Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader – Best Companions Tier List

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader‘s best companions are those you’d want by your side not just in combat engagements, but in moments when you have to explore the unknown. With several potential teammates, you really need to be mindful of your party’s composition. Our Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader companion tier list discusses the ideal characters for your squad.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader companion tier list – The best companions for the campaign

Before we delve further into our Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader companion tier list, we suggest taking a look at our companion recruitment guide so you’ll know how to bring all 10 potential allies into the fold. As far as our ranking system goes, this is based on each follower’s capabilities both combat and exploration. After all, the best damage-dealer might not be that viable if you need to swap them for someone else just to open a container, right? Likewise, bear in mind that you can have a six-person squad at maximum (the Rogue Trader main character and five teammates).

S-tier: Cassia

• Origin: Navigator (unique)
• Basic archetype: Officer
• Suggested advanced archetype: Grand Strategist
• Combat role: Support
• Attributes: Fellowship and Willpower
• Skills: Persuasion, Commerce, Coercion, and Lore (Imperium)

Cassia is singularly the best companion in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. She’s unique in that she’s the only Navigator that joins your team, and her powers are incredible. For starters, she has talents that cause her to gain additional movement points (MP) and bonus wounds/HP. Cassia’s strongest ability is Point of Curiosity, which can pull in nearly a dozen hostiles so that they’re clustered together. You can follow this up by casting Lidless Stare, a massive frontal cone blast that can potentially stun. Alternatively, you can let Yrliet or Sister Argenta blast everyone since they’re all nearly lined up.

The fact that Cassia also gets her turn first, before other units, makes her even more valuable, as she’s integral to setting up the rest of the fight. Combine this with the Officer class to give additional action points (AP) to teammates, as well as turning her into a Grand Strategist, so you can cast more area-wide buffs and debuffs, and it’s easy to see why she’s a cut above the rest.

A-tier: Yrliet

• Origin: Aeldari (unique)
• Basic archetype: Operative
• Suggested advanced archetype: Bounty Hunter
• Combat role: Sniper DPS
• Attributes: Perception and Ballistic Skill
• Skills: Awareness and Lore (Xenos)

Yrliet is an Aeldari (Eldar or space elf) companion who can easily wipe the entire board clear of enemies. What makes her tremendously powerful on the battlefield is In My Sights. This lets you select a target that she’ll attack on her next turn (and it can sometimes be triggered by abilities or procs that grant extra turns).

Imagine grouping up enemies as Cassia, then following up with a piercing sniper shot from Yrliet. When you consider other factors, such as high hit chance and high critical chance, you’ve got a teammate that can eliminate countless foes well before others can act. This is why we feel that she’s easily one of the best companions in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

A-tier: Sister Argenta

• Origin: Ministorum Priest
• Basic archetype: Soldier
• Suggested advanced archetype: Bounty Hunter
• Combat role: Frontline/burst-fire DPS
• Attributes: Agility and Ballistic Skill
• Skills: Demolition

Early in the game, Sister Argenta will likely be your top DPS character. Sadly, she does get outclassed by other options down the line, especially once you start min-maxing. Nevertheless, we still feel that Sister Argenta deserves a high ranking in our Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader companion tier list, since she’s the one racking up the most kills for hours.

The idea is to equip her with an automatic weapon that has a high rate-of-fire. Add abilities like Piercing Shot and Claim the Bounty (which Yrliet should also have as a Bounty Hunter), and she’ll rip apart entire packs. Her Run and Gun (as a Soldier) also lets her do another burst fire to whittle down the hordes.

B-tier: Pasqal

• Origin: AdMech Tech-Priest (Part-Machine)
• Basic archetype: Operative
• Suggested advanced archetype: Bounty Hunter or Assassin
• Combat role: Sniper DPS and debuffer
• Attributes: Ballistic Skill, Intelligence, and Perception
• Skills: Tech-Use and Logic; Lore (Imperium/Warp/Xenos) if he has high Intelligence

You won’t have to worry about unlocking containers and hacking computers when Pasqal is around (he’s a Tech-Priest after all). Moreover, his Machine Spirit Communion buffs the dodge of allies while also debuffing your opponents’ stats. Combine these with the usual Operative quirks like Analyze Enemies and inflicting exploits on hostiles, and you’ve got someone who can readily cause debilitating effects.

B-tier: Abelard

• Origin: Navy Officer
• Basic archetype: Warrior
• Suggested advanced archetype: Vanguard
• Combat role: Tank
• Attributes: Toughness, Weapon Skill, and Strength
• Skills: Athletics and Carouse

Abelard should be a mainstay of your squad for most of the campaign. As a tank, he’s a straightforward as it gets–stack Toughness and various talents that help him survive and deal damage in melee. Give him Taunting Scream so he can take all the aggro, then pop another skill that increases his defensive capabilities. For best results, equip him with a Thunder Hammer so he can smash everyone around him. The only reason why we put Abelard at B-tier is because characters like Yrliet, Sister Argenta, and Ulfar can take out most hostiles before he can even get his turn.

B-tier: Other companions – Idira, Heinrix, Ulfar, and Marazhai

This particular section of our Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader companion tier list includes a bunch of teammates. They’re not terrible, per se, but they offer a niche role that others accomplish much more handily. A good example is how Cassia, Yrliet, Sister Argenta, and Abelard already cover nine out of 13 skill checks–not to mention what you chose on your main character–which leaves you with just one open slot for the rest. Here’s a quick summary:

• Idira is a Sanctioned Psyker, which is a more advanced origin type. Because of these, she’ll need a bunch of talents to truly maximize her capabilities (while foregoing some of the usual options). Furthermore, her psychic spells tend to increase Warp Degradation, so you have to manage hers and Cassia’s powers.
• Heinrix is similar to Idira in that he’s also a Sanctioned Psyker, albeit a tankier one as he has the Warrior archetype. Abelard is more suited for a straightforward tanking role, whereas you’ll have to worry about other buffs as Heinrix. Build him right, and you can have a powerhouse.
• The Space Wolf Ulfar, meanwhile, is a Soldier-Arch Militant hybrid. Now, the Soldier is straightforward enough, but the Arch-Militant is significantly more complex as you’ll need to use different types of attacks each round just to increase its buffs.
• Marazhai is a Drukhari (i.e. Dark Eldar or dark space elf). He’s a Warrior-Assassin hybrid, which means he has to get into the thick of the fray to deal a lot of damage. He does have some abilities that synergize with his own playstyle. Sadly, when you have ranged DPS like Yrliet and Sister Argenta, opponents are likely already dead or Marazhai just gets in the way.

C-tier: Jae

Sadly, Jae isn’t someone you’d want to bring along, unless a mission specifically concerns her. She’s got the Officer archetype, which means she can give teammates an extra turn. That sounds good on paper, until you realize that Cassia has that as well, along with her own Navigator powers.

Another factor is that we suggest the Rogue Trader to also have a support role as an Officer. You’ll be able to lay the foundations of their build accordingly during character creation, as opposed to Jae who’s got a mish-mash of default perks already. That leaves her in the bottom tier, as she doesn’t have a lot to offer to your squad.

In any case, that does it for our Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader best companions tier list. Do let us know if you’ve found other synergies or uses that truly maximize the capabilities of your teammates. Lastly, don’t forget that you can also respec your characters, though we do suggest watching out for potential bugs.