Ben has been a geek all of his life, and as such, his expertise tends to fall into gaming and technology.

Their Love Is Only a Gift Away

One of the most interesting parts of leveling a character is having your companion standing next to you and listening to their unique insights as you're leveling up. A lot of the time, you can almost feel like you're building a rapport with them. Sometimes, though, you can really tick them off with your actions. There is a way to fix that: You can raise their affection by buying your companion a gift.

Each companion likes an assortment of different gift types, with some more pleasing then others. In this guide, I'll be breaking it down by companion and telling you what will make them love you—and what will make them look for the nearest trash bin.

Smuggler Companions

1. Corso Riggs
2. Bowdaar
3. Risha
4. Akaavi Spaar
5. Languss Tuno
6. C2-N2
7. HK-51
8. Treek

Why Should I Care If They Like Me?

There are two main reasons to get your companion's affection up:

1. The first is that they give you specific missions as you gain more affection, letting you not only get additional experience but also add a little more flavor to things as you're leveling up.
2. The second reason is to make them more effective at crew skills. The higher their affection for you, the faster they'll be able to perform their tasks, and they're more likely to be critically successful in the process.

As you get their affection higher, the effect of each gift lowers. There are five ranks of gifts, and you'll want to give your companion the appropriate level of gift. You can tell what's a good gift by taking a look at their affection score. Each level is an even 2000 points and is graphically shown in segments on the companion tab of your character screen.

1. Corso Riggs

Corso is your first companion and takes the Ranged Tank role, but you're likely to outgrow him as you level. You get him before you finish Ord Mantell and he is the single romance option for the female Smuggler.

2. Bowdaar

Bowdaar takes the spot of your Melee Tank companion. You have to wait a little while before you can pick up Bowdaar as you don't get him till you're around level 24 while on Nar Shaddaa.

3. Risha

Risha officially becomes one of your companions while your on Alderaan at around level 32. Risha is your Ranged DPS companion and is one of the two romance options for the male Smuggler.

4. Akaavi Spaar

Akaavi fills the role of your Melee DPS and you recruit her on Balmorra somewhere around level 36. Although not a tank, wearing heavy armor makes her quite tough for a DPS. Akaavi is your second romance option for the male Smuggler.

5. Languss Tuno

Tuno is your final companion and fills the Ranged Healer position. You find Tuno while on the planet Hoth and get him around level 41.

6. C2-N2

Your ship droid can only have its affection raised through gifts, but unless you plan on buying the legacy sensor units and send him on specific crew skill runs it's likely not worth it to max out his affection.

7. HK-51

HK-51 is the first additional companion added to the game. You must have a level 50 character to unlock him initially, but after that he can be unlocked on every character on your account. This character is mainly a ranged DPS type with some fun extra abilities. Due to the generic bonus to crew skills in both critical and efficiency rating its well worth it to raise his affection to the max.

8. Treek

Treek is the second optional companion character that you can get. Treek is the exact opposite of HK-51 in that where HK only holds a DPS role, Treek's roles are only that of either Healer or Tank. Treek can be acquired through credits if you have a Legacy level of forty or above, otherwise you must use Cartel Coins to purchase her. No matter the way you first get her, you can unlock her in your collections menu and make Treek available for all of your characters once they can reach the fleet.

Smuggler Companion Top Gifts

Are You Just Interested in the Top Gift?

Sometimes you don't really need to know every possible gift for your companion; you just need to know the best type in order to maximize your investment. To make it easy, I've assembled the information in the table above. This details the top gift that you can get for each individual companion. Some companions don't have a gift that gets top results, and some gifts only work if you're in a romantic relationship with them, but your best shots are right here.

Who's Your Favorite Companion?

References

All images are from within the game Star Wars: The Old Republic or from the swtor.com website