Argenta is your retinue’s resident Sister of Battle, whose religious fervor will more often encourage or demand a great purge of Heretics and Xenos. Her trusty use of the Soldier base Archetype allows her solid use of mobility, ranged tactics, and a versatile playstyle for anyone looking to shoot, snipe, or burn their enemies away. In this build, we’ll be using a Burst Fire playstyle to generate some incredible bonus shooting fit for Tabletop enthusiasts to improve their damage in combat and become a one-woman wrecking crew. Here’s a closer look at what to expect from our Argenta Build in Rogue Trader, with a focus on using
Rapid Fire and burst fire to decimate bosses and mow down hordes alike.
An Argenta Build, featuring a focus on multi-attacks using crits offering incredible horde clearing and armor pen, with scaling damage.
Argenta Build - Rogue Trader¶
The idea behind this playstyle is that you’re setting up your character towards Heavy Bolter weapons, with the potential to take Aeldari and Drukhari versions at the end of Chapter 3 if you so want to. Your starting bolter weapon is okay, but, by the end of chapter 1 and start of chapter 2, you’ll be able to get a regular Heavy
Bolter with a rate of fire of 8, which doubles to 16 with the Rapid Fire skill. You’ll grab this from the Chapter 1 final boss as a reward, but only if you’re Heretical. You can get a more generalized one from the Drussian traders. You will need reputation 4 with them, and need to have 36 Profit Factor to buy it. However, it takes a while to get, so something like the
Heavy Stubber, which you get from Chapter 1 enemy drops can be useful to you instead, despite being a Solid weapon type.
Soldier Build¶
The Soldier Build is all about getting you in a spot where you can start getting key upgrades to improve your shooting and AoE capabilities. Talents like Rapid Fire do just that, and the Fired Up talent is handy for damage improvements through fights. If you get more turns, then Fired Up only gets better as your Soldier gets even more powerful as fights go on. Furthermore, we take proficiencies in Bolters because that’s the main weapon type we’ll be using for better action economy, which you’ll use a lot throughout the game, along with other useful baseline buffs for the future build. You also get talents that improve Argenta’s role in the party for Awareness and Demolitions, and some Medicae if you want to make her a medic too since she has decent Medicae traits.
Order | Unlock 1 | Unlock 2 |
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1 | ![]() |
– |
2 | Demolition | – |
3 | ![]() |
– |
4 | Firearm Mastery | ![]() |
5 | ![]() |
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6 | ![]() |
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7 | ![]() |
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8 | ![]() |
Awareness |
9 | Firearm Mastery 2 | – |
10 | ![]() |
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11 | ![]() |
Your Preference for Party Roles |
12 | ![]() |
Heavy Weapon Proficiency |
13 | Unfaltering Fire | It Will Not Die |
14 | ![]() |
Optional |
15 | Firearm Mastery Upgrade 3 | – |
Archmilitant Build¶
The crit pistol accessory and bonus turns can easily allow Argenta to stack Fired Up incredibly effectively using AoE in turn 1. See, she has 56 stakes of Fired Up before turn 2!
Order | Unlock 1 | Unlock 2 |
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1 | ![]() |
– |
2 | ![]() |
– |
3 | ![]() |
– |
4 | ![]() |
– |
5 | AP Increase | ![]() |
6 | ![]() |
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7 | ![]() |
Overpower |
8 | Awareness | ![]() |
9 | ![]() |
Characteristics Training: ![]() |
10 | ![]() |
– |
11 | Demolitions | ![]() |
12 | Steady Superiority 4 | – |
13 | Demolitions | ![]() |
14 | ![]() |
Breaking Point |
15 | ![]() |
– |
16 | ![]() |
– |
17 | ![]() |
Demolition |
18 | ![]() |
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19 | ![]() |
Characteristics Training: ![]() |
20 | Steady Superiority 2 | – |
Preferred Targets is useful since you’ll have either Idira or
Pasqal in your party exploiting weaknesses, or
Cassia’s dodge-lowering talent. This is great for increasing crit chance against targets to make your multiple attacks against enemies in Rapid Fire even more effective.
Exploit Weakness is also an effective talent, since you’ll likely have an Assassin or Exploit Weakness shredding armor values making this an effective talent to pick up. Our Yrliet build for example uses
Pierce the Armour, which is something you can also work off for boss or high wound special enemies to get use out of this talent.
Reckless Rush is a nice skill to take since it doubles your Vers (
Versatility) stacks. It’s handy for when you need some bonus damage on a turn you don’t need to use
Controlled Shot, for example. This synergizes with
Adaptability, which increases crit based on Vers stacks, so, you can have a round where you have really high Crit chance for one of your more effective Rapid Fire engagements. It is another reason the
Always Ready talent is so useful.
Cautious Approach is also the other handy skill you want for this Archetype, thanks to its granting defensiveness, which is important for the harder difficulties.
In terms of other weapon options, you can get items in Chapter 3 like the Shuriken Cannon, a higher damage Aeldari equivalent of the Heavy Bolter. If you want to, you can slot in a
Aeldari Weapon Proficiency for Argenta and use that weapon as an upgrade somewhere in the Exemplar. Alternatively, there’s an improved Heavy Bolter for capping out your rep with the Drussians. So you have two choices for end game weaponry. When you get to Chapter 4, we also recommend opening the locked container on Qutza Temer on the metal base just before meeting Calligos for the main storyline. This contains a cloak accessory slot called the
Tempestus Carapace Elite Backpack, which will negate all recoil for your 8 round burst fire weapon.
Exemplar Talents¶
Exemplar Talents have a lot of bonuses you can get that were not quite needed in the Archmilitant or Soldier tree. There are a few must-haves, but there’s a lot of fluff post Level 6, so, we’ll leave the missing talents up to you for how you want to diversify Argenta’s second weapon slot in later chapters and to specialize her role more in your party. Still, the Exemplar Talents are good for her weapon choices and defensiveness. Take Firebrand for example. Argenta wants extra turns for her free pistol attack if you crit, so, it means you can reload three-to-four times for every 2 AP she gets given from an Officer. You can see our recommended level unlocks in this tree below.
Order | Unlock 1 | Unlock 2 |
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1 | ![]() |
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2 | Optional | ![]() |
3 | ![]() |
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4 | ![]() |
Optional |
5 | ![]() |
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6 | ![]() |
Optional |
From here, there are a lot of dead talents for Exemplar. Simply go with whichever is more useful for her role in your party, hits the core identity of Ballistic, Agi, and Toughness for offense and defense, and then what other talents fit Argenta’s party role in your retinue. This is where you likely want to start thinking about grabbing talents for your preferred second weapon, for example. In addition, we are aware that there is a Sororitas Power Armor, which is a very late game armor, so don’t bother grabbing any armor talents as they’ll be a waste.
When it comes to Exemplar Talents, those are still relevant. You want the following:
Degraded Defence (for better boss killing)
Tricky Defence
This concludes our Argenta Build Guide in Rogue Trader. Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to use Argenta’s Soldier and Arch-Militant to create a really powerful burst fire playstyle, with many damage ramping opportunities, capable of getting many bonus shooting actions with incredible damage ramping. This makes her a solid horde manager, while also still being able to use her Bolters to generate really efficient damage per turn against even the toughest of bosses, offering juicy aid to Assassins who want others to land crits so they can get more Weakness and Openings to finish the job for them.
Argenta gets demolition at lvl 2 now not awareness
Thanks for the heads up, we've updated the page.
Heya, on archmilitant 9 you have brutal hunter, an ability she does not get
Thanks for the comments. She's Death World on my save still for some bizarre reason so I sadly wasn't aware it wasn't perfect 1:1 for you :(. Updated it again. Thanks again for your message :)
You also mention "lifetime of scars" during the archmilitant write up
Question: Did this used to be a guide with flame weapon? What happened to that guide?
Here's the summary for you :D I'm aware Argenta has been changed a lot so the list might not be too accurate but it gives you an idea of how the build works.
The pro of the build is you are a horde clearer. It's not too great for fighting the Aeldari and Drukhari because of their dodge chance modifiers. It works fine with everything else from Horrors, cultists, general rebels and the usual weaker enemies to doing some big damage to the more armored enemies in later chapters. Drukhari and Aeldari love dodging so it can upset your attack reset making the build a little terrible for late chapter 2 /3, especially chapter 3 when you lose gear temporarily.
You need the Pair Holster accessory from the Warehouse in Chapter 2 to keep rolling attack move chains. Use that with the guaranteed crit skill from Arch-Militant skill to roll your guaranteed crit procs. The lowered damage will be offset by your ramping damage from solider talents so it is fine. Be aware it was slightly bugged back in December / January but it might work better now. One of the reasons I changed the build-around in the first place.
Soldier: Run and Gun, Awareness, Revel in Slaughter, Firearm Mastery /Rack and Ruin, Ballistic Skill / Fired Up, Ballistic Skill / Concentrated Fire, Agility/ Swift Movements, Tenderize / Awareness, Firearm Mastery Upgrade 3, Flame Weapon Expert, Perception, Dash / Your Preference for Party Roles, Perception / It Will Not Die, Rapid Reload / Flensing Faith, Character Training: Ballistic Skill / Preference, Firearm Mastery Upgrade 4,
Arch-Militant: Versatility, Confident Approach - An important talent for setting the crit build-up with Pair Holster item, and for aiding your Assassins since they’ll likely be taking a talent where they benefit from allies crits through the Create an Opening talent. Critical Versatility, Steady Superiority, AP Increase, Ballistic Skill, Dismantle / Agility, Cautious Approach / Plasma Weapon , Proficiency, Preference / Dependable, Ballistic Skill / Tenacity, Discipline , Preference / Agility, Steady Superiority 4, Preference / Shoot on the Hands, Ballistic Skill / Hellish Life - Lots of Drukhari-themed enemies with position by this point so it makes a solid defensive talent. Devastating Attack, Contempt for the Weak - Your flame and plasma pistol now blind targets via Devastating Attack, which improves crit chance since you’re already critting, Ballistic or Toughness / Preference, Awaiting Orders / Ballistic, Agi or Toughness, Ballistic, Agi or Toughness / Preference Party Role or Charaectisitc Training, Steady Superiority 3
Feel free to message me on Twitter: @Fandasuba. or get my steam profile from my Gamer Guides profile account. I'm changing jobs soon so I sadly won't be able to keep things updated properly very shortly.
I would like to see that Build template, thank you
It did. I reworked the build since the Pair Holster and the Confident Approach skill were bugging out and not always guaranteeing crits when they should do, which then stopped the extra attack proc from triggering. It became more damage-efficient to change the build-up to what it is now. I should still have an old build template I can send to you if you still want to follow it?
One more caveat: Argenta cannot use the heavy bolter dropped from the boss of the first chapter, since it requires the worldview of a heretic, and Argenta is a Dogmatic one.
Good spot. My Bad. I shall update the suggestion with the Drussian trader who sells one when you reach Rep 4 with them and have 36 Profit Factor. Thanks again :D
Level 9 of her Arch-Militant tree seems to have been changed to a common talent slot, so you can't take Heavy Gunner in that slot anymore.
I have been; Argenta is pretty incredible with this build.
Heads-up that the talent that's listed in the guide now for that same slot, Brutal Hunter, is a Death World talent, and Argenta is Imperial World. I went ahead and bumped up the guide's 2 other common talent choices (Characteristics Training: Agility at AM 19 and Swift Movements at Exemplar 3) for my Argenta. For the new missing spot in Exemplar 3, I'm thinking of doing Characteristics Training: Strength or Ballistics Skill (depending on whether or not I wanna use the heaviest bolters).
Thanks for the ping on this. Yeah, it's probably a hangover from my review build that got changed in a recent patch, and I've not noticed it till these comments came through. Shifted some talents around between Row 9 and 16 to make up for it. Not much is changing to be honest, just a few slightly delayed AP or damage reductions. Thanks again. I hope you enjoy the build!
Yep, this is still an issue with the current version of this guide.
Looks like this happened to a few different Archetypes' Level 9 Unlock 2 talent.