Fallout 4 companions are more than just combat allies. Each of the 13 available companions brings a unique personality, questline, affinity system, and a permanent perk that stays active even after you dismiss them. Building relationships with multiple companions early is one of the smartest efficiency strategies in the game.
Fallout 4 Companions earn affinity based on your in-game choices and actions. Some companions approve of violent or selfish decisions, while others reward honorable or generous behavior. Reaching maximum affinity with a companion unlocks their unique perk, which remains part of your character permanently regardless of who you travel with afterward.
The Best Fallout 4 Companion depends on your build, but Dogmeat, Nick Valentine, and Paladin Danse consistently rank at the top for their combination of combat effectiveness, useful perks, and accessible locations. MacCready and Deacon provide the most powerful offensive companion perks in the game for VATS and stealth builds respectively.
All Fallout 4 Companions: Complete List
All Fallout 4 Companions number 13 in the base game, each with distinct stat distributions, combat styles, and personality profiles. Below is the complete roster with locations and base specialty.
Full Companion Roster and Locations
| Companion | Location | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| Dogmeat | Red Rocket Truck Stop | Tracking, crowd control |
| Codsworth | Sanctuary Hills | Combat, household support |
| Preston Garvey | Museum of Freedom, Concord | Minutemen leadership |
| Piper Wright | Diamond City gate | Investigation, persuasion |
| Nick Valentine | Valentine Detective Agency, Diamond City | Hacking, investigation |
| Cait | Combat Zone | Combat, lockpicking |
| Curie | Vault 81 (after Hole in the Wall quest) | Science, medicine |
| Robert MacCready | The Third Rail, Goodneighbor | Sniping, mercenary work |
| Hancock | Goodneighbor | Charisma, combat |
| Deacon | Railroad HQ | Stealth, intel |
| Strong | Trinity Tower rooftop | Brute melee combat |
| X6-88 | Institute (after Synth Retention quest) | Institute combat |
| Paladin Danse | Cambridge Police Station | Power armor, combat |
Each companion can be recruited at any point once you reach their location and complete any prerequisite quest they require before joining you.
Fallout 4 Best Companion: Top Picks by Playstyle
The Fallout 4 Best Companion is ultimately a matter of what you want from a travel partner. However, a handful of companions consistently outperform the rest based on perk quality and combat reliability.
Best Companion for Combat Builds: Paladin Danse
Paladin Danse is the strongest raw combat companion in the game. He wears power armor at all times, carries an automatic plasma rifle, and can survive encounters that would instantly down a human companion.
His perk, Know Your Enemy, grants you 20% bonus damage against ghouls, Super Mutants, and synths. Given that these enemy types dominate the encounter composition throughout the Commonwealth, Know Your Enemy is permanently active against the majority of enemies you fight.
Best Companion for VATS Builds: MacCready
Robert MacCready provides the best companion perk for VATS-focused builds. His perk, Killshot, grants +20% headshot hit chance in VATS. Combined with a high Perception stat and the Concentrated Fire perk, MacCready's bonus turns VATS headshots into a near-guaranteed kill condition on most standard enemies.
MacCready approves of selfish and morally questionable decisions, making him easy to max affinity with if you play a self-serving character.
Best Companion for Stealth Builds: Deacon
Deacon's perk, Cloak and Dagger, grants +20% sneak attack damage and extends the duration of Stealth Boy items. For sneak builds built around crit stacking and stealth multipliers, this bonus stacks multiplicatively with other sneak damage modifiers to produce dramatically inflated damage numbers.
Best All-Around Companion: Dogmeat
Dogmeat is uniquely valuable because he does not consume the companion slot for the purposes of the Lone Wanderer perk. This means you can use Dogmeat while still benefiting from the Lone Wanderer bonuses (increased carry weight and damage resistance), effectively giving you a combat companion without any of the perk drawbacks.
Furthermore, Dogmeat can fetch items, hold enemies in place with biting attacks, and distract targets effectively. He is the safest choice for players who want combat support without build trade-offs.
Fallout 4 Companion Perks: Full Guide
Fallout 4 Companion Perks are unlocked by reaching maximum affinity with each companion, then confirming the perk unlock through a dialogue triggered when affinity reaches the threshold. Crucially, these perks remain active permanently after unlocking, even if you dismiss the companion.
All Companion Perks Listed
- Dogmeat: No traditional affinity perk, but unlocks synergy with Lone Wanderer
- Codsworth: (Divinity) No standard affinity perk
- Preston Garvey: United We Stand - +20% damage and +20 Damage Resistance when facing 3+ enemies
- Piper Wright: Gift of Gab - Double XP from successful speech checks and discovering new locations
- Nick Valentine: Close to Metal - One extra guess at terminal hacking and 50% shorter lockout
- Cait: Trigger Rush - +25% AP regen when below 25% health
- Curie: Combat Medic - Once per day, Curie heals you to 100 HP when your health drops critically low
- MacCready: Killshot - +20% headshot hit chance in VATS
- Hancock: Isodoped - +20% critical hit chance when radiation level is at 250 or higher
- Deacon: Cloak and Dagger - +20% sneak attack damage, +40% Stealth Boy duration
- Strong: Berserk - +20% melee weapon damage when below 25% HP
- X6-88: Shield Harmonics - +20 Energy Resistance
- Paladin Danse: Know Your Enemy - +20% damage against ghouls, Super Mutants, and synths
How to Raise Companion Affinity Fast
- Perform actions your companion approves of repeatedly throughout your session
- Give companions gifts, especially chems and alcohol for companions who approve of them
- Complete the companion's personal questline, which often triggers a large affinity spike
- Select dialogue options during conversations that align with the companion's values
- Avoid actions the companion dislikes, as these can set affinity progress back significantly
How to Maximize All Fallout 4 Companion Perks
Since companion perks persist after dismissal, an optimal strategy is to deliberately rotate through companions early in the game to collect as many perks as possible before committing to your primary travel partner.
Perk Collection Strategy
Follow this priority order for early perk collection:
- MacCready first (for Killshot, the strongest offensive perk in the game)
- Deacon second (for Cloak and Dagger, essential for stealth builds)
- Curie third (for Combat Medic, a passive heal that works for any playstyle)
- Cait fourth (Trigger Rush synergizes with many tank and melee builds)
- Nick Valentine fifth (Close to Metal solves hacking challenges permanently)
Afterward, settle on your preferred long-term companion based on playstyle and questline investment.
What Is the Best Fallout 4 Companion for Your Build?
The Fallout 4 Who Is the Best Companion question comes down to three criteria: combat style, preferred playstyle, and which perks you have already unlocked.
Companion Selection by Build Type
| Build Type | Primary Companion | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| VATS Gunslinger | MacCready | Killshot boosts headshot damage |
| Stealth Sniper | Deacon | Cloak and Dagger stacks with sneak multipliers |
| Power Armor Tank | Paladin Danse | Shared power armor playstyle, 20% damage vs key enemies |
| Exploration Only | Dogmeat | Enables Lone Wanderer perk with no trade-off |
| Radiation Build | Hancock | Isodoped requires constant radiation exposure |
| Low HP Aggressor | Cait or Strong | Trigger Rush and Berserk reward low-health gameplay |
Pro Tips for Fallout 4 Companions
Pro Tips: Fallout 4 Companions
- Unlock all perks before committing to one companion: The affinity system rewards deliberate rotation early. Spend a few hours with MacCready and Deacon before picking your permanent travel partner.
- Use Dogmeat alongside your primary companion strategy: Since Dogmeat does not block the Lone Wanderer perk, he is essentially a free second companion for exploration and tracking tasks.
- Complete companion personal quests for large affinity jumps: Each companion has a personal quest that, when completed with the outcome they prefer, grants a massive one-time affinity boost that can push you from moderate to maximum affinity in one session.
- Gift chems and items during conversations, not just through combat: Many companions have liked items you can give them directly through the trade menu, which grants small but consistent affinity gains every time you interact.
- Keep Curie nearby until her perk unlocks: Combat Medic is one of the most universally useful perks in the game. Completing her Hole in the Wall quest and then traveling with her until affinity maxes is worth the investment on any playthrough.
Common Mistakes Players Make With Fallout 4 Companions
- Dismissing companions before unlocking their perk: Many players dismiss a companion for a new one without realizing they were close to the affinity threshold for a permanent perk. Fix: Before switching companions, check your current affinity level and try to complete the threshold trigger if you are close.
- Not completing companion personal quests: Every companion questline grants both affinity and unique narrative content. Skipping them means missing the best context for each character. Fix: As soon as a companion mentions a personal quest, complete it before exploring other content.
- Ignoring the Lone Wanderer strategy with Dogmeat: Players often use Dogmeat as a temporary companion rather than as a permanent Lone Wanderer enabler. Fix: If you invest in the Lone Wanderer perk, keep Dogmeat as your default companion to collect the perk bonuses while still having combat support.
Reduce Lag in Fallout 4 Multiplayer With ExitLag
While Fallout 4 is primarily a single-player experience, mods and co-op frameworks introduced by the community allow multiplayer experiences that benefit from stable connections. Additionally, Fallout 76 players who also enjoy Fallout 4's world benefit from consistent network performance.
Why Connection Matters for Online Bethesda Games
For co-op mod frameworks in Fallout 4 or the broader Bethesda online ecosystem, packet loss causes NPC behavior to desync, companion actions to lag behind inputs, and multiplayer session events to trigger incorrectly.
How ExitLag Optimizes Your Connection
ExitLag is a game connection optimizer that analyzes multiple network routes in real time and selects the fastest, most stable path to the game servers. It is not a VPN and does not affect files or applications outside of your gaming session.
ExitLag's Multipath Technology sends game packets through multiple simultaneous routes. If one path degrades, the others maintain your session without interruption. The result is lower, more consistent ping across online Bethesda game sessions.
Download ExitLag for PC and keep your Commonwealth adventures running without lag.
Fallout 4 Companions: Complete Summary
All Companions Fallout 4 offers 13 permanent companions, each with unique perks, personalities, and locations across the Commonwealth. Rotating through multiple companions to collect perks is the most efficient early-game strategy, and choosing your long-term companion based on the synergy with your primary build maximizes your effectiveness in the field.
The Fallout 4 Best Companion for most players is MacCready for VATS builds, Deacon for stealth, Paladin Danse for combat power, and Dogmeat for any build that uses the Lone Wanderer perk. Fallout 4 Companion Perks remain permanently active after unlocking, making companion affinity one of the most impactful long-term investments in any playthrough.
All game images used in this blog post belong to Bethesda Game Studios. They are used for informational and educational purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with the rights holders.
