ESO Companions Guide: Recruiting and Gearing Mirri and Bastian

Mirri Elendis and Bastian Hallix are the two companions you pick up in the Blackwood chapter of Elder Scrolls Online. They're NPC followers that fight beside you, level up alongside your character, and can fill just about any role once you gear them right. If you play solo or you're still new, a solid companion makes overland questing, world bosses, and normal dungeons a whole lot smoother.

Both unlock through short questlines inside Blackwood, and once you finish the first quest they're added to your Collections menu for good. From there it's mostly a matter of leveling them, picking a role, and handing them the right gear.

Where to Recruit Each Companion

First things first. To even meet Mirri or Bastian, you need access to the Blackwood chapter. That means owning it outright, or having an active ESO Plus subscription that includes it. One catch worth knowing: if your only access is a free ESO Plus trial weekend, you can start the quest but the companion won't permanently join your account. The collectible only sticks once you actually own the chapter.

Both companions are account-wide once unlocked. Level, gear, skills, and their personal perk all carry across every character you make. The only thing you repeat is the intro quest, which each of your characters has to finish once before they can summon that companion.

Mirri Elendis

Mirri is a Dark Elf (Dunmer) Nightblade, and a relic hunter who spends her time digging into Daedric lore. She's into the Anticipations and the Tribunal, but she's not a worshiper, more of a scholar who likes poking at dangerous old stuff. As a follower she leans toward damage, and she's happiest when you keep her at range.

To find her, head to the Doomvault Vulpinaz objective in northern Blackwood. Walk north from the Doomvault Vulpinaz wayshrine and you'll see the map marker for her. Talk to her and the quest "Shattered and Scattered" kicks off. She needs help sorting out a mess involving her brother, and finishing the quest adds her to your allies list. Her racial passive is called Dynamic, which bumps her damage done and healing done by 3% each. She also comes with a handy perk: treasure chests you find through treasure maps and out in the overland have a 30% chance to cough up extra loot from a hidden compartment. Free stuff, basically.

Bastian Hallix

Bastian is an Imperial Dragonknight, a 27-year-old former noble whose family got stripped of its titles after his father betrayed High King Emeric. He ended up in the service of House Silvelle, and he brings that straight-laced, do-the-right-thing energy to the party. Out of the two Blackwood companions, he's the natural tank.

You'll find him at the Deepscorn Hollow objective along the southwest coast of Blackwood. He's tied up on the ground when you arrive, which is a rough look for a knight. Free him and the quest "Competition and Contracts" begins. His racial passive is Tough, giving him 3% more Max Health and 3% more damage done. His perk, Bastian's Insight, gives potions you loot off monsters a 30% chance to come out improved. Nice little bonus if you farm a lot of mobs.

What You Need Before You Start

A couple of practical notes. You can have only one companion or assistant active at a time, so summoning Mirri dismisses a banker you had out, and vice versa. Summoning takes a few seconds, and you can't normally pull a companion out mid-fight, so have them out before you pull a tough pack. Where they can and can't go is covered in the last section.

Leveling Rapport and Unlocking Skills

Rapport is the friendship meter, and it's the heart of the companion system. Every companion has strong personal preferences, and your actions in the world nudge that meter up or down while they're watching. Rapport is tracked per character. The number stays hidden by default, though the Companion tab shows your status as a word (Cordial, Friendly, and so on).

Rapport Tiers and Why They Matter

Rapport runs on a ladder, and each step above the starting tier hands you more companion experience. You start at Cordial (750). The climb looks like this:

| Tier | Rapport | Companion XP Bonus | |------|---------|--------------------| | Cordial | 750 (start) | None | | Friendly | 1,000 | +10% | | Close | 2,000 | +20% | | Allied | 3,000 | +30% | | Companion | 4,000 to 5,500 (max) | +40% |

The big deal here is the XP. Companions level off a slice of the combat experience you earn (roughly 30%, plus more as rapport climbs). So a higher rapport tier literally makes them level faster, because every tier above Cordial tacks on another 5%. Hitting Friendly also unlocks their personal questlines, which hand out the big rapport payouts.

Easy Rapport Wins

Each companion has daily-friendly actions that pay well and repeat.

Mirri likes the Daedra-and-relics life. Strong moves include turning in the Dark Anchor contract from Cardea Gallus in the Fighters Guild (+125), the daily relic turn-in from Numani-Rasi in Vvardenfell (+125), and obviously finishing her personal quests (+500 each). Smaller stuff adds up too: visiting Clockwork City (+10), killing goblins or snakes (+1 each, small cooldown), crafting an alcoholic drink (+1), even reading a book off a shelf (+1). She's easy to keep happy if you do Fighters Guild dailies.

Bastian is the lawful-good type. His best repeatable is the Mages Guild daily from Alvur Baren (+125), and his personal quests (+500 each). Walking past a Mages Guild hall in an alliance zone gives +10, popping over to Artaeum gives +10, and helping people in random world encounters (saving a merchant from bandits, that kind of thing) gives +10. He also likes scrying antiquities (+5) and will toss you +1 for every bandit or cultist you kill.

Things That Tank Their Rapport

Every companion has dislikes too, and they're worth knowing before you do something that costs you.

Mirri hates the Dark Brotherhood stuff. Using the Blade of Woe drops her a chunky -25 (it still ticks down on cooldown if you keep doing it). Entering the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary is -10. She even gets mildly annoyed if you catch butterflies, torchbugs, or bees (-1). If you're farming insects for alchemy, dismiss her first.

Bastian is even touchier about crime. Murder is -25, attacking innocents is -10, and getting caught stealing or pickpocketing is -10. Plain stealing or pickpocketing is -5, killing livestock is -5, and there's a funny one: cooking food with cheese costs you -1 rapport. Don't ask. The point is, if you're running a thief or assassin build, Bastian is going to be grumpy about your lifestyle.

Let rapport drop too far and a companion may unsummon themselves and sulk for a while. You generally have to push pretty hard for that to happen, but it's a real mechanic, so keep an eye on the status word if you've been misbehaving.

How Skills Unlock

Companions start at level 1 and cap at level 20. As they gain combat levels they get more health, more power, and more ability bar slots. The big milestone is level 20, when their Ultimate ability unlocks. They come pre-slotted with some abilities so they're useful right away, and you can reshuffle those whenever you like. Skills don't cost skill points and they don't morph, so there's no build commitment to stress over.

They have several skill lines that level separately. Class lines come in three flavors per companion (damage, tanking, healing). Weapon lines level by actually using that weapon in a fight. Armor lines only level when you've got five or more pieces of one weight equipped, so you usually focus on a single armor type at a time. Guild lines (Fighters, Mages, Undaunted) level by doing that guild's daily quests, worth 100 experience each up to a max of level 10.

One quirk that trips people up: a companion's class skills that scale off spell damage often pair better with medium armor than light armor. That's backwards from how your own character works, where light armor is the spell-damage pick. For companions, medium armor tends to be the damage weight and light armor leans toward healing.

Best Companion Gear and Equipment Sets

Companion gear is its own thing, completely separate from the gear you wear. There's no overlap, you can't hand a companion your old gear, and they don't share your sets. When you first unlock one they're wearing basic white, traitless equipment. The good news is companion gear has no level requirement, can't be enchanted, and never needs repairs, so once you find a piece you like it just works.

The Twelve Gear Slots

Every companion has the same layout, twelve slots in total. That's seven armor pieces (head, shoulders, chest, hands, waist, legs, feet), three jewelry pieces (one necklace, two rings), and two weapon slots (main hand and off hand). Their head armor is hidden visually no matter what, so the helmet look doesn't matter.

With seven armor slots you can run a full five-piece set bonus if you want. But matching set bonuses is a nice-to-have, not a must, since companion gear with good traits drops slowly. Focus on getting the right trait on every piece and the right armor weight for the role first. Sets are gravy.

Traits Are What Matter

Every piece of companion gear rolls with one trait, and the trait matters more than almost anything else. There are nine of them:

| Trait | What It Does | Best For | |-------|--------------|----------| | Quickened | Lower ability cooldowns | Everything, the best all-around pick | | Vigorous | More Max Health | Tanking | | Aggressive | More damage done | DPS | | Focused | Higher crit chance | DPS | | Shattering | Penetration | DPS | | Soothing | More healing done | Healer | | Bolstered | Less damage taken | Tank | | Prolific | Faster Ultimate generation | Mixed | | Augmented | Longer buff and debuff duration | Support |

If you only remember one trait, make it Quickened. Lower cooldowns mean your companion fires abilities more often, which helps no matter the role.

For tanking specifically, there's a case for going all-in on Vigorous. Stacking Vigorous across all twelve pieces (purple quality, roughly 2.6% Max Health per piece) can push a companion tank toward something like 40,000 Max Health. Community survivability testing found that full Vigorous stacking kept companion tanks alive longer than cooldown reduction or flat damage reduction traits did. Heavy armor itself gives about 2,900 armor per piece, so seven pieces lands you around 20,300 base resistances before any buffs.

Where to Get Gear

Two main sources. The easy one: basic traitless gear is sold by the town crafting merchants. Talk to any Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Armorer, Leatherworker, or Tailor in a city and they'll sell you starter pieces in any weight. This is how you set a companion's role on a budget. Want Bastian tanking? Buy him seven pieces of heavy armor and a sword and shield. Done, at least until you find better.

The better gear comes from monster drops, especially bosses. World bosses, public dungeon bosses, and instanced dungeon bosses all have a chance to drop companion gear with actual traits and higher quality. The drop rate is on the low side, so don't expect a full kit after a few kills. Treat it as a slow background goal while you play normally. Named companion gear sets do exist (things like Telvanni Efficiency for certain builds), but traits and armor weight come first for a new player, so worry about sets later.

Assigning Companion Roles: Tank, Healer, DPS

Any companion can be built as a tank, a healer, or a damage dealer. You pick the role in the Companion Menu by changing their combat behavior, then back it up with the right armor weight, weapon, traits, and slotted skills. Mirri and Bastian both lean a certain direction, but the system lets you bend them either way.

Armor weight is your role signal. Heavy armor lines up with tanking, medium armor with damage, and light armor with healing. Match the weapon to the role too: sword and shield for a tank, restoration staff for a healer, and bow, destruction staff, or dual wield for damage.

Bastian as a Tank

This is where Bastian shines. In independent survivability testing against a tough trial boss (Saint Olms in normal Asylum Sanctorium), Bastian ranked in the top tier of all companions for staying alive under pressure. His Tough passive and Dragonknight toolkit make him a natural damage sponge.

Build him with seven pieces of heavy armor, a sword and shield, and Vigorous traits across the board. He'll hold enemy attention and soak hits that would flatten a squishier follower. Just keep expectations realistic. A companion tank does not block or position like a real player, and under heavy sustained damage he'll usually need you to heal him. He's great for overland, world bosses with backup, and normal group dungeons. He is not a stand-in for a player tank in Veteran or hardmode content.

Mirri as a Damage Dealer

Mirri's Nightblade kit is built around burst and mobility, which makes her a strong ranged DPS. She stays alive a lot longer when she's not standing in the pack eating cleave. Bow or destruction staff keeps her at a distance and cuts down on how often you have to res her.

For gear, go medium armor (remember, the spell-damage class skills often prefer medium on companions), a bow or destruction staff, and Quickened or Aggressive traits. She's a clean pick for solo overland questing where you want something dead before it reaches you. If you did try to tank with her, she'd manage in easy content but she sits in the lower tier for raw survivability, so it's not where she shines.

Building a Healer

Either companion can heal, and it's a handy role if your own character is a bit fragile or you like running dungeons with a support buddy. Run light armor, a restoration staff, and Quickened or Soothing traits. Slotted healing abilities come from their class healing line plus the restoration staff line. A companion healer won't replace a real player healer in hard content, but for normal dungeons and overland they patch you up well enough to smooth out rough fights.

Setting the Role and Skill Order

Two things make a role work. First, set the combat behavior in the Companion Menu to match (damage dealer, healer, or tank). Second, order your slotted skills carefully. Companions fire abilities left to right across their bar, using whatever's off cooldown, so the abilities you put earliest trigger most often.

Put your bread-and-butter ability first. For a tank, lead with the defensive or taunt ability. For a healer, lead with the heal. For DPS, lead with the main damage skill. Save situational stuff for the later slots, since it rarely fires anyway.

Using Companions for Solo Overland and Dungeons

This is where the system pays off. Companions are made for the content most players actually spend their time in. Overland zones, public dungeons, world bosses with a friend or two, and normal group dungeons are all fair game, and a well-built follower turns a lot of sketchy solo fights into comfortable wins.

Where They Really Help

For solo overland, a companion is almost always worth having out. If you're questing, clearing dolmens, or farming mats, a Mirri built for ranged damage will melt trash mobs before they reach you, while a Bastian tank can hold a world boss steady while you whittle it down. New players get the most out of this, since a companion effectively gives you a second body to spread aggro and throw out extra damage or healing.

Normal group dungeons are fair game too, and a companion can fill a missing role if your group is short a tank or healer. They can even survive some normal trial encounters with support. The line is Veteran content and hardmodes. Companion tanks and healers can't handle the mechanics, positioning, and coordination that real players bring to hard fights. Treat them as a strong helping hand, not a replacement for a person.

The Limits You Should Know

Companions follow rules about where they can go. They can't be summoned in PvP zones at all, which makes sense since they'd throw off balance. They're blocked from solo arenas like Maelstrom Arena, so those are still a pure test of your own skill. They also can't come into housing instances.

In group content with a population cap, dungeons, group arenas, and trials, each companion present counts as a player toward that cap. Players always take priority, so as real people zone in, companions get auto-dismissed to make room. If your follower vanishes when a dungeon fills up, that's the instance making space, not a bug.

Practical Tips for Keeping Them Alive

Companions go down more easily than you might hope, so a few habits help. Keep ranged companions at range so they're not standing in red. Res them with a soul gem when they fall, same as any ally. And set their behavior so they're not overextending into packs they can't handle.

There's also a neat trick for mid-fight revives. You normally can't summon a companion while in combat. But if you summon a non-companion assistant, like your banker or merchant, then dismiss them, your companion pops back in, even if you're mid-fight and even if they were downed. It's a free, fast rez that skips the soul gem. You can't use this to swap to a different companion during a fight, but for getting the same one back on their feet, it's genuinely useful.

Build Bastian as a Vigorous-stacked heavy tank and he'll hold the line through normal dungeons and world bosses. Build Mirri as a ranged damage dealer and she'll clear overland content faster than you can loot it. Get the trait right, match the armor weight to the role, and lead the skill bar with the ability you want firing most. Do that and you'll have a follower that genuinely pulls its weight.