Survival Mode: Companions

[BioTurd]

Should I use companions or no. I get real lonely out there, but they may be a hinderance as they can now 'die' if you don't stimpack them, however, they can be used as a mobile storage space, and a helping hand. On the other hand I can have no companions, take Lone Wanderer (or use dogmeat), whats the best choice for me?

[AndyRobby]

Survival is best without power armor for speed you run away a lot lol. Only use companion on a looting trip once you clear a path, load them up if they drop they return to base with all the goodies anyhow so sometimes its worth letting them die so you can run back on your own.

[Mark]

Dogmeat counts as a companion now I think.

Personally, I take companions, but it's because I use them for other reasons. First I will use them as a tank (taking focus from you), then I send them home when I've filled their inventory and lone wanderer becomes active for me. Which is a nice way for getting as much home as possible on survival mode.

Other things I'm experimenting with, they're a great way of getting power armors home. Order a companion into a suit that has no core in it, send them home. Works nice. Guess you could use them to send a suit on ahead of you too I think, to the nearest base to somewhere you're heading.

[Mark]

Andyrobby, you can dismiss companions whenever you want, first choose talk, then choose dismiss.

[CellNav]

Originally posted by BioTurd:

Should I use companions or no. I get real lonely out there, but they may be a hinderance as they can now 'die' if you don't stimpack them

They don't "die" when you don't stimpak them. After awhile they will disappear into never-never land and spawn back at the location where you found them or the last assigned settlement, that takes a few hours real time (not game time). Same mechanic as telling them to "stay", they will eventually disappear and spawn back again.

They indeed make good pack mules, you can overlad them with no ill effect other than having to tell them to pick up items piecemeal, even if the items are in a container. I usually start my adventure at a settlement and ensure they are not over weight, then dump all my supplies into a container and command them to inspect the container, since they begin the inspection under weight they will grab everything in the container with that one command. After a battle, I trade with my companion and restock my supplies (ammo, water, food) that I consumed.

[SaltyPeanuts]

Originally posted by BioTurd:

Should I use companions or no. I get real lonely out there, but they may be a hinderance as they can now 'die' if you don't stimpack them

They don't die. If you leave a knocked out companion they eventually return to the nearest settlement.

[Thirdstorm]

I love companions, but wish the Acrobat Legendary effect worked for them..

[BioTurd]

Thanks for all the comments guys! I've decided to just use companions.

[loverevolutionary]

Some tips for you when using companions on survival:

Companions can wear your power armor. They don't use up cores. They can also teleport across rivers while wearing power armor if you swim across.

If you play with a "home base" dismiss your companion to that base, then recruit them again. Then when they are downed and you leave them behind, they will travel back there instead of to their original location.

Companions will fall from high places and be incapacitated. This can happen on freeways, fire escapes, and it ALWAYS happens on the Prydwen (for me anyhow.) Have them wait someplace safe. It happens on non survival, too (you hear them sometimes) but they get right up again and teleport back to you so it doesn't matter.

Companions can wear pocketed and deep pocketed armor and get the same carry bonus from it as you do. This is true in any difficulty, but matters more in survival.

[LostAngel1000]

Originally posted by Mark:

Dogmeat counts as a companion now I think.

Is this true? Does DogMeat now count against Lone Wander?

[Whargoul]

Originally posted by LostAngel1000:

Originally posted by Mark:

Dogmeat counts as a companion now I think.

Is this true? Does DogMeat now count against Lone Wander?

Nope

[DaddyJokee]

I use a companion. Preston Garvey in full combat armor, and sometimes, when I go into a dungeon, even in Power Armor. For one, you can always load them up with stuff you pick up, like when you end a bunch of gunners and strip them to their knickers. But also, they are useful when you get clobbered and can't fight until you regen. Preston saved my ass many a time. Once, I was in a hallway, three supermutants behind a corner, and on the other side behind a doorway, two more supermutants. I got lucky and killed the two behind the door with a pefrect double kill frag nade. The other three were pushing up the hallway but Preston held the line. He killed one of the, and left the remaining two at 1/3 HP. I then ended them rightly with my automatic laser rifle (the one from Danse). If I didn't have him, I would have been deader than disco.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by BioTurd:

Should I use companions or no. I get real lonely out there, but they may be a hinderance as they can now 'die' if you don't stimpack them, however, they can be used as a mobile storage space, and a helping hand. On the other hand I can have no companions, take Lone Wanderer (or use dogmeat), whats the best choice for me?

Eh, At low levels they're kinda useless - especially Dogmeat. He'll run up and go down to a single shot before he can do anything at all if he gets the slightest bit of aggro.

The others are less squishy - if only because Preston, for exmaple, hangs back and constantly misses with his laser musket so nobody ever pays attention to him.

But the human ones can be upgraded with armor while Dogmeat requires a mod for that (the vanilla dog armors provide no protection).

[Bubba]

I can''t think of a single companion who can stand up to a max level fight. They don't notice turrets and get killed. They don't use cover well enough. I had them in Nuka World for gawds sake while gathering the star cores and all they did was walk under a turret or run into a protectron and get killed. Worse is in-side where they have no situational ability, they are just dumb scripted NPC good for level 20 players.

[NecroMaster]

If doing a lone wanderer build take dogmeat.

If doing a companion build take codsworth until you can get a better companion.

I’d say Preston for long range but he’s annoying.
A good companion for long range is curie she’ll give you free stimpacks.

If you want a good frontliner whileyou shoot enemy’s down from the back take strong he will not die unless it’s an absurd amount of damage.

If you have the automation dlc custom robot companions perform better than any other companion in vanilla.

Assaultron with melee mods and a head laser is ruthless in short range they can’t react with all the stagger.
A mr handy with mini guns can be quick and ruthless for long range.
And if you want to take care of big threats just bring a sentry bot with you.

[Zotliatlicor]

Just do Companions casuallly, until you get their Special Perk. then dismiss them and get a new companion. Some of the Perks they bring are quite good, and others are just Meh. But if you collect them all you will be a stronger character