Welcome to the best Yatzli build guide for Avowed, which has been updated for the Anniversary Update. The guide covers the best abilities, companion skill selections, and strategies for effectively using Yatzli in your party.
Related Guides
The Avowed Anniversary Update (Patch 2.0) has completely reshaped how builds and companions function, making older guides outdated. With major additions like New Game Plus, expanded build scaling, customizable difficulty, and improved progression systems, companions are now more impactful than ever in both early and late-game strategies.
In this guide, we break down the best Yatzli companion build in Avowed including skills, combat roles, and how to maximize their effectiveness after the latest update. Whether you’re playing on a fresh character or NG+, this updated setup ensures your companion performs at peak efficiency in every encounter.
Avowed Yatzli Build Summary
- Role: Area (AOE) DPS
- Best Ability: Essence Explosion
- Key Synergy: Pairs best with Fighter Envoy
- Anniversary Change: Now gain 11 skill points up from 8
Yatzli Features & Mechanics
The companion Yatzli is the last to unlock, and is a powerful mage with exceptional area damage. She’s your typical glass cannon spellcaster, with huge damage and something unique among companions; status effects. Each of her three active skills have an upgrade bonus that adds status effect accumulation. Once you max out these skills and upgrade, she becomes a force, applying shock, fire, and frost to one or more enemies.
Yatzli is also helpful while exploring with her Dispel Illusion unique skill. You will see a pink flower looking symbol which will remove illusions and let you see the object in question. This usually happens while exploring the world or on later game quest.
If you’re deciding whether to use Yatzli in your party, you must factor in her large area DPS but also her weak defense. Either you, as the Envoy, or Kai, as a tank, needs taunt to keep enemies at bay. If you do, her AOE damage can make short work of multiple creatures. This is where Yatzli shines, in a party that has some single target DPS, but needs extra AOE to clear mobs quickly.
How to Unlock Yatzli
Yatzli is unlocked in the second region of Emerald Stair. During this time, you will encounter her and kick off a quest for a Godless vase artifact. It’s not until you reach the region of Shatterscarp that she becomes a recruitable companion. Find her in the southeastern side of Thirdborn, talking with the city leader. Below are the specific details on unlocking Yatzli:
- First Encounter: You’ll spot her at the entrance of the Emerald Stair region, where she’s busy fighting sporelings.
- Official Recruitment Quest: “Face Your Fears.”
- Location: Thirdborn (the major settlement in the Shatterscarp region).
- Process: Meet her at the Fleet Master’s Perch in Thirdborn to start the quest. After dealing with the quest objectives in Ryngrim’s Domain, find her at The Dead Swordfish tavern. Speak to her there, and she will officially join your party.
Yatzli’s Permanent Bonuses
To unlock Yatzli’s permanent bonuses, speak with her at your Party Camp after you enter the Shatterscap region. Ask about her history, specifically regarding the cities of Quilicci and Lodwyn. At that time, she will have a permanent bonus choice based on the following dialogue options below:
| Dialogue Choice | Permanent Bonus |
|---|---|
| “You always see the traps before I do – can you show me what to look for?” | +2 Perception |
| “Let’s sharpen our wits.” | +2 Intellect |
| “Whatever you want to teach me, I’m ready to learn!” | +1 Perception, +1 Intellect |
Perception influences critical chance while intellect influences essence. Choose the best permanent bonus for you based on your attribute choices and build archetype.
Yatzli Best Abilities and Passives
Essence Explosion and Mioletta’s Missile Battery are Yatzli’s best skills in Avowed. She’s all about area damage and multi-target kills and these two skills do that the best. Below we walk you through each skill, their recommended upgrades, and a leveling progression chart so you can select the best skills at the most impactful times.
Essence Explosion: Launches arcane power that explodes on the target and releases energy. This is your main AOE damage skill that starts out with a 60-second cooldown. The best upgrades for Essence Explosion are Fire Aspect, Scrappy Casting, and Concentrated Essence.
- Fire Aspect: This upgrade gives the skill Fire Accumulation and helps apply status effects. Yatzli’s abilities should take upgrades to do different status effects because each stacks on top of each other and can wreck a enemy.
- Scrappy Casting: this upgrade lowers the cooldown for the skill by 33%, dropping it to 40 seconds. You will want this pretty early so you can keep casting high impact AOE dps skills.
- Concentrated Essence: an upgrade that increases the size of the blast. You want the most AOE possible with Yatzli so upgrading to a larger radius is helpful.
Minoletta’s Missile Battery: Another multi-target ability, though this skill shoots out missiles and seeks nearby enemies. The range is weak, so you need to make sure to use it near a cluster of enemies to get its full effect. The duration is five seconds with a 60-second cooldown. The best upgrades for Minoletta’s Missile Battery are Shock and Speedy Salvo.
- Shock: Take this upgrade to give the skill shock accumulation. It pairs well with Fire Aspect so you can stack two status effects early using two of her skills.
- Speedy Salvo: Increases the rate of fire which is helpful to shoot out missiles quickly and not let targets flee the area.
Arduous Delay of Motion: Your defensive skill that slows a target for 10 seconds. The skills cooldown is 40 seconds, so you can use this frequently to protect against melee enemies trying to reach you. The best upgrade options here are Frost Aspect and Exhausting Field.
- Frost Aspect: Another status effect buff that gives the skill frost accumulation. This can be helpful to make the skill have some offensive component to it.
- Exhausting Field: Grants the skill a AOE effect, which fits with Yatzli’s build. The combo here is to freeze enemies in place, then drop the Essence Explosion or Missile Battery so they cannot leave the area.
Blast (Passive): Your passive ability that is triggered when Yatzli does weapon attacks. By default, the skill does small AOE damage when an enemy is hit.
- Affliction Blast: The final status effect upgrade, granting 5% chance to cause frozen, ignited, or shocked status effects. You rotate through your skills to apply many status effects then watch Yatzli’s weapon attack blast enemies who are inflicted.
Best Yatzli Skill Progression & Leveling Guide
| Skill Point | Skill Chosen | Effect | Why Take It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting | Essence Explosion | Explodes on hitting enemy | Base companion ability |
| 1 | Minoletta’s Missile Battery | Fires volley of arcane missiles | Good multi-target DPS skill |
| 2 | Arduous Delay of Motion | Slows target for 10 seconds | Helps keep enemies from reaching you |
| 3 | Blast (Passive) | Your attacks deal small AOE | Helps with sustained DPS |
| 4 | Shock (Minoletta’s Missile Battery Upgrade) | Adds shock accumulation | Adds Status effect chance |
| 5 | Fire Aspect (Essence Explosion Upgrade) | Adds fire accumulation | Adds Status effect chance |
| 6 | Frost Aspect (Arduous Delay of Motion Upgrade) | Adds frost accumulation | Adds Status effect chance |
| 7 | Scrappy Casting (Essence Explosion Upgrade) | Reduces cooldown by 33% | Use skill more frequently |
| 8 | Affliction Blast (Blast Upgrade) | 5% chance to inflict frozen, ignited, or shocked | Max status effect damage |
| 9 | Concentrated Essence (Essence Explosion Upgrade) | Increases AOE size | Hits more targets, better AOE |
| 10 | Speedy Salvo (Minoletta’s Missile Battery Upgrade) | Increases rate of fire | Higher DPS |
| 11 | Exhausting Field (Arduous Delay of Motion Upgrade) | Afflicts all enemies in field | Makes it AOE skill |
How to Play Yatzli with All Classes
The best way to play Yatzli is Avowed is as a area based DPS spellcaster. You want to pair her with someone in your party who can tank, apply taunts, and keep enemies at bay. The best combination is with you as the Envoy Fighter and Giatta as a healing companion. This allows Yatzli to sit back and freecast huge AOE damage.
The best combination of spells for Yatzli is using Arduous Delay of Motion with Essence Explosion. All of her spells are in a circular AOE of about 8 meters. You want to slow targets within this radius so they cannot move out, then launch a huge nuke once they are held tightly together. Alternatively, you can open with an attack if one or more enemies are together. Don’t feel like you need to use Yatzli’s skill right away, its most important one or more enemies are inside the AOE vs. just using the skills.
For survivability, Yatzli will be reliant or Giatta for healing or Kai for tanking. Her only defense is Arduous Delay of Motion which slows down enemies. This and Marius’s root ability makes a great combination for keeping melee enemies from reaching her. However, she’s a glass cannon so make sure to “peel” and refocus your DPS or taunting once a melee target switches to her.
Best Companion to Combine with Yatzli
Kai is the best companion to combine with Yatzli because he has two ways to taunt enemies. Use Daring Leap when a target is within melee range and you want Kai to taunt and attack. Use Fire and Ire for a single target taunt, especially if someone is approaching her. These two abilities can be rotated back and forth maintaining nearly 100% up time on taunt/aggro.
If you’re playing a tank with taunt, swap Kai for Giatta. She’s a great healer and gives the party high survivability. Plus, her accelerate skill gives Yatzli quicker cooldowns resulting in super high DPS. If you have zero survivability concerns, pair Yatzli with Marius. This gives you a single target kill in Marius combined with Yatzli’s AOE for huge DPS.
Yatzli Companion With Envoy
Fighter
Your goal with the Fighter Envoy is to keep taunt and heavy melee pressure on enemies. Having a pull or a gap closer is critical so you can peel and shift your attention towards any approaching enemy attacking Yatzli. Also consider the Bear Ally, it creates a massive distraction for melee enemies and helps keep them from attacking Yatzli. Below are some skill suggestions:
- Ability 1: Into the Fray (taunt and pull someone to you)
- Ability 2: Clear Out (AOE cleave)
- Ability 3: Bear Ally (helpful companion ally)
- Passive 1: Inspiring Triumph (heals companions on kills)
Check our Fighter Build for Avowed.
Ranger
The Ranger Envoy will want to play at range with Kai as the tank using taunts. Tanglefoot will help keep targets immobilized if you see someone approach you or Yatzli. Also, Bear Ally is great choice on this build too since its a melee distraction and adds a bit of DPS. Use Shadowing Beyond to stealth revive allies if there down. Below are the suggestions:
- Ability 1: Shadowing Beyond (mobility and stealth)
- Ability 2: Tanglefoot (ranged immobilization)
- Ability 3: Bear Ally (helpful companion ally)
- Passive 1: Marksmanship (ranged damage boost)
Check our Ranger Build for Avowed.
Wizard
The least effective Envoy to pair with Yatzli is the Wizard because of similar skill set. However, you can go all out DPS here if you do. It’s critical to use Kai as a tank and just out DPS enemies rather than defending against them with healing. Here are the recommended skills:
- Ability 1: Arcane Veil (survival tool)
- Ability 2: Fireball (AOE damage)
- Ability 3: Minor Missiles (low cooldown spell)
- Passive 1: Blood Magic (can heal HP back for essence)
Check our Wizard Build for Avowed.
How the Anniversary Update Changed Companions
The Anniversary Update introduced several key systems that directly impact companions:
- New Game Plus scaling allows companions to remain viable in extended playthroughs
- Expanded build scaling and customization makes companion builds more flexible
- Custom difficulty settings allow players to fine-tune companion effectiveness
- Improved progression systems and gear scaling make companions stronger in late game
- Increased skill points from 8 to 11
Yatzli Companion FAQs (Avowed Anniversary Update)
1. Can I romance Yatzli?
No. Despite her flirtatious dialogue and sarcastic charm, Yatzli explicitly mentions she already has a partner (an older animancer you’ll meet in-game). Like Giatta and Marius, her relationship with the Envoy is strictly platonic.
2. What is Yatzli’s unique exploration ability?
Yatzli has the Dispel Illusion command. While she is in your party, you can direct her to interact with shimmering air or “empty” walls to reveal hidden chests, secret passages, and quest items.
3. Why does Yatzli die so quickly in combat?
In the Anniversary Update, her health is lower than most companions to balance her massive damage. Pair her with Kai (to taunt enemies away) or use her Arduous Delay of Motion ability to slow down attackers before they reach her.
4. Which Yatzli ability should I upgrade first?
Essence Explosion is her bread and butter. For the Anniversary Update meta, choose the “Concentrated Essence” upgrade to maximize single-target damage against bosses, or “Explosive Blast” if you need better crowd clear for trash mobs.
5. Does Yatzli get along with Giatta?
Yes. They have some of the best “party banter” in the game. Giatta views Yatzli as a sort of “cool, bad-influence aunt.” Taking them both out together provides a lot of extra lore about the history of animancy in the Living Lands.
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