The 5 Best Companions in Starfield

#5: Vasco

Vasco joins your party early on. He’s a companionship and exploration-based robot that belongs to the Constellation organization, and will likely be your initial companion for quite a while. Reminiscent of Cogsworth from Fallout 4, Vasco is capable of speaking a wide variety of player names, giving the early game a strange level of immersion while Vasco is around. Provided you haven’t chosen a very dumb name, that is.

Vasco doesn’t have a unique mission chain or romance options, given that he is just a robot programmed to assist the members of Constellation, and not truly a sentient being in his own right. He will, however, accompany you through almost the entire prologue. Vasco joins you during the mining operation where you’re attacked by pirates and is locked in as your companion until you reach the Constellation Lodge during the mission “One Small Step”.

Vasco is good at being a starship crew member, with skills in Aneutronic Fusion (one point), Shield Systems (two points), and EM Weapon Systems (one point). Respectively, these skills add more power to your ship systems, help you regain shields more quickly, and allow you to do more damage with electromagnetic weapons in your ship. This makes Vasco one of the best all-around crew members to be staffed on board your initial ship crew.

#4: Sam Coe

Sam Coe is the descendant of the founder of Akila City, Solomon Coe. He used to be a Freestar Ranger. You recruit Sam Coe by helping him finish a mission back in Akila City. After finding the Constellation Lodge, you’ll get a chance to talk with Sam, who will send you to go diffuse a hostage situation on his home planet. When you meet him there, he will be locked in as your companion until the end of the mission.

Join Sam on his way to the bank to recover the maps left to him by his ancestors, while also taking down the bank robbers that have occupied the bank, whether by persuading them to leave the hostages alone and leave peacefully, or by stealthfully gunning them down before they have a chance to harm any innocents. You can then secure the maps you need from the basement. Sam will be available as a recruitable companion back at the Lodge once you return there to turn in your findings.

He’s great at a wide variety of skills, including being one of the best pilots in the game which adds to your ship speed, as well as being able to increase the cargo capacity of your ship via the Payloads skill. He’s great on the ground too, with a very high Rifle Certification skill and a point in Geology that will gift you with stones every so often.

Sam prefers honorable solutions to your problems and has respect for heroic choices like volunteering to save the hostages for the sake of defending innocents in need. He has a child with another Freestar Ranger, Lillian Hart, although they are now separated. He prefers that you speak with grace and kindness about his former partner, and once you’ve got enough reputation points with him, he will ask you to go help Lillian on behalf of his daughter Cora. Complete this quest, “Matters of the Hart” to unlock the possibility of marriage with Sam Coe.

#3: Sarah Morgan

Sarah Morgan is one of the mainstay companions of the game, as she holds the position of leader of Constellation, the organization you join that is attempting to piece together the mysteries of the wide, strange universe you live in. She will join your party rather quickly in the game. She’s had a wide and varied background, having been a rock band drummer as a youth, and a ship navigator during the Colony War, before finally becoming the head of Constellation. She’ll join your crew officially after you complete the mission called “The Old Neighborhood”.

Sarah is good at a wide range of skills that make her one of the best all-around companions in the game for exploring the wide world of Starfield. When you’re first heading to a brand new system, Sarah is one of the best companions to have with you, since her Astrodynamics skill reduces the grav fuel cost of skipping between systems. She’s great on the ground with a high Lasers skill that lets her do more damage with that weapon type, as well as her Leadership skill that gives you an additional crew spot when she is assigned to an outpost or ship interior. Leadership also lets you gain affinity with her more quickly than other companions. Lastly, her skill in Botany means she will often give you edible plants as gifts.

Sarah likes patient, kind, intelligent choices and dislikes violent solutions to your problems, especially hating the killing of innocent people. Once you’ve gained enough reputation with her, Sarah can offer a special personal mission to fly back to a particular region from her past, a companion quest called “In Memoriam”. You’ll need to go back to a planet where Sarah was involved in a starship crash and survived, while other members of her crew did not. Finishing this quest will unlock “Allyship” with Sarah, allowing you to start your way toward romancing and eventually marrying her.

#2: Barrett

Barrett is another member of Constellation who joins your party fairly early in the game, an engineer in pursuit of knowledge who follows you into the stars. His deceased husband Ervin is the subject of a lawsuit regarding predatory animals that were unleashed on a distant planet. He joins the party very quickly at the beginning of the game in the “One Small Step” mission.

As a very capable engineer, Barrett is good at the Starship Engineering skill that enhances how quickly he can repair your ship if it is damaged in combat. He’s one of the best crew members in the game in that regard and can save you lots of credits over the course of the game by working on your ship’s hull. He’s also great with Particle Beam Weapon Systems, boosting the damage and recharge rate of that weapon category. Robotics let him do increased damage to bots and turrets if he’s backing you up on the ground, and his skill with gastronomy lets him hand you a healing food item regularly.

You convince Barrett to become an ally, and possible romantic companion, by first having him around as a companion long enough to discuss his previous marriage and the need to clear his late husband’s name. He’ll mention Gagarin, and you’ll need to agree that you wish to investigate. This will launch the “Breach of Contract” quest where you’ll need to land on that planet and gather evidence to clear Ervin of any wrongdoing. Completing this will unlock an opportunity to take Barrett as your ally.

#1: Andreja

Andreja is a member of Constellation and represents a defector from House Va’ruun, a theocratic, interstellar cult based around the worship of a deity called the Great Serpent. Andreja rejects the Va’ruun Zealots, fanatics who embrace a genocidal version of the scripture. She’s widely regarded as the best companion in the game for having an incredibly interesting storyline and background, along with some of the best voice acting in the game among her many interesting lines. She’s also more morally gray than many of the other companions, meaning your player character can likely get away with a lot more without upsetting her.

Andreja is one of the best on-the-ground companions due to her skills with particle beam weapons, along with having a high stealth skill that will allow her to creep around unnoticed when you wish to take a more tactical approach. All constellation companions will give you an item from time to time, all different based on their skill sets. Andreja with her thievery skill will just hand you credits sometimes, a more versatile reward than the other options available from other companions.

Travel with Andreja regularly enough to unlock new dialogue options as you get to know her. You’ll get a chance to hear about her past, how she had to abandon two friends long ago on a distant planet. This will start the “Divided Loyalties” questline, which will draw you to Akila City in the Freestar Collective, before sending you on a chase across the galaxy to various other planets while you attempt to help right the wrongs of Andreja’s past. Finishing this questline will upgrade her to Ally status and allow you to begin the process of romancing her.