No Man's Sky Companion Tier List
Mounts, gatherers, robotic pets, and Xeno Arena teams — ranked by job, not cuteness.
Companions in No Man’s Sky are not decorative. Since the Companions update you have been able to adopt wild fauna, hatch eggs, and recruit robotic creatures. Update 6.3 Xeno Arena turned that menagerie into turn-based teams with affinities, medals, and a 30-slot register. Expedition 23: Our Journey Continues, shipping with Cosmos 7.0 on 9 September 2026, put a resurrected diplodocus among the anniversary rewards. None of that means every pet belongs in S.
This list ranks jobs: riding, resource gathering, arena combat, and “unique reward I will actually summon.” It does not rank colour variants. Pair it with the ship list if you want a Corvette ramp full of diplos, and with the Multi-Tool list if your plan is still “shotgun the wildlife.” Adoption itself is a getting started skill: pellets for organics, Ion Batteries for robotic fauna.
How adoption and eggs work
Feed a wild creature, register it, then spend nanites to open more slots up to 30. Eggs let you breed for size, colour, and — after Xeno Arena — battle traits. You can store a lineage as eggs when the register is full, which is how collectors keep genes without parking 30 bodies on one planet. Robotic companions from expeditions (quadrupeds, constructs, robo-wardens) hatch from metal “eggs” and usually cannot be ridden. They still fight.
Xeno Arena uses teams of three. Affinities counter each other (Fire into Frost, Mechanical into Toxic, Anomalous into Mechanical, and so on). A pretty diplo with the wrong affinity is a participation ribbon. Scan with the visor overlay that shows battle traits before you commit a slot.
Riding and travel
S — Large diplos, mega-fauna, and other stable quadrupeds. Long stride, high saddle, less “stuck in a shrub.” The Expedition 23 diplodocus is S if you like the classic silhouette and actually ride it; it is B if it lives in a box.
A — Medium riders with clean animations. Many proto-Geks, six-leggers, and beetles. Fast enough for mineral runs between resource deposits when you do not want to call the ship.
B — Flying mounts. Wonderful for screenshots and terrible for patience when the AI decides a tree is a destination.
C — Tiny pets. They follow. They do not commute.
F — Non-rideable robots for this job. Cute. Walk.
Hovering Interceptor ships stole a lot of “I needed a mount to scan cliffs” energy. Mounts still win when you are planet-side for an hour and do not want launch fuel or a landing pad argument.
Gathering
S — Creatures that mine, harvest, or dig on command with a fat yield. Check the companion tricks list after adoption. A gatherer that prints ferrite or carbon while you build is better than a legendary egg with no job.
A — Specialized harvesters (flora-focused, fauna-milk, or cave grubbers). Useful at a base you actually visit.
B — General followers that only look busy.
D — Arena glass cannons you never take outside the holodeck. They do not gather.
Xeno Arena
S — High-stat creatures with a counter affinity you can actually breed. Mechanical teams punish Toxic. Anomalous teams punish Mechanical. Farm the overlay, then breed eggs for the trait, not the Wikipedia name.
A — Expedition and league-reward uniques (corrupted quadrupeds, geno-prawns, boundary horrors, aeron crabs, and other Oceanus/league prizes). Strong identity, limited rerolls. Use them as anchors, not as your only three slots.
B — Random S-looking megafauna with muddled affinities. They win until the daily challenge asks for a counter you do not own.
C — Starter pellets-pets with no breeding plan. Fine for the tutorial fight. Replace them.
F — Empty slots. The arena will not sympathise.
Robotic companions shine here because Mechanical is a real affinity, not a cosmetic. They remain F as mounts. That is not a contradiction. It is two jobs.
Robotic and expedition uniques
S (collection + arena) — Expedition robotic quadrupeds and the Cosmos diplodocus. Account-wide rewards claimed from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion after expeditions finish. Claim them on a main save; do not assume the expedition slot is your only copy.
A — Robo-warden and construct eggs. Reliable followers, Ion Battery taming, no saddle.
B — Living-ship-adjacent biological oddities you hatched because the egg blinked. Charming. Situational.
Treat uniques as seeds. Breed them. Do not freeze the original in a vitrine if you care about arena medals.
What we do not rank
We do not rank “will this look good in a Corvette hab.” If you want a zoo, build a zoo; Voyagers interiors and multiplayer make that a social hobby, not a DPS chart. We do not rank Sentinel combat pets as replacements for a staff or Scatter Blaster. Companions chip in. They do not clear a Walker.
Faction space still colours the fauna. Gek worlds sell the fantasy of ranching. Korvax worlds hide synthetic things that want batteries. Vy’keen worlds will dare you to ride something with too many teeth. Autophage purple systems add new biomes — gas giants and water worlds included — which means new eggs, not a new adoption button.
A serious register after Xeno Arena looks like a toolbox: two riders, two gatherers, and a triangle of arena affinities you can swap for dailies. Everything else is a postcard. If the diplodocus from Our Journey Continues is the only creature you summon, that is still a valid S for your save — just do not pretend it counters Mechanical on the holodeck. Rank the job, hatch the egg, and send the rest to pasture before you buy another nanite slot you will never fill.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers Travellers search for after Cosmos.
How do I adopt a companion?
Feed wild fauna Creature Pellets after the early story unlocks taming, then register it. Robotic fauna need Ion Batteries instead of pellets.
How many companions can I own?
Up to 30 after Xeno Arena (update 6.3). Extra lineages can sit as eggs if the register is full.
What did Expedition 23 add for companions?
Our Journey Continues rewards include a resurrected diplodocus companion among other anniversary cosmetics. Claim expedition rewards from the Quicksilver vendor on a main save.
Are robotic companions good in Xeno Arena?
Yes. Mechanical affinity is a real counter in the matchup chart. They are still poor mounts. Breed and slot them for fights, not for travel.
Should I pick companions for riding or for the arena?
Keep specialists. Large diplos and stable quadrupeds ride well. Arena teams want affinities and bred stats. One creature rarely tops both lists.
Do companions replace Multi-Tool combat?
No. They help and they entertain. Walkers, hulks, and Sentinel waves still belong to your Multi-Tool and ship weapons.