Best Avowed Companions, Ranked by Helpfulness

Beyond their compelling stories and engaging dialogue, *Avowed*'s Companions offer invaluable practical advantages, from navigating tricky pathways to dominating combat encounters. This ranking assesses each Companion, from least to most effective.

4. Marius

My experience with Marius revealed limited synergy with my playstyle. While his passive skills aid early exploration, he's quickly surpassed by other Companions. His proficiency in locating items and plants is valuable initially, but his combat effectiveness lags significantly. Here's a breakdown of his abilities and upgrades:

**Blinding Roots:** Roots enemies for 8 seconds. Upgrades include stunning, trapping multiple enemies, and inflicting Bleed Accumulation.

**Heart Seeker:** A piercing shot that always hits the target. Upgrades include hitting two enemies, increased damage to low-health enemies, and reduced cooldown.

**Shadow Step:** Marius vanishes and attacks an enemy. Upgrades include instant kills against stunned enemies, increased damage to low-health enemies, and attacking up to six enemies.

**Wounding Shots:** Marius' attacks inflict Bleed Accumulation. Upgrades include reducing enemy damage reduction, slowing enemies, and reducing enemy damage.

Marius' abilities primarily focus on crowd control and weakening enemies. Effective against certain foes, particularly with a melee-focused Envoy, his overall impact diminishes as the game progresses, making him less valuable for most of the *Avowed* journey.

3. Giatta

Giatta, a support-oriented Animancer, utilizes magic for healing, shielding, and buffing the party. While not a damage powerhouse, her utility is undeniable. Protecting the Envoy and party health proves invaluable during intense moments like boss battles. Her abilities include:

**Purification:** Heals allies. Upgrades increase healing, interrupt enemies, and boost ally damage reduction.

**Barrier:** Provides allies with a temporary health shield. Upgrades increase shield strength, heal on barrier expiration, and protect Giatta from melee attacks.

**Acceleration:** Increases ally movement and attack speed. Upgrades add damage reduction, extend duration, and reduce ability cooldowns.

**Reconstruction:** Giatta's attacks heal allies. Upgrades increase healing for low-health allies, grant temporary health, and revive incapacitated allies on enemy kills.

Giatta can also activate Essence Generators, unlocking late-game areas. Though not optimal for damage, she synergizes exceptionally well with magic-focused Envoy builds.

2. Kai

Encountered early in *Avowed*, Kai remains a valuable asset throughout. This tank deals significant damage with minimal player intervention. His abilities include:

**Fire and Ire:** A high-stun attack that taunts the target. Upgrades include igniting the target, increased stun, and reduced cooldown.

**Unbending Defense:** Regenerates health and increases damage reduction. Upgrades increase damage reduction, enhance health regeneration, and unleash a damaging shockwave.

**Leap of Daring:** A stunning and taunting area-of-effect attack. Upgrades increase area of effect, grant temporary health per hit, and boost attack damage per hit.

**Second Wind:** Revives Kai. Upgrades increase health restoration, grant attack speed boost, and reset ability cooldowns.

Kai's abilities excel against various enemies, offering both single-target and crowd control options. His self-revival and low-maintenance playstyle make him a highly effective and convenient combat partner. He can also use fire to remove obstacles.

1. Yatzli

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

**Essence Explosion:** An explosive arcane attack. 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 effects, create an area-of-effect, and inflict frost accumulation.

**Blast:** Yatzli's attacks create an area-of-effect explosion. Upgrades deal explosive damage to break blocks and shatter frozen enemies, increasing stun and inflicting status effects.

Yatzli's potent abilities and obstacle-clearing capabilities make her a top-tier Companion, despite being recruited late in the game.

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