One of the best features about medieval party sim Mount and Blade: Bannerlord is the ability to recruit randomly generated companions. These companions differ from regular troop as they are unique single companions with names. They have other utilities outside of battle as well with the ability to promote them and allow them to form their own party.
This guide will show you how to equip weapons and armor to your companions and give them a better chance at surviving on the battlefield.
Equipping a Companions With Weapons and Armor
As soon as you have recruited some companions you are going to want to give them some different weapons or armor. There is a good chance they will just start with regular clothing and a very basic weapon. To equip a companion with some new equipment simply open up the Inventory screen by pressing the I key. Once you have made it to the inventory screen you should see your character by default. At this screen you can see the arrows at the top near your character’s name.
Select these arrows to swap between your character and their companions. You can equip your companions with equipment just as you would with your player character. Swap to the character that you would like to equip and drag the weapons or armor you’d like them to equip. you can also equip them with a mount on this screen.
How to Know Which Weapons to Give Companions
Now that you know how to equip companions you might be wondering which weapons you should give to them. Each companion is unique in their skills. Even though they will start with different skills in different areas, just like the player’s character, they can increase their skills. The weapons that you decide to equip on the character will govern how their skills develop.
Companions equipped with bows will slowly gain experience in the bow skill. Two handed companions will gain experience with the two handed skill. When you first recruit your companions, they will be further developed in particular skills. For example, some may be already better than others with archery. You can view your companions skill level by opening up the character skills panel and then swapping to the chosen character.
Viewing Companion Skills
First, open up your character’s Character menu by pressing the C key. This will show your character’s skills and Perks. Each companion will have their own unique perks and skills just like the player. You can use the arrow keys at the top of the menu to swap between characters. If you have many companions, you can click on the name at the top of the screen where a drop-down menu will appear.
From here, you can see which weapons your companion is proficient with in order to equip with the weapons that they will be best at using in combat. As you can see above, my companion is very proficient with one-handed weapons, so it would be smarter to let them continue using one.