Fallout: New Vegas companions

==Permanent companions==
It is possible to have up to two legitimately acquired companions in the party (one humanoid and one non-humanoid). All permanent companions have a unique quest line that can be followed in order to "upgrade" them, usually giving them new armor or new perks.
===Humanoid companions===
* Arcade Israel Gannon, a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse working in Freeside in the group's main base at Old Mormon Fort. He can be recruited by gaining high Fame with the Followers, having an Intelligence of 3 (or lower), having the Confirmed Bachelor perk, or after successfully completing High Times for Julie Farkas.
* Craig Boone, a retired NCR First Recon sniper with a grudge against Caesar's Legion. He lives in Novac and works as the town's watchman atop the Dinky the T-Rex statue during nighttime. He can be recruited after successfully completing One for My Baby and choosing certain dialogue options.
* Lily Bowen, a friendly nightkin and former assassin in the Master's army, currently living in Jacobstown where she is a shepherd for the bighorner cattle populace. She can be recruited during and after Guess Who I Saw Today.
* Raul Alfonso Tejada, a jaded ghoul mechanic and former gunslinger. He can initially be found at Black Mountain, held hostage by Tabitha and the State of Utobitha, and can be recruited after rescuing him and completing Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, then finding him again at his shack.
* Rose of Sharon Cassidy (also known as Cass), a former caravan merchant, hard drinker, and the daughter of Fallout 2's John Cassidy. She can be found at the Mojave Outpost sitting at the bar. She can be recruited during Heartache by the Number.
* Veronica Santangelo, a disillusioned Brotherhood Scribe living outside of the group's base at Hidden Valley. She can be found and recruited at the 188 Trading Post (if the Brotherhood was not destroyed beforehand for any reason).
===Non-humanoid companions===
* ED-E, a prototype Duraframe eyebot designed for combat and reconnaissance operations. Its non-functional body can be found in Primm, lying on the counter inside the Mojave Express office, also called the Nash residence. Fixing ED-E requires 65 Repair (or 35 Repair if possessing a 55 Science skill) or 3 pieces of scrap metal, two sensor modules, and some scrap electronics (obtainable from Lone Wolf Radio).
* Rex, an aging cyberdog living in Freeside under the ownership of The King at the King's School of Impersonation. The encroaching decay of his old brain likely followed by a complete shutdown necessitates a replacement, for which G.I. Blues must be completed, after which he can be recruited during and after Nothin' But a Hound Dog.
==Dead Money companions==
These companions are only available while playing the Dead Money add-on, they are only temporary and will not follow the Courier around as standard companions do:
* Dean Domino, a pre-War lounge singer-turned-ghoul survivalist. He can be found in the Residential District of the Sierra Madre.
* Christine Royce, a mute ex-Brotherhood scribe working for the Circle of Steel. She can be found in a malfunctioning Auto-Doc at the Sierra Madre medical district.
* Dog/God, a nightkin with two dueling personalities, the subservient, gluttonous Dog, and the ruthless, calculating God. He can be found in the Villa police station of the Sierra Madre.
==Honest Hearts companions==
These companions are only available while playing the Honest Hearts add-on, they are only temporary and will not follow the Courier around as standard companions do:
* Follows-Chalk, a novice scout for the Dead Horses tribe with a deep sense of wanderlust. He initially follows the Courier for a while, then after a certain level of progress has been made, returns permanently to the Dead Horses' camp.
* Waking Cloud, the midwife of the Sorrows tribe and a capable warrior. She accompanies the Courier for the latter half of the story upon Daniel's recommendation.
* Joshua Graham, the former Malpais Legate of Caesar's Legion, the notorious "Burned Man", and a reborn New Canaanite acting as war-chief for the Dead Horses. He will temporarily accompany the Courier either during the Flight from Zion final quest or the Crush the White Legs final quest.
==Old World Blues companions==
See temporary followers.
==Lonesome Road companions==
* ED-E, a manufactured duplicate of the original ED-E, armed with a modified arc welder. This version of ED-E cannot follow the Courier back to the Mojave Wasteland and is always classified as essential, even in hardcore mode, since it is pivotal to navigating the Divide and the story of the Lonesome Road add-on.
==Temporary followers==
Temporary followers are NPCs that can accompany the player character during quests, or they might even offer their support only for a limited time or within a certain area. Unlike permanent companions, temporary companions do not use the companion wheel, do not heal automatically, and with the exception of Deputy Beagle, do not have an option to exchange equipment.
* Deputy Beagle (during My Kind of Town)
* Logan (during part of Wheel of Fortune)
* Bodyguard (hired in Freeside)
* Kings (hired in Freeside)
* Orris (hired during G.I. Blues) 
* Big Beard and Little Beard (hired during the quest Bye Bye Love)
* Ted Gunderson (during Beyond the Beef)
* Cannibal Johnson (Enclave Remnant)
* NCR Ranger (activated via NCR emergency radio)
* NCR trooper (activated via NCR emergency radio)
* Rhonda (during part of Crazy, Crazy, Crazy)
* Private Halford (in Camp Guardian caves)
* Securitron Mk II (or Securitron Mk I) (during No Gods, No Masters or All or Nothing)
* Lost Mountain bighorner calf 
* Roxie (created in X-8 research center, will follow anywhere in the facility, but will not leave it)
* Ulysses - the original Courier Six and a significant character in Lonesome Road. Depending on the dialogue chosen, he will either become a temporary companion, or will become hostile.
* Ulysses was originally planned as a permanent companion in the base game, one with a Legion-friendly personality, but was cut and eventually repurposed for the add-ons' overarching story leading up to Lonesome Road.
* Betsy the Brahmin was planned as a companion but was cut from the game.
==Notes==
* Acquiring companions is necessary for the achievements Ol' Buddy Ol' Pal (recruit one companion) and The Whole Gang's Here (recruit all companions). Additionally, there was a cut achievement called General Custer that was meant to be achieved for getting all companions killed.
* After For Auld Lang Syne's completion, Arcade will leave permanently (either returning to Old Mormon Fort or staying with the Enclave remnants) until the attack on Hoover Dam.
* Permanent companions are controlled via the Companion wheel.
* One does not need to have their companions actively following to gain their perks; they can be told to wait. However, after waiting for a certain amount of time, companions will return to where they were originally recruited.
* While actively following, permanent companions are treated as essential (unless playing on Hardcore Mode - see below). Companions are only essential while recruited, which means they can be killed both before they are recruited and after told to leave. In Hardcore mode, companions can be killed even while actively recruited, but do not require food or drink and are not affected by radiation or drowning.
* Should one tell their companion to wait for them at the Lucky 38, they will be waiting in the presidential suite ready to be rehired at any given time. 
* Unlike in Fallout 3, where dismissed companions would walk all the way from their current location to their home, dismissed companions in Fallout: New Vegas are instantly transferred to their home location upon being dismissed. In addition, no companion checks against Karma when being hired, though they will check against reputation with one or more factions. Cassidy will leave if the Courier has a severely negative Karma, though it is still possible to hire her initially.
* If siding with Mr. House, a Securitron will accompany the Courier during the final battle for the dam. However, this Securitron does not count as essential, and may die, even with Hardcore mode turned off.
* Whenever completing a story quest, the next time conversation is started with a companion, they will talk about the quest.
* There is a way to get all 6 humanoid companions - check Fallout: New Vegas exploits for the details.
* Every permanent companion has a dedicated quest that upon completion augments them in some way, variously considered either a side or unmarked quest.
* Companions will drop any weapons they had currently equipped if said weapon breaks.
* Companions in the player's party deal damage based on the game's difficulty setting.
* Using the console command "resurrect" on a companion (even while the companion is still alive) will strip them of any and all items given to them.
* Companions will tend to take safer, if longer, routes to the player if separated, however, should the player be traversing steep ledges or cliffs they may fall resulting in them becoming unconscious, or die if in Hardcore mode. This is more prone to happen if one chooses to wait for the companion, however ED-E appears to be an exception to this. 
* The state of the armor and/or weapon that you give will not decrease when companions equip and use them.
* The only way to kill a companion without Hardcore mode on (aside from console commands) is to serve them up as the replacement for Ted Gunderson in the quest Beyond the Beef.
===Nerve===
Each companion also has a special attribute referred to in the game as Nerve. Nerve boosts the damage and Damage Threshold of each companion by 5% for each point of Charisma a character has. So Nerve grants a total bonus of +50% damage and damage threshold to companions with 10 Charisma and only +5% to both at 1 Charisma. A player character with a starting Charisma of 1 can boost their companion's nerve to the maximum by use of an Empathy Synthesizer, Intense Training, Party Time Mentats (+5), high Survival (so that alcohol adds +3 Charisma), or stacking moonshine with another type of alcohol.
In regards to weapons, each companion has their own Strength limitations, they will suffer accuracy penalties just like the Courier if trying to use a weapon that has a higher strength requirement than they possess. Furthermore, depending on a companion's preferred weapon type, damage can be increased even further by buying improved ammunition, or crafting it with Hand Loader or Vigilant Recycler. Giving an energy weapons-user certain optimized ammunition types added with Gun Runners' Arsenal can influence their overall carry weight in Hardcore mode due to the ammunition's reduced weight. Finally, weapons given to companions do not lose durability unless hit directly by enemies, therefore high-damage and high-degradation ammunition types are usually preferable unless said ammunition grants the enemy x2-3 damage threshold multiplier.
However, as Nerve is currently implemented, only the damage boost is ever applied to companions, limiting the usefulness of a high charisma build significantly.
Because Nerve only affects DT and damage, companion quests that bestow other bonuses upon completion (such as movement speed) are potentially less effective for those with high Charisma.
* Arcade Gannon (Energy Weapons) - For Auld Lang Syne
** Gannon family Tesla armor (Remnants power armor with -1 STR, -4 DT, +10 Energy Weapons, +5 Radiation Resistance, -10 weight)
* Craig Boone (Guns) - I Forgot to Remember to Forget
** 1st Recon assault armor (Weightless, DT 15)
** 1st Recon survival armor (Weightless, DT 15)
* Rose of Sharon Cassidy (Guns) - Heartache by the Number
** Hand of Vengeance (+15% damage with Guns)
** Calm Heart (+50 Hit Points)
* Veronica Santangelo (Unarmed and Energy Weapons) - I Could Make You Care
** Causeless Rebel (Increases Veronica's Unarmed attack rate by 30%)
** Bonds of Steel (+4 DT)
** Elijah's Last Words (+150% melee attack speed, 25% chance to knock down enemies)
* Raul Tejada (Guns) - Old School Ghoul
** Old Vaquero (+33% faster fire rate with revolvers and lever action firearms)
* Lily Bowen (Melee Weapons) - Lily and Leo
** Fully Medicated (Permanent stat decreases, immune to psychotic breaks)
** Off the Meds (Permanent stat bonuses, psychotic break at 50% health)
* ED-E - ED-E My Love
** Brotherhood Examination (+8 DT)
** Followers Examination (+5 DAM, +8 DPS, +0.5% Crit Chance and +15 Crit Damage)
* Rex - Nothin' But a Hound Dog
** Rey's brain (+25 damage)
** Lupa's brain (+10 DT)
** Violetta's brain (+50% movement speed)
===Weapons and armor===
====Weapons====
All permanent companions' default weapons have unlimited ammunition. If equipping followers with a better weapon, (DPS is checked) add ammunition and check its count from time to time - they seem to hold on to the new weapon when out of ammunition or switch to melee instead. Companions can use unique weapons with already built-in upgrades, such as the Ratslayer. Most companions use a weapon that's named after them. They share the same main characteristics as the standard version of the weapon and only differ in name, such as:
====Armor====
Permanent humanoid companions can wear and/or carry all types of clothing that is not associated with any faction. They can also wear all types of armor and power armor that is not related to a faction, even without having the Power Armor Training perk. They only change gear if they are given gear that has a better Damage Threshold than their own outfits. This may not always hold true, however; giving multiple copies of the same outfit to a companion may result in them equipping an inferior copy, despite the difference in DT.
Companions will refuse to wear or even carry faction-specific apparel, except apparel corresponding to their own faction. Giving invalid faction apparel to a companion will result in that companion immediately dropping the item (see Bugs for errors that occur with this); it is not returned, but must be picked up from the ground. This also applies to non-human companions who cannot wear armor, i.e. Lily Bowen, Rex, and ED-E.
Only Boone and Veronica are able to carry or wear faction apparel. As a former member of NCR First Recon, Craig Boone will carry or wear any NCR faction apparel. Veronica, as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, will wear Brotherhood power armor. She will also accept apparel specific to the White Glove Society, and giving her the items White Glove Society attire or formal wear, will result in her teaching the unarmed move Scribe Counter. She will not wear these items, however, because their DT is inferior to her default clothing.
==Behind the scenes==
* All companions in the base game initially had a basic concept design made by Joshua Sawyer, while individual writers fleshed out the characters and designed their dialogue, quests and other content.Q&A session with Josh Sawyer during a live charity stream. (reference begins at 9:11:11)
** Arcade Gannon was written by Joshua Sawyer.
** Craig Boone and Veronica Santangelo were written by Eric Fenstermaker.
** Lily Bowen and Raul Tejada were written by Travis Stout.
** Rose of Sharon Cassidy was written by Chris Avellone.
** ED-E was written by Akil Hooper.
** Rex was written by Jesse Farrell.
* Several remaining resources point to the game having at one point allowing the ability to have multiple humanoid companions. Primarily, this is found in disabled dialogue options, such as a conversation with Mortimer, where the Courier would have needed to specify which of their human companions they were offering to Mortimer.
==Bugs==
===Fixed bugs (Patch 1.2.0.31x)===
==References==
 
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