Confused about Strong.

[Jeffrey Goines]

I red that he likes it if youre generous to other people, and now that i found billy the fridgekid, i thought it would raise his affinity. i tried both dialogue options now, the one to help him, which strong somehow didnt like eventho he said "human are weak, they should be together, thats good", and the one not to help him, which he liked, eventho he said that "humans are weak, they should help each other, strong doesnt like". so wtf? does anyone have an idea why hes talking that nonsense, could it be a bug or something?

[DrNewcenstein]

I never understood him either. I got everyone else to reach their final stage of Affinity, but Strong was a puzzle. I'm guessing you have to show him how humans are supposed to behave towards each other - milk of human kindness and all that - but no matter how much I help others, some things he likes, some he dislikes. He likes if you use melee attacks and rocket launchers, since that's what he uses, but if you sneak, he doesn't like it. If you refuse to help people, he dislikes it but says humans should help each other.

I dumped him off in Hangman's Alley by himself because he's just either broken or schizo. Nothing makes sense with him, and because they left so many important options with the various factions single-ended and generally broken, you can't get him a cure for FEV. I can't even take him near Dogmeat because they attack each other on sight, even though we're all supposed to be in the same faction.

[Jeffrey Goines]

im running a melee build now, and therefore strong is pretty useful. the perk he gives is actually not very useful tho, unless you got some legendary item that slows time when youre under 25% health. i dont really want to max his affinity, but i want a decent value like 250 or something so i dont have to fear all the time he could dump me, im permanently on -16 affinity, so a few likes by him would be good. i finished the fridgekid quest now, and didnt sell him to the gunner dude and strong liked that at least. i guess im gonna help some people and hope i will figure out if there are certain specifics that need to be considered.

and yh i wish they wouldve added that possibilty, the same they did with curie, like if you show him milk of human kindness, he more and more decides for himself that being human is better after all, so his final quest is to bring him the serum virgil uses and he becomes human again.

[DrNewcenstein]

I tried doing a total assault run with Strong to get his affinity up. Just go hit all the Gunner and Raider and Feral and Creature dens with my Rocket Sledge. We fought Mirelurk Queens and Synths and Robots and avoided other Mutants. Still nothing. He likes the combat, but that's it.

I never took him to a Settlement, and didn't stop at a workbench (he dislikes tinkering and lockpicking). We went in, slaughtered whoever we found, and looted.

I drug him around for hours in real time, and got only one message about his affinity. When I spoke to him, it gave me no insight as to how to advance his affinity. I'm trying to avoid YT or wiki pages on how to do it, but if he's broken, I would like to know.

[Shadow The Innkeep]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Goines:

I red that he likes it if youre generous to other people, and now that i found billy the fridgekid, i thought it would raise his affinity. i tried both dialogue options now, the one to help him, which strong somehow didnt like eventho he said "human are weak, they should be together, thats good", and the one not to help him, which he liked, eventho he said that "humans are weak, they should help each other, strong doesnt like". so wtf? does anyone have an idea why hes talking that nonsense, could it be a bug or something?

Most companions are like that, same ♥♥♥♥ happens with Danse. He dislikes Ghouls (VT Rep, for example, but to be fair, VT Rep is an arse who gave me such an attitude, I'm not surprised Danse disliked him) but he also dislikes when you are mean to Billy or some other non-ferals. So I never know with him even though I have played for many hrs. I feel like the only follower who has been more or less complete was Cait.

Strong, however, like very few things - he is the only one who approves SS eating dead flesh, killing innocents, but he vastsly dislikes things like using PA or vertibirds, lockpicking both legal and illegal, healing Dogmeat (should he be in the vicinity - that option also goes for X6-88 and MacCreedy), asking for more money in the dialogue.

He is a super mutant, and it's hard probably for him to determine what he considers nice and what he doesn't even for himself. As far as so called General Affinity choices go, Strong dislikes SS to be Selfish and Mean, but likes generous, peaceful and violent choices. That's per official guide for the game (I wasn't lazy to dig it out and verify).

Best way to go is QuickSave/QUickLoad different dialogue options and see how he reacts and then pick and choose how you want the final conversation to roll.

[Jeffrey Goines]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

I tried doing a total assault run with Strong to get his affinity up. Just go hit all the Gunner and Raider and Feral and Creature dens with my Rocket Sledge. We fought Mirelurk Queens and Synths and Robots and avoided other Mutants. Still nothing. He likes the combat, but that's it.

I never took him to a Settlement, and didn't stop at a workbench (he dislikes tinkering and lockpicking). We went in, slaughtered whoever we found, and looted.

I drug him around for hours in real time, and got only one message about his affinity. When I spoke to him, it gave me no insight as to how to advance his affinity. I'm trying to avoid YT or wiki pages on how to do it, but if he's broken, I would like to know.

yh thats what im up to right now, just walking from place to place, killing everything i see except super mutants hoping i would find some random quest and choose the right options and ways to raise his affinity...i dont think killing high leveled or big enemies (like its written in the wikipage) really helps, i killed "swan" that giant, super mutant or whatever it is and checked his affinity before and after i killed it, i got nothing there. weird thing is tho, that i have -16 affinity, i got -15 because i picked a lock at first not knowing he wouldnt like it, but where does the -1 come from, i spend some time building stuff and he complaining a few times about standing around, maybe his complains or compliments gain some affinity if theyre multiplied. but i actually have no real clue...

Originally posted by Naveena Vice:

Most companions are like that, same ♥♥♥♥ happens with Danse. He dislikes Ghouls (VT Rep, for example) but dislikes when you are mean to Billy or some other non-ferals. So I never know with him even though I have played for many hrs. I feel like the only follower who has been more or less complete was Cait.

Strong, however, like very few things - he is the only one who approves SS eating dead flesh, killing innocents, but he vastsly dislikes things like using PA or vertibirds, lockpicking both legal and illegal, healing Dogmeat (should he be in the vicinity - that option also goes for X6-88 and MacCreedy), asking for more money in the dialogue.

He is a super mutant, and it's hard probably for him to determine what he considers nice and what he doesn't even for himself. As far as so called General Affinity choices go, Strong dislikes SS to be Selfish and Mean, but likes generous, peaceful and violent choices. That's per official guide for the game (I wasn't lazy to dig it out and verify).

Best way to go is QuickSave/QUickLoad different dialogue options and see how he reacts and then pick and choose how you want the final conversation to roll.

yh i red some articles and threads and got the same results, but i dont got the endurance for cannibal, i guess im gonna kill some random settlers from now on, i avoid doing brotherhood quests and lockpicking/hacking and other companions are only around in the settlement where all my stuff is. i will just go and find some sidequests hoping i get some results out of that guy.

most companions have something they like which is some sort of habit, like lockpicking, hacking or stealing, that makes it so easy, i got cait before and after i picked a safe she told me her lifestory. strong and danse dont have anything like that, they only respond to quest related stuff, which is way to rarely to get their affinity before ending the whole game...

[Yhwach]

Strong needs the sweet nectar of Human Kindness, and needs it now.
Shame on you.

[DrNewcenstein]

I thought perhaps that Strong was also responding to my other efforts, like rescuing Preston and the bunch from Concord, and building up Sanctuary, so I avoided all of that and just ran around leveling up and hitting Raider and Gunner stuff until I could work my way to the city to get his quest first. I thought maybe Companions have some sort of "Matrix vision" where they can read your current Fame and other hidden attributes.

No difference.

[DrNewcenstein]

Originally posted by Yami Yugi:

Strong needs the sweet nectar of Human Kindness, and needs it now.
Shame on you.

Well he's not getting man-love from me lol

[Joe Coffee]

Answer: pisspoor QA from Bethesda's side.

I think there might be a mod that fixes the contradictory aspect of certain characters' affinities, but I can't be sure.

[Jeffrey Goines]

well, his affinity raised now by +150, and i didnt get any "strong liked that" notification, but i think i got how it works. super mutants in general think humans are weak, so killing humans wont really impress him, i went to poseidon energy where many mirelurks hang out, and i think that strong is impressed if you kill enemies that he considers to be strong, unlike humans. maybe there are certain types of creature that are considered mighty and powerful by super mutants, and killing them wil gain his affinity. because after poseidon energy i gained it, for no obvious reason whatsoever.

i asked strong how he thinks about our relationship, and he responded with something like "for human you a good fighter, even though you are small like all humans are"

ps: i heard that strong is voiced by the same voice actor of son goku in the english version of dragon ball :D

[DrNewcenstein]

I'm sure there's a very deliberate path you have to take with him, the problem is finding it, just like the narrow path you could find in New Vegas to get the BoS and NCR to work together at Hoover Dam, and had its own ending.

However, this "milk of human kindness" thing is the issue: Strong believes it to be a physical concoction one can drink to become super strong, which is what he wants. The player obviously understands what it actually is, and tries to get Strong to understand it. Since you can't carry multiple companions, which would be the easiest way to explain it to him as you unlock their affinity levels, you're left with very little to work with.

I've tried leaving him in a settlement full of people whom I help with their various issues, all of which Strong disliked. I've tried having "the big discussion" with each companion while Strong was nearby, hoping maybe their conversation would trigger one from Strong. He either had no response ot Dislked it.

I even tried having The Really Big Talk with Synth Curie where Strong was nearby and got no response. Preston, Cait, Piper, Dogmeat, Nick, and MacCready all had a response. Maybe Strong was out of range, maybe he was indifferent.

The only thing I didn't try was dragging him around through all the Super Mutant camps, or the Marina. I think I had him with me at The Slog, but can't recall.
Maybe if I take him on Minuteman missions like Finch Farm/Jake and the Forged, or Abernathy Farm and the Raiders, or some Railroad missions.
I also didn't take him to the radio station where dude lives to see if maybe he can explain it more.

But then, if he Dislikes all that helping stuff, then none of that would make a difference.

Maybe you have to mix up certain Chems? He thinks you're taking him to some sort of ingestible, so maybe...?

I dunno, it just seems like a lot of running around to figure out one follower, when all the others are so much more linear and simple.

[DrNewcenstein]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Goines:

well, his affinity raised now by +150, and i didnt get any "strong liked that" notification, but i think i got how it works. super mutants in general think humans are weak, so killing humans wont really impress him, i went to poseidon energy where many mirelurks hang out, and i think that strong is impressed if you kill enemies that he considers to be strong, unlike humans. maybe there are certain types of creature that are considered mighty and powerful by super mutants, and killing them wil gain his affinity. because after poseidon energy i gained it, for no obvious reason whatsoever.

i asked strong how he thinks about our relationship, and he responded with something like "for human you a good fighter, even though you are small like all humans are"

ps: i heard that strong is voiced by the same voice actor of son goku in the english version of dragon ball :D

Hey, that's progress, at least.

Take on Mirelurk Queens and Deathclaws, and see where it goes.

Maybe cook some of the remains, since he's looking for an ingestible? Then again, "milk of human kindness"....maybe he's not catching the "kindness" part, or he's hearing "human-kind-ness", like "super mutant-ness" or "Ghoulishness"? Maybe he's expecting something that defines being human in simple terms, not so much being kind toward others? Being stronger than you look (i.e. taking out Mirelurk Queens and other Super Mutants).

[Jeffrey Goines]

yh hes a real pain in the ass...i didnt check on any of the minutemen quest since i did them in another savegame and was bored already. but thx for the information about the "big talk" with the other companions.

i dont know about taking chems, maybe he likes taking psycho which makes you stronger at some point.

and well, i dont know why, but his affinity is constantly raising, hes now on +230, i have no real indication why. but i think it could be true, that killing certain types of enemies, even super mutants, since youre showing him that you can defeat them in combat, could do the trick. maybe you go and kill some mirelurks or deathclaws, or super mutants.

but maybe im just experiencing some bug, so i dont want to make any false hopes. but after i did poseidon energy, his affinity stared raising. i killed some enemies who were several lvl higher than me, maybe that made the difference tho, i think its related to which enemies you kill at some point.

[Jeffrey Goines]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Hey, that's progress, at least.

Take on Mirelurk Queens and Deathclaws, and see where it goes.

Maybe cook some of the remains, since he's looking for an ingestible? Then again, "milk of human kindness"....maybe he's not catching the "kindness" part, or he's hearing "human-kind-ness", like "super mutant-ness" or "Ghoulishness"? Maybe he's expecting something that defines being human in simple terms, not so much being kind toward others? Being stronger than you look (i.e. taking out Mirelurk Queens and other Super Mutants).

i dont know about cooking, i cooked every meat i found since i got him and i was on -16 affinty for several hours, but maybe thats it.

and i think hes way more about super mutants being the superior race and has trouble to understand why human beings are still superior to them even tho they look way more fragile, and his only explaination for this advantage is the human kindness thing, because kindness cant be found in super mutants, this is why he hates when you do stuff he doesnt understand and cant do like picking locks, hacking terminals, healing others with stimpaks and getting into power armor. so you have to show him that you arent as fragile as he sees human beings to gain his respect, like he said "youre pretty good fighter for human, eventho youre as small as other humans"

so that would be my advice, focus on enemies other than human, i think synth wont count since he doesnt understand them as humans, and if you see an highlevel enemy make sure you kill the ♥♥♥♥ out of him. but like i said, i have no real evidence for that.

and im going with a melee build right now, maybe that has an effect on his affinity as well. but im just guessing.

or maybe the whole thing is about legendary enemies and highlevel enemies. like gaining strongs affinity drags you to always seek the edge of the difficulty. you know, to proof to him that youre more than just a weak human.

[Falaris]

I think some of you are overthinking this.

Strong doesn't think milk of human kindness is a mental thing.

Strong is a thug. He doesn't like solving things by skill like picking locks, hacking, or talking. Brutality, though, he's all for that. Cannibalism, too.

However, he doesn't mind kindness and will, for instance, appreciate doing minutemen quests to help settlers. (Also, building settlements is good. Tinkering with weapons is bad.).

It is often hard to see which of his - sometimes contradictory - interests will win out in a conversation, so saving often may be useful.