Is there a personal quest or storyline event that is a prerequisite to finally getting Danse's perk?

I don't believe it's my playstyle- he seem to like most of what I'm doing.

Seems like I've been running around with him as a companion for far longer than it took me to get perks from any of the other companions, and.... I. HAVE. GROWN. TIRED. OF. THIS. GUY. !

LOL

You are locked out of maxing out his affinity (and therefore gaining his perk Know Your Enemy) until you complete the quest "Blind Betrayal", which requires you to complete the BoS quest "Liberty Reprimed". Just continue with the main BoS quests until you get there.

Good luck!

His affinity caps at 999 until Blind Betrayal is completed. It took me a while to figure this out. I kept traveling with him and waiting for it to max out, and then I checked it through console commands and figured it out.

If you're on PC, you can always check companion affinity through the console. It's a scale from 0-1000. Open the console, click on the companion, and enter the command "getav CA_affinity" without the quotes.

I was told that if you want to remain neutral will all the factions, to do 'Blind Betrayal' to get his perk, but don't head back to Prydwin and hand in the mission.

You can hand in Blind Betrayal. You get a suit of T-60d armor, a room on the Prydwen, and a spiffy new T-60 paint scheme.

Do /not/ talk to Captain Kells again untill you complete the game. When Maxson orders you to report to Kells, ignore the order. Luckily Kells stands in the bridge of the Prydwen most of the time, and is easily avoided.

You also get locked out of Mass Fusion until you talk to Kells though so it becomes impossible to finish the Brotherhood endgame until you talk to him.

If you don't hand in Blind Betrayal and complete the Minutemen ending, your game may be glitched and you lose him as a follower. The MM ending is considered Blind Betrayal ending as completed, Scribe Haylen will act as if you did, several people on here stated they can no longer use him or talk to him if it hadn't been completed yet.

If you want to avoid doing Tactical Thinking (which makes enemies of the Railroad), then you've already given up on having a Brotherhood ending. You are now limited to Railroad or Minutemen or Institute.

My current playthrough is a MM "Least Damage" playthrough.

I started Minutemen only and went up through Old Guns, giving me the Castle, the Armory, and I have more than enough settlements to complete Form Ranks immediately.

I went to the Cambridge Police Department and completed all quests and one of each radiant for Danse and Co. I accept Danse's offer to join and become an Initiate.

I then joined the Railroad and completed through Randolph 6.

I then went and killed Kellogg and then completed Dangerous Minds.

BoS appears.

I go to Cambridge and then get flown to the Prydwen. I complete through Show No Mercy. Ranked Knight now.

BoS can only give radiants at this point.

I go find Virgil and then take his schematics to Sturges for a MM constructed Relay (at the Castle, natch).

I zap into the Insitute and complete through Institutionalized, but do not start Synth Retention yet.

I go back to the BoS and complete Liberty Reprimed, From Within (grabbing Virgil's serum while there and giving Li Virgil's diary tape), and then Blind Betrayal (Danse survives).

I duck out on Kells and then return to the Institute. I complete Synth Retention and Battle for Bunker Hill. (note Desdemona would not let me warn her, as she was stuck in a dialog loop of begging me to abandon the Minutemen and work for her -- I told her to no, and she would not relent. I was able to warn Maxson with no issues, even though I had not reported to Kells.)

I killed the Courser immediately upon meeting him at the Battle, meaning I never even had to talk to the Synths, and I left them alive and looted the corpses up top. I only attacked Institute Synths during the fighting. (BTW, on Very Hard the BoS stomps the Railroad Heavies pretty hard with no Synth interference). This immediately set the next step to 'Talk to Father'.

I told Father to go to hell in CIT and I was banished. That's where I'm at.

Next time I hit the Castle, that should begin Form Ranks, which will complete instantly.

When I'm ready, I'll go to the Castle and do Form Ranks and Defend the Castle, then that will leave Nuclear Option ready for whenever I feel like I want to do it and finish the MQ.

The only companion perks I don't have are X6-88 (didn't care and you'd have to do a bunch of side quests as you do very few Institute missions) and Strong (who I can't stand, but could if I bothered, as he's still standing at Trinity Tower).

My first playthrough I manged to skip Tactical Thinking and go straight to Mass Fusion, getting the Brotherhood ending but leaving the Railroad alive. I think they patched this exploit because I've never been able to repeat it.

Aside from Battle of Bunker Hill, Maxson has no further dialog until after you complete Tactical Thinking, meaning the RR must die to finish the BoS ending.

I didn't get Mass Fusion from Maxson. I got it from Proctor Ingram by snitching on the Institute. After that mission it automatically triggered the last Brotherhood mission and I got the Brotherhood ending, complete with Maxson dialog and getting promoted to Sentinel. Tactical Thinking just stayed open in my journal and PAM stayed stuck in security mode but the Railroad was very much alive.


Heck, if I need to upload video to prove it's a thing I can, but I managed it successfully once. I've never been able to repeat it.

Are you still able to fast travel to RR HQ and have Deacon as your companion?

Yes, to fast traveling to the Railroad HQ because I got post game "save lost soul" synth missions. I'm not sure about Deacon because I didn't talk to him again after that, but my inclination is yes. The only bugged Railroad member I talked to was PAM who stayed permanently locked in security mode.

Hmm. Did it ever finally fail Tactical Thinking with the destruction of the Institute? Or do you have to avoid Kells? (not that he's particularly important... just curious)

It never failed so I had to permanently avoid him. This also means I got locked out of squire escort missions and the mission where you have to investigate the missing supplies if you haven't done that one.