Rise of the Ronin contains 32 Allies. Unlocking all Allies is needed for the 
Social Climber trophy, which requires taking every ally on a mission. In order to do that you must first unlock the allies.
Some allies are bound to making specific choices that cancel out each other, but nothing is missable thanks to Mission Replay. In Chapter 2 you will unlock the “Testament of the Soul” through which you can replay all missions and change your choices retroactively. After the story you can still free roam and use Mission Replay from any Longhouse. Most Allies are rewards from the 58 Bond Missions. If you are missing just 1 ally it’s most likely “Deishu Takahashi” from playing a fight at the Military Academy in Edo, because going there isn’t required for anything else.
You can keep track of which allies you have unlocked under Pause Menu > Bond > press R2 > press Dpad Right for “Allies”. You can also keep track of how many allies you took on missions via PS5’s built-in trophy tracker in the trophy list. For it to count towards the trophy you have to select an ally in the preparation menu before a mission, then finish the mission with that ally on your team. You only need to play 1 mission with each ally, it can be any Main Mission or Bond Mission that has the Ally Select screen.
If you have done seemingly everything and are still missing an Ally, it’s most likely from playing the opposite story path through the Testament of the Soul. Go to Testament of the Soul (at Longhouse after story) > Ronin Missions > press R3 to view the timeline that shows all choices you haven’t explored yet, then replay the mission with choices you haven’t tried.
- Ryoma Sakamoto – Complete “Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises” Main Mission
- Shinsaku Takasugi – Complete “Try Your Luck” Bond Mission (his first Bond Mission)
- Genzui Kusaka – Complete “The Way of the Warrior” Bond Mission (his first Bond Mission)
- Kogoro Katsura – Complete “The Plot to Assassinate Harris” Anti-Shogunate Main Mission. Must side with Katsura during “Follow Your Blade Twin” Main Mission
- Takamori Saigo – Complete “The Satsuma-Choshu Alliance” Main Mission
- Toshimichi Okubo – Complete “Damsel in Distress” Main Mission
- Kaishu Katsu – Complete “Meeting Kaishu Katsu” Main Mission
- Akikatsu Manabe – Complete “The Watchman” Bond Mission (his first Bond Mission). You’ll need to spare Naosuke Li during “The Sakurada Gate Incident” Main Mission
- Yasusuke Sawamura – Complete “In Search of New Knowledge” Bond Mission (Yukichi Fukuzawa’s first Bond Mission)
- Aritomo Yamagata – Complete “The Fire Attack” Main Mission
- Hirobumi Ito – Complete “The Fire Attack” Main Mission
- Yoshinobu Tokugawa – After finishing the bouts during “A Show for the Shogun” Main Mission
- Isami Kondo – Complete “The Shogun’s Journey to Kyoto” Main Mission
- Toshizo Hijikata – Complete “The Shogun’s Journey to Kyoto” Main Mission
- Tesshu Yamaoka – Complete “Temper, Temper” Main Mission
- Kiyotaka Kuroda – Complete “Something to Show the World” Bond Mission (Eiichi Shibusawa’s first Bond Mission)
- Jules Brunet – Complete “Cultural Exchange” Main Mission
- Rutherford Alcock – Complete “A Prize Beyond Reach” Bond Mission (Robert Fortune’s first Bond Mission)
- Ernest Satow – Complete “A Priceless Treasure” Bond Mission (his first bond mission)
- Eiichi Shibusawa – Complete “Something to Show the World” Bond Mission (his first Bond Mission)
- Motsugai Takeda – Complete “In Search of New Discoveries” Bond Mission (Yukichi Fukuzawa’s second Bond Mission)
- Soji Okita – Complete “The Shogun’s Journey to Kyoto” Main Mission
- Shinpachi Nagakura – Complete “Burgeoning Betrayal” Main Mission
- Hajime Saito – Complete “Burgeoning Betrayal” Main Mission
- Toranosuke Shimada – During “The Three Blades of the Era” Bond Mission (Nobutomo Odani’s first Bond Mission)
- Jigoro Kano – Complete “Strength in Softness” Bond Mission (Hirobumi Ito & Aritomo Yamagata’s first Bond Mission)
- Sana Chiba – Complete “Deadly Blade, Demon Belle” Main Mission
- Koto Nakazawa – Complete “Temper, Temper” Main Mission
- Matthew Perry – Start the “Test of Friendship” Bond Mission (his second Bond Mission).
- Gonzo – Spare him in “Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises” Main Mission, then team up with him in “The Bad Bunch” Bond Mission (his first bond mission)
- Alexandria Moreau – Complete “An Intoxicating Flower” Bond Mission (her first Bond Mission)
- Deishu Takahashi – In Main Region “Edo” (Chapter 2), go to the “Military Academy” in the Kanda sub-region. Enter the academy and talk to Deishu Takahashi who has the white academy icon over his head. Now play any one training fight from him, it doesn’t matter what score you get. Afterward he will join you as an ally
Jonathan says
I just got the trophy and you don’t need to finish the mission. You can quit as soon as the mission start.
mitch says
i also didn’t need to finish the mission, you can just go to the first banner in a mission and in the battle prep just change allies and resume and just do that for everyone that’s available
Hindsight says
You can also change allies mid mission at a banner and it adds up.
So load in with 2, immediately change to another 2 and they all complete.
Now I just need to figure out my last one as am at 31/32. I have marked them as Favourite as I go but I wish there was an in game way to tell if you did a mission with someone as I worry my system may have become flawed!
Kalajj says
The first thing to know is when you go to replay a mission through Testament of the Soul, you need to make sure all 32 allies are listed when you go to the select allies screen. If not, you will need to go back and replay the missions to unlock them.
The guide above is a great list to keep track of who is available and who is not in your list. Once you unlock all of the allies, as stated above you only need to start a mission and then can cycle through each ally until the trophy pops. I had to go back and spare Gonzo and spare Naosuke Li to bond with Akikatsu Manabe to fill out my list of 32 allies.