ESO Companions System Guide – The Basics

June 6, 2022

ESO Companions System Guide – The Basics

One of the final sections of my ESO Complete Beginner Guide explains the basics of the companion system that came with the Blackwood chapter! Companions are NPC characters that can follow you around and help you out in battle (they have no inventory though, so they cant carry your burdens)! These companions can fill any role in ESO – Stamina DPS, Magicka DPS, Healer or Tank – and can adventure with you in a wide variety of places, including dungeons and trials! Each companion counts as a “person” in these instances, and they take up a slot in a group. However, players will always take priority over a companion. With that being said, while companions can go a lot of places, they can not be summoned in PVP areas, solo arenas or housing instances (they can become house guests though, which is explained further down in the “rapport” section). Note that you must have access to Blackwood to unlock companions. If you’re looking for builds for your companions, you can find them here.

How to Unlock Companions

There are 2 companions that came with the launch of ESO Blackwood: Mirri Elendis and Bastian Hallix! To unlock them, you simply need to find them in the locations shown below in Blackwood and complete their introductory quests. While the companions are account wide, each one of your characters has to do these introductory quests to be able to utilize the companions.

Bastian Hallix Companion Location

Mirri Elendis Companion Location

There are 2 companions that also came with the launch of ESO High Isle: Ember and Isobel Veloise! Similarly to the Blackwood companions, to unlock them, you simply need to find them in the locations shown below in High Isle and complete their introductory quests.

Ember Location

Isobel Veloise Location

How to Summon & Interact with Companions

You interact with companions the same way you interact with your other assistants; by summoning them from your collections menu (they can be found under “allies”). Note that you can only have one Ally out: either one of the vendor assistants, banker or your companion. To actually interact with your companion, simply talk to them and it’ll bring up some dialogue options. You can talk to them about your relationship with them, or open up the companion menu! You can also assign a companion to your quickslot, the same way you assign potions, your banker, merchant, and more.

Companion Menu

The companion menu contains the meat and potatoes of the companion system. Here you can find your companion’s skills, armor, rapport bar and more!

Companion Levels, Skills & Perks

Companion skills have cooldowns, and have an ability priority based on the order they’re put on the ability bar. So assuming all abilities are off-cooldown, ability 1 will fire first, followed by 2, 3, 4, then 5, so it’s important to place the companion’s skills on your bar in an order that keeps this in mind. Their ultimate, however, is fired off manually by the player, using the pet keybind (which on PC the default is Y). Companions unlock weapon and armor skills by using the corresponding weapons, guild skills are unlocked by doing the corresponding guild dailies, class skills level up as the companion does, and racial skills are automatically obtained. Companions have a maximum level of 20 and gain experience to level up through killing monsters. They are effected by experience scrolls and other XP increases that are active on the player.

Each companion also has unique non-combat perks. Mirri’s perk makes it so that treasure chests have a chance to provide additional loot, and Bastian’s perk makes it so that potions looted have a chance to be improved to become more powerful!

Companion Weapons & Armor

Companion’s weapons and armor is different than that of the players. Companion armor has no set bonuses, levels, and it cant be improved or enchanted. Each companion starts out with a basic set of gear, but you can buy other gear (of differing weights) and weapons from a Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Armorer, Leatherworker or Tailor merchant in any major city! Higher quality gear can be obtained from monster drops throughout the world, with bosses having an increased drop chance. Companion gear also has its own set of unique traits to help you customize your companion to your liking:

Quickened (Cooldown Reduction)
Prolific (Ultimate Generation)
Focused (Critical Strike Chance)
Shattering (Penetration)
Aggressive (Damage Done)
Soothing (Healing Done)
Augmented (Ability Buff and Debuff Duration)
Bolstered (Reduce Damage Taken)
Vigorous (Max Health)

In addition, companions can be customized to your liking! You are able to set their armor to look like any armor/weapon motif you have unlocked and dye it (at an outfit station), or you can even have them wear an unlocked costume (note that companions will always have their helmet hidden). You can also assign the companion to ride any mount you have unlocked on your account, allowing you to really customize your companion’s appearance!

Companion Rapport

The rapport bar for companions is like a reputation, and is an indicator how much that companion likes or dislikes you. Depending on your actions in Tamriel (while the companion is active), your rapport with that companion will increase or decrease. Each companion has personal preferences which you can learn about through talking to them. At higher levels of rapport, the companion will share more personal details with you and even allow you to unlock special quests unique to that companion! On the flip side, if the rapport bar drops too low, the companion will un-summon itself, since they don’t support your actions (you can re-summon them, but you’ll want to increase your rapport with them to prevent them from un-summoning at an inconvenient time). When your rapport with a companion gets high enough, they can also become a guest in your house!