A Complete Heinrix van Calox Romance Guide for Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader

Heinrix van Calox is one of the five romance options you get in Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. This stoic and uptight man might seem like a complete bore to be around, but take some time talking to him and your Rogue Trader will discover just how sentimental he really is —especially for an Interrogator of the Inquisition. 

If you want to worm your way into his affections, though, there are some general rules to stick to. As of the time this was written, very few players have finished the game, let alone done multiple playthroughs. What is apparent so far is that you need to play with these tips in mind:

• Go Iconoclast for the entire game.
• Influence Heinrix to be kinder during encounters. Heinrix has a Harshness meter that will influence whether he decides to ride off into the sunset with your Rogue Trader later in the game.
• In general, be gentle towards him. It’s okay to pick the more aggressive flirting options.
• Heinrix is romanceable for female Rogue Traders only.
• To make it easier, install the Toolbox mod so you can check dialogue flags. The game is currently bugged and has a ton of mixed-up conversation flags. This can ruin your playthrough. I listed down the conversations with mixed-up dialogue flags below.

Heinrix’s Romance Meters

• Mercy vs. Harshness: This decides whether Heinrix commits to becoming Lord Inquisitor or not.
• Devil vs. Closeness: This measures how brazenly you flirt with Heinrix. He’s a bit spicier with the Devil options and a Space Mr. Darcy with the Closeness options. Both are good.
• Carruption: The typo is intentional since that’s how the flag appears in game. Carruption decides whether Heinrix leaves the Inquisition or not. Flags for Carruption appear during the Commoragh quest ‘A Reprieve from Torment’ and the companion quest ‘The Price of Humanity’.

With all those caveats though, he’s still easily one of the most interesting romances to play through. Right now, it seems the general consensus is that Yrliet and Heinrix had the most in-depth romances. We’re telling you just in case you’re struggling to pick for your first play-through.

Meet with Heinrix at the Electrodynamic Cenobium 

You will first be tasked with finding Heinrix. You can read more about how to recruit Heinrix here, but in general, just go to the Adeptus Mechanicus monastery in Rykad Minor to find Heinrix. Once he’s in your party, finish the rest of the Rykad Minor questline, Gleam of the Final Dawn. Sometime after this, you can talk to him about his mission on Rykad Minor. To flirt more, tell him you’re nervous around him and not because he’s an Inquisitor acolyte.

Save the people of Rykad Minor if you want the happiest ending

As you leave Rykad Minor, you’ll be prompted to decide what to do. You can save the commoners, the machine from the monastery, or the nobles. You can only choose two so pick the common people for the first one. Heinrix will act like he’s mad about it, but you’ll later hear him confess that he wishes he had the freedom of a Rogue Trader to choose mercy. 

Have Heinrix rejoin you at Footfall

After Rykad Minor, you need to take Heinrix to Footfall. He will disappear from your party temporarily. Just finish the Footfall quests and meet with Liege Tocara. Heinrix will be waiting for you at the ‘To the voidship’ area of the map. 

You can tease him here or just tell him that you’re glad he’s back on board.

Take Heinrix to Kiava Gamma

The Flame in the Dark quest is the second companion quest for Heinrix’s romance. It also coincides with an important quest related to Pasqal. During this quest, Heinrix will be in full Interrogator mode. Make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s important to stick to an Iconoclast path if you want a happy ending. 

Warning note: The conversation flags for the scene where Heinrix operates the corrupted cogitator are currently mixed up in the worst way possible. The Iconoclast option ticks his ‘Harshness’ meter (which makes him an Inquisitor at the end of the story) while the Heretical option ticks his ‘Mercy’ meter (which makes him decide to become your Master of Whispers). We want to go Iconoclast and Mercy, so you can see how this is a problem. If you chose to save the tech-priest, you should be fine by letting Heinrix decide here.

Enjoy your first non-work-related conversation with Heinrix

By now, Heinrix’s greeting voice line should change and you should be able to ask him to talk in your room. Don’t get your hopes up. Master van Calox, for better or worse, is a perfect gentleman. The most you’re getting out of this is a game of Regicide. 

From here, you’ll be able to invite him to a game of Regicide every time you’re aboard the voidship.

Flirt with Heinrix at the end of the Janus Quest

The ‘World Shapers’ quest will have you hunting down insurgents in Janus and recruiting Yrliet (or not, your call). If you keep choosing Iconoclast options, Heinrix will tell you towards the end that you shouldn’t be so kind to everyone. Pass a Perception check to notice that he’s not mad because you’re breaking the law, he’s just agitated because he’s worried you’ll get in trouble. You can confront him on this, assure him, or tell him that you just like pushing his buttons.

Explore the Black Ship with Heinrix. Alone.

You can find the Inquisition Shipwreck located in the Ice World inside the Pillars of Viridice system. Bring Heinrix and make sure it’s just the two of you.

If you clicked through all of Heinrix’s dialogue on the voidship, you’ll know that he has bad memories of being taken on a Black Ship as a child. This is the Heinrix childhood trauma section of the romance. Make sure you don’t bring any other companion to the Black Ship or they’ll interrupt him. He will clam up if he’s not alone with your Rogue Trader. 

Kiss Heinrix at your inauguration as Rogue Trader

During your inauguration at the Von Valacius palace at Dargonus, Heinrix will ask to talk to you. He’s acting weird and for good reason: you’re about to get grilled by the Lord Inquisitor himself. Heinrix warns you and tells you to watch your words around Xavier Calcazar. You can kiss him here, but again, everything stays quite genteel.

Warning note: A lot of the conversation flags are mixed up. At the time of writing, you want to hold his hand to trigger one of the romance meters. We had a look at the dialogue options with the Toolbox mod, and it looks like Owlcat intended for the ‘Devil’ flag to be assigned to the kiss while the handhold gets the ‘Closeness’ flag. This should be fixed later. We’ll update this when Owlcat starts fixing the conversation flags.

Talk to Heinrix after the Magno Ascensio

After your inauguration on Dargonus, you’ll be able to talk to Heinrix on the voidship bridge. Right now, I can’t remember if I encountered this conversation during my ‘Closeness’ run, but with the current ‘Devil’, ‘Mercy’, and Iconoclast run, he talks about how hard it is to be with you.

Rescue Heinrix in Commoragh during the Reunion quest

Your party will be captured by the Drakkhari during Chapter 3 of the Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader main quest. After the second Arena fight, you’ll find Heinrix in one of the tanks. You can read more about where to find him and how to get him back in this Reunion quest guide.

After his rescue, Heinrix will ask for time alone to recuperate. In the quest ‘A Reprieve from Torment’, Heinrix reveals that he did it partly because he didn’t want to be seen in that state. If you kiss him here, as long as you don’t turn him down, you’ll end up having sex in Commoragh. 

Once you return to the voidship, he’ll talk about how inappropriate and unprofessional that was of him and apologize. Just tell him that the Rogue Trader thinks Master van Calox hasn’t been sufficiently acquainted with her person. Wink, wink.

Share a tense romantic dinner with Heinrix

Sometime during Chapter 4, Heinrix will invite you to dinner your Rogue Trader will figure out that he’s tense. Turns out, he’s worried about the future of a Rogue Trader and an upcoming Lord Inquisitor.

Warning note: If you want the ending where Heinrix leaves the Inquisition for you, you should be able to talk to him about it in this scene. If not, you may need to restart from ‘A Reprieve from Torment’ to re-trigger the dialogue options that make him doubt the Inquisition. If you played before the patch when that quest was fixed, roll back your save from there.

Help Heinrix find Emelina

This is another pivotal turning point in Heinrix’s character arc. It also happens to be time sensitive so go to Phton VI in Gartrafal’s Calamity after you get Heinrix’s request. The game won’t tell you it is, but it is. Again, convince him to reconsider being an Inquisitor and to question the established order by keeping him merciful.

Warning note: During the conversation with Emeliana, one of the responses gets an angry ‘After everything you experienced, Rogue Trader, really?!’ response from Heinrix. This might be a false flag. Choose the other option.

Comfort Heinrix and talk him down

All that stress would wear any normal person down, but the consequences of exhaustion are double for Heinrix. You’ll find him in your quarters. He’ll be a sobbing mess, nothing like the Heinrix you’ve seen all game. He will tell you that he accidentally killed someone because he lost control over his psyker powers. 

Heinrix will be seated at the Regicide table, surrounded by ice and close to freezing to death. He will tell you that he’s succumbing to the madness all psykers eventually succumb to. That is not true. He’s just so emotional he doesn’t realize he’s killing himself with his own powers. Talk. Him. Down. 

If you manage to soothe Heinrix, he will stop hiding your relationship. He’ll say the magic words and you’ll get to kiss him on the bridge (in front of everyone!) later in the questline. 

Confront Xavier Calcazar

Here’s the moment of truth. We’ll leave it for you to discover, but if you did everything right, you shouldn’t have to worry too much. And no, that screenshot is not a spoiler because this is from a minor, non-quest trigger part of the game.

Heinrix van Calox’s Endings in Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader

Heinrix van Calox has 3-5 known endings that lead him to stay with the Inquisition or join your Rogue Trader. This isn’t a 100% guarantee and even then, the current bugs mean the endings don’t trigger properly. I’ll update this when the patches fix everything, but after three playthroughs, here’s what I’ve found:

• If the player is Dogmatic and doesn’t encourage Heinrix to be at least a bit kinder, Heinrix becomes the Lord Inquisitor and Warden of the Koronus Expanse before being assassinated.
• If the player is Dogmatic (including making occasional Iconoclast options), he becomes the Lord Inquisitor and Warden of the Koronus Expanse while staying in a secret, long-term relationship with your Rogue Trader.
• If the player is Iconoclast and manages to fill Heinrix’s Mercy meter successfully, he leaves the Inquisition to become your Master of Whispers. Heinrix’s etude flags for leaving the Inquisition appear during the date, ‘A Reprieve from Torment’, and the ice scene. Just tell him Inquisition bad and I love you.
• There have been reports of people getting an ending where Heinrix simply leaves the Inquisition to stay with you, without being Master of Whispers, but I haven’t found the triggers that lead to that ending as opposed to the Master of Whispers one. That said, he does say before the Epitaph fight that he can find a job on the ship if he stays with you. This etude likely triggers during that conversation, but Toolbox doesn’t show any flags.

Regardless of what you choose, what’s consistent so far is that Heinrix’s ending hinges on whether his Harshness or Mercy meter is highest towards the end and if his Carruption etude has been started or not. There is also the ‘Stoic’ vs ‘Doubtful’ but it only appears once in the game during ‘The Price of Humanity’ and it’s not clear what it does.

Good luck, Lord Captain.