The companion perks, are they worth the trouble?

[Plumpeach]

I am starting a survival run and wondering about this as I want to take lone wanderer. I know I can have dogmeat. Some look great but wondering if it is worth the hassle.

[MortVent]

Some can be super useful.

Prestons can really help vs groups
McCready's is useful if trying to snipe
Codsworth is useful if doing automatron, and vs the random sentry and assaultrons
the rest are iffy

[MTV]

Prestons perk is pretty good and it's easy to max him out. Just bring him along for a bit and help out a bunch of settlements.

Piper's is also decent if you can get it early on.

[Doombringer]

Deacon's is good for stealth characters. So are McCready's and Preston's.

[Bored Peon]

Danse has a really good one, but it is a pain because it requires Blind Betrayal.

+20% damage versus ferals, super mutants, and synths.

[bigdale]

I generally don't bother. I like having the 100 carry weight and 30% damage reduction all the time.

[Big Moustache]

Go lone wanderer. Companions suck in combat and agro, trigger mines, open doors and so on. Let them farm corn.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by bigdale:

I generally don't bother. I like having the 100 carry weight and 30% damage reduction all the time.

Ada can carry like 400, lol.

[AbsynthMinded]

In the end no. They do not matter. Because you can level so fast once you are above 25 life is fairly easy, with or without them. Its the theme of FO4 over all, nothing matters. Once you get enough of your own level perks, bobbleheads and magazines, you are a god regardless.

This is most true if you invest in the Lone Wanderer Perks and stick with Dogmeat early on.

[DouglasGrave]

They're all useful to some degree, so if you've got a companion you haven't maxed, you might want to run around with them just long enough to pick up a little extra. Dogmeat's always still around for when you're out of other companions to make happy.

I suppose it depends on how long you're looking at playing around for; I'm usually in it for the long haul, but if you find it's not worth the trouble, don't do it.

One trick I ran across if you've got the Nuka World DLC is with Sierra Petrovita; if you don't begin her cappy quest, there's a dialogue loop you can repeat with options that please almost every companion (depending on which one you pick). This allows you to rapidly increase their affinity by aborting and restarting conversation with her (without accepting her quest).

[Duneman]

Preston, MacCready, and Deacon's perks are all great for combat. Piper's perk isn't bad early on either, but matters more for a high Charisma character who will be spamming speech checks.

Just be wary around tall structures. Companions still fall from heights with alarming regularity. Until you have Acrobat's leggings to give them, or just order them into a Power Armor Frame, you run the risk of them leaving when exploring around tall structures.

[red255]

alot of the companions are impressed by picking locks/hacking terminals.

Preston's is good, a number come with companion quest lines

i mean why are you playing fallout 4 if not for the quests.

but the 20% health ones aren't worth getting no.

[ghpstage]

A lot of companions approve of things that can be considered day to day settlement tasks,
All of Danse, Preston, Codsworth, X6-88 and Gauge like when you modify weapons for example.

If you stationed them in your main base (ideally a cramped one so they al see) then you will probably max out their affinities over time, minus any companion quests of course.
There are other 'liked' actions that could be made part of a base routine for other companions, you'd just have to be careful who is present.

For the ones you can do this with getting them is no trouble at all.

[bigdale]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by bigdale:

I generally don't bother. I like having the 100 carry weight and 30% damage reduction all the time.

Ada can carry like 400, lol.

I can barely tolerate her incessant chatter long enough to do Automatron finla stage. And no perk to boot.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by bigdale:

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Ada can carry like 400, lol.

I can barely tolerate her incessant chatter long enough to do Automatron finla stage. And no perk to boot.

Ada dont need perks. The fact you can upgrade her makes a huge difference and you dont have to worry about ammo.

She is also the only companion that dont complain as you are packratting eveyrhting in sight.

[jonnan.west]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by bigdale:

I can barely tolerate her incessant chatter long enough to do Automatron finla stage. And no perk to boot.

Ada dont need perks. The fact you can upgrade her makes a huge difference and you dont have to worry about ammo.

She is also the only companion that dont complain as you are packratting eveyrhting in sight.

Problem with Ada is with a full upgrade, she can kill a lot of opponents before you even take a shot and deny you XP. Still, I like to stick a Mister Handy thruster on her and go.

Deacon's the only other one I would consider running with, just because he doesn't goof up my sneak game and doesn't crowd me like Ada does.