ESO Companions Guide - Companion System

With Update 30, the Blackwood Chapter, two companions get added.

Bastian Hallix is a male Imperial. He has the stereotypical personality of a chivalrous knight. He likes when you are just and do not engage in anything that is illegal. He excels at crafting, which means that in turn the player will receive a bonus to any potion looted from chests or monsters. These potions will have a 30% chance to be improved by Bastian’s Insight.

Mirri Elendis is a female Dunmer. She really dislikes boats and when the player kills other people, but she really enjoys it when the player excavates treasures. With having her as a companion, you will now have the chance to find additional loot in Treasure Chests found through Treasure Maps and in Overland content.

Players wanting to acquire a companion need the Blackwood Chapter, so that they can unlock the companions through completing associated quests in the Blackwood zone.

How to get Bastian Hallix

How to get Mirri Elendis

After this they will start following the player and will be available by either choosing from the Collections, or by quickslotting them via the Quickslot inventory. Their collectibles can be found in the “Allies” section.

It is not possible to have multiple Allies or Assistants active at the same time, such as a banker and a companion.

Companions level almost the same as the player, except for receiving only 25% of the experience that the player gathered. This means that players get the full experience and the companion gets an additional 25% of the experience that the player gained. So there’s no loss for the player. This applies only to experience gained directly from combat. Experience increasing effects such as holiday bonuses and consumable boosters applied to a player’s character will provide an indirect benefit to the companion as well.

In order to level the Fighters Guild, Mages Guild and Undaunted for your companion, you need to do the Dailies of those guilds. Collecting Mages Guild books for example won’t level their Skill line.

The companion has to be active at all times during these activities, if the player wants to level them up. With the exception of quests and rapport, which collectively represents the relationship between each character and the companion, all Companion progress is account-wide. Meaning that when the player has Level 14 on their Companion’s Combat Level, this is account-wide. As companions gain combat levels, their health and overall power (which affects weapon and spell damage) increases automatically, additional ability bar slots unlock, and more class abilities become available. This includes an Ultimate slot and ability, which unlock at the combat level 20.

Rapport

The rapport describes what kind of relationship you have with a companion. Every companion has personal preferences which will affect how they feel about the player over time, based on their actions. Acting against a companion’s ideals will cause their rapport with the companion to decrease. Taking actions they favor will drive the player’s rapport with that companion up.

While this has no effect on their skills or their abilities, it will have an effect on their gameplay. At least when it comes to extremely disliking the player. If a companion hates the player, they might not be able to stand them much longer and will unsummon themselves for a while.

In order to build rapport with a companion, performing average actions is a must -- either by questing, leveling or other in-game actions like stealing. This can go both ways, so the player should be aware of what they like and what they dislike.

The more a companion likes the player, the more personal quests become available to the player after having completed the initial quest.

The Rapport begins at cordial, based on the introductory quest experience. At higher tiers of rapport, the companion may be inclined to share personal information with you and ask you for assistance with associated quests.

Rapport adjustments are displayed in real time in the loot stream and have limitations on how often they can be triggered for both positive and negative rapport events.

The Companion Menu can be accessed when talking to the companion. The first page is an overview, showing the Combat Level of the companion, as well as whether they are wearing an outfit and if, which.

The next item is the companion’s ability bar. They have 5 skills plus an Ultimate ability, which unlock the higher the companion’s Combat Level is. They have a priority of when to use which skill, so from the left to the right the priority becomes less.

Next would be the Rapport. This shows what the companion thinks about the player and whether they are more likely to engage friendly with the player, or not.

The player can also access the companion’s equipment from here, which they have to carry in their inventory in order to have the companion equip it.

Each companion has two associated personal side quests which will become available to the player once a sufficient rapport has been established. Completing the second companion quest will unlock a houseguest collectible of the companion, allowing them to be placed and utilized similarly to other houseguest collectibles.

Completing any Companion side quest will result in a large rapport boost.

By completing meta-achievements associated with each companion, the player can unlock a keepsake collectible for each companion which provides the benefits of the non-combat perk even while the companion isn’t active. These collectibles are located under the Upgrades section of the Collections menu.

In order to engage with a companion, talking to them will initiate a conversation and you can select the Companion Menu option. This will bring up the Companion Interface. It is the second icon from the top right.

All available skill lines are listed here, with the three Class skill lines at first, followed by the Weapon skill lines. The player has to equip a weapon first before it can unlock. The Class Skill lines increase with the combat level of the companion.

Same goes to the Armor skill line. 3 items of the same weight have to be equipped in order for the skill line to be equipped. Weapon and Armor skill lines all increase through combat experience based on what the player carries. The Guild skill lines are almost identical to the player Guild skill lines, only that there’s only Fighters Guild, Mages Guild and Undaunted available so far. The increase through completing specific solo daily quests associated with the guild, for the active companion.

There’s also only 1 Racial trait available which will be available from the beginning and won’t need to be unlocked.

Companions do not have Champion Points.

In order to engage with a companion, talking to them will initiate a conversation and you can select the Companion Menu option.On the first page on the left side the Equipment is available. A player has to carry the equipment they want their companion to wear in their inventory, otherwise it will not be possible to equip it. A companion has the same equipment slots as the player, except for only being able to slot one weapon set, as they only have one ability bar. The quality of the equipment ranges from normal to epic, with being either traitless or having specific traits. A player will not be able to craft companion gear, but will have to find the equipment.Companion equipment does not include level, cannot be enchanted, does not require repairs and does not include an inherent style appearance, but instead inherits the style of the companion it’s applied to.White companion equipment can be purchased from Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Armorer, Leatherworker, and Tailor merchants throughout the world, particularly from bosses. This equipment can be traded so it can be bought and sold on the market.

The traits are as follows:

In order to engage with a companion, talking to them will initiate a conversation and you can select the Companion Menu option.

From here you can choose two different customizations. At the very first character sheet on the right side, underneath the Combat Level, is the Outfit. Here the player can choose between No Outfit and Companion Outfit. If the player decides to go with No Outfit, the current equipment that the companion is wearing will be displayed. If a player wants to have a costume that they own worn by the companion, they have to choose the Collectibles icon on the top right. Here a player can also set the mount that the companion is supposed to ride.

In order to have their own customized Outfit displayed, the player needs to go to an Outfit Station that is not in a player’s house because the companion needs to be active at the time of customization. In the Outfit Station menu, the player can choose between themselves and the companion. From here it works the same as with a player Outfit. You can also choose colors for both the Outfit or a Costume at this station.

Outfit Station InterfaceThe head armor will be hidden at all times and will not be displayed regardless of equipment or cosmetic override settings.

Depending on gender, race or other restrictions, some of the player’s cosmetics might also not be usable by the companion.

Players can’t use polymorphs, personalities, skins, hats, hair or tattoos on companions.