Thus far on this playthrough I have 7 available to me:

1) Cait: I don't know what to do with her? I suppose I have to take her with me at some point, just to see what she can do. I've dressed her in Grognak's outfit and given her Grognak's Axe, thus far, but, given her foul mouth, drug using, mess of a person, I just don't know where to go with her.

2) Codsworth: Frankly I took him out with me once. That was enough. It was like having Mr. French with me and no Buffy to shield me from the sunshine. Sheesh. On the plus side, I maxed his affinity. Talk about easy. Not my favorite though. Now he just sits in Sanctuary making pleasant comments.

3) Curie: Love her voice, but she gets on my nerves. Yet to use her as a companion. She just floats about Abernathy being all French and stuff.

4) Strong: Okay. Gotta love this guy, but I'll never get his affinity. No-one is better with a missile launcher or a fat man than he though. From an RP perspective, not really sure where to go with him though. Plus his comments are funny.

5) Nick Valentine: Okay, I'll admit, I like the guy, and he'll probably be the one accompanying me to the Glowing Sea. But he's such a goody, goody. Sheesh. On the plus side, he's a beast in combat. Too bad I can't get him to wear anything but that dern trenchcoat and hat.

6) MacReady: Okay. My favorite. I love his comments and he's great in combat and wears his armor well. On the negative side though, although I'm sure his affinity is up there, I have no idea how close I am to getting max affinity. Done his radiant/personal quests, except for the thing for his son (on my way there now). He was a bit of a [censored] though. Just hope that one works. All the sixual tension between he and my Melinda is a bit much. Still... his concern when I have to dismiss him for a little bit to move one of the other companions is priceless.

7) Danse - well... Not really sure about him yet. A little stiff and condescending, but, we'll see how it goes.

Thoughts?

Strong is my favorite, he likes my choice in dining when I consume my enimies, fits right in with my unarmed/canible Deathclaw RP also sometimes I catch him slowly typing random buttons on terminals, I am waiting to hear a loud syran followed by "NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES ACCEPTED, LAUNCHING WARHEADS AT DESIGNATED TARGET AREAS IN T MINUS 5 SECONDS"

I think most companions get more interesting the higher their affinity is, especially if they have a personal quest attributed to them. I first wasn't very impressed with Danse, but then I got conversations with him, romanced him, etc., and he kind of grew on me. I haven't met Strong yet, but so far Deacon is my least-favorite companion - but in my defense, I haven't really used him, though I will eventually.

I've met Deacon, but only because I was near their headquarters. I understand he's pretty cool, but, sunglasses underground with poor lighting? Dude!

Of course, that might explain why MacReady is always saying that he's blacking out 'cause it's so dark. I should probably have him take them off before we go someplace so dark.

i just travel with piper or cait because they look good in the red dress.

Problems with some of the companions, they dislike when I do some radiant quests and some others don't like when I open locked doors/safe. Piper and Curie for me, others just relax in mine settlements

-Klevs

It sounds like you're judging all of the companions based on spending very little time with them. This is a mistake. All of them are more interesting and have better stories than you're giving them credit for.

just don't bother giving Deacon any armor. trust me. you will see if you use him more than once.

Can only be true. Between Dogmeat and MacReady, I feel like I've already done so much that I'll run out of quests before I can even use them. Don't get me wrong, I love Dogmeat, but I'm trying to max MacReady and it's taking FOREVER!

I have all companions in one settlement, but had to send Strong to another location, because he keeps "disliking" every time I enter in my power armor. Same as Preston, that gave me quests all the time, even when I was crafting something. Due to story line, X6 and Deacon are dead...

My favorites are Piper and Cait.

Piper is a seriously woman, smart and lovely. Awesome companion for the main quests.

Cait it very funny and have that lovely Irish accent. "We would move faster if you kept your eyes on the road and off me [censored]". Very good for "non-serious" doings. At least I can pick pockets and steal without losing her admiration. And I love when she makes that "humming" sound. Also she is a natural redhead!!

Cait's great, just give her a modified combat shotgun and a few hundred shell and watch her wreck enemies. Do her personal quest and she'll get better.

With Nick, I modded Kelloge's .44 let him have it with a few hundred .44 rounds. Later on I let him use the railroad spike gun and he ripped apart enemies with that. He's also the best to take when exploring the Glowing Sea.

Deacon's ok with an assault rifle while you're doing Railroad or Minutemen quests but I wouldn't involve him in the BoS or Instiute stuff.

Traveling with Preston is like patroling the Mojave while waiting for a nuclear winter, I pick him up just to drop him off in some remote settlement I hardly ever go to.

Piper is average at best, although her speech perk is useful. Once I got her perk, I traded her in for someone else.

McCready is really useful in combat but he dislikes alot of good things you do for people. But if you're going to go out and explore, ignoring the quests for awhile, he has no problem helping you slaughter and commit acts of mayham.

That's all the companions I've traveled with so far. Of them, Nick and Deacon are my favorites.

Curie is my favorite - did her quest, romanced her and put her in the Silver Shroud outfit (very continental) and gave her a legendary double shot laser rifle and she is great with it!


Nick is a lot of fun as well, love the character and his story.


MacCready and Cait are both pretty fun (though I am flabbergasted as to how the mouthy kid from Little Lamplight became kind of a boring wuss).


Deacon was ok.


X6-88 is boring


I am not interested in adventuring with Preston or Codsworth.


I need to spend more time with Piper. Have not really used her much.

About Cait: I thought she was a melee expert? That's why I have her in Grognak's stuff. Is that incorrect? I also have legendary pipe-wrenches, pool cues and sledgehammers.

Apparently the 'skills' of the Companions don't really match what you think they should. I also assumed Cait would be an expert melee fighter, but if you look at her STR and perks ... not so much.

My favorite thing about Cait is that you can give all the sarcastic remarks and she loves it. She also has the best companion background and quests IMO.

Never thought about that, I just noticed her default weapon was a double barrel shotgun , so I gave her an upgraded one and watched her cut people in half with it.

Cool. She looks kind of dumb in Grognak's gear anyhow. Have to find something else for her though 'cause I like my Melinda in her corset (so, apparently does MacReady!).

I'm just disappointed with the female Grognak that there isn't a collar chain and princess Leia's hair.

All I did was give him some armored greaser outfit (ballistic weave) and metal leg armor. Stopped swapping it out after that.

Only two companions I've used extensively are Curie and Deacon, who are both my favorites as well. Curie became my character's love interest. I've always been fascinated with synthetic life becoming sentient and gaining emotion (Legion from Mass Effect one of my favorite examples). Deacon is basically the perfect companion for my character. Not only for being able to utilize stealth, but also in personality. There are dialogue options my character says that Deacon just likes. I don't have to plan to choose certain dialogue options to make Deacon like my character, he just likes my character. Simply the perfect fit for best bud.

As for the rest they're either likable but too much of a goody two-shoes for my taste (Piper and Nick), uninteresting (Preston and Codsworth), are absolutely awful to travel with (Dogmeat and Strong), or haven't gotten to yet (Cait, MacCready, X6-88, Danse).

Probably with future characters I will plan on using some of those companions, but companions like Preston, Codsworth, Dogmeat, and Strong? I think I will always avoid them. Not sure about Piper either. Being called 'Blue' all the time sounds like it can get annoying and make me strangle her.

The texture on it is plain awful. All those leather textures they used in Skyrim and this outfit looks like some mono-colored crap. Been looking for a texture mod for it. I won't even use it anymore just because it looks so bad on Cait.

I've been using Preston and I find him quite useful in combat but not very interesting. Valentine and Piper have more personality. I haven't really done anything with Codsworth, Strong, MacReady, Curie or Danse yet and haven't met the others.

My character is pretty high level at the moment, but I have not really done the main quest and I have only bumped into a few companions so far. The only companions I have met are Codsworth, Dogmeat, Preston, Piper and just this past weekend Cait. I bumped into Danse while I was slowly exploring Boston with Preston and making my way to Diamond City. I helped him with the ghouls, but I have not really spoken to him since then. I made my way to Vault 81 once, but have not returned; I assume I will meet Curie the next time I go there.

With the exception of Cait, I have spent at least 10 levels with each companion. It seems she is pretty easy to gain affinity with in the few hours I was scavenging with her. I basically unlocked a lot of containers in Concord and Lexington. I have her some leather armor pieces I pulled off of raiders (I'll mod 'em later) and an almost fully modded .38 pipe automatic rifle.

Not sure how long I am going to keep Cait around though because I have been meaning to meet up with Nick Valentine to continue the main quest I abandoned 45 levels ago...

Am loving all the companions in the game. Great personalities which feel very fleshed out, believable and different from one another. From the few i have met thus far Strong, Piper and Nick Valentine have my full attention. I can hardly wait to meet other companions. Its great to be able to equip them with gear and weapons on the spot along with seeing them disapprove of my actions at times.

Still on my first playthrough and not even lvl 30 yet, had Piper Wright with me for about 20 of those and all I can say so far is the AI with this companion is definitely better than Skyrims companion AI. Quick example is when your character wants to go through a doorway, they will move out of the way, maybe not "instantly" but quicker than Skyrim's did.

I use Curie mostly but recently i took along Macready for the first time to fight some synths.

He went charging into a group of Gen 1s yelling "INSTITUTE TOASTERS!!!"

He is now my favourite.

I love dogmeat. Hate to see they put so much work into him and people despise him. The AI isn't that bad and him holding baddies in place for me to kill is very helpful. I love that pooch