Best Avowed Companions, Ranked by Helpfulness

In *Avowed*, Companions are more than just story elements and conversational partners; they offer significant practical advantages, from navigating tricky pathways to providing crucial combat support. This ranking assesses each *Avowed* Companion, from least to most helpful.

4. Marius

My experience with Marius revealed limited synergy with my playstyle. While his early-game utility in locating items and plants is undeniable, he's quickly surpassed by other Companions. His combat effectiveness lags behind, making him a less desirable party member as the game progresses. Here's a breakdown of his abilities and upgrades:

Blinding Roots: Roots enemies for 8 seconds. Upgrades include stunning enemies, expanding the area of effect, and inflicting Bleed Accumulation. Heart Seeker: A piercing shot that always hits the target. Upgrades add multi-target capability, increased damage against weakened enemies, and cooldown reduction. Shadow Step: A teleport attack. Upgrades allow for instant kills against stunned enemies, increased damage to low-health targets, and increased target count. Wounding Shots: Inflicts Bleed Accumulation. Upgrades reduce enemy damage reduction, slow enemies, and further reduce damage dealt.

Marius' abilities primarily focus on crowd control and weakening enemies. While effective against certain foes, particularly when paired with a melee-focused Envoy, his overall power falls short for most of the Avowed journey.

3. Giatta

Giatta, a support-oriented Animancer, excels at healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While lacking in raw damage output, her utility is invaluable in challenging situations like boss encounters. Her abilities include:

Purification: Heals allies. Upgrades increase healing potency, add enemy knockback, and enhance damage reduction. Barrier: Provides temporary health to allies. Upgrades increase temporary health, heal on barrier expiration, and grant invulnerability to Giatta with enemy knockback. Acceleration: Boosts ally movement and attack speed. Upgrades add damage reduction, extend duration, and reduce ability cooldowns. Reconstruction: Heals allies with attacks. Upgrades enhance healing for low-health allies, grant temporary health at full health, and revive incapacitated allies on enemy kills.

Giatta also activates Essence Generators, unlocking late-game areas and loot. Her effectiveness is significantly enhanced when paired with a magic-focused Envoy.

2. Kai

Despite being an early-game Companion, Kai remains highly useful throughout Avowed. This tank deals substantial damage with minimal player input. His abilities include:

Fire and Ire: A high-stun attack with a taunt. Upgrades add burning, increased stun, and cooldown reduction. Unbending Defense: Regenerates health and increases damage reduction. Upgrades enhance damage reduction, health regeneration, and add a damaging shockwave on expiration. Leap of Daring: A powerful area-of-effect stun and taunt. Upgrades expand the area of effect, grant temporary health per hit, and boost attack damage per hit. Second Wind: Self-revival. Upgrades increase health restored, grant attack speed boosts, and reset ability cooldowns.

Kai's abilities are effective against both single strong enemies and groups. His self-revival makes him a highly reliable and independent combat partner. 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 are:

Essence Explosion: Explosive arcane damage. Upgrades increase blast radius, inflict fire accumulation, and reduce cooldown. Minoletta’s Missile Battery: A volley of homing missiles. Upgrades increase fire rate, range, and inflict shock accumulation. Arduos Delay of Motion: Slows enemies. Upgrades intensify slowing, create an area-of-effect slow, and inflict frost accumulation. Blast: Area-of-effect damage on hit. Upgrades add explosive damage for breaking objects, destroy walls, shatter frozen enemies, increase stun, and add status effect chances.

Yatzli's powerful abilities and obstacle-clearing capabilities make her an invaluable Companion, despite being recruited late in the game.

*Avowed releases on PC and Xbox on February 18.*