In a campaign so heavily involving spirits and the supernatural, you'd expect the resident Shaman to be a pretty powerful character - and that much is true. Gobbet is a fantastic spellcaster companion in Shadowrun: Hong Kong.
She's a Rat Shaman with plenty of great spells to use and abuse during battle and a wicked SMG to fall back on when spells just aren't cutting it. Investing your time into planning out her skills will pay dividends.
Gobbet's Best Skills
Companions get to choose new upgrades with every two missions that you complete, regardless of whether they actually went on the missions themselves.
Gobbet's skill trees are Territoriality and Spiritualist. The former helps her deal more damage and be a more effective spellcaster, while the second exclusively deals with her ability to summon Spirits and control them.
|
Upgrade |
Territoriality |
Spiritualist |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Ranged Combat: Increases Ranged Combat and SMG by 1 point each. |
Spirit Control: Spirits that Gobbet summons will never break away in the first two turns after summoning them. |
|
2 |
Destroy Spirit: Gobbet gains an ability that deals 99 DMG to any hostile spirit, instantly killing them. |
Steal Spirit: Gobbet gains the ability to steal enemy spirits, flipping them to your side in battle. When she reaches Rank 5 Spirit Control, she can steal two spirits at a time. |
|
3 |
Poison Fog: Gobbet learns Acidic Fog, which now does AP DMG in addition to Poison Fog's usual HP DMG. |
Shrine Spirits: Spirits that Gobbet summons will now stick around for an additional turn - a total of 3 turns in all. |
|
4 |
Plague Barrier: Gobbet gains a powerful Barrier spell that deals 14 HP DMG and 1 AP DMG to all who entire the affected tiles. |
Devil Rat Spirit Fetish: Gobbet now takes a Devil Rat Spirit Fetish with her on all missions. |
|
5 |
Haste: Gobbet learns how to cast Channeled Haste, which lasts 4 turns and will also increase Gobbet's accuracy by 15% when cast. |
Consume Spirit: Gobbet can consume spirits, which heals her for 10 HP and increases her AP by 1 per turn for 2 turns. |
How you build Gobbet will largely depend on how you intend to use her in battle, as the two playstyles are pretty distinct. You can either go all-in on her Spirit Summoning or improve her abilities as a spellcaster. Both are worth considering, as there are very powerful options to be had in either skill tree.
Our Recommended Build
This build takes Spirit Control, Destroy Spirit, Poison Fog, Devil Rat Spirit Fetish, and Haste.
We take Gobbet down the spellcaster route as these spells are more widely applicable. Sure, Spirits can be very powerful, but they are limited to the environmental summons and consumable Fetishes - once they run out, Gobbet is a little hampered.
That said, we do take Spirit Control and the Devil Rat Spirit Fetish for a good reason. Having the option to summon Spirits and have them stay loyal for at least two turns is very useful - moreso than some extra gun damage for a spellcaster. For the second upgrade, it's easy to find Devil Rats more powerful than a situationally useful Plague Barrier spell that enemies are pretty deft at avoiding, thanks to intelligent pathfinding. The opportunities to force enemies into a Barrier spell are few and far between.
It's worth noting that when you can make Plague Barrier work, it is incredibly powerful. The fourth upgrade is the one most up to personal choice.
The final upgrade is an easy choice. Thanks to the second upgrade, you'll already have a way to deal with enemy Spirits, and enemy Spirits are pretty rare in this game anyway. In addition, Haste is one of the most powerful spells in the entire game, and this is the strongest form of it.