Animal Companions

[Deus]

How many animal companions are you supposed to have? I’m currently stuck with the cat, a dog a parrot a clone and two robot chickens. Cant really tame anything new as i have to dismiss all of them to do it. Feels like something is broken here..

[Du-Vu]

Each character can have one animal companion at a time, not counting the robot chickens and a few others (you'll want to take those robot chickens back to the coop at Ranger HQ, though, they can die and there's a limited number of them). You will eventually want to dismiss lower-level ones like cats and dogs to make room for others as you level up. Which pets are available depend on that character's Animal Whisperer skill.

[Radiac]

Originally posted by Deus:

How many animal companions are you supposed to have? I’m currently stuck with the cat, a dog a parrot a clone and two robot chickens. Cant really tame anything new as i have to dismiss all of them to do it. Feels like something is broken here..

How many are you "supposed" to have? My personal answer is "Zero." but your mileage may vary. I did the whole game on Wastelander difficulty with only Maj. Tomcat and the Clone, and I wished I didn't have them. They get underfoot a lot, they block narrow passages, doorways, etc in combat, they behave erratically, thet get in the way of you using AoE weapons like flamethrowers and shotguns a lot, and I don't really think they're worth it, as compared to turrets and deployable bots, which are consumables in the first place.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by Radiac:

I don't really think they're worth it, as compared to turrets and deployable bots, which are consumables in the first place.

I'm doing an Animal Whisperer playthrough with one of my mains and I love it. If you're going to play that way then you have to adjust what weapons that you plan on using from the start of the game. Certain character builds don't mix. That's why I don't use my heavy weapons character. Unless there's an ice block that needs to be burned, then I'll take him along for one trip, then dump him.

I don't use any area of effect weapons. No grenades or anything. All precision weapons to keep everyone safe.

In certain situations I'll switch to wide-coned shotgun or an energy weapon that blasts through everything, but only when it's safe to do so. I switch weapons on the fly depending on the situation because it doesn't cost any AP.

Sometimes my vehicle gun will happen to hit some of my own units, but there's nothing I can do about that. I need to take those shots because they are important. Then my healer will run in to help them.

[felmari]

i tend to agree they are not worth it. maybe if they gave some simple commands or just have them controllable in combat with what basics they have anyway. you can tell them to stay in a way but you will need a whisperer to get them back and i'm not sure how long they may stay there. its mostly the uniques(like tom the cat) that i worry about they where so useless i thought they may be invincible when i first got them mostly cause they are quite survivable at least in early levels though they can hold and tank a little once again early.

[Deus]

My main problem is that i cant really try out any other animal to figure out its combat provess or passive bonus. I have put major tomcat, polly and a random dog on my animal whisperer. So to tame anything new, i have to dismiss all 3 of these. Cant seem to re-enlist polly. Just feels abit tedious (lots of saving and reloading)