How to Customize Your Companions - Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Guide - IGN (2025)

Customize your companions in with our guide to take full advantage of them. Once you recruit one via theCompanions Guide, you can equip them with better gear and start leveling their skills.

Many companions in Bannerlord have cheap gear when you first recruit them. This is why it's important to look over their equipment before running off into battle.

How to Change Companion Armor and Weapons

The first step to fully customizing your companion is upgrading their armor and weapons. This is similar to changing your own gear when you go to your inventory by pressing "I" by default.

This opens the inventory menu where you can click either arrow next to your name at the top, center of the screen, to cycle characters. So long as you have a companion currently in your party, their equipped gear will appear when you cycle to them.

The inventory menu on the right will still be your normal inventory for equipping companions with new armor and weapons. However, don't forget, you can switch between their Battle and Civilian Outfit right below their name. The Viking helmet toggles their Battle Outfit, and the hat with a feather toggles their Civilian Outfit.

• Battle Outfit - This is the equipment your character uses in battle. It's only limited by skill requirements for gear.
• Civilian Outfit - This is the equipment your character wears while wandering a town, tavern, keep, etc. It's limited to civilian clothes and weapons until unlocking skill perks that allow concealed weapons.

Upgrading Companion Skills/Stats

Many companions start at higher levels than you, especially if you're just starting your Bannerlord campaign. This means it will take a lot longer to level them up than you. However, you can upgrade each companion's skills and perks similarly to your own.

Enter the character screen with "C" by default. This will show your skills until you click one of the two arrows at the top center of the screen, next to your name. These arrows will cycle through every companion in your clan, regardless of whether or not they're in your party.

If a companion has leveled up and has free attribute points or skill points (focus points) to spend, you can allocate them here. Afterward, click the green "Done" button at the bottom when you're finished picking new skills. Otherwise, "Cancel" to back out, and the red button with an arrow in a circle to reset your decisions.

• If you checked the "Auto Allocate Clan Member Perks" at the beginning of a campaign, companions will automatically have their perks chosen. This may not include attributes and skill points.

Setting a Companion Clan Role

There are four unique clan roles that can be assigned to a companion or your own character if you choose to. Our Companions Guide explains every role in-detail with their benefits. However, if you want to know how to set a role, there are two easy ways to do so.

Using the Clan Menu

• Enter the clan menu by pressing "L" by default.
• Click a companion's name in the menu on the left side of the clan menu.
• Click the "None" or assigned role button under Clan Role.
• Assign one of four roles, Scout, Engineer, Quartermaster, or Surgeon.
• Click the green "Done" button at the bottom of the screen.

Directly Talking to a Companion

• Press the "P" button to go to the party menu.
• Click a companion's name in the Troops menu on the right side.
• Click the yellow speech bubble in the drop-down menu below their name.
• Ask the companion about their position in the clan and ask to assign them a new role.
• Each role will appear as a dialogue option, showing who currently holds each role if anyone does. Pick whichever one you'd like to assign.

Changing Companion Unit Classes

When ordering soldiers in your army during a battle, each unit has a specific class that they're a part of. For example, this includes Infantry, Archers, Cavalry, etc., going all the way from 1 to 8.

You can change a specific companion's unit class by going to the party menu with "P", clicking their name in the list, and clicking a yellow banner near their name in the center. By picking a different unit class, they will only react to orders for the class they're assigned.

Companions are automatically put into the Infantry class when they're first recruited. You can also change other soldier classes using the same method.

How to Increase Your Companion Party Limit

If you want to recruit more companions, you'll need to raise your party limit by upgrading your clan. Each clan tier provides an extra companion slot with a maximum of eight companions in total. However, a bug mentioned in our Companions Guide lets you have one extra companion over the limit.

Another way to increase your companion limit is via the "Ruler" perk under the Steward skill at level 250. Once you unlock this perk, you'll gain an extra companion slot for every Town you own.

If you're struggling to upgrade your clan tier and need more renown, we have a guide on How to Get Renown Fast.

Take a look at our other Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord guides for Essential Tips and Tricks for Beginners and How to Make Money Fast.