u/Gaming_Birch

Various news and speculations about companion mechanics in the video, but what I wanted to point out here.

Salt abilities showcase.

Our mystery "story" companion joins us on this mission. She doesn't really get involved in combat though, and she doesn't have active abilities, but it's cool to see that "story" companions won't just be sitting in the safety of Lidon or our ship all the time.

We also see her have a very emotional hug with Jun, which only supports our earlier suspicion that she and Jun already have a close relationship before the game starts.

Also one of the conversations show that certain options need you to pass a "Persuade" and "Intimidate" skill checks, which is something I haven't seen in Exodus yet.

I feel the rest are quite spoiler-y, and the video basically reveals the majority from one of the early missions, so I don't want to talk about it too much. Here is the original video if you still want to watch yourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjS2mQxEius

It was the Mara-Yama.

In the beginning, we see several beasts charging at the octopodes, and those are clearly the armored Koven, that we saw in a separate teaser a while ago.

Then, we see a humanoid figure which seems to be a mix between the Mara-Yama warrior and the Mara-Yama assassin. I did not find an exact match in existing lore, but we know Mara-Yama can shapeshift, so there are probably variations to their looks. This could be some unique villain, that will be the centeral point of Salt's storyline.

Which brings me to Salt. Until the latest trailer, we didn't know a lot about her - a no-filter merc who likes shooting. This trailer gave her much more depth, and clearly a tragic backstory, which I want to explore.

Mara-Yama revel in psychological torture and it's surprising to me they would attack an Awakened world. I would have thought octopodes are just not a good enough target for the M-Y.

M-Y were announced as an antagonist in the game and I kept wondering how we are going to interact with them. Now, it looks like Salt will be the main source of confrontation with the M-Y in the game, since everybody tries to just avoid them, but she clearly has a beef with them. At one point, Jun says "I'm responsible for this world and you put it in danger for your selfish reasons." there are countless possibilities what she could have done, but on possible cause - she may have been trying to get here revenge on the M-Y, agitated them, and in the process lured their attention to Lidon. That would make sense because of her hate of M-Y, and it would definitely be something that would put Lidon in danger.

I am really curious where her story will lead us.

The devs repeatedly mentioned Salt and how awesome she is. Partially I thought this was marketing talk, and she would end up being just a cool non-human merc who behaves a bit odd for human standards, but after this trailer I am starting to see that she might actually be quite intriguing.

Edit: I have watched the trailer again, and now I don't think the Mara Yama are actually attacking her home world. The world looks Celestial, so the octopodes are probably trying to get some Remnant tech and getting surprised by Mara Yama in the process.

As far as I know, we haven't heard almost anything about her, but she seems to have a special position among the companions.

It looks like she isn't just a random companion who joins us during the game. It looks like even very early in the game, she already has a close relationship to Jun.

She is seen very often in the trailers, probably a top 3 along with Tom and Elise and by far the most often from the story companions. She accompanies Jun in many seemingly important scenes, in the group scenes (like the Tsar briefing) she stands much closer to Jun than anyone else, as if she was his second in command, and she is even quite touchy with Jun.

I was thinking a family member, perhaps a sister, but as far as siblings go, we only know about Gideon, Jun's brother because of whom Jun had to go into hiding as a child. For a long time, the closes thing to a sibling was Houston, btu we don't have a word on more siblings.

So I keep wondering, who is she to Jun. Did we get an official word on it? Or what are your theories?

Play the card - return to hand.
End of turn - keep in hand.

Infinite block... at least until you meet the Doormaster :D