Avowed's Companions: A Ranked Guide from Worst to Best

Beyond their narrative roles and dialogue, Avowed's Companions offer significant gameplay advantages, from pathfinding to combat prowess. This guide ranks each Companion from least to most effective.

4. Marius

Early game exploration benefits aside, Marius quickly becomes outmatched. His passive abilities aid in item and plant discovery, but his combat capabilities are underwhelming. His skills primarily focus on crowd control and weakening enemies, making him niche and less valuable for most of the Avowed journey. While useful against specific enemy types, particularly when paired with a melee-focused Envoy, his limited power makes him a less desirable long-term companion.

Marius' Abilities:

• Blinding Roots: Roots enemies (upgradeable to stun, trap multiple, and inflict Bleed).
• Heart Seeker: Piercing shot that always hits (upgradeable to hit two enemies, increased damage vs. low health, and reduced cooldown).
• Shadow Step: Vanishes and strikes (upgradeable to instantly kill stunned enemies, increased damage vs. low health, and multiple strikes).
• Wounding Shots: Inflicts Bleed Accumulation (upgradeable to reduce enemy damage reduction, slow enemies, and reduce enemy damage).

3. Giatta

Giatta, a support-focused Animancer, excels at healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While lacking in raw damage output, her utility is invaluable during challenging encounters, especially boss fights. Her ability to power Essence Generators also unlocks late-game areas. She synergizes exceptionally well with magic-focused Envoy builds.

Giatta's Abilities:

• Purification: Heals allies (upgradeable to increased healing, enemy interrupt/knockback, and increased ally damage reduction).
• Barrier: Provides allies with a temporary health shield (upgradeable to increased temporary health, healing on expiry, and protection from melee attacks).
• Acceleration: Increases ally movement and attack speed (upgradeable to damage reduction, extended duration, and ability cooldown reduction).
• Reconstruction: Attacks heal allies (upgradeable to increased healing for low-health allies, temporary health for full-health allies, and ally revival on enemy kill).

2. Kai

Despite being an early recruit, Kai remains highly effective throughout the game. This tank deals significant damage with minimal player input. His self-revival ability reduces the need for micromanagement. His fire attacks also serve a practical purpose in clearing environmental obstacles.

Kai's Abilities:

• Fire and Ire: Blunderbuss attack with high stun and taunt (upgradeable to ignite target, increased stun, and reduced cooldown).
• Unbending Defense: Health regeneration and damage reduction (upgradeable to increased damage reduction, increased regeneration, and area-of-effect damage on expiry).
• Leap of Daring: Stunning and taunting area-of-effect attack (upgradeable to increased area of effect, temporary health per hit, and bonus attack damage per hit).
• Second Wind: Self-revival (upgradeable to increased health restoration, attack speed burst, and ability cooldown reset).

1. Yatzli

Yatzli, a powerful Wizard, boasts high-damage attacks and excellent crowd control. Her abilities are comparable to having air support in the Living Lands. She also provides environmental interaction capabilities for clearing obstacles. While recruited last, she's a crucial asset for the remainder of the game.

Yatzli's Abilities:

• Essence Explosion: Explosive arcane damage (upgradeable to increased blast radius, fire accumulation, and reduced cooldown).
• Minoletta’s Missile Battery: Volley of homing arcane missiles (upgradeable to increased fire rate, range, and shock accumulation).
• Arduos Delay of Motion: Slows enemies (upgradeable to increased slow effect, area-of-effect slow, and frost accumulation).
• Blast: Area-of-effect damage on hit (upgradeable to explosive damage for breaking blocks/walls, shattering frozen enemies, and increased stun/status effect chance).

Avowed releases on PC and Xbox on February 18.