There are six companions you can get in The Outer Worlds. You can get them through the main story and the two DLCs. But how do they compare to one another?
From the start, The Outer Worlds makes a few things very clear. One, living in a universe run by corporations would be terrible, as in horrible, soul-crushingly terrible. And two, the Companions in this game are the best that Obsidian has ever made, both in terms of how they are written and how they help in combat as a whole. But their true strengths and weaknesses don’t become clear until the player character has done all of their side quests and been with them for a long time.
So, to help new players or people who want to play again while waiting for the next part of the game, let’s go over the 6 followers you can get in The Outer Worlds and rank them. Keep in mind that each Companion is good at and bad at different things, so the “best” Companion may not be the best one for some player character builds.
Felix Millstone
Felix is a kid who grew up in the back bays of the Groundbreaker, where he watched ships and stars go by all the time. Felix stowed away on the Unreliable because of this “wonder” he has, and he eventually joined the Stranger’s party. So, Felix’s dream is to run around in the dirt, grime, and blood killing all kinds of people and animals. And this is exactly why he’ll do anything to help his friends, feet first, even if it means charging his mostly empty brain. Felix is a lot of fun to be around, and he has some of the funniest conversations with the other Companions.
Now, this all sounds great, but why is he at the bottom of the list? Well, Felix isn’t the best Companion in terms of how to play the game. His biggest benefit is the flat bonus to Persuade, but his Perks are very specific and really only help in a “good” playthrough. And even though his Dropkick ability is almost always funny to watch, it’s almost never useful. This makes him one of the worst Companions to bring to a fight, especially if he doesn’t have a strong melee weapon.
Ellie Fenhill
Fans don’t always agree on how they feel about Ellie. Many people don’t like her “sociopathic, uncaring” persona, but it fits the mood of The Outer Worlds very well. Ellie is just like Nyoka without the sugar, and Nyoka can’t even be called sweet. Still, the dialogue choices in her questline are some of the funniest in the game.
Ellie’s game play is somewhere between “okay” and “pretty good.” Her Medical flat bonus perk is good, her First Responder perk is amazing, and being able to do CPR could save someone’s life. But her ability, Quick Draw, is just a little bit better than Felix’s useless dropkick. It looks great, but both the “Disarm” and “Bleed” status effects are completely immune to a lot of enemy types. This makes the ability a lot less useful. And, in general, Ellie’s damage output in battle seems to be “passable,” but nowhere near what SAM or Nyoka can do. Because their stat spreads are so similar, Ellie is the best choice for players who would normally choose Nyoka but aren’t good at sneaking. She’s great for Tinkerers, but she’s just “okay” in battle.
The Sanitation And Maintenance Automechanical Known As “SAM”
SAM is the best in terms of raw power and how useful it is in battle. It is, after all, a heavily armored robot, and robots are often better at fighting than soft humans. But SAM is the worst in terms of writing and “character” as a whole. Its gimmick is that it’s a mindless cleaning robot, and the fact that it talks about cleaning while killing people is funny at first, but that only lasts so long.
But SAM doesn’t have a personality of its own, which is a funny trade-off. It is a robot, so it has no history, no goals, and no real “drive.” So, the only reason SAM is ranked so high is because it has some pretty good Perks and a great ability in Decontaminate, but as a “character,” it doesn’t do much. And let’s not forget that because SAM is a real robot, players can’t swap out its equipment like they can with the other Companions. This means that as players face harder and harder enemies, SAM becomes less useful.
Nyoka Ramnarim-Wentworth III
Nyoka is a real gem, and he is the typical “skilled but always drunk” mercenary in these kinds of games. She is always sincere, loud, and a little bit cheeky. In all honesty, if Ellie was a little more “open” about how she felt, they’d be much better friends. As it is, though, they depend on each other but are always fighting. She’s pretty great, to be honest. The bonus to the Medical skill is a bit strange when her other two are Sneak and Lie, but almost everything else Nyoka gives is good. Since about half of the game is made up of creatures, her Exterminator Perk is great. The flat bonus to Lie is great for a sneaky rogue-type player character, and the Hunter Perk is a huge boost to sneaking in general.
Her ability, “Barrage,” does nothing but damage. Nyoka drinks her flask of booze and fires her LMG, which is already a great long-range weapon, at her enemies, lowering their Armor Rating for a short time and setting them on fire. It’s a very simple ability, so it doesn’t do strange things with different types of enemies. For example, Ellie’s Quick Draw ability doesn’t really Disarm or Bleed mechanical enemies. Only in her writing does Nyoka fall short. Even though she has some great lines and is one of the only companions on the Unreliable to do the “job” they were hired for, she’s not very interesting as a character. Still, a very helpful Companion that adds a lot to the Outer Worlds as a whole.
Maximillian De Soto AKA “Vicar Max”
At first, most players didn’t like Vicar Max very much. His nihilistic sarcasm gets old pretty quickly, as it seems more fitting for a zombie dystopian game than a corporate one. But as more planets are unlocked and Max’s “tragic” past is revealed, most people tend to change their minds about him. Max is incredibly stubborn and grumpy, but that changes after he completes his Companion quest. He is also very different from the other Companions.
Max is a pretty good game in terms of how it works. Most builds are great with the Hack bonus, Sermon isn’t worth much, and Mad Max is great for Science Weapon users. But Max’s ability to Trickshot is almost the only reason he is so high on the rankings. This shotgun blast knocks opponents down and weakens them, which are two of the best ways to stop them from doing damage. When someone gets knocked down, they can’t do anything for a few seconds while they get back up. This is usually long enough for players to fire almost a full clip into them. Weakening them just makes them take more damage that isn’t physical, which is good for most Science Weapons. It’s probably the best companion ability in Flappy Bird game, so it’s no surprise that Maximillian De Soto is second on the list. He also has pretty good advantages in every other category.
Parvati Holcomb
Anyone who has even a little bit of experience with The Outer Worlds probably saw this coming. How could anyone NOT choose Parvati as the best? From the moment the Stranger meets her in Edgewater, Parvati is such a joy. Let’s be honest, she’s just Kaylee from Firefly, but with a bit of a “asexual flair.” Parvati is a great example of a character in a game who represents LGBTQ+ people in a great way, and she’s also very useful in battle. She not only gives a flat bonus to Engineering, but she also makes it easier for the player to find Mods while looting, and (most importantly) whenever she uses her ability, the Tactical Time Dilation meter goes down. This last Perk is almost too good to be true. Tactical Time Dilation is like VATS from Fallout in this game, so anything that shortens the time it takes to use it is a huge help.
Not only that, but Overload, one of Parvati’s skills, is pretty much the best. It can be debated whether hers or Vicar Max’s is better, but they are both great in their own ways. Overload knocks down enemies, stuns them, and even stuns enemies that move on their own. Knockdown is a great disease, Shock is also good, and the extra stun on robots is very useful. Plus, because it does Shock damage, it’s great for the harder mechanical fights early in the game. At the end of the day, a player’s choice of Companion tends to depend more on their personality and personal preferences, and it seems like Parvati was left waiting on the ship very rarely during most people’s playthroughs.
Spacer’s Choice Edition of The Outer Worlds came out on March 7 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.