Companion

Companion Selection Screen

**Companions** are non-player characters (NPCs) that follow the Stranger around and assisting in completing quests and combat. Companions also increase the player character's own inventory space, as opposed to having their own.

## Acquisition

Companions are met in various locations in the game world. Once they agree to join the Stranger, they will reside on the Stranger's ship, the *Unreliable*, as part of the crew. Each has a special ability and different expertise. There are no romance options.

These non-player characters will have an opinion about what’s going on in the world. They will all have different motivations as well, which you’ll be able to dig into during companion-specific quests. If the Stranger does something they don’t like, they might abandon the cause entirely.

## Accompaniment

Two companions can accompany the Stranger when they leave the spaceship; in addition, companion's skills will add on to the player character's, supplementing one's own abilities with their own strengths, thus opening approaches to situations which may not normally be available. The skills that they enhance can be found in the Details section of the Companion Ledger. Armor and Armor Mods that increase those particular skills will also increase the degree to which they boost the Stranger's skills. The Stranger's Inspiration skill can also increase these boosts, depending on how high it is.

 Base Skill Boost
 1/4, round down
 \* The 0.5 that is rounded down from half of an odd-numbered mod boost (+5, for instance) is not altogether removed before being applied to the Stranger's skill (as it is for the base skill boost), because if the companion has armor and headgear that both apply odd-numbered boosts to the same skill (+5 and +5, or +5 and +7, etc.), the 0.5 from both boosts are added together to increase the Stranger's skill by an additional 1 point.

### Dialogue

During dialogue events, companions may also interject with their own viewpoints, or even support/undermine the Stranger. Furthermore, companions will occasionally have something of particular interest on their mind, at which time the Stranger will be prompted to talk to them to hear it.

While travelling, companions may also occasionally have conversations with one another. These conversations are unprompted and vary depending on the combination of companions in the Stranger's party.

## Carrying Capacity

Each companion increases your Carrying Capacity by 10 kg; thus, having two companions increases your Carrying Capacity by 20 kg. The Tier 2 Perk Pack of Pack Mules increases your Carrying Capacity by 40 kg; ergo, having one companion increases your total Carrying Capacity by 50 kg (original 10 kg + 40 kg from the perk), whereas having two companions increases it by 100 kg (2x10kg + 2x40kg).

## Behaviors

Each companion can have their combat behavior adjusted via these three properties:

1. Distance: This decides how close to the player character the companion is. The options are close, middle, and far.

2. Weapon: This decides which weapon the companion is going to use. The options are Melee, Mixed, and Ranged. Mixed allows the companion to decide which weapon they use based on what is going on in the current fight.

3. Mode: This decides the companions behavior in combat. The aggressive option forces the companion to find and fight an enemy as soon as combat is engaged. The defensive option forces the companion to only attack your targets in combat. The passive option makes it so that the companion will not act in combat unless you tell them to.

## Damage

Some companions deal more critical hit damage with all weapons that others. Ellie and Max deal the most, followed by Nyoka. The lowest critical hit damage is dealt by Felix and Parvati.

## Health

Every companion is prone to going unconscious in battle or by the player's actions. However, depending on the difficulty the player chooses to play the game on, companions can have permadeath and be completely eliminated from the game. Having a high enough Inspiration skill allows you to heal your companions with the Emergency Medicinal Inhaler.