When I get back to Vegas from the DLC I am currently in, I am wondering who to pick up as a companion. I am only aware of Veronica, ED-E, and the repairman at Black Mountain.

ED-E I will get back especially since I read elsewhere on here about a laser upgrade I can get for it. But Veronica is not as good as she was early on in the game. Creatures that I find easy, like Death Claws and Casadors, take her out every time. She does alert me if someone is sneaking up on me and her ammo skills are useful. But if you are level 30+, is there a better NPC to use?

Boone - NRC sniper living in Novac. You can find him in the Dinosaur at nights
Lily - A supermutant in Jacobstown.
Cass - ex-caravan runner currently staying at Mojave Outpost barracks.
Arcade - A Followers of the Apocalypse doctor living in the Mormon Fort, Freeside.
Rex - The King's dog.


I personally favor Boone the most. I like his personality and he has a very useful companion perk, one that lights up all enemies when looking down sights.

Depending on what character you're using you have alot of different choices. Personally, for my sniper, I pick Boone and Ed-E.

Boone and ED-E are the best for a sniper, Lily is the best for a stealth character, Rex and Veronica are the best for a scavenger, Raul is the best for someone with a lower repair skill or someone who uses weaker weapons, Arcade is best for someone with a low score in Medicine and Cass is the best when you want to unload an unholy amount of ordnance on some unsuspecting group of enemies. Personally Cass is my favourite, but Boone and ED-E still have the most useful combo of skills especially after getting Lonesome Road.

I prefer Raul (keeps the 50MG from decaying faster) and ED-E for perception, (I prefer to know there is an enemy ahead of time and have a general idea where to aim the 50MG) as i do alot of Legion sniping and prefer not to have them hostile towards all the time because i have Boone as a companion. (This post explains my method http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1245099-favorite-ways-of-killing-people/page__p__18926705__fromsearch__1#entry18926705)

Very nice! I figured this out as well but not the way you use the companion. Weird thing is sniping ghouls gives you good Karma.

Boone sounds interesting. Guess I better do his quest so I can chat with him. The Legion is hostile on sight, since I cleaned out their fort I encounter assassin squads all the time, Boone might be more helpful with them having a ranged weapon. Sneaking is not my style, my main weapons of choice are the mini-gun, gatling laser and flame thrower. Anabelle on occasion, haven't thrown any nukes yet though.

I love sniping people, but I really don't like using the AMR for it. I find the magnification on the scope to be way too small for my personal preference. I'll admit that it does have incredibly low spread.

I prefer none of the companions, they are just more trouble then they are worth when in inside areas. They tend to go run off and you have to chase them so aggravating. Computer AI is just so bad there is no reason to bring them along imo. I am a lone wanderer and a solo courier not a trader with brahmin and mercs.

I agree that boone and ed-e are great for a sniper. I do find that at certain points in the game, enemies can easily kill them (deathclaws!) so I leave them back in vegas.

Boone is probably the best if you're not doing a legion character.

the idea in mind is "one shot, one kill" - a missed shot causes the group of Legions to start wandering around aimlessly, looking for the shooter, it makes it difficult to snipe them when they're moving around like malfunctioned robots lol.
ive tried using the sniper rifle with all the mods (high skill also) but on some characters two shots is a kill because of their armor.
additionally, ive given Raul the sniper rifle, he seems pretty darn good at sniping himself, appears to "mimic" what im doing, but i generally let him use the rifle in certain situations since his revolver at this point terminates death claws with 3 shots
ive got to wonder if your companions "learn" your habits, if this is an intended feature in the game.
another suggestion if youre sniping from a distance like me, dont take the "bloody mess" perk, you will find it extremely difficult to find the gibs (body parts) to loot the wares.

Pacienca from the GRA has now become one of my favourite snipers, even without a scope. The zoom on the iron sights is insane, the crit damage is as much as the AMR's and it still has that near perfect accuracy of the hunting rifle, not to mention that it also weighs a third of the AMR's. I have also gotten pretty good at guessing whether or not I'll need AP rounds.

Note: I've never really felt the desire to get Bloody Mess. 5% extra damage against everything sounds not too bad, but there are so many other more useful perks.

I'll have to check into that, ive got more than plenty caps to buy it once its available (dont see it yet for sale @ the vendortron probably due to the level i am at)
agreed about "bloody mess", there are more useful perks to use like rad resistance and the one that depletes radiation over time, very useful in irradiated areas, to just find a non radiated area and simply wait a few hours to reduce radiation level, much better and convenient than having to travel someplace to pay 100 caps to remove it - add some rad-x and the space suit and you have plenty of time before radiation levels get serious enough, even when they do, just wait it out in a non-radiated area, simply done

Maybe because ghouls are considered an abomination? I dont know....

OT: Out of all the companions, the ones I almost certainly get on each playthrough, are Boone and Arcade. Boone is a tough bastard that can kill things before you even know where they were or what the are. And Arcade because, well each time I personally have him with me, he dominates nearly everything with his plasma side arm. Those are my top 2. The others I havent used as much, but the first one I ever got was Rex, and I like having Rex in my party cause all the comments you get. But pick a comp based on your playstyle or which ones' personality you like best

Boone is quite awesome if you like sniper duos.

I quite like Lily, she provides a welcome melee distraction while I take them out at range. Only gripe I have is that I always give her Oh Baby! and she always loses it within a couple of level ups.

But I like Lily a lot, just don't speak to her. Her voice is awful...:mellow:

I'd recommend not giving Lily any weapons that she can use, she is very prone to losing them through glitches. Her regular weapons are pretty strong in any case and her Vertibird rotor blade looks pretty cool.

Whoa I completely forgot about Paciencia's near fatal flaw and its the same with the regular unmodded hunting rifle. The iron sights on both guns are inaccurate and there is currently no fix for this. It doesn't make too big of a deal at short to mid range, but it can be extremely difficult to take anything out at long range. I've actually started using the regular fully modded hunting rifle and I got to say that I'd forgotten how amazing it is.

I usually go for Rex and Cass, or Rex and Veronica. Sometimes just none at all
Does anyone know if Boone has became slightly useful now since the last update? I might try an NCR run if so.

I would say that Boone is the second most useful companion after ED-E. His sniper spotting is amazingly useful when you're looking for a beige coloured raider in the middle of a beige coloured field, plus he's damn good with a rifle.

If we are going to discuss druthers then give me my Supermutant from Fallout 3 with his Gatling Laser that has unlimited ammo. He was always very useful.

Yeah his Potter perk was good but for me his shooting skills lacked and he would keep holstering his weapon while in comabt, caused a few deaths then he got the boot.
I think Veronica is my overall favourite companion since her combat technique is the closest to mine, I'm alway a melee/unarmed char.