It’s a vast universe out there in Starfield, and you don’t have to explore it alone. Unfortunately, you can only choose one companion to take into the field with you, so you might need a ranking of companions, or even a tier list.
After spending time with every companion in the game, I’ve compiled all of Starfield’s companions ranked from worst to best to help get a sense of the options. Keep in mind that these rankings may vary depending on what you value in a companion, and you may inexplicably end up thinking Sarah is the best for some unfathomable reason.
All Starfield companions ranked from worst to best
This may help you narrow down who to take along with you on your adventures and who to relegate to benchwarming duty on your ship.
7) The Worst Starfield Companion: Generic Companions
Yes, all of them. They’re the worst companions in Starfield because they just aren’t fleshed out enough to be interesting companions. These folks exist as Todd’s justification for marketing the game as having over 20 companions, but in reality, they’re essentially just another iteration of Skyrim‘s hirelings. They can be found all over the Settled Systems and hired for an exorbitant price of 18,000 credits, but rarely do they possess the skills that justify the price tag.
Add that to the fact that they have maybe ten unique lines of dialogue each, no affinity system, and no way to meaningfully interact with them beyond using them as a meat shield, and they’re quickly outclassed by literally every other option. They do get points for being mostly cool with murder, though. You think Mickey Caviar cares about your war crimes? Look in his eyes. That’s a man who’s given up his soul a long, long time ago.
There are plenty of companions in this category that are enjoyable and fleshed out during quests that you’ll complete with them, Heller and Rafael Aguerro, for example, but it’s disappointing to see them go from interesting characters with plenty to say to repeating the same few lines over and over.
6) Sarah Morgan
As the de facto leader of Constellation, Sarah Morgan is idealistic, curious, adventurous… and really, really boring. She’s a total wet blanket built for lawful good characters, which means that if you so much as think about stealing something, you’re soon going to have “Sarah disliked that” burned into the upper right corner of your screen. She just looks like the kind of person who would bring unseasoned potato salad to a potluck and then scream into her pillow later when no one touches it. No, Sarah, I don’t want to watch Gilligan’s Island with you right now.
Does she have a wonderfully wistful fondness for exploring the depths of space and adventure? Of course. Does her voice actor, Emily O’Brien, do a fantastic job? Absolutely! It’s just a sad fact that Sarah doesn’t enjoy seeing you live out your space-venturing fantasies if they involve anything other than complete adherence to pesky laws.
5) Adoring Fan
By Azura, by Azura, by Azura! I know, you didn’t expect to see this guy beating anyone out, especially not the woman literally on the cover of the game, but at least Mr. Fan has a personality. Even if that personality revolves around you and worshipping everything you do.
Some might find him to be immensely grating, but there’s a chance that you could find his nearly endless stream of unique praise to be an enjoyable and maybe even endearing quality. You can get him for free, even, and he’s too blinded by his devotion to you to cast judgment on you for your actions, making him an extremely worthy companion for the early game if you can look past his incessant dialogue.
Plus, if I’m honest, he really helps the ol’ self-esteem.
4) Barrett
Barret’s a cool guy, but all the quips eventually wore on me. As the first member of Constellation you meet, he makes a strong first impression early on by giving you, a complete stranger, his ship and robot for next to no reason and willingly resigns himself to working a dangerous mining job until you come back to get him 20 hours of gameplay later.
That’s just the kind of guy he is: Barrett is the wacky choice, an eccentric scientist who’ll do what he needs to to get the job done. The act does start to wear thin after a while, though, and it may be best to keep him on your ship as opposed to the field for the benefits of his maxed Starship Engineering skill. You don’t always have to be on all the time, Barrett.
Of course, if you like the idea of an endless stream of dad jokes, Barrett is the choice for you. He’s also got some of the most entertaining dialogue when it comes to companions speaking with quest NPCs.
3) Vasco
Ah, yes, Vasco: The Dogmeat of space. Vasco is the optimal choice for players who want a companion that truly does not care. Kill a guy, take the clothes off his corpse, wear them to defraud his family out of their last few credits? Vasco’s got your back all the way.
He’s the true neutral of this list and can even say your name, much like Codsworth in Fallout 4, but he gets points taken off for his inexplicable love of wedging his big rectangular robot body right into your line of fire every single time without fail. I’m trying to shoot the bad guys here, Vasco! Go work on your jokes or something.
Vasco is just a delight to have around. He’s polite, hardworking, helpful, and the way that he taunts enemies in a fight never gets old. Yes, Vasco, your firepower does exceed the enemy’s.
2) Sam Coe
Sam Coe is a bona fide space cowboy, which is probably the coolest possible combination of words in the entire English language. His voice is smooth as butter, his skills make him a great all-rounder, and if that’s not enough, he moves his daughter into your ship if you recruit him, injecting far more life into your crew dynamic. Unfortunately, you can’t take ten-year-old Cora Coe into the field with you—I think it’d be a good strategy, given that this is a Bethesda game and children are invincible warriors in this universe as a result, but no, you’re forced to bend the knee to “responsible parenting” instead.
1) The Best Starfield Companion: Andreja
Andreja is the best companion in Starfield because she packs a punch in a fight and doesn’t mind if you do a bit of pickpocketing or murder here or there. In all honesty, being the only companion with a maxed-out Stealth perk rockets her to the top of this list. No more will you have someone stepping all over your toes and alerting guards when you’re just trying to get through the Ryujin questline in peace.
Andreja also has a more complicated backstory than the other companions that I personally found the most compelling of the bunch and stands out in a galaxy full of optimistic idealogues—plus, her personal quest hints at a potential direction Bethesda could go in with a Starfield sequel, should the studio release one in the next 20 years.
Not only is Andreja nice to have around because of how little she judges you for the occasional possibly illegal activity, but her lack of social skills and general awkwardness are pretty endearing. She’s great when it comes to stealthily killing swarms of enemies, but she’s not too helpful when making conversation at a party.
If you want someone who’ll stay out of your way, give your ship weapons a boost, and not complain when you pickpocket a few credits off some sucker, Andreja is the way to go.
