How to Choose the Best Companions or Allies

In many of the greatest video games, your journey or success isn’t determined by your strength alone, but by the company you keep. Whether you are leading a squad of heroes in an RPG, managing military units in a real-time strategy game, or selecting teammates for a cooperative mission, choosing the best companions or allies is a strategic decision that can mean the difference between triumph and devastating failure. The “best” ally is rarely the strongest, but the one who best completes your strategy and covers your weaknesses.

The Rule of Composition: Filling Party Gaps

The most common mistake players make is focusing on raw damage or familiar character archetypes. A winning team or alliance prioritizes balance and synergy, ensuring every crucial role is covered.

• Identify Your Weaknesses: Before recruiting anyone, analyze your primary role or character build. Are you a glass cannon (high damage, low defense)? Then you desperately need a tank or a dedicated healer. Are you a frontline brawler? You need ranged damage or utility support.
• Prioritize Synergy Over Power: Look for companions whose abilities actively boost your own.
  • Example: If your character specializes in applying poison, choose an ally whose abilities deal extra damage to poisoned targets.
  • Example: In strategy games, an artillery unit might be individually weak, but it synergizes perfectly with heavy infantry that can pin the enemy down.
• The Trinity Rule (RPG Focus): For role-playing games, a balanced party usually adheres to the basic “Holy Trinity” structure:
  1. Tank/Crowd Control: Someone who can draw enemy aggression and soak up damage.
  2. Healer/Support: Someone dedicated to maintaining health, providing buffs, and removing debuffs.
  3. Damage Dealer (DPS): Someone focused purely on maximizing damage output.

Evaluating Companion Utility and AI

Beyond simple combat roles, the utility a companion provides outside of direct fighting, and how well they execute their tasks, are crucial selection criteria.

• Utility Skills and Out-of-Combat Perks: Assess what skills an ally offers outside of battle. A companion with high Lockpicking, Persuasion, or a unique crafting ability can open up new questlines, solve puzzles, or provide access to rare gear, making them invaluable even if their combat prowess is average.
• Reliability of AI and Command: In games where you do not control allies directly, evaluate their AI. Does the supposed healer run directly into the front lines? Does the tank fail to properly draw aggro? A companion with poor AI execution is a liability, even if their stats look good on paper. Always test their effectiveness in skirmishes before committing to a major dungeon or battle.
• Alignment and Loyalty (Narrative Games): In choice-based RPGs, an ally’s moral alignment and personality should be considered. An ally with conflicting morals may abandon you at a critical moment or actively sabotage your mission if your actions diverge too widely from their beliefs.

Strategic Alliance Choices (Multiplayer/Strategy Games)

In games where you select a faction, organization, or player as an ally, the criteria shift from character stats to long-term strategic benefits.

• Geographical/Map Advantage: An alliance might be crucial for securing a strategically vital section of the map, such as a chokepoint, a rich resource node, or a defensible capital city.
• Economic vs. Military Strength: Do you need an ally that can quickly reinforce you with troops (military), or one that can supply you with vital resources, technology, or currency (economic)? Choose the strength that best complements your current resource generation or military doctrine.
• The “Enemy of My Enemy” Factor: Sometimes, the best ally is simply the one with a shared, immediate opponent. These temporary alliances should always be entered with caution and a clear exit strategy once the primary threat is neutralized.

Choosing allies is the ultimate tactical test. By viewing your companions not as simple fighting units but as pieces of a complex machine, you can assemble a team where the sum is far greater than its individual parts.