Companion Gift Guide

Companions are a vital component of SWTOR. Every class uses them to for a multitude of tasks such as combat, crafting, selling inventory goods, gathering crafting materials, and even romance. Every companion has an affection level for the player's character ranging all the way from 0 to a maximum of 10,000. While players can increase their companions' affection through conversation choices, the easiest manner to do so is giving them gifts. To that end, Swtorhub.com has put together a complete guide to companion gifts encompassing methods of acquiring them, gift and affection levels, and how to properly use companion gifts.

Why Give Companion Gifts?

Some may ask why give companion gifts at all. The reason why you will wish to give you companions gifts in SWTOR is to increase their affection. The higher the companion's affection for the player's character, the faster they'll accomplish whatever crew skill tasks the player assigns them. A companion that has a great deal of affection for a player's character will complete a crew skill task much faster than a companion that really doesn't give a damn. If a player wishes to romance a companion, then you'll definitely want to use gifts to push that affection level as high as you can get it. Overall, there are ten different types of gifts that a player can give to his companions. Each companion has different likes and dislikes for gifts and you can see individual companion's taste for gifts by consulting our database or our class companion guides.

Affection Ranks and Companion Gift Ranks

The affection for a companion towards the player's character in SWTOR is expressed numerically from 0 to 10,000. Within that range, the affection level can be broken down into five ranks, each approximately at 2,000 point intervals.

• 0-1999 Affection = Level 1 Affection
• 2000-3999 Affection = Level 2 Affection
• 4000-5999 Affection = Level 3 Affection
• 6000-7999 Affection = Level 4 Affection
• 8000-10000 Affection = Level 5 Affection

Why are affection ranks important in SWTOR? The short answer is that companion gifts are also ranked with a range from rank 1 to rank 5. These ranks become very important when giving gifts to the companion.

Just hit "N" to get a quick view of your companions' affection levels.

Acquiring Companion Gifts

There are a variety of ways to gather companion gifts in SWTOR. You can get them from loot drops, mission rewards, vendors, the auction house, and by undertaking certain crew skill missions. You can find companion gift vendors on some worlds (such as Dromund Kaas and Coruscant) and on the fleet stations for both factions. The vendors carry rank 1 and rank 2 companion gifts. The auction house is a good place to find companion gifts, especially the rarer kind, and they can be found in the "miscellaneous" category.

The most common way for players to get their mitts on companion gifts in SWTOR is to send their companions out to complete certain crew skill missions. There are four crew skills that will enable players to gather companion gifts. These four crew skills are:

• Diplomacy
• Investigation
• Treasure Hunting
• Underworld Trading

Players can use the crew skills above to gather companion gifts all the way from rank 1 to rank 5. The level of the crew skill mission will determine the rank of the companion gift acquired.

• Mission Level 10-16 = Rank 1 Companion Gift
• Mission Level 17-24 = Rank 2 Companion Gift
• Mission Level 25-32 = Rank 3 Companion Gift
• Mission Level 33-40 = Rank 4 Companion Gift
• Mission Level 41-50 = Rank 5 Companion Gift

The easiest way to gather gifts is to send your crew on missions.

Giving Companion Gifts

When you give a companion a gift in SWTOR, it will increase their affection based upon a) how much they like that category of gift, b) the rarity of the companion gift, and c) the rank of the companion gift and what level of affection they are at currently. Gifts, like every other item in SWTOR, has multiple rarity levels, ranging from green (common) to purple (rare). The more rare the companion gift is, the more affection they will gain.

Ranks have a tremendous impact upon affection gain in SWTOR. Gift giving has diminishing returns. Lower level rank companion gifts reward fewer affection points if the companion has a higher affection level for the player's character. Rank 1 gifts stop giving affection at 6000 affection points and rank 2 gifts stop giving affection points at 8000. A gift gives maximum affection if it has equal or higher rank of the companion's current affection level. Higher ranked companion gifts offer the same affection gain as gifts that are of equal rank to the companion's affection level.

Example: You're playing a Bounty Hunter and you're trying to increase the affection level for Mako. She currently has 4200 affection (rank 3 affection). Rank 1 companion gifts will reward the smallest number of points. Rank 2 gifts will reward more affection points than rank 1 gifts, but lower than rank 3 gifts. Rank 3, rank 4, and rank 5 gifts will all give the same amount of affection points.

As you can see from the above example, you will want to give companion gifts of the same level as the affection level of the companion in question. Since giving a gift of rank 5 will net you the same affection gain as a rank 1 gift for a companion with a level 1 affection range, it's wiser to give them lower ranked gifts and save the higher ranked gifts for when they reach higher affection levels or for other companions that have higher affection levels.

Happy minions...er, companions...are more productive.

Romance and Gifts

Players will need to be aware that if the player is romancing a companion in SWTOR, that companion's taste in gifts may change. What might have been a "like" may become something they "love" or even become a "favorite" to them. Usually, the opportunity to romance a companion occurs at roughly around 5000 affection (this number isn't set in stone) and requires the player to actively flirt with the companion during conversations.

As you can see, companion gifts are a big part of increasing the affection of each companion towards the player's character in SWTOR. While there are a multitude of ways to acquire companion gifts, the primary method is by sending your companions out on crew skill missions. Gifts have an impact upon the companion's affection level based upon the rarity of the gift, the companion gift's rank, and what level of affection the companion currently has. Plan out your gift giving to maximize your affection point return and soon you'll be cozying up to a fireplace holo with romance and the air and the remainder of your companions will cheerfully take a blaster shot for you.