (Xenos) 40 - Exemplar 5 Critical Velocity Critical Versatility 41 - Exemplar 6 Weapon Skill Destined 42 - Exemplar 7 Warp Speed Toughness 43 - Exemplar 8 Dependable Combat Master 44 - Exemplar 9 Athletics Eager for Battle 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Eternal Glory Athletics 47 - Exemplar 12 Biophysical Distortion Awareness? 48 - Exemplar 13 Awaiting Orders Toughness 49 - Exemplar 14 Toughness Awareness? 50 - Exemplar 15 Flesh Wounds Strange Vitality 51 - Exemplar 16 Adaptability Awareness? 52 - Exemplar 17 Disarm Swift Movements 53 - Exemplar 18 Light of the Emperor? Toughness 54 - Exemplar 19 Lethal Threat Sanguine Siphon? 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Heinrix: Un Postiche? - Howto Basics Heinrix is a weird beast. Due to the way the difficulty works, he will struggle a bit in higher difficulty and be pretty much stuck as a buffbot that pickup the occasional melee threat, whereas in lower difficulty he'll jump in the thick of the melee and melt everyone's face. This build allows him to get Sword of Faith midgame (instead of Cautious Approach) as well as overall focusing on being a dodge tank. GearArmour: Light. You wanna dodge. Synskin. Weapons: Staff in one Set, Force Weapon/Watcher From Above (Janus) and pistol in the other. He really likes Helmet of the Devoted protector, until you replace it with Tactical Genius. Give him TGH/AGI/STR He scale well with Resolve too. Abilities Word of the Emperor Always cast this at the beginning of the battle, on the whole party. It will determine who receive your later buffs, and you want that to be everyone Iron arm Melee buff Charge Main use is the mobility. Small chip damage. Endure To be used when you know you are about to take heat Taunting scream Can easily fail in higher difficulty, and then higher difficulty enemies ignore more of Heinrix dodge/parry, so it's far less good in the difficulty where you would expect it to be far more useful. Enfeeble Enemies in the area dodge/parry less and take more damage from your whole party. Wildfire Extra attack. Shield of the Emperor Defense buff for the whole party until your next natural turn Hammer of the Emperor Offensive buff for the whole party until your next natural turn Sword of Faith Steal St Celestine Sword. Can do decent damages. Light of the Emperor Heal the party Heroic Actions Daring Breach Useful if only as a free taunt. Steady Superiority One more attack every turn. Combined with wildfire, that's 3 attack per turn, which will allows you to build versatility stack at a decent pace even without the officer's attention. Jae: Noble's Mistress - BuildMost people kind of ignored her at release, because she lacked Finest Hour (IV) back when it was one turning the game. Nevertheless, she is one of the two officers among the recruitable companions, and she can make good use of picking up Master Tactician. Despite never reaching the damage level of a carry, she is an excellent buffbot for them through the extra turns and inspire. Her dual pistol gear coupled with Fervour and Press the Advantage allow her to finish enemies in a pinch better than say, a Noble Officer Rogue Trader. If benching Pasqal, take Tech-Use as early and often as you can instead of the suggested skills. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Officer 1 Voice of Command 2 - Officer 2 Commerce 3 - Officer 3 Bring It Down! 4 - Officer 4 Finest Hour! Commanding Voice 5 - Officer 5 Fellowship Nimble 6 - Officer 6 Lasting Impression Fellowship 7 - Officer 7 Move, Move, Move! Swift Movements 8 - Officer 8 March Commerce 9 - Officer 9 Finest Hour! (I) 10 - Officer 10 Lore (Imperium) Ballistic Skill 11 - Officer 11 Leader's Assault Ballistic Skill 12 - Officer 12 Take Aim CT: Ballistic Skill 13 - Officer 13 Heroismt Lore Imperium 14 - Officer 14 Willpower CT: Fellowship 15 - Officer 15 Finest Hour! (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Master Tactician 1 Tactical Advantage Press the Advantage 17 - Master Tactician 2 Linchpin 18 - Master Tactician 3 Hidden Advantage 19 - Master Tactician 4 Orchestrated Firestorm 20 - Master Tactician 5 Ap Increase Ballistic Skill 21 - Master Tactician 6 Ballistic Skill Reliance 22 - Master Tactician 7 Inspire 23 - Master Tactician 8 Unwavering Motivation Medicae 24 - Master Tactician 9 Fellowship It Will Not Die 25 - Master Tactician 10 In the Hero's Footstep 26 - Master Tactician 11 Medicae Fellowship 27 - Master Tactician 12 Orchestrated Firestorm (II) 28 - Master Tactician 13 Undisputed Advantage 29 - Master Tactician 14 Medicae Agility 30 - Master Tactician 15 CT: Agility Fervour 31 - Master Tactician 16 Tactical Respite 32 - Master Tactician 17 Agility Medicae 33 - Master Tactician 18 Joint Offensive 34 - Master Tactician 19 Agility CT: Perception? 35 - Master Tactician 20 Orchestrated Firestorm (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Eager Subordinates Focus! 37 - Exemplar 2 Lore (Xenos) ? Logistical Superiority 38 - Exemplar 3 Ballistic Skill Ready to Serve 39 - Exemplar 4 Air of Authority Medicae ? 40 - Exemplar 5 Attention! Against All Odds 41 - Exemplar 6 Ballistic Skill Inspiring Speech 42 - Exemplar 7 Finish the Job Fellowship 43 - Exemplar 8 Perfect Finish Stronger Together? 44 - Exemplar 9 Medicae ? Firebrand 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Steel Resolve Carouse ? 47 - Exemplar 12 Steady!t? Carouse? 48 - Exemplar 13 Nerves of Steel/Heroic Inspiration (if MC officer) Fellowship 49 - Exemplar 14 Agility Carouse? 50 - Exemplar 15 Pinpoint Accuracy Watch Yourself 51 - Exemplar 16 Support the Advance Carouse? 52 - Exemplar 17 Suppressive Fire Base Skill: Medicae? 53 - Exemplar 18 Assign Objective Agility 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire Primary Objective 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Jae: Noble's Mistress - Howto BasicsShe plays very similar to the Rogue Trader: Noble officer build from this guide, and can even entirely replace it with some skills tweak if necessary. Basically nanny your carries with extra turns, use Linchpin to generate Tactical Advantage stacks and the next turn, use Inspire on the carry for stacking bonus damage on them until the end of the fight. She is significantly less good than the Noble officer as a buffbot due to a subotimal build given by owlcat, so instead she is a slightly less bad damage dealer. We pump her BS so that she can benefit from Duellist Uniform increased dodge. Outside of combat, she is a decent skill monkey, feel free to tweak her to cover anything your party need. GearArmour : Light, Ideally Duellist Uniform Weapons : A pair of pistols Your buffs scale off Fellowship and a bit from Willpower. Secondary stats are Agility, Ballistic Skill. Abilities Voice of Command Slap on your assign carry that need the stats / use it as extra reach for Bring it Down! Bring it Down The best ability in the game. Cast on your assigned carry. Move, Move, Move Reposition allies, Extra free turn. Take Aim! Situational. Cast it on a ranged DD to let it kill a target behind cover. Press the Advantage Situational. Useful to cast befor an attack to finish an oponent in a pinch, but remove stacks. Past level 28, ignore cover and Dodge Linchpin Cast it on the target that gonna get the most turn before your next turn (Usually Argenta or Pasqal). Do not cast it before && in the same turn as Inspire. Inspire Cast it the turn after a Linchpin target gave you lots of TA stacks. If You wanna cast Linchpin this turn, do not cast inspire or make sure you cast it beforehand. If you have a burst pistol, yourself is not a bad target. Fervour At the end of the first (and maybe second) turn to get early TA stacks. If you need a burst from Jae, can be comboed with Self-Inspire then Press the Advantage then attacking immediatly afterward. Air of Authority Slap to anyone that hasn't received it yet and that is gonna take the most turns. Finish the Job Free Attack that generate Tact stack thanks to Joint Offensive Assign Objective Cast on enemies an ally is gonna kill. Heroic Actions Finest Hour! The best heroic in the game. Not much worst than other officer's anymore. Give Temp wound instead of -1AP actions. Orchestrated Firestorm "On some longer fight where the whole team has high resolve, castable every turn if you haven't cast Finest Hour! Still situational, but she is the better user of it." Yrliet: Least Racist Eldar - BuildPlease Ownlcat let me saix the Elfu Waifu. Love Can Bloom on the battlefield. I promise I'll purge her later. Let's make Vulkan proud. Pretty straighfoward build and gameplay. For once, the default build provided by owlcat is not severly gimped by must-have talents missing. She is still much worst than a crime lord for the same gameplay. You have two specialisation choices : Bounty Hunter and Assassin. Bouty hunter overall I feel provide less value for a non-int, non caster operative, and Yrliet is a bit more dumb dumb than the like of Pasqal nor is she a psyker. Hence, we are gonna go assassin so that she double-down on what she does best : tons of damage in alpha strike. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Operative 1 Analyse Enemies 2 - Operative 2 Awareness 3 - Operative 3 Expose Weakness 4 - Operative 4 Dismantling Attack Sharpshooter 5 - Operative 5 Perception Nimble 6 - Operative 6 Ballistic Calculation Perception 7 - Operative 7 Precise Attack Awareness 8 - Operative 8 Fresh Target Swift Movement 9 - Operative 9 Dismantling Attack (III) Lore (Xenos) 10 - Operative 10 Lore (Xenos) Ballistic Skill 11 - Operative 11 Insightful Perception Medicae 12 - Operative 12 Perfect Spot Las Weapon Expert 13 - Operative 13 Comprehensive Analysis Ballistic Skill 14 - Operative 14 Intelligence Swift Sight 15 - Operative 15 Dismantling Attack (IV) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Assassin 1 Seek the Opening 17 - Assassin 2 Killing Edge 18 - Assassin 3 Deadly Calculation 19 - Assassin 4 Dispatch 20 - Assassin 5 Ap Increase Ballistic Skill 21 - Assassin 6 Perfect Opening Ballistic Skill 22 - Assassin 7 Lore (Xenos) Death Whipser 23 - Assassin 8 Carmine Whisper 24 - Assassin 9 Agility Prescient Sight 25 - Assassin 10 Lethality Heightens 26 - Assassin 11 Agility Lore (Xenos) 27 - Assassin 12 Dispatch (II) 28 - Assassin 13 Penetrating Sight Create an Opening 29 - Assassin 14 Agility Awareness 30 - Assassin 15 Elusive Shadow 31 - Assassin 16 CT: Ballisitc Skill Professional Acumen 32 - Assassin 17 Awareness 33 - Assassin 18 Elusive Speed Agility 34 - Assassin 19 CT: Agilityt 35 - Assassin 20 Dispatch (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Extermination Tide of Excellence 37 - Exemplar 2 Lore (Xenos) Killing Spree 38 - Exemplar 3 Ballistic Skill CT: Perception 39 - Exemplar 4 Tactical Knowledge Lore (Xenos) 40 - Exemplar 5 Masterful Precision An Eye for the Unscathed 41 - Exemplar 6 Ballistic Skill Uncanny Sight 42 - Exemplar 7 Poised to Strike Agility 43 - Exemplar 8 Flawless Lunge It Will Not Die 44 - Exemplar 9 Awareness ? Cataclysm 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Improved Tactics Awareness ? 47 - Exemplar 12 Instant Exposure Demolition ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Imminent Demise Agility 49 - Exemplar 14 Perception Demolition ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Criticial Velocity Sniper Expertise 51 - Exemplar 16 Outsmart Demolition ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Passive Learning Drukhari Weapon Proficiency ? 53 - Exemplar 18 Feinting Attack Perception 54 - Exemplar 19 Perfection Under Fire/Pinpoint Accuracy Reactive Study 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Yrliet: Least Racist Eldar - Howto Basics Sit and shoot. That's it really. When you compare her to an arch militant hypercarry, she snowball less (no versatility stacks), but she start at a much higher damage power level in her first activation. She is one of the few companions that will perform relatively better in higher difficulties due to having a lot of her damage scaling with %HP as well as her dodge reduction being overkill for lower difficulties. GearArmour: Light. You wanna dodge. Weapons: A big sniper rifle. She scale off AGI, PER, BS. Abilities In my Sight Anti-boss/Target in cover setup. Analyse Enemies AP dump Expose Weakness Situational, to let allies kill a boss Precise Attack Situational, anti cover Perfect Spot AP dump self buff, to use before you start shooting. Don't move afterward. Aim for the opening Situational. 1 Ap worth 10% of the HP of the target Killing Edge Pretty much replace your standard attack Death Whisper 0 Ap attack Elusive Shadow Repositioning Tool Tactical Knowledge Situational, most often high stack count allow for insta kill anyway. Use it rather on ennemy group Poised to Strike Anti-Boss Feinting Attack Grab Foes from cover Heroic Actions Dismantling Attack Not really worth it outside of the extra attack. Create more tempo in a fight by debuffing the target. Dispatch Big baddie finisher. This is your goto heroic. Ulfar: Space Yiff - BuildUlfar used to be a worst Argenta. Following massive nerfs to Argenta and insane buffs to Ulfar, Ulfar is now a worst Argenta. Joking aside, he doesn't compete for gear with her as much anymore, and contrary to the -4 Str SoB, he can achieve good tankyness and melee performance while still focusing the build on his ranged output. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Soldier 1 Run and Gun 2 - Soldier 2 Awareness 3 - Soldier 3 Revel in Slaughter 4 - Soldier 4 Firearm Mastery Unpredictable 5 - Soldier 5 Agility Rapid Reload 6 - Soldier 6 Agility Controlled Shot 7 - Soldier 7 Ballistic Skill Combat Master 8 - Soldier 8 Alacrity Awareness 9 - Soldier 9 Firearm Mastery (II) 10 - Soldier 10 Combat Medicae Ballistic Skill 11 - Soldier 11 Rapid Fire Demolition 12 - Soldier 12 Perception Duelling Mastery 13 - Soldier 13 Unfaltering Fire Demolition 14 - Soldier 14 It Will Not Die Demolition 15 - Soldier 15 Firearm Mastery (I) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Arch-Militant 1 Versatility 17 - Arch-Militant 2 Kick 18 - Arch-Militant 3 Martial Art 19 - Arch-Militant 4 Steady Superiority 20 - Arch-Militant 5 AP Increase Ballistic Skill 21 - Arch-Militant 6 Broad Expertise Ballistic Skill 22 - Arch-Militant 7 Wildfire CT: Ballistic Skill 23 - Arch-Militant 8 Demolition Always Ready 24 - Arch-Militant 9 Perception Bolt Weapon Expert 25 - Arch-Militant 10 Flashfire 26 - Arch-Militant 11 Demolition Perception 27 - Arch-Militant 12 Steady Superiority (IV) 28 - Arch-Militant 13 Carouse ? Accustomed to Glory 29 - Arch-Militant 14 Perception Brutal Hunter 30 - Arch-Militant 15 Devastating Attack 31 - Arch-Militant 16 Breaking Attack 32 - Arch-Militant 17 Toughness Carouse ? 33 - Arch-Militant 18 Dependable Toughness 34 - Arch-Militant 19 Toughness Tenacity 35 - Arch-Militant 20 Steady Superiority (III) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Exemplar 1 Extermination Swift Slaughter 37 - Exemplar 2 Carouse? Critical Versatility 38 - Exemplar 3 Ballistic Skill CT: Perception 39 - Exemplar 4 Entrench Carouse? 40 - Exemplar 5 Cataclysm Awaiting Orders 41 - Exemplar 6 Ballistic Skill Fired Up 42 - Exemplar 7 Confident Approach Perception 43 - Exemplar 8 Calm and Steady Swift Movements 44 - Exemplar 9 Carouse? Peak Condition 45 - Exemplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Exemplar 11 Muzzle Velocity Carouse? 47 - Exemplar 12 Rack and Ruin Awareness ? 48 - Exemplar 13 Contempt for the Weak Perception 49 - Exemplar 14 Toughness Awareness ? 50 - Exemplar 15 Flesh Wounds Lifetime of Scars 51 - Exemplar 16 Armsmaster Awareness ? 52 - Exemplar 17 Integrity Chain Weapon Expert? 53 - Exemplar 18 Reckless Rush Toughness 54 - Exemplar 19 Pinpoint Accuracy On the Double 55 - Exemplar 20 AP Increase Ulfar: Space Yiff - Howto BasicsUlfar takes four cases on the grid and can't decide whether he wants to be in melee or not. His gameplay is henceforth a less shooty Agenta that can tank asburd amount of damages and that prefer to kick enemies in melee once they have reached him rather than fleeing. As long as he can squeeze through, the basic sequence is to move to the enemy, kick it away, and then bolt burst it down. This will generate versatility stack fast while costing a minimal amount of AP and creating good battlefield control. This build doesn't profit as much from a dedicated officer and instead focus on being able to scrape by itself without support from the team. Peak Condition gives Ulfar stupid amount of strength when combined with high Toughness, and hence if you want to build him more melee, replace every perception levelup with a Weapon Skill one, although Arch Militant + Broad Expertise should still serve him decently on lower difficulties GearGive him whatever best space marine equipment you have. Keep in mind this build is optimized for Bolter Burst dps as well as 0 Ap kicks. Abilities Run and Gun As often as possible. Basically free extra attack every round. The malus and cooldown can instantly be reset by Revel in Slaughter. Revel in Slaughter Just after Run and gun to remove the winded debuff. After level 36, only need 2 kills. Controlled Shot Extremely situational. Never used it in my playthrough. Rapid Fire Before your must buffed burst fire of the round. make sure to have enough rounds in the bolter. Kick Build versatility stack for free/remove an enemy from melee. Use as often as possible. Wildfire Extra Attack. Devastating Attack CC tool. Boltguns are impact damage. Entrench Before popping run and gun. The next cast of Run and Gun will reset other soldier cooldowns, allowing 2 use of them per rounds. Confident Approach Situational, toggleable. Lose some melee defence, but allows you to go full crit and ignore cover. Reckless Rush Movement Tool Heroic Actions Firearm Mastery As early in the encounter as possible. Between level 19 and 27, if you have a High ROF bolter, Firearm Mastery is better than Steady Superiority but build versatility stack worst. Use both afterward. Steady Superiority As early in the encounter as possible. Between level 19 and 27, if you have a low ROF bolter, steady superiority is better than Firearm Mastery and build versatility stacks much better. Use both afterward Marazhai: Fujoshi bait - BuildJBR husbando. Marazhai come already near-fully prebuilt. The build kinda haphazardly execute the concept of a nimble melee assassin dancing trough the battlefield as a lone wolf. Sadly, the concept of a nimble melee assassin that don't want support is absolute garbage on higher difficulty. Let's face it though, if you like to have Marazhai in your party for "RP", you are not the kind of person playing on high difficulty anyway. This build henceforth take the necessary talents to be able to equip Dark Lance in secondary slot, and continue focusing on dashing around the battlefield to do half the damage an another character would do. Archetypes Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 1 - Warrior 1 Charge 2 - Warrior 2 Athletics 3 - Warrior 3 Endure 4 - Warrior 4 Daring Breach Defensive Manoeuvres 5 - Warrior 5 Rigorous Training Weapon Skill 6 - Warrior 6 Break Through Athletics 7 - Warrior 7 Weapon Skill Nimble 8 - Warrior 8 Carouse Blade Flurry 9 - Warrior 9 Daring Breach (I) 10 - Warrior 10 Desolation Agility 11 - Warrior 11 Reckless Strike Duelling Mastery 12 - Warrior 12 Agility Carouse 13 - Warrior 13 Contempt Coercion 14 - Warrior 14 Strenght Combat Master 15 - Warrior 15 Daring Breach (II) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 16 - Assassin 1 Seek the Opening 17 - Assassin 2 Danse Macabre 18 - Assassin 3 An Eye for the Unscathed 19 - Assassin 4 Dispatch 20 - Assassin 5 Ap Increase Ballistic Skill 21 - Assassin 6 Lone Killer Agility 22 - Assassin 7 Athletics Elusive Shadow 23 - Assassin 8 Seize the Advantage 24 - Assassin 9 Weapon Skill Dual Weapon Combat 25 - Assassin 10 Bringer of Doom 26 - Assassin 11 Weapon Skill Athletics 27 - Assassin 12 Dispatch (II) 28 - Assassin 13 CT: Agility Ambush 29 - Assassin 14 Perception Lore (Xenos) 30 - Assassin 15 Death Whisper 31 - Assassin 16 Heavy Weapon Proficiency Professional Acumen 32 - Assassin 17 Awareness ? 33 - Assassin 18 Elusive Speed Perception 34 - Assassin 19 Prey on the Weak 35 - Assassin 20 Dispatch (IV) Lvl Choice 1 Choice 2 36 - Examplar 1 Extermination Shearing Strikes 37 - Examplar 2 Awareness ? Killing Spree 38 - Examplar 3 Weapon Skill It Will Not Die 39 - Examplar 4 Sworn Enemy ? Awareness ? 40 - Examplar 5 Critical Velocity Morbid Pirouette 41 - Examplar 6 Weapon Skill Thick Skin 42 - Examplar 7 Killing Edge Agility 43 - Examplar 8 Lethality Heightens CT: Weapon Skill 44 - Examplar 9 Awareness ? Cataclysm/Tricky Defense 45 - Examplar 10 AP Increase 46 - Examplar 11 Reckless Fury Awareness ? 47 - Examplar 12 Living Shield Awareness ? 48 - Examplar 13 Carmine Whisper Agility 49 - Examplar 14 Perception Carouse ? 50 - Examplar 15 Cataclysm/Tricky Defense Ramming Speed 51 - Examplar 16 Esquive Carouse ? 52 - Examplar 17 Deadly Calculation Swift Movements 53 - Examplar 18 Feinting Attack Perception 54 - Examplar 19 Perfection Under Fire ? Cautious Disengage ? 55 - Examplar 20 AP Increase Marazhai: Fujoshi bait - Howto Basics A kinda mobile melee unit that cannot really take damage. The entire gameplan is to hide him as a low priority target using Elusive Shadow. Once it's your turn, pounce on group of mobs using Break Through, and then Danse Macabre trough the survivors before casting Elusive Shadow again, ideally from cover. A lot of AP spent and grid moved for in fine not much damage, but that's really how the character works. GearArmour: Light. You wanna dodge. Weapons: A pair of 1H melee weapon in the first slot, a Dark Lance/whatever you fancy in the second slot. Sadly, warriors do not get access to the ability to remove the dodge penalty on medium armour. (while soldiers do but neither Argenta nor Ulfar need it... WP Owlcat, great design) He scales of WS, AGI, PER. Abilities Joyful Torture Make sure you are always bleeding for stats buff, including +5 bs/ws per kill later on. Charge Mobility, chip damage. Break Through is better Endure AP dump if end of turn. If it's useful, it's because you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up beforehand. Break Trough Fun to use, horde cleaner. Reckless Strike Bigger Attack. Savescum bait. Danse Macabre Mobility, useful to chip enemy health too. Cross enemies to get better dodge against them. Aim for the opening Situational. Trade 1AP for a 10% raw damage on enemy if you attack it this turn Death Whisper 0 Ap attack Elusive Shadow Cast it as often as possible. If not active at the end of your turn, enemy will focus on you and kill you. Excellent synergy with professional Acumen. Sworn Enemy Not really useful, but you have to pick an another soldier ability when levelling up. Poised to Strike Anti-Boss Feinting Attack Is used as a variant of Aim for the Opening Killing Edge A stronger normal attack on already damaged enemies. More situational with Marazhai than Yrliet. Heroic Actions Daring Breach Can be entirely ignored Dispatch Big baddie finisher. Patchnote 2024-10-13 : Added Kibellah build 2024-10-18 : Psykautismo reworked into Operative => Executioner WoW Afflilock gameplay 2024-10-20 : Firefighter (Melee Arch-Militant Pyromancer) added. Future plans : Have a look at Cassia build order for taking Held in my gaze early (bigger utilty in unfair Act1/2 than movement skills) and replacing zone of fear with Notch of Purpose.

Companion break down and guide to creating strong teams for unfair that dont rely solely on buffs or multiple respecs as you play through the game. Updated for DLC 1, DLC 2 and Patch 1.5. Fully viable builds from prologue until end game. 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 can focus on enjoying the game. 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 OR being entirely reliant on buffers like some guides but something that will never require a respec with loot giving power spikes rather than coming online at ridiculous late levels or as said before, not being solely reliant on companion buffs like many creators do. 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/ The guide wont explain how to fully gear every companion at every stage in the game or their ability rotations or the best buff support but for those looking for guides on that this playlist will help: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrqfcSvSc1aUy6YKaBh-Yr27xSZlTQ3z_&si=Fklr4x8-ce003dqr This guide is based on the youtube channel of the author, Revan619: https://www.youtube.com/@Revan619/ 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: CharacteristicExplainationBenefitsWeapon SkillMelee hit, parry, critical chanceMelee focused archtypesBallistic SkillRanged hit, critical chance, recoil reductionRanged focused archtypesStrengthMelee damage, increase for 2hMelee focused archtypesToughnessWounds, physical resistenceAll / Tank ArchtypeAgilityInitiative, dodge, dodge reduction 1/2 meleeDodge focused archtypesIntelligenceArea damageOperative abilitiesPerceptionDodge reduction, InitiativeRanged focused / (All)WIllpowerMental resistance, some origin benefitsPsyker damage, Navigators / (All) , Priest OriginFellowshipResolveOfficer buffs, (All)Initiative1d10 + Agi Mod + 1/2 Per ModDetermines which initiative block allies and enemies will go into to take turns 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. Skill Recommended Companions (Pick 2 per member to min-max) Athletics (Str) Abelard, Heinrix, Ulfar, Marazhai, Kibellah Awareness (Per) Cassia, Pasqal, Idira, Yrliet, Argenta, Solomorne Carouse (Tgh) Abelard, Heinrix, Ulfar, Marazhai, Kibellah Coercion (Fel) Cassia, Jae, Solomorne* Commerce (Fel) Cassia, Jae Persuasion (Fel) Cassia, Jae Demolition (Agi) Argenta, Ulfar, Kibellah, Yrliet, Marazhai, Solomorne Logic (Int) Pasqal, Idira, Yrliet, Jae Lore (Imperium) (Int) Argenta, Idira, Jae, Yrliet Lore (Warp) (Int) Idira, Heinrix, Cassia* (navigator checks) Lore (Xenos) (Int) Heinrix, Jae, Idira, Yrliet, Marazhai Medicae (Int) Kibellah, Heinrix (1 pt for medicae kits) Tech-Use (Int) Pasqal, Idira, Yrliet, Jae 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 12 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: CompanionsRoleAbelardFrontline Damage / TankIdiraPsyker Support / Disruptor / BlasterArgentaRanged DamageCassiaNavigator Support / Disruptor / Secondary DamagePasqalDisruptor / Secondary Damage / Secondary SupportHeinrixPsyker Frontline Damage / Blaster / Secondary TankJaeSupport / Secondary Damage / Skill Monkey / Tank (with gear)YrlietSecondary Damage / DisruptorUlfarMixed DamageMarazhaiArmour / Dodge Tank - AoE Death AuraKibellahDodge-Tank Frontline DamageSolomorneCrowd Clearing & pet support I highly recommend you read the basics of each archetype for every companion as I will not be explaining mechanics that are overtly explained in game when you select the archetype.Mechanics tidbits How does burst fire work? This question should be more how does recoil work as burst fire is quite literally just auto hit attack that if the bullets on their trajectory path hits an enemy it always hits but that does not mean enemies cant dodge effectiveBS = (40 + BS/2 + accuracy bonuses - recoil (if 2nd+ shot) ), capped betwen 30 and 95 central_line_chance = effectiveBS/ 2, but no lower than 30 and no higher than 95/2 slight_deviation = effectiveBS - central_line_chance strong deviation = 100 - central - slight (or simply speaking the rest of the chance) code is in RuleCalculateScatterShotHitDirectionProbability if you want to check it yourself later central line trajectory probability can vary between 15% and 48%, with BS having half of the effect of Recoil per point. Slight caps at 95%, with the same tendencies. WIth in effective range How does area damage work? Area damage again seems like an auto hit but the way it works is even if the attack misses the damage still does half damage to enemies, however that does not mean enemies cant dodge the attack To note, burst and area are two very different damage types which will not stack range abilities like concentrated fire. Concentrated fire will not increase the damage of burst attacks. What is the psyker staff bug? Psyker powers are neither melee nor range with their damage being auto hit, undodable and being entirely on psy rating and sometimes willpower. There are even some buffs that will use other stats So what is the bug? Well psyker staff powers actually count as melee attacks. Will gain benefits from melee talents and abilities. Such as a pyromancy staff will gain damage increases from strength and reckless strike Whilst this benefit applies to all psyker staffs, some range talents or universal talents will also benefit but there is a drawback specifically for pyromancy inferno staff abilities. Enemies can parry this if your weapon skill is too low or dodge this attack if your perception is too low, this means especially for pyromancy you have to treat this ranged inferno power as essentially a normal melee weapon attack to make use of it. How does Initiative work? Initiative is 1d10 + agi mod + 1/2 per mod - however it gets a little clunky because they alternate initiative blocks. So if two allies get the same role and have the highest they both go first, then the next highest block of enemies, then back to allies then back to enemies. It essentially forces all your low agility characters to go dead last and can cause ally clumps at the back depending on how many enemy blocks there are. It gets even more borked by grand strategist creating new initiative blocks at the front and being pulled out of their own blocks then moving up enemies. Abelard Abelard is the first companion you meet in Rogue Trader that joins you in the prologue. Prior to patch 1.5 Abelard was a vanilla imperial world warrior that mechanically was entirely forgettable but was very precious to players from a story standpoint. Since the 1.5 patch drastically enhancing the Navy Officer origin, Abelard finally can match the memes to make an incredibly powerful frontline companion. Whilst you can build Abelard for the use of shields, they mostly only offer 2 deflection and add very limited stat based damage. Due to the use of fleet combat training that on successful critical attack or melee parry, Abelard is able to make an attack with his offhand weapon which makes it more valuable to be a high damage, high armour pen one handed weapon than a shield. The vicious solution reward from Eurac V in act 1 can also give Abelard +1 deflection at the cost of 10 agility which is a very small cost considering how initiative is calculated and that Abelard can build into perception for dodge reduction. Contrary to popular reddit belief, Vanguard is bottom 1 in terms of tier 1 archetypes, adding very little to the win condition of battles and mostly slowing down your turns. Stronger options for Abelard are dual wield Arch-Militant, Xenos Weapons Executioner or even Agility built Assassin. Vanguard is low armour, low damage, low mobility and low attack economy compared to all the other advanced archetypes and entirely reliant on beacon of might + malpain shroud is late combat turns to do anything effective. Fleet combat training in essence makes Vanguard obsolete as it can offer the counter attack strategy to the superior archetypes which dont get movement trapped after attacking like vanguard which in turn means they are a better candidate to receive finest hour from an officer companion. In act 1 the pneumo boots will allow Abelard to make 1 ap charge attacks. The Epiphany sword in act 2 will allow Abelard to make additional 1 ap charges on charge kill after the first to chain attacks. Malpain shroud in act 2 will allow you to turn temp hp into % damage from foulstone colony. Then the shop brought act 2 item invigorating resolve will allow any archetype to infinitely stack temp hp on resolve again, thus once again making vanguard kit not relevant. This sword setup with a strong offhand power maul or Axe will keep Abelard being a power house from start to end game. In act 4 you can easily upgrade to the void veteran boots which will allow Abelard to gain a 0 AP charge on melee kill to essentially solo every encounter with ease. You can secondary slot a two handed weapon early game then upgrade to a secondary rock saw from the mid game. Gameplay will mostly consist if using endure to tank the enemy attacks, reckless strike to guarentee a critical for an offhand attack then following the gameplan of your tier 2 archetype, in this scenario I am building Abelard as a Arch-Militant so will want to use wildfire to make area attacks to build versatility which will enhance both attacking and defence. Reckless rush will allow Abelard to not become movement trapped after attacking with daring breach combing another extra turn as well as MP generator. For visual reference, the first video was made during testing the 1.5 patch then the second was updated recently once more testing was allowed thus moving away from shields to pure dual weilding. Abelard Levels Warrior Level 1 : Charge Level 2 : Medicae Level 3 : Endure Level 4 : Daring Breach Thick Skin Level 5 : Hardened Scars Weapon Skill Level 6 : Taunting Scream Athletics Level 7 : Weapon Skill Fleet Combat Training Level 8 : Athletics Ramming Speed Level 9 : Daring Breach II Level 10 : Impetus Toughness Level 11 : Reckless Strike Get off me! Level 12 : Toughness Carouse Level 13 : Reckless Fury Carouse Level 14 : Perception Dual-Weapon Combat Level 15 : Daring Breach IV Arch-Militant Level 16 : Versatility Level 17 : Wildfire Level 18 : Always Ready Level 19 : Steady Superiority Level 20 : AP +1 Weapon Skill Level 21 : Dependable Weapon Skill Level 22 : Reckless Rush Melee Weapon Specialist / Instant Retribution Level 23 : Athletics Allout Level 24 : Toughness Dual-Weapon Specialist / Shield Mastery Level 25 : Flashfire Level 26 : Athletics Toughness Level 27 : Steady Superiority IV Level 28 : Carouse Adaptability Level 29 : Perception Stentorian Voice Level 30 : Kick Level 31 : Martial Art Level 32 : Perception Carouse Level 33 : Critical Versatility Perception Level 34 : Strength Power Armour Proficiency Level 35 : Steady Superiority II Exemplar Level 36 : Eagar for battle Easy Target Level 37 : Athletics Contempt for the weak Level 38 : Weapon Skill It Will Not Die Level 39 : Forceful Strike Athletics Level 40 : Degraded Defence Focal Point Level 41 : Weapon Skill Crowd Kill Level 42 : Devastating Attack Toughness Level 43 : Breaking Attack Power Weapon Specialist Level 44 : Carouse Destroyer Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Open Engagement Carouse Level 47 : Desolation Medicae Level 48 : Exploit Weakness Toughness Level 49 : Strength / Agility Medicae Level 50 : Peak Condition Contempt Level 51 : Distract Medicae Level 52 : Preferred Targets Know No Heresy Level 53 : Sworn Enemy / Break Through Strength Level 54 : Extermination Accustomed to Glory Level 55 : AP +1 Abelard Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm The Guardian Crown / Tactical Genius / Retinal Analyser Armour Invincible Onslaught Armour / Sanguine Judgement / Adherent of Mankind Cloak Malpain Shroud / Swashbuckler Cloak Neck Invigorating Resolve / Solid Shield Enarmes / Bonebreaker Neck Accessory 1 Empyrean Transceiver / Sturdy Shield Straps / Bead of Might Accessory 2 Peculiar Trinket / Hellbrute Horn Trophy / Bead of Might Gloves Adaptive Gloves / Relish Anguish / Metal Claw Gloves Boots Pneumo Boots / Void Veteran Boots / Enforcer's Light Boots Weapon Set 1 (Main) CoffinMaker's Sledge / Heavy Maul / Auto-Striking Power Sword / Bonebreaker Weapon Set 1 (Off/Shield) Tearing Vengeance / Advanced Shield / Defender / Kinesiostatic Shield Weapon Set 2 Carnage / CoffinMaker's Sledge / Well-Maintained Rock Saw Weapon Set 2 (Off) Tearing Vengeance Idira Idira is an unsactioned psyker and as such has an always on chance to accidentally explode, die and take out the party with her whilst summoning a daemon from the prologue. That is right, the patch that said they fixed this was a lie. Even worse, sanctioned psykers like Heinrix or the Rogue Trader not only can only have these peril chances at 15+ veil degradation but can mitigate the perils to enemies with psyber raven ability warp buffer. Idira however cannot pass daemon incursions thus making her a terrible choice for the shimmering emulsion injection. With that in mind from changing from 1.4 to 1.5 I have moved Idira away from being a buffing companion as she is more likely to kill your team than help. So in the early game she is built as an operative sniper which will progress into a psyker power focused damage dealer in the mid game but keep in mind the more Idira increases her psy rating, the more likely she is to explode and die. BALLISTIC SKILL IS NOT WASTED ON IDIRA. READ PSYCHIC BARRAGE. The above is in caps because in the last year I have received over 200 messages accross various platforms from people that dont read what the talents do then point out this skill investment, telling me I am building this companion wrong by wasting stat points on ballistic skill, despite even directly mentioning using Idira early game with the longlas as a sniper which can also be progressed into various other useful snipers if you want to continue this path. Since launch there has been a psyker staff power bug. Psyker staff powers actually count as melee attacks. IE wrath of the emperor from a sanctic staff or Inferno from a pyromancy staff are melee attacks. Specifically Inferno can be dodged and parried as if it were a melee attack. However Biomancy and Sanctic staff powers cant be dodged and parried. All psyker staff power attacks will gain benefit from melee talents and abilities on warrior and blade dancer. Universal talents like ballistic calculations from operative and 'rack and ruin' from soldier will also apply. Interestingly the pain bond feature of psyber raven when it retransmits damage to enemies will reapply damage multipliers such as weak hearts and degraded defence which can easily turn a 2k damage psyker power into a retransmitted 10k extra damage power. This makes overseer the best Tier 2 for Idira. Strategic adaptation can also increase her attack economy on kill as well as allow AoE buffs (though im not specifically building for them) and the heroic will allow AoE single target attack spells using the psyber Raven's willpower. Early level gameplay will be using longlas, cruel fate in act 2 is an amazing Sniper for Idira, mid level gameplay will be using the psyber raven skill to link 3 enemies followed by a staff or psyker power for damage which by end game will suddenly get some obscene damage multipliers. Gear like spirit drape will be less valuable to a damage focused Idira but you could always drop sanctic powers to build into biomancy but keep in mind the more powers you use, the more likely Idira is to explode. Alternatively you can also build Idira for arc rifles. Idira levels Operative Level 1 : Analyse Enemies Level 2 : Awareness Level 3 : Expose Weakness Level 4 : Dismantling Attack Uncanny Sight Level 5 : Ballistic Skill Second Sight Level 6 : Tide of Excellence Ballistic Skill Level 7 : Pyromancy Medicae / Lore Warp Level 8 : Pain Channelling Thriving in Peril Level 9 : Dismantling Attack III Awareness / Lore Warp Level 10 : Lore Xenos Perception Level 11 : Ballistics Calculation Lore Xenos Level 12 : Sensory Deprivation Psyker Minoris Level 13 : Backdraft Perception Level 14 : Intelligence Psychic Barrage Level 15 : Dismantling II / IV Overseer Level 16 : Psyber-Raven Proficiency Level 17 : Strategic Adaptation Level 18 : Warp Buffer Level 19 : Overcharge Level 20 : AP +1 Willpower Level 21 : Psyker Majoris Willpower Level 22 : Sanctic Powers Awareness / Lore Warp Level 23 : Sacrificial Penance Level 24 : Perception Fire Within Level 25 : Rite of Calibration Level 26 : Perception Awareness / Lore Warp Level 27 : Overcharge II Level 28 : Psy-Resonator Subtle Manipulation Level 29 : Intelligence Lore Xenos Level 30 : Psychic Assault Level 31 : Castigating Echoes Psyker Terminus Level 32 : Intelligence Lore Xenos Level 33 : Enhanced Augmetics Level 34 : Weak Hearts Level 35 : Overcharge I Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle * Fresh Target Level 37 : Awareness / Lore Warp Impure Force Level 38 : Willpower Grenadier Level 39 : Prescience Awareness / Lore Warp Level 40 : Degraded Defence Psyker Extremis Level 41 : Willpower Continuous Analysis Level 42 : Mind Rupture Perception Level 43 : Fatebringer Melting Armour Level 44 : Lore Xenos Extermination * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Passive Learning Lore Xenos Level 47 : Comprehensive Analysis Medicae / Lore Warp Level 48 : Psalms of Heroes Perception Level 49 : Intelligence Medicae / Lore Warp Level 50 : Malign Influence Edge of Dawn Level 51 : Brother-in-Arms Medicae Level 52 : Weak Body, Weak Soul Mind Siege Level 53 : Complete the Cycle Intelligence Level 54 : Cataclysm Eternal Glory Level 55 : AP +1 Idira Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Ghost Helm / Cultist Hood / Ethereal Visor / Dark Visionary Hood Armour Psychic Bodyglove Cloak Psychic Cape / Singed Cape / Xeno Emitter Neck Vortex Pendant / StarMist Scarf Accessory 1 Warp Surge Brooch / Metronome / Grimoire of the Void Accessory 2 Experimental Psy-Amplifier / Chains of Domination Gloves Warp Conductor Gloves Boots Psyker's Footwear / Boots of Decay / Battle Psyker's Boots Weapon Set 1 Detachment from Death / Staff of Mindsight Weapon Set 2 Sanctified Staff / Solar Staff / Staff of the Righteous Pyre Pet Blessing of the Immaterium / Synergy / Grave Chill Argenta Due to the 1.5 priest rework, the unique Corruption Eradicator Helmet and One star power Armour. Argenta is the top ranged damage companion. No, a fortress world Rogue Trader, will not out compete Argenta for damage as a heavy gunner because they simply do not have access to her unique gear. If you really want to also be a soldier priest then it is better to build for regular bolters whilst letting Argenta keep the big guns or build a heretic fortress world priest for heavy guns to double up so you will be a great Luigi to her Mario but you are still going to want to give Argenta the best rate of fire gear in terms of compensator gloves and the tactical backpack. The MC using artificer power armour will however be more AP efficient for burst attacks. The first thing you need to do with Argenta in the prologue is to put the unfading valor in the bin, it has 40 recoil, give Argenta even a scrap autogun or lasgun if the Rogue Trader is a soldier, then Argenta will be online from the prologue. Previously in 1.4 I had built into early shotguns for Argenta and whilst they remain Argenta's best secondary option, with the changes in 1.5 to priest you want to build for rapid fire bolters ASAP. Get litany of hatred online then tenets of retribution, give Argenta the modified bolter from the bunker act 1 vendor then watch her trivialise the entire game on unfair difficulty. It is unfortunately that simple. Cassia + Argenta = Easy Game. I have redesigned the build so that heavy bolter Argenta will be online from level 21 so you will likely change from the imperial pride bolter to the act 2 heavy bolter at this point. Breaking point at level 22 and overpower at level 24 will give a really huge damage spike but even from level 22, Argenta from a bring it down self buffing with litany of hatred can heavy bolter rapid fire one burst the daemon engine on the derelict voidship. Whilst I have allowed a level path at 29 to swap to heavy flamers you can easily keep to shotguns for the entire game as a secondary to build versatility for Argenta. Whilst Argenta cannot succeed lore imperium checks on unfair, the reason I have added it as an option is for damage min-maxers that want to use saint congnacious' scriptures as a damage item on Argenta for when they turbo buff with Officer, Navigator, Psyker and Master Tactician. Whilst a single officer grand strategist can allow Argenta to one burst the act 4 Changer of Ways boss on unfair, having extra buffers will make for more impressive reddit screenshots. Argenta Levels Soldier Level 1 : Run and Gun Level 2 : Demolition Level 3 : Revel in Slaughter Level 4 : Firearm Mastery Muzzle Velocity Level 5 : Ballistic Skill Rapid Reload Level 6 : Ballistic Skill Rapid Fire Level 7 : Agility Litany of Hatred Level 8 : Unfaltering Fire Demolition Level 9 : Firearm Mastery II Level 10 : Fired Up Agility Level 11 : Concentrated Fire Awareness / Lore Imperium Level 12 : Strength Tenets of Retribution Level 13 : Swift Slaughter Bolt Weapon Expert Level 14 : Heavy Weapon Proficiency Awareness / Lore Imperium Level 15 : Firearm Mastery III Arch-Militant Level 16 : Versatility Level 17 : Wild Fire Level 18 : Always Ready Level 19 : Steady Superiority Level 20 : AP +1 Ballistic Skill Level 21 : Heavy Gunner Ballistic Skill Level 22 : Reckless Rush Breaking Point Level 23 : Demolition All out Level 24 : Agility Overpower Level 25 : Flashfire Level 26 : Demolition Agility Level 27 : Steady Superiority IV Level 28 : Awareness / Lore Imperium Adaptability Level 29 : Perception Flame Weapon Expert / Stronger Together Level 30 : Devastating Attack Level 31 : Breaking Attack Level 32 : Perception Awareness / Lore Imperium Level 33 : Critical Versatility Perception Level 34 : Perception Litany of Purification Level 35 : Steady Superiority II Exemplar Level 36 : Eagar for Battle Rack and Ruin Level 37 : Demolition Distract Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Grenadier Level 39 : Entrench Demolition Level 40 : Degraded Defence Preferred targets Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Demolition Engineer Level 42 : Kick Perception Level 43 : Ingenious Know No Heresy Level 44 : Awareness / Lore Imperium Deadly Aim * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Point Blank Awareness / Lore Imperium Level 47 : Enough Bullets for everyone Medicae / Awareness Level 48 : Exploit Weakness Perception Level 49 : Agility Medicae / Awareness Level 50 : Extermination * Tenderise / Integrity Level 51 : Contempt for the weak Medicae / Awareness Level 52 : Dismantle Stronger Together / Swift Movements Level 53 : Controlled Shot Agility Level 54 : Pinpoint Accuracy / Masterful Display Accustomed to Glory Level 55 : AP +1 Argenta Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Corruption Eradicator Helm / Gunslinger's Helm Armour One Star Power Armour / Adherent of Mankind Cloak Aquila Pendant / Dog Tags / Fury Incarnate / Focus Incense / Ruby Splash Neck Blessed Bolter Casing Accessory 1 Chains of Domination / Demolition Instructions / Echo of Victory Accessory 2 Bead of Might / Book of War Prayers / Saint Cognatius Scriptures Gloves Compensator Gloves / Marksman Bracers / Gloves of Rapid Desolation Boots Caligae of Saint Keefe / Sororitas Boots / Inertia Boots Weapon Set 1 Improved Heavy Bolter Weapon Set 2 Judex / Fiery Retribution / Purging Fury / Double-Barrelled Shotgun Cassia Cassia is unironically a win condition. There is no doubt that officer grand strategist is the strongest, top 1, support option in the game. Even more so with Cassia having unique Navigator buff, debuff and damage options. Whilst you could build Cassia to be trash killer for easy finest hour generation with sororitas boots or go heavy debuff with castigation staffs, I found even on unfair difficulty all you really need is decsisive response, infusing staff and reveal the light to make Cassia trivilise the game. My build goes for zone of fear at level 12 into point of curiosity at level 17 but you could easily change to held in my gaze at level 12 then go for waking nightmare at level 17 then grab warp curse later in grand strategist. It is up to you. The game plan for cassia, point the best companion carry to clear the encounter, give them voice of command, reveal the light from an infusing staff then get bring it down to start pumping damage. If your duo does enough you can probably generate a finest hour for another extra turn. From act 2 footfall you will have access to devestating staffs, sororitasa boots and stimms to allow for incredibly easy 1 turn setups. Killing 5 enemies with two lidless stares is pretty easy to get a finest hour from sororitas boots. If you plan to do this strategy a lot then you will want to take blood augury earlier, especially if you go for held in my gaze at level 12. Grand strategist can seem like a complicated tier 2 but learning how the zones work is vital. Improvised strategy giving you a random stratagem can completely change the flow of combat. Whilst I dont build heavily into stratagems for cassia, on a non cassia grand strategist I do and it is very strong. Mend reality is a great AOE party buff if you are holding your infusing staff. Cassia will mostly want to build Willpower, Perception and fellowship with a little bit of overflow into intelligence. The most important skill for cassia is persuasion to use with the black signet ring of the inquisition. Inquisitors tenet ability from the end of act 2 to act 5 makes the game difficulty evaporate. Cassia is also shockingly tanky as well as very nimble. Not having Cassia in the party is the first requirement for any challenge run. Cassia Levels Officer Level 1 : Voice Of Command Level 2 : Persuasion Level 3 : Bring it Down ! Level 4 : Finest Hour Lasting Impression Level 5 : Willpower Mastery of Time Level 6 : Decisive Response Willpower Level 7 : Reveal the light Eye of Oblivion Level 8 : Focus Persuasion Level 9 : Finest Hour IV Level 10 : Lore Warp / Awareness Perception Level 11 : Mind over Matter Perception Level 12 : Zone of Fear Strange Vitality Level 13 : Undam The Sea of Souls Lore Warp / Awareness Level 14 : Fellowship Pass Unscathed Level 15 : Finest Hour I Grand Strategist Level 16 : Combat Tactics Level 17 : Point of Curiosity Level 18 : Improvised Strategy Level 19 : Take and Hold Level 20 : AP +1 Willpower Level 21 : Personal Combat Zone / Fire at Will Willpower Level 22 : Held In my Gaze Level 23 : Lore Warp / Awareness Unnatural Allure Level 24 : Perception Blood Augury Level 25 : Veil of Protection / Ebb and Flow Level 26 : Perception Lore Warp / Awareness Level 27 : Take and Hold IV Level 28 : Guide of Souls Fellowship Level 29 : Fellowship Persuasion Level 30 : Mend Reality Level 31 : Stable Routes The Course Untravelled Level 32 : Persuasion Intelligence Level 33 : Intelligence Threads and Faults Level 34 : Characteristic Training: Int / Veil of Protection Level 35 : Take and Hold III Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle Be Vigilant! Level 37 : Lore Warp / Awareness Fire at Will / Tonicity Level 38 : Willpower Grenadier Level 39 : Air of authority Lore Warp / Awareness Level 40 : Firebrand Tonicity / Fire at Will Level 41 : Willpower Inspiring speech Level 42 : Combat Locust Perception Level 43 : Blurred Locus Open to the warp Level 44 : Persuasion Eager Subordinates Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Seize the Initiative Persuasion Level 47 : Steel Resolve Lore Warp / Awareness Level 48 : Strategic Offensive Perception Level 49 : Fellowship Lore Warp / Awareness Level 50 : Degraded Defence No Respite Level 51 : Personal Zone Awareness / Lore Warp Level 52 : Personal Oversight Characteristic Training Will Level 53 : Blitz Statagem Fellowship Level 54 : Combat Meditation Physical Encouragement Level 55 : AP +1 Cassia Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Commander's Monocle Armour Slick Bodyglove Cloak Cloaking Field Emitter / Mercy's Gift / Cloak of Mercy Neck Medal of Alacrity / Daemon Tool / Aquila Pendant Accessory 1 Black Signet of the Inquisition Accessory 2 Precinct Vox Relay / Commander's Notes Gloves Noble Silk Gloves / Thrice Pioneers Bracers / Grenadier's Gloves Boots Sororitas Boots / Adrenaline Warboots Weapon Set 1 Warp Guide Staff / Astronomican Regalia Weapon Set 2 Red Crystal Staff / Staff of Orsellio Novator Pasqal Pasqal is a very unique support companion. Whilst as of patch 1.5, Operative has still not recovered from the launch nerfs, making it the bottom 1 tier 1 archetype. Operatives are low impact in terms of damage, support and attack economy. There is no amount of coping that will change my mind that at level 55 with 100+ intelligence that the most this archetype can do is add 3% crit chance to the party with joint offensive or add +10 damage to ally attacks via joint analysis. Single shot type attacks have low support with at most the operative can add 15% via ballistics calculations when enemies are 5+ cells away AND have to have an exploit on them when exploits do not activate on extra turns. Even worse burst and area attacks are bugged for operatives, do not consume exploits thus cannot proc tide of excellence. So what is the good news? 1.5 gave us 5 new plasma gun talents which work exceptionally well with Pasqal's unique tech priest origin and specifically overcharge protocols. This means Pasqal is a unique operative that can support the party with remove enemy dodge/armour, add a small increases to their base damage but also slowly ramp up some very strong damage. However it will never compete with a burst or area build soldier but it doesnt quite need to. Bounty hunter is by far the best tier 2 for Pasqal. Grand strategist is not all that worthwhile for an operative, Assassin is the second weakest T2 archetype being entirely reliant on notes on weakness from act 4 to deal any damage (or the death aura build you will see on marazhai later) and Pasqal does not have the attack economy to make an effective Executioner. On paper Bounty Hunter should be stronger than arch-militant, it gains a lot of damage from attacks, generates a lot of ap, turbo stacks armour piercing and generates extra attacks when killing elite enemies. So why doesnt it out perform Arch-Militant? Well operative being far weaker than Warrior, Soldier or Bladedancer is one reason, the other being there are not that many elite enemies to use most of the bounty hunter kit on. You often wont kill enough high tier enemies to activate expert finesse and excess armour penetration does quite literally nothing. If you have 120% armour penetration but enemies only have 10% armour then that extra 110% does nothing. This is why melta guns are so worthless. The better news is overcharge protocols keeps winning. Everytime Pasqal interacts with a plasma gun he gains 10% damage. This includes shooting and RELOADING. With the new talents for 0 ap reloads on the rifles every shot then reload will generate damage. Whilst area attacks cannot consume exploits for talents like tide of excellence, they can still game the damage increase, so abusing area attacks on operatives for damage increases is very viable. Pasqal's machine spirit communion can also be upgraded to AoE spread exploits on extra turns. Then the final cherry on the cake is when you use claim the bounty, reload using the extra attack talent for plasma weapons, Pasqal can make a second claim the bounty attack as well as then make a normal attack. Even potentially use hunter's ambush with either self calibrating goggles or lidless strare stun to generate another attack with potential activation of deathdealer or expert finesse with reloads between all of the previous, giving Pasqal a lot of damage boosts. On top of this Pasqal will also want to engage in normal operative gameplay of using analyse enemies on high tier enemies with expose weakness to reduce their dodge and armour for the party to kill. The first video was from 1.5 launch with the updated video being after discovering the plasma gun exploits. Pasqal Levels Operative Level 1 : Analyse Enemies Level 2 : Tech-Use Level 3 : Expose Weakness Level 4 : Dismantling Passive learning Level 5 : Ballistic Skill Scanner Mechadendrite Level 6 : Uncanny Sight Intelligence Level 7 : Joint Analysis Tech-Use Level 8 : Tide of Excellence Aiming Protocols Level 9 : Dismantling III Medicae Level 10 : Logic Perception Level 11 : Ballistic Calculations / Sharpshooter Logic Level 12 : Perfect Spot External Power Block Level 13 : Sniper Expertise Perception Level 14 : Intelligence Plasma Bank Level 15 : Dismantling II Bounty Hunter Level 16 : Hunt Down The Prey Level 17 : Claim the Bounty Level 18 : Hunter's Ambush Level 19 : Wild Hunt Level 20 : AP +1 - Ballistic Skill Overcharge Protocols Level 21 : Ballistic Skill Hunting Surge Level 22 : Cull the bold Level 23 : Flay the bold Tech-Use Level 24 : Intelligence Safety Training Level 25 : Heightened Concentration Level 26 : Tech-Use Intelligence Level 27 : Wild Hunt II Level 28 : Savour the kill Level 29 : Logic Perception Level 30 : Filtering Protocols Hot on the trail Level 31 : Trail and Shatter Level 32 : Perception Logic Level 33 : Expert Finesse Level 34 : Pinnacle of Weaponry / Machine Spirit Scan Protocols Level 35 : Wild Hunt III Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle * Fresh Target Level 37 : Tech-Use Share the Spoils Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Grenadier Level 39 : Tactical Knowledge Tech-Use Level 40 : Degraded Defence Inspiring Trophy Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Improved Tactics Level 42 : Piercing Shot Intelligence Level 43 : Pierce and Ruin Enhanced Splash Area Level 44 : Logic Deathdealer * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Combat Insight Logic Level 47 : Sharpshooter / Ballistic Calculations Awareness Level 48 : Pierce the Armour Intelligence Level 49 : Perception Awareness Level 50 : Deadly Aim / Extermination Weak Body, Weak Soul Level 51 : Gruesome Kill Awareness Level 52 : Comprehensive Analysis Machine Spirit Scan Protocols Level 53 : Precise Attack Perception Level 54 : Extermination / Masterful Display Insightful Precision Level 55 : AP +1 Pasqal Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Self-Calibrating Goggles / Self-Calibrating Helm / Enhanced Data-Tether Mask Armour [Hive World] Voidsman Armour / Adaptive Flak Vest / Skitarii Ranger Armour Cloak Shadowguide Cloak / Cape of Righteous Fury / Zealot Cloak / Von Valancius Cloak (might be a bug not being RT restricted) Neck Synaptic Coagulator / Warlord's Amulet / Hypnotising Pendant Accessory 1 Long-Range Aim Lens / Untuning Combi-tool Accessory 2 Prey Scanner / Vid-Capture Relay / Untuning Combi-tool Gloves Plasmashaper Gloves / Overcharge Gloves Boots Sharpshooter Boots / Tracking Boots Weapon Set 1 Omnissiah's Providence Weapon Set 2 Ragefire Plasma Gun / Ancient Plasma Rifle / Incandescent Storm Heinrix Prior to patch 1.5, Heinrix was just a straight combat upgrade to Abelard. He did everything better and would just replace the same role. At the start of 1.5 I looked to change Heinrix to be a defensive paladin style bufer for the party which was very fun and effective. However, the developers then fixed shearing strikes with rigorous training opening the doorway to the most fun Heinrix build, a dual weild executioner with a secondary staff ranged option. Remember in the Idira section where I mentioned psyker staffs are bugged and count as melee attacks? This means to make a GISH build you just make a melee build then give them a psyker staff in their secondary. Yes Heinrix can add agility to damage on a pyromancy staff, use reckless strike on it and even use WHERE IT HURTS from executioner to extra proc dot damage. Early game you build heinrix for break through and shearing strikes with offhand veilrender to really stack up early game damage. Focusing on biomancy buffs early as Heinrix really benefits from shimmering emulsion injection to have 3 psy rating in act 1. Executioner is without a double the strongest tier 2 for Heinrix and shearing strikes with inertia boots from footfall act 2 will allow Heinrix to have obscene attack economy and MP generation. Due to the change in carnival of misery no longer allowing for map wide inflame procs I do not even build Heinrix for self ignite until act 3. Focusing mostly on bieng a dual weapon fighter using pyromancy staff for range attacks. By act 4 I pick up heavy armour solely for Psyker's Breastplate to be able to stack psy rating. Heinrix has a lot of powerful gear options that come his way, in the early game you will need medicae gear as heinrix cannot stack medicae like a bladedancer. So mechanicus respirator and Diagnostor are a must in act 2. Offhand Veilrender will carry Heinrix all the way until you get access to two warp fire force swords. Initially you will primary hand cursebringer but once you get Incinerator this will become your new primary with cursebringer changing to your offhand. Warp surge brooch in act 2 will give psy rating attack economy turn 1 which is another huge upgrade and spirit drape will allow for 0 ap buffs turn 1 making Heinrix incredibly potent in act 2. By act 4 when you can secondary rock saws or higher tier pyromancy staffs, nothing can stop him. You can choose to stick with inertia boots from act 2 until end game or if you really want to deprive Abelard you can take the void veteran boots and Well-maintained rocksaw. From act 3 when you have body of flames you can ignite yourself and warp surge brooch will keep your attack economy fine to map clear. As your pyromancy staff counts as a melee attack this will generate a lot of MP from inertia boots, you will tend to save where it hurts for your inferno casts as it has a lot of multiple hits. Hand of avolius will be great to have multiple bleed procs, dogmatic 2 will add more fire procs and biophysical distortion will add your toxin dots. Level 28 if you really want to hyper attack focus you can change for fire within. Racking weakness with multiple sources of armour strip will be your highest damage increase and you will want to apply any combat buffs to intelligence to really up this damage. The first video showcases the 1.5 launch overseer paladin build with the updated video being after the shearing strikes fix which is what this build focuses on. Final note, sword of faith is terrible and worse than normal melee as most damage riders do not apply to it. Sanctic talents and abilities like edge of dawn or hammer of the emperor do not apply and even degraded defence does not benefit it. Heinrix Levels Warrior Level 1 : Charge Level 2 : Coercion Level 3 : Endure Level 4 : Daring Breach Rigorous Training Level 5 : Desolation Weapon Skill Level 6 : Break Through Medicae Level 7 : Weapon Skill Psyker Minoris Level 8 : Medicae Shearing Strikes Level 9 : Daring Breach II Level 10 : Thick Skin Agility Level 11 : Enfeeble Biophysical Distortion Level 12 : Agility Athletics / Lore Xenos Level 13 : Cautious Disengage / Blade of Light Athletics / Lore Xenos Level 14 : Strength Psyker Majoris Level 15 : Daring Breach IV Executioner Level 16 : Forced Repentance Scourging Strike + Where it hurts Level 17 : Warp Speed Level 18 : Anatomy Expert Level 19 : Carnival of Misery Level 20 : AP +1 Weapon Skill Level 21 : Weapon Skill Sower of Distress Level 22 : Pyromancy Level 23 : Sparks of the Greater Flame Medicae Level 24 : Agility Psyker Terminus Level 25 : Master of Torture Level 26 : Agility Medicae Level 27 : Carnival of Misery III Level 28 : Perfect Anatomy / Invigorating Screams Level 29 : Willpower Athletics / Lore Xenos Level 30 : Orchestrate Flame Characteristic Training: Per Level 31 : Deep Laceration Level 32 : Perception Athletics / Lore Xenos Level 33 : Fragile Playthings Level 34 : Perception Psyker Extremis Level 35 : Carnival of Misery IV Exemplar Level 36 : Eagar For Battle * Easy Target Level 37 : Medicae All-Encomposing Agony Level 38 : Weapon Skill Body of Flames Level 39 : Reckless Strike Medicae Level 40 : Degraded Defence Racking Weakness Level 41 : Weapon Skill Impetus Level 42 : Inflame Agility Level 43 : Edge of Dawn Heavy Armour Level 44 : Athletics / Lore Xenos Destroyer * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Fire Within Athletics / Lore Xenos Level 47 : Hymns of Hatred Carouse Level 48 : Psalms of Heroes Agility Level 49 : Perception Carouse Level 50 : Peak Condition Deterioration Level 51 : Relentless Blaze Carouse Level 52 : Corpus Conversion Melting Armour Level 53 : Reckless Abandon Perception Level 54 : Extermination Eternal Glory Level 55 : AP +1 Heinrix Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Eyes of Joyeuse / Carmine Crown / Mechanicus Respirator Armour Armour of Hidden Promise / Psychic Bodyglove / Psyker's Breastplate Cloak Swashbuckler's Cloak / Pack of Reagents / Cloak of Bloodthirst / Lady Theodora's Mantle Neck Starmist Scarf / Requiemator / Psy Focus Accessory 1 Warp Surge Brooch / Spirit Drape Accessory 2 Hand of Offence / Spirit Drape Gloves Augmented Gloves / The Hand of Avolius Boots Inertia Boots / Void Veteran Boots / Fencing Boots Weapon Set 1 Incinerator / Cursebringer (Veilrender offhand early game) Weapon Set 2 Solar Staff / Bloodrinker Staff / Sanctified Staff Jae Jae is a very interesting character, probably the most well written female character in video games as it is not afraid to have her be an actual woman but also she is obscenely strong mechanically. Jae's cold trader origin makes her the only viable skill monkey companion in game. Due to intelligence being a terrible stat with only one boosting item in the game that comes in act 4 of dlc 2, be smart is not a valid or viable option. Jae can cover intelligence checks with fellowship which is the most supported stat in the game. Jae can also turn fellowship and lore imperium into armour with helm of determination, breacher's armour and saint cognacius' scriptures making her the best armour tank in the game. Jae's only downside is her terrible base build, whilst 1.5 gave Jae access to the best finest hour upgrades, she still has terrible talents: March and Heroism. Leader's assault and commanding voice whilst not terrible are questionable in tier 1. Take aim is also not valuable on unfair and limited use on gimmick max slider runs. Jae needs decisive response to make her effective as a support damage companion. If March was changed to Decisive response and heroism was changed to Focus! then Jae would be the premier officer companion. Take Aim being swapped to air of authority with inspiriting speech being also worked into tier 1 would have been fantastic. It is however, what it is. Jae can be built effectively as an AoE buffer via servo-skull overseer, a tanky officer as a vanguard using gun parry bracers or as per my favourite, a dual gunslinger master tactician. Unfortunately a Rogue Trader Hive World Commissar Officer Master Tactician is a superior gunslinger, they do not have access to Jae's unique offhand origin talent or cold trader bonuses. Mid game Jae will be slow to get going due to not having decisive response but she will act fine as an officer buff companion. Just dont think you will be able to effective support and damage before 36. Prior to 36 focus on giving buffs to allies and extra turns to allow them to stack linchpin / inspire. Once you hit 36, you can even double rotation buff yourself with linchpin, inspire, strongpoint, ferver then coming back for more linchpin and inspire before opening a burst volley and a pair holster infused second burst attack that you can press the advantage on. Whilst still giving allies officer buffs. Another note to keep in mind, pair holster is an incredibly powerful item. Any Rogue Trader gunslinger build wants it, an executioner Yrliet build wants it and Ulfar very much wants it. Not enough to go around. The video build takes fervour earlier than the steam guide but I changed my approach since 1.5 launch to be that of the steam guide Jae Levels Officer Level 1 : Voice Of Command Level 2 : Commerce Level 3 : Bring it Down ! Level 4 : Finest Hour Comanding Voice Level 5 : Fellowship Nimble Level 6 : Lasting Impression Fellowship Level 7 : Move, Move, Move Swift Movements Level 8 : March Commerce Level 9 : Finest Hour I Level 10 : Lore Imperium Ballistic Skill Level 11 : leader Assault Ballistic Skill Level 12 : Take Aim! Characteristic Training : BS Level 13 : Heroism Lore Imperium Level 14 : Willpower Characteristic Training : FEL Level 15 : Finest Hour IV Master Tactician Level 16 : Tactical Advantage Press The Advantage Level 17 : Linchpin Level 18 : Reliance Level 19 : Orchestrated Firestorm Level 20 : AP +1 Ballistic Skill Level 21 : Ballistic Skill Joint Offensive Level 22 : Inspire Level 23 : Unwavering Motivation Lore Imperium Level 24 : Fellowship Base Skill: Logic Level 25 : Hidden Advantage Level 26 : Logic Fellowship Level 27 : Orchestrated Firestorm II Level 28 : Against All Odds Level 29 : Logic Agility Level 30 : Characteristic Training: Perception Strongpoint Level 31 : Stronghold Level 32 : Perception Logic Level 33 : Dawn of Victory Level 34 : Perception Grenadier Level 35 : Orchestrated Firestorm III Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle * Decisive Response Level 37 : Logic Stacking the Deck Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Base Skill: Lore Xenos Level 39 : Air Of Authority Logic Level 40 : Firebrand * Undisputed Advantage Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Inspiring Speech Level 42 : Fervour Fellowship Level 43 : Logistical Superiority * Advanced Skill: Logic Level 44 : Lore Xenos Degraded Defence Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Focus! Lore Xenos Level 47 : Steel Resolve Lore Xenos Level 48 : In the hero's footsteps Fellowship Level 49 : Perception Lore Xenos Level 50 : Eager Subordinates Steady! Level 51 : Support The Advance * Lore Xenos Level 52 : Be Vigilant! Ready to Serve Level 53 : Assign Objective Perception Level 54 : Attention! Primary Objective Level 55 : AP +1 Jae Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Helm of Determination / Commissar Cap / Gunslinger's Helm Armour Breacher Armour / Duellist Uniform Cloak Rogue Trader's Cloak / Tactical Backpack / Tempestus Elite Carapace Backpack Neck Medal of Alacrity / Omnissiah Holy Symbol / Soldier Aquila Pendant Accessory 1 Saint Cognatius Scriptures / Pair Holster Accessory 2 Commander's Chrono / Heart of the Nameless / Tactica Imperialis Excerpt Gloves Thrice-Pioneer's Bracers / Gloves of Rapid Desolation / Freedom and Vengeance / Compensator Gloves Boots Commissar Boots / Recoil Warboots Weapon Set 1 Upgraded Shuriken Pistol / Quick-Firing Laspistol Weapon Set 1 (Offhand/Alt) Desolation Blast Pistol / [Sol Pattern] Laspistol / Anti-Vehicle Revolver Weapon Set 2 Chorus of Battle / Blessing of Death / Gift of Kurnous Yrliet Yrliet at launch could do 20k damage shots as an assasin which caused the greatest overnerf of all history to operative for some reason. Whilst assassin got relegated to being mediocre but still better than vanguard as a melee build, for a ranged build it is barely playable. Even worse Yrliet's operative build tries to reference talents no longer in game so she gets some random pointless talents for her base build. Even worse the developers made both Idira and Yrliet a low intelligence operative. You know, the intelligence archetype. In patch 1.5 the developers decided they would buff Operative by giving YRLIET personally talents and gear to fix the attack economy issues. Why they didnt make this available to Rogue Trader operatives? Dont know. Anyway path of the outcast Yrliet talent, hunter father's armour from act 2 and the wonderer's potent rework makes Yrliet pretty viable as a support damage companion in act 2. Like with Pasqal bounty hunter is her best option due to the damage, armour pen and attack economy. Deadly accuracy added in 1.5 however is the most nothing burger of all nothing burgers. I thought on critical it would add base damage but no, it adds flat damage to the end of the damage you have have done based on perception. Hurrah my 400 damage shot becomes a 408 damage shot. For path of the outcast Yrliet will want to focus on Aeldari snipers with many new and potent ones being added to act 4. I still build Yrliet to take drukhari weapon proficiency and drukhari equipment so Yrliet has access to weapons and armour in act 3 before you recovery your gear. Heretic 2 with path of the outcast, hunter's ambush, expert finesse, deathdealer and snipers like eye of hecaton will really help give Yrliet more attack economy but damage and kills will never compete with a burst build. So keep Yrliet back and helping pick off targets with the party, Yrliet due to having high agility and perception will likely act before other damage companions so plan your turn around how you expect to follow up with those companions. Yrliet Levels Operative Level 1 : Analyse Enemies Level 2 : Awareness Level 3 : Expose Weakness Level 4 : Dismantling Attack Sharpshooter Level 5 : Perception Nimble Level 6 : Ballistic Calculation Perception Level 7 : Precise Attack Awareness Level 8 : Fresh Target Swift Movements Level 9 : Dismantling III Lore Xenos Level 10 : Lore Xenos Ballistic Skill Level 11 : Insightful Precision Medicae Level 12 : Perfect Spot Las Weapon Expert Level 13 : Comprehensive Analysis Ballistic Skill Level 14 : Intelligence Swift Sight Level 15 : Dismantling IV Bounty Hunter Level 16 : Hunt Down The Prey Level 17 : Claim the Bounty Level 18 : Hunting Surge / Hunter's Ambush Level 19 : Wild Hunt Level 20 : AP +1 - Ballistic Skill Path of the Outcast Level 21 : Intelligence Hunter's Ambush / Hunting Surge Level 22 : Cull the Bold Level 23 : Flay the Bold Lore Xenos Level 24 : Perception Deadly Accuracy Level 25 : Heightened Concentration Level 26 : Lore Xenos Agility Level 27 : Wild Hunt II Level 28 : Savour the kill Level 29 : Awareness Perception Level 30 : Drukhari Weapon Prof Ensnare the Prey Level 31 : Inspiring Trophy Level 32 : Intelligence Awareness Level 33 : Expert Finesse Level 34 : Drukhari Equipment Level 35 : Wild Hunt III Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle Uncanny Sight Level 37 : Awareness Withdraw Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Grenadier Level 39 : Joint Analysis Awareness Level 40 : Degraded Defence Pierce the Armour Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Tide Of Excellence Level 42 : Hot on the trail Agility Level 43 : Trail and Shatter Characteristic Training: PER Level 44 : Lore Xenos Deathdealer Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Combat Insight Lore Xenos Level 47 : Sniper Expertise Demolition Level 48 : Gruesome Kill Perception Level 49 : Perception Demolition Level 50 : Deadly Aim / Extermination Continuous Analysis Level 51 : Share the Spoils Demolition Level 52 : Weak Body, Weak Soul Characteristic Training Int Level 53 : Piercing Shot Intelligence Level 54 : Vital Points / Critical Velocity Pierce and Ruin Level 55 : AP +1 Yrliet Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Self-Calibrating Goggles / Outcast's Visor / Hunter's Focus Armour The Hunter-Father's Armour / Khaine's Revenge Cloak Backpack With Armour-Piercing Ammo / Cape of Righteous Fury / Xeno Emitter / Shadowguide Cloak Neck Wraithbone Necklace Accessory 1 Armour-Piercing Ammo / Target Designator / Aeldari Flow Accessory 2 Aeldari Ranger Sight / Aeldari Flow Gloves Apex Predator's Gloves / Marksman Bracers Boots Sharpshooter Boots Weapon Set 1 Deadshot Splinter Rifle / Wanderer's Potent / Lullaby of Sha'eil / Gift of Kurnous / Chorus of Battle Weapon Set 2 Eye of Hecaton / Blessing of Death / Wanderer's Potent Ulfar Ulfar is by far one of my most favourite companions thematically, with the other being Pasqal. However Ulfar is done quite dirty by gear restrictions. Ulfar is a soldier companion, their potential is determined by rate of fire gear which Ulfar simply cannot use. He does not have access to compensator gloves, tacticial backpack or tempestus elite carapace backpack, this means not only can Ulfar never compete with Argenta as a heavy gunner damage companion, it means he should not even try as he will be double dwarfed by Argenta's priest origin and unique gear. In terms of Tanking Ulfar has incredibly high physical stats and HP however he does not have access to the warrior damage mitigation talents so once again Ulfar cannot complete with say Heinrix, Abelard or even Kibellah in terms of end game tanking due to Kibellah having access to Anatomy expert and perfect anatomy. Ulfar also cannot use medicae or stimms so is much weaker than other companions in those terms but not "weak" overall. In patch 1.5 Ulfar's unique flamers also got heavily nerfed making them not viable for high level play. Why? Dont know, maybe the developers hated the idea of flamers being viable. However Ulfar does have access to the only viable bolt pistols in the game but once again as another F you to Ulfar he cannot equip dual pistols. Moreover the developers also hid Ulfar's best melee weapons in act 5 right before the end boss so you will never have a battle where they are useful. What they did add is some very nice gear but this is unfortunately end game act 4 on Caligos Winterscale's world during the lab section. Whilst the gloves add practically nothing, the boots reset kick on range kill and the armour resets go for the throat on kill. With this in mind I build ulfar to use broad expertise and armsmaster. This means Ulfar will have very high crit chance for both ranged and melee. Ulfar will also have very effective burst attacks at 1 ap after a melee kill and effective 1 ap area melee attacks after a ranged kill. With kick also being reset on range kill this means Ulfar can use the slicing symbol to generate a lot of free MP in act 4 with 1 ap burst kills giving another 0 ap melee kick thus creating a very effective kill loop for Ulfar to trash clear. Whilst Ulfar will never be the space marine power fantasy boss killer, he can at least live part of that fantasy killing trash mobs. The Typhoon bolter is pretty funny but an entire ass gimmick. Ulfar Levels Soldier Level 1 : Run and Gun Level 2 : Athletics Level 3 : Revel in Slaughter Level 4 : Firearm Mastery Fired Up Level 5 : Agility Rapid Reload Level 6 : Agility Controlled Shot Level 7 : Ballistic Skill Duelling Mastery Level 8 : Rack and Ruin Awareness Level 9 : Firearm Mastery II Level 10 : Alacrity Ballistic Skill Level 11 : Rapid Fire Demolition Level 12 : Perception Dual-Weapon Combat Level 13 : Unfaltering Fire It Will not Die Level 14 : Chain Weapon Expert Demolition Level 15 : Firearm Mastery III Arch-Militant Level 16 : Versatility Level 17 : Kick Level 18 : Martial Art Level 19 : Steady Superiority Level 20 : AP +1 Ballistic Skill Level 21 : Always Ready Toughness Level 22 : Wild Fire Bolt Weapon Expert Level 23 : Athletics Broad Expertise Level 24 : Perception Brutal Hunter Level 25 : Armsmaster Level 26 : Athletics Agility Level 27 : Steady Superiority IV Level 28 : Awareness Flashfire Level 29 : Ballistic Skill Combat Master Level 30 : Reckless Rush Level 31 : Dependable Level 32 : Toughness Awareness Level 33 : Adaptability Toughness Level 34 : Perception Grenadier Level 35 : Steady Superiority II Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle * Muzzle Velocity Level 37 : Athletics Critical Versatility Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Swift Movements Level 39 : Entrench Athletics Level 40 : Degraded Defence Contempt for the Weak Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Swift Slaughter Level 42 : Devastating Attack Agility Level 43 : Breaking Attack Power Weapon Expert Level 44 : Awareness Destroyer * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Enough Bullets for Everyone Awareness Level 47 : Integrity Awareness Level 48 : Exploit Weakness Agility Level 49 : Toughness Awareness Level 50 : Peak Condition Camaraderie Level 51 : Distract Demolition Level 52 : Preferred Targets Trusty Weapons Level 53 : Dash Toughness Level 54 : Extermination Accustomed to Glory Level 55 : AP +1 Ulfar Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Red Wolf Skull / Emperor's Justice Armour Might of Fenris Armour / Holy Power Armour / Bloodcraver Cloak Wolf Pelt Cloak / Shroud of Dauntlessness Neck Invigorating Resolve / Slicing Symbol / Fury Incarnate / Wolf Tooth Necklace / Ruby Splash / Laughing God's Pendant Accessory 1 Hellbrute Horn Trophy / Echo of Victory / Litany of Exhaustion / Secrets of the Forerunner / Bead of Might Accessory 2 Pair Holster / Secrets of the Forerunner / Bead of Might Gloves Blood Ice Gauntlets Boots Icebreaker Sabatons Weapon Set 1 [Mezoa-Pattern] Astartes Bolt Pistol Weapon Set 1 (Offhand/Alt) Grin of the Iron Wolf / Mjodlner / Astartes Power Sword / Untainted Sacrament Weapon Set 2 Typhoon / Annihilating Astartes Bolter / Storm Bolter Marazhai Oh Marazhai. You would be the perfect companion if only you were level locked to 15 not 29 so I could make you an executioner then use your amazing origin which gives huge bonuses based on bleeding enemies. Marazhai unfortunately comes as a level 29 locked assassin meaning his damage potential is locked to act 4 when he gets notes on weakness. However! Marazhai is a dark horse, did you know he is actually the tankiest, most dodge stacking and best map clear companion in the entire game? I bet you didnt and all you know about him was the reddit gooner bait. Due to 1.5 fixing shearing strikes Marazhai can abuse the heck out of his unique undying rage gauntlets. Every attack stacks Marazhai's agility mod to his armour. If you use a scorcher on a finest hour turn or even after using daring breach you can make infinite death whisper attacks thus stacking armour as much as you like. On top of that you can then use bloodseeker klaive to aoe attack which will convert all enemies with bleed on them to having toxin instead which will then stack Marazhai's dodge. So even from act 3 when you recruit him, Marazhai is untouchable in combat. From Act 4 things get even more interesting, by combining malign influence with lethality we can make a death aura build for marazhai where every willpower check causes direct damage to enemies. Using items like interrogator dagger, notes on weakness, self calibrating goggles and talents like lethal threat. You just nuke the map by moving about it, you can use slicing symbol to generate mp as well as swiftshroud cloak. Honestly assassin has two options, mediocre "honest" play or game breaking death aura build. Marazhai Levels Warrior Level 1 : Charge Level 2 : Athletics Level 3 : Endure Level 4 : Daring Breach Defensive Manoeuvres Level 5 : Easy Target Weapon Skill Level 6 : Break Through Athletics Level 7 : Weapon Skill Nimble Level 8 : Carouse Rigorous Training Level 9 : Daring Breach I Level 10 : Blade Flurry Agility Level 11 : Reckless Strike Duelling Mastery Level 12 : Agility Carouse Level 13 : Desolation Coercion Level 14 : Strength Combat Master Level 15 : Daring Breach II Assassin Level 16 : Seek the Opening Level 17 : Danse Macabre Level 18 : An Eye for the Unscathed Level 19 : Dispatch Level 20 : AP +1 Agility Level 21 : Lone Killer Agility Level 22 : Athletics Death Whisper Level 23 : Lethality Heightens Level 24 : Weapon Skill Dual Weapon Combat Level 25 : Deadly Calculations Level 26 : Weapon Skill Athletics Level 27 : Dispatch II Level 28 : Characteristic Training: AGL Ambush Level 29 : Perception Lore Xenos Level 30 : Killing Edge Level 31 : Finesse Disarray Level 32 : Medicae Level 33 : Seize the Advantage Perception Level 34 : Trueborn Superiority Level 35 : Dispatch III Exemplar Level 36 : Destroyer * Shearing Strikes Level 37 : Coercion Morbid Pirouette Level 38 : Weapon Skill Mantle of Agony Level 39 : Taunting Scream Coercion Level 40 : Degraded Defence Lethal Concentration Level 41 : Weapon Skill Open Engagement Level 42 : Elusive Shadow Agility Level 43 : Create an Opening Prey on the Weak Level 44 : Coercion Malign Influence Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Thick Skin Coercion Level 47 : Impetus Coercion Level 48 : Imminent Demise Agility Level 49 : Perception Athletics Level 50 : Lethal Threat Crowd Kill Level 51 : Perfect Opening Athletics Level 52 : Killing Spree Emboldened by Bloodshed Level 53 : Sworn Enemy Perception Level 54 : Eager for Battle * Esquive Level 55 : AP +1 Marazhai Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Self Calibrating Goggles / Weakness Detector Armour Ghostplate Armour / [Black Heart] Kabalite Armour / Wytch's Last Cry Cloak Swishshroud Cloak Neck Slicing Symbol Accessory 1 Notes on Weakness Accessory 2 Iron Cape Gloves Undying Rage / Riposte Gloves / Claws of the Black Hunt Boots Blitz Boots / Enforcer's Light Boots / Skirmisher Boots / Spiked Boots Weapon Set 1 Interrogator Knife / Serrated Glimmersteel Blade / Hekatarii Blade of Bloodthirst / Heart Piercer Weapon Set 1 (Offhand/Alt) Serrated Glimmersteel Blade / Heart Piercer / Blood Hunter Weapon Set 2 Bloodseeker Klaive / Carnivorous Blade / Suffering Collector Weapon Set 2 (Offhand/Alt) Hekatarii Blade of Bloodthirst / Slithering Slaughter Kibellah Kibellah is a bladedancer. An archetype so powerful it breaks the entire gameplay loop of every other archetype in Rogue Trader. It is without a doubt top 1 in terms of damage archetypes for tier 1 which combines with executioner in tier 2 to be the most dominating damage setup. KIbellah's origin is not one I fully explored for this guide as I simply didnt need to directly invest into her bloodcult assassin traits, though I did take the gloves to proc blood explosions for passive damage buffs. Potentially you could customise the build to start picking those talents from level 30 but that would weaker the build's base damage before you gain peak condition at level 50. Kibellah's voidborn origin is mostly not be directly built into though you can take jinx or bloody mess at level 8. The strongest build in the game is a psyker death world blade dancer executioner which takes facing the end and wounded beast to trauma stack intentionally. Whilst this build does take facing the end, I do not encourage actively taking traumas until much higher levels due to the drawbacks of ap and mp penalties and just enjoying small boosts early as injuries naturally occur. With 1.5 death warden is now a default talent for kibellah which is a huge upgrade. As death from above got a small 10% dodge penalty cost added per every use of death from above that turn we build into parry from duelling mastery and dance partners to to keep ourselves safe from enemy melee attacks. Acrobatic artistry will double as an offensive tool to use more death from above but also a defensive tool so we do not end our turn in front of enemy range. The gameplan of bladedancer is to use blood rush with blood oath to designate enemies and generate mp, the next attack will be a guarenteed hit that if killed will give back hp as well as once per turn givng +1 attack. Kills not caused by death from above will generate death from above which will allow even more mobility and opportunities to kill. Talents like guillotine will make death from above do extra damage for your turn jumps with acrobatic artistry and talents like sweeping motions will give you access to 1 ap area attacks to get more kills per attack. Death waltz is an insane ultimate which will armour strip, build damage, give free charges and make 6+ attacks. It is obscenely overpowered. Bladedancer is very viable on all tier 2 but executioner clearly stands leagues ahead of all other tier 2 archetypes in terms of tanking and damage. As you build into executioner weapon skill will stack into medicae and then that medicae will become crit damage, HP, Armour and even more damage. You melee attacks as an executioner will apply bleed, with dogmatic 2 conviction your criticals turn 1 will apply burn and with drukhari weapon investment your attacks will also apply toxin. So with all that in mind executioner wants to have very high attack economy to apply and trigger damage over time effects for very high damage output. Pain resonance gives you an aoe detonation ability for your dots, reckless abandon gives you free damage increase and exsanguination will give you even more MP. This build will also allow you to use agility instead of strength for damage with finesse. Later your main damage focus will be applying as many instances of armour strip with gear like carmine crown, metal claw gloves, talents like fragile playthings and destroyer. This will cause your medicae to turbo your damage from racking weakness and items like voidborn's pride will turbo juice medicae on kill even more. Kibellah Levels Blade Dancer Level 1 : Blade Dance Level 2 : Medicae Level 3 : Death From Above Level 4 : Death Waltz Death Warden Level 5 : Duelling Mastery Weapon Skill Level 6 : Blood Oath Medicae Level 7 : Weapon Skill Blood Rush Level 8 : Awareness Nimble / Jinx / Bloody Mess Level 9 : Death Waltz II Level 10 : Dance Partners Agility Level 11 : Acrobatic Artistry Facing the End Level 12 : Agility Awareness Level 13 : Characteristic Training: Per Demolition Level 14 : Perception Guillotine / Sweeping Motions Level 15 : Death Waltz III Executioner Level 16 : Forced Repentance Scourging Strike + Where it hurts Level 17 : Pain Resonance Level 18 : Anatomy Expert Level 19 : Carnival of Misery Level 20 : AP +1 Weapon Skill Level 21 : Weapon Skill Does It Hurt? Level 22 : Reckless Abandon Level 23 : Sower of Distress Lore Xenos Level 24 : Agility Drukhari Weapon Prof Level 25 : Master of Torture Level 26 : Agility Medicae Level 27 : Carnival of Misery III Level 28 : Invigorating Screams / Perfect Anatomy Level 29 : Perception Medicae Level 30 : Exsanguination Finesse Level 31 : Deep Laceration Level 32 : Perception Demolition Level 33 : Fragile Playthings Level 34 : Perception Dual Weapon Combat Level 35 : Carnival of Misery I Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle * Sweeping Motions / Guillotine Level 37 : Medicae Racking Weakness Level 38 : Weapon Skill Dance of Blood Level 39 : Captive Audience Medicae Level 40 : Degraded Defence All-Encompassing Agony Level 41 : Weapon Skill Grand Performance Level 42 : Terrifying Strike Agility Level 43 : Unbearable Presence Open the Veins Level 44 : Awareness Destroyer * Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Rising Tempo Awareness Level 47 : Duellist Awareness Level 48 : Maddening Flames Agility Level 49 : Perception Awareness Level 50 : Peak Condition Race Against Death Level 51 : Sickening Pain Demolition Level 52 : Bloody Requiem Wounds Streaming Blood Level 53 : Gift of Torment Perception Level 54 : Extermination Blade in His Hand Level 55 : AP +1 Kibellah Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Carmine Crown / Mechanicus Respirator Armour High Spinner Armour / Shadow of the undying One / Armour of Hidden Promise Cloak Swashbuckler Cloak / Malpain Shroud / Pack of Reagents / Blade Dancer's Mantle Neck Anatomist's Amulet / The Vial of Falstow Accessory 1 Chirurgeon's Manual / Bead of might / book of war prayers / knuckle Guard Accessory 2 Voidborn's pride / Diagnostor / Iron Cape Gloves Crimson Oblivion / Augmented Gloves / Inevietable Demise / The Hand of Avolius / metal claw gloves Boots Fencing Boots / Sororitas Boots / Enforcers light boots / Inertia Boots Weapon Set 1 Symphony of Pain / Imminent Torment / Blood Hunter Symphony of Pain / Imminent Torment / Virulent Slicer Weapon Set 2 Djin Blade of Yremeryss / Well-Maintained Rocksaw Insatiable Djin Blade Solomorne Solomorne is the DLC 2 companion. Soldier is not the best overseer cyber-mastiff user but it is not the worse either. Solomorne does not have access to the conviction pet upgrades which seems like a huge oversight as companions really should get conviction rewards to pets as you progress their stories to make overseer more viable. Whilst area builds focusing on shotguns like Arbites Vigilant will not output the damage of a burst arch-militant, they are still very usable and fun to play. Solomorne's main issue is he does not have the MP upgrade to firearm mastery or dash in his tier 1. Solomorne will aim to use medium armour, keep his pet close for camraderie boost, get close to enemies to use point-blank with his shotgun, attach glaito before blasting with apprehend to trigger his swift justice passive and to give the dog follow up attacks when he blasts. Early game dual shotguns with cresendo is very potent for high attack economy and enemy clearing, you will need to rely on boots like inertia boots for MP generation as his other movement boot options dont come until act 4. Speaking of act 4, gunnery shield with double-barreled shotgun is a huge upgrade. There are some potent item combinations that solomorne has access to like Vial of Falstow and Navy Breacher Boots to enhance his attack economy. Early on the pet damage can feel a bit impotent but via the use of advanced tracking and taking the dog for a walk, you can add a lot of flat damage to attacks. Multiple follow ups on an apprehend enemy can absolutely shread an enemy. One very potent combination against the forgefiend was using protect on Abelard, having Abelard hit the forgefiend which then created an infinite loop, the forgefiend would attack Abelard, the pet would then attack the forgefiend which would then cause the forgefiend to attack Abelard. The damage circle quickly kileld the Forgefiend. Consolidation will be another useful ability for giving Solomorne movement to keep blasting enemies as well as Strategic Adaptation to refund attacks on kills. Late game you can even use strategies like passing over metabolic overcharge to Solomorne then banking that ap with entrench to use on a finest hour turn later. Adamantium Alloys is currently bugged and when combined with pet protocols that enhance HP will allow glaito to have some obscene HP after buffs. Eager Subordinates will also enhance the pet damage. Whilst overseer pets cannot build stacks of degraded defence they will enhance their damage from when allies place it. Pets will also greatly benefit from AoE buffs and damage enhancements like litany of hatred or hammer of the emperor. Solomorne Levels Soldier Level 1 : Run and Gun Level 2 : Demolition Level 3 : Revel in Slaughter Level 4 : Firearm Mastery Rack and Ruin Level 5 : Ballistic Skill Demolition Engineer Level 6 : Ballistic Skill Grisly Adjudication Level 7 : Agility Lawful Intervention Level 8 : Second Skin Demolition Level 9 : Firearm Mastery III Level 10 : Point-Blank Agility Level 11 : Concentrated Fire Coercion Level 12 : Perception Armour-Piercing Level 13 : Camaraderie Prepared Prosecution Level 14 : Pillar of the Law Coercion Level 15 : Firearm Mastery IV Overseer Level 16 : Cyber-Mastiff Proficiency Level 17 : Advanced Tracking Level 18 : Relentless Pursuit Level 19 : Overcharge Level 20 : Ap +1 Ballistic Skill Level 21 : Rite of Calibration Ballistic Skill Level 22 : Consolidation Coercion Level 23 : Enhanced Augmetics Level 24 : Agility Law and Order Level 25 : Chain-Maw Level 26 : Agility Demolition Level 27 : Overcharge II Level 28 : Shotgun Mastery Dual-Weapon Combat Level 29 : Perception Demolition Level 30 : Strategic Adaptation Level 31 : Perimeter Defence Public Sentencing Level 32 : Perception Coercion Level 33 : Side by Side Level 34 : Mob Justice Level 35 : Overcharge I Exemplar Level 36 : Eager for Battle Swift Slaughter Level 37 : Demolition Automatic Protection Level 38 : Ballistic Skill Grenadier Level 39 : Dash Demolition Level 40 : Degraded Defence Suppression Factor Level 41 : Ballistic Skill Fired Up Level 42 : Bite! Agility Level 43 : Brother-In-Arms Know No Heresy Level 44 : Coercion Extermination / Eager Subordinates Level 45 : AP +1 Level 46 : Enough Bullets for Everyone Coercion Level 47 : Tenderise Medicae Level 48 : Dependable Ally Agility Level 49 : Perception Awareness Level 50 : Adamantium Alloys Integrity Level 51 : Battle Mode: Terror Awareness Level 52 : Cohesion / Master's Patronage Solid Projectile Weapon Expert Level 53 : Entrench Perception Level 54 : Deadly Aim On the Double Level 55 : AP +1 Solomorne Gear Slot Gear to Consider Helm Steel Guidance / Arbites Helmet / Commissar Cap Armour [Hive World Origin] Voidsmen Armour / Warrior Armour Cloak Cloak of Hatred / Sensory-motor Modulator Neck Vial of Falstow / Ironclad Argument Accessory 1 Demolition Instructions / Bayonet Chain Knife Accessory 2 Bead of Might / Portable Motive Force Storage / Seal of the Purifier / Iron Cape Gloves Elastic Gloves / Inevietable Demise / Marksman Bracers Boots Navy Breacher Boots / Heavy Breacher Boots / Inertia Boots (still bugged for range) Weapon Set 1 Double-Barreled Shotgun Gunnery Shield Weapon Set 2 Scoped Shotgun / [Sol-Pattern] Shotgun / The Rack Crescendo / The Ruin Pet Pack Hunting / Heel! Protocol Compositions For lower difficulties you are somewhat free to take whomever you like but as you go above Daring you will need to start planning your compositions around the 13 skill checks. On unfair you need 200 in a skill check to always 100% pass as some skill check modifiers in act 4 are -100. The easiest way to build a part is to have either the Rogue Trader be an officer Grand strategist or if the Rogue Trader is a damage build to have Cassia become an officer Grand Strategist. This will allow very easy 1 turn victories before the enemy can overrun the party as threat control does not really become available until exemplar levels with lethal threat and taunting scream wont cover the whole map with vanguard being useful for priority control. Pasqal and Jae are the only two effective companions for covering tech-use and logic but Jae can cover 6 skills on unfair with no other companion being able to cover more than 2 skills. Something to keep in mind. You will often one one front line fighter like Abelard, Heinrix, Ulfar or Marazhai. A strong range damage companion like Argenta or Solomorne. A first turn buffer like Cassia or Act 4 Jae with Commander's chrono. The last slot usually I rotate being Kibellah, Idira and Yrliet depending on whom I want in the party at the time but your decisions will need to take into consideration what role and skill checks your Rogue Trader is covering. Be smart and calculated relations is a noob trap for higher difficulties as intelligence has no talent or gear support compared to fellowship. Just taking chartist pendant on a pure fellowship MC will cover more skills effectively as a skill monkey which could even then go into servo skull overseer to get a unique skill item. My final piece of advice will be to plan your Rogue Trader first then build your party around them, not try to force your Rogue Trader into the party you planned first.