OK so maybe i am over anolyzing this but any ideas if a temporary companion obtained through Animal Friend, Wasteland Whisperer or Intimidation would count as a companion? Seems silly if you make a temporary ally then carrying capacity suddenly goes down.

Hoping a companion is only a Named companion like Dogmeat, Codsworth, Preston Garvey, Piper etc.

In my mind the game doesn't class npc you affected with those perks as companions, they are still classed as enemies. So only permanent companions count for the loner perk.

But would Dogmeat be considered as a Companion as far as Lone Wanderer is concerned? Dogmeat in Fallout 3 didn't carry any items and Lone Wanderer has that increase carry weight by 50 bonus. It probably depends on if you can have Dogmeat and another companion at the same time.

I would assume he counts as a companion, it's called lone wanderer after all.

I'd be surprised if Dogmeat isn't considered a Companion in that sense - but I certainly like the idea of making Dogmeat a more viable companion by making Lone Wanderer work with him still in the party. It's not like a dog can be anywhere near as effective as a companion as an armed and armored human who can carry a few hundred pounds of gear.

Consider he gets a whole perk dedicated to him which will give him tricks to help you I'm sure he be quite effective in his own way.

Good question! With no real solid info, I'm speculating:

Temporary followers, like an intimidated NPC, don't count.

Permanent followers that can't carry a ton of our stuff or greatly influence combat beyond low levels, have a solid chance of not counting.

Other permanent followers do count.

Sure, 'in his own way', but there's no way it's going to be as effective as someone actually shooting people unless he acts like D-Dog in MGS5 and can mark enemies for you too or something.

I'm pretty sure Dogmeat will disqualify the Lone Wanderer perk. And I have a feeling he can carry things for you now, too. Rex could, and there's a "Trade" dialog option for Dogmeat they show while he's a companion.

I recall in FNV, ED-E could carry a ton of your crap by some space and physics bending mechanism...

(though no more weird than the lone wanderer and courier's magic inventory I suppose.)

ED-E is secretly a Tardis. 馃槈

My guess is that with this perk, you won't get XPs for enemies your companions kill like you do in New Vegas. I also imagine you might receive an increase in certain skills so you can fight better on your own than you do with a companion.

My assumption would be that the actual Companions (including Dogmeat) count, NPCs you've intimidated don't count, and NPCs that have been stuck with you by a quest (ex. Sydney in the "Stealing Independance" quest) don't count.

I guess the big question is if Dogmeat can be following you along with one of the humanoid companions. If so, he might not count ("you can have one companion, and your dog" kind of thing).