Joel in the party

[Mr. Mule]

In the 2nd day you can find joel, i want to be nice to him and get him to join the party, how do i do that instead of making him into an enemy?

[flitchard]

He says he wants "Fuzzy".

That's his teddy from the next room over.

He won't go with just anyone, but he's fine with going to a neighbour's house

[Fufufamesh]

Go in the room under him before talking to him and grab the teddy bear against the wall named fuzzy, then give it to him when in combat under the Item tab

[Mr. Mule]

thank you

[Keith 'Blood' Hanson]

Leigh is better than Joel, for any new run I'd just try and get her. I felt like early in the game with Joel and Leigh I was going through health items way too fast. He's usually just not very good. He gets a ranged ability and another that can reduce his damage, but no natural way to defend himself. Only pro's is that he has a melee that won't break and an extra pair of hands if you need to lob consumables at things.

I THINK he might be the only way to get a game cartridge though...Would have to check with the dialogue choices...

[Dezmonik]

Originally posted by Keith 'Blood' Hanson:

Leigh is better than Joel, for any new run I'd just try and get her. I felt like early in the game with Joel and Leigh I was going through health items way too fast. He's usually just not very good. He gets a ranged ability and another that can reduce his damage, but no natural way to defend himself. Only pro's is that he has a melee that won't break and an extra pair of hands if you need to lob consumables at things.

I THINK he might be the only way to get a game cartridge though...Would have to check with the dialogue choices...

One nice thing about Joel that isn't written anywhere in game is that he seems to inherently have the ability to double his melee damage if doubling it would kill the enemy, like that expensive rapier ability. He would routinely one shot smaller enemies by himself. The other thing too is when you use teething pain and that 6 stm ability he has to use the teeth saw, he does crazy damage, especially if they're weak to slash. I just put a high defense armor on him and called it a day.

[cobyjuankenobi]

So, do I have to kill the baby to get Joel? I might've been locked out. Killed his mom and gave him Fuzzy, i ask him to come with and he wants to stay. Feels like I should off the baby.

[Rollapoid]

you do not have to kill his sister, brother, or father to recruit Joel. don't know about his mother [edit: you have to kill Madison]. you must introduce yourself to him as a neighbor or a friend [edit: neighbor only or you get locked out, my bad] at the beginning of your first interaction with him (before doing anything with Fuzzy), or you're locked out of recruiting him. leigh and joel are always my first two recruits because theyre the easiest for me to get.

[cobyjuankenobi]

Originally posted by Rollapoid:

you do not have to kill his sister, brother, or father to recruit Joel. don't know about his mother. you must introduce yourself to him as a neighbor or a friend at the beginning of your first interaction with him (before doing anything with Fuzzy), or you're locked out of recruiting him. leigh and joel are always my first two recruits because theyre the easiest for me to get.

Ty, I did the "friend" option, killed mom, repelled the giant baby back into the depths from wence it came, popped dad, and I think I just gave him fuzzy out of sequence or rather when I should've. So I gave up on him and now I have a rat baby in my pack and can talk to rats after I became the new rat king. I don't wanna do it, but I might feed the baby to a wall person.

[cobyjuankenobi]

Does nobody get Dan the streamer? I watched a few lets players and no one really opts for Dan.

[Rollapoid]

Originally posted by cobyjuankenobi:

Ty, I did the "friend" option, killed mom, repelled the giant baby back into the depths from wence it came, popped dad, and I think I just gave him fuzzy out of sequence or rather when I should've. So I gave up on him and now I have a rat baby in my pack and can talk to rats after I became the new rat king. I don't wanna do it, but I might feed the baby to a wall person.

I'm going to quickly double check if introducing yourself as anything but a Neighbor locks you out of Joel recruitment because telling him you're a friend was something I read on the Wiki a while ago.

[Rollapoid]

Originally posted by Rollapoid:

I'm going to quickly double check if introducing yourself as anything but a Neighbor locks you out of Joel recruitment because telling him you're a friend was something I read on the Wiki a while ago.

I was wrong. You must only introduce yourself as a Neighbor to recruit Joel. Sorry about that.

[Rollapoid]

Originally posted by cobyjuankenobi:

Does nobody get Dan the streamer? I watched a few lets players and no one really opts for Dan.

Since this seems to be your first playthrough I recommend recruiting him if you do see him and just experiment with if you like using him. His abilities have undergone a few balance changes since the game released and I haven't used him since before 1.04 just because I prefer to use Leigh and two other party members you haven't encountered yet.

[Mauman]

Me on my current/first playthrough having gotten Sophia and Dan at the very beginning of day 1 and 2 respectively. The luck, eh?

Also picked up Leigh because evidently having access to blind/confusion attacks that early into the game makes bosses surprisingly easy :P

Also have Joel at home now....would it be better for me to switch out Dan for him?

[belangf]

Originally posted by cobyjuankenobi:

Does nobody get Dan the streamer? I watched a few lets players and no one really opts for Dan.

I got him as first companion and kept him all the way through. His special skills are pretty funny.

[belangf]

Originally posted by Mauman:

Also have Joel at home now....would it be better for me to switch out Dan for him?

Depending how far you are it may be best to stick with your highest level companions. Early on you can try different companions, but it's best to keep to one team because XP is only gained for active companions.