SWTOR Companion Conversation Guide

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Star Wars: The Old Republic offers each of the game’s classes their own troupe of companions. These companions will have differing levels of influence and affection with the player, denoting that person’s general opinion of you. While the primary way to influence these values is via gifts, another equally important method is conversations. With that in mind, we’ve put together a guide to help you understand how to get the most out of a conversation with your companion in SWTOR.

At first, it can be tricky to learn how this conversation affection system works and what exactly goes into it. Each companion is unique and the “correct” answer isn’t always obvious. But you’ll definitely want to make the most of these conversations to increase your influence and their affection for a multitude of reasons.

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Guide to Companion Conversation in SWTOR

If the name didn’t make it obvious, this system revolves around conversations with your companions. To make our explanation of this system easier, we’ll be specifically using Kira Carsen, the Jedi Knight companion.

The Basics

It should be noted that even though we’re focusing on Kira specifically, the system works the same for all companions. The only exception to this is both factions’ complimentary butler droids, who have no conversation affection system.

To begin utilizing this system to the fullest, you’ll need to complete your class’ prologue and acquire your ship. After doing so, your companions will claim their own spots on the vessel. If they have an orange icon above their head, this means you may initiate a personal conversation with them.

During these conversations, the responses you give to their statements will determine whether you gain or lose affection. Not all responses garner a loss or gain, but it’s important that you pay attention to what you say.

What Companions Like & Responses

Generally, companions like it if you support them and are kind to them. However, this doesn’t apply to all of them. It’s up to you to be attentive to their personality and decipher what they’ll like and dislike. That said, there is also a nifty, somewhat hidden menu which can greatly assist in these efforts.

By default, pressing the N key will bring out the Companions menu. In this menu, you’ll see a list of all your companions. Here, you can set their combat role, check their influence level, have them auto sell all your junk, or summon a different companion.

Additionally, each follower has their own personal bio for you to read, and if you scroll to the bottom of this list, you’ll see a list of likes and dislikes. For demonstration, here’s Kira’s list.

Reading these lists will give you a much better of idea of what and what not to say to and around the companions you want to befriend.

Let’s move back to the conversations proper. As you can see here, our character has selected a response which Kira likes. A small message saying “Kira Carsen approves” appears at the bottom of the screen, meaning affection has been gained. If the character had responded in a way Kira did not like, the message would read “Kira Carsen disapproves.”

Rewards from Conversations

This is the general formula for the companion conversation affection system. If you say things your follower likes, they will have higher affection levels, be kinder to you, be more effective in battle, and have better crew skills.

You can also gain access to their personal quest chains to help them out and further deepen your connection with them. In some cases, having a high enough affection will even open up a potential romance option with certain companions.

Affection Gains & Losses

Notably, the companion conversation affection system doesn’t just apply to their on-ship personal conversations. As long as that companion is present for a conversation, you will be gaining or losing affection based on your responses.

However, this rule does not apply to major story decisions. In the case of major story decisions (which typically come at the end of planets or class questline chapters), every companion will gain or lose influence depending on your choice, regardless of whether or not they actually witness it.

In the above image, both T7-01 and Kira were present for this conversation. As a result, they are both checking influence on the player’s dialogue choices. As you can see from this specific example, Kira gains influence while T7 loses some, all from the same dialogue option.

To track exactly how much influence the companions are losing and gaining, the exact numbers will be displayed on the Post Mission Report on completion of a quest.

Although both companions gained influence, Kira gained far more. Naturally, this is because the player selected dialogue options which Kira liked more than T7-01 did. Utilizing this tool in conjunction with the in-conversation pop ups, as well as the companion menu, will assist players in seeing just how much they’ve managed to befriend or scorn their allies.

As we mentioned earlier, the companion dialogue affection system is something all players will want to pay attention to. Whether you’re a roleplayer looking to romance your favorite companion or a min-maxer trying to optimize follower abilities.

Either way, keeping a sharp eye on how much your companions like you is important and beneficial. The system can be a little hard to figure out at first, but it’s simple and easy to follow once you learn it. Knowing how to utilize the game’s affection system is sure to help you become the galaxy’s greatest smooth talker.

Join the High Ground!

And that wraps up our guide on how to make the most of a conversation with your companion in SWTOR. You should hopefully be prepared to go make friends with all the crew members you pick up along your journey.

Do you have any more thoughts on the matter? Who’s your favorite companion to chat with? Let us know via the comments below or share this post on social media. And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more Star Wars: The Old Republic guides and gaming content.

Happy gaming, and may the Force be with you!