Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – Builds Guide

A couple or more builds i have been obsessing over to make some truly horrifying outcomes.

Some Builds I Have Obsessed Over

Commissar Cain and Yrgen

Partially tested, will need to actually hit 30 to confirm all mechanics work as expected

Officer/Master tactician build, performs as expected until level 22, at which point it begins to break down the laws of reality.

This build assumes that you will only buff a single ally and focus all your attention on them, this ally is designated as “Yrgen” but I used Argenta, as a soldier/arch militant, I have not tested this past level 22 as of writing this guide. below is taken from my private notes on the mechanics of the game so I will need to format it hence the WIP but Ive spent all day working on this and other builds, need sleep. you will not have all the talents below this is a theory craft of what i will take and in what order up to the final level of the second archtype.

The only assumptions I think i have made here are that:

  • A. You target a single ally such as argenta.
  • B. The ally you target has awaiting orders which refunds you 1 AP when you target them with a buff.
  • C. The ally has at least 5 resolve base.

Additionally this build isn’t special until level 22 at which point your Tactical superiority stacks should hit 70 by the end of round 1, Argenta will have huge resolve, Ballistic skill, and perception and had 3 mini turns and maybe popped her heroic all before her first actual turn.

After level 30 you can start adding large amounts of damage to her for the whole combat before the first round even ends. then every turn you are able to cast assign objective and bring it down Argenta should be able to one shot it and gain +5 characteristics for the rest of the combat, not sure if this one stacks yet, but if it does the longer combat goes on the more godly she becomes, also she will gain an increasing BS and PER bonus every turn because you are targeting her repeatedly, this one does stack according to the description.

Finally having another character as a santic psyker casting word of the emperor and hammer of the emperor will scale this up faster as it works off resolve.

I am honestly afraid this build might get Nerfed, but there were some insane builds in Wrath of the righteous so maybe not.

Commissar Cain and Yrgen Build

Pairs with Argenta build in next section

Origin, Imperial world (buff fellowship), Noble.

Officer

Talents

  1. Focus – Ally Perception, and Ballistic Skill gain +8(Fel bonus) when targeted by an ability, stacks but decays by half total stacks at end of allys turn
  2. Personal Oversight – Same as above essentially but +1 resolve, no decay just lose if it isn’t refreshed every turn
  3. Seize the initiative – Bonus Turn for casting abilities
  4. Lead by example – used correctly I should be able to VoC myself
  5. Lasting Impression – half bonus from VoC remain, should be ten

Common

  1. Characteristic training – Fellowship +5
  2. You do something – +1 ap from targeting servant
  3. Ready to Serve – It either will increase my own resolve or my allies, useful until I get steel resolve.
  4. You kill it – same as 2 but only if my ally kills it and the bonus is for me.

Characteristics

  • Fellowship +10 = 70 / Willpower +10 / Agility +5

Abilities

  • Voice of command – +20 characteristics +10 linger afterwards
  • Bring it down – gain turn with no movement
  • Air of authority – Add 2+myresolve/2 to ally
  • Take Aim – Target Doubles range of weapon and ignores cover

Master tactician

Talents

  1. Hidden advantage – stacks are plus fel bonus more effective so 8
  2. Reliance – Linchpin only costs 25% of stacks instead of half
  3. In the heroes footsteps – gain another turn when ally heroics.
  4. Nerves of steel – Increase momentum gain, minimize loss
  5. Unwavering motivation – increase damage of inspire
  6. Comfort in conformity – every ally should get some healing from this
  7. Against all odds – Gain stacks equal to number of enemies (have seen combats with 22 enemies)

Common

  1. Swift movements
  2. It will not die
  3. Nimble

Characteristics

  • Fellowship +10 = 80 (finally get the +8 fel bonus)/ Willpower +10 / Agility +15? (if not add some toughness)

Abilities: keep in mind I should be getting 1 AP back from one of Argenta’s talents “Awaiting orders”

Notes

  • Triggers lead by example hitting both me and ally.
  • Tactical superiority, its a tactician buff you gain a stack for every 5 momentum gained

Turn 1 – AP 5

  • Air of authority -1ap +1ap, Take aim -1ap, voice of command -1ap, Bring it down -2ap.
  • Result: Argenta receives +25 all characteristic, 2ap, 2mp, +11 resolve, +48 BS and PER.
  • Argenta takes turn, if they get a kill they will generate 31 momentum and 6 stacks of TS.

Turn 2 – AP 5

  • You. Serve me -0ap, Air of authority -1ap +1ap, Take aim -1ap, Lynchpin -1AP, Assign objective -1ap, Bring it down -2ap. Result: Argenta retains +25 all characteristic (round hasn’t ended), 2ap, 2mp, 24 BS and PER. They additionally gain +60 BS and PER, +18 resolve. I have consumed 6 stacks of TS. Argenta Takes turn, If they kill target, they will generate 137 momentum, I will gain 70 stacks.

If they use a heroic action and I am level 30, this will be Turn 3:

Identical to turn 2 except I have 1 additional ap from “you kill it”.

And I use it to cast inspire consuming 42 stacks to grant +48 total damage to Argenta for the rest of the combat, all within round 1, not to mention her absurd resolve stat, ballistic stat, and perception stat, she essentially can’t miss and this only takes into account the support side of the build. *Numbers above are slightly off i can only use officer abilities in the first turn so a little less resolve and i both lose and gain no stacks via lynchpin 2nd turn is the same though as I forgot to account for second turn resolve per turn gain.

Argenta Companion Build (Pairs with Rogue Trader Build)

“Yrgen” build

“As you command” build?

This ones harder to name, either way its paired with the above build but isn’t as dependent.

Playstyle is to keep them next to the rogue trader like a bodyguard but with a hybrid Anti material, rpg, machinegun.

Ballistic Skill

  • Origin, Imperial world (buff agility), Adepta Sororitas (basically the priest origin but flavored for her).

Soldier

Talents

  1. Rapid Reload – Required for the burst shot single shot rotation required to gain versatile stacks
  2. Muzzle Velocity – Better burst fire, add rate of fire to damage, should work with rapid fire ability.
  3. Swift Slaughter – More frequent “Revel in slaughter”, Ability 2 kills instead of 3
  4. Unfaltering Fire – Better Rapid fire ability, no damage reduction.
  5. Cameraderie or Forewarned – bonus based on proximity to ally, remember to keep your emotional support Rogue Trader nearby at all times.

Common

  1. Characteristic Training: BS*+5
  2. Doing my Part – The first ability of their unique archetype is -1ap
  3. Ready to serve – Should increase their resolve when rogue trader targets them
  4. Heavy weapon proficiency – I want to get her a heavy Boltor, and the common talents of arch militant will make this a better investment.

Characteristics: In order of priority

  • Ballistic Skill +10
  • Agility +10
  • Willpower +5

Abilities

  • Run and Gun – attack twice, BS* debuff, don’t like, use heroic of Arch-Militant as replacement.
  • Revel In slaughter – Stacking ballistic skill gain per 2-3 kills
  • Rapid Fire – Double rate of fire, -25% damage, can be fixed with a talent.
  • Controlled Shot – Useful if Abelard is in the damn way again.

Arch-Militant

Talents

  1. Discipline – A +1 stack for every extra turn, not sure if “bring it down” actually counts.
  2. Awaiting orders – Refund rogue trader 1AP once per round.
  3. Always ready – start with 2 versatile stacks
  4. Critical Versatility – +3% crit damage per stack
  5. Dependable – +2% armor per stack
  6. Close quarters training – can always fire gun but if in melee -10 BS*
  7. Heavy gunner – Heavy weapons fire for -1AP, delay getting this if you havent gotten a good heavy Boltor yet. the only one I saw was at the end of act 1 and was heretic specific.

Common

  1. Overpower –
  2. Breaking point – gives +BS bonus crit hit and +BS bonusx3 crit damage, for heavy weapons.
  3. Characteristic training: Agility +5
  4. Nimble or It will not die? I’m running out of good common talents so feel free to grab whatever.

Characteristics: arch militants get 8 bumps so 40 total stats.

  • Ballistic Skill +10
  • Agility +10
  • Willpower +10
  • Perception +10

Turn order, assuming level 30

Always alternate between single shot and burst fire if you can, even if it seems like a waste the key is to build stacks of versatility while Rogue trader buffs you. Stay in confident approach the entire combat.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 4438 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

9 Comments

  1. Alacrity only lasts until the end of your next turn. Sure you can keep stacking her with extra turns but there’s only so much value dodge reduction is gonna get you for one turn, even against eldar. Concentrated fire has more value than the extra shots considering total damage output and ability to aim.

  2. wildfire is really good with archmilitant. For melee build I go Warrior>Archmilitant, I take enduring, reckless attack and forceful strike, but I rarely really use them. Once you get the perk that reduce wildfire versatility stack to -3, and the starting with 2 versatility perk, you can single attack turn 1, reduce wildfire to 2 ap, use wildfire, cleave to set your hit to cleave, then single hit or single shot. you stack up versatility so quickly, especially with momentum going crazy from the multihits you can probably heroic act to get another free hit. I like to respec my character once I’m that level and drop critchance and instead getting whatever crit dmg perks I could, since with confident approach you always crit and does max dmg, just gotta offset the crit dmg debuff.

  3. I’ll be interested to see your level 16 party build for the fight with Aurora.

    A good tank/charger has been useful for buffing, drawing attention (Taunting Scream) or covering distance quickly. It feels like a wrong mix at first, but Brace For Impact on a Warrior is ideal for ganging up on a boss, esp. if having to deal with ranged enemies to boot. it saved my ass in my Daring battle vs Aurora.

    I’ve been disappointed in the lack of a tree for dual melee. I took Dual Weapon Combat, only to find it’s more efficient to alternate Charge and attack. Wildfire is equally useless, especially since Warriors have to be mobile melee by necessity per game design fiat.

    Does anyone know if Cassia’s AoE stunner counts each enemy as a separate attack for other abilities and effects?

  4. My suggestion for your Jurgen build: Ditch controlled shot. It’s actually worthless. If Abelard gets in the way of a burst fire: Gun him down and pick him back up. Early on you can’t treat traumas but you can just single shot those enemies down. While later on you can and it’s a non-issue. I’d pick up Concentrate Fire instead because used against a single target it hammers through any DR and helps a lot vs AP by just making your damage huge. Plus Concentrate Fire scales off BS which scales infinitely for an Arch-Militant Argenta. I used this to get effect with an Officer/Jae/Cassia/Argenta team, utilizing Pascal and Yriel as backup DPS options.

  5. Press the advantage is incredibly potent with high rate of fire weapons shooting in burst, coupling with concentrated fire and rapid fire, confident approach you kill anything in front of you and behind it. Ive oneshot bosses with this build, just gotta use a navigator to pump stats for momentum first.

  6. I’m also looking into Arch-Militant Inquisitor but it will take more time and levels and it doesn’t help that for some stupid reason his default ability pick is Endure which is 99% useless for him.

    Meanwhile Grand Strategist is a complete letdown, not only usability of zones is really low as most of the time companions are too spread and too mobile to make proper use of them, the bonuses they give are so damn small and even Combat Locus front zone is not worth sacrificing the whole class with no damage and (if you use it as a Rogue Trader) Voidborn origin for it.

    p.s. Elf is not superior in any way, she is a decent Operator-Assassin sniper but is nowhere close to one-and-a-half-man-army Ms. Sister.

  7. As for the dear Sister, I went with Second Skin and Nimble for dodge protection, Swift Movement and Integrity for mobility as it’s very important for her to position to hit multiple enemies with quality dakka. This is also why it’s very nice to get Reckless Rush – not only it offers superior mobility for 0 AP, it also lets you get to 0 AP Wildfire faster. Another thing to note you need +5 STR for 35+25 from Heavy Weapon Proficiency to use 60STR king of dakka weapons. Concentrated Fire is also preferable to Rapid Fire due to BS scaling.

  8. 2nd archetype for the AdMech guy should be Bounty Hunter with Savour the Kill and extra AP gaining attack that you couple with +1 AP from Filtering Protocols as he has problems with AP due to Dual-Weapon Combat. Tactical Knowledge is completely broken, just stack exploits on some weak enemy that is away from so that with Tactical Knowledge AoE you can hit only him to get all those exploit stacks and throw some Preys on weak enemies that will give him extra turns for even more stacking. The armor part of the buff affects everyone so enjoy megarmor/immortality for the whole party.

    Works nice with Lady Navigator too as she gets 5 WP every time someone gets an extra turn. Couple that with her Touch of Anger and currently broken Tactical Advantage (99×4% permanent damage buff), mad survivability from WP and you get another even more broken character.

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