Companions are something that I really enjoy about this game. While the AI on them is not very smart and they often run into their own demise on a regular basis, your companions can make a lot of a difference in a game, even if it is just for them to be the "tank" that takes the focus off of you for a bit while you wait for your special attacks the recharge.
One thing I started to notice was I was leveling up (i'm only level 14 at the moment) was that my companions were so weak that they started to feel as though they were just getting in the way.
The "fix" to this is going to seem so simple that I'm sure that many people already know this. But I do recall a friend of mine that played this game all the way through and never did and just had really weak companions that were getting in his way all the time. So maybe this information will come in handy for someone out there. It did for me and I discovered it just by accident.
I've been using Piper, only because she is one of the first companions that I encountered. I don't necessarily think she is better than other companions. I plan to use a lot of them eventually.
Anyway, Piper has a 10mm pistol, a unique on that you cannot use, as her primary weapon. It doesn't do huge damage, but it does enough. The cool thing about her default weapon is that she will never run out of ammo for it so you don't need to give her any. Other toons have different default weapons and the same is true for them. You just need to find out what is the most useful for your particular playstyle.
One of the big problems with companions that is that they die so easily and I accidentally figured out how to rectify that yesterday.
This is not Piper above, but the interface is the same. You can press X (on Playstation) or whatever button allows you to interact with any NPC and open the "trade" box even though you are not trading anything. Then once in there and looking at the companion's inventory, you will notice there isn't much of it and there isn't any ammo in most situations.
This is because Piper's ammo will never run out and maybe that is why she misses so often. You may feel tempted to throw another gun in there thinking that the same thing would be true but it isn't the case with anything other than a companion's default weapon. You can equip them with stronger guns, but they will use that first and in all situations. So you might be dealing with some trash mobs that easily die with the butt of your rifle, but Piper (and all the rest) will immediately use all the ammo in their best weapon until it is gone.
Therefore it is mostly not a good idea to attempt to equip them with anything that needs ammo replenishment since they will essentially just waste it. Melee weapons are fine if you want to do that.
The important thing to keep in mind here, and if you have played this game with any sort of regularity, is that you encounter a lot of armor that if you even bother to pick it up, you scrap it straight away. I found a bunch of armor while fighting a bunch of raiders and since my toon was overweight, I went into Piper's inventory to have her lug some of this stuff around.
When I was putting the extra armor in her pack I noticed that while I was scrolling along that there all of a sudden was an option to equip this armor and you can do so from inside the trade window. It will function similarly to your own interface but it can be a bit tricky to figure out which is actually the best armor choice for your companion. No matter what you choose though, there is a good chance that it is going to be miles better than their default clothes.
For the dog you can equip dog armor that you find as well, which is nice. I guess I am just keeping Piper around because I am trying to manipulate her, which can prove to be a fun "side mission" in itself.
You will change the look of your companion, mostly for the worse, by doing this. But seeing as how the character I play is a friggin mess of this piece of armor and that, I guess I don't really care.
So just to recap, you can make your companions stronger and more tanky by doing these things
- open up a trade dialogue with them by clicking on them
- move extra armor you are not using to their backpack / stash
- play around with equipping it. If they can't use it, it wont be an option
- mostly don't give them other weapons, their accuracy is too shit and they will tear through ammo like nobody's business.
I hope this helps someone out there. Lord only knows how much extra armor I salvaged without even considering giving it to my partners.
