I posted a thread the other day asking for peoples opinions on the best perk in the game. Lone Wanderer got many votes. Not only does it increase carry weight it also helps damage % taken and given. The only drawback being that you can't have a companion with you (except dogmeat).\

However, some don't see that as a drawback at all. They hate the companions. They complain that they always get in the way and are weak, etc. etc.

In my opinion, companions are a HUGE part of this game, or at least Bethesda put a lot of time and effort into them. Bethesda crafted more than a dozen of them, and each has its own personality (likes/dislikes), traits, voice acting, and many have entire quest lines and back stories, and to top it all off they each (except dogmeat) have a unique perk, which you can only get if you quest with them a bunch and get them to like you and finish their questlines if they have one. As an added bonus, if you "fall in love" with one, you can get experience boosts.

Also in my opinion, the AI for companions is excellent. If you want them to do more damage, give them more powerful weapons. If you don't want them getting in the way then give them longer range weapons. I wish there were some buttons to call out commands instead of having to find them to order them around but I understand that in general you have to see see someone to talk to them (and the console buttons at least are pretty well filled up). Companions are also useful, they take and dish damage, as well as carry a lot. You can command some of them to hack computers for you, pick locks for you, and even pickpocket for you!

However, for those players who don't like companions constant comments on looting desk fans, or are RPing John Rambo or whatever, Bethesda seemed to decide that they needed something to balance out all the benefits one gets from a companion (especially the extra carry capacity). So they created the Lone Wanderer perk, as a playbalancing perk.

However, I think this is a double edged sword, because now people who have invested serious XP into the Lone Wanderer perks have a real reason NOT to use companions. As soon as they pick up a companion, like a third to a half of their power goes away!! Thus someone for example, who's used Piper a few times and is tired of her goody-two-shoeness, weak weapon and constant dying and has said "F this, I'm going solo!". This person will take the Lone Wanderer perk and never look back. Because to take a companion, would actually WEAKEN their gun strength and armor protection. Thus they will miss out on a big part of the game by never taking a companion.

I wander* what you think forum.... is the Lone Wanderer perk a good idea (yay for playbalancing) or bad?

In my opinion, it might be a bad idea. I think the increased carry capacity is good and maybe the perk should just stop there. The game all ready gets easy enough if you invest in the right perks without lone wanderer, so I'm not sure its really necessary to have damage boosts, and I think it further influences people to shun the companions... or maybe its just a conspiracy to make everyone a dog-lover...

SHOULD THIS PERK BE IN THE GAME?? Your thoughts?

*see what I did there

If robots count as companion then nay if not then yay.

robots count creeper, a thread that was bashing Automatron for making you take a companion, inspired this thread...

I found it amazingly useful. When using a companion with the lone wanderer perk you do notice a difference.. but you adjust and the companion does really take up the slack. So it's pretty well balanced and totally worth it.

It also depends on your character build as it can make some builds overly uber. If you build a strength/endurance character and focused on those perks then you probably don't really need to take the lone wanderer perk.

No matter how good lone wanderer is, it still wont intercept a suicider for you.

I find it useful, at least if you also take the Inspirational perks, as odd as it sounds.

No matter what, you're combat-effective; one boosts your own damage, DR, and carry weight without too much worry of having ruined ambushes, the other boosts those of your companions AND ignores friendly fire, while forcing enemies to choose between two angry targets instead of one angry target.

Of course, in my opinion, flexibility beats specialization in the first place.

Also, take into account the new survival mode. If companions fall down every time they take 3 shots I'm really going to have issues with them. Especially, considering the only way to get them back up is by plunging a stim in their chest.


In situations where you are forced to use a companion--isn't the end of the world... Ok, so the perk is inactive at those times, big deal.

Well that is the beauty of creating multiple characters. I have one who will never have a companion ever, I have one that uses them exclusively and others that are a mix. The Lone Wanderer perk should stay just the way it is.

Is this a stealth "nerf plz" thread?


Regardless, of course Lone Wanderer is a good Perk, for the people who choose to go it alone. The question literally answers itself.


Also, it's the kind of Perk that encourages people to try another play-through with a different focus. Someone could play the game spending time with and getting to know all the Companions, and getting used to having back-up in a fight. They might not fancy going through it all again with a new character, or they might feel the combat will be too difficult alone. If that's the case, Lone Wanderer is there.

INTERCEPTION!! BOOOOOOM

I'm stealth so I ballistic weave the [censored] out of my follower, sick them in Heavy Combat gear and give them a Gatling Laser while I hang back and mid-range snipe the tougher enemies. I do solo sometimes when pure stealth is imperative, though, but I have all 3 ranks of Inspirational, so I usually pick my followers back up later.

I enjoyed robot companions for two days, but now I have gone back to traveling with dogmeat.


Not only because I love Dogmeat.. but also because Lone Wanderer is extremely powerful perk.



Trying to kill level 200 enemies with/without Lone Wanderer perk makes huge difference. HUGE.

To me it isn't worth having companions beyond getting their perks or for Lovers' Embrace. They're something else for your enemies to shoot at, but they're not particularly effective with their default weapons and so wasteful with ammo that there's no point in giving them anything better... and don't even think of giving them explosives unless you want to be killed. They rush in where you don't want them to rush, they take different routes from you and trigger things you don't want triggered, they walk in the opposite direction as you or stand there stupidly blocking your way in doorways and narrow passages, they blow your cover, walk away from you when you command them from a few feet away forcing you to chase them or take their time getting to you when you issue a follow command from a distance, and are just generally as useless as can be. To say the AI is excellent is frankly laughable, the AI here is just as dumb as it was in Beth's previous Gamebryo games.

Not to mention the annoying barking every time you pick up a junk item!

Sounds like it. Not sure why, because you're not missing out on much aside from having a walking piece of luggage by not hiring them, and there is nothing requiring you to hire a companion regardless of the Lone Wanderer perk. So if I read correctly, the OP's main issue is that companions are such a HUGE part of the game and Beth spent so much time on them that you should really really really give them a shot and not be swayed by a pretty decent set of perks that makes it significantly better to ignore them.

It's definitely NOT a "nerf plz" thread.. if anything its a request to "unnerf" the power of the lone wanderer perk. Well not really a request, more just a question. The question I'm asking is not whether the Lone Wanderer perk is useful or people like it. I'm more interested in the perk with regards to gameplay balancing and the focus on companions in the game. The question I'm trying to ask is:

Should the Lone Wanderer perk exist?

Is it good for the game?

How would you feel about the game if it didn't exist, or was modified to only help with carry weight?

I have a few characters, and I do enjoy roleplaying them to an extent (no homo), I have a Vash the Stampede character and lone wanderer perk is essential for him.

With low STR, and no companion I need the extra carry weight.

With an attempt to pacify every enemy I need the extra resistances in the case it fails and I need to bolt from the area.

The damage increase seems a bit illogical to me though, every preceding tier of this perk was geared toward surviving and then suddenly it's geared towards killing. Never took the 3rd tier and moved into finishing the more important ones for me. For me, personally I would have loved to see a slightly more increase of the resistance and carry weight and an experience boost.

Lone Wanderer is a great Perk for people who enjoy solo adventuring. It's fine as it is. People can take the first, second or third tier as they see fit. A few of the Perks work in this way. I'd never argue for removing any Perks, in fact I think adding more would be awesome. More Perks equals more choice equals more character builds equals more fun all round.


(During the writing and reading of this post, the word "Perk" has lost all meaning to me.)

It's a good perk. And even though I put two points into it, I also put points into Inspirational (The perk that augments companions) So I can play with or without, no skin off my back. I love how varied this game is and all the opportunities it presents. My level 63 character does not miss the points in LW when adventuring with a companion, nor those in Inspiration when travelling alone. The perk should be in the game, but I think it is perhaps to strong and could be rebalanced.

For the normal companions, yes, million times better. Companions talk all the time, svck at stealth, svck at combat, a critical of stuff you do, exactly none of them are likeable and even most of their special perks svck or don't apply to most builds. Oh and giving them better gear is basically useless because they waste ammo like crazy.

Build the right robot on the other hand...missile launcher, cluster bomb launcher, fatman, explosive minigun and face laser, all have infinite ammo. 400+ carrying capacity so they do the mule thing nearly 3 times better than the average follower. Never gets downed by anything in combat, never pesters you about not liking what you did. I don't need the following because I have the perks myself, but if you don't, you can mod Lockpicking or Hacking onto it to get the same benefit as the corresponding follower without it being attached to a bothersome waste of space.

TLDR: free willed people (minus the doggy) svck, engines of destruction hardwired to Please continue, my good sir. and obey are awesome

I'm an anti-social companion hater, so the perk works great for me.

And?What's the point of the thread?Some like it some don't.

Yeah,because they do ,and I don't like them regardless of the Lone 'Wanderer perk or not.And no matter how much work Bethesda puts into them I don't feel like I want to use one .

I think it's that reason alone as to why I don't like the LW perk. It's clearly bugged and so far no one in Bethesda has addressed the inaccuracies of that perk. Everything points to dogmeat should be affected by the perk, the perk image only shows the SS and no one else walking to the sunset yet dogmeat is able to be use with all the benefits? Screw that. I want a LW fix now.

As far as it's usefulness, sure it's useful for an extra 100lbs capacity seeing how most companions can get in the way of doing things.

I was expecting patch 1.2 & 1.3 to change LW perk to work only without dogmeat... but they haven`t fixed that yet.


So I now accept the perk to working as intended and the loading screen tip to be wrong instead. lol

On my first playthrough I played with companions because I was learning the game but I quickly realize that all of them are pretty useless. Danse might be the only useful one because of his power armor and the fact that it doesn't break. Only draw back is BoS hates you for having him when traveling.

Hopefully a mod comes out for consoles that allows us to give companions guns with only 1 bullet so they become useful in Fire Fights. Pipe Pistols are terrible in later game.

It is good, but I hardly use it. It is not because I like the companions, but because I find to make the most use of it, you have to be a solo-Rambo build, as a pure stealth build may not even get hit often enough to justify wasting two points for 30% damage reduction. 25% damage is cool, and an extra 100 carry weight is nice to have, but the 30% damage reduction is kind of wasted on a build based around not getting shot at.

just personal thoughts.

Totally. We should focus on improving other companions.


I would be happy if they at least freely switch between the weapons I gave to them... and don`t waste 80% of combat time staying in cover.

The rest 20% are used to aim and miss target.