I just fast traveled there for the first time in forever and noticed Hancock dead just outside where those mutants are always holed up (between hangman's alley and diamond city). I went back 4 days worth of saves and noticed he's been lying dead forever and I'm not gonna erase all of that progress to save him.

Just about everytime I go to that settlement the settlers run off and engage those damn super mutants, so my advice to everyone (if this hasn't already been said a million times) is to NEVER leave a companion at that place or any other place that is holed up directly next to AI spawns. Otherwise you could travel there and build stuff and have one of them run off without you even knowing it and get killed.

Honestly, never ever had that issue and i have over 20 settlers there...

I thought they can't die?

Actually, you can leave any companions anywhere, they can't die except for Hancock. Hancock is the only one who doesn't have an essential tag to him, so he could die even just by you dismissing him. There are many people say they found him dead after dismissing him. You only have to worry about Hancock being dead, no one else. I accidentally killed him several times.

Wow that's weird why him and the others don't die? And when he dies you can never get him back?

Did you max out his affinity? Looking at the wiki, maybe he died of OD.

Wiki: "Once maximum affinity is reached with Hancock, it appears possible for him to die of a chem overdose once he is no longer a companion, upon which he will say "One... last... trip..." and die. It is not known how this is triggered but is speculated that there is a chance for this to occur when sharing chems with him."

Ahh, I wasn't aware that only he could die. Kind've svcks because I really liked his character. Much better than Codsworth, McReady and Strong is annoying with his anti-power armor

At least I got his max affinity perk.

Yeah, I always dismiss him at a settlement, since the first time I dismissed him I watched up walk straight through a mirelurk spawn and get ripped to shreds.

As for killing him accidentally? Yeah, did that a lot.

I don't think he OD'd. He was lying dead in the middle of the super mutant building with meat bags surrounding him

It's only Hancock that has this issue.

I dismiss him at my main settlement (Sanctuary Hills), no walking home for him,

and equip him with a decent rifle and a ballistic weave Courser uniform...

I find it hard to believe the Wiki that Hancock just has a chance of ODing and dying. I can't see them making all of the companions essential, except for one. I'm thinking that this is just a semi-common glitch that people have attached some kind of role playing explanation to...which to be fair, it is a reasonable thing to believe.

I've seen quite a few reports of him turning up dead in some random place. I've always left him at Goodneighbor, so he might be safer there or something. I almost never 'send' my companions home though. I usually fast travel to wherever I'm sending them, dismiss them, and then fast travel back to where I was at.

Hancock has this notorious issue. I'm surprised it has not been fixed yet.

I always leave Cait at Hangman's. She's alright.

Yes, there are Super Mutants around the corner, but the ones who are fighting are my invincible Provisioners.

If there's any of them gets in my spot, they'll get to deal with my heavily-armed guard, farmer, and Cait. That's like instant death for them. lol

Hancock can die? Wasn't he already dead? Anyway how on earth did that not get fixed in the first patch? Do they ever even bother to look at player feedback? Seems we need the 'unofficial patch' to ever play this game correctly.

Hangman's is in a tight spot. Last time I used it I had it set up with some very heavily armored and armed settlers and turrets. The few times I QT there any spawned enemies were cut down fairly quickly.

I never leave companions in such a place though. In fact now I never allow them to go to any settlement. Whenever I dismiss a companion I just 'TAB' out when given the choices of where to send them and then they by default go back to where I found them.

That may explain why I've never seen Hancock since dismissing him several levels ago. I forget where I was and who I picked up and where I sent him. But I've been to all of my settlements and have never seen him at any of them since dismissing him. He's probably lying in a ditch someplace dead. Oh well....

I asked on the steam forums and you can set him to essential using commands if hes not set as essential.