Recently I've been able to find the time to go back and squeeze as much out of my vanilla F3 as possible, and this included recruiting and using companions.

I have found them to be totally useless. After about the twelfth time reloading my game because RL-3 couldn't keep himself from being destroyed, and the tenth time being given away by Star Paladin Cross in Murder Pass (and thus being ambushed by a bunch of Super Mutants, yet again), I have thrown in the companion towel. I'm keeping Fawkes as pest control in my Megaton shanty because I honestly can't be bothered with making sure he stays alive and/or doesn't blow my cover.

I'm a bit of a wimp -- I don't like to be surprised and so my character(s) always creep around and try to peg off the nasties from a distance, strategy that gets tossed out the window the moment someone else makes some kind of battle cry and rushes right in.

I kind of miss using RL-3 as my personal pack brahmin, though...

I didn't use companions often in FO3, and when I did I set them as essential and bumped up the unconscious period to two minutes. This minimized the need for babysitting but I still didn't use them with my stealthier characters.

Alas! I play on the 360 and as such am not a true gamer have no access to the console. This made things particularly frustrating such as in Oblivion when a non-essential character would die walking between towns making the completion of a certain quest impossible.

I admit I'm glad it's not just me, though, with the feeling that companions are kind of useless. It's LONE Wanderer, after all, hehe.

far from useless.. Jericho and RL-3 are too fricken funny. give Jericho the CSS and nobody will see him on those stealth missions.

Perhaps in an additional iteration I will be evil enough for Jericho's tastes. This past game I decided to be neutral and discovered it's actually pretty damn hard, though that's also because I decided I wasn't going to kill anyone, just steal from them, and every quest is essentially helping someone out...etc.

I too, hate the companions for this very reason. I'm stealthily setting up my ambush and a companion screams something and rushes in. This scenario always results in me being hurt. Put your companion in the Chinese Stealth Suit, or give them a Shady Hat, or something like that. It at least delays contact by about 1 minute. Constant repair however, is a big issue for these clothes items. Your companion will dump whatever gear you give them, if it becomes too damaged, WITHOUT TELLING YOU. You must constantly check after every skirmish.

i'm using jericho as he is right now, we are raiding roosevelt academy, this is my newest character, only lvl 8 nearly nine and has only done anchorage, (which is the only expansion i got) and i'm just exploring with jericho, i might try giving him css, he is a very strong companion though.

See, I also secretly wondered if I just didn't fully understand the proper companion strategy, but maybe it's really not just me. I'm also greedy and would rather keep items like the stealth suit for myself!

Right. I haven't used RL-3, but Jericho's comments are great!! And I've found him to be a great fighter too.

Right now I'm using Clover with a http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3781 mod. It gives her metal armor with lots of damage resistance and a better gun (though she still asks for an even better gun). Also greatly improves her combat AI. It also makes her essential.

With that she has not died (gone unconscious) yet. And this is with FWE and MMM which increases damage from enemies.

Even without mods you can just use the console to make your companion essential an/or give them more health (just open the console, click on the companion, and enter the command setav health )

Speaking of companions.... Jericho is no longer with us :'(
i'm in the deathclaw sanctuary and i just threw two frags at it and took it down to about half health, but as jericho does he runs right in and gets hit with my grenade also putting him to about half health, then he sprayed at this rather large deathclaw , it was nearly dead about 4 marks of health left then it jumped and power attacked jericho making him do no joke about 4 backflips and he lost both his arms, he died, then i shotgunned the deathclaw down, poor jericho... its ok i saved it before i went it and ther is only jack in ther worth taking but i'm not botherd about that i just went in for fun, i would rather load and get jericho back than have an extra quarter of a lvl exp, he's my best bud' but omg did he die epicly, i laughed wen i saw him do his quad sommersault though

by the way i play on ps3 with just anchorage so dont let deathclaws power attack jericho, (or yourself for that matter)

Yet another reason for companions. You get to enjoy their epic deaths

I was disappointed RL-3 didn't drop flamer fuel. :angel:

I use Jericho now. We just stormed the Capitol building, which is very, very hard. I get annoyed that he always dies at some point, but it's actually fun to me now. It forces me to devise new tactics for battles, rather than just pointing, killing, and leaving.

I'm still doin it wrong.

RL-3 was destroyed, I was told, in a dramatic pop up message while we were in the Bethesda Ruins. That was basically the end of that for me, before I tried out Star Paladin Cross and later fired her. Game-days later (sadly, I don't know how many) I get another pop up message that says he has returned to Canterbury Commons.

I can't find him. Not to mention, I didn't realize that after becoming destroyed, they return to some point of origin as though they'd been fired. Apparently, the "permanent" part of permanent companion didn't really register with me. I'm still such a new player sometimes.

Help?

I want jericho but I want my caps more .. my current character is a "fiend" used to be villain of the wasteleand and at one point an urban legend (whats the most evil nickname you can get??? )

First, if you have a "human" companion, give them power armor/helmet, it tends to keep them alive. I've yet to see them actually "use" anything I've given them, like stimpacks, food, medicines, etc....

Personally, I like Charon because he tends to add to the atmosphere ( being a zombie), and I like when he's grumbling....

They use stimpaks if they are tragically hurt, but yes, better armor for the humans (well, SPC comes with PA, so she doesn't need better and Charon can use an upgrade too) is always a great idea. A stimpak can keep them alive, which is a bonus if you are playing on a console; not so important on the PC. But I always give them a couple just in case. And Charon isn't a zombie; he's a ghoul.

fixed that for you :poke:
I kid, I kid. Please don't beat me up.

Charon is one of the few companions that I can take nearly anywhere and not have to worry about him charging headlong into battle every time he sees a radroach. He's a pretty tough companion who can take care of himself and doesn't need to be babysat like that wimp Butch (he died within ten minutes of hiring him)

Sorry, you're correct, he's a ghoul...not a zombie, I just like the word zombie, in fact, I could say ZOMBIE, 3 or 5 times and be a happier person.

In any case, when you are in a scary place, and you're sitting there listening closely for sounds...and all of a sudden, there's this "arrrgggg....this place is not safe", it livens the mood. And I'm pretty sure he whistles, if you don't do anything for a couple of minutes.

Hey! I demand attention! http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1147544-companions-ur-doin-it-wrong/page__view__findpost__p__16841000

Saying zombie IS immediately cheering. However, ya, not when you talk about Charon. And, ya, I love having him with me in scary places in the game I always feel safer. He's my fave companion. But, no, Charon doesn't whistle in vanilla FO3. The only time he whistles that I know of is in a mod. :whistling:


@barrettsfloyd - lol. I wouldn't beat you up! I know you like him.

I'll have to experiment with that whistling thing...then again, I sometimes hear whistling when I'm doing nothing....Hhhmm.

I'm still hung up on this companions thing.

According to our friend The Vault, it states that when companions run out of HP they die and cannot be revived outside of console. Since I play on the 360, that means they are supposed to die and never come back. RL-3 was blown up at the Bethesda Ruins and I got so tired of trying to keep him out of trouble/alive that I gave up on him. A number of game days later, a pop up message told me that he had returned to Canterbury Commons. I was confused, thinking that he was supposed to be gone for good.

I went to Canterbury and couldn't find him. Instead there is a "Mister Gutsy" that hovers near the entrance that will say things to me but I can't interact with him.

Anyone have any idea what happened? My game has all the up to date patches that had been released and so far I am playing the vanilla game.

Something similar occurred to me. I was on the vast wastes with my ol' vault buddy, Butch, when I had the urge to explore the negative side of my karma by experimenting the effect profusive amounts of hairgel would have on a .308 bullet. To make a short story even shorter, I shot him and he died. About 2 hours (3-4 gamedays) later Butch returned to Rivet, or what was left of him anyways. Problem was I couldn't repeat my experiment due to the fact the game lied to me. Unlike your story, there was no placeholder butch to talk to me.

My conjecture on what occured was a bug. Ya' know, the kind that these recent FO games are infamous for. Sorry about your robot.

He died as he lived, yelling patriotic slogans in the heat of battle. The Mister Gutsy in front of the town is not labeled as RL-3, and hovers next to another robot that is animated but you can't really talk to. I think this is linked to the way I solved a certain quest associated with the area.

I suppose I just don't understand that, if they have died, they would end up coming back to "life" later. They're either permanent, or they're not, I mean GEEZ.