Don’t go it alone in the Commonwealth. Here’s how to find and recruit useful and lethal travelling buddies.
Fallout 4: how to recruit companions and where to find them
Fallout 4 may be a single-player game but that doesn’t mean you wander the Commonwealth alone.
During your travels you’ll have the chance to find and recruit 13 different companions, some human, others not. They all help out in battle, you can trade resources and gear with them, and they generally keep you company during the dark days.
- You can only have one companion with you at a time, so when you meet another and decide to recruit him/her/it, you’re given a selection of locations to send your current buddy. For example, when you kiss Dogmeat goodbye, you can send him to Sanctuary, Tempines Bluff or the Starlight Drive-In.
- Companions never die. They can get their ass kicked in battle and will kneel down and stop fighting if they take too much damage. You can use Stimpak’s on them to heal them, or wait until the current battle is over and they will miraculously recover.
- You can give a companion a weapon and use them to carry some of your gear too. Give them armour and they’ll wear it. The starting weapon your companion has never runs out of ammo, but give them a different gun and it will run dry, so you’ll need to keep handing them bullets.
- Each companion has a specific Perk but to unlock it you must make them like you. Each companion likes and dislikes different actions you perform. Get them to like enough of what you do and you’ll unlock their Perk and have more dialogue – and romance – choices.
- Some companions has a set of skills you’ll find valuable at certain times. For example, Valentine is great at hacking computer terminals.
- Press Triangle and you can talk to your companion, dismiss them or find out how they currently feel about you.
How to recruit Codsworth
Codsworth is the cheery home help robot who’s missed you for the past 200 years. All you need to do to recruit him is go to your house when you escape Vault 111, as part of the main quest line. He’s not the most useful of companions, but he’s always a light in the gloom.
Perk: Robot Sympathy
Likes: Giving items to people, healing Dogmeat, modding armour and weapons.
Dislikes: Stealing from people and breaking into owned safes, suitcases and other locked items.
How to recruit Dogmeat
Like Codsworth, you’ll find Dogmeat very quickly as part of the main quest line. Dogmeat will wander up to you as you walk from Sanctuary to Concord, at the Red Rocket Station. Dogmeat can be useful, finding stuff and bringing it to you. You can also send it to fetch items and other goods, but it can be a pain in tight locations, getting in your way and blowing your cover if you’re taking a stealth route. It doesn’t seem to understand the “stay” direction very well.
Likes/Dislikes: Actions have no effect on Dogmeat. He loves you anyway.
How to recruit Piper, the journalist
You first meet Piper as you try to enter Diamond City. She’s blagging her way back inside the city walls, and she uses you to get past the mayor. Once you’re in, go visit her office and she’ll ask you to help her with a story, the quest Story of the Century.
All you need do is answer her questions about your past. Doing so finishes the quest and she offers herself as a companion. Her Perk means you will get double XP when you discover new places and successfully use speech.
Perk: Gift of Gab.
Likes: Picking locks, healing Dogmeat and donating items to people. She also likes it if you’re generally mean to people, which is a bit weird.
Dislikes: Piper doesn’t like you murdering people for no reason. Seems reasonable.
How to recruit Strong, the super mutant
To recruit Strong you must complete the quest Curtain Call. Head around Diamond City until you pick up a radio signal from Trinity Tower. It’s a distress signal from Rex, who says he’s enslaved by super mutants at the top of Trinity Tower and needs to be rescued.
You need to be very heavily armed if you want to succeed. Make sure you have plenty of ammo because the fight is long and tough. A good technique for fighting super mutants is to hit them first with a Molotov cocktail (fairly common) then use VATS to pick them off with a good rifle that uses .308 ammo. Take your time as you fight up the tower (you’ll face around 15 super mutants) including their leader, Fist. You’ll need grenades to take him out quickly.
At the top you’ll rescue Rex, the guy who made the distress call, and his buddy Strong. Strong is a friendly super mutant who reads Shakespeare. You’ll need to get to the bottom of the tower via a makeshift lift and kill another bunch of super mutants before you can recruit him. He’s lethal with a sledgehammer, but as he’s looking for the “milk of human kindness” he doesn’t like it when he sees you pick locks or lie/bully people in conversation. Yes, really.
Perk: Beserk.
Likes: Strong likes it when you kill random people and eat human flesh (good if you have the Cannibal Perk)
Dislikes: Strong doesn’t like the Brotherhood of Steel, so dislikes you using Power Armor and getting in a Vertibird. He also frowns on lockpicking of any kind and successful speech.
How to recruit Nick Valentine, the private detective
It’s quite a quest line to find Nick, but it’s part of the main story. Firstly, visit the detective agency, as prompted by Piper when you enter Diamond City. Valentine isn’t there, but his secretary asks you to go find him at Park Station, kicking off the Unlikely Valentine quest.
You’ll eventually find him after a lengthy shootout with Triggermen, and escort him back to Diamond City. Answer all of his questions so he can put together a plan for finding your son, and this will start the Getting A Clue quest. Go to Kellogg’s and when you eventually get inside and find the secret room, Nick will offer his services as a companion. Nick will hack computer terminals for you, which is a great skill if you don’t have the Perk yourself.
Perk: Close to Metal
Likes: Healing Dogmeat, hacking a computer and donating items all make Valentine happy.
Dislikes: Stealing and pickpocketing get the thumbs down, as does picking the lock of an item owned by someone else and murdering randoms.
How to recruit Preston Garvey, leader of the Minutemen
You need to do a lot of work with Preston before he joins your little gang. You eventually recruit him after completing a whole bunch of Taking Point quests, the Taking Independence quest, help building settlements, establishing trade routes and more.
Perk: United We Stand.
Likes: Modify weapons, hand out gear to people and he’ll respect you.
Dislikes: He’s a goody-goody, so don’t pick locks, steal, murder, do drugs or generally be mean around him.
How to recruit Paladin Danse
You want Paladin Danse on your team because he’s a bad ass in a firefight. You’ll find him in the Cambridge Police Station. He appreciates force, so doesn’t object to violence when it’s necessary.
Perk: Know Your Enemy.
Likes: Modify weapons and armour, enter a Vertibird and Danse will approve.
Dislikes: No stealing or picking the locks on items owned by other people. And winners don’t use drugs.
How to recruit Hancock, the Ghoul
Hancock initially seems like a nasty piece of work, and he kind of is, which makes him a great companion if you favor violence over peaceful resolution. You’ll find him in Goodneighbor, and if you start working for him he’ll soon join your merry little band.
As he’s a ghoul himself, Hancock’s Isodoped Perk recharges your Critical hit meter 20 percent faster provided you have a radiation level of 250 or more.
Perk: Isodoped
Likes: He approves of your drug-taking, and also likes it when you make peaceful and violent dialogue choices, which is a weird contradiction.
Dislikes: Don’t make mean dialogue choices around him, or walk around naked.
How to recruit Curie, the combat medic robot
Sure, Curie looks like a Codsworth, but she’s a lot more useful. Her Combat Medic perk is well worth the work – if you drop below 10 percent health she’ll heal you by 100 points, although you can only use it once per day.
She’s also the only non-human companion you can romance. Find her in Vault 81 (go back a second time if you haven’t come across her the first time) and talk to her to begin the quest Emergent Behaviour. Yep, she’s the robot with the French accent.
Perk: Combat Medic
Likes: She likes it when you make mean, nice and peaceful dialogue choices, and give stuff away.
Dislikes: As she’s a medic, don’t be killing any innocents. And don’t steal or pickpocket.
More to follow soon…
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