Fallout 4: Quick Companion Guide

While playing Fallout 4, one will come across plenty of enemies, starting from little and annoying bloat flies spitting their junk at us, to huge behemoths throwing boulders in our direction in an attempt of crushing our lives (and dreams) to pieces and so the travelling through the wasteland can at times appear like a bleak endeavour too scary to face on your own.

The thing is, in Fallout 4 you don’t have to do it all by yourself and most importantly you can have some fun and gain some rare and useful perks for your character.

There is 13 companions available for you at different points in the game. In order for the character to become your companion, you very often have to accomplish some sort of task or objective for it to trigger the option. Once you’re in a company of one of the characters, they travel with you, help you fight and also can carry some of the valuable junk you’re so obsessively collect by going through every possible inch of the Wasteland.

There is also one long term bonus in having companion. They can grant you, their unique perk to stay with you forever but to get that you must make them like you very much. I mean, really a lot but obtaining the maximum affinity isn’t really hard. You just need to know what they like, but firstly you have to find them. In many occasions you’ll just come across some of your possible companions as you go along, in some, you might simply miss the chance, so let’s quickly look at who is out there bearing in mind there might be some small spoilers popping out.

First companion you can come across, isn’t Dogmeat as some might assume from the trailers but it is your handy robot, Codsworth. You can find him in Sanctuary and if you take him for travels just be sure to be nice to be people and don’t go heavy on chems for him to finally sharing his perk with you (I decided to leave out the name of perks or what they do as to keep as much surprise as possible).

You find Dogmeat in the Red Rocket truck stop. It is a shame that he can’t travel with us all the time as he is great for holding enemies down, but if you want a talking companion, then Dogmeat stays wherever you’ll send him or tell him to stay. He doesn’t have an affinity level to reach but there is a perk related to it within the main perk chart.

It is really hard to predict who you’ll meet in what order but I think (you see, I wandered off in a different direction as soon as I left vault so I met the two above a bit later) Preston Garvey could be next. You meet him in Museum of Freedom in Concord and after you help him out and listen to all his Minutemen stuff he might want to join you. To get him to like you, be nice, generous and build loads of settlements. He won’t leave you alone! I promise.

You’ll definitely came across Nick Valentine as he’ll be part of the main quest too like Preston. In my opinion one of the best characters but first you’ll have to complete some quests to get him going and in order to be best friends with him you’ll need to complete his unique quest “Long time coming”. You meet him first in Vault 114 in Park Street Station and your life is never the same. He likes hacking terminals and strong, firm and decisive actions but not too much.

Along the Nick Valentine stuff there will be creeping a quest called “Reunions” that will lead you to meeting Piper, a hotshot reporter loving generosity but disliking violence or peaceful behaviour. It is worth noting that some of the characters one can have romance with or be asked to complete a specific side quest with, given the affinity raising so you never know, you might find your better half out there in post-apocalyptic Boston or at least have a great adventure. For the sake of spoilers I won’t be listing everything here, let’s leave something for the mystery.

By now you should have a rough idea of how the companions work, and you quickly pick up what they like and dislike as you talk to them. It is a great way of getting to new places and boy, it very often saved my bacon.

Hancock, a mayor of Goodneighbor can become your companion but at one point doing something you think it’s not relevant to him, you need to make a right choice and he’ll leave his town to travel with you. He doesn’t like selfish and mean people but doesn’t mind violence and being generous, especially with chems.

There is a mutant! Oh and another one! Hey, there’s plenty of them but only one named Strong, complete “Curtain Call” side quest in Trinity Tower and you might be blessed with very talkative mutant who doesn’t like you wearing power armour but doesn’t mind a bit of cannibalism.

You should come across Paladin Dense by just playing the game but if not, he is in Cambridge police station and there is some huge story behind him that takes you all by surprise. He’s a way into Brotherhood of Steel so completing tasks for him and his faction will net you some points. Just don’t be too mean or too peaceful. It puts him off.

If you ever follow the path of finding the Railroad, you’ll find Deacon too. Completing side quest “Tradecraft” will be necessary but in my opinion his persona isn’t really that great to waste time with. He doesn’t like chem use and violent decisions but doesn’t mind mean behaviour.

You might miss Curie, another type of Mr. Handy robot or should I say Mrs. Try not to miss her as there is a great little twist to this character. You’ll be able to interact with her after finding Vault 81 and completing the “Hole in the Vault” side quest. Just tell her you’re Vault-Tec security. In order to get full affinity with her you’ll have to complete her personal quest. She likes nice, peaceful and mean behaviour but doing chems isn’t her thing.

Another character that you could miss is Cait, a Scottish traumatised lass with some shady past. At times a bit annoying too, but she also has a personal side quest and it is worth completing not only for the max affinity and her perk but for the story that unravels as you go along. You can meet her in Combat Zone. Cait approves violent and selfish behaviour so have fun!

You can also hire one companion who has roots in Fallout 3. Head to The Third Railway basement and cough up 250 caps. He also has his own side quest and despite fairly bland and annoying person that he is, the time and perk you get isn’t a wasted effort. Make sure you lay off the chems but don’t limit yourself with violence.

And I think that is definitely a last companion you can come across and you find him in the Institute. X6-88 is a synth who likes peaceful and selfish stuff but definitely not agreeing with generosity.

And here we are. Sometime later with all the possible characters that could become your right hand while handling the evil of Commonwealth. The addiction of companions is great and most of them have beautifully created characters that almost trick us into thinking it is real life, and not jusr a game.

Go out there, find your best friend and discover what they have on offer my friend!