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Companion Gift Efficiency Guide [1-50 Influence]


Drenovade

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Couldn't find any guides that went into detail on this topic, so I thought this was worth sharing. Dulfy's spreadsheet on Google Docs helps tremendously, but doesn't elaborate on how to use the data to maximize efficiency and determine one's best option.

 

Link to the spreadsheet here. It shows the number of gifts(of each rank and quality) needed to reach the next bracket of influence ranks, as well as the cost. Influence ranks are grouped into seven different brackets: 1-5, 6-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, and 40-50.

 

Gifts become less effective as higher influence brackets are reached on a companion, especially the cheaper gifts. However, the cast time needed to give a gift doesn't change regardless of gift rank or quality. By taking these factors into account, and doing a little math, one can determine their best route to influence rank 50.

 

The color quality of gifts as shown in the spreadsheet may seem confusing to players. Previously, legendary quality gifts had a dark purple background, which made the artifact quality ones look slightly pink by comparison. To keep things simple:

 

Green = Premium(green background in-game)

Blue = Prototype(blue background in-game)

Pink = Artifact(purple background in-game)

Purple = Legendary(now a gold background in-game)

 

Gifts come from many sources, but the fastest and most dependable way to obtain them is to simply buy them from the vendor located on the fleet at the cost of credits. Always use the companion's LOVE reaction gift that gives the most influence. Be sure to unlock the character perks that increase the amount of influence gained from gifts, located on the legacy panel(costs 90k credits).

 

Also, unlock the perks that reduce the time needed to give each gift(costs 1.2 mil credits total). You can unlock every rank of this perk if you want, but the last one may not be worth getting as it's rather expensive and will only save you 0.3 seconds per a gift given, since the global cooldown prevents giving another one until at least 1.5 seconds have passed anyway. This guide calculates time based on one gift being given every 1.6 seconds. Totals rounded up.

 

To achieve rank 50 influence through gift-giving in an optimal manner, one must decide between saving time vs saving credits. Here are some example routes I recommend, depending on your preference.

 

Cheap route: Buy 6,083 rank 1 greens. Use from influence rank 1-40. Buy 226 rank 5 pinks. Use from influence rank 40-50.

Total cost: 3,476,600 credits. Total time: 2 hours and 50 minutes.

 

Balanced route #1: Buy 196 rank 1 greens. Use from influence rank 1-15. Buy 930 rank 2 greens. Use from influence rank 15-30. Buy 358 rank 5 pinks. Use from influence rank 30-50.

Total cost: 4,177,200 credits. Total time: 40 minutes.

 

Balanced route #2: Buy 196 rank 1 greens. Use from influence rank 1-15. Buy 175 rank 2 greens. Use from influence rank 15-20. Buy 434 rank 5 pinks. Use from influence rank 20-50.

Total cost: 4,484,200 credits. Total time: 22 minutes.

 

Fast route: Buy 481 rank 5 pinks. Use from influence rank 1-50.

Total cost: 4,810,000 credits. Total time: 13 minutes.

 

The rank 6 green, blue, and pink gifts as seen in the spreadsheet apply to CM droid and creature companions, and are purchased from the jawa scrap vendors on the fleet. Choose a route based on how you value the different qualities of jawa scraps.(Apparently, some non-CM companions accept these gifts as well)

 

Balanced route: Buy 162 rank 6 greens. Use from influence rank 1-20. Buy 337 rank 6 blues. Use from influence rank 20-40. Buy 169 rank 6 pinks. Use from influence rank 40-50.

Total time: 18 minutes.

 

Tips:

 

I do not recommend EVER buying rank 6 purple(legendary) gifts from the Odessen vendor, even for the final push from rank 40-50. The small amount of time they save is insignificant when you consider that they cost *25 times* the price of the rank 5 pink(artifact) gifts. They are a huge waste of credits.

 

If you have some rank 3 or rank 4 gifts in your storage, I recommend using those at either the 15-20, or the 20-30 brackets before switching over to rank 5 pinks. Rank 6 purples(legendary) should be saved for the 40-50 bracket. Keep in mind that using extra gifts will lower the amount of gifts needed to be bought from the vendor, so consider buying smaller stacks to avoid unwanted leftovers(shift click the item to buy/split stacks).

 

The difference between rank 40 influence and rank 50 is not overwhelmingly significant. If you are on a budget, consider only gifting to rank 40, and then slowly work towards rank 50 through conversations, crew skill missions, and gifts you come across naturally while playing. It will take a while, but will save a lot of credits, especially if you use this tactic for multiple companions.

 

Don't be too discouraged by the idea of spamming the gift button for what seems like long periods of time. You can simply give gifts while waiting for a queue to pop, or at any period of time where you remain inactive and have nothing better to do in-game. Consider turning off the sound(Ctrl-S keybind) and listening to music instead. This will prevent you from going insane from constantly hearing the same line of dialogue every time your companion receives a gift.

 

Finally, one must consider all of this in relation to a commander's compendium, which is an item that instantly boosts a companion to rank 50 influence. Consider the cost and time of each gift-giving route, and weigh it against a compendium that is:

 

-listed on the CM at the cost of CC

-listed on the GTN at the cost of credits

-available from the guild flagship vendor on the fleet at the cost of 4,250,000 credits plus 3 Dark Project MK-1

 

Again, it all comes down to saving time vs saving money. You just have to consider the options, and choose according to your own preference.

Edited by Drenovade
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Let me add a little bit extra to a great thread.

 

If you really want to go the gift giving route instead of using dark projects (a faster but sometimes more expensive way to increase affection), I would suggest making yourself an influencer armor set.

 

What is an influencer armor set?

 

Basically, it’s a set that has influential amplifiers on all the mods so when you give gifts to your companions it increases how much they are worth each time. This can prove to be significant if you a) have a lot of companions b) have a lot of Alt characters.

 

Amplifier : (2%) Influential : Increases the amount of influence your companions gain from all sources

 

As far as I know these stack, but I’ve not bothered to work out the maths. What I do know is these combined with the right “Love” gift and opening up the gift giving bonuses in your legacy can significantly increase the amount of influence each gift is worth. Which reduces the cost and the over all amount of time required to give the gifts.

 

The easiest and cheapest way to obtain these is at the lvl 8 fleet vendor. He is located in the fleet supply section in the first left side (outer level) bay, on the left of the the first desk.

 

The method to obtain these can be time consuming and tedious. But you only need to do it once for your legacy if you do it my way.

 

1. First obtain a full legacy Armor set that can be worn by any new lvl 1 character. Put this aside in your legacy cargo hold ready to use when you get your amplifiers. You can then keep it here and take it out and use it for any Alt when you need to give gifts ;)

 

2. Go to the gear vendor location on the fleet I mentioned above and find the vendor at the desk that has the gear with lvl 8 blue internal armor, mods and enhancements. He has two sorts of gear. One with the internals, which isn’t legacy Armor and the second is legacy gear, so you can essentially get you legacy Armor from him too if you so choose.

 

3. The gear with the mods in them is where you get the amps from. Buy about 20-40 items of the same type at the time that have internals in them. They aren’t expensive and you will sell them back to the vendor if they don’t have the amps you want on them (please note, you can do this to make a +10 crafting amp sets too).

 

4. Once you buy them, look at each one and if you see a yellow / gold amp on them, put them aside. If they don’t have the amp you want, sell them back to the vendor for a full refund. Keep doing this until you get influential amps.

 

5. When you have enough amps for 7 pieces of armor, you can rip out the amps from each one and put it into your legacy set you created. You can also do this for main and off hand weapons, but it requires a little bit of extra work and storage and not all classes can have a legacy off hand they can use at lvl 1. So I’m not including it as a requirement.

 

6. Congrats, you now have a 7 piece “influential” legacy set with level 8 mods in each shell piece. Obviously this is useless to wear in combat or out questing. So just keep it in your legacy cargo bay and take it out to equip while giving gifts and place it back.

 

7. Now when you want to give your companions gifts, take the set out of your legacy cargo hold to use. When finished, put it back for your next Alt character or companion.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
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Great thread with good information.

 

It is possible to drag the gift stack from the inventory to a quickbar and keybind it, so the gift giving can be done by pressing a keyboard key instead of using the mouse.

Let me add a little bit extra to a great thread.

 

You're on a roll. Several long, interesting posts in the last few days.

Edited by mike_carton
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My simple, 1 step guide:

After you've used up any appropriate gifts you may have picked up from rewards, etc, go to the fleet and buy yourself enough 'purple' gifts to get your companion to level 50. Never mind the 'expense', it's all just imaginary 'money' which you can easily earn back. It's not worth the (sub) time to worry about complicated methods to save 'credits'. (Unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing.) 😏

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My simple, 1 step guide:

After you've used up any appropriate gifts you may have picked up from rewards, etc, go to the fleet and buy yourself enough 'purple' gifts to get your companion to level 50. Never mind the 'expense', it's all just imaginary 'money' which you can easily earn back. It's not worth the (sub) time to worry about complicated methods to save 'credits'. (Unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing.) 😏

 

I go to Odessen first and turn in crates to alliance peeps to get the level 5 and 6 gifts first. That's the cheapest thing.

For crafters, I skip all that and blow the 1800cc on a 3-pak 50-level influence cartel bundle. I only go to fleet for gifts for lowby toons to get their 1 comp I'll be using through story mode to influence 15 until I know I'll be serious with that toon.

Edited by xordevoreaux
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What I would like is a guide that lists all crew skill (non-cartel) companions that "Love" Delicacies or Maintenance and how to obtain them. Those gifts are practically free since the game showers you with Jawa junk. Edited by Eli_Porter
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  • 5 months later...
There is absolutely nothing efficient about giving 481 gifts to a companion, even with promptness fully upgraded. The compendium is great but the cost effectiveness is horrible. You can sell said compendium for enough to click 481 gifts into 22 companions and almost a 23rd. Convenience has value but not that much value. I sell compendiums and suffer the clicks.
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What I would like is a guide that lists all crew skill (non-cartel) companions that "Love" Delicacies or Maintenance and how to obtain them. Those gifts are practically free since the game showers you with Jawa junk.

 

Delicacy loves: Koth and Tanno Vik.

Maintenance loves: Scorpio, 2V-R8, and C2-N2.

 

Artifact (purple) delicacies are 2 artifact (purple) scrap from Izzar the Artifact Materials Vendor on fleet in the Cartel Market hangar. You can also buy the jawa vendor to park in your stronghold.

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What I would like is a guide that lists all crew skill (non-cartel) companions that "Love" Delicacies or Maintenance and how to obtain them. Those gifts are practically free since the game showers you with Jawa junk.

 

Delicacies:

 

- Lana

- Hexid

- Koth (?)

- Tanno Vik (trooper only)

 

Maintenance:

 

- T7

- Pub Starship Droid

- Imp Starship Droid

Edited by JYthelifesaver
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Firstly, thanks OP for this guide. I put one together a long time ago that is now quite obsoolete, so I know first-hand how much work it takes to do this.

 

I'll just add a quick tip. If you have a new companion at level 1, and don't know what their favorite gift is, take them to fleet, go to the lowest level gift vendor and sort by price to organize his wares a bit. Then with that companion active, if you hover the cursor over each level 1 gift, it will say "no influence" or occassionally "small influence" for all but one, and that one that reads "large influence" will be the class of gift you are looking for. There are a couple companions that favor multiple gifts, but only the ones that give max points will show this way. Beats having to keep or decipher a chart.

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If I am subbed, it's dark projects + 1 click fleet token for me, every time. One of the best values in the game, easily worth it to not click 480 more times, and only costs a bit more, even counting the Dark Projects, even on a bad GTN day. Creds are easy to come by, time is not.
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If I am subbed, it's dark projects + 1 click fleet token for me, every time. One of the best values in the game, easily worth it to not click 480 more times, and only costs a bit more, even counting the Dark Projects, even on a bad GTN day. Creds are easy to come by, time is not.

 

same, I just get the token from the vendor. although when I get comp gifts for rewards, I usually use them there and then.

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I throw them in legacy storage and periodically sell them on the GTN, or sometimes use them with the Shae I have with every new L1 to blow through the starter world faster.

 

Cash making tip - people pay silly prices for comp gifts on the GTN. A year or so back I was making a 40% profit for a while just buying stacks from the fleet vendor and walking over to sell them on the GTN. I literally did it until I got bored, made a couple tens of millions for fun.

 

Far better cash return than crafting :)

Edited by stoopicus
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  • 9 months later...

Good guide and thank you for the work put into it.

 

Is there a guide that tells the influence gained for the gifts? For example, I just gave Theron Shan a Rank 6 Technology gift that I looted. He loves Tech and is currently a level 25 companion. I have the character unlock to maximize gift influence. Yet, I only got 333 points for this rank 6 gift? I feel that was wrong. I understand the amount goes down once the character passes certain levels but did something change recently that reduces it even more? I then gave him a rank 5 (pink tech gift) and got a couple hundred points. I was pretty frustrated because if I knew that they reduced it to being worthless, I wouldn't have wasted it on him and given it to a lower level tech loving companion for the maximum points.

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Good guide and thank you for the work put into it.

 

Is there a guide that tells the influence gained for the gifts? For example, I just gave Theron Shan a Rank 6 Technology gift that I looted. He loves Tech and is currently a level 25 companion. I have the character unlock to maximize gift influence. Yet, I only got 333 points for this rank 6 gift? I feel that was wrong. I understand the amount goes down once the character passes certain levels but did something change recently that reduces it even more? I then gave him a rank 5 (pink tech gift) and got a couple hundred points. I was pretty frustrated because if I knew that they reduced it to being worthless, I wouldn't have wasted it on him and given it to a lower level tech loving companion for the maximum points.

 

Something must be wrong there. You should definitely be getting more influence from those gifts. Are you sure they were the correct gift rank and type? I just tested some rank 5 and rank 6 gifts on DS Jaesa at the 40-50 bracket and the spreadsheet data still checks out as being accurate here in patch 7.0.

 

For a Theron Shan at rank 25 influence, giving tech gifts with the character perks unlocked should grant:

 

-1,923 influence if using rank 6 legendary gifts

-658 influence if using rank 5 pink(artifact) gifts

Edited by Drenovade
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Is there a guide that tells the influence gained for the gifts?

 

Total amount of influence contained within each bracket:

 

Ranks 1-5: 3,600 influence

Ranks 6-9: 6,400 influence

Ranks 10-14: 12,500 influence

Ranks 15-19: 17,500 influence

Ranks 20-29: 50,000 influence

Ranks 30-39: 70,000 influence

Ranks 40-50: 90,000 influence

 

To see how much influence a specific gift should give, check your companion's influence rank and take the appropriate number above, then divide it by the number on the spreadsheet that matches the gift rank/rarity and your companion's influence bracket. The result will tell you how much influence that gift should grant to your companion, provided your character has the bonus perks unlocked on their legacy panel, and that you are using the companion's LOVE reaction gift type.

 

Example: You want to see how much a rank 6 legendary technology gift will grant to your Theron Shan who is currently at rank 25 influence. 50,000(number above) divided by 26(number on spreadsheet) equals 1,923 influence that should be granted upon giving that gift to Theron.

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Thank you Drenovade for the quick response. I wish I would have taken a screenshot now but I think I will at least put in a ticket so it can be investigated. Maybe my eyes read it wrong? I would hope so. But anyway, thank you for the information to figure out the influence by levels. This will really help out.
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