Companion Abilities

Ability System Overview

Each companion has two active skills, one passive, and an ultimate unlocked at affinity tier 6. Actives cost action points in combat; passives apply on field, on bench, or at battle start depending on the description tag. Ultimates charge from damage dealt and taken — not from items.

Skills scale off listed stats (e.g., Insight scaling). Tooltips in-game round down; this wiki uses exact coefficients for planners. Cross-reference Combat Basics for AP costs and Turn-Based Tactics for turn order interactions.

Renna — Guard Lane

• Hold the Line (Active) — Taunt all enemies one turn; Renna gains Guard Up. Scales with Resolve.
• Punishing Arc (Active) — Single-target hit; bonus damage if enemy attacked Renna last turn.
• Steadfast (Passive) — Party-wide minor damage reduction while Renna is on field.
• Bulwark Ult — Full party Guard + reflect one elite attack.

Band tag with Orin: Oath Pair — +10% ult charge when both present.

Kael — Ranged Pressure

• Needle Shot (Active) — Ranged attack; applies Bleed if target is exposed.
• Suppress (Active) — Low damage; pushes target later in initiative.
• Hawkeye (Passive) — Hills crit chance +5% when Kael on field.
• Rain of Pins Ult — Multi-hit Bleed on all enemies.

Synergy with Pike traps: Bleed triggers trap bonus damage.

Suri — Support Sustain

• Mend (Active) — Single-target heal + regen; scales with Insight.
• Purify (Active) — Cleanse one debuff; minor heal if none present.
• Triage (Passive) — Bench: post-battle heal party 5% HP.
• Shelter Ult — Party regen and debuff immunity one turn.

Essential for bosses applying persistent poisons.

Dorian — Debuff Specialist

• Fracture Seal (Active) — Magic damage; reduces enemy guard value.
• Gravity Snare (Active) — Slow + minor damage; sets up Hills combo skills.
• Arcane Study (Passive) — Hills Insight +3 while Dorian active.
• Shatter Ult — AoE shield break; bonus vs nobles.

High Presence checks required outside combat — see Dorian recruitment.

Pike — Gadget Engineer

• Spring Trap (Active) — Places trap tile; triggers on enemy movement.
• Overclock (Active) — Next gadget skill refunds 1 AP on kill.
• Scrap Salvage (Passive) — Post-win bonus materials for crafting.
• Field Detonation Ult — Detonates all traps for burst AoE.

Pairs with Kael Bleed and Hills AoE finishers for mob clears.

Vessa — Stealth Striker

• Backstab (Active) — Bonus damage from flanking positions.
• Smoke Veil (Active) — Evasion up for one ally; drops if ally attacks.
• Opportunist (Passive) — Crit damage +15% vs debuffed enemies.
• Silent Reaping Ult — High crit burst; safe interrupt if Vessa acts first.

Positioning rules explained in Turn-Based Tactics.

Orin — Burst Paladin

• Judgment Strike (Active) — Heavy single hit; scales with Justice conviction.
• Rally Standard (Active) — Party attack up; minor heal.
• Inspiring Presence (Passive) — Bench: Hills Resolve +2.
• Dawn Break Ult — Massive damage + party cleanse once.

Late recruitment — plan Justice-aligned builds early.

Building Around Synergies

Tag families stack: Bleed + Trap, Debuff + Crit, Guard + Link (Micoco fights). Avoid redundant passives — two field-only damage buffs do not stack fully. When ultimates overlap, trigger Suri shelter before Orin burst to prevent recoil damage from certain boss auras.

Affinity Tier Upgrade Choices

At affinity tiers 3 and 5 each companion offers binary skill upgrades — pick one variant permanently. Renna tier 3: longer taunt vs stronger guard aura. Kael tier 3: deeper bleed vs longer suppress. Suri tier 5: single-target mega heal vs party small heal. Document picks on first playthrough; NG+ lets you experiment. Wrong picks rarely brick runs but slow boss kills by minutes of real time.

Tier 6 ultimates unlock automatically after final heart event — no branch choice.

Ability Scaling Math (Simplified)

Active damage skills use base + (scaling stat × coefficient). Example: Renna Punishing Arc at base 12 + Resolve×1.4. Guard skills use Resolve×0.8 mitigation before flat bonuses. Healing uses Insight×1.2 for Suri Mend. Ultimates multiply coefficients by 2.5–3.0 depending on character.

Accessory flat bonuses apply before multiplication — a +3 Insight pin therefore boosts not only checks but Mend throughput. When tooltips disagree by 1–2 damage, enemy resist is the culprit — nobles resist magic, constructs resist bleed as noted in Turn-Based Tactics.

Status Interaction Chart

Bleed stacks to 3; Poison stacks to 2 and overwrites weaker bleed on same target. Guard Up does not block Poison application but reduces direct hit damage. Exposed doubles crit chance from Vessa and Hills crit perks. Delay does not affect DoT ticks — they resolve on schedule regardless of initiative shift.

Cooldown and Charge Rules

Actives do not share a global cooldown — only per-skill once-per-fight limits on ultimates and Micoco-style interrupts. Charge-based ultimates fill from damage dealt; getting hit fills a smaller portion. Bench passives that mention "post-battle" proc only after victory, not after flee or wipe.

UI Tooltip Reading Tips

Hold inspect on any skill to see scaling stat, expected damage range, and tags like "Bleed" or "Link +". Gray numbers indicate resist active on last selected target — switch targets to compare. The combat log in pause menu stores last three turns for study after wipe.