Rogue Trader Companion Tier List (Patch 1.5)
Every companion ranked for combat, with the best picks for your party.
Rogue Trader Companion Tier List
entity:cassia is the best companion in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, full stop. Build her as a entity:navigator caster and she ends random fights before they start. The rest of the roster sorts cleanly behind her by one question: how much does this character do when you build them well and play on Unfair difficulty. Story and likeability stay out of it. What follows ranks the twelve build-relevant recruits on combat power alone, with the three secret companions parked at the bottom because they join too late to build at all.
Combat Tier List
| Tier | Companions |
|---|---|
| S | Cassia Orsellio, Sister Argenta, Heinrix van Calox |
| A | Kibellah, Jae Heydari, Idira Tlass |
| B | Yrliet Lanaevyss, Abelard Werserian, Pasqal Haneumann, Marazhai Aezyrraesh |
| C | Ulfar, Solomorne Anthar |
| Bottom (too late to build) | Uralon the Cruel, Incendia Bastaal-Chorda, Calligos Winterscale |
S Tier: trivializes combat
Cassia Orsellio (Officer). The most dominant companion by consensus, and nobody argues about her top spot across the Reddit tier threads. Her Navigator powers in the entity:lidless-stare line clear random encounters in one or two casts and keep scaling into the hardest fights in the game. Two Lidless Stares kill pretty much any random pack. Run her as entity:grand-strategist for party-wide buffs or entity:master-tactician for a personal nuke; both are excellent.
Sister Argenta (Soldier). The premier ranged carry. entity:soldier into entity:arch-militant stacks rate of fire into encounter-ending Righteous Fury turns, the classic entity:heavy-bolter dakka build that can wipe a pack in a single round. Her recent Priest status layers party buffing on top of all that damage, which is why she sits beside Cassia at the top.
Heinrix van Calox (Warrior plus Sanctioned Psyker). A flexible melee and biomancer hybrid that ranks among the strongest companions for raw effectiveness. The one knock is that the entity:warrior and entity:sanctioned-psyker split can feel spread thin if you do not focus it, but built with intent he holds an S-tier slot all game.
A Tier: excellent, build-dependent
Kibellah (Assassin, Void Shadows DLC). Top-tier melee burst. She jumps in, combos, and deletes a target in a turn. The only thing that edges her out is a dedicated entity:bladedancer protagonist; as a companion she sits squarely between A and S.
Jae Heydari (Officer). Stupid overpowered with her Cold Trader origin bonuses behind her. Master Tactician turns her into a personal damage threat, entity:overseer turns her into AoE officer buffs, and she is the ranged counterpart to Kibellah's melee dominance. The one caveat is that her officer build needs careful optimization to pay off.
Idira Tlass (Operative, Unsanctioned Psyker). Weak early, S-tier late. Her late-game entity:rewind-time, which undoes damage taken by an ally, is one of the best defensive tools in the game. What holds her at A rather than S is the unsanctioned Perils-of-the-Warp risk and the entity:operative chassis underneath her warp powers.
B Tier: solid, situational ceiling
Yrliet Lanaevyss (Operative). A strong dedicated sniper through Operative into entity:bounty-hunter, where over-penetrating guaranteed crits land on marked Prey. She rates lower than the other Operatives because she is neither a psyker nor carries Pasqal's skill toolkit. Excellent in the sniper role, replaceable outside it.
Abelard Werserian (Warrior). A dependable tank with low highs and high lows. He is never bad and never the best, a durable frontliner who holds the line the whole campaign while getting outclassed by Heinrix on raw value.
Pasqal Haneumann (Operative). Operative damage is modest, but his personal tech and skill kit band-aids the gap and hands you real utility. Fine, not a carry.
Marazhai Aezyrraesh (Warrior, Assassin). A capable melee entity:assassin with a striking death-aura build. He arrives late, though, and other melee options outclass him by the time he shows up.
C Tier: arrives without a niche
Ulfar (Soldier, Space Marine). A lore-cool Space Wolf bruiser who joins late with specific equipment needs and no role left to fill. By the time he shows up a dedicated tank is no longer required, so he disappoints relative to the hype around a Space Marine in your party.
Solomorne Anthar (Overseer, Lex Imperialis DLC). Strong story, lukewarm combat. His Overseer kit with the cyber-mastiff familiar is outperformed by a straightforward Soldier into Arch-Militant, which lands him in the lower-mid tier despite the writing being some of the best in the game.
The secret companions
Uralon the Cruel, Incendia Bastaal-Chorda, and Calligos Winterscale are the three hidden recruits, and they sit at the very bottom for one mechanical reason: they join very late with minimal integration and no room to build them properly. Treat them as roster completeness, not optimization targets.
How the list shakes out in practice
The top is uncontested. Cassia, Argenta, and Heinrix are the consensus top three, and most party debates start from there. The real arguments happen one tier down, where the strongest-party-of-five questions are whether you want a second Officer in Cassia plus Jae, and whether Idira's late-game prevention earns a slot over a Heinrix support body. Those are close calls, which is exactly why all three A-tier picks land together.
Tank value collapses as the campaign goes on. By Chapter 3 the difficulty is carried by alpha-strike damage from Cassia and Argenta and by damage prevention from Idira, so pure tanks like Ulfar and slow assassins like Marazhai fall off hard. Build for the turn that ends the fight before it starts, and your party answers most of what Unfair throws at it.
Each top pick has a dedicated breakdown: the Cassia build guide, the Argenta build guide, and the Kibellah build guide. For the full roster of archetype builds see the builds hub, and for how the archetypes themselves rank, the class and archetype tier list.