Familiars in DragonSword: Awakening are the companions that ride along with your three-hero squad and quietly decide how fast you cross Orbis. They do not replace the combat system, but the right one turns a slog between waypoints into a few seconds of jumping and gliding. The collection screen lists 29 entries, yet there are only eight distinct species. Everything else is a color or size variant of one of those eight, and every variant of a species shares the same ability.
Quick answer: Equip the Direwolf for its no-cooldown Boost Jump, the Dragon for its 3-second Air Free Dash, or the Griffon for its high Charged Jump. Those three give the best all-round movement, so build your route around whichever you unlock first.
Familiars tier list (July 2026)
Rankings are based on traversal usefulness across the open world — jump height, air movement, stamina savings, and how often you actually get to use the ability. This reflects the current launch build.
| Tier | Familiars |
|---|---|
| S | Direwolf, Dragon, Griffon |
| A | Bird, Squirrel, Cat, Sky Wolf |
| B | Beetle |
S-tier: the familiars that change how you move
The top three are here because their abilities have short or no cooldowns and cover the situations you hit most often — climbing terrain and dodging in the air.
The Direwolf is the strongest mount overall. Its Boost Jump lets you leap much higher, and chaining the jump with your airtime effectively carries you across the map. There is no cooldown, so you can spam it as much as you want. On top of that, it cuts stamina use and raises movement speed for all your familiars while you are on land.
The Dragon has only one version, but its Air Free Dash is the reason it sits at the top. On a 3-second cooldown, you can dash in any direction in mid-air, which doubles as both traversal and a way to slip out of an incoming attack.
The Griffon rounds out the group with its Charged Jump, a super jump you can extend with airtime. Its 5-second cooldown is the catch, but collecting more Griffons brings it down, and the glide that follows the jump comes with a 20 percent movement speed boost.
A-tier: strong but situational
These four are genuinely useful, but each one specializes in a single kind of movement, which keeps them a step below the S-tier all-rounders.
| Familiar | Ability and use |
|---|---|
| Bird | Air Dash for quick air movement, reduced stamina use and added air speed. One of the best early-game unlocks for flying between spots. |
| Squirrel | Climbing Jump cuts stamina while climbing and raises climbing speed for all familiars, so vertical terrain becomes much easier. |
| Cat | Swim Dash on a 2-second cooldown extends time on water, lowers stamina use, and boosts water speed. No benefit on land. |
| Sky Wolf | Same water-focused function as the Cat, just a different look. |
B-tier: the starter companion
The Beetle is the first familiar you unlock, and it earns its spot mostly out of necessity. Its abilities are limited, and you need to unlock at least two of them before the stamina bonus becomes meaningful. At level 4, its passive grants 30 percent extra stamina for your familiars, which is handy but nowhere near the traversal payoff of anything above it. It is a reasonable pick for beginners and not much more.
Why collecting duplicates still matters
Since the 29 entries collapse into eight species, you are never really chasing 29 different abilities. What you are chasing is the extra effects that unlock as you gather more of the same species. Those additional unlocks improve how a familiar performs — the clearest example is the Griffon, whose 5-second cooldown shrinks the more Griffons you find. So even a duplicate you will never equip is worth grabbing.
Two familiars tied to editions and launch bonuses
A couple of familiars come from outside the normal collection routes. The Brave Baby Dragon is bundled with the Deluxe Edition alongside the digital artbook and soundtrack. The Abyssal Direwolf is a separate launch-celebration DLC that is discounted by 100 percent from July 23 through August 31, 2026, so you can add it to your library for free during that window.
To claim the Abyssal Direwolf, add the DLC through the game’s Steam store page before the deadline, then check your account’s DLC section to confirm the license appears. That library entry is the reliable ownership check — if it does not show up in-game right away, restart Steam and verify the DLC is enabled rather than assuming you missed the claim. After August 31 it returns to full price.
Note: The wider familiar pool is expected to grow to around 30 at launch, with roughly two-thirds earned through play and the rest offered as DLC. Prioritize the S-tier movement familiars first, then fill out species variants as you explore, and the rest of the collection sorts itself out.
