Companion Influence

Welcome to my SWTOR Companion influence guide! Here I'll explain its importance and different ways of its increasing through your game play.

Companions are going to join as long as you progressing through you class story (the first one you will get at your starting planet). Some companions are available in the shop and during different game promotions. The companion's impact on journey is quite high. Let's see, what exactly we need them for.

Companion Influence is a kind of rating of characters affection to you. You can find it on the tab 'Companions and Contacts'. There are 50 levels of it.
It impacts on:
'Combat Effectiveness' (the higher their rating, the better job they’ll do as Tank, DPS or Heal);
'Crafting' (less time they spend crafting and on crew skills missions + the higher their Critical Rating for actual crafting).

There are several ways.

1. Conversation choices and decisions: during the events on your SWTOR journey, you will encounter many situations where choices are going to impact your active companion influence.
   How to understand what do companions like and dislike? On their description page ('Companions and Contacts' tab).
2. Using Crew Skills missions (the amount of gain is low).
3. Giving gifts to active companion: there are a lot of different types of gifts with different levels.
   You can find out response by hovering your cursor over a gift (No Gain, Small increase, Moderate increase, Large increase).

Which gift your companion prefers you can find out here.

Imperial characters:

Republic characters:

• Chance to drop from mobs;
  
• Quest rewards;
  
• Crew Skill Missions Grade 2-5;
  
• Each Cartel Pack has a chance to contain a Companion gift Rank 2-6;
  
• Turn in Locked Supply Crates and receive Commanders Share boxes which contain random Companion gifts Rank 5-6;
  
• Buy Rank 6 Companion Gifts on Odessen;
  
• Buy Rank 1-5 Companion Gifts on the Fleet.

Choose “Love”
Take care to give your companions only gifts they “Love”.
You have so many different Companions that there is no need to waste gifts just for a “Like”.

Unlock Character Perk Altruism
Don’t forget to unlock Character Perk “Legacy of Altruism III” which will increase the amount of Companion Influence gained from gifts by 30 %.

True Romance
You will no longer be able to use ♥Gifts for your old Companions once you get access to the storyline of KOTFE.
Could be a good Idea to push these companions to rank 50 previously.

Recommendation – choose gift rank and value
From influence rank 1 to influence rank 10, rank 5 gifts will have the same value as rank 6 gifts no matter if they are Premium, Prototype or Artifact. Rank 5 Premium gifts are a good choice but not easy to get.

• Use rank 5 Premium, Prototype or Artifact gifts (if available) or use Rank 1 Premium gifts from Influence Rank 1 – 10
  
• Use rank 6 Premium, Prototype or Artifact gifts from Influence Rank 10 – 15
  
• Don’t use Legendary gifts below Influence Rank 15, if you have the adequate Premium, Prototype or Artifact gifts.
  
• To save credits, Premium gifts are probably the best choice.
  
• To save time, Legendary gifts are definitely the best choice.

Examples with “Love” gifts and Character Perk “Legacy of Altruism III” (+ 30%) unlocked

Influence Rank 1-10 (total 10.000 Influence)
Premium rank 6 = 266 (38 parts) / Premium rank 5 = 266 / Premium rank 2 = 200 (50 parts) / Premium rank 1 = 166 (60 parts)
Prototype rank 6 = 532 (19 parts) / Prototype rank 5 = 532
Artifact rank 6 = 1065 (9 parts) /Artifact rank 5 = 1065
Legendary rank 6 = 2662 (4 parts)

Influence Rank 10-15 (12.500 Influence – total 22.500)
Premium rank 6 = 266 (47 parts) / Premium rank 5 = 233
Prototype rank 6 = 532 (23 parts) /Prototype rank 5 = 466
Artifact rank 6 = 1065 (12 parts) / Artifact rank 5 = 932
Legendary rank 6 = 2662 (5 parts)

Influence Rank 15-20 (17.500 Influence – total 40.000)
Premium rank 6 = 233 (75 parts)
Prototype rank 6 = 466 (38 parts)
Artifact rank 6 = 932 (19 parts)
Legendary rank 6 = 2330 (8 parts)

Influence Rank 20-30 (50.000 – total 90.000 Influence)
Premium rank 6 = 200 (250 parts)
Prototype rank 6 = 399 (125 parts)
Artifact rank 6 = 799 (63 parts)
Legendary rank 6 = 1997 (25 parts)

Influence Rank 30-40 (70.000 – total 160.000 Influence)
Premium rank 6 = 166 (422 parts)
Prototype rank 6 = 333 (210 parts)
Artifact rank 6 = 666 (105 parts)
Legendary rank 6 = 1664 (42 parts)

Influence Rank 40-50 (90.000 – total 250.000 Influence)
Premium rank 6 = 133 (677 parts)
Prototype rank 6 = 266 (338 parts)
Artifact rank 6 = 532 (169 parts)
Legendary rank 6 = 1331 (68 parts)

Initially I was looking for this information for personal use, but in the end I decided to share this whole bunch information with you, hoping you will save your precious time.
I was using the following sources:
http://www.black-bantha.eu/portfolio/companion-gift-influence-guide/
https://swtor.gamepedia.com/Gift
http://dulfy.net/2015/10/21/swtor-fallen-empire-companion-influences-guide/#Companions_Sorted_by_Gifts
https://fibrojedi.me.uk/swtor/swtor-companion-influence-increase/