Recruiting all of The Outer Worlds 2 companions will be one of your main goals while exploring Arcadia's moons and planets, strengthening your crew and what skills you have available. Just like the first game, companion abilities play a big role in combat, and party synergy has never been more important, especially with an upgrade system where you'll unlock additional perks for your companions as you level.
As you complete companion quests, you'll also unlock party upgrades you can craft, which change your companions' skills and the appearance of their gear. There are six companions to recruit overall, representing just about every faction you'll encounter in the game. They'll often conflict with each other, or with choices you make, and can potentially turn on you if you make a major misstep.
Can you romance your companions in The Outer Worlds 2?
Nope. You can't kiss your companions in The Outer Worlds 2. That's standard for Obsidian at this point though. There also weren't romances in Avowed (except there was kind of that Kai romance in Avowed). Obsidian has reiterated that no, you can't sleep with your mates in this one either. After having played the game for over 50 hours so far, I can confirm that there really are no romances this time, unless one is really well hidden or locked behind very specific conditions.
All Outer Worlds 2 companions
There are six companions altogether in The Outer Worlds 2, four of which you'll have to unlock yourself. I'll list them in their unlock order below, tell you a little about each, but also where you can find them and how to recruit them.
Niles
- Faction: Earth Directorate
- Skill: Niles taunts all enemies in an area around him. After, he fires three shots at the target, dealing increased damage.
- Unlock: Complete the intro
As your Earth Directorate colleague, Niles is kind of the main companion in The Outer Worlds 2 and shares many of your goals in the main story. He's a likeable yet somewhat grizzled gunslinger who joined the Earth Directorate to help the downtrodden, which means he's fairly opposed to both the corporatists of Auntie's Choice and the dictatorship of the Protectorate. You'll recruit Niles after you've completed the intro section on the space station. As companions go, his taunt ability can be pretty useful, especially in boss fights.
Valerie
- Faction: Earth Directorate
- Skill: Valerie fires a volley of syringes with healing drugs at you, applying a strong heal over time effect and massive damage reduction for a short duration.
- Unlock: Complete the intro
This Earth Directorate Automech is a pretty standard droid character—ideal if you want a fairly unobtrusive companion who makes occasional robo-quips. Since she has one of the few companion healing skills, she's a good support character for the early game, and you'll recruit her at the same time as Niles, once you've completed the intro section.
Inez
- Faction: Auntie's Choice
- Skill: Inez doesn't have a skill at first due to her failed graft, but you can choose one of two skills by completing her quest.
- Unlock: Meet her at the Ministry of Accuracy during Milverstreet or Kaur's quest, then recruit her back at the Fairfield town hall.
Inez is an ex-corporate super soldier who was part of an experimental "grafting" unit. Unfortunately, most of the soldiers died due to the experimental implants, and Inez's own graft, which you can see as a tiny arm on her back, also failed, leaving her in a desperate situation. Despite all this, Inez is staunchly pro-Auntie's Choice, so her opinions tend to conflict a bit with both Niles and Tristan.
One cool thing about Inez, though, is that by completing her quest to defeat the Skeleton Crabble and Raptidon Matriarch, you can choose one of their limbs to graft to her, giving you an option of two different skills. She can either:
- Fire off armour-piercing scalding shell shards if you give her the Skeleton Crabble limb
- Go invisible and come to heal you in emergencies with the Raptidon Matriarch limb
I personally prefer the Raptidon skill since healing is much rarer in terms of companion skills.
Tristan
- Faction: The Protectorate
- Skill: Tristan charges at his target, ending the charge with a powerful blow. The target and enemies nearby take massive damage from the hit and are knocked away. Additionally, all enemies in a moderate range around Tristan are taunted by him.
- Unlock: Meet Tristan in The 2nd Choice on Free Market Station and complete his quest at Golden Ridge.
This hammer-wielding juggernaut is an Arbiter of the Protectorate, essentially a judge, jury, and executioner with a strong sense of justice, even if he is allied to a cruel dictatorship he frequently finds himself disillusioned by. Despite his intimidating aura, Tristan is genuinely one of the funniest companions—a lovable and often oblivious fella who just likes smacking enemies with his hammer.
His anti-corporate beliefs may bring him into conflict with Inez a little bit, but for a character belonging to a mostly hostile faction, he's pretty chill. You can recruit Tristan on Free Market Station after you complete the story on Paradise Island.
Marisol
- Faction: The Order
- Skill: Using a gadget of her own design, she shoots energy at a specified target, stunning and showering them with magnetic energy. While the effect lasts, the target cannot move and all attacks against the target are critical hits.
- Unlock: Head to the Zyranium Refinery in Golden Ridge and complete the Beginning at the Endpoint quest, making sure to side with Initiate Alva.
Marisol is one of the trickiest companions to recruit because she's in disguise when you meet her. If you don't side with her during the quest, you can actually kill her and lose any opportunity to make her a companion at all. Just remember to side with Initiate Alva during the Beginning at the Endpoint quest at the Zyranium Refinery in Golden Ridge.
Though she appears to be a likable old lady at first, Marisol is part of a fanatical sect of Order assassins, killing in the name of grand plan—essentially what the Order calls its predictive path to a utopian future. Marisol isn't sadistic like Aza, but she has a long history of getting her hands dirty in the name of her cause. She also has a very strong skill, especially against bosses, or if you have a build that activates effects based on crits.
Aza
- Faction: The Glorious Dawn
- Skill: Aza uses her wrist-mounted explosive gadget, firing an explosive charge in a cone towards the location. Enemies hit take heavy physical damage and are staggered.
- Unlock: Free Aza from her cell upstairs in the Decommissioned Autonomous Extractorium in west Golden Ridge then agree to hunt down her fellow cultists.
This rift-worshipping cultist is the easiest companion to recruit, since all you need to do is either sneak into the Decommissioned Autonomous Extractorium in Golden Ridge, or fight your way in, and free her from her cell on the upper floor. Aza is your typical sadist character and loves inflicting violence upon others, but she isn't wanton—Aza believes that if you're going to be evil, you've got to do it right.
Despite the typical trope of the evil sadistic companion, I actually really like Aza, partly because I think the deadpan and dry delivery her VA uses is incredibly funny a lot of the time. She also has a very strong offensive skill with multiple charges, letting you blast enemies with an explosive cluster.
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