I started a hardcoe playthrough on very easy(just until I get to a higher level) and am at level 7. I want to use a companion but I know they can die now. Are companions so weak that I will have to worry about them a lot ? Or are they strong enough that if I give them a suit of power armor they will be ready for anything short of a deathclaw/cazador/etc ?

On my first playthrough, on normal, Rex, Lily, Boone, and Cass all died. Cass and Rex in the final battle.

I had Arcade Gannon for my first play through, which was with hardcoe, and there were only two instances where I had to reload because he died. When I picked him up I threw some metal armor on him and he kept that until the end of his quest.

You can't be fool-hardy with them, and you can't use them as a deathclaw distraction, but they're quite sturdy.

Edit: Actually Arcade only died once (not coincidentally this was also my first encounter with cazadores). The second time one of my followers died it was ED-E, with no upgrades, and we were going up against the Legate.

Thanks guys. I'll hunt down a set of PA before I use a follower and make sure to avoid deathclaw and cazador spawns when I'm with them.

Keeping companions alive is huge with me. I do it in all the games and will reload until I get the outcome I want. This even includes reloading if an NPC is killed while I'm around. It's not an obnoxious amount of reloading but it feels good when I can move on and everyone's ok. Thanks for asking this question; I'm getting ready to do hardcoe after the patch comes and I'm thinking of taking Arcade Gannon out this time...maybe with Rex and then with ED-E.

I find my companions die more often in normal, I'm guessing I'm just less careful with them since I know they'll get back up. I didn't have to babysit Arcade but I was more cautious in general in hardcoe.

Personally, I did find it an obnoxious amount of reloading to keep them alive, but I can't blame the game for my unwillingness to let them die in stupid, anticlimactic ways. I'd probably have let them stay dead if it hadn't been so stupid every time. Typically it happened when I was just traveling on foot at top speed and failed to notice that someone decided to take on a bunch of Giant Radscorpions, Deathclaws, or even Legionnaires without me. I found that I had to tell my companions to "Wait" a lot to keep them out of trouble when I expected there to be a big fight. Part of the issue, though, is that I like their default outfits so much that I am loathe to put them in heavy armor (except Arcade, who still managed to get killed a decent amount).

I love playing hardcoe otherwise, though, so I'm considering just leaving companions out of it next time except when actively working on their quests. I see it as a trade-off: If you bring companions, you get to do their quests. If you don't bother with them, you get to get into exciting and challenging fights where the focus is on your very survival, rather than focusing on keeping your stupid robot dog from dying (again).

Also, while he is a crack shot a variety of powerful guns, but don't let all the "Boone is god" threads fool you into thinking he's indestructible. Put him in heavy armor and be careful with him too.

Well companion AI does not help them survive much. Their behaviour can be easily described as suicidal. And I newer dared to switch them to "aggressive".

Also newer staff your companions with stimpacks in hardcoe, it will just make them die more easily. In hardcoe stimpacks does not heal instantly. Companions will stop fighting and start applying stimpack in the middle of fight which results in them been as good as dead unless you kill their attacker fast. Without stimpack they actually have chance to kill their opponent before he kills them.

One advice regarding ED-E: if you order him to melee, he will not fight (he has no melee weapon) therefore preventing him to rush in to every enemy he detect. He will always follow you like that so you can actually run from the fight with him.

Cass is a monster for me. But I slapped her into *my* suit of Reinforced Leather the moment I got her. When I got Combat Armor, I gave it to her, and wore the leather again. She's still in that, though, even though I'm in Reinforced Combat Armor now, though.

I also handed her This Machine, and because of that, when I got jumped by 6 Fiends, I turned to respond to the gunfire only to find Cass standing on one of their heads, with the other 5 strewn around the general vicinity. She lost 3 hitpoints, total. The only things that make me worry about her survival are Cazadores and Deathclaws. Everything else, she can either solo, or is more than able to stand up to long enough for me to take care of business with my RCW.

I have ED-E and Veronica and when going into tough situations I put them on wait. Veronica is usually pretty good unless odds are overwhelming or facing a deathclaw.