Overview: Companions offer great utility to a Tenno, bringing bursts of stealth, item collection, shield recharge and healing functionality – but you can only bring one at a time.

Once you’ve picked a companion, you’ll need to level them to get mod capacity and unlock their full potential. The best way to get affinity for your companions is to take them into a public match, since they will receive a share of the affinity generated by other players. Like any other “item” each type or breed of companion and companion weapon will provide mastery the first time you level them to 30, and you can use forma to add additional polarities.

Robotic – Sentinel: These easy to acquire pets hover above your shoulder, shooting nearby alert enemies. Probably the best choice for pure utility, they are the most fragile companion type and cannot be revived in mission – though some mods will allow extra lives. Each sentinel has unique mods (called precepts) that give abilities – Helios will scan nearby targets and add them to your codex, Shade will turn you invisible when an enemy gets close, and so on. Check out Cephalon Simaris for extra precept mods.

• Carrier: Market, convert and store extra ammo, break containers.
• Dethcube: Market, stun and irradiate nearby enemies, generate energy orbs.
• Diriga: Market, shock groups of nearby enemies, or stun a single target.
• Djinn: Clan Bio Lab, taunt and control enemies, self-resurrect after 90 seconds.
• Helios: Clan Energy Lab, scan nearby enemies, generate weak spots.
• Nautilus: Neptune Proxima, repair Railjack damage, pull enemies into groups.
• Oxylus: Fortuna, scan for resources, highlight fish.
• Shade: Market, invisibility when close to enemies, ambush damage bonus.
• Taxon: Market, radial damage and shield boost.
• Wyrm: Market, radial knockback, cure negative status effects.

Robotic – MOA: Modular companions from Fortuna, these offer a halfway house between sentinel and beast companions. There are four different Models, and you can freely swap the precepts (mods that crant special abilities) they come with – so build one of each model to unlock all options. MOA can use powerful “Link” mods to copy your shields, armour and health for extreme durability – especially if using the Blast Shield precept available from the Nychus.

• Lambeo: Deploy a defensive status field or a damaging shock-wave.
• Olero: Perform hacks or keep you aloft with a tractor beam.
• Para: Launch enemies skyward or drag them onto a mine.
• Nychus: Leap at enemies to gain overshield or perform vicious kicks.

Robotic – Weapons: Robotic companions can mount a robotic weapon – a lot less powerful than anything you wield, but still capable of making a difference. All sentinels come with one, and a few more options can be bought in Fortuna, but I would recommend looking into the Sweeper (Carrier) or Deth Machine Rifle (Dethcube) as cheap, effective options.

Beast – Kavat: Scan wild kavats to gain DNA, and you can incubate one of these sly predators. Smeeta and Adarza breeds can provide critical hit chance boosts, as well as removing armour from opponents with the Sharpened Claws mod. Thanks to the link mods, they can also share your armour, health and shields, but be warned – you will need a lot of forma to kit one out. Cetus merchants may sell alternate skins for in-game resources, so check them out whenever you wander through!

Beast – Vasca: Wild Kavats on the Plains of Eidolon can infect your kavat with the Vasca virus – you’ll see a red glow on your pet when afflicted. Any imprints you take from an infected kavat will carry a strain of the virus and can produce a Vasca kavat. These little vampires can steal health from enemies and revive you mid-mission!

Beast – Kubrow: Complete “Howl of the Kubrow” in your quest log to gain access to one of these canine killers. Very durable due to link mods, they seems somewhat inferior to kavats in terms of damage, but do have some interesting special abilities – digging up resources, for example. Check Cetus merchants for alternate skins, and remember to equip a collar for bonus stats!

Beast – Helminth Charger: Contaminate a kubrow egg with a mature cyst (the pink growth that appears on your frame) to breed this little nightmare. Sharing the pros and cons of a kubrow, this creature can drag targets to itself before trampling them. Consider equipping a seasonal party hat for fashion! You can buy the Degenerate skin on the market for 10k credits, making your Helminth resemble an infested charger!

Beast – Vulpaphyla: Capture weakened wild vulpaphyla on the Cambion Drift (Deimos) then ask “Son” at the Necralisk to revivify them with a mutagen and antigen to create one of these strange infested foxes. They come in three breeds, crescent vulpaphyla charge foes and launch them skywards, panzer vulpaphyla spit contagious viral quills and sly vulpaphyla grant their master a chance to evade damage. All vulpaphyla come with a “devolution” mod that reverts them to a larval state when taking fatal damage instead of dying, and allows them to return to normal after a short wait.

Beast – Predasite:: Capture weakened wild predasites on the Cambion Drift (Deimos) and provide them to “Son” in the Necralisk with an antigen and mutagen to obtain one of these pharaonic hounds. The vizer predasite can spit blind foes with corrosive acid and heal allies, the medjay predasite can infect foes with paralytic spores or deal an infectious bite while a pharaoh predasite can boost toxin damage or bind targets together with viral tentacles.