A.I Companion Guide

Tips and stuff to help you understand A.I companions. I don't have everything now, but there will be more to come.

Introduction

There are a total 5 A.I. companions (I believe) so far in the game that we know of. Each companion has different interactions that I will be providing for the community. I also will be updating this guide along the way the more I find out. However, please do favorite and rate this guide for further updates, thanks.

Kelvin

Kelvin is self-explanatory.

However, for those who need help understanding, you can interact with Kelvin to help you gather materials and other types of things. Things such as, logs, sticks, building your structures, fires, and more. He can be interacted with a little note menu that can be controlled using the movement keys, W, A, S, D.

Kelvin that we know is deaf so he can't hear anything around him, he's most vulnerable to cannibals.

Virginia Puffton

Virgnia is a character that you will see that will mainly reside in sunny and warmer areas. She also loves berries and the forest in general (but she will kick animals too and kill for you) So if you are in the snow biomes then you will not see her. However, if you do spawn in an area where you see her, you can help her trust you in a way you can later use her for defense.

To start off with, you will see her running away from you, try not to move when she comes near you and or approaches you. Most of the time your weapons can also scare her, so be sure to hide your weapons with the button G (or whatever bind you have). Overtime if you repeat this she will begin to offer you berries and other things as she feels more comfortable and safe. Eventually she will come up to you and you will have the option to give her items and she will roam around you not running away.

You also have the option to ignore her, or make her scared of you if you pose a threat.

Known Bugs

As I've been playing there have been some pretty common bugs with both A.I. characters so far.

Kelvin

When interacting with Kelvin you can ask him to get logs for you, do watch out for that because Kelvin will chop down ANY tree near you. So for example, if you built any tree platforms or housing, he can chop down that house and it will break.

Virginia

When you are able to interact with Virginia and give her items, she will glitch them out.

Firstly, weapons, she will use them for some time period and at some point they can glitch out and disappear. However, rarely, it can return to your inventory as well with its attachments.

Secondly, the GPS locator (I like to call them airtags) that you give her can be used to track her around the map. At some point it does come off, I'm not entirely sure if that's a bug or not.

Thirdly, Virginia apparently, according to many, disappears randomly and doesn't come back. I'm not too sure why this is, which is why the GPS locator is most important.

Let me know if you guys find more bugs so I can update others too.

Q/A (Helpful Tips)

"I killed Kelvin" or "I killed Virginia what do I do?"

I've seen many commenters say that they had killed or accidentally killed some of the companions so far, if you ever get to that point I am pretty sure there is no way of recovering them. The consensus is, is that you have to restart if you want them back.

"Virginia is missing where is she?"

Virginia doesn't stay around your base camp or character all the time, she likely will wander a lot. I've known to see that during the seasons of the game she will mainly not be active during the winter season but I do see her quite a bit. However, if you don't see her after some time it could be that something went wrong or she could've died somewhere around you.

"Kelvin doesn't listen to me anymore, what do I do?"

Kelvin is a character that we all know we can interact with. One of the interactive options you have, you can tell him to "take a break" which is necessary to his character. If you overwork Kelvin he will most likely begin refusing to listen to you and generally have a sour attitude.

"Can I give Kelvin weapons and gear?"

Not that I know of, no, Kelvin plainly listens to what you have to say usually and is almost like an assistant. Virginia is the character to go for when you need help defending the base.

"What other things besides weapons can I give Virginia?"

One thing I realized that you can give to Virginia besides weapons, are clothes and the GPS locator. I do know she wears different types of clothes, I just don't know the exact name of them.

"Where can I find the GPS locator and pistol?"

All players in multiplayer spawn in the middle of the forest (and if not), there is a beach that has a purple icon (or green dot) that shows you where the pistol is. The pistol is in the middle of the water, and the attachments can be found on the beach nearby.

The GPS locator can also be found with a purple indicator or green indicator, it is found on a dead guy that hangs from a cliff, throw some rocks at him and you also get the flashlight.

(will be updated for more questions)

[Gamer Beamz]

theres only 2 listed companions here. wheres the rest?

[TriadWarfare]

Just an FYI that if you manage to kill any of your NPC Followers, you can bring them back with a save editor like SOTFEdit or modify the game files yourself.

If you're running a dedicated server, it's a bit more complicated but it is still possible to revive them with a save editor. Don't bother extracting and rezipping them though because the game will instantly reject it and force you to start over.

[squishy288]

Something that might help other people is that if you set up a tent right next to Virginia, and spam sleep, it speeds up sediment gain. I was originally going for the 50 days achievement and had Virginia right next to me. I slept around 35 days and got the achievement. This is without much previous interaction with her. It was around 5 thumbs up when I got the achievement, way less that the 20 most people are talking about. Again this was just for me, some further testing will need to be done.

[[Taco] Agent]

Ixneely, Alright thank you

[broknluv]

[Taco] Agent, Virginia can leave your base at any time, just wait, she will come back

[[Taco] Agent]

Hey so i wen't exploring on my own during the winter, after 4 in game days i go back to my base and find that only Kelvin was there.It's been like another 4 in game days since Virginia came back. Did she die or does it take some time for her to come back?

[Myztc]

Mad Max, the game is still in Early Access, there was a promised of three more companions that are to be added that were explained in the dev notes and the talk they had on launch day in their discord stage.

[Mad Max]

you know of 5 and only listed 2? where and what are the other 3?

[Myztc]

NotACoomer, I believe so yes, she can take days (in-game) to come back sometimes. But, we are aware of a bug where she disappears.

[Pakistaniel]

does swinging weapons at virginia scare her off? I was building my shelter on the first day clearing brush and shit and she was around I put my axe down and she ran off never to return I think she might have been behind a bush or something where I couldnt see her while I was swinging away