Revan619's Collection of Rogue Trader Unfair Builds - 1.5 DLC 1 & 2

This is a guide aimed at giving newer players a skeleton to work with, so they dont have to worry too much about optimising and can focus on enjoying the game. It can also be used by more advanced players, that as they deep dive mechanics, want builds to compare their own plans to.

In this guide ill give one build per origin taken from my build spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet will have all the builds covered, some alternative builds, builds for companions, loot tables and some information to help you with space sections.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rskX4sYcNm6Wqt4rtm8EQqRR4__yrEuxCEzjwoKlHOY/

The guide wont explain how to fully gear at every stage in the game or their ability rotations or the best buff support but for those looking for guides on that this playlist will help: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrqfcSvSc1aUy6YKaBh-Yr27xSZlTQ3z_&si=Fklr4x8-ce003dqr

This guide is based on the youtube channel of the author, Revan619: https://www.youtube.com/@Revan619/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3398861511

Rogue Trader Wiki: https://roguetrader.wh40k.wiki/Warhammer_40,000_Rogue_Trader_Wiki

If you want to know how defences work I did a full write up here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RogueTraderCRPG/comments/1se2go8/lets_talk_about_defences/

There are 13 skills in rogue trader, not to be confused with the 9 characteristics. These skills are used for various RNG roll checks throughout the world via intractables, dialogue and story book narratives.

You can maximise two skills in each of the three level tiers per companion. Some classes can also take one point in a third skill. You want your team composition to cover as many of these 13 skills as possible to get the best results, exp, rewards and bonuses to encounters.

When I plan my parties I think about what companions can effectively cover these checks based on the characteristics that best enhance it.


For my example team I am planning to bring the following five companions: Abelard, Idira, Cassia, Argenta, Pasqal. Based on the skills they can cover this means my Rogue trader will need to cover Medicae, Commerce or Coercion.

The checks increase in difficulty on higher difficulties which require more min-maxing to get the best results.

Jae has some unique bonuses that come from gaining reputation with the various vendors:
Drusians: +(2x reputation level) % to all resistance tests and +(4x reputation level) to Lore (Imperium)
Explorators: +(2x reputation level) % to armour and +(4x reputation level) to Tech-Use
Kasballica Mission: +(2x reputation level) % to dodge and parry and +(4x reputation level) to Commerce
Fellowship of the Void: +(2x reputation level) % to critical hit chance and +(4x reputation level) to Coercion
The Imperial Navy: +(2x reputation level) % to cover efficiency and +(4x reputation level) to Persuasion

Based on their origins, starting stats, homeworlds and base archtypes the 12 companions has various roles that they can be built to fulfill. Whilst you dont have to lean into them and can build them differently. This is the setups that I have found trivilise the game the easiest:


I highly recommend you read the basics of each archetype for every companion as I will not be explaining mechanics that are overtly explained in game when you select the archetype.

Astra Militarum Commander has a very powerful once per combat party wide buff that whilst overshined by priest's litany of hatred is not an origin to be overlooked.

Regimental tactics for one round makes allies immune to friendly fire, and deal an additional (20+2x FEL bonus)% damage for allies after the first hit in that turn. This means on a 10 round burst fire, shots 2-10 will gain the bonus but the first hit will not which is an odd limitation.

Two of the talents from the origin work around this ability such as suppression fire which gain 20% doddge, parry and block reduction to their weapon attacks as well as cover penetration against enemies to have been attacked by the commander or their allies. The second is field of fire which is the hidden gem of the origin. The commander and their allies gain 5% rate of fire for every attack they have made since regimental tactics has been activated, this can cause some huge snowballing on heavy rate of fire teams, this includes burst weapons, pyromancy staffs and rock saws.

The commander is not just an officer option working as support and can also be used as a soldier damage setup thanks to trench warfare. Whilst the astra militarum commander has partial cover their las weapons gain 20% rate of fire and 40% if they have any full cover, this applies to Las Rifles and Las Pistols. Fix Bayonets adds a melee attack to las weapons which is quite useful to arch-militant builds.

The final ability is unflinching heroism that adds +7 to the commander's characteristics when the commander or allies activates a heroic ability. Due to colony events, talents and items giving so much free fellowship you can have an effective soldier build use these abilities with minimal fellowship investment.

One of the best soldier setups uses a las rifle in the main set and a shotgun in the secondary set which is perfect for build versatility. Alternatively you can also make a very effective master tactician build thanks to the increased rate of fire on las rifles.

A frontline battlefield commander build. Soldier Astra Militarum commander that turbo boosts las rifle damage whilst using free colony fellowship rewards to greatly boost ally damage

Commissar in the 1.5 patch has been changed to have the most powerful ally buffing tool in the game, thanks to me personally, it is once per 3 rounds instead of once per combat. Commissar can be used to make an incredibly powerful officer or a very strong soldier, unfortunately it does not have direct support for mixed attacker with melee and gun but it is possible to make such a build.

So what is this powerful ability? At All Costs: Shoot an ally with primary pistol (100 + Coercion % weapon damage, ignores armor/deflection, always hits). Ally gains (2× FEL)% damage/dodge/parry + (Coercion/10) to all characteristics. If ally falls unconscious, effect spreads to all other allies (except Commissar).

What this allows for is incredibly potent buff to an ally which can mitigate the damage you do to that ally by having a low damage primary pistol and or by stacking temp HP to an ally as this ignores defences. Vanguards, Invigorating resolve, Relished Anguish and Strongpoint are all viable ways to counteract taking too much damage in order to receive this buff. Or purposely kill a weakened ally to buff the whole party. The talent Summary execution also doubles the bonuses to allies if you shoot the target in the back which will be shown by an assassin opening symbol during the commissar's turn. It will also allow the ally to Regain 30% wounds lost as temporary wounds on enemy kill.

The fun does not stop at buffing allies. The commissar also greatly boosts pistol damage. Primary pistol shots: (2× BS bonus)% more damage, +15% crit chance, (2× FEL bonus)% dodge reduction, with the talent One for the Enemies, Two for the Traitors, this enhancement also applies to the offhand. I have also discovered the Hive world talent, weapon personalisation, if your primary weapon is solid state projectile weapon, then the bonus will apply to the offhand even if it is a las pistol. This can then be built on with Let Them Know Fear! which when adjacent to enemy: Allies gain +(1 + FEL bonus/2) Resolve, which can further stack with other hive world bonuses and finally you have Motivation. The commissar's MP is increased by (1+ character level \10). All allies, starting their turn in a 2-cell radius around the commissar also gain, (1+ character level \10) mp. Once per round, after the commissar performs an attack with a pistol, they gain (Fel \ 2) MP. Does not stack

So what does all this mean? It means you can create an incredibly potent officer buffer which can be a very potent master tactician gunslinger or you can make a very potent soldier Arch-Militant gunslinger that greatly benefits from pistol items. Thanks to dipping into iconoclast with some of the fellowship bonuses you can stack some very high fellowship even with minimal investment but the buffs become very potent with high investment.

Gunslinger commissar build which takes over and blasts from the frontline. Very potent in the mid game as a support damage dealer and heavy ally buffer.

Crimelord unfortunately did not receive any buffs in 1.5 which has changed the view of crimelord in the current rogue trader meta. It went from being viewed as the stronger non psyker origin to the second weakest origin, only out performing noble which is by far the weakest origin.

Oddly enough further diving into crimelord which appeared to be billed as the operative origin, shows that it in fact never really was. The origin is based on weapon skill, agility and perception which makes it better suited to a agility warrior or bladedancer. The confusion comes from sure-fire plan and the upgrades.

At the start of combat, the crimelord gains +INT bonus stacks of sure-fire plan effect. Activation of this ability consumes 1 stack then makes the next action stronger depending on the type of action:
- If the crimelord attacks they deal (10+PER)% bonus more damage
- If the crime lord moves, they gain (10+PER bonus)% dodge and parry until their next turn
- If the crime lord uses a non-damaging ability on an enemy, that enemy suffers a (10+INT bonus)% damage penalty for one round.

So all seems straight forward to support this being designed for operative right? However, the base origin enhances weapon skill and perception, with the enhancement ability killing plan increasing the bonus damage of sure-fire plan by (2x WS Bonus) killing an enemy also restore 1 stack of sure-fire plans. So is this intending we make a melee operative? Keep in mind this origin was designed before blade dancer existed which can use this very effectively.

As for the other enhancement talents, escape plan increases the dodge and parry from sure-fire plan by (2 x agi bonus)% with agility being another characteristic operative cannot naturally increase through level up and requires a specific training talent. Disorienting plan increases the penalties to dodge and parry by (10+2 x PER bonus)% which further increases the case that the best archetype for this origin is indeed bladedancer which heavily builds weapon skill, agility and perception.

The last two talents are contingency plan which at the start of the crimelord's turn adds a stack of sure-fire plan if they have none and the last plan which once per combat if the crimelord has 1 stack of sure-fire plan and they receive lethal damage. They do not die and instead heal 5x sure-fire plan stacks% of maximum wounds losing all stacks they currently have.

Whilst Crimelord can enhance Operative when built correctly, it does really feel like this origin is best suited to Bladedancer and Warrior with any of the tier 2s of your choice. Potentially with an argument even existing for a soldier Arch-Militant to sure all aspects of the origin.

High mobility combat build taking advantage of killing plan to lay waste to all those in your way. Purposely avoided executioner to show more variety.

Navy officer prior to 1.5 was an incredibly boring origin which was on one of the most beloved companions, Abelard. Prior to 1.5 Abelard was just a simple imperial world Navy Officer Warrior which essentially just made him a vanilla warrior with nothing special. However due to the strength of warrior, low difficulty players memed Abelard into being primark levels of power despite being one of the bottom companions in terms of strength. However the 1.5 upgrades to navy officer elevated the memes from dreams into reality.

The premiere function of Navy officer is adding perception to warrior/bladedancer which is vital for higher difficulty player such as unfair and max sliders as well as fleet combat training that can skyrocket melee damage builds up the meta tier list. It also has the unintended result of making offhand gun a viable build.

Brace for impact is a great origin ability because it is not a once per combat ability and adds some vital early game survival to the party. It grants the braced effect to allies in a 5 cell radius for 1 round which grants the navy officer and those allies 2 deflection per archetype the navy officer has, makes allies immune to force movement and they cannot be overpenetrated. This is ideal for a front line tank in a game where controlling aggro is pretty much impossible as you can at least become a wall against enemy fire. You gain additional charges whenever wounds drop below 50% for the first time in combat or an ally is knocked unconscious.

Before discussing fleet combat training which becomes essential to all navy officer builds I want to quickly go over the other talents. Get off me! whilst the braced effect lasts gives the navy officer an ability to knockback enemies and targets of their melee attacks must pass an agility resistance test with a -10 penalty or be knocked prone. Evasive manoeuvres gives party members under the braced effect gain (10+2xPER bonus) % dodge for 1 round. This also is added to any ability from the navy officer that targets allies such as conviction rank 4 abilities. Whilst braced they also do not provoke attacks of opportunity, which is useful to fall back or psykers to attack in melee range. Stentorian voice gives a debuff to enemies within 5 cells of the navy officer -(10 x number of archetypes) weapon skill and ballistic skill reduction. The final talent being, get into cover!, which grants allies an extra turn with 0 ap, 3 mp and increases their cover efficiency by 20% for 1 round. Those allies cannot attack during this bonus turn.

These are all great passives which are incredibly effective for supporting the team but the main gem is as mentioned fleet combat training. When the navy officer scores a critical hit or successfully parries an attack with their primary melee weapon, they immediately make an attack with their offhand secondary weapon against the same enemy. This means if you crit or parry, you follow up with your offhand. To put into perspective how strong this is ill give two scenarios:
1. You activate reckless strike with reckless fury to guarantee a critical attack, you attack, you crit then you attack with your offhand weapon, the enemy as part of reckless strike makes a melee attack at you but you parry their attack then once again attacking with your offhand weapon, all of which will also be ciriticals thanks to reckless fury.
2. You use blade dance on bladedancer, for every main hand critical you make an additional offhand attack, this sends your attack economy to the moon allow huge procs of force repentance as an executioner, this also applies to death from above which if the offhand attack kills can generate charges of death from above.

For builds I highly recommend navy officer as a counter attacker warrior tank, a shearing strikes agility warrior, a blade dancer executioner OR as an arch-militant that uses offhand guns with broad expertise and even armsmaster. This opens up some devastating late game build options with arch-militant's cape.

A highly survivable build which is great for a new player's first run. Can be used with double melee or offhand gun like a foehammer or burst only pistol.

The update to Ministorum Priest priest is absolutely game breaking. For players that build very casually, dont use buffers, dont use officers and dont care about party synergy you might not even notice that priest is strong, you might even think it is one of the weaker origins. However to anyone that plays on higher difficulties, understands how to 1 turn clear combat from act 2 onwards and optimises their party, then they understand how crazy OP this origin now is.

The new origin ability has two parts, War Hymn and Unshakable faith. War Hymn grants zeal stacks momentum then the priest gains WP bonus stacks of zeal. Unshakable faith grants the priest (2x (str bon+ tgh bon+ agi bon+ per bon)) to willpower in combat and it also gains WP bonus stacks of zeal which are also increased by +1 stack of zeal for each enemy they attack with a bolter, flamer, melta, chain or power weapon for the first time in combat as well as +2 zeal stacks for each daemon or xenos killed in combat. Sounds simple enough but zeal does not actually do anything until we start adding in more origin talents which is where priest starts to get crazy. War Hymn being once per combat might also sound very limiting so far but wait till you see what it actually does with talents.

Litany of purification deals 5x number of zeal stacks direct damage to daemon and xenos enemies. It also applies 1 stack of perplexed. During the first round of combat this might not be a lot but if you build up your zeal before using war hymn it is very potent to most of the mid to late game enemies. This is actually one of the more balanced talents.

Litany of hatred then spits in the face of game balance. War Hymn (or furious recital for Argenta) for 1 round, the priest and their allies within a 5-cell radius deal (number of zeal stacks /2) more base weapon damage. This bonus is doubled against daemon, psykers and xenos. Contrary to the description this applies to ALL damage as additional base damage. This turbo stacks damage to the point there is no challenge possible on unfair difficulty. I had act 3 Argenta doing 1000+ damage per bullet on her burst fire attacks. For a warrior using rock saws with void veteran boots then the multi-hit damage is obscene, the same if you use shearing strikes on agility warrior or just bladedancer in general. This applying to the whole party is huge. On my youtube channel, Revan619, I have a whole collection of Argenta one bursting every major boss from act 2 onwards.

Tenets of retribution is another big boost for bolter builds by always adding (wp bon /3) more damage and +(WP bonus)% critical damage with bolt weapons. It enhances melta andd flamer damage by (wp bon)% damage with these bonuses being doubled against daemons, psykers and xenos. A lot more honest than litany of hatred but definitely very nice.

Flensing faith is a little more disappointing as it adds (WP bonus)% armour penetration to chain and power weapons and critical hits inflict chain and power weapons inflict (wp bonus /2) levels of burning with the effects being doubled against daemons, psykers and xenos.

The final talent the emperor protects adds +(WP bonus) wounds which unless you are turbo buffing isnt very noticeable.

You could poentially make an officer buffer priest saving your litany of hatred for a key party push but realistically the optimal setups for priest are soldier arch-militant heavy gunner, warrior and bladedancer executioners. However all damage builds will benefit from this. Unfortunately bolt pistols are still the weakest weapon in the game so it doesnt benefit all that much from priest here but maybe we get some better bolt pistols in the future.

The last tidbit is litany of hatred DOES stack, so the more priest the more overpowered your party becomes. So having a heavy bolter priest with normal bolt rifle Argenta or normal bolter priest with heavy bolter Argenta is an incredibly powerful combination.

An optimised bolter priest build designed to go into heavy weapons. Can use Artificer power armour to make an more AP effective Argenta build.

Undeniably bottom 1 for Origins. A weak ability, weak talents and entirely limited to playing officer whilst being strictly worse than almost any other origin on officer.

You. Serve Me. did get a nice buff from servo-skull overseer that will allow you to designate the entire party as a servant but in order to get the +5 buff to characteristics the noble will still need to use a targeted ability on the ally and not transmit via the servo-skull.

There is not much else to say, gaining (10+ noble's fel bonus)% critical hit chance for allies if the noble already attacked them is not much. Worse than just equipping the commissar cap from act 3.

The talents are so uninspired im just going to copy them directly from my spreadsheet:
- You. Do Something.: If a noble uses an ability on their servant, the servant gains +1 AP next turn. Does not stack with itself.
- You. Protect Me.: If the noble and the servant are adjacent to each other at the start of the noble's turn, they both gain temporary wounds equal to servant's TGH bonus or noble's FEL bonus depending on which is higher.
- You. Go On.: The noble's servant gains +2 movement points every turn.
- You. Kill It.: If the servant kills the target that the noble dealt damage to last turn, the noble gains +1 AP next turn.
- You. You Are Next.: If the servant has less than 30% maximum wounds, the noble can use You. Serve Me. once more in battle, designating a new servant and removing the effect from the previous one. The noble cannot designate a character who already was their servant this combat.

There is not really any fun or amazing builds for this origin. All very slow turn 2 sort of stuff that requires the noble to attack first which is vastly outperformed by other origins.

Noble is the current weakest origin in game. Can add +5 to ally stats after a targeted buff. Can AoE you serve me but still needs a single target follow up to get the +5.

The most OP and versatile origin which has five unique schools which all open up unique staff powers, unique talents and unique abilities. This origin does everything with virtually no draw backs as in order to have a negative chance of a warp peril you need to have veil degradation at over 15 then use a major power.

Biomancer: Physical stat buffs for allies, healing, extra turn generation and increases to received damage for enemies. Also can apply poison on attacks.

Divination: adds dodge and parry buffs to allies, counter attacks, buffs to mental stats, initiative order buffs and armour penetration buffs.

Pyromancy: adds incredibly strong willpower / psy rating related damage abilities. Can turn self burn dots into melee damage, can strip enemy armour (slightly bugged) and can provide additional attack economy. Can double up psyker damage to secondary targets.

Sanctic: buffs to enhance ally resolve, huge ally defensive buffs, huge ally offensive buffs, fairly weak damage abilities and passable healing abilities.

Telepath: Enemy debuffs and damage enhancements as well as fairly potent range damage abilities. Has a unique talent that can pass excess damage to a new target

Support items like warp surge brooch can break the games attack economy and I suggest watching specific guides on my psyker builds over on https://www.youtube.com/@Revan619 as there is a lot of nuance to cover.

Pyromancer build I created for void shadows which was used to solo the game on unfair. Executioner got reworked to make this less viable and the build has been reworked to change with the 1.5 meta. Can use secondary staffs very effectively with the melee psyker staff bug.

The Adeptus Arbites are one of the iconic 40k sub factions. The space Judge Dreadds. This is a DLC origin that focuses on shotguns, shields and single hand mauls. As a DLC origin this has a very long list of amazing abilities which until the 1.5 update made it vastly better than other origins besides psyker origins.

There are three versions of Arbites, Subductor which focuses on shields which is deal for melee. Vigilant which focuses on shotguns which is deal for soldiers and usable by operatives. Then castigators which has some battlefield control which is usable by officer / operative but is quite clearly weaker than subductor and vigilant.

Arbites also uniquely always has access to overseer archetype for the pet cyber-mastiff, post 1.5 updates also make cyber-mastiffs unique depending on your base tier 1 archetype. The warrior overseer cyber-mastiff notably gives the ability pack hunting which makes the build an insane tank and damage option vastly out performing vanguard for the same role whilst the soldier variant adds a chance of knockdown on the cyber-mastiff apprehend which is a lot more mediocre. It should be kept in mind pets also change with the alignment of the Rogue Trader with the heretic cyber-mastiff essentially doubling the damage output of the pet.

If you go for a warrior build then taking talents for shields and mauls is highly recommended. Bladedancer can even use shields for mobility and shield abilities but will probably want to secondary two sets of swords. Soldier shotgun vigilant is an incredibly power and fun setup, that whilst weaker than using heavy burst guns is still very potent.

Overall Arbites is very versatile and worth taking on a full run through of the game. Some combinations like overwhelming stratagem with Arbites talents like Law and order with lawful intervention and public sentencing is incredibly powerful. Not to mention shotgun mastery allows for single hand shotguns to either be dual wielded or combined with a shield.

Very powerful area focused build using mobility options to make a superior Solomorne build. Overseer is also a fantastic options with a build variation on the spreadsheet. You could alter this build for a secondary burst weapon.

12/08/2025 Version 2.0 now live with updates from pictures to tables, including Lex Imperialis updates
12/08/2025 Added first non pyromancer build to the sheet, the Judge Dreadd build.
16/01/2026 Builds updated for patch 1.5
16/01/2026 Reworked to include one build per origin for all origins rather than focus on favourite builds
17/02/2026 Added origin explanations prior to builds.

Future Plans
- Add a suggested gear section (currently is on the spreadsheet linked at the top of the guide)