The Codex is wrong about Qyzen Fess's Weapon of choice.

He can only use Techblades, not Vibroswords.
Techblades cannot be found as drops, they can be only be bought at weapon vendors or made by Armstechs.

Do not wait until you can get him a new weapon as a quest rewards since there are probably none (at the 3rd planet now and seen 0 weapon rewards for Qyzen)

Qyzen Fess "private" quests:
Balance (10)
Old Friends and New (15)
Memory's Claw (18)
The Scorekeeper's Lesson (22)
Wrongness (26)
The Shko-Yagu (32)
A Taste of Medicine (35)
Between Life and Death (38)
Picking Up the Trail (41)
Renewed (43)
The Bounty Hunter's Daughter (45)
Justice's Prey (47)
Hunter's Heart (50)
Endgame Crawl (50)

There may be some I missed, so this shouldn't be considered a complete list.

Noticed there was no Esseles affection run up for Qyzen so I went and did it myself.

There are 13 conversation points and the layout I have is Conversation number = Conversation starter - Number to hit for affection gains.
Numbers mean you have to hit that number to get the gain. "A" means "any" you can choose any choice as there is no gain for that part. "N#" means "Not#" hitting this number will result in a negative hit to affection.
All hits are +15 points except for the Light Side choices which are +40. If you choose the Dark Side choices you will get -30.

Here we go!
1 = Esseles Passenger - 3, 1, 3, N3, 1.
2 = Haken - A, 1, 3, A, A, 1, A.
3 = Narlock - 1 or 3.
4 = Narlock - 1, 1, 1, N1, 2, 1.
5 = Console - 3, 2, N2, 1, 1 (Lightside choice), 2.
6 = Asara - 1, 2, 2, 3.
7 = Door Controls - 2 or 3.
8 = Haken - A, A.
9 = Elevator - 2, A, 2.
10 = Power Station - 1 or 3, 1.
11 = Hanger Door - 2, 3.
12 = Asara - 1 (Lightside choice). -Note that if you are on a social run you can hit 2 to get another conversation choice for more social points. Just choose the Lightside choice again when it comes up for Qyzen's points.-
13 = Haken - This entire conversation is any choice. Even the added parts if you hit 2 for more social points in the previous one.

Total gain = 250 Light points and 455 Affection.

Hope it helps!

Qyzen Fess is likely to be your bread and butter as a Jedi Sage.

Qyzen uses AIM as his primary stat and can ONLY equip Techblades. Weapons and upgrades to any other stat should be ignored just like you ignore weapons and armor w/out WILL.

I personally focused into Cybertech and getting him a mostly full suit of Orange "modable" gear to upgrade with armors/mods/enhancements. You will however see decent armor for him through questing/commendation. Make sure you keep his implants/earpieces as up to date as possible through the GTM. Make sure you visit the "Weapon" vendor on every new planet you go to as they will always have a weapon upgrade (or 2) available. Some commendation vendors have blue shield generators/ears/implants on them so keep an eye out for those as well.

As heal spec you can use him to beat "evenish" level Champion level mobs fairly easily as long as they are solo.

Honestly... if you use him as your full time tank... don't waste gifts on him. You can usually see 15-45 affection per standard quest. I just kinda work my way through convos escaping out if he isn't gaining any affection from my choices.

When you are doing tricky pulls watch out to see if he has his AE's re-enabled as they can cause you a headache. Its usually best to Force Lift the stronger mobs and line of sight the others with Qyzen set to passive, and then manually have him attack once the LoS mobs are close to you. That way you can just leave his AoE's enabled.

After a fight if you have high health/force. Do not heal Qyzen. Just dismiss and summon him to get him back to full health in 1.5 seconds. (works with all companions)

May the force be with you all!

Here is a list of the affection gains from the specific gifts sold by the gift vendor. =)

Ammunition Belt: +54 Affection

Complete Camping Set: +26 Affection

Dubrillion Lizard Egg: +0 Affection

Gold Necklace: +0 Affection

Holoviewer: +24 Affection

Hutt Affection Token: +0 Affection

Hutt Data Library: +26 Affection

Hutt Hit List: +26 Affection

Imperial Battalion Flag: +0 Affection

Imperial History Holo: +0 Affection

Padded Weapon Case: +59 Affection

Polished Carapace: +0 Affection

Polished Meteorite: +0 Affection

Republic History Holo: +0 Affection

Republic Planetary Flag: +0 Affection

Sleen Tail: +0 Affection

Small Gemstone: +0 Affection

Survival Gear: +24 Affection

Underworld Rumor Sheet: +24 Affection

Vrblther Skull: +0 Affection

If any of this information is incorrect, I only gave him the three that didn't have comments yet, and the rest of the info just came from the Torhead pages for the items, so that's why. =) Hope it's helpful!

A hunter wants to earn his own trophies, not be given leftover trophies that somebody else achieved and then sold/discarded.

Companion Gift Rewards for Qyzen:

Weapon: High
Military Gear: Medium
Underworld Good: Medium

The full list can be found here:

Qyzen's Companion Quests

Both of you got it wrong. Qyzen is a hunter, not a Bounty Hunter. There are NO trophies.
He hunts for honor and dignity (score with his god). A concept that is quite the opposite of a trophy.

Thanks Duskstar for the Esseles affection guide for Qyzen.

With no "favorite" gifts and only one "love", I've found running the Esseles is best way to raise his affection and get his companion quests. Actually this is probably true for all four classes' first companions, just especially so for Qyzen.

Qyzen isn't even interested in getting his own trophies. Once you get to know him you'll realize the only thing he is interested in is scorekeeper points. All the things that gain affection with him are tools to allow him to gain more points. He seems confusing at first because of how single minded and simple his character is.

For players wishing to pursue a dedicated light/dark side path, but also gain the most affection through questing you can for Qyzen, it will pay to be very careful about when you bring him out (you can hit "esc" to exit a conversation if he's losing affection). Not that companions have allignments, but judging by his responses to the way you act, he's closest to neutral of the consular companions (in that dark side and light side options seem to be roughly equal in increasing his affection over time).

Not that choosing an option he dislikes will be too bad--very few choices in the game carry significant affection reductions. But if you know you are going to go for a light sided or diplomatic choice (especially if you plan on capturing someone or sparing a strong foe), then it's probably worth bringing out Nadia or Iresso to buff their affection instead.

We're working on spreadsheet to calculate affection gain by companion gifts :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApqMWEUUXHsadG51N1VVRHY2ckVLdzVtLUhlUXVtLXc

@Womprat
Aim vs Str =/= Range vs Melee
If a toon starts with a stat, its reasonable to assume its the correct stat for that toon. (Knight = Str, Trooper = Aim, Qyzen = Aim)

Also.. first comment by AstralFire:
"Qyzen actually benefits slightly more from Aim (Melee + Tech) rather than Strength (Just Melee)"

Companion Gifts:
While "Weapon" is Qyzen's preferred gift, it does not give as much affection as other companion's preferred gifts.

For example at rank one affection (0-2000) "Weapon" gives Qyzen 54 affection.
Yet at the same rank (0-2000) "Luxury" gives Theran 96 affection.

There is basically three ranks of preference:
Favorite
Love
Like

In other words - Qyzen has no "Favorite" gift, and only one "Love" (weapon). Lastly he "Likes" Technology and Military Gear.

Basically this doesn't change what gift you should give Qyzen (only give him "weapon" for maximum gains), but it does mean you will have to give about twice as many gifts to get the same rank as some of your other companions. Theran for example.

This is another companion that is ill affected by BioWare's lack of attention to detail and or not cleaning up from Beta properly.

Qyzen uses ONLY Techstaff which is in VERY VERY short supply. If you want to use this companion for any duration of leveling you are screwed. You won't get the needed DPS from him.

He has the ability to make use of both Aim and Strength gear, which is nice, but it is a pretty good indicator of BioWare's willingness to move the game forward in the market without fixing the things that make a game play well.

----------------------------------
As of 1.2 there are more Techstaff and Techblades... even mod-able Orange versions are available! TY BioWare.

Qyzen can also use Strength.
For his DPS you should definately not ignore Power or Techpower. Power returns more dps per point than Aim or Strength!
Being that he is a tank you should most certainly NOT ignore defensive stats!

He is most certainly NOT in a position to be "bread and butter" given the lack of Techblades. As you level, you will not be able to keep his weapon on par.

I'm having serious problems upgrading Qyzen's Weapon (Techblade).

Guess Consulars should take up Armtech if they want to keep him in weapons. He does not use 'Vibroswords'.

Techblades are very hard to come by. If you are not, nor cannot find a friendly, Armstech you'll not want to keep this Companion once you get your next one. No Techblades on my server's GTN/AH either.

http://www.torhead.com/ability/d8FGToQ/weapon-proficiency-techblade#comments

I can confirm a quest reward for Qyzen Fess on Taris in the Draay outpost.
The mission is called "Prove Gardit's Corruption" from Kahrin Wek.
http://www.torhead.com/mission/6PFdWSG

The mission reward:
http://www.torhead.com/item/cbM0FbC/qyzens-reliable-techblade

This was my first weapon upgrade for Qyzen Fess I got.

So at least for the 16-23 bracket this is something.

@Arcanity

he learns all the spells, they're in your spellbook on the companion tab. to click them, you have to "expand" his action bar. there is a hotkey for it (defaults to tilde if i recall correctly), or you can click a button on his action bar UI.

expanding the action bar takes over one of your action bars (depending on what setting you choose in Preferences): Bottom Center, Left, or Right. expanding the action bar covers up your action bar, but does not take over your keybinds that you put in that place; it still uses the companion bar keybinds (default ctrl 1 through ctrl =).

You receive this companion on Tython.

He is a melee Tank. He uses heavy armor and a vibrosword or electrostaff.

Edit: fixed a typo.

If you give him Companion Gifts, he likes ones that are Weapons, Trophies and Military Gear. The others won't award you with affection points, that I've noticed

Also, for crew missions, he has +15 Archaeology Efficiency and +5 Bioanalysis Efficiency

I don't think so, I doubt humanoids would interest a reptile much.

Edit: I can confirm that he cannot be romanced. As of 6k rep he has shown no romanitic interest in my consular.

Edit: Oops - this was in response to Catrie's post.

This is incorrect - he gains NO affection from trophies.

The correct list is:

Weapon: High
Military Gear: Medium
Underworld Good: Medium

I cannot seem to Upgrade his weapon. Never heard of a Techblade until I got him, never had any drop & thus he's going to be pretty useless by the time I am mid teens - only 2 on GTM/AH for level 21 at 10K.

I think, at least for now, Consulars are pretty much shafted until they get their 2nd Companion.

EDIT:

+ Appears to be a Green one for sale in the Senate area of Coruscant, the stats are not great, but still an upgrade from his starter weapon. Armstech can also make Techblades.

"most of them do additional damage as tech damage"

Im gonna have to challenge you on that. Where does it say this anywhere?

If you are going to hamper your tank by not giving him:
1. more HP and armor
2. more melee dps
simply because that new drop doesnt have AIM stat on it, more power to you. I guess you can try to heal through it.

Believe it or not, your pet IS your white damage. A higher STR means more white dmg
I mathed it out and he has 3 melee abilities (that say nothing about adding tech dmg) and 2 tech abilities. Counting cooldowns even +1 str over aim is a net dps gain.

Im not even going to count CC pulls in this because you turn off his Tech abilities on those, don't you?

in your own ability window for your basic and advanced class abilities there is a tab for companion abilities. to open your companion's full quickslot bar you hit the ` key(to the left of the '1' key). hope this helps

and why isn't Qyzen listed as a companion for the consular?