Companions

Companions in Wanderfolk are NPC party members you recruit for boss fights, dungeon runs, and overworld exploration. They fight autonomously using role-based stats and abilities, share your potion pool, and can die permanently with lasting reputation consequences.

Recruiting Companions

To recruit an NPC as a companion, you need sufficient reputation with them:

These are base thresholds. Culture modifies the requirement — aggressive cultures like Cragborn (aggression 7) are slightly easier to recruit for combat, while peaceful Meadowfolk (aggression 1) need higher reputation.

Talk to an NPC and ask them to join your party. If your reputation meets the threshold and your party isn’t full, they’ll agree.

Party Size

You can bring a larger party into dungeons because the difficulty scales accordingly. For overworld travel, 4 companions provide strong protection against bandits and monsters — but be warned that bandit groups scale with your party size, so a full party also attracts larger and more frequent attacks.

Companion Stats by Role

Different NPC roles have different combat capabilities:

Combat Roles

Support Roles (Ranged)

Support roles fight at range, hurling fireballs from the back line rather than engaging in melee. This keeps them alive longer but means their base damage is lower — their value comes from abilities (healing, poison, rally) rather than raw DPS.

Civilian Roles (weaker but recruitable)

Culture Combat Modifier

A companion’s combat stats are modified by their village culture’s aggression rating:

Formula: 0.6 + (aggression × 0.08)

A Cragborn warrior (140 HP × 1.16 = 162 HP) is significantly tougher than a Meadowfolk warrior (140 HP × 0.68 = 95 HP). Recruit from warlike cultures for the strongest fighters.

Companion Abilities

Four abilities are available across companion roles:

Rally Cry

Roles: Warrior, Warchief, Captain, Elder

Boosts the entire party’s damage by +20% for 10 seconds. Best used at the start of a boss fight or during Phase 3.

Heal

Role: Priest

Restores 25 HP to the lowest-HP companion below 70%, or heals you if you’re below 70%. Essential for sustained dungeon runs.

Poison Coat

Role: Herbalist

Applies +24 extra damage to the current target. A strong single-target damage boost for tough enemies.

Armor Break

Roles: Shieldmaiden, Blacksmith

Deals +15% of companion damage as extra damage, effectively reducing the target’s defenses. Stacks well with Rally Cry.

Ranged Attacks

Some companions attack from a distance instead of charging into melee. There are two projectile types:

Arrows

Role: Scout

Scouts fire arrows from range, staying back from the front line. They have the longest range (120px) and fastest fire rate (1200ms) of any ranged companion, making them effective at picking off targets while your melee fighters hold the line.

Fireballs

Roles: Elder, Priest, Herbalist, Enchanter

These roles hurl fireballs — slower but dealing magical damage. They fight from the back of the formation and never advance into melee range.

Ranged companions are most effective when melee fighters hold aggro. If enemies break through to the back line, ranged companions will flee at 20% HP rather than fight in melee.

Trap Placement (Dungeons)

Inside dungeons, companions with the right role will place traps during combat. Every 12 seconds, an eligible companion drops a trap at their current position. When a monster steps on it, the trap triggers automatically.

Which Roles Place Which Traps

Enchanters are the trap specialists — they can place 4 different magical trap types including frost runes (56px slow zone) and lightning snares (chain to 3 targets). A party with an enchanter turns dungeon corridors into killing fields.

Blacksmiths place bear traps (3-second stun) and caltrops (40px slow zone), making them surprisingly useful dungeon companions despite being a civilian role.

Traps are dungeon-only — companions don’t place them in overworld combat.

Companion Traps (Overworld)

In addition to dungeon traps, companions with combat roles can also place traps during overworld encounters with bandits and monsters. The mechanics are similar to dungeon traps — every 12 seconds, an eligible companion drops a role-specific trap at their current position.

Overworld trap placement is most impactful during village raids, where companions position themselves defensively and lay traps along bandit approach routes. A party with an enchanter and a blacksmith can turn the village perimeter into a hazard zone before the bandits even arrive.

See Trap Placement (Dungeons) above for the full role-to-trap mapping.

Shared Potion Pool

Companions don’t carry their own potions — they draw from your inventory automatically during combat. When a companion’s HP drops below 50%, the auto-potion system will consume a healing potion from your supply to heal them. If their HP is critically low (below 30%), the strongest available potion is used instead.

Priority order: Your own healing always comes first. Only after your energy is above the threshold will potions go to companions, starting with the most wounded companion.

This means you should stockpile extra potions before taking companions into boss fights or dungeons. A party of 4 companions can burn through your potion supply quickly if the fight drags on. Budget 5–10 healing potions per dungeon, more if you’re bringing a large party.

The priest’s Heal ability still works independently — it doesn’t consume potions. Use a priest to stretch your potion supply further.

Companion Behavior

Companions follow you automatically and engage enemies within range:

• Follow speed: 100 px/s
• Sprint threshold: 200px — if too far behind, they sprint at 2x speed
• Formation offset: 70px — companions maintain formation around you
• Flee threshold: 20% HP — wounded companions retreat from combat

You cannot directly control companions, but they prioritize threats near you and switch targets intelligently.

Party Preservation Through Death

Your party survives your death. When you fall in combat, your companions persist through respawn — they’ll be waiting when you come back, sprites rebuilt and ready to fight. This applies in the overworld and inside dungeons. You no longer need to re-recruit your entire party after a bad encounter.

Auto-Antidote

When you or a companion gets poisoned, the system automatically uses an antidote from your inventory if available. The auto-use respects the same priority rules as potion sharing — your health comes first, then companions by severity.

Permanent Death

Companions can die permanently. When a companion’s HP reaches zero in combat, they are removed from your party forever. The NPC is gone from the village — a new procedural NPC spawns to fill the role after 10 in-game days.

Death Consequences

• Morale debuff: All surviving party members take a -10% damage penalty for 60 seconds
• Reputation loss: You lose -8 to -20 reputation with the dead companion’s village, scaling with culture — peaceful cultures (low aggression) impose harsher penalties for getting their people killed
• Emotional impact: Other NPCs from the same village may reference the loss in conversation via the NPC memory system

Recommended Party Composition

Overworld bosses (4 max): 1 Warrior/Warchief + 1 Priest + 1 Shieldmaiden + 1 Scout

The warrior tanks and Rally Cries, the priest heals from range with fireballs between heals, the shieldmaiden applies Armor Break, and the scout peppers the boss with arrows from 120px away. Replace the scout with a herbalist for Poison Coat burst damage (they also get fireballs).

Dungeons (6 max): Add an Enchanter + Blacksmith to the above roster. The enchanter lays magical traps (frost runes, lightning snares) throughout dungeon corridors, while the blacksmith drops bear traps and caltrops. This turns every hallway into a gauntlet that softens enemies before they reach your melee line.

Party Potion Sharing

A Party Potion Sharing slider in the pause menu lets you control what percentage of your healing items automatically go to companions. This replaces the all-or-nothing behavior of the base shared potion pool.

How It Works

Set the slider between 0% and 100%:

• 0% — potions never auto-heal companions; you manage all healing manually
• 50% (default) — up to half your potion uses per combat go to companions
• 100% — companions and player compete equally for potion use

The slider affects healing potions and bandages — both item types respect the sharing percentage. Resistance potions (Frost Resistance Tonic, Fire Resistance Tonic, Shadow Ward) are never shared automatically; they only apply to whoever uses them.

Healing Thresholds

Auto-healing for companions is capped to match your own healing behavior:

If your own HP is above 50%, potions won’t fire for companions even if they’re wounded — the system never prioritizes companions over the player.

Recommended Settings

• Boss fights with Priest companion: Lower sharing to 25–30%. The priest’s Heal ability handles party HP; save potions for emergencies.
• Long dungeon runs without a priest: Raise sharing to 60–70%. Companion attrition over many rooms is the biggest risk.
• Solo exploration: Set to 0% to conserve your supply.

Companion Movement Improvements

Catch-Up Teleport

If you move too far ahead of your companions — such as sprinting through a dungeon corridor or fast-traveling — companions will teleport to your position rather than getting permanently separated. The teleport triggers when a companion falls more than 400px behind you.

The catch-up teleport is silent and instant. You’ll see your companions appear near you when it fires. This prevents the frustrating situation of arriving at a boss room without your party.

Clean Dismissal

Dismissing a companion from your party (via the party panel) now fully resets their state. Previously, dismissed companions could retain combat targeting, animation, or movement locks that caused them to stand frozen in place after you left.

All companion state — aggro target, ability cooldowns, flee behavior, trap-placement timer — is cleared on dismissal. The NPC returns to their normal schedule immediately.

Leader Power Scaling

Companion party stats now scale from your power level as the party leader. Rather than using only their base role stats and culture modifier, companions derive a portion of their effective combat capability from you.

How It Works

A scaling multiplier is calculated from your current gear tier, level progression, and active buffs. This multiplier is applied on top of each companion’s base stats and culture modifier:

Effective Stat = (Base Stat × Culture Modifier) × Leader Power Multiplier

The leader power multiplier ranges from 0.8x (significantly underpowered leader) to 1.4x (high-tier gear and progression). At parity — where your power matches the content tier — the multiplier is 1.0x and companions perform exactly as their base stats describe.

Practical Effects

• Bringing companions into content above your level — the multiplier drops below 1.0x, making companions weaker than their base stats suggest. Don’t outpace your own progression and expect your party to keep up.
• Bringing companions into content you’ve outgrown — the multiplier rises above 1.0x. Older companions stay relevant and useful rather than becoming liabilities in late-game dungeons.
• Culture aggression and role stats still matter — a Cragborn Warchief still outperforms a Meadowfolk Villager at the same leader power level. Leader scaling amplifies or dampens existing differences rather than flattening them.

Post-Combat Regeneration

After combat ends, companions regenerate HP automatically over a short period. This applies after overworld encounters, bandit raids, and between dungeon rooms (during non-combat movement).

Post-combat regen means:

• You don’t burn potions topping off companions after easy fights
• Your party arrives at boss rooms closer to full health if you cleared the approach efficiently
• Village defenders (guards, warriors, shieldmaidens) who survive a raid also regenerate, keeping the garrison functional after defense

Regen does not occur during active combat — only once all threats in the current encounter are neutralized.

Related Articles

• Boss Guide — boss stats, phases, and preparation checklists
• Dungeon Guide — dungeon mechanics, scaling, and party recommendations
• Reputation — how to reach recruitment thresholds
• NPC Roles — the full list of roles and their village functions
• Villages & Cultures — culture aggression ratings that modify companion stats