Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader: Best Advanced Archetypes Ranked

Reaching Level 15 and picking your Advanced Archetype can be both exciting and daunting: there’s so much potential, but you might not know how they work. You may be wondering what the best advanced archetypes are for each base class Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader.

Best Advanced Archetypes for Each Base Class in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Each base Archetype, including the Warrior, Officer, Operative, and Solider, is mechanically distinct. However, some can strive toward the same Advanced Archetype. For example:

• Warrior: Has the option to become either an Assassin, a Vanguard, or an Arch-Militant.
• Officer: Has the option to become a Vanguard, a Master Tactician, or a Grand Strategist.
• Operative: Has the option to become an Assassin, a Bounty Hunter, or Grand Strategist.
• Soldier: Has the option to become a Bounty Hunter, a Master Tactician, or an Arch-Militant.

In actual play, I’ve found that some options are better than others for each base Archetype, especially when it comes to companions. While playing on Unfair, you really have to have optimal builds in mind and make use of each characteristic that an Advanced Archetype requires. With stats and general synergy in mind, these are the best Advanced Archetypes for each base class from my experience.

Best Advanced Archetype for Warriors

In most cases, the Vanguard will be your most optimal choice. This is because there are numerous sources of temporary wounds in the game from talents and Officer abilities and Vanguard’s Unyielding Beacon makes them stack. Furthermore, you get to share these bonuses with your melee teammates in a 2-cell radius around you. It’s just an unkillable front-line build, even on Unfair in most cases.

There’s also an argument for the Assassin, but Warrior companions don’t fit this role that well without diverging from their core stat builds. That said, I’ve found great success with the Assassin on my custom character with an Agility/Perception build focusing on Danse Macabre and Poised to Strike. Elusive Shadow can also help you get into position for an effective Seek the Opening.

Best Advanced Archetype for Officers

While Master Tactician is a great Advanced Archetype in a vacuum, most Officer builds focus on supportive buffs and not necessarily on outputting damage. That’s why the Grand Strategist on a Fellowship build works wonders. You can empower allies in your Combat Tactic zones with not just your Officer abilities but stratagems as well that mostly stack with your base Archetype talents.

Use the Stronghold Stratagem to tank up your team with extra armor and deflection. Furthermore, the Killzone Stratagem is highly useful for burst damage as it reduces dodge and parry chance for enemies. The neat part is that you only need either Fellowship or Intelligence to excel at this Archetype making it highly accessible.

Best Advanced Archetype for Operatives

Arguably, there are two types of Operatives, the burst damage Sniper ones and the utility/debuffing ones like Idira or Pasqual. If you’re going the Sniper route, the Assassin is your best bet. However, if your aim is team-wide utility and reducing enemy statistics, then the Bounty Hunter is a much better choice.

With abilities such as Ensnare the Prey, Hot on the Trail, and Raid, you become a trapper that applies party-wise buffs on specific enemies in combat. Your team can benefit from increased hit chance and damage while fighting immobilized enemies. Furthermore, you can get extra turns and free attacks on those enemies as well. While Assassin can do a lot of damage in specific situations, I’ve found that Bounty Hunter brings much more value to your team in the long run. Be sure to take the Share the Spoils Talent so that your allies can share your personal buffs.

Best Advanced Archetype for Soldiers

The Arch Militant shines on a full-ranged Soldier build, utilizing Burst Fire or Area Attacks. This is because even though the theme of the Arch Militant is to mix ranged and melee weapons, you don’t have to. Versatility stacks can be gained just by alternating between Single Shot, Burst Shot, or Area Attack depending on the ranged weapon you’re wielding.

Just stacking Versatility makes you a high-priority target on the battlefield, but let’s talk about those abilities. Wildfire grants you an extra attack in addition to Run and Gun and other extra attack-granting sources. Combine this with Confident Approach, which gives you dodge reduction and cover effectiveness reduction, and you’ll be making a flurry of shots each turn that are almost guaranteed to hit.

Those are the best Advanced Archetypes in Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader. There are plenty of character-building options in the game, but some are less situational and, therefore, more optimal than others. Especially when the difficulty spike hits as you enter the mid-game. For more tips like our Rykad Minoris choice guide or best Exemplar talents, check out our WH40K Rogue Trader hub.