I've finally decided to start a playthrough where I'd use a companion. I'm assuming they work the same as before: default weapon has unlimited ammo, any weapon you give them has to have the ammo supplied. I remember (at least in NV) that it was usually best to just leave your companion with their default weapon as they would deal a decent amount of damage without the need for a more powerful weapon (as well as burn through their ammo at an alarming rate).


Without revealing any spoilers, my companion uses a generic laser rifle (I'm sure those in the know can figure out who it is). Since we have the perk that boosts companion damage, is that good enough? Or do you find it significantly more effective to give them a powerful weapon and keep them supplied with ammo?


This is non-stealth playthrough and I plan on doing more reckless running and gunning. I'll be depending on my companion to actually help me in combat rather than just be fodder whenever they happen to run in between me and the enemy.

until i have enough ammo to supply my followers i let them use their default ammo, mainly piper early on, once i level up a bit i have plenty of ammo i don't use, currie and cait get laser rifles, i don't use fusion cells, i use a plasma rifle i also don't use .45 cal ammo so the combat rifle goes to piper, i use an assault rifle which uses 5.56 ammo so thats how i do it, your followers won't use up too much ammo if you're not giving them fully auto weapons, i only givem them semi auto and i also give them upgraded weapons so they use less ammo, if you give them 1000 rounds of whatever that should last more than long enough while you re supply, i take the first level of scrounger that helps with finding a bit more ammo, also cap collector perks and raising charisma a bit and just buy a little here and there of what they use in conjunction with finding ammo so you'll have plenty, .38 ammo is abundant but only pipe weapons use that so in a pinch you can give them a pipe rifle but i never do.

With their default gear they're pretty weak, but if you set them up with a solid weapon and good armor, they'll be a lot more useful. Just have to keep their ammo supply up.

I'd recommend Danse for that. He's a tank, he can take a mininuke to the face and shrug it off, he's shooting stuff before I even see it, his laser rifle is more than enough, when I do want him carrying something more serious I give him the ammo for that one encounter only. Like all the companions he will waste ammo.

He's not the only one who carries a laser weapon, though, so if you want to use another companion to fill that role I'd suggest you give them armor that is substantially protective. Danse's greatest strength, imo, is that he's such a tank. He never goes down in combat leaving me to handle it alone. Maybe in the 300+ hours I've travelled with him he's hit the floor less than 10 times and I don't have to do anything to make that happen. He comes with his own PA.

I think you'll be fine with the default weapon.

My current companion (no names, no pack drill) is driving me ape-(deleted) because he picks up spare weapons everywhere, whether I tell him to or not, and uses them recklessly. I keep finding myself in the middle of flamer bursts that aren't from the enemy. (Lending new meaning to the phrase friendly fire.)

I dread to think of what will happen if there's a Fat Man launcher in a room that I don't spot in time, and he picks it up... those things come loaded...

I gave them my bleeding 10mm automatic pistol and let them do the work. 10mm ammo is easy to come by with SCROUNGER perk. Bleeding is so overpowered.

Just let them pick up a new weapon on their own. When they do, they receive infinite ammo for it, just like their default. If you're going to give them something, keep it to armor, stimpacks, and (if you're into having your face blown off by your friends) grenades.

At first I will let them go with their default weapon. Once I get a nice supply of ammo I will give them a fully upgraded weapon of a type I don't use so there are not two of us using the same ammo type.

I love taking Danse along because I never ever have to fix his Power Armor. Any other companion in PA and one step out the door and their armor is totally wasted. I have not settled on a nice weapon for Danse just yet. I'm thinking maybe a upgraded assault rifle would do the job. I would give him a upgraded laser rifle but then we are back to having to share ammo with a companion.

I didn't know they'd pick up new weapons on their own. That's actually a pretty cool addition. I'm assuming they'll only pick up a better weapon that falls into the same class that they use (ballistic, energy, melee), or will they pick up anything with higher dps?

I travel with Cait (whom I Romanced, so Lovers' Embrace bonus). I hand her the heaviest Armor I can find plus a Legendary Deathclaw Gauntlet. She gets these crazy martial arts moves with it. Throws, kicks, and holds. It's actually kinda cool to watch and she can keep a relatively powerful opponent locked down while I blast it to bits with my guns. Also, it's fun to watch her banzai charge a Super Mutant Suicider. With the poor A.I. I like to think of it as Fighting Stupid WITH Stupid. She always seems so.......surprised that that plan didn't end well.

They tend to pick up stuff that is lying around.

There are a number of ways to equip companions.

I tend to transfer a couple of upgraded legendary guns and an upgraded legendary melee weapon to their inventory and keep their ammo topped up.

If you don't specifically equip a weapon in their inventory they can swap weapons themselves.

There is one BOS character that i find extremely annoying so i specifically equip him with a sword and direct him to checkout that Deathclaw and watch him get batted away.

Presently my companion and i are only using blades but as their health increases with yours, as you level up, she doesn't go down as often as earlier in the game.

Also the melee animation can be amusing.

Body slams and tripping up foes.

I'll never forget the time the companion lifted up a gunner by the leg and threw him off an elevated road so that the gunner died below on impact.

Additionally if you dismiss a companion to a settlement with a specifically equipped weapon they revert to using ammo the same way settlers do. Unlimited supply if they have at least one in their inventory.

I use Piper more for company than utility.My character got pretty op pretty quick so I just gave her a set of armor and an upgraded 10mm seeing as I have hundreds of rounds of ammo for it. I used Danse for the more BOS themed missions and leave him with his default rifle.

I aways equip my current companion with the Furious Power Fist. Fun to watch them beat the enemy to a pulp.

I give my companions modded armor and modded weapons.

I scavenge a lot and I also buy ammo from time to time; especially the rarer types, so ammo is generally not in short supply for my character. I suppose it helps that I have been able to rely mostly on .38 / .45 pipe rifles until around level 75 on survivor difficulty. After that point I finally decided to give most my companions either assault or combat rifles. I do not have all the companions yet though. There's still six of 'em for me to recruit.

I currently do not use energy weapons because I do not like ash piles and goo puddles. I will start using my gauss rifle once I have a decent stockpile of 2mm EC rounds; above 5k.

I was giving NIck an upgraded .45 combat rifle, its more powerful than his default and has longer range. Like many others on this thread have mentioned I don't use .45 ammo so its not much sweat off my back giving it to him. After reading this thread, it seems they can use legendary perks so I might switch to a legendary weapon. I did find he was more useful with an upgraded gun, range is especially a factor.

However, the laser wielding companions seem powerful enough to me, so I would just leave them. Putting Power Armor on companions is a bit annoying because it blows up.

I haven't tried a melee weapon on a companion yet, because I feel they'll get caught in crossfire, but everyone loves talking about melee with Cait so I think I'll try that...

Leaving Piper and Nick with their default weapons is a crime against humanity

The only thing I do for companions is give them outfits. Usually harnesses and only if they are women. Other than that they get nothing. Now, if a companion decides to use a firearm I've given them when I loaded them up with all the stuff I can't carry then so be it. They are however responsible for sourcing their own ammunition.

I have many hours with companions and have maxed out their affinity with one PC or another. I let the companion roll with their default weapon until I get at least Gun Nut 4 which is lvl 39, by that time I have a ton of excess ammo. I then like to give then upgraded legendary versions of their default weapon.

On a side note, I give Piper frag nades. I have no data to back this up other than many hours of playing with her and the other companions but that woman is the most accurate nade thrower of them all. I once watched Nick throw 5 plasma nades at our feet in a narrow hallway because we had several mirelurk hatchlings attacking. And as usual he was blocking the way out. Needless to say I had to load my last save.

Curie (re-embodied) is really amusing with Grognak's axe when she goes all "what if I lose an arm in this form? Is not so easy to fix...HASSAN SMASH!" on a legendary glowing albino savage bloated scorched festering black widow vampiric eat-your-face-off deathclaw!

I you give them different weapons, they will find ammunition on their own.

It's fun to watch them switch guns depending on what ammo they've found.

A way for them to have different types of ammo is to make them loot corpses, btw.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm only at level 15 on this character, so ammo is scarce. I'm running around with re-embodied Curie right now. I'll keep her using her default laser rifle for now, but I'll have to play around with the system as time goes on. It's good to see they went a little more in depth with the companion system this time around.

I start with them using default weapon but when I have got to the point of ammo not being a tough thing to get I give them a new weapon that I have modded because the weapon looks cooler than their default and I like to see the modded weapons I never use. And as for Nick the "man" belongs with a 44., I mean come on, look at the guy. Even named it Valentine's Vengeance.