Avowed's Companions: A Ranked Guide from Worst to Best
Beyond their narrative roles and engaging dialogue, Avowed's Companions offer significant practical advantages, from navigating obstacles to bolstering combat prowess. This guide ranks every Avowed Companion, from least to most helpful.
- Marius
My experience with Marius proved limited synergy with my playstyle. While his passive skills aid early exploration, he's quickly outmatched by later Companions. His utility lies in item and plant discovery, but his combat effectiveness is underwhelming. Here's a breakdown of his abilities and upgrades:
- Blinding Roots: Roots enemies (upgradeable to stun, affect multiple targets, and inflict Bleed).
- Heart Seeker: A piercing shot that always hits (upgradeable for multi-target, increased damage vs. low-health enemies, and reduced cooldown).
- Shadow Step: Vanishes and strikes an enemy (upgradeable for instant kills on stunned enemies, increased damage vs. low-health enemies, and increased target count).
- Wounding Shots: Inflicts Bleed (upgradeable to reduce enemy damage reduction, slow enemies, and further reduce damage).
Marius' abilities primarily focus on crowd control and weakening enemies. Effective against certain enemy types, particularly when paired with a melee-focused Envoy, his overall impact diminishes significantly during the later stages of Avowed.
- Giatta
Giatta, a support-oriented Animancer, excels at healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While not a damage dealer, her utility is invaluable during intense encounters, such as boss fights. Her abilities include:
- Purification: Heals allies (upgradeable for increased healing, enemy interruption, and increased ally damage reduction).
- Barrier: Provides allies with temporary health (upgradeable for increased temporary health, healing on barrier expiration, and self-protection).
- Acceleration: Boosts ally movement and attack speed (upgradeable for damage reduction, extended duration, and ability cooldown reduction).
- Reconstruction: Heals allies with attacks (upgradeable for increased healing for low-health allies, temporary health for full-health allies, and ally revival on enemy kill).
Giatta also activates Essence Generators, unlocking late-game areas and loot. Though not top-tier, she synergizes exceptionally well with magic-focused Envoy builds.
- Kai
Despite being an early recruit, Kai remains consistently useful. A formidable tank, he delivers substantial damage with minimal player intervention. His abilities are:
- Fire and Ire: Blunderbuss attack with high stun and taunt (upgradeable for ignite, increased stun, and reduced cooldown).
- Unbending Defense: Health regeneration and damage reduction (upgradeable for increased damage reduction, increased regeneration, and a damaging shockwave on expiration).
- Leap of Daring: Stunning and taunting area-of-effect attack (upgradeable for increased area of effect, temporary health per hit, and bonus attack damage per hit).
- Second Wind: Self-revival (upgradeable for increased health restoration, attack speed boost, and ability cooldown reset).
Kai's abilities are potent against various enemies. Some excel against single, high-health targets, while others provide effective crowd control. His self-revival further enhances his value as a low-maintenance, high-impact combat ally. He can also utilize fire to remove obstacles.
- Yatzli
Yatzli, a powerful Wizard, boasts high-damage attacks and excellent crowd control. She's the closest equivalent to air support in the Living Lands. Her abilities include:
- Essence Explosion: Explosive arcane damage (upgradeable for increased blast radius, fire accumulation, and reduced cooldown).
- Minoletta’s Missile Battery: Volley of homing missiles (upgradeable for increased fire rate, range, and shock accumulation).
- Arduos Delay of Motion: Slows enemies (upgradeable for increased slow, area-of-effect, and frost accumulation).
- Blast: Area-of-effect damage on hit (upgradeable for explosive damage to break obstacles, and increased stun chance with status effects).
Yatzli's potent abilities, coupled with her obstacle-clearing capabilities, make her an invaluable asset throughout Avowed. While recruited last, she's undoubtedly worth the wait.
Avowed launches on PC and Xbox on February 18.
