Companions in Knights of the Fallen Empire (KotFE)

I am now aiming to keep this post about KotFE companions updated now (as much as possible) when new and returning companions/followers are added. This post doesn’t cover Star Fortress recruitment as I haven’t embarked on much of that yet.

Feel free to contribute your own observations in the comments and I’ll try to add them to the post.

Companions Pre-KotFE

For anyone who joined SWTOR because of Knight of the Fallen Empire or just happened to join around this time, here’s a brief summary of companions before KotFE dropped.

Each major class of character (Consular, Knight, Smuggler, Trooper, Agent, Warrior, Inquisitor and Bounty Hunter) gained up to 5 companions through their core storyline.
Those companions had set roles they played i.e. Tank, DPS or Healing.
They geared up in almost the same way as your playable character did. So they could take a full set of adaptive gear, requiring the normal combination of Armorings, Mods and where appropriate, Enhancements. They also wielded weapons and could either dual wield, or sport a Focus, Shield, Generator, Scattergun and Knife (it’s possible I’ve missed some off-hand options). As wih you, they also could take an earpiece and two implants. The only difference really was that companions couldn’t equip Relics.
Due to the flexibility in gearing you could choose what you wanted them to major on – i.e. Power, Critical Rating, Surge Rating etc. So long as you used mods that suited their core skill (e.g. Cunning, Willpower, Strength and Aim) you were fine. And using Adaptive gear you could easily use Smuggler-looking gear on a Jedi Consular, if you wanted to.
Depending on gifts and conversation turns, your companions would gain or lose affection. Apart from taking a Love/Partner choice, their reactions were a bit Facebook-eque – they either liked what you did and said, or they disliked them. Some options could have no effect.
And lastly, depending on your characters level, you could send a limited number of companions off for Crew Skills missions (e.g. crafting, scavenging or missions).

And that was pretty much it. Each had a ‘story’ you could follow as you gained in affection. So it was a combination of flexibility in look and ability, but a restriction in their combat role.

So what are the changes to companions in KotFE?:

Change 1: Companion Mission Grade

The first KotFE Companion Change is that Companion Missions have added clarity. If you want to craft an item requiring Grade 2 components, you can see this more clearly now. Previously these were labelled in terms of your character level which was not massively useful considering (especially under the Epic Story Boost your level could easily outstrip where your crafting level was.

Companion Crafting Schematics – Out With The Old

I was unsure whether to put this in the KotFE Crafting Changes post or here. It works in either, so hope you don’t mind.

Any old schematics you had in your companion’s crafting list may now be moved to Archive. I say ‘may’, because not all of them have been. I know on my L65 Jedi Consular that some hilts, crystals and Relics have been moved.

You can still craft Archive Items if you want to. But most likely you’ll need a trip to the Crew Skills vendors on Fleet or on some of the planets to learn new schematics. Many items now require you to craft some ‘components’ first before you can compile them into final items. A bit long-winded but relatively straightforward.

KotFE - Archived Companion Crafting Schematics — KotFE – Archived Companion Crafting Schematics

Companions Return Partially Dressed!

After seeing a few in my guild thoroughly confused that some of their companions were with trousers, I logged into a character who hadn’t started KotFE yet – and voilà! Some were part dressed, some were completely dressed and some were…scantily clad, let’s say.

Most of your companion gear should be returned to you in your Inventory or if, like me, you didn’t have enough space, then you’ll find they’ve probably been returned by BioWare by mail. Which just leaves you with one problem – remembering which items of gear relate to which of your companions. As someone with Fibromyalgia and by definition, a poor memory, this has been taxing across my 13 characters!

Apparently some items had not been returned correctly, leading to the staff at BioWare having fun returning items by mail. I’m pretty sure some basic gear was ‘returned’ which I didn’t have, but – you know, free credits and all that!

Change 2: Gearing Your Companions

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand they have removed the flexibility to decide the skill ratings you used to be able to determine. On the other hand, you can save epic amounts of credits and ‘basic data crystals’ (previously Commendations).

No Item Mods Needs
What you will now find is that no item modifications, including those in weapons have any effect. Everything is purely aesthetic. So don’t waste valuable credits on GTN for function. You purely buy gear and weapons for how they look, and how they look alone.

No Head Gear Required
You’ll also see that where certain species don’t show head gear that none is required. So on Qyzen Fess (Consular) or Khem Val (Inquisitor) for example. You used to need to provide head gear for stat gain, but it was never shown. Now you don’t need to bother. And even if the slot is available, there is no requirement to use it – because no armoring gives stat improvements (I need to drill this into my own head to be honest!).

No Function-less Off-hand Items
I haven’t yet spotted an off-hand companion item which wasn’t a weapon. This means any other off-hand things such as Knives, Focusses (Focii?), Shields and Generators will just have to either be equipped by you, or binned at an in-game vendor. A bit annoying that they couldn’t unbind them to sell on GTN given that moddable shields were often 8 Commendations plus a further 8 to mod them, or 50k+ from GTN. But there you go, rant over. Move on!

No Droid Armour. Ever.
One of the aspects I’ve always thought lacked from SWTOR was a playable droid. From antics of C3PO to the semi-biological General Grievous, droids have always played a part in the Star Wars Franchise. The tech was in the game to create a playable droid, but it never materialised. And now, some of the most expensive gear on GTN, Moddable Droid armour has been removed completely. This means droids like C2-N2 or MK-4X can only equip a weapon (aesthetics only, of course) and the companion customisation mod. That is all. Disappointing really, but it is what it is.

You Can Choose Your Companion Combat Role

You can now choose your companion combat role!

This option kinda rocks, in my opinion! KotFE removes the restriction around combat role. This means if a mission is timed and requires a bigger DPS hit in the timeframe, you can switch your companion from Tank or Heals, to DPS. Or, if like me, you don’t want to spend a few seconds after each encounter healing up, then set your Tank to heal. They still deal damage, but you can keep going longer. Simply load the companion screen and select the role from the drop-down box in the top right. Job done!

What they want to do here is let you choose which companion you want to fight with based on preferance rather than the requirement for a skillset. This works better for the role-playing aspect where your character might ‘click’ with one companion rather than another. There’s no requirement to hit 100% affection with anyone – you know, like real life. And I think I like this change.

Followers, Other Companions and Contacts

NPCs are now classified as Followers, Companions and Contacts in KotFE

The NPCs you interact with are no longer either abstract NPCs or Companions. They are now classified as Followers (‘real’ companions as they were pre-KotFE), Other Companions (e.g. non-class companions like C2-N2) and Contacts (the others you come into contact with).

Some Contacts may become Followers through the Story and you can gain Influence with Contacts under the new Alliance System. So with discussion interactions you can see their positive/negative reactions in the same way as you can with Followers/Companions. So you can now gain/lose Influence with other NPCs which are now called Contacts.

Interactions are Deeper

Instead of purely a like/dislike system, you can now understand NPC/Follower reactions in a more detailed way. For example:

They appreciate that
They like your honesty
They greatly approve (or disapprove)
You amused them.

NPCs repond with a greater variety of emotions. This adds a more realistic complexity to interactions with those around you. And they don’t show you how much Influence you have gained/lost during conversations – that is only revealed at the end of the current mission.

But this extra depth creates a greater feeling of reality. You can never please everyone in life with all of your choices all of the time. And the same now applies in KotFE – perfectly logical and a change I welcome.

You Cannot Summon via Crafting/Missions Panel

A habit I’m still trying to break is summoning followers using the crafting panel. You can now only do this via the Followers panel.

Knights of the Fallen Empire Old Companions Returned

I’ve just added this section so please bear with me as I need to remind myself of the corresponding Alliance Missions

2V-R8 (Imperial Ship Droid) – no mission, just speak to him at the Alliance Base Cantina
Aric Jorgan (Trooper Companion) – Disavowed
Blizz (Bounty Hunter Companion) – Little Boss
C2-N2 (Republic Ship Droid) – Inflicting Comfort Mission
Doctor Lokin (Agent Companion) – A Kindly Old Monster – Gathering/Rakghoul Event Mission
Kaliyo (Agent Companion) – Anarchy in Paradise
M1-4X (Trooper Companion) – Warzone Mission – The Booming Vorcoder for Freedom
T7-01 (Knight Companion) – joins you in the early chapters of KotFE
Talos Drellik (Inquisitor Companion) – Fighting Power With Knowledge?
[Former Lieutenant] Pierce (Warrior Companion) – Warzone Mission
Qyzen Fess (Consular Companion) – Stalking the Score
Yu’un (Trooper Companion) – To Find a Findsman
Xalek (Inquisitor Companion) – Death Before Dishonor
Vette (Warrior Companion) – Profit and Plunder
Gault Rennow (Bounty Hunter Companion) – Profit and Plunder
Torian Cadera (Bounty Hunter Companion) – Mandlore’s Revenge
Broonmark (Warrior Companion) – The Last of His Kind (Alliance Alert)
Guss Tuno (Smuggler Companion) – Shining in the Darkness (Alliance Alert)
Malavai Quinn (Warrior Companion) – Iokath Storyline
Raina Temple (Agent Companion) – Traitor Among the Chiss

New KotFE Companion / Follower Recruitment

HK-55 –Arma Rasa (Subscribers Only)
Nico Okarr – Mixological Profiling

TL;DR – Companions in KotFE

Basically the companion system has seen a complete overhaul. You can only equip gear that affects how they look. People fall into different levels – Followers, Companions and Contacts. And the depth of interactions has been improved. Just don’t forget to clothe them will you?

Have I missed something? Add it to the comments!