This article is about the companions overhaul, and all the changes brought to them.
This overhaul constitutes one of the major additions of the update 3.0 and is designed to reinforce their individualities.
Because the biggest part of this overhaul has been introduced by the update 3.0, the article is mostly comprised of the information of the patchnotes 3.0
Now, the companions are divided in 3 categories, each affected by a different perk:
- Dogs.
- Humanoids.
- Robots.
Dogs are affected by the perk Attack dog, in the Charisma tree.
Humanoids are affected by the perk Role model, in the Charisma tree.
Robots are affected by the perk Roboticist, in the Intelligence tree.
These perks give generic bonus to the compagnons who benefit from them, for more details, see the Perks overhaul article.
On top of this, all companions, with the exception of Ada and the Automatrons, are given a set of competences and unique skills fitting their personality, skills, lifestyle and story.
These skills are divided in two distinct categories:
- Passive skills, who affect the companion only, giving him a bonus or a malus, who will be permanently active, regardless of him being with you or not.
- Active skills, who, like their name implies, are only activated when the companion is currently traveling with you; these active skills can give you an extra bonus, giving an extra bonus to the companion, or to both of you.
Passive skills will bear the mention (Passive) at the end of their description, while active ones will explicitly be described as such.
Also, with the exception of a couple of companions and robots, exceptions who will be treated below, all companions will now by default possess sneaking skills identical to the effects of the perk Silent death that you can obtain.
This skill level is different depending of the companion, and some of them will start the game with a level of proficiency above yours.
In any case, all companions, including those who start higher than you, will progress with you as you progress further in the perk Silent death.
Due to their very nature who severely limits their ability to be discrete, robotic companions do no benefit from these effects, however, they have all received an update to their systems, making them more capable of detecting when you want to be discrete.
Thus, as long as you are sneaking and not in combat, your robotic companions will automatically activate their newly built stealth field, rendering them invisible to the eyes of your enemies, however, it won't do nothing to muffle the noises they emit.
This particular update to robots concerns all robotic companions: Codsworth, Curie (Robot only), Ada, and any and all Automatrons, built before or after the update.
Finally, with the exception of the same couple of companions mentioned earlier, all companions will now no longer trigger bobby traps.
All these sneaking and bobby traps avoiding abilities are always active on the companions, thus, I won't add the (Passive) precision on them in the details below.
Let's now see the details:
--> Dogmeat.
- Dogmeat does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model.
- Dogmeat starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Dogmeat now does 20% more damage and takes 30% less damage, and his attacks now have a chance to cause a bleeding to his organic enemies. (Passive)
- When Dogmeat is your active companion, his sense of smell proves a valuable asset to detect trouble from further away, increasing your Perception by 2 points.
- When Dogmeat is your active companion, when your health drop below 35% and as long as it stays below that threshold, Dogmeat enrages of seeing his master being wounded and attacks the enemy with a renewed frenzy, doing 50% more damage, however, blinded by his rage, he forgets all sense of self-preservation and takes 25% more damage.
--> Piper Wright.
- Piper starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- Piper does 30% less damage. (Passive)
- When she is your active companion, Piper is completely ignored by the enemies, who will focus their entire attention on you as long as your health is above 75% of its maximum value, as they consider you the biggest threat compared to her, allowing Piper to flank and attack them in the meanwhile.
- When Piper is your active companion, she makes you benefit from her talents for negotiation, thus increasing your Charisma by 2 points.
--> Strong.
- Strong does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model (Rank 1).
- As a Super-mutant, Strong is incapable of any discretion, knowing only one way of doing things: the brutal way. Therefore, he starts the game without any skills of discretion, and cannot progress on this path either, also, considering the quickest path is the straight line, Strong will not do any effort to avoid triggering bobby traps.
- Strong does 50% more damage with every kind of melee weapon and his attacks cleave all his enemies in front of him; however, he also does 50% less damage with every other type of weapon. (Passive)
- Strong takes 20% more damage, but is immune to being staggered by anything less than a missile. (Passive)
- For each 10% of health he is missing, Strong become more and more frenzied and does 5% more melee damage, but his rage also makes him taking more risks, causing him to also take 5% more damage. (Passive)
- Due to his nature as a Super-mutant, and his berserker temperament, and also to compensate the loss of Role model (Rank 1), Strong's base health has been increased by 150% and he now benefits from a constant health regen effect. (Passive)
- When Strong is your active companion, his brutality stains on you and increases your Strength by 2 points.
--> Codsworth.
- Codsworth no longer benefits from the effects of Role model, but from the effects of Roboticist.
- Codsworth does 50% more damage to insects and small pest. (Passive)
- After spending 210 years trying to maintain your house and car without household products, Codsworth has learned to take the better from the resources retrieved in the neighbor to craft his own products, thus, when Codsworth is your active companion, you obtain 15% more resources when recycling.
--> Deacon.
- Deacon starts the game with the equivalent of the highest level of Silent death.
- Deacon has 35% more chances to deal a critical strike with ballistic pistols and these critical strikes do 25% more damage; however, he also does 30% less damage with every other type of weapon. (Passive)
- When Deacon is your active companion, when both of you go into sneaking mode and are not in combat, Deacon will automatically activate a Stealth Boy, making him invisible and undetectable by your enemies. He still does it even if he wears a Power Armor, making him the only companion able to sneak with a Power Armor.
- When Deacon is your active companion, he shares with you his intell about Synths, increasing the sneak damage you do against 1st and 2nd Gen Synths, on top of increasing your experience gains by destroying them by 15%.
--> Old Longfellow.
- Longfellow starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- Longfellow's accuracy has been increased.
- Longfellow does 50% more damage to mutated creatures, but does 20% less damage to any other kind of target. (Passive)
- When he is your active companion, Longfellow shares with you his wisdom about survival, thus increasing the effect of all food by 20%.
- When he is your active companion, Longfellow assists you when you are using rifles, increasing the damage you do with them by 10%.
--> Porter Gage.
- Gage starts the game with the equivalent of rank 1 of Silent death.
- Gage reloads his weapons 30% faster and does 35% more damage with automatic ballistic weapons; however, being one-eyed, he has difficulties evaluating distance and perspective, causing all his shots to suffer from an increased 50% dispersion. (Passive)
- When Gage is your active companion, your Luck is increased by 1 point.
- Being a raider, Gage has the nose to find caps hidden in people's pockets, and especially in other raider's pockets, thus, when Gage is your active companion, you have a chance of finding extra caps on humans you kill, the chances being higher if these humans are raiders.
--> Hancock.
- Hancock starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- As a ghoul, Hancock knows very well the strength and weaknesses of his kind, allowing him to do 50% more damage to ghouls of all kinds, feral and non-feral. (Passive)
- When Hancock is your active companion, he increases the effect of drugs you take by 30%.
--> Cait.
- Cait starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- Cait's accuracy is increased.
- Cait does 50% damage to the limbs of her enemies, this amount is doubled if she uses a melee weapon or a sawed-off shotgun. (Passive)
- When Cait is your active companion, she shares with you her experience and knowledge about lockpicking, increasing your current lockpicking level by 1.
Your character will still comment on being unable to pick a lock if he doesn't have the required skill, because technically, he indeed couldn't do it if Cait wasn't next to him and giving him advice.
- When Cait is your active companion, she drags you along with her party girl tendencies and increases the effect duration of alcohol by 50%, also, you have a chance of finding strong alcoholic beverages on human enemies, although sometimes these bottles with be empty.
--> Nick Valentine.
- Nick starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- Nick's accuracy has been increased.
- Nick does 30% more damage with ballistic pistols. (Passive)
- When Nick is your active companion, his knowledge about robot functionment allow you to be harder to detect by them when you are sneaking.
- When Nick is your active companion, he shares with you his knowledge about computers security protocols, thus increasing your current hacking level by 1.
Your character will still comment on his inaptitude to hack a computer he doesn't have the skill for, because indeed, he couldn't do it if it wasn't for Nick on his side.
--> X6-88.
- X6-88 starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- X6-88's accuracy has been increased.
- X6-88 does 35% more damage with energy weapons, has 15% more chances of dealing a critical strike with them and the dispersion of his shots is reduced by 80%.
However, like all Institute's servants, X6-88 suffers from a crippling overspecialization who left him lacking in the mastery of other kinds of weapons, reducing the damage he does with every other kind of weapons by 40%. (Passive)
- When X6-88 is your active companion, he increases the duration of your Stealth Boys by 100%.
- When X6-88 is your active companion, he increases by 30% the critical damage you do with energy weapons.
--> Paladin Danse.
- After a life spend at the service of the Brotherhood of Steel and having had its sole doctrine of the direct approach ingrained in his mind for so long, Danse is utterly incapable of any sort of discretion, and will start the game without any discretion skills, and like Strong, will not progress with the player.
Also, because he spends most of his time inside a Power Armor who basically renders him immune from anything, he doesn't even attempt to avoid bobby traps, the explosion of a landmine under his foot being barely able to scratch the paint of his boot.
- Danse does 30% more damage to feral ghouls, super-mutants (including hounds) and 1st and 2nd Gen Synths. (Passive)
- When Danse is your active companion, he places himself in arms way to shield you from attacks, thus reducing the damage you take by 20%.
- When Danse is your active companion, your Endurance is increased by 1 point.
--> MacCready.
- MacCready starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- MacCready's accuracy has been increased.
- MacCready does 10% more damage to humans, this amount is doubled if they are members of the Gunners. (Passive)
- MacCready's attacks ignore 25% of the resistances of his targets. (Passive)
- MacCready's weapon range is increased by 25%, this amount is doubled if he uses a scoped rifle. (Passive)
- When MacCready is your active companion, he increases your chances of critical strike by 8% when you use a scoped rifle, and increases your weapon range by 20%.
--> Preston Garvey.
- Preston starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Preston's accuracy has been increased.
- Preston does 35% more damage with ballistic weapons and the Laser Musket; however, he does 35% less damage with energy weapons, sans the Laser Musket. (Passive)
- When Preston is your active companion, both of your reload speed is increased by 12%.
- When Preston is your active companion, you gain 5% more experience.
- When Preston is your active companion and if you completed the quest Taking Independance, you can both carry 8% more weight.
- When Preston is your active companion and if you completed the quest Old Guns, you both do 5% more damage and take 5% less damage.
--> Curie.
Curie is a unique companion, who goes through two different incarnations, who benefit from different effects, thus, we distinguish here between Curie (Robot) and Curie (Synth).
- Curie (Robot)
Curie (Robot) does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model, but from those of Roboticist.
- Curie (Synth)
Curie (Synth) starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Curie (Both)
Curie is considerably less agressive in combat.
- Curie's accuracy has been reduced.
- Curie does 50% less damage. (Passive)
- When Curie is your active companion, she shares with you her medical knowledge and expertise, increasing the effects of Stimpaks and Radaway by 20%.
- When Curie is your active companion, she reduces by half the duration of the negative effects of the Super Stimpak and Mega-Radaway.
- When Curie is your active companion, she treats your wounds outside of combat, thus making you benefit from a small health regen.
- When Curie is your active companion, your Intelligence is increased by 1.
--> The SPECIAL stats of the companions have been overhauled to better fit their personalities and actual abilities.
--> Companions who had level caps no longer have them.
--> Robotic companions no longer benefit from a passive damage bonus and damage reduction bonus depending on your Intelligence, these effects having been moved to the new perk Roboticist.
--> To further push the individuality of the companions, the maximum weight they can carry has been adjusted by taking into account several elements: race, gender, height, weight, age, job, lifestyle.
Because it makes no sense that Piper, a small reporter who basically makes her life by writing stories in her journal, can be as endurant and athletic than a man like Preston who spent his whole life as a soldier.
Thus:
- Cait: increased from 150 to 180.
- Codsworth: reduced from 150 to 120.
- Curie (Robot): reduced from 150 to 120.
- Curie (Synth): increased from 150 to 180.
- Paladin Danse: increased from 150 to 280.
- Deacon: increased from 150 to 190.
- Canigou: reduced from 150 to 50.
- Hancock: increased from 150 to 220.
- MacCready: increased from 150 to 240.
- Nick: increased from 150 to 300.
- Piper: increased from 150 to 165.
- Preston: increased from 150 to 260.
- Strong: increased from 340 to 475.
- X6-88: increased from 150 to 280.
- Porter Gage: increased from 150 to 225.
- Vieux Longfellow: increased from 150 to 260.
- Les Autromatons: increased from 450 to 650.
This amount is the base amount, before the bonus received by the rank 2 of Role model.
These changes, like every other, are retroactive.
--> Power armor worn by companions can't be damaged anymore.
--> It's just a detail, but Dogmeat is now properly renamed Dogmeat in the game, and not "dog".
If you had decided his name was something else, it doesn't change anything for you, and if you used the mod Rename everything to give him another name, it won't change anything either.
--> All robots and Automatrons are now and by default immune to fall damage and stagger effects.
Questions/Answers.
Q: Are these changes retroactive?
A: Yes of course: all changes are retroactive.
Q: If I forget what a companion does, how do I find the information?
A: You will find it in the patchnotes of the version 3.0, part 3.
Q: Can you give the companions a document they will carry with the information about them?
A: That's what I wanted to do initially, on top of giving some companions a new base weapon, I even made some moves in that way, but at the end it doesn't work, because unlike the structural changes made to the companions (perks, traits, etc), their inventory is pretty much handled directly from the client side, aka, your save, meaning that when the companion is already there, I can't change his inventory with a mod, so I can't give him a note and a new weapon, it just won't appear, unless I use the command "recycleactor" on the companion in the game, but it will also reset his affinity level, and worse, it can cause countless bugs and issues down the road; so I settled for a more general, but much safer solution.
Q: Why do female companions have a lower carry weight than men?
A: Because biology, for one, and because of their lifestyle, background, jobs, etc: Piper is a journalist who is really not a fighter, her weapon is words, not guns, Cait is a pit fighter, but she is a junkie and is malnourrished, Curie is a doctor, who literally has no combat experience nor desire for having some; on the other hand, most male companions are either soldiers or mercenaries.
I said it: each companion is unique, they all have their strengths AND weaknesses, and each is more fit for specific tasks or specializations.
Q: But Curie is a Synth, Synths are superhuman machines built by the Institute, she should have superhuman capabilities.
A: No, that's bullshit. 3rd Gen Synths are for all intents and purpose, 100% organic humans, there are only two differences with "real" humans: they are manufactured in the Institute, from 100% organic materials on top of that, and they have a control chip implanted in their brain, which is, if we are to take Glory's example into account, isn't even vital.
Plus, it has been explicitely specified that 3rd Gen Synths are absolutely impossible to distinguish from a real human, down to the cellular level, if so, that means 3rd Gen Synths ARE humans, with absolutely everything that entails being so, so no, Curie doesn't have superhuman capabilities.
Q: What about Danse then? He's a 3rd Gen Synth too, and he's a super-soldier.
A: Danse is a well-trained and experienced Brotherhood of Steel soldier, who is, in these post-apocalyptic times, likely the most trained military organization in the Wastes; his martial prowess comes from him being trained and having access to top tier equipment even the Institute doesn't have access to, not because he is a Synth.
And yes, I know he is a Synth, but since the Synth has been created to emulate the real Danse, both in physical terms than with all his memories, his experience, so it still counts.
Q: Why the robots are being given more powerful bonuses than humans?
A: Because robots are stronger, that's the point. Automatron gave us the possibility of building cool death machines, and yet, at high levels, even with literally every possible best amelioration built on, our huge sentry bot with double laser gatling and cluster rockets cannot manage to even scratch the paint of a Dust Devils mid-tier robot in 1 Vs 1, that's stupid.
So now, robots are much more powerful, and much more useful, also, we are talking about military grade robots, machines of death, weapons designed to wage a total war, these are supposed to be much more dangerous than a journalist who makes a living by spreading lies and gossip about the mayor's secretary.
And can they carry so much more? Simple: metal is stronger than flesh, that's all.
And it is also made to compensate the fact the robots are much less versatile than humans: humans can change armor and weapons pretty much every time they want, robots can't, they are stuck with a specific set of weapons and equipment and must be brought back to the assembly line to be modified.
Q: You said Dogmeat's bleeding effect works only on organic enemies, does it mean it doesn't work on machines like robots or turrets?
A: That's exactly that.
Q: Why?
A: Because machines don't bleed? And because the only thing a dog would accomplish by bitting a machine would be to break his teeth?
It's the exact same reasoning as to why the effects of A blade in the night don't work on machines, because no matter how much you want to believe it, machines can't be poisoned.
This overhaul constitutes one of the major additions of the update 3.0 and is designed to reinforce their individualities.
Because the biggest part of this overhaul has been introduced by the update 3.0, the article is mostly comprised of the information of the patchnotes 3.0
Now, the companions are divided in 3 categories, each affected by a different perk:
- Dogs.
- Humanoids.
- Robots.
Dogs are affected by the perk Attack dog, in the Charisma tree.
Humanoids are affected by the perk Role model, in the Charisma tree.
Robots are affected by the perk Roboticist, in the Intelligence tree.
These perks give generic bonus to the compagnons who benefit from them, for more details, see the Perks overhaul article.
On top of this, all companions, with the exception of Ada and the Automatrons, are given a set of competences and unique skills fitting their personality, skills, lifestyle and story.
These skills are divided in two distinct categories:
- Passive skills, who affect the companion only, giving him a bonus or a malus, who will be permanently active, regardless of him being with you or not.
- Active skills, who, like their name implies, are only activated when the companion is currently traveling with you; these active skills can give you an extra bonus, giving an extra bonus to the companion, or to both of you.
Passive skills will bear the mention (Passive) at the end of their description, while active ones will explicitly be described as such.
Also, with the exception of a couple of companions and robots, exceptions who will be treated below, all companions will now by default possess sneaking skills identical to the effects of the perk Silent death that you can obtain.
This skill level is different depending of the companion, and some of them will start the game with a level of proficiency above yours.
In any case, all companions, including those who start higher than you, will progress with you as you progress further in the perk Silent death.
Due to their very nature who severely limits their ability to be discrete, robotic companions do no benefit from these effects, however, they have all received an update to their systems, making them more capable of detecting when you want to be discrete.
Thus, as long as you are sneaking and not in combat, your robotic companions will automatically activate their newly built stealth field, rendering them invisible to the eyes of your enemies, however, it won't do nothing to muffle the noises they emit.
This particular update to robots concerns all robotic companions: Codsworth, Curie (Robot only), Ada, and any and all Automatrons, built before or after the update.
Finally, with the exception of the same couple of companions mentioned earlier, all companions will now no longer trigger bobby traps.
All these sneaking and bobby traps avoiding abilities are always active on the companions, thus, I won't add the (Passive) precision on them in the details below.
Let's now see the details:
--> Dogmeat.
- Dogmeat does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model.
- Dogmeat starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Dogmeat now does 20% more damage and takes 30% less damage, and his attacks now have a chance to cause a bleeding to his organic enemies. (Passive)
- When Dogmeat is your active companion, his sense of smell proves a valuable asset to detect trouble from further away, increasing your Perception by 2 points.
- When Dogmeat is your active companion, when your health drop below 35% and as long as it stays below that threshold, Dogmeat enrages of seeing his master being wounded and attacks the enemy with a renewed frenzy, doing 50% more damage, however, blinded by his rage, he forgets all sense of self-preservation and takes 25% more damage.
--> Piper Wright.
- Piper starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- Piper does 30% less damage. (Passive)
- When she is your active companion, Piper is completely ignored by the enemies, who will focus their entire attention on you as long as your health is above 75% of its maximum value, as they consider you the biggest threat compared to her, allowing Piper to flank and attack them in the meanwhile.
- When Piper is your active companion, she makes you benefit from her talents for negotiation, thus increasing your Charisma by 2 points.
--> Strong.
- Strong does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model (Rank 1).
- As a Super-mutant, Strong is incapable of any discretion, knowing only one way of doing things: the brutal way. Therefore, he starts the game without any skills of discretion, and cannot progress on this path either, also, considering the quickest path is the straight line, Strong will not do any effort to avoid triggering bobby traps.
- Strong does 50% more damage with every kind of melee weapon and his attacks cleave all his enemies in front of him; however, he also does 50% less damage with every other type of weapon. (Passive)
- Strong takes 20% more damage, but is immune to being staggered by anything less than a missile. (Passive)
- For each 10% of health he is missing, Strong become more and more frenzied and does 5% more melee damage, but his rage also makes him taking more risks, causing him to also take 5% more damage. (Passive)
- Due to his nature as a Super-mutant, and his berserker temperament, and also to compensate the loss of Role model (Rank 1), Strong's base health has been increased by 150% and he now benefits from a constant health regen effect. (Passive)
- When Strong is your active companion, his brutality stains on you and increases your Strength by 2 points.
--> Codsworth.
- Codsworth no longer benefits from the effects of Role model, but from the effects of Roboticist.
- Codsworth does 50% more damage to insects and small pest. (Passive)
- After spending 210 years trying to maintain your house and car without household products, Codsworth has learned to take the better from the resources retrieved in the neighbor to craft his own products, thus, when Codsworth is your active companion, you obtain 15% more resources when recycling.
--> Deacon.
- Deacon starts the game with the equivalent of the highest level of Silent death.
- Deacon has 35% more chances to deal a critical strike with ballistic pistols and these critical strikes do 25% more damage; however, he also does 30% less damage with every other type of weapon. (Passive)
- When Deacon is your active companion, when both of you go into sneaking mode and are not in combat, Deacon will automatically activate a Stealth Boy, making him invisible and undetectable by your enemies. He still does it even if he wears a Power Armor, making him the only companion able to sneak with a Power Armor.
- When Deacon is your active companion, he shares with you his intell about Synths, increasing the sneak damage you do against 1st and 2nd Gen Synths, on top of increasing your experience gains by destroying them by 15%.
--> Old Longfellow.
- Longfellow starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- Longfellow's accuracy has been increased.
- Longfellow does 50% more damage to mutated creatures, but does 20% less damage to any other kind of target. (Passive)
- When he is your active companion, Longfellow shares with you his wisdom about survival, thus increasing the effect of all food by 20%.
- When he is your active companion, Longfellow assists you when you are using rifles, increasing the damage you do with them by 10%.
--> Porter Gage.
- Gage starts the game with the equivalent of rank 1 of Silent death.
- Gage reloads his weapons 30% faster and does 35% more damage with automatic ballistic weapons; however, being one-eyed, he has difficulties evaluating distance and perspective, causing all his shots to suffer from an increased 50% dispersion. (Passive)
- When Gage is your active companion, your Luck is increased by 1 point.
- Being a raider, Gage has the nose to find caps hidden in people's pockets, and especially in other raider's pockets, thus, when Gage is your active companion, you have a chance of finding extra caps on humans you kill, the chances being higher if these humans are raiders.
--> Hancock.
- Hancock starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- As a ghoul, Hancock knows very well the strength and weaknesses of his kind, allowing him to do 50% more damage to ghouls of all kinds, feral and non-feral. (Passive)
- When Hancock is your active companion, he increases the effect of drugs you take by 30%.
--> Cait.
- Cait starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- Cait's accuracy is increased.
- Cait does 50% damage to the limbs of her enemies, this amount is doubled if she uses a melee weapon or a sawed-off shotgun. (Passive)
- When Cait is your active companion, she shares with you her experience and knowledge about lockpicking, increasing your current lockpicking level by 1.
Your character will still comment on being unable to pick a lock if he doesn't have the required skill, because technically, he indeed couldn't do it if Cait wasn't next to him and giving him advice.
- When Cait is your active companion, she drags you along with her party girl tendencies and increases the effect duration of alcohol by 50%, also, you have a chance of finding strong alcoholic beverages on human enemies, although sometimes these bottles with be empty.
--> Nick Valentine.
- Nick starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- Nick's accuracy has been increased.
- Nick does 30% more damage with ballistic pistols. (Passive)
- When Nick is your active companion, his knowledge about robot functionment allow you to be harder to detect by them when you are sneaking.
- When Nick is your active companion, he shares with you his knowledge about computers security protocols, thus increasing your current hacking level by 1.
Your character will still comment on his inaptitude to hack a computer he doesn't have the skill for, because indeed, he couldn't do it if it wasn't for Nick on his side.
--> X6-88.
- X6-88 starts the game with the equivalent of rank 4 of Silent death.
- X6-88's accuracy has been increased.
- X6-88 does 35% more damage with energy weapons, has 15% more chances of dealing a critical strike with them and the dispersion of his shots is reduced by 80%.
However, like all Institute's servants, X6-88 suffers from a crippling overspecialization who left him lacking in the mastery of other kinds of weapons, reducing the damage he does with every other kind of weapons by 40%. (Passive)
- When X6-88 is your active companion, he increases the duration of your Stealth Boys by 100%.
- When X6-88 is your active companion, he increases by 30% the critical damage you do with energy weapons.
--> Paladin Danse.
- After a life spend at the service of the Brotherhood of Steel and having had its sole doctrine of the direct approach ingrained in his mind for so long, Danse is utterly incapable of any sort of discretion, and will start the game without any discretion skills, and like Strong, will not progress with the player.
Also, because he spends most of his time inside a Power Armor who basically renders him immune from anything, he doesn't even attempt to avoid bobby traps, the explosion of a landmine under his foot being barely able to scratch the paint of his boot.
- Danse does 30% more damage to feral ghouls, super-mutants (including hounds) and 1st and 2nd Gen Synths. (Passive)
- When Danse is your active companion, he places himself in arms way to shield you from attacks, thus reducing the damage you take by 20%.
- When Danse is your active companion, your Endurance is increased by 1 point.
--> MacCready.
- MacCready starts the game with the equivalent of rank 2 of Silent death.
- MacCready's accuracy has been increased.
- MacCready does 10% more damage to humans, this amount is doubled if they are members of the Gunners. (Passive)
- MacCready's attacks ignore 25% of the resistances of his targets. (Passive)
- MacCready's weapon range is increased by 25%, this amount is doubled if he uses a scoped rifle. (Passive)
- When MacCready is your active companion, he increases your chances of critical strike by 8% when you use a scoped rifle, and increases your weapon range by 20%.
--> Preston Garvey.
- Preston starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Preston's accuracy has been increased.
- Preston does 35% more damage with ballistic weapons and the Laser Musket; however, he does 35% less damage with energy weapons, sans the Laser Musket. (Passive)
- When Preston is your active companion, both of your reload speed is increased by 12%.
- When Preston is your active companion, you gain 5% more experience.
- When Preston is your active companion and if you completed the quest Taking Independance, you can both carry 8% more weight.
- When Preston is your active companion and if you completed the quest Old Guns, you both do 5% more damage and take 5% less damage.
--> Curie.
Curie is a unique companion, who goes through two different incarnations, who benefit from different effects, thus, we distinguish here between Curie (Robot) and Curie (Synth).
- Curie (Robot)
Curie (Robot) does no longer benefits from the effects of Role model, but from those of Roboticist.
- Curie (Synth)
Curie (Synth) starts the game without any sneaking abilities.
- Curie (Both)
Curie is considerably less agressive in combat.
- Curie's accuracy has been reduced.
- Curie does 50% less damage. (Passive)
- When Curie is your active companion, she shares with you her medical knowledge and expertise, increasing the effects of Stimpaks and Radaway by 20%.
- When Curie is your active companion, she reduces by half the duration of the negative effects of the Super Stimpak and Mega-Radaway.
- When Curie is your active companion, she treats your wounds outside of combat, thus making you benefit from a small health regen.
- When Curie is your active companion, your Intelligence is increased by 1.
--> The SPECIAL stats of the companions have been overhauled to better fit their personalities and actual abilities.
--> Companions who had level caps no longer have them.
--> Robotic companions no longer benefit from a passive damage bonus and damage reduction bonus depending on your Intelligence, these effects having been moved to the new perk Roboticist.
--> To further push the individuality of the companions, the maximum weight they can carry has been adjusted by taking into account several elements: race, gender, height, weight, age, job, lifestyle.
Because it makes no sense that Piper, a small reporter who basically makes her life by writing stories in her journal, can be as endurant and athletic than a man like Preston who spent his whole life as a soldier.
Thus:
- Cait: increased from 150 to 180.
- Codsworth: reduced from 150 to 120.
- Curie (Robot): reduced from 150 to 120.
- Curie (Synth): increased from 150 to 180.
- Paladin Danse: increased from 150 to 280.
- Deacon: increased from 150 to 190.
- Canigou: reduced from 150 to 50.
- Hancock: increased from 150 to 220.
- MacCready: increased from 150 to 240.
- Nick: increased from 150 to 300.
- Piper: increased from 150 to 165.
- Preston: increased from 150 to 260.
- Strong: increased from 340 to 475.
- X6-88: increased from 150 to 280.
- Porter Gage: increased from 150 to 225.
- Vieux Longfellow: increased from 150 to 260.
- Les Autromatons: increased from 450 to 650.
This amount is the base amount, before the bonus received by the rank 2 of Role model.
These changes, like every other, are retroactive.
--> Power armor worn by companions can't be damaged anymore.
--> It's just a detail, but Dogmeat is now properly renamed Dogmeat in the game, and not "dog".
If you had decided his name was something else, it doesn't change anything for you, and if you used the mod Rename everything to give him another name, it won't change anything either.
--> All robots and Automatrons are now and by default immune to fall damage and stagger effects.
Questions/Answers.
Q: Are these changes retroactive?
A: Yes of course: all changes are retroactive.
Q: If I forget what a companion does, how do I find the information?
A: You will find it in the patchnotes of the version 3.0, part 3.
Q: Can you give the companions a document they will carry with the information about them?
A: That's what I wanted to do initially, on top of giving some companions a new base weapon, I even made some moves in that way, but at the end it doesn't work, because unlike the structural changes made to the companions (perks, traits, etc), their inventory is pretty much handled directly from the client side, aka, your save, meaning that when the companion is already there, I can't change his inventory with a mod, so I can't give him a note and a new weapon, it just won't appear, unless I use the command "recycleactor" on the companion in the game, but it will also reset his affinity level, and worse, it can cause countless bugs and issues down the road; so I settled for a more general, but much safer solution.
Q: Why do female companions have a lower carry weight than men?
A: Because biology, for one, and because of their lifestyle, background, jobs, etc: Piper is a journalist who is really not a fighter, her weapon is words, not guns, Cait is a pit fighter, but she is a junkie and is malnourrished, Curie is a doctor, who literally has no combat experience nor desire for having some; on the other hand, most male companions are either soldiers or mercenaries.
I said it: each companion is unique, they all have their strengths AND weaknesses, and each is more fit for specific tasks or specializations.
Q: But Curie is a Synth, Synths are superhuman machines built by the Institute, she should have superhuman capabilities.
A: No, that's bullshit. 3rd Gen Synths are for all intents and purpose, 100% organic humans, there are only two differences with "real" humans: they are manufactured in the Institute, from 100% organic materials on top of that, and they have a control chip implanted in their brain, which is, if we are to take Glory's example into account, isn't even vital.
Plus, it has been explicitely specified that 3rd Gen Synths are absolutely impossible to distinguish from a real human, down to the cellular level, if so, that means 3rd Gen Synths ARE humans, with absolutely everything that entails being so, so no, Curie doesn't have superhuman capabilities.
Q: What about Danse then? He's a 3rd Gen Synth too, and he's a super-soldier.
A: Danse is a well-trained and experienced Brotherhood of Steel soldier, who is, in these post-apocalyptic times, likely the most trained military organization in the Wastes; his martial prowess comes from him being trained and having access to top tier equipment even the Institute doesn't have access to, not because he is a Synth.
And yes, I know he is a Synth, but since the Synth has been created to emulate the real Danse, both in physical terms than with all his memories, his experience, so it still counts.
Q: Why the robots are being given more powerful bonuses than humans?
A: Because robots are stronger, that's the point. Automatron gave us the possibility of building cool death machines, and yet, at high levels, even with literally every possible best amelioration built on, our huge sentry bot with double laser gatling and cluster rockets cannot manage to even scratch the paint of a Dust Devils mid-tier robot in 1 Vs 1, that's stupid.
So now, robots are much more powerful, and much more useful, also, we are talking about military grade robots, machines of death, weapons designed to wage a total war, these are supposed to be much more dangerous than a journalist who makes a living by spreading lies and gossip about the mayor's secretary.
And can they carry so much more? Simple: metal is stronger than flesh, that's all.
And it is also made to compensate the fact the robots are much less versatile than humans: humans can change armor and weapons pretty much every time they want, robots can't, they are stuck with a specific set of weapons and equipment and must be brought back to the assembly line to be modified.
Q: You said Dogmeat's bleeding effect works only on organic enemies, does it mean it doesn't work on machines like robots or turrets?
A: That's exactly that.
Q: Why?
A: Because machines don't bleed? And because the only thing a dog would accomplish by bitting a machine would be to break his teeth?
It's the exact same reasoning as to why the effects of A blade in the night don't work on machines, because no matter how much you want to believe it, machines can't be poisoned.
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