Archetype Entertainment has confirmed that Salt, the fan-favourite mech-suited octopus companion in its upcoming role-playing game Exodus, is the only member of the six-strong party who cannot be romanced. Narrative director Drew Karpyshyn told Polygon that Salt simply finds humans unappealing, while the game's other companions are open to romantic relationships regardless of the player character's gender, a deliberate departure from earlier genre entries such as BioWare's Mass Effect series, which restricted some pairings by gender.

Exodus is set 40,000 years in the future in the Centauri Cluster and features companions including explorer Tom Vargas, mercenary Elise Charroux, archaeologist Phaedra Nath, wealthy traveller Suliman and the post-human Emrys. Romances must be actively pursued by building affinity through in-game choices, which also feed into a broader morality system tracking "Paladin" and "Immortal" ratings, and pursuing one companion can permanently close off others. The game is due for release on 7 April 2027 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.