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[John Porno]

Here a few more or less well known facts about companions that I have gathered over the last few days, levelling my first companion. I can't claim this to be 100% correct, but I am fairly certain about all of these. If you have something to add you can post here or pm me, if it's confirmed I will include it in this post and give credit.

General:
- They start at a random level, not level 1. Mine was at around 5, hence needed a few more xp for her first level up
- If they have a name and are "well travelled", they are taken. Free Companions are only labelled "a traveller"
- They tend to walk around a lot, dont check only inside but also outside the bars.
- The Companions seem to have a normal Special like every player character but with predetermined perks, meaning that levelling up will only give them HP.
- Their Special is completely random and sadly is not connected to their favored combat skills (Brujah)
- You can have up to 4 companions at once (assuming you fit the requirements). (Balthasar)
- No CH 3 is required to talk to a companion. (Though its helpful if you want to get as much Partypoints as possible.) (Balthasar)
- For unattended levelling, equip with them with a good armor and a weapon they are proficient with and leave them to die in an area with respawning critters like undergrounds, mines, quest locations etc. (Brujah)

Combat:
- The combat mode "Kill any npc you see" may cause trouble in bases.
- They seem to reset to a default combat mode after being told to stay. The default combat mode means only hostile encs are attacked, no info about players. Seems to be best one. Not able to switch to this mode via dialogue.
- The "Kill all npc" mode randomly starts combat in TB after an enc is over when approaching dead bodies (bug)

Death:
- Respawning my take a while, 5-10 minutes sometimes. They respawn with full hp.
- They seem to keep items that they had in backpack. Only equipped items in the active slot are gone, armor stays.
- In case you die and your companion survives, he will be set to "stay here" mode and *must* be told to follow when he rejoins the group. (racoon) link to post

Loyality:
- If a companion dies, he loses 20% loyality, eventually perma-leaving/dying. Refer to http://fo2238.fodev.net/wiki/Followers#Loyality for more info. (Michaelh139)
- It is possible to keep them at a tent/base forever if you want to park them for a longer time (Brick)
- They accept iguana on a stick, beer, "booze" and nuka cola.
- The cheapest method is buying booze at the Maltese Falcon in the Hub for 10 caps each (Brujah)

Equipment:
- Their armor only deteriorates when they die with a critical/burst animation. other than that it stays 100% (racoon)
- They will equip and use evey weapon. With varying results. Weapon preference seems to be random, better not let any follower carry explosive or melee weapons.
- The "Arm yourself" command will make them draw a weapon, but it is not automatically the one they will be using in combat. (E.g. drew RL, then holstered it to draw and use throwing knives, then changed back to rl after combat)
Default is the "put gun away" mode, will make them waste time on drawing weapon upon entering combat so use the above command.

Figuring out a follower's SPECIAL
First, level him up once or twice to determine his current level and Hp gain. This should give you the ST and EN values. Check with carryweight.

AG can be checked in TB combat easily, PE could be checked with a help of a friend, setting the companion to autoack everything, then slowly walking towards him with a 2nd char from 56 hex.

If it doesnt add up, check for possible Lifegivers/strong back/small frame using FCP. My companion seems to have 9st, 10en and 10ag, using small frame, strong back and one lifegiver.

[Gob]

Thank you for this topic friend.

[ToxiCAVE]

how can he use avenger or gatling?

[falloutdude]

how can he use avenger or gatling?

yes they can use avengers and gatlings i had a one that started with a avenger. that was nice .

[Balthasar]

- You can have up to 4 companions at once (assuming you fit the requirements).
- No CH 3 is required to talk to a companion. (Though its helpful if you want to get as much Partypoints as possible.)

[Chewbakka]

hp seem completely random, my companion started with 223...now has 275 after 13 levels....I can't confirm starting levels vary...but my first companion did start with like 114 hp and took forever to level once, so maybe random level is a factor. Only factors I can tell from leveling...tried giving him a gun...he had to run nearly point blank (melee companion), so his PE was low. His AP seems right around 6 as he either 1 target shots and waits a bit, or sometimes will double strike w/3ap knife. Seems to have low strength, melee damage is not very high using a wakazashi which has the penetrate perk. And finally each level gives him 4hp, so either 8 or 9 End.

[Michaelh139]

hp seem completely random, my companion started with 223...now has 275 after 13 levels....I can't confirm starting levels vary...but my first companion did start with like 114 hp and took forever to level once, so maybe random level is a factor. Only factors I can tell from leveling...tried giving him a gun...he had to run nearly point blank (melee companion), so his PE was low. His AP seems right around 6 as he either 1 target shots and waits a bit, or sometimes will double strike w/3ap knife. Seems to have low strength, melee damage is not very high using a wakazashi which has the penetrate perk. And finally each level gives him 4hp, so either 8 or 9 End.

Sounds like he deserved execution by ~disbandparty.

[Chewbakka]

I think you are right Michael, but he will stay until I randomly stumble upon another...

[Arminius]

Could you post some examples of where did you find any companions?

[Chewbakka]

In NCR the companion walks from Dusty's Cantina up to entrance of NCR. In Hub they walk from General Store to Maltese Falcon. In Den I see them always in Becky's, but I know they do walk somewhere. Rumor has it Junktown has them, but have never seen any.

[Michaelh139]

In den it is funny, they walk between the two bars northwest of the map but occasionally stop outside of dusty's.

Not enough booze!

[Arminius]

Good info, thanks

[Malice Song]

Rumor has it Junktown has them, but have never seen any.

Bar at south entrance, sometimes hidden in a corner. They'll walk over to Gizmo's after a while.
As far as "never seen any" is concerned, I idled at Becky's/Den for 5 hours once with no success, so yeah, that was fun. Can't confirm, but it seems as if companion spawns are completely random. Which is slightly frustrating, considering that (and to contribute minor info):

- Companions' stats seem to be random without an internal check for their validity regarding weapon proficiency (or anything else for that matter). Meaning you could get a melee companion with <100 HP and EN 1. Or a SG companion with ST 1 failing all ST requirements for weapons. Or, of course, a BG companion with less than 7 AP.

Also for everyone who likes at least a shred of immersion in their game, afaik throwing companions won't pick up throwing knives after combat.

As far as the predetermined perks mentioned in op go, one of my companions was checked and didn't have traits or perks.

[avv]

There seems to be a bug with companions where you can lose them for good. Has to do with their master dying in an encounter despite having already set the rally point.

So think twice before starting to level your companion.

[Malice Song]

There seems to be a bug with companions where you can lose them for good. Has to do with their master dying in an encounter despite having already set the rally point.

Unfortunately there is more to it than that and it isn't particularly hard to permalose companions even without dying. Best guess I can muster is that it's related to the closing/deletion of the map, while companions are still tied to it because of their combat timer. For example, had a combat encounter with two companions, won, ordered regroup, left the map, one companion follows me to worldmap, the other is permadeleted. Only explanation I can think of off the top of my head is the lost companion fired the last shot and was still on combat timer, when I left the encounter.

Obviously the big problem here is, since to my knowledge no one willing to share actually knows how the mechanics work in detail, a lot of this is pretty much guesswork and apart from empirical evidence (which doesn't really account for all that much) I can't tell you how this shit works, either. Still, for prolonged enjoyment of their company, I would strongly suggest issuing the command to flee after combat and leave the encounter only after they do, since so far this seems to be a good way to actually keep them.