Best Avowed Companions, Ranked by Helpfulness

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

Beyond their narrative roles and dialogue, Avowed's Companions offer practical 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 strengths lie in item and plant discovery, but his combat capabilities are underwhelming. Here's a breakdown of his abilities and upgrades:

• 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 enemies, reduced cooldown).
• Shadow Step: Vanishes and strikes an enemy (upgradeable to instantly kill stunned enemies, increased damage vs. low-health enemies, strike multiple enemies).
• Wounding Shots: Inflicts Bleed (upgradeable to reduce enemy damage reduction, slow enemies, reduce enemy damage).

Marius excels against low-health, melee-focused enemies, but his niche abilities make him a less-than-ideal companion for most of the Avowed journey.

3. Giatta

Giatta, a support-oriented Animancer, focuses on healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While lacking in raw damage, her utility shines in challenging encounters. Her protective abilities are invaluable during boss fights. Her abilities include:

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

Giatta also activates Essence Generators, unlocking late-game areas. She synergizes well with magic-focused Envoys.

2. Kai

Despite being an early recruit, Kai remains a valuable companion throughout the game. A formidable tank, he delivers substantial damage with minimal player intervention. His abilities include:

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

Kai's abilities are effective against various enemy types, offering both single-target and crowd control options. His self-revival further enhances his value. He can also use fire to remove obstacles.

1. Yatzli

Yatzli, a powerful Wizard, delivers high damage and excellent crowd control. She's the closest thing to air support in the Living Lands. Her abilities include:

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

Yatzli's potent abilities and obstacle-clearing capabilities make her the top companion choice. While recruited last, she's invaluable for the remainder of the journey.

Avowed launches on PC and Xbox on February 18.