How to Set and Change Formations in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

The first step in strategy is positioning.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader Key Art
Image via Owlcat Games.

When half the battles you’ll encounter in Rogue Trader are fought as ambushes or as battles you have to physically walk into, having good positioning to kick things off is important. Here’s how to set and change party formation in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

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How to Swap Your Party Formation in Rogue Trader

To set and change formations in Rogue Trader, you’ll want to open up the Pause Menu and click the Formation button. This will open up a small menu listing six different default formations that you can set for you and your party. The first formation, which is automatically set to have your melee units in the frontline, can not be changed. However, the remaining five formations can be changed as you wish.

The remaining five formations will be set automatically to have your Rogue Trader as the first unit in line, immediately followed by your melee units, and finally your ranged units. For example, my current party in Chapter 2 has my Rogue Trader as the first in line, Pasqal and Abelard as the next in line, then finally Argenta, Cassia, and Idira in the backline.

How to Make a Custom Party Formation

If you aren’t happy with the formations and want a different setup, or simply want to swap the placement of some units in the formation, you can do so by clicking on that unit and dragging them to the space on the grid that you’d like. You can also hold down Shift, LT, or L2 on your input device of choice to move the units freely (without locking their position to a grid). This will only change their positioning for that formation, so you can set up different formations for different scenarios if you wish.

If you’re looking for more help with the game’s various systems, check out our guide on how to hide your helmet in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

About the Author

Shawn Robinson

Shawn is a freelance gaming journalist who's been with Prima Games for a year and a half, writing mainly about FPS games and RPGs. He even brings several years of experience at other sites like The Nerd Stash to the table. While he doesn't bring a fancy degree to the table, he brings immense attention to detail with his guides, reviews, and news, leveraging his decade and a half of gaming knowledge. If he isn't writing about games, he's likely getting zero kills in his favorite FPS or yelling at the game when it was 100% his fault that he died.