Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Bottomless Pit Choices: Champion Rewards Guide
In Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, the Bottomless Pit is a high-stakes dialogue encounter where the “hole” tries to influence you the moment you interact with it. If you know which lines to choose, you can secure one of two distinct rewards—either the Champion of the Abyss or Champion of the Darkness—and the difference matters for how your party performs for the rest of the campaign.
This guide walks you through the Bottomless Pit decision path, and it also sets you up for later puzzle progress in Rykad Minoris’s Upperway, including the Motive Force puzzle and opening a locked safe in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.
Rogue Trader: Bottomless Pit Choices Guide
You can locate the Bottomless Pit on a jungle world in System Speculo, which sits just northwest of the Trinnitos system within the Koronus Expanse map. This encounter is fully optional—similar in spirit to the Recolliger’s Plot event—and if you don’t make it to this system, you won’t find it.
Before you interact, investigate the nearby inscription on the wall near the ledge first. The pit looks like it could be instant trouble, but the interaction is exactly what unlocks the reward: you can obtain the Champion of the Abyss talent for the character who inspects the pit, or the Champion of the Darkness talent for one of your party members.
For testing in this guide, the pit was inspected using the author’s own Rogue Trader, but the key mechanics are the same: the game’s trance-like intrusion begins once you engage, with the pit’s forces pushing at your character’s head.
During the early portion of the dialogue, the first few options don’t seem to change much—just avoid selecting the prompt that tells you to step away from the hole. Instead, choose the dialogue responses that include skill checks and offer the highest chance of success. Doing so can grant bonus experience, but it doesn’t noticeably alter the small “story” the Bottomless Pit is playing out in your head.
Once you reach the third story block, the dialogue branches heavily, and this is where your final reward is determined.
How to Get Champion of the Abyss in Rogue Trader
To earn the Champion of the Abyss talent, you need to succeed on the Toughness check and then cut off a portion of yourself for the Bottomless Pit. If you do, the game grants the Champion of the Abyss talent.
This reward provides +2 Weapon Skill and +5 Coercion immediately and for free. It’s especially useful for melee-focused builds, or for characters whose origins/archetypes lean into Coercion—such as the Arbitrator from the Lex Imperialis DLC. Coercion can also be valuable in certain conversations and skill checks as you explore the world.
How to Get Champion of the Darkness in Rogue Trader
To get Champion of the Darkness, you’ll need to reach the dialogue block where the pit asks you to sacrifice someone. In that section, you’re offered up to five different options (not counting the Toughness choice mentioned earlier).
Each option corresponds to a specific member of your current retinue. The dialogue descriptions broadly signal who is being referenced, and in this guide’s findings, the mapping looks like this:
- The “decrepit old man” is Abelard.
- The “brawny woman with bloodied hands” is Argenta.
- The “sinewy young man wearing a blindfold” is Heinrix.
- The “ugly mutant with multiple heads” is Pasqal.
- The “infant who is crying piteously” is Cassia.
- The “strange animal-like creature” is Idira.
As with the Astray quest, this decision has a permanent impact. Whoever you choose will abruptly vanish from your retinue, and a Missing Errand entry will appear in your journal.
After that, return to your voidship. You’ll receive a transmission that lets you either scan the planet to recover the missing party member, or leave them behind forever. Choosing to leave them behind will permanently remove the character for the rest of the campaign and will also raise your Heretical Conviction.
Choosing the scan option instead will recover the missing member, and that recovered character will gain the Champion of the Abyss talent.
For the character affected by Champion of the Darkness, the talent allows them to learn and improve the Lore (Xenos) skill even if their background or archetype would normally prevent it. It also grants a permanent +5 Willpower bonus.
Willpower is most important for Psykers—Cassia is the clearest example here—because many of their offensive abilities scale with their Willpower bonus.
