Rogue Trader Companions: Full Roster, Recruitment, and Who to Bring
Rogue Trader gives you twelve named companions plus three secret late joiners, and each one arrives locked into a fixed starting Archetype. You cannot reclass a companion at tier 1, so your party is decided as much by who you recruit as by how you build them. The short version: recruit everyone you can, then field entity:cassia, entity:argenta, and entity:heinrix as your backbone. Cassia alone trivializes most encounters once her Navigator powers come online.
This page covers the recruitable roster, where and when each member joins, their combat role, who you can romance, and the picks worth a permanent party slot.
The Full Roster
| Companion | Fixed Archetype | Role | Recruited | Romanceable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abelard Werserian | Warrior | Melee tank | Prologue, automatic (first to join) | No |
| Idira Tlass | Operative | Psyker damage / late control | Prologue, automatic (second to join) | No |
| Sister Argenta | Soldier | Ranged carry | Prologue, automatic (third to join) | No |
| Cassia Orsellio | Officer | Navigator AoE | Chapter 1, "Secrets of the Navis Nobilite" | Male Rogue Trader only |
| Pasqal Haneumann | Operative | Ranged utility | Chapter 1, "Machine Spirit Keeper" | No |
| Heinrix van Calox | Warrior | Melee / psyker hybrid | Chapter 1, "Looking for Trouble" | Female Rogue Trader only |
| Jae Heydari | Officer | Officer support / damage | Chapter 2, "Wanted on Footfall" | Any gender |
| Yrliet Lanaevyss | Operative | Sniper | Chapter 2, "World Shapers" | Any gender |
| Ulfar | Soldier | Heavy bruiser | Chapter 3, "Fury in Chains" | No |
| Marazhai Aezyrraesh | Warrior | Melee assassin | Chapter 3, "The Chasm" | Any gender |
| Kibellah | Assassin | Melee burst | Void Shadows DLC, "To Become the Flagship's Blood" | Any gender |
| Solomorne Anthar | Overseer | Support + familiar | Lex Imperialis DLC, Chapter 2 at Footfall | Any gender |
The Prologue Three
Your first three companions join automatically and cannot be missed. entity:abelard arrives first, a Navy Officer who serves as your dynasty's Seneschal. He is a entity:warrior built for the frontline, a durable melee tank with reliable damage and the backbone of your early career. entity:idira joins second, an unsanctioned psyker whose warp powers carry Perils-of-the-Warp risk. She is an entity:operative, weak in the opening hours but one of the strongest support casters by the late game, when her entity:rewind-time ability can undo damage an ally has taken. entity:argenta joins third, rescued at the void station of Footfall after a Chaos ambush. A Sister of Battle and entity:soldier, she is your premier ranged damage dealer; recent patches also classify her as a Priest, layering party-wide buffs on top of her output.
Chapter 1 Recruits
Four companions become available across the first chapter. entity:cassia, a Navigator of the Navis Nobilite, joins during "Secrets of the Navis Nobilite" after a showdown separates her from her home aboard Eurac V; you broker a deal and secure her as your entity:navigator. She is an entity:officer and the single most dominant member of the roster, with her entity:lidless-stare warp-eye powers wiping random encounters in one or two casts.
entity:pasqal is a Tech-Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, recruited by completing "Machine Spirit Keeper" on Rykad Minoris while searching for his mentor. He is an Operative whose tech-skills give him strong utility even though his personal damage stays modest.
entity:heinrix joins during the mission "Looking for Trouble." He is a entity:sanctioned-psyker serving the Inquisition as an Interrogator, built as a Warrior with biomancer powers layered in. He leaves the party at the start of Chapter 2 and rejoins at the end of "Tattered Spirit," so do not panic when he walks out.
Chapter 2 Recruits
entity:jae, a Cold Trader, is first met at Footfall when the Liege of Footfall hands you the quest "Persona Non Grata." Recruit her by finding her in the Shadow Quarters bar to complete "Wanted on Footfall." She is an Officer, and her Cold Trader origin bonuses make her unusually strong when built well, the ranged counterpart to Kibellah's melee dominance.
entity:yrliet is an Aeldari Ranger who joins during "World Shapers" on the planet Janus. She helps you from a vantage point; after speaking with the governor, find her outside near the red gazebo and ask her to join. She is an Operative built for sniping, with entity:bounty-hunter over-penetrating guaranteed crits against marked Prey.
Chapter 3 Recruits
entity:ulfar is a Space Marine, freed by completing the Errand "Fury in Chains." He is jailed in the Anatomical Opera by Terventias, and you convince the Haemonculus to release him. As a Soldier he is a heavy bruiser, though he arrives late with specific equipment needs.
entity:marazhai is a Drukhari Kabalite recruited during "The Chasm." Propose an alliance with the Bloodstained Proselytes, then insist to Marazhai that the offer still stands during the arena fight against the Wych Cult; he switches sides and joins after the battle at level 29. He is a Warrior built toward entity:assassin, a melee damage dealer with a death-aura debuff build.
DLC Companions
entity:kibellah arrives with the Void Shadows DLC. A Death Cult Assassin, her arc opens automatically as you travel between systems during the DLC's first quest, "To Become the Flagship's Blood," after which the errand "Ritual of Binding" begins. She pledges her life to the von Valancius dynasty and plays as an agile melee burst killer who can jump across the field and delete a target, one of the strongest melee companions in the game.
entity:solomorne comes with the Lex Imperialis DLC. He is a Proctor-Exactant of the Adeptus Arbites and the first companion to use the new entity:overseer Archetype, deploying the cyber-mastiff familiar Glaito. You first meet him at Rykad Minoris, but recruitment happens in Chapter 2: after clearing Janus or another main world you receive a message from Solomorne, then recruit him at Footfall at base level 24. Lex Imperialis also added the entity:arbitrator Origin and the Overseer Archetype as options for your own protagonist, which is where most of the demand for an arbites build is served. See our class tier list for where those classes land.
The Three Secret Companions
Three more companions, entity:uralon, entity:incendia, and entity:calligos-winterscale, join very late with minimal story integration. They round out the roster for completionists but arrive too late to build into a competitive party slot, so treat them as bonus content rather than optimization targets.
Who You Can Romance
Seven companions are romanceable. Cassia is available to a male Rogue Trader only, and Heinrix to a female Rogue Trader only. The other five, Jae, Yrliet, Marazhai, Kibellah, and Solomorne, are open to any gender. You can pursue more than one romance at once up to the quest "The Lord Inquisitor and The Lord Captain," after which you must commit to a single love interest. Full walkthroughs for each beat live in our romance guide.
Best Companions to Bring
If you want the strongest possible party, the answer rarely changes. Cassia is the uncontested top pick: her Lidless Stare casts end most fights before they start, and she scales straight through the hardest content as either a entity:grand-strategist for party buffs or a entity:master-tactician for personal damage. Build her out with our Cassia build guide.
Build: fb43eb90c0abArgenta is your ranged carry, stacking heavy bolter rate of fire into encounter-ending Righteous Fury turns.
Build: 1dee55ed0ad0Heinrix rounds out the top three with flexible melee and psyker pressure.
From there, Kibellah and Jae are the next tier: an elite melee burst killer and a "stupid overpowered" Officer. Idira earns a slot the moment her late-game support comes online. Yrliet excels in a dedicated sniper role, Abelard stays a safe frontliner all game, and Pasqal gives you reliable utility. For the full ranking and the reasoning behind every placement, read our companion tier list and use the party optimizer to test your own five.