Supernova Companion focused build

[MildMildEast]

This play style isn’t for everyone I could see how some people might not find it enjoyable, however I’ve had a blast with it because it’s so much different than any build I’ve done in RPG’s. 

ATTRIBUTES:

Strength: Good

Dexterity: Below Average

Intelligence: Good

Perception: Below Average

Charm: Very High

Temperament: Very High

Increase Strength by 1 point because you want your “Inspiration” stat to be the same as your “Determination” stat when you increase your Intelligence by 1. Increasing your Intelligence helps both “Science” and  “Determination.”  Dexterity can be below average because you won’t be shooting guns yourself very often. Same goes for perception because weak spot damage isn’t necessary for this build.  Charm is increased to max since you want as low companion ability cool down as possible. Not to mention you’ll want the bonus to every skill charm has to offer. Match Temperament to charm so your “Determination” skill does not fall behind “Inspiration” not to mention the high health regeneration is just all around great to have.

SKILLS:

First skills to prioritize are going to be Leadership skills, get them to 50. After they get to 50 you want to push your “Determination” to 100 as soon as possible. For once you reach level 100 you’ll unlock a bonus where “When Companions kill an enemy, they gain 50% Health.”  This is the secret sauce. The survivability of your companions shoot way upwards after you unlock this.  

100 Determination = +1,001 Companion Health

Next you want to increase “Inspiration” to 60 to unlock “Companion Skill Bonus to Player Skills +100%.”  This will help you with skill checks and the likes.

Tech skills are next, once “Science” reaches 50 push it to 100 for “Further Reduce Tinkering Cost to -90%.”  This is essential so you can upgrade your companions gear and keep it up to date with the level you are at.  Receiving a bonus 30% plasma and shock damage along with a 50% boost to science weapon effects is not something to pass up on either.  I’m pretty sure they affect your companions plasma and shock damage but I could be wrong.

This next part of the build is where you can deviate if you so choose but I don’t recommend doing so.  Take “Inspiration” to 100 next. The leap from 60 inspiration to 100 inspiration with companion damage is insane. 

Level 60: 68.2% Companion Damage Bonus

Level 70: 94% Companion Damage Bonus

Level 80: 124.6% Companion Damage Bonus

Level 90: 159.8% Companion Damage Bonus

Level 100: 200% Companion Damage Bonus

As you can see with only 40 perk points you nearly triple companion damage bonus.

The core of the build is now complete and I focused on dialog skills till they were at 50 and then focused on stealth skills after that, but it’s personal preference. You might want to take stealth skills first because you have 0 “Lockpick” skill without Parvati in the party.

PERKS:

Tier 1 Perks

DEADLY DEMONSTRATIONS: 50% XP from companion kills is amazing and you should be letting your companions kill everything

TOUGHNESS: 50% Base Health is good for every build

PRECISION: 15% Companion Crit Chance increases their damage potential all game

CHEETAH: 20% Sprint Speed. There’s almost no fast travel on supernova so always getting to places 20% faster will save you so much time

PACK MULE: 50kg Carrying Capacity is a quality of life perk

THE NEGOTIATOR: -20% vendor prices. Take this if you don’t want pack mule

Tier 2 Perks

TAG TEAM: 25% Chance to reset a Companion Ability cooldown when using the other Companion’s Ability. You should be using your companion abilities a lot in the early/mid game so this will come in handy.

SNAKE OIL SALESMAN: +20% Vendor Buying Price. Sell sell sell, always be making as many bits as possible to buy/improve your companion’s gear.

ROLLING THUNDER: -20% Companion Ability Cooldowns for each of your kills.  This perk is a good perk, however you won’t get much use out of it because you should be letting your companions get all the kills so that deadly demonstrations perk procs.

WEIRD SCIENCE: 50% Science Weapon Damage. Science weapons are the best weapons so if you ever need to intervene you want to make sure you can still do damage yourself.

THE REAPER:  25% TTD restored per kill.
When you first take this perk it won’t be useful, it’s for setting up your end game potential.

WE BAND OF BROTHERS: 25% Chance to reset a Companion’s Ability cooldown on each Critical Hit.  This perk is almost worthless early/mid game because you won’t ever be getting crit hits due to the fact your weapon skills are so low.

Tier 3 Perks

DON’T GO DYIN’ ON ME!: When you use the Inhaler, any downed Companions are revived with a small amount of Health. Revives companions to 25% health with a cooldown of 15 mins.  I shouldn’t need to explain how essential this perk is when companions have perma death on supernova mode.

ARMOR MASTER:  Increase the Armor Rating and Skill bonuses from any armor you wear.  
Step 1: get A very nice hat
Step 2: get Chimera
Step 3: profit

TACTICAL MASTER: When you activate TTD, you continue to move at normal speed for a short time. This effect only occurs when your TTD meter is full at time of activation.  You should be carrying around the prismatic hammer as your primary weapon although you’ll never really need to use it. Tactical Master + Reaper Combo makes it so you can bum rush everyone and never leave TTD.   First, activate TTD. Second, run up to the poor bastard. Third, charge up a power attack with your prismatic hammer. Lastly, undo TTD right before you strike an enemy and the reaper perk should fill your bar all the way back to max and you can repeat the process. Like I said though, this is really unnecessary and just there for those O **** moments. 

WILD SCIENCE: +50% Science Weapon Damage. You should be using science weapons so this self explanatory.

SUPER PACK MULE:  +100kg Carrying Capacity 
Another great quality of life perk.

CONFIDENCE:  Your next attack after killing an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Hit. If you took We Band of Brothers then this perk will help you utilize it.

COMPANION BEHAVIORS: 
Distance: set to close, you want to know where your companions are at all times.
Weapon: Ranged exclusively, I didn’t try melee but I assumed it would just lead to an early death.
Mode: Defensive this allows you to micromanage your companions without having to always tell them who to attack like you would if they were on passive

COMPANION PERKS:

ELLIE

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

FIRST RESPONDER: +20% Heal Amount granted by the Medical Inhaler. If you have to heal your companions this allows you to heal them more.

CPR: Recover 25% Health when fatally wounded. This can potentially save your ass

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

FELIX

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

BOOTLICKERS: +20% Damage to Cowering Enemies. It’s a decent perk, nothing to write home about.

REBELLION: +20% Damage to Corporate Military. If you’re struggling with Tartarus, then take Felix.

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

NYOKA

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

FINE AIM: 10% Ranged Damage. It’s a flat 10% damage buff, and Nyoka’s hunter perk is useless because you won’t be sneaking much at all with this build.

EXTERMINATOR: +20% damage to creatures. Every time I’m on monarch i take Nyoka because she shreds creatures. Give her the “Sublight Contractor Helm” and watch her shred Mega Mantiqueens with a whopping 45% increase in damage to creatures.

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

PARVATI

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

FINE AIM: flat 10% ranged buff is great, you can take the mod finder skill instead but I don’t think it’s necessary

SYNCHRONICITY: +25% TTD meter. TTD is extremely useful so might as well take it. You could take spec ops instead though.

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

VICAR MAX

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

SERMON: +20% Dialog Combat Effect Duration.  You get use out of this from time to time.

MAD MAX: +20% Science Weapon Damage. A buff to science weapons should always be taken. 

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

SAM

HEALTHY: 30% base health is essential for every companion on supernova

FINE AIM: 10% Ranged buff is the best perk out of the three available.

BAD SAMARITAN: +20% Damage to Automechanicals. Kill all the robots!! Except for Sam.

SHOWTIME: Damage +25% for 5s. Increases damage of companions by a lot.

SECOND WIND: Healed to 25% Health when downed. Cooldown 15 mins. This works well with  Don’t go dyin’ on me. Your companions can die twice in 15 mins and not die at all. By this point in the game you’ll almost never need it though.

EMERALD VALE: 

The first hour of this build is the hardest part of it. I highly recommend grabbing Ol’ Reliable as soon as humanly possible. If you don’t know where this is, it’s in the primal nest in the vale. If you take the quest to find the deserter Zoe you can find this place pretty easily. Just head like you would be going to rescue Zoe and it will be to the right of you once you get close to her.  I do not recommend trying to fight the primals, this will just lead to frustration and dead companions. Instead. Tell Parvati to hang tight and just sneak in and out without ever alerting the primals. Ol’ Reliable will last you a very long time. I tinkered Ol’ Reliable to level 15 and with 100 Inspiration it had a DPS of 2,571. 

I’m level 28 right now and I have my companions use Heavy Machine Gun Twos.  A level 30 heavy machine gun 2 with a corrosive mod will do 5,813 DPS. If you activate showtime then you should be getting 7,266 DPS instead for 5 seconds.

This is my guide for a companion focused build on supernova difficulty. I hope people read it and give it a try themselves. Like I said before, I’ve had a lot of fun with this build and it’s a big change from anything I’ve tried before, so for anyone who is thinking of trying supernova but is worried about their companions dying then I think this is the build for you.