Online:Companions

Companions is a system introduced with the Blackwood chapter. The player will be able to choose an NPC that will be able to build a relationship with, have a unique questline, and be able to aid the player everywhere except PvP and Solo Arenas. Fighting alongside your companion and taking actions they approve of will improve their effectiveness and allow you to build rapport, respectively. As you earn their trust and strengthen your bonds of fellowship, your companion may share personal quests with you. You may also give them companion-specific gear and customize them in a wide variety of ways, including setting their abilities, mounts, costumes, outfits and more.

Acquisition and Activation
If you have access to the Blackwood Chapter, you can unlock two companions through completing associated quests in the Blackwood zone. 

Bastian Hallix, a male Imperial Dragonknight, is found at Deepscorn Hollow along the southwest coast of Blackwood.
Mirri Elendis, a female Dunmer Nightblade, is found at Doomvault Vulpinaz in northern Blackwood.
Ember, a female Khajiit, has been announced with the High Isle Chapter.
Isobel, a female Breton, has been announced with the High Isle Chapter.
Once either objective is completed, the respective Companion collectible will be granted. You may have either a Companion or an Assistant active.

Restrictions and Limitations
In population-limited instances such as dungeons, group arenas and trials, each companion present counts toward the population cap as if they were a player.

Players will always take priority and companions will be auto-dismissed as players zone in. Companions cannot be summoned in PvP areas, solo arenas or in housing instances. They also cannot be summoned while you are in combat or if the summoning character has not yet completed the associated introductory quest, even if the collectible has been unlocked by another character.

If the relationship between the character and companion deteriorates into very low rapport states, the companion may voluntarily unsummon themselves and be unavailable to the associated character for a time.

Companion visibility may also be briefly suppressed in some situations where they are unable to navigate to your character, such as while swimming.

Interaction and Customization
To engage with your companion, simply initiate dialogue with them and select the Companion Menu dialogue option. This menu provides you with detailed information regarding the status of the companion, as well as tools for adjusting the companion's combat behavior and visual customization. 

Beyond the Companion Menu, dialogue with your companion is also a way to get to know them better and their responses will vary based on rapport, quest status, and other factors. The overview section of the companion character tab provides a summary of Companion information including level, slotted abilities, rapport status, companion perk details and outfit application status. 

Combat
Selecting the equipment option of the Companion character tab displays any companion equipment in your inventory which can be equipped on your companion via the display on the left. 

The skills tab of the Companion menu provides a list of available skill lines and associated abilities which may be slotted into the companion’s active ability bar. These abilities may have usage restrictions such as requiring a specific weapon type is equipped.

Companions attempt to use their abilities in priority order from left to right, if they have a valid target and meet any associated requirements of the ability. Companion abilities utilize a cooldown system to determine frequency of usage, with various companion abilities having an array of cooldown times.

Companions have a large pool of abilities available to them, which are thematically similar to abilities you may recognize from various skill lines. These abilities provide the opportunity to customize the companion's combat role including tanking, healing, damage, and any hybridization desired to perfectly complement their player's ability configuration. 

Cosmetic
Companions can be customized using many of your own cosmetic collectibles. This includes mounts, costumes and outfits. Companions have a default mount which they will utilize when you mount up, but this can be overridden through the Companion menu in the Collectibles tab.

Unlocked costumes may be applied through the Collectibles tab as well, with any associated applied dyes being shared across your character and companion's appearance per costume. Visiting an outfit station allows you to configure a dedicated outfit slot, with each companion having a dedicated slot per account. This outfit can be activated through the overview screen of the Companion UI.

Note that a companion's head armor is automatically hidden at all times and will not be displayed regardless of equipment or cosmetic override settings. Additionally, a small subset of mount, costume and outfit collectibles may not be usable by the companion based on gender, race, or other restrictions. 

Progression
With the exception of quests and rapport, which collectively represents the relationship between each character and the companion, all Companion progress is account-wide. 

Combat Level
Companions are level 1 when unlocked, with a limited set of ability bar slots and a maximum potential level of 20. Companions level up via experience gained with your character directly from combat.

Experience increasing effects such as holiday bonuses and consumable boosters applied to your character will provide an indirect benefit to the companion as well.

As companions gain combat levels, their health and overall power (which affects weapon and spell damage) increases automatically, additional ability bar slots unlock, and more class abilities become available. This includes an Ultimate slot and ability, which unlock at combat level 20. 

Skill Lines
Companions have access to several skill lines, each with associated abilities. Most companion skill lines have 3 active abilities which can be acquired through leveling up of that skill line.

Companion class skills resemble those of certain player classes (Dragonknight for Bastian, Nightblade for Mirri), but organized into separate skill lines suiting damage, tanking and healing. Companion armor skills are likewise broken down into light armor for healing, medium armor for damage, or heavy armor for tanking; this means that a companion who primarily uses spell damage attacks might be better equipped with medium armor, in contrast to player characters for whom light armor is optimal for spell damage.

Companion abilities do not require skill points to unlock and do not rank up or morph over time.
Class Skill lines all increase at the same rate as each other, and similar to the combat level of the companion. Unlike player character class skill lines, slotting skill(s) from a line does not impact on the rate at which it levels.
Weapon skill lines increase through combat experience based on the equipped weapon(s).
Armor skill lines increase through combat experience based on the equipped weight of the armor on the companion. Unlike player armor skill lines, an armor skill level will only increase if 5 or more armor pieces of that weight are equipped, meaning only one armor skill can be levelled at a time.
Guild skill lines increase through completing specific solo daily quests associated with the guild, for the active companion. Each solo daily quest is worth 50 experience each, and each level requires 100 experience to level.  Guild levels have a max of 11.
Racial skill lines do not include active abilities and are immediately applied based on the race of the companion. 

Each companion unlocks with some progress in skill lines based on their background, as well as with multiple combat abilities pre-slotted so they are immediately combat ready. These may be changed as desired.



Rapport
All companions have strong personal preferences, which you can learn about through dialogue and experimentation in the world. Based on your actions in the world, while a companion is active to observe them, their opinion of you may be raised or lowered. Rapport adjustments are displayed in real time in the loot stream, and most actions that affect rapport have limitations on how often they can be triggered.

As rapport increases or falls, various thresholds will be met, with corresponding changes in the companion's dialogue with you. The numeric value of a companion's rapport is usually hidden from the player, but can be inferred from the rapport status in the overview window of the Companion UI, and its exact value can be exposed by certain add-ons on PC or Mac.



When you first meet a companion, they will have a Cordial status with 750 rapport. When Friendly status is reached, the companion will be inclined to share personal information with you and ask you for your assistance with associated quests. When the lower tier is reached, the companion may choose to part ways with you for a certain amount of time.

Mirri Likes/Dislikes

For a more updated list, see her specific article.



Bastian Likes/Dislikes



Equipment and Sourcing
Companion equipment is distinct from player gear with no overlap between them. Companion gear unlocks with a set of untraited white equipment based on their background.

Bastian begins wearing Medium Armor and a Destruction Staff 
Mirri starts off with Light Armor and a Bow. 

Companion equipment does not include level, cannot be enchanted, does not require repairs and does not include an inherent style appearance, but instead inherits the style of the companion it's applied to. 

White companion equipment can be purchased from Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Armorer, Leatherworker, and Tailor merchants throughout the world, allowing you to customize your companion role accordingly.

Fine (green), superior (blue) and epic (purple) quality companion equipment with traits are obtained from monster drops throughout the world, particularly from bosses. This equipment can be traded so it can be bought and sold on the market. 

Equipment above white quality also comes with companion-centric traits:

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)

Quests and Rewards
In addition to the Blackwood quest objective which introduces and unlocks the respective companions, each companion has two associated personal side quests which will become available to you once a sufficient rapport has been established. 

Completing the second companion quest will unlock a houseguest collectible of the companion, allowing them to be placed and utilized similarly to other houseguest collectibles.

Completing any Companion side quest will result in a large rapport boost. 

Perks and Keepsakes
Each companion has a unique associated non-combat perk which benefits you while active. 

'''Mirri's Expertise: Treasure Chests found through Treasure Maps and in the Overland have a 30% chance to provide additional loot from hidden compartments. The treasure from these hidden compartments may contain additional gold, sellables or recipes.
Bastian's Insight''': Potions looted from chests and monsters have a 30% chance to be improved by Bastian's Insight. 

By completing meta-achievements associated with each companion, you can unlock a keepsake collectible for each companion which provides the benefits of the non-combat perk even while the companion isn't active. 
These collectibles are located under the Upgrades section of the Collections menu. 

Responsiveness and Miscellaneous Items
Companions can respond to a wide array of situations that occur while adventuring with you, both in and out of combat. While they will always respond to some critical triggers, you can adjust the frequency your companion will vocally respond by opening the settings menu, selecting gameplay, and adjusting the "Companion Reactions" setting to Infrequent, Normal, and Frequent.
 
Beyond ability and equipment selection, companions can also be directed in battle in a couple additional ways.
While companions will always attempt to engage in combat to support you, utilizing pet commands allows you to direct the companion to engage with specific targets or to pull back, respectively.

By default, hold Y and left or right clicking on mouse and keyboard, or press L3+R3 along with the left or right bumper on gamepad.
Additionally, companions will utilize their Ultimate when available and conditions are met by default. However, you can choose to have them wait until directed to utilize it.

The Companion Ultimate Auto Cast setting in gameplay section of the settings menu allows you to set the companion to wait until they are directed to use their Ultimate by clicking on the new Ultimate icon which is present next to your hotkey bar when a companion is active on keyboard, or pressing L3+R3 with no bumper input on gamepad. 

Companions will also attempt to block incoming heavy attacks, interrupt some abilities and break free from crowd control effects. However, their timing is not always perfect, and they do have a cooldown between uses of these actions. 

If a companion dies in battle, they can be revived using a soul gem, similar to reviving other players. Any companion who is still defeated at the end of combat will recover within a few seconds of battle concluding.