Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader – Best Companions Tier List

TL;DR

  • Cassia is essential S-tier for her unique crowd control and turn manipulation abilities
  • Yrliet and Sister Argenta provide devastating A-tier damage output with proper setup
  • B-tier companions offer specialized utility but face competition for limited squad slots
  • Party composition must balance combat effectiveness with exploration skill requirements
  • Advanced archetype selection and gear optimization significantly impact companion performance

Building the perfect squad in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader requires careful consideration of each companion’s combat capabilities and exploration utility. Your party decisions will directly impact your success throughout the campaign.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader demands strategic thinking when selecting your five companions to accompany your Rogue Trader protagonist. This tier list evaluates characters based on their battlefield performance, exploration skills, and overall contribution to party synergy.

Tier Ranking Methodology

Our evaluation system assesses each companion across multiple dimensions: damage output, crowd control, survivability, and skill coverage for environmental interactions. The most effective companions deliver consistent value without requiring constant swapping for specific tasks.

Remember that you’re limited to a six-person squad maximum, making every selection critically important. Before finalizing your team, consult our companion recruitment guide to ensure you don’t miss any potential allies during your journey through the Koronus Expanse.

Cassia: The Navigator Powerhouse

  • 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 stands alone as the most valuable companion in your entire roster. Her Navigator lineage provides exclusive abilities that fundamentally alter combat encounters. The Point of Curiosity talent clusters multiple enemies into tight formations, setting up devastating area attacks from your damage dealers.

What makes Cassia indispensable is her guaranteed first-turn initiative, allowing immediate battlefield control before opponents can react. Combine this with Officer abilities to grant extra action points to teammates, then transition into Grand Strategist for enhanced area buffs and debuffs. Her self-sustain through additional movement points and bonus wounds ensures she remains active throughout extended engagements.

Pro Tip: Use Lidless Stare immediately after Point of Curiosity to stun entire groups of clustered enemies.

Group enemies together, give extra turns to your allies, self-heal, boost your own movement, and other perks make Cassia the most important companion in the entire game.

Cassia’s crowd control abilities enable devastating follow-up attacks from your damage specialists.

Yrliet: Precision Sniper Specialist

  • 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 delivers surgical elimination of high-priority targets with her In My Sights ability. This marks enemies for guaranteed attacks on subsequent turns, sometimes triggering multiple times through ability procs.

Her synergy with Cassia creates the game’s most powerful combat combination: cluster enemies with Point of Curiosity, then execute them with precision sniper fire. With exceptional hit chance and critical strike probability, she removes threats before they can act.

Common Mistake: Underestimating Yrliet’s positioning requirements. Ensure she has clear sightlines to maximize her damage potential.

Snipe foes and bring them down with critical hits as Yrliet.

Yrliet’s precision targeting eliminates key threats with remarkable efficiency.

Sister Argenta: Early Game Carry

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

Sister Argenta dominates the early to mid-game with her relentless automatic weapon fire. While she may fall behind min-maxed builds later, her consistent performance through most of the campaign justifies her A-tier placement.

Equip her with high rate-of-fire weapons and combine Piercing Shot with Claim the Bounty for maximum carnage. Her Run and Gun ability provides additional burst fire opportunities to decimate enemy formations.

Sister Argenta can mow down dozens of hostiles.

Sister Argenta’s sustained firepower makes her invaluable during the majority of your campaign progression.

Pasqal: Technical Support

  • 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

Pasqal ensures you never face locked containers or inaccessible computers. His Machine Spirit Communion provides valuable defensive buffs to allies while weakening enemy capabilities.

Combine his technical expertise with Operative abilities like Analyze Enemies and exploit application to create debilitating effects on opponents.

Pasqal's Machine Spirit Communion affects allies and enemies.

Pasqal’s versatile toolkit combines technical problem-solving with combat support capabilities.

Abelard: Durable Frontline

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

Abelard provides reliable frontline presence throughout your campaign. His straightforward tanking approach involves stacking Toughness and melee damage talents.

Use Taunting Scream to draw enemy attention, then activate defensive cooldowns. Equip him with a Thunder Hammer for area damage potential.

Optimization Tip: Despite his durability, Abelard often struggles to contribute meaningfully when ranged specialists eliminate threats before he engages.

Beef up Abelard so he can soak a ton of damage.

Properly equipped, Abelard can withstand tremendous punishment while controlling the battlefield.

Situational Companions

Idira, Heinrix, Ulfar, and Marazhai occupy specialized roles that face stiff competition for limited squad positions. The core team of Cassia, Yrliet, Sister Argenta, and Abelard already covers the majority of skill checks, leaving minimal room for experimentation.

  • Idira: As a Sanctioned Psyker, she requires extensive talent investment and careful Warp Degradation management alongside Cassia’s powers.
  • Heinrix: Functions as a tankier psyker alternative to Abelard, but demands more complex buff management.
  • Ulfar: The Space Wolf’s Soldier-Arch Militant hybrid build necessitates varied attack patterns to maintain buff stacks.
  • Marazhai: This Drukhari Warrior-Assassin hybrid must engage in melee combat, often conflicting with optimal positioning for your ranged damage dealers.
Who doesn't want to have a Space Marine like Ulfar in their squad?

While appealing thematically, specialized companions like Ulfar often struggle to justify their squad slot against more versatile options.

Jae: Redundant Officer

Jae offers minimal value to most squad compositions. Her Officer archetype duplicates capabilities already provided by Cassia and potentially your main character.

The redundancy becomes particularly problematic when considering that most players will build their Rogue Trader with support capabilities, making Jae’s inclusion difficult to justify.

Her default perk distribution lacks optimization compared to custom-built characters, relegating her to situational use during specific story missions.

Advanced Insight: Jae’s only viable niche emerges in parties deliberately avoiding Cassia or specializing in specific role-playing scenarios.

Skill Coverage Optimization

Your core four companions cover approximately 70% of skill checks, leaving strategic decisions for your final slot based on anticipated challenges.

Pro Strategy: Plan your main character’s skill selection to complement your chosen companions, minimizing gaps in your party’s capabilities.

Late Game Scaling Considerations

Companion effectiveness shifts dramatically as you progress through the campaign. Early powerhouses may require replacement, while initially underwhelming characters can become dominant with proper investment.

Remember that character respec options exist, though exercise caution regarding potential technical issues. For comprehensive guidance on building your entire party, consult our BF6 Class Selection Guide to understand advanced archetype synergies.

Final Recommendation: Focus on building around Cassia as your foundation, then select damage dealers that complement her crowd control capabilities.

Action Checklist

  • Prioritize recruiting Cassia early and build your party around her crowd control abilities
  • Pair Cassia’s Point of Curiosity with Yrliet’s sniper attacks for maximum efficiency
  • Optimize Sister Argenta with high rate-of-fire weapons for early game dominance
  • Balance your squad to cover essential exploration skills while maintaining combat effectiveness
  • Regularly evaluate companion performance and consider respec options for underperforming characters

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