Am I missing something here or is allowing certain NPC's to tag along more of a burden than anything else? Like Dogmeat for instance, I am always telling him to stay behind otherwise he'll get himself killed in no time flat. Is there some unforeseen benefit to companionship that I don't understand?

They seem much less effective in combat than the NV NPCs. I'm not expecting a killing machine like Boone just a little bit of effectiveness.

They are helpful for carrying extra loot. Otherwise, just a complete nuisance.

Some are better than others. Mostly they just carry stuff and give you perks you need to unlock by using them and most have a special mission. Any who shoot are better. Melee get in your way and stay out front of you. I think dog meat is constantly following your cross hairs in front of you as some special code. none seem particularly helpful and often blow thier cover usually leading to blowing your cover but not necessarily. You can give them armor and other weapons. Even dogmeat has some doggy armor, he can also wear bandanas and goggles for no good reason. Aside from the perks you're better off with lone wanderer except that costs perk points to get. They're humorous and they give you stuff. Strong gives meat, McCready gives bullets, others will give you meds, drugs or materials on occasion if you talk to them. they don't ever die but I did just have Strong take an extended knee through a couple loading screen doors. he wasn't alright until we got back to Sanctuary. Some can also pick master locks or hack master terminals.

and codsworth chops arms off of ghouls pretty effectively.

Get their perk, leave them behind

The primary benefits of companions are:

1. They have a personality and can add fun comments and perspective on quests and while exploring. Often they have unique things to say about locations you visit.

2. They can be pack mules for you.

3. They have skills that can save you from having to invest perks - like picking locks or hacking computers for you.

4. They can provide a distraction for enemies in combat, drawing damage you otherwise would receive.

I like them. They are fun. I never used companions in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but I'm using them all the time in Fallout 4. It's the fact that they feel like real people. Codsworth makes some hilariously dry jokes. While investigating a blood clinic: "This must be where the clinic stores their samples. Bloody mess in here, isn't it?"

I only use them because it's nice to have company, and they're good mules. Other than that, I can't count how many times they've gotten in front of me when I'm trying to snipe an enemy, or when I threw a molotov cocktail and they decided to run right in front of me as I did it, or how Piper kept asking me over and over if the thing's she told me were awkward. Dogmeat's whimpering gets to my nerves.

I for one find Dogmeat very helpful. To make him helpful however, you need to actually use new command features F4 is offering (guess that goes for all companions).

I often am sending him forward to scout suspicious location, check on corpses, deal with traps, take stuff from irradiated places. When he upsets enemies I snipe them from affair as they chase him around. Few things feels as satisfying as to watch horde of ferals chasing Dogmeat through scope of my sniper rifle. You can always order him to stay if you want to go to places where he might be hindrance (mostly indoors).

My only complain is clunky command interface. I would wish there is direct key which gives commands to companion without needing to click on him. You can partly overcome it by selecting companion before the fight and then keeping him selected through it's duration. Screws targeting reticle but that's not that big a deal.

I've noticed they don't do much damage at all. Only Danse seemed to pack any kind of punch so far. I mainly use them to carry stuff and distract the enemy.

How about giving them better equipment? They are as good as their equipment is.

I like to put good armour on my companions and give them powerful melee weapons. I don't really even pay attention to them, if they go down they'll get up eventually, also like stated above they can be pack miles and add to quests as well.

They are sworn to carry your burdens...

1. Cannon Fodder.

2. Someone to carry all my junk.

3. Someone to blame for drawing aggro.

they're just my personal back packs and bullet sponges most of the time. NEVER use stimpaks on them EVER its the biggest waste ever. i like having dog meat just run in there like rambo and take the first couple hits especially against giant enemies. and if you get that inspirational perk where they don't take damage they make great sponges for just shooting mini nukes at the boss while they bother with dog meat.

There are definitely some things listed here I haven't considered. Also, I wasn't aware Dogmeat couldn't die. I keep saving him, wasting stimpacks. Now that I know he's immortal, my plans for him have changed > Bwahahahaha

3 things that helped me make my companions better in combat

- give them armor even though it may say it does nothing or is weak for you it does provide the companions with some extra protection, also pocketed armor increases their carrying weight as well.

grab perks that make your compainion better these would be

- lone wanderer = it works with dog meat as a comanion and makes yourself stronger

- Attack dog = better combat for dogmeat

- inspirational = makes all companions deal and take more damage, prevents them from hurting you as well as you hurting them, allows them to hold more of your stuff

- if they are melee based companion give them a fast melee weapon as apposed to a slow one, it seems that companions get staggered quite a bit so a faster weapon overall will be benificial.

work to the companions strengths, many companions have specific roles.

- melee based will charge in so you need to support them.

- weapons based companions will get charged bby melee combatants quite a bit so be on the look out.

- companions like dog meat are support companions there to help you in a bind but nothing more they serve a minor role in combat but provide better benifits, such a seeking out items, picking locks, cracking terminals, or scouting out enemies.

hope this helps

They actually can help you out quite a bit in combat if you actually give them a decent weapon. Also doubling your carrying capacity.

An important misconception you seem to have that no one seems to have addressed is this: a non-hostile companion cannot be killed unless your explicit intention is to kill them and the game allows it. If your primary reason for telling Dogmeat to stay somewhere is because you're afraid he's going to die, there's no point. He can get blown up by everything the game has to offer and will be fine. You can either Stimpack him if he's down in the middle of a fight or wait until the fight is over, and he'll just get back up. Like others have said, primary reasons of having a companion are extra carrying space, some sort of hard CC via knockdowns, and a bit of extra damage.

Well since they can't actually die they can be very useful in being an alternate target in Survival mode when I otherwise can't manage a second of concentrated fire being being vapourised. They can carry [censored] too.

That and I don't actually find them that in-effective in combat once they're sufficiently geared up. Cait's been great and she means I don't need to invest in lockpicking.

Once I gave Piper a good power armor and a good gun, she is actually quite effective. The problem is that any gun except the default they have, uses ammo and companions don't hold back.

On my Dead Is Dead run they've been indispensable for drawing fire in when I would've been caught in a dangerous crossfire. I've had little trouble with them breaking my stealth or getting in the way. I think the pathing is awful, but having them around is pretty sweet.

What helped me decide to leave everyone including the dog behind was when Dogmeat was with me one lovely warm fallout day. We were walking down an old road and came upon a super mutate-filled complex (this was when I was level 15'ish). I decided to attempt at sniping them from afar and so I went into sneak mode. Dogmeat went into sneak mode with me too only to spot a giant mole and ran off attacking it. The mole decided to run towards the complex which Dogmeat thought was a great idea! That's when the loads of crap hit the fan...

I stupidly ran at him trying to tell him to stop! He ran into the walled up complex which of course woke up all the super mutates. Next thing I knew, there was a mini nuclear explosion, dogmeat was instantly put down, the mole rat went flying over the wall above my head (I was still on the other side of the wall), outside mutates came running which apparently brought in a roaming Legendary Assaultron which promptly started attacking all the super mutates. More explosions and shooting happened, I ran into a near by bus to watch the show.

After nearly 5 minutes, the Assaultron won and wandered off. Dog meat "woke up" and came back, bringing with him his new friend, a legendary mutate hound. Dogmeat promptly blocked the bus entrance while I tried to back away from the attacking hound. I died... Sonva-!

I kicked Dogmeat to the curb and never looked back.

Because they are fun to be around ?
I love all of them (I've only seen 6 until now), well not so much preston perhaps but Nick has some great dialogue, they even comment on your choice to swap them with someone else. They clrearly saw what NV and Mods did with companions and improved them immensly this time around.

I love Lydia. Marry her everytime I play a new character. Was so proud when she solo killed a legendary dragon the first time! *sigh*

On topic: Armor helps a lot. Charisma perks help. There is also a set of magazines that add some small boosts and their cumulative effect is good. All of these together make certain companions worth keeping around all the time. A few really are just hopeless however. I personally have no use for the sniper types, the dog, or the green one. The girls are fun though!

I'm pretty much keeping companions with me to add some spontaneity to the story and of course to unlock some companion-specific quests/relationships. Mainly keeping companions with me to diversify and enhance the story. I agree with you, they are pretty worthless in the sense of them helping you in combat situations. I took the perk of giving companions more damage in combat, and they still don't help too much. And yes, I often accidentally shoot them because they run in the crosshairs of my guns when shooting... haha.