Path of Exile 2
Companions Guide

Last Update: 22/04/2025

The Tame Beast Skill Gem lets you tame any Rare Beast. Just cast it on the enemy and kill it before the status effect expires. It's plenty of time, but if you're unsure of it, cast it again. After the beast's death, the Skill Gem gets transformed into a Companion Skill, and this exact beast is captured. If the beast dies whilst serving you, it respawns after a few seconds. The Gem is account-bound, meaning untradable. What's special about it is that the beast retains its modifiers, with the exception of the "-touched" mods (from Wisps or Essences). You can see the list of modifiers by hovering over the Gem. If you are not satisfied with the Beast you tamed, you can Disenchant it at the NPC to get the empty Gem back. 

Normally, you want to hold onto one empty Tame Beast Gem just in case you find a better one as you play. There's almost always room for improvement, as finding a Rare Beast even with one or two good mods is challenging; Rare Enemies can have up to 4 mods, but they often have only 2 or 3. Most of them make the monster stronger, which is not exactly what we want; we want the monster to make our character stronger. Companions can be powerful, but making a Build around them is very restricted. If you want to create an army of Beasts, the Bind Spectre Skill will probably be a much better choice. The biggest reason for that is that they reserve a large percentage of your maximum Spirit, which is terrible for Minion builds.

You can have only 1 Companion, but Yriel's Fostering Body Armour and Trusted Kinship Keystone extend this limit to two. The Companion passives on the skill tree are rarely worth allocating, maybe with the exception of Easy Going notable, which reduces their Reservation. Some of the Companion skills need no prior taming - these are Rhoa Mount or some of the Minion Skills from the ascendancy passives.

Best Beasts

The most important thing is the Reservation cost of the beast. It's good to have one that costs as little Spirit as possible. Usually, smaller beasts cost less Spirit, but they also die more often, leaving you without their Buffs for a few seconds. The second thing is the beast's mobility. It needs to be fast in order to stay close; Auras have a limited range. The Companion will teleport to you after some time, of course, but it's better if it moves by itself. The worst beast must be the Burrower - it cannot move at all, and it costs a lot of Spirit.

Truthfully, the type of Beast rarely matters; their modifiers are much more important after all. Finding a good set of Auras and other modifiers is a rather daunting task, so most players settle on the first Beast they can find and tinker their Builds around them. 

Best Modifiers

The most important aspect is the Aura Modifiers. Some of those modifiers are very powerful, and the Tamed Beast is the only source you can get them from. 

• Haste Aura - 20% increased Attack and Cast Speed; 10% increased Movement Speed. Widely regarded as the best modifier, as these stats will suit nearly any build. Not to be confused with "hasted" modifier, which makes only the Beast faster. 
• Extra Physical Damage Aura - 20% increased Global Physical Damage. Good in Physical Damage builds.
• Hinder Aura - Hinder slows enemies down by 30% by default.
• Periodic Invulnerability Aura - Applies Immunity to nearby allies; means you cannot die for 4 seconds, or until the beast dies. It's triggered whenever it's off-cooldown, but there is a chance the timing will be perfectly executed to save you. If you have two Companions, you may try to synchronise their Invulnerability Auras, but that's just too clunky, too unreliable, and probably not intended to work.
• Temporal Bubble - The beast cannot be damaged by things outside its bubble, and the enemies inside it have reduced Cooldown Recovery and Action Speed.
• Heals Allies and Suppresses Foe Recovery - A Healing Nova to Regenerate 10% of life over 2 seconds. It also reduces the Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield for enemies. Triggered when an ally is not on full life. Good if you lack any Life Recovery tools whatsoever.
• Energy Shield Aura - Grants extra Energy Shield based on 12% of your Maximum Life. It's not much, but hybrid builds or builds with a lot of Maximum Life will benefit from that extra layer of tallow.
• Elemental Resistance Aura - +20% to all Elemental Resistances. We don't recommend relying on it too much later in the game because beasts often die or wander off, and that would cause you to take roughly twice as much elemental damage.

Ailment Modifiers: Ailments are generally good additions, especially Shock. Link such beasts with Fire/Lightning Exposure Support to inflict Exposure. Ignite modifiers are good detonators for Skills that create Gas Clouds and such, or they may support your Stormfire-linked abilities. Some of the more powerful Elemental effects will pretty much always inflict Ailments, but if you need them on bosses, Trail effects are the best, as Ground Effects cannot be easily bypassed. Remember that you can link your Companions with regular Support Gems, like Blind, but it usually doesn't increase modifiers' damage, just their basic attacks.

• Trail of Fire, Trail Ice, Trail of Lightning - The most reliable way to Chill, Shock, and Ignite, because your beast doesn't have to Hit first - their Hit Damage may be too low to inflict Ailment with Hits against pinnacle bosses. The ground effects last for 4 seconds and are especially good on mobile beasts.
• All Damage can Shock - this modifier works differently than it usually would on players. Here, it means any amount of Damage can inflict 20% Shock on your Enemies. This effect is more reliable than Shocking Ground against Bosses, but less efficient in AoE scenarios. 
• Periodic Fire, Cold, Lightning Explosion - Elemental circles that deal high Elemental Damage.
• Periodically unleashes Fire, Cold, Lightning - A simple, strong Elemental Nova around the Companion.
• All Damage Chill, Shocks, or Ignite - Another way to apply Elemental Ailments, just combine it with another strong ability, as monsters' basic attacks will be too weak to inflict Ailments of significant magnitude.
• Conjures Flamewalls - A Flamewall that ignites and causes your Projectiles to deal extra Fire Damage.
• Conjures Lightning Storms - One of the most powerful damaging abilities on a monster. It's great early on and has potential even in the endgame.
• Always Bleeds or Poisons - You can link Companion with Corrosion to Break Armour, Blood in the Eyes to Hobble, and Rupture to Aggravate Bleeding.

Although currently your Companions are not the best choice for your main source of Damage, this situation can be changed in the future. If you want to experiment with this concept, make sure to look out for the following modifiers on randomly encountered Beasts: 

• Enraged - the Beast is faster. 
• Empowered - the Beast deals more Damage and can survive for longer.
• Soul Eater - the Beast steals the Souls of your enemies, gaining tons of Damage, Speed, and Damage Reduction. However, this effect starts to fade out without consuming new Souls, so it is not a good option against Pinnacle Bosses. 

Support Gems

All your Beasts can be enhanced with Support Gems. It can improve the utility of your Beasts even more, or make them more tanky, so they can serve you for longer periods of time. The best Support Gems to use are: 

• Last Gasp - the Minion will remain active for 4 seconds after dying. 
• Loyalty - transfer 10% of incoming Damage to your Minion, improving your own survival. 
• Overshock - increases the Shock inflicted by your Companion. 
• Meat Shield - grants extra Life for your Companion.
• Elemental Army - improves Elemental Resistance of your Companion. 
• Exposure and Strip Away - when paired with Elemental Trail, your Companion can inflict Exposure Debuff with increased effectiveness. 

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