A simple idea, who do you think is the best Companion in F:NV?

Arcade VS Boone VS Veronica VS Lilly VS Raul

EDIT: Cassidy too I suppose

Then, ED-E VS Dogmeat.

I personally think either Arcade or Boone is best, Arcade + Rex means good in my opinion when attacking Deathclaws. Rex, knocks them down and is pretty much bad to the bone when level 30+, then Arcade's energy weapons, and my Anti-Material Rifle. Only problem, is that Arcade and Boone ditched me cause I went with Legion x.x

As for ED-E VS Dogmeat, I personally think Dogmeat. Yet again, cause with Rey's brain, and my level 30+ skill, he is able to knock down a Deathclaw. x)

So, what is you alls opinions?

I love ED-E he's just badass in his own way, and as other companions go for some reason I always end up taking veronica around with me (I like the BoS, what can I say?) but I do prefer Boon.
(Raul is my favorite character-wise but hes not tht good ;o)

I personally favor Boone/ED-E, Veronica/ED-E or Raul/ED-E. I don't see any point to Rex, Lily, Arcade, or Cass.

Boone/ED-E is awesome for a long-range NCR/House/Independent supporter. Neither jumps in front of your gun, and they both improve your general competency at extreme range. Both are also decent(ED-E) and excellent(Boone) ranged combatants. Definitely best supports a Sniper build.

Veronica/ED-E is a nice combination of massive close-range power with decent ranged power. Before Lonesome Road, this was the ideal combination for Energy Weapons. After Lonesome Road, it's still the ideal combination. Veronica allows you to screw around with your Energy ammo while ED-E makes sure you are never surprised. On top of that, Veronica is extremely dangerous with Brotherhood T-51b & Pushy, while an upgraded ED-E is the stuff of nightmares. Veronica's also fun to have around on my less serious playthroughs.

Raul/ED-E is the combo if you're using the CZ57 Avenger or a Shishkebab or something else extremely hard to repair normally. Expect to do most of the fighting, but have plenty of support if you treat them right.

-Nukeknockout

Veronica FTW! Give her some power armor and some sort of power fist.... You got a killin' machine. Oh and ED E over Rex any day, everytime I went into a vault with Rex, he would run away towards an enemy behind a wall and wouldn't stop barking.... Needless to say I shot than annoying mut Ol' Yellar style. Good riddens, lol(I really did kill that annoying pos)

... LOL.

Ol' Rex was a good dog...

Thankfully, in the case of Lonesome Road, it wasn't Rex (Seeing how there are so.many.damn.mines.) that was cloned.

Don't think right there Uylsses' would of had the best plan.. Never mind that

Just realised I forgot Cassidy.. o,o

Veronica + ED-E is my team of choice. I usually get ED-E his armor upgrade (I only play on hardcoe, so he's not set Essential...thus, some extra DT is good), and put Veronica in a suit of Brotherhood T-51b. Then I give her a Displacer Glove and a modded Plasma Rifle. That girl is a death machine!

Depends on what you want.

Very Easy/Easy/Normal: DEFINITELY Boone.
Hard/Very Hard: Raul

Between ED:E and Rex, it depends on your character type. If you need a tank, then Rex. If you need some ranged assistance, ED-E.

It depends:
Veronica/Rex is the best combo for a scavenger.
Lily is the best for a stealth character.
Boone/ED-E is the best for a sniper and is probably the most useful character combo.
Arcade is the best for someone with a low Medicine skill and becomes even more useful in hardcoe.
Raul is the best for either someone with a low Repair score or someone who likes low durability weapons(Elijah's LAER, Ranger Sequoia, Tri-beam Laser Rifle).

Now I will defend Cass and why she is the deadliest companion. Her companion quest can be finished with her having both of her perks, Calm Heart(+50 HP for Cass) and Hand of Vengeance(+15% more Guns damage for Cass). With this combo, Desert Ranger Combat Armour, the Medicine Stick and plenty of ammo makes her almost as badass as the Courier. She is always the one I take to Hoover Dam and where ever I need some 45-70 caliber pain delivered.

Rex v ed-e I do like rex and feel somewhat attached to him but then I played lonesome road and ed-e blew me away best character in fallout new vegas I swear I nearly cried when ulysess took control over him near the end.

Arcade gannon had a sublime well written emotion quest witha great look into the enclave .
But raul's perk is too good to miss .

God, cause he's god.

True dat... true dat...

I let ED-E rot when I came to talk over Ulysses. Why? He zapped me.. like.. WAS DAT REALLY NECESSARY?

I forgave Ulysses though.. AIN'T DAT JACK?

BACK TO SUBJECT

With lonesome road ED-E just becomes to veristile and powerful to NOT be taken. I always favored Cass because she not only has funny lines her built in shotgun surgeon make her wicked with Diner Bell and custom ammo. I usually handle the long range sniping so Boone is redundant. I however usually pick up all the companions at one point or another to finish there quests. I also usually get the mod that turns Chrisma into what it was in FO2 Chr/2 = foloower limit. So I take between 2-3 or them with me. That is unless I have mods companions too in that case 4-6 of them!

Of the humanoid companions, Raul is objectively the best. Finish his quest with Old Vaquero, give him a Medicine Stick or a Ranger Sequoia with handloaded ammo, and he is death personified. His maintenance perk is easily the most useful among all companion perks, too. His personality is fun and roleplaying wise, he will fit any Courier unless you are specifically playing a Ghoul-hater. I suspect that's why the game developers made you go through an army of Supermutants to get to him- he is that valuable.

Cass is a close second, IMNSHO. Many people dislike her, and so did I initially, until I realized that I was using her wrong. People forget that Cass has Shotgun Surgeon, which means that she is at her deadliest when armed with something in 12 gauge. Give her a Riot Shotgun with Flechettes or slugs and she is just about the best companion for hunting high DT enemies. Her Whiskey Rose perk can allow you to stack up a considerable DT bonus, which is very beneficial for Couriers who prefer light armor. Her only downsides are a ridiculously low-level default weapon, the lack of "surplus" 12 gauge that could be bought for peanuts and her "love it or hate it" personality.

Veronica is mostly worth keeping around for her fun personality, otherwise she is just a walking workbench that likes punching things. Her usefulness depends mostly on whether or not you have Lonesome Road. If you don't, then she is nice to have around while scavenging; you can save weight by crafting things on the move; if you do, then ED-E can do anything Ronnie can do and some things she can't. Combat wise, she does great with Pushy, but if you really want her to kick ass, give her a decent Energy weapon. I generally arm her with either a Plasma Defender, a Q35 or a Laser RCW because they're easily available, but with Brotherhood Power Armor on, Ronnie has the ST to handle any Energy weapon in the game including Gatling Lasers and Plasma Casters. Going to try her performance with Tesla-Beaton this time...
(P.S. DO NOT give Ronnie grenades to carry. She will throw them and she will throw them very poorly. Also, after completing her quest by persuading her to leave the Brotherhood, she can no longer enter the BoS bunker with you, which is somewhat annoying).

Boone... people tend to fall in love with Boone for some reason. I think it's a kind of psychological imprinting, since Boone is the first human companion you get, and for a first companion to a low-level, poorly equipped Courier, Boone is the right kind of guy. His perk is somewhat useful for night ops and for hunting ants through the dust screen in the El Dorado dry lake. However, that's all he is good for. Boone's AI is broken, he is overly aggressive to the point of ruining your playing style, his obsessive Legion hatred means you can't go to certain places until you ditch him, and while his personal quest is interesting, there isn't much in the way of reward. Overall, he just doesn't bring enough to the table compared to other possible companions.

Arcade is rather unimpressive too, on the whole. His quest is only triggered after you have pretty much chosen who to side with, his perk is only marginally useful unless you're on hardcoe AND you're having bad surviveability issues (or both), and worst of all, at the end of his quest, he leaves and cannot be recruited back. His main upside is that his default weapon can be good until late game, so you needn't supply ammo for him. With T45 power armor he has the ST to handle heavy weapons like Ronnie, although he will be much slower with that setup. You can somewhat offset that by giving him a 1st recon beret to wear; he is one of only two ccompanions who can wear it, the other being Raul in his non-Vaquero version).

Lilly could be an excellent companion for a stealth-reliant Courier; her perk adds a 10% damage bonus on sneak attacks and makes Stealth Boys last longer. However, everything else about her is designed to irritate. She is extremely restricted in her use of weapons; she only gets good skill level with melee, and out of those she can only use Bumper Swords and two-handed blunt weapons (from Baseball Bat to Super Sledge/Oh,Baby!). Her quest is annoying to try to trigger; you need her to take a bunch of damage yet not die, then you need to wait or sleep etc. Not my kind of quest-triggering. And her voice is about as pleasant as scratching glass with a rusty nail.

Non-human companions wise, ED-E is all-around superior from the get go, and after Lonesome Road even more so. Rex doesn't even have a ranged attack option, for crying out loud. They really should have given him a sonic bark like the OWB cyberdogs have, and a more worthwhile perk.

I too prefer ED-E over Rex but I wouldn't kill Rex.... D:

Any particular reason?

I think it's more because he's just such a no-nonsense kind of guy who doesn't whine about anything. You just can't help but approve of his quiet competence, especially when compared to, say, how talky Veronica is, or how much Arcade whines. Don't get me wrong though, I love Veronica and Arcade. One reason I haven't played many House playthroughs is that I always feel bad for destroying the BoS - not because I like them (bunch of jerkwads) but because then Veronica gets all upset at me. And as for Arcade, well... *points at avatar*

For me my choice of companion tends to be less influenced by how useful their skills are, and more by how much I like them as characters. FNV isn't that hard that I need to scrabble for whatever advantage I can get to survive. I've played tons of stealth characters for example, but never recruited Lily for any extended period. And on the flip side I always have Veronica, Arcade and Cass to tag along at some point in every playthrough even though their skills are not that valuable for me, because they're so fun to run around with.

That, however goes for every humanoid companion. They all have 100 in either Guns or EW at some point, thus producing very comparable results, when given kick-ass weapons..




Strange, I consider it being totally redundant. There's a million ton of weapons available, and you can make 100s of WRKs. So, what's the point?
And I say this, as one who always takes Built to Destroy.



Cass is my favorite, for the above mentioned reasons. At 100 Survival, a Whiskey and a Wasteland Tequila grant me +12DT, and with Chemist and Day Tripper, they last for ages.
I'd rather don't give her a Riot Shotgun, though. It is a just too ammo wasting weapon for a companion. She does much better with Dinner Bell or a Hunting Shotgun. Combined with Slugs, she becomes a surpringly good long range attacker, and also stops rushing into the enemy.
Plus, she looks gorgeous in Vera's Dress





That's all? I think this is pretty much already. Boone is a real game changer early on, allowing you to take on missions that otherwise would be really hard.


I found Boone to be the most disciplined of the companions. His attitude towards the Legion is no secret, and sooner or later you usually find yourself in a conflict with them.
His personal quest is one of my favs in the game, and is reward in itself.

I share your view on the others to a great degree.
My combo is Boone/ED-E early to mid-game, and Cass/ED-E mid to late game, with interruptions to do the companion quests of Raul, Arcade, Veronica and Rex.

I prefer Boone on the easier modes, due to him being able to easily take out enemies. On Hard and Very Hard, he becomes weak enough, imho, to not be as much of a valuable asset anymore.

Raul with full maintenance is like the finger of god for a Guns/Energyweapons person, although old vaquero works just as well, if you aren't using built to destroy. And then, if you want a spotter in the place of Boone, go repair ED-E and use him.

Freqnasty, his point for Raul was because, with Vaquero, he does 33% more damage with those types of weapons, which is quite good. That, combined with his repair perk, is probably the better combo of most of the humanoid companions.

Edit: I really think Cass is useless.

Then your not using her correctly.

But Raul with Old Vaquero has a 33% speed bonus with revolvers and lever-action guns (not damage as Gingy says). Vaquero Raul will rather noticeably out-DPS Boone if you give them both identical weapons of the cowboy variety... although he probably won't outdamage a Hand of Vengeance Cass.

It depends very much on your weapon choices and on whether or not you have Jury Rigging, and unless one has Dead Money or OWB, WRKs remain a finite and fairly limited resource. Many Energy weapons have low durability and degrade quickly with max charge ammo and cannot be easily fixed with Jury Rigging because they're either in a class of their own or they're very scarce. Tesla Cannons, for example, do not have JR equivalents at all. Plasma Casters are very costly to repair with Incinerators (which are also too heavy to carry with you for "just in case".

Boone is the LEAST disciplined. It probably comes from overly high perception or something, but he oten starts firing at targets at extreme range when I would much rather sneak-snipe them one by one. Giving him a shotgun still means he's going to try and shoot well beyond the weapon's capability. He also keeps switching between his gun and his knife mid-battle.

My actual choice of followers is usually quest-dependent. I tend to take Boone, do Booted, then ditch him for Veronica after I reach 188, swap her for Arcade or Cass once her quest is triggered, etc. ED-E is the one I keep throughout the game.

Reason why I don't go with ED-E is simply because if I got my choice, I'd have Boone - another type of long range companion - or Arcade who is still in a way long range cause he sticks near pretty much (Usually for me) I'd have a third character long-range. It just helps when Rex the die hard dog runs up and tackles the enemy and keeps them in one place for oh so long.

Boone - Sniper Rifle

Me - Anti-Material Rifle

Rex - Die hard type of dog, tackles the enemy rather they be a Bark Scorpion or a Deathclaw. x) Love 'em.

He probably won't outdamage a Bozar wielding Boone, too...
The differences are not that big. A far greater role in that regard is inherited by your CHA, companion nerve. I have 6 CHA, never felt unsatisfied with any of the companions. They are all killing machines with the right level and equipment.



There are Laser/Plasma Rifles, Pistols, as well as RCWs in abundance. I play with crit heavy Built to destroy Sniper/EW builds all the time, and never had a problem.
Also, there is tons of material for WRKs, if you keep your eyes open, and you're willing to pick up that stuff. In my current late game I have material for 50 WRKs in my locker, and another 15 ready ones. And then I have shiploads more in OWB and LR.
Even if you decide to have a very exotic set up, only consisting out of the Caster, Tesla Prototype and Elijah's LEAR, I'd still doubt, you'd be running into issues.




The least disciplined is ED-E. He really starts shooting things before you can't even see them. Boone, otoh never caused me problems. His perception doesn't surpass my own, and I can easily snipe out Cottonwood with him just sitting tight. Just go in Sneak mode, and Boone won't make anything stupid.
That weapon switching is known to me, too. I just give him something good as a Melee Weapon as a solution. Liberator early on, later a Super Sledge.

He just might, especially against high DT opponents. Besides, why bother giving Boone the overpriced Bozar when a normal LMG is far superior in both DAM and reload-adjusted DPS?

Besides, it's cheaper to keep a Brush Gun supplied with ammo than a 5.56 bullet hose.

Yeah well, try fixing a Tesla Cannon with one of those. Or finding a Laser RCW in Honest Hearts.

That's why you set him on Melee when you're being all sneaky. With Boone the weapon switcher, things are trickier.

No, Raul definitely has one of the highest damage outputs with a Brush Gun. If we're talking about stats alone, then Boone with a custom Sniper Rifle (Christine's or Gobi) or Raul with a Brush Gun is definitely the best. Boone would perhaps have the better DPS whereas Raul has better DPH at the cost of slightly lower DPS. Add hand loader ammo into the mix (which they both benefit from since their weapons won't break) and Raul gains a larger bonus since the base damage on the Brush Gun is higher.
Actually, that's my personal interpretation. Looking at the hard numbers on the wiki seems to imply Raul simply has superior DPS with the Medicine Stick aswell. However, I speak from personal experience, so it probably has more to do with the fact that if you have 4-5 Fiends running at you, one shot is enough to kill the Fiends for both Raul and Boone, but Boone's Sniper will fire faster than Raul's Brush Gun. Raul would then still be the better companion for tougher opponents like Deathclaws, Super Mutants and BoS Paladins.

I still say give Veronica a suit of T-51b, and a modded Plasma Caster with piles of Max Charge ammo, and you've just unleashed a goddess of destruction upon the wastes.

After playing Lonesome Road, ED-E has become the ultimate badass

Cass. Im Biased. I know the voice actress.