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Characters / Fallout 4: Companions

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The player can encounter various companion characters throughout their journey.


  • Arc Welding: While they all are met at various points of the game, the companions' own arcs tie into the overall story to some greater or lesser degree.
    • The main story companions (Codsworth, Dogmeat, Piper, and Nick) have easily the biggest impacts since the Sole Survivor must interact with them to further the main quest.
    • Shortly following the above are the faction-specific companions (Preston will likely be encountered first since "When Freedom Calls" is part of the game's informal tutorial, Danse can be optionally encountered and help the player gain membership in the Brotherhood prior to the arrival of the Prydwennote , Deacon must be encountered since the Sole Survivor must meet the Railroad to decode the Courser chip, and X6-88 can only be encountered after the Institute is made available). Not only are they all encountered as part of the main questline, but they will have to be further interacted with as the Sole Survivor chooses a faction to proceed to endgame with.
    • The other base game companions have admittedly middling impacts on the game's plot, but even then they're still tied in to a certain text.
      • Curie's Brain Uploading can affect how the Sole Survivor views Synths as humans or not (heavily affecting their faction decisions).
      • Hancock is both heavily involved in the backstory to Diamond City (the game's primary Hub City) and the current mayor of Goodneighbor, and both towns will be encountered and explored in the main questline.
      • MacCready's Dark and Troubled Past as a Gunner loosely links him to the Minutemen plotline, and his current residency in Goodneighbor ties him into the Commonwealth's greater criminal underworld.
      • Cait is also tied into the Commonwealth's underworld through her history as a pit fighter, and her being the only companion aside from Danse and Curie to show approval of the Brotherhood of Steel loosely links her to their plotline.
      • Strong has the least overall impact on the game's plot, but his Noble Demon moments do show that the Brotherhood of Steel's blatant racism against his kind is not entirely merited while at the same time highlighting how Super Mutants are largely victims of their creators, which does tie back into the Institute plotline and can affect how the player decides to deal with them.
    • Ada from Automatron doesn't really have a greater impact on the larger story, her arc being mostly self contained to the titular DLC's plot, but the abilities she unlocks can have a great impact on certain quests, since the robot building can greatly influence settlement defense and even make certain main quests like the Minutemen's "Defend the Castle" quest much easier.
    • Old Longfellow is mostly confined to relevance in Far Harbor and its associated DLC quests, though he surprisingly does have some commentary for the Commonwealth in general, and his arc intersects with Nick Valentine's own plot arcs, which have significant implications for the Commonwealth's future.
    • Porter Gage is mainly Nuka-World centric, but his designs and intentions, should the player go full raider boss, will have a big impact on the Commonwealth. Most notably, his path is one of the very few ways to make an open enemy of Preston Garvey and the Minutemen. Interestingly enough, he also will voice some opinions on the Island's inhabitants if brought to Far Harbor, but doesn't comment on any plot developments.
  • Badass Crew: All of them are capable warriors in their own ways. When brought together by the Sole Survivor, you have a nigh unstoppable team of fighters that nobody can stand up against; this is especially evident if you place all of them (or even a few of them) in a settlement that gets attacked - they'll almost immediately go to town and wreck the enemies before the settlers have to worry.
  • Central Theme: Much like the rest of the game, it's questioning how loss impacts identity. Most of the companions are defined by some terrible tragic event in their lives, the need to reinvent themselves, struggles with identity, or guilt for some past event. Just as the Sole Survivor is from a world which no longer exists and the three things they define themselves most by being a soldier/lawyer, parent, and spouse are impossible — meaning they have to reinvent themselves in the new world. Each companion works to building new lives which either incorporate the old or discard it.
    • Ada's caravan and creator were wiped out by the Mechanist's own robots. As the Sole Survivor of her group, she feels incredible guilt, and wants revenge. Even though she knows her friends wouldn't want her to seek vengeance, she can't help herself. By sparing the Mechanist, she learns how to forgive and let go.
    • Cait's traumas as a Self-Made Orphan and slave have made her a junkie who is slowly killing herself. Only by getting clean is she able to start thinking of living a new life with the Sole Survivor — either as a best friend or lover.
    • Codsworth defined himself as a servant of his master's family for 200 years and has the opportunity to do so again, but his story relates to realizing that part of his past can never be recaptured.
    • Curie is obsessed with science and medicine, being a robot created for that specific purpose, but upon becoming a Synth she realizes how much she underestimated the scope and complexity of the world, and how much of herself is defined by her job.
    • Deacon is a former racist against Synths and a member of a gang which regularly killed or abused them. The discovery that his wife was one and her subsequent death at their hands convinced him to try and make amends by becoming a member of the Railroad.
    • Dogmeat is just the ever loyal companion. While he undergoes no character development (being a dog), this is simply because he has no need to. He has a kind master in the Sole Survivor and that's all he wants.
    • Gage was the one who originally convinced Colter to become Overboss and take over Nuka-World. Colter was successful in obtaining Nuka-Town... but then, to Gage's frustration, just stopped at that, and didn't even try making a move for the rest of the park. He eventually helps you kill him and take his place so that he can get another shot at molding the "ideal" leader — one who'll actually do something.
    • Hancock was nothing more than a stoner who wasted his days shooting up chems, and did nothing when his racist brother seized political power and turned their community against its ghoul citizens. Feeling guilty over his inaction, he decided to take a radioactive drug knowing it would turn him into a ghoul, then used the historical "John Hancock" as a role model for being a better community leader.
    • Old Longfellow, when he was at his prime, had a fiance called Hannah. They were planning to get married and had a place planned out to start a family. Unfortunately, one day, the Church of Atom ambushed the two, left Longfellow for dead, and converted Hannah into another mindless follower, who was killed Trappers years later... or at least, that's what the Children of Atom told him. As a guide, he became more and more bitter as he kept losing his charges to the Fog and the dangers of Far Harbor. As a result, he's a heavy drinker.
    • Nick is, essentially, a reincarnated 21st century police officer with all the memories and personality of one. He's struggling to define himself as someone who is not that person, while also dealing with the fact that he isn't what the Institute wanted him to be either.
    • Paladin Danse is a subversion as his past as a gadgeteer in Rivet City had no great trauma or importance. But discovering he's a Synth and being kicked out of the Brotherhood puts him squarely on this path.
    • Piper has already reinvented herself as an Intrepid Reporter in a land without a newspaper in decades, but at the cost of alienating herself from her sister as well as the entire community of Diamond City.
    • Preston defined himself as a Minuteman and with the Sole Survivor's help can reform them as a better, nobler organization than before. If not for them, he was willing to die because he couldn't live without the Minutemen.
    • Robert MacCready was a member of the Gunners for a long time and committed many horrible atrocities, all in the name of saving his sick son. This motivates him into trying to be a better man (and failing until the Survivor helps him).
    • Strong turned his back on his fellow Mutants in favor of mingling among humans, seeking the key to their strength (a.k.a. the "Milk of Human Kindness"), but has a long ways to go before he can truly grasp its concept. Granted, he's trying...
    • X6-88 is the exception among the humanoid companions as he's a figure who does not change and is exactly what he was built to be. The emptiness and soullessness of this is completely lost on him.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Or boy. While you can romance multiple companions, if you flirt with someone else while a romanced companion is with you, they'll express disapproval.
  • Dysfunction Junction: As the above Central Theme entry shows, the companions are anything but a normal, well-adjusted group.
  • Everyone Is Bi: All of the Sole Survivor's companions that can be romanced (Piper, Preston, Danse, Cait, Curie, Hancock, MacCready, and Gage) can be done so regardless of gender.
    • Additionally, Piper, Cait, Hancock, and MacCready all have dialogue that implies even ignoring the Player Character's gender identity, they're bisexual In-Universe; MacCready has two different flirtatious dialogue lines for encountering the Sole Survivor for the first time ("Hello, handsome" for a male Sole Survivor, and "Hello, beautiful" for a female Sole Survivor) along with flirting with both Piper and Cait, Hancock can be repeatedly approached by both male and female settlers asking for another "tour of the town," Cait blatantly flirts with multiple companions (including Piper, and is disappointed that the two of them "can't make it a threesome" with the Sole Survivor), and Piper can accidentally flirt with Magnolia if brought to The Third Rail along with being very interested in collecting all remaining copies of Grognak the Barbarian.
  • Four-Philosophy Ensemble: All companions can be categorized in one of the five different philosophies.
    • The Optimists
      • Preston joined the Minutemen because they were his heroes. His reaction to the organization's reality would leave him on a Broken Pedestal. The Sole Survivor can convince him otherwise.
      • Curie believes that the factions encountered mean well and always appreciate moral actions. It's just that her naivete and 210 years spent as a modified Miss Nanny would mean she would have an incredibly hard time accepting the more amoral ones.
      • Nick always believes in helping others no matter what. Despite being an obvious Synth, he has managed to win people over with his earnest desire to do good, enough to gain his spot as the official private investigator of Diamond City.
    • The Realists
      • Piper discovered the truth of her father's death and exposed the perpetrator's crimes to the public, and now seeks to find the reality of every situation as a reporter. Unfortunately, she learned the hard way that the public eye would be unwilling to accept such brutal truths.
      • Hancock is well aware that because the Commonwealth is such a dangerous place, sometimes "an eye for an eye" and "the end justifies the means" are wise principles to follow. Nevertheless, he became the mayor of Goodneighbor so that everyone can have a place where they can all be free and safe.
      • Deacon joined the Railroad to atone for his past as an ex-bigot and in memory of his Synth wife, but is not blind to the problems that persist inside the organization — such as ignoring other people that need help. He really wants to help folks along the way, but knows that it has to be a secondary goal to the Railroad's main objectives.
    • The Cynics
      • Cait's life has been spiraling down ever since her childhood. It isn't until she meets the Survivor that she can eventually turn her life around for the better.
      • X6-88 openly regards the entirety of the Commonwealth as vermin and believes that the Institute is the only future for humanity. He disdains acts of kindness and mercy, and cares for nothing beyond ensuring that the Institute's goals are achieved.
      • Old Longfellow is an incredibly bitter heavy drinker due to all the tragedies that weighed down on him over the years, though he still enjoys helping people (sometimes even for free).
    • The Apathetic
      • MacCready's reasons for becoming a mercenary might be rather noble, but he still pretty much sells himself for whoever pays his price. Notably, he doesn't particularly care for any of the main factions, only joining the Survivor first because they're his employer and later because he owes them for helping him deal with his personal problems.
      • Codsworth, your loyal robot butler from the Pre-War days, is one of the most self-aware robots in the series yet chooses to remain loyal to you (unless you piss him off enough where he'll resign). He honestly doesn't care about what's happening around the Commonwealth; his approval and disapproval are based on how he feels about your moral compass alone.
      • Dogmeat is... well, a dog. He is happy enough with his current owner, and nothing ever affects his approval of you, even if you beat him up yourself.
    • The Conflicted
      • Danse will have an identity crisis once he figures out that he's a Synth. Assuming that you spare him in his personal quest, he will try to find his own place in the world without the one thing he lives for. While he ultimately decides that he's "missing the point" by hanging onto the past and that he needs to re-learn how to live for himself, pretty much the only thing he ultimately decides to hold onto in the present is how much he values his friendship with the Sole Survivor. He will also dislike any comments about Synths after learning he is one — positive, negative, even neutral.
      • Strong has a pretty bizarre variant. His own violent nature as a Super Mutant often comes to blows with Rex Goodman's teachings about the value of compassion. He's definitely trying to understand, but he's hampered by his own stunted learning capability.
      • Ada is pretty confused about how to feel about her old travelling companions dying. Wanting revenge but not wanting to become a Knight Templar, she is desperately trying to figure out how to act and by uncovering the Mechanist, she hopes that at the very least, there will be some closure to her grief.
      • Gage is in some ways a paradox by showing all four at once. Outside of any raiders in Nuka World, he doesn't care about anybody who he deems weak. However, he does have clear goals of uniting raider gangs and is optimistic about the goals coming true, realistic that he's aware he can't be the leader, and pessimistic about trusting anyone due to a betrayal he faced in the past.
  • Gameplay Ally Immortality: While they're following you, companions cannot die. If they fall in battle, most enter a downed state and can either be instantly revived with a Stimpak (provided they are not a robot) or they'll pick themselves up after the fight's over.
    • Strictly speaking, all of the companions are marked as "Essential," meaning they cannot die once they're with you (and, most of the time, even if they leave due to low affinity). The exceptions to this are Danse, X6-88, Deacon, Gage, and Preston; siding against their respective factions (or in Preston's case, siding with the Nuka-World raiders) makes them hostile and killable.
  • Hero of Another Story: Many of them like Preston Garvey, Piper Wright, Nick Valentine, Robert Joseph MacCready, Old Longfellow and Porter Gage have seen their fair share of adventures as eventful as any Fallout protagonist.
  • Hero-Worshipper: Achieving the maximum level of friendship with a companion means that they come to idolize the Sole Survivor.
  • I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: All of the romance options have this reaction if a relationship is pursued. The Sole Survivor needs to pass a persuasion check in order to win their heart; Cait and Gage call themselves too "screwed up" to be in love with, Curie and Piper become flustered due to both having low self-confidence, Danse and Hancock are shocked that the Survivor would fall for a Synth and a ghoul respectively, and MacCready and Preston were willing to stand aside and allow the Survivor to mourn the death of their spouse.
  • Just Friends: If an uncharismatic Sole Survivor flirts with one of the companions, it inevitably leads to unsuccessful results, with the reactions ranging to being uncomfortable, oblivious, and calling the Sole Survivor a "friend for life" while realizing what the player is trying to do. If the Sole Survivor fails the charisma check in the final affinity talk, the companions will turn down the confession and make typical excuses as to why they are not interested while also hoping they can maintain the friendship. After a certain amount of time has passed, the player is given more chances to romance the companion until the persuasion is successful or the Sole Survivor tells the companion to stop bringing up the final affinity talk.
  • Level-Up at Intimacy 5: You get powerful unique perks by maxing out your Affinity with individual characters. Even if that relationship changes, the perk is still there.
  • May–December Romance: Only Codsworth and Curie are near the same chronological age as the Sole Survivor, what with them being 200 years old robots, and only the latter of the two can be romanced. All of the other romance-able companions are roughly two centuries younger then them, although the Sole Survivor doesn't look that way.
  • No-Sell: All of them are immune to radiation damage, except Hancock, who, due to being a Ghoul, gets healed by radiation, meaning that you can easily fight the Children of Atom and leave it to your companions or journey into the Glowing Sea without having to get protective clothing or armor for them. This is likely due to them not being able to use Rad-Away to heal radiation damage.
  • Optional Party Member: You only have to meet half of the companions over the story. Even when you meet them, you don't have to let them accompany you.note 
  • Positive Friend Influence: Out of the companions, Codsworth, Piper, Nick, Preston and Curie are consistently compassionate and will approve of kind, helpful and generous actions.
  • Permanently Missable Content:
    • Turning the Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute, the Nuka-World Raiders, or the Railroad hostile too early will prevent Paladin Danse, X6-88, Porter Gage, and Deacon respectively, from becoming an available companion.
    • Once a companion leaves due to low approval, they will never rejoin you, even if you do things they like near their vicinity as they no longer gain or lose approval from your actions.
  • Polyamory: It's possible to carry on multiple romantic relationships with your Companions. Apparently, they don't sweat this sort of thing in the Commonwealth. However, romanced Companions don't enjoy watching you flirt with other people.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: You have a companion from every major faction, and almost every walk of life. The only thing they have in common is their willingness to follow the Sole Survivor.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Codsworth, Curie, and Nick Valentine are all over at least 100 years old in one way or another.
  • Relationship Values: All characters save for Dogmeat and Ada have either positive or negative reactions towards your actions. By getting them to "Idolize" you, you earn a special perk from them.
  • Romance Sidequest: Certain companions can be romanced by either gender.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Almost all of them, barring Codsworth, Strong, Ada and pre-brain transfer Curie, have an Idle Animation where they smoke a cigarette.
  • Surprise Incest: In a strange way. Both Paladin Danse and post-brain-transfer Curie are third-generation Synths, which means they're cloned from your son's DNA, technically making them your grandkids. Not that it matters much, since Synths are heavily implied to be unable to procreate anyway, and they're likely so different from the Sole Survivor genetically speaking that any actual familial connection between the Sole Survivor and them is largely academic.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
    • Despite several of them being from different factions with different outlooks, they can at the least tolerate one another as shown by their dialog when switching them out.
    X6-88: You have the training and equipment to handle this assignment. The future of the Institute is in good hands.
    Paladin Danse: Don't mistake my tolerance of your existence for friendship, Synth. We have nothing to say to each other.
    • Should you piss them off into disliking or hating you, they will constantly insult and threaten you and complain about what you've become, but will still have your back in a gunfight and carry your stuff, at least until they leave. Even then you still have a small chance at begging them to stay for a while and eventually regaining their friendship.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: Cait, Strong, X6-88, MacCready and Gage approve of being rude, selfish and greedy, so if you're with them, you might have to go out of your way to be a Jerkass to please them. Cait and Hancock, who is otherwise a stand-up Ghoul, also encourage you using chems, although they will express concern if you're addicted and Cait will change tracks if she is cured. Danse, who is also otherwise pretty moral, hates Synths, Ghouls and Super Mutants and will approve of choices discriminating against, abusing or killing them.
  • True Companions: All of the companions (bar X6-88, who doesn't really process things like friendship) end up feeling this way with the Sole Survivor over time, and to a lesser extent, with one another (as evidenced by their interactions). Piper and Nick actually even played the trope straight before the game began, as they both worked together on investigations and get along very well.
  • Undying Loyalty: Earn their trust, and they will fight with you to their utmost abilities. The only one who will never leave you no matter what is Dogmeat and, with Automatron, Ada.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Quite a few companion combos fall under this category. Swap Companion A for Companion B and they make snide remarks. But swap them in the opposite order and they wish each other well. It's also notable that during 'Blind Betrayal', despite having a terse relationship with the others, most of them will speak in Paladin Danse's defense and refer to him as a friend, and even more of them hate the idea of killing him even if they don't side with Danse.
    • This is best exemplified when swapping between Nick and Danse. They would trade jabs if Danse gets replaced but on the other way around, they simply nod and mention one another's names as a form of brief acknowledgement:
    (swapping Danse for Nick)
    Paladin Danse: I can't believe you're replacing me with this...thing.
    Nick Valentine: Believe it bucko. Now, isn't there someone else you're supposed to be irritating?
    (swapping Nick for Danse)
    Nick Valentine: Danse.
    Paladin Danse: Valentine.
    • Nick and Cait also have this kind of interaction. Swapping Nick for Cait prompts Nick to question the Sole Survivor's judgement, prompting a snarky put-down from Cait. Swapping Cait for Nick prompts Cait to tentatively warn Nick to be careful, which Nick clearly appreciates.
    • Sharply averted with Porter Gage and Preston Garvey. In their swap dialogue, Preston is rather clearly just a step away from putting a laser between Gage's eyes, only being held back by you being the General of the Minutemen at this point in the story. Gage takes advantage of the situation to call Preston and everyone in the Commonwealth sheep.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: All of them (expect Dogmeat and Ada) will call the Sole Survivor out if they start to dislike and/or hate him/her.
  • Worthless Yellow Rocks: Many of your companions will either be bemused or irritated that you're picking up all this "garbage", not realizing, or caring, that players need a lot of junk for crafting and building settlements. If you get over-encumbered, then they'll mention that you should toss some of that junk away or give it to them to carry. Piper, Ada, and Gage noticeably avert this by either complimenting your resourcefulness for seeing beyond it's low worth, or trusting that you know what to do with such things.
  • You Lose at Zero Trust: Get their approval low enough or oppose their chosen faction and they'll want nothing more to do with you.


Faction Companions

    Preston Garvey 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/preston_garvey.jpg
Voiced by: Jon Gentry

"Protect the people at a minute's notice... That was the idea, anyway."

A member of the Commonwealth Minutemen holed up in Concord. He was escorting a group of twenty settlers who were looking for a place to start a town, but luck wasn't kind to them - first they were chased out of Lexington by Feral Ghouls, then the Raiders at Concord trapped them in the Museum of Freedom. His only hope is a suit of T-45d Power Armor on the roof, but its fusion core is dry, and the only one close by is locked up tight in the basement...

He is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. His unique perk, "United We Stand", gives you a 20% bonus to Damage and +20 Damage Resistance when facing off against three or more enemies.


  • A Father to His Men: He will never abandon his men. His group has dwindled down to five people from what was originally twenty? He's still going to stand with them to the bitter end.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Bring him along when you find the legendary Treasure of Jamaica Plain, and he has a good laugh when he finds out the "treasure" is just a kitschy time capsule full of old-world junk.
  • And Then What?: Discusses this in the Brotherhood ending; If asked, he remarks that while he's happy that the Brotherhood took out the Institute, he's concerned about who their next target is and what this means for the Commonwealth's future. He also points out how naïve it is to think that the Brotherhood will just turn off Liberty Prime after using him against the Institute.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Amusingly lampshaded if the Sole Survivor comments that they don't believe in the validity of Mama Murphy's visions.
    Preston: [incredulously] I just saw you go toe-to-toe with a twenty foot tall irradiated lizard. You telling me you can't keep an open mind after that?
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: His maximum affinity perk, "United We Stand" evokes this in its perk illustration animation.
  • Badass Boast: If you swap MacCready for Preston, this exchange will take place (up to your interpretation as to whether he's talking about himself, you, or both):
    MacCready: So what's stopping the Minutemen from falling apart like last time?
    Preston: You're looking at 'em.
  • Berserk Button: Understandably, he despises the Gunners and Raiders in general. Most notably, he loves it if the Sole Survivor kills the traitorous Minuteman-turned-Gunner Clint at Quincy.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Garvey is very affable, but has no problem disintegrating hostiles with his laser musket.
  • Big Good: Can be seen as one for Nuka-World. If he is brought along, he will suggest taking out the raiders instead of joining them, and initiates a quest-line to rid Nuka-World of its Raider influence for good.
  • Broken Pedestal: This can happen in Nuka-World if you choose to side with the Raiders. If you raid a settlement, his affinity drops to its lowest possible value and he immediately leaves, even becoming hostile if you attempt to perform another raid when he's around.
    Preston: Our friendship is over... I can never trust you like that again.
  • Butt-Monkey: A meta example. Thanks to a reputation of sending you on quests to deal with settlements, Preston has ended up becoming a target for both the fanbase and Bethesda's marketing. Aside from various mods focusing on humiliating and/or killing him, the Wasteland Workshop DLC's trailer puts him in a cage with a Deathclaw and the first gameplay video shown for Fallout 76 at E3 2018 shows the player killing a "PGarvey" NPC.
  • Child Soldiers: He's not one now, of course, but he started out as one, with him mentioning that he joined up with Colonel Hollis' contingent of Minutemen when he was only 16 years old.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: His unique perk invokes this, giving the player an attack and defense buff if facing three or more enemies at the same time.
  • Death Seeker: In one of his last affinity conversations with you, he confesses that if you hadn't come along, he would have been tempted to kill himself, "maybe not by shooting [myself] in the head," but by "just by not caring about staying alive." Preston himself points out that the Sole Survivor saved his life in more ways than one.
  • Deuteragonist: For a good aligned Sole Survivor in Nuka-World, in much the same vein as Nick Valentine and Kasumi Nakano share this role in Far Harbor. He's even the first person to suggest siding against all the Raider factions and supports working with Mackenzie Bridgeman.
  • Does Not Like Spam: Despises Mole Rat.
  • Eagleland: As the primary representative of the Minutemen, he strives to be the “Beautiful” type. He’s also clearly done his homework to an extent, as he will happily point out historical landmarks for the American Revolution if taken across the Commonwealth.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: He first appeared as a Legendary Dweller in Fallout Shelter before the release of 4.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's not a fan of the Brotherhood of Steel (viewing them as imperialist power-grabbers) and doesn't care much for Synths due to the Commonwealth's widespread paranoia regarding the Institute, but is utterly disgusted if the Sole Survivor agrees to execute Paladin Danse during "Blind Betrayal".
  • Fantastic Racism: Averted with Ghouls and downplayed with Synths, but played straight with Super Mutants, to the point he agrees with Danse's views on them. Justified, as the Minutemen have been fighting Super Mutants for more than a hundred years.
    Preston: (switching places with Strong) Don't know how you travelled with one of those.
  • Friendly Sniper: Laser Muskets need to be cranked every time they're fired, so they are best used as single-shot sniping weapons, which makes him a sniper. In his introductory mission, he even provides some fire support from a balcony.
  • The Generic Guy: In a relative sense. He is a perfectly normal human and doesn't have any truly notable quirks to his personality (aside from his Undying Loyalty to the Minutemen), making him the most "average" of the possible companions.
  • Hero Antagonist: Notably, he has more dialogue options in the Nuka-World DLC, and is understandably against you should you opt to side with the Raiders. You can subvert this if you slaughter the scum, instead.
  • Hidden Depths: Despite his friendly and affable demeanor, Preston has tons of repressed rage. This is only really shown if the Sole Survivor takes him with them to single-handedly raze Gunner-occupied Quincy to the ground, with him taking a concerning amount of pleasure in it.
  • Jerkass Realization: Downplayed since he's too much of a Nice Guy to really count as a Jerkass, but if the Sole Survivor brings him along when they're interviewing with the Railroad and the Institute's control over Synths is directly compared to slavery, Preston can be heard musing that that's a pretty good argument for Synth liberation before then ashamedly admitting that he'd never really thought about the Synths' situtation as being akin to slavery before.
  • The Lancer: To you, as the second highest-ranking Minuteman, after appointing you General.
  • Last of His Kind: He and his handful of Minutemen are all that remain of his once-prestigious order. It's possible however to turn the tables around and help him lead them back to glory.
  • Last Stand: He's in this situation when the Sole Survivor first runs into him, protecting four others whilst holding off a veritable army of Raiders, with the Survivor being The Cavalry.
  • Married to the Job: Downplayed, but he's dedicated to his duties and station. He's still romanceable however.
  • Mercy Kill: Discussed; If the Sole Survivor and Preston ever encounter a group of Feral Ghouls, an audibly revolted Preston might remark that "If I ever turn into one of these things, you have my permission to put two in my skull."
  • Nice Guy: You'd be hard-pressed to find a more sincere, trustworthy individual out there in post-apocalypse Boston than Preston Garvey. He may not be fit to lead, but he's a living embodiment of the Minutemen's ideals, right down to his core.
  • Not So Above It All:
    • Preston is typically a pretty serious guy, but he surprisingly loves it if the Sole Survivor chooses to get in character during the Silver Shroud quest, even stating he's a fan if taken to the TV studio at Hubris Comics.
    • He normally likes the Sole Survivor being a Nice Guy as much as possible, but still approves of them obliquely threatening Brother Thomas during "Emogene Takes A Lover".
  • Not So Stoic:
    • He outright shouts at the Sole Survivor if they side with the Nuka-World Raiders.
    • Bringing him to Quincy to cleanse the place of Gunners will have Preston make numerous comments full of scorn/contempt for the Gunners and display barely-disguised outrage at what they did to Quincy.
    • On a more comedic note, he actually bursts into laughter when it's revealed that the Treasure of Jamaica Plain was actually just a Pre-War time capsule all along.
  • Officer and a Gentleman: His professional soldier demeanor melds quite wonderfully with his Nice Guy attitude.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • If the Sole Survivor tries to be even-handed when talking about subjecting Super Mutants to a Guilt-Free Extermination War with Paladin Danse during "Show No Mercy", Garvey will actually side with Danse and admonish the Sole Survivor for their hesitance. This moment is made all the more surprising since Garvey otherwise has a mild-to-severe dislike of the Brotherhood of Steel due to their paternalistic and imperialistic mindset.
      Danse: Have you taken leave of your senses?!
      Preston: (coldly) No disrespect, General, but you don't know what the Hell you're talking about.
    • He rarely ever raises his voice to the point of yelling (at least outside of combat). This makes it pretty clear when he's not having any of your Raider ties.
    • Boarding a Vertbird will prompt him to get rather giddy. This is noteworthy considering his otherwise wariness regarding the Brotherhood of Steel's long-term goals.
  • The Paragon: Preston himself admits he's not leadership material, but he's still a model Minuteman, holding to their creed even after the previous organization had withered and died.
  • Quest Giver: Notable for being the only companion who gives repeatable, radiant quests to the player, mainly Minuteman missions.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He's this to the rest of the Minutemen. So much so that he'll willingly demote himself into becoming The Lancer after you're made General, seeing how you'll make for a better leader than he could be.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: His very calm and muted delivery is thanks to having witnessed an entire town of innocent people under his protection get slaughtered by the Gunners.
  • The Stoic: He tends to react to things with restraint, with only the most extreme situations breaking his cool. Getting an exclamation of "What the hell?!" out of him requires seeing a crashing alien ship overhead. Generally, he has a pretty muted and calm delivery - much like the Sole Survivor's own. It's also justified since both Preston and the Sole Survivor are heavily implied to be suffering through Heroic BSODs over the course of the story.
  • Story Breadcrumbs: He mentions how his group used to be in Quincy and Lexington. In Lexington you can find three dead Minutemen in and around the Super-Duper Mart, chewed up by the Ferals infesting that town, and you can find plenty of clues about the Longs in Quincy.
  • The Teetotaler: Downplayed. He's fine with booze, and using drugs occasionally is okay with him, but he doesn't really like it, and your relationship will take a hit if you get addicted.
    • Given that Raiders are usually portrayed as heavy drug-users (in fact, one of the lines Raiders will often say when they are alerted, but then can't spot and target the source, is "The Jet'll make you jittery!"), the problem may be less with drugs per se, and more with acting like a Raider.
  • Tranquil Fury: If he's brought along when Elder Maxson formally accepts the Sole Survivor into the Brotherhood of Steel, Preston will growl in barely-disguised anger "I've heard some self-justifying bullshit in my day, but this tops it all" after hearing Elder Maxson's New Era Speech arguing why the Brotherhood must essentially invade the Commonwealth to bring an end to the Institute once and for all.
  • Trauma Conga Line: He and the few surviving refugees of the Quincy Massacre fled the Gunners' wrath first to Lexington, but were attacked and overwhelmed by the Feral Ghouls in the ruins there. Then, they fled to Concord, but were attacked by the Raiders there, and he's literally introduced leading a Last Stand when the Sole Survivor effectively waltzes in.
  • Understatement: After witnessing the reprogrammed Liberty Prime destroy the Prydwen in the Institute ending, he dryly remarks "The Institute doesn't go for half-measures, do they?"
  • Undying Loyalty: Before the Sole Survivor comes along, he is the very last Minuteman soldier to hold faith to the cause; all others deserted, turned traitor, or were killed.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Upon meeting the Sole Survivor, he quite easily accepts them being a Human Popsicle from 210 years ago. Arguably justified, with him noting that considering the existence of Pre-War Ghouls, the Sole Survivor's status as a Living Relic isn't actually as unique as it may first sound.
  • Vague Age: The story is rather vague on how old Preston is. He's likely in his very early 20's, since he only served as a Minuteman after the Fall of the Castle and the organization was already cannibalizing itself. Additionally, his (somewhat) naïve hope in the Minutemen would make sense for one so young.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: The overall tenor of his reaction to the Sole Survivor joining the Institute; he's more restrained and willing to trust their judgment than some, but he's still clearly not happy with it.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a laser musket, the Minutemen's signature weapon.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Preston instantly quits being your companion if you ever attack a Minuteman. He will also chew you out if you did not issue the evacuation order before destroying the Institute, lamenting the innocent lives lost in the explosion.
    • He's also pretty displeased should you take over settlements with your Raider gangs using the Nuka-World DLC. And if you usurp those under Minuteman or neutral jurisdiction, he will never work with you again.

    Paladin Danse 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/danse.jpg
Click here to see him without his Power Armor and hat 
Voiced by: Peter Jessop

"Cleansing the Commonwealth is our duty, and I will gladly spill my own blood to ensure our victory."

A Brotherhood of Steel Paladin whose chance encounter with the Sole Survivor leads to an impromptu alliance. Seeing their potential, he becomes the Survivor's sponsor for joining the Brotherhood.

He is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. His unique perk, "Know Your Enemy", gives you a 20% damage buff against Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants, and Synths.


  • 24-Hour Armor: Can give off this impression, because apart from one story-related mission, he never steps out of his power armor. Even after he's romanced and sleeps with the player character, they'll awake to Danse already upright in his suit and quipping about their evening romp, raising the question if he even exited the armor in the first place!
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Danse will sometimes be amused if the Sole Survivor chooses to crack jokes during his affinity conversations. It's rather surprising given how serious he usually is.
    Sole Survivor: Well damn, there goes my dream of becoming a Super Mutant!
    Danse: (stifling a laugh) Well, glad to have changed your mind!
  • Bait-and-Switch Comment: Bring him to the Castle after it's been retaken by the Minutemen, and he has this to say:
    Danse: The Minutemen remind me of the Brotherhood when Elder Lyons was in charge... unfocused and far too charitable for their own good.
  • Call-Back: He claims to have started his life as a scavenger in Rivet City, and comes from the Capital Wasteland. He also specifically mentions the Brotherhood laying siege to Adams Air Force Base as part of their war with the Enclave.
  • Capitalism Is Bad: Due to the Brotherhood's origins in a mutiny against the US Army over its unethical experiments & its East Coast chapter's neo-feudalism under Arthur Maxson, he sometimes makes scathing comments on the pre-War American society.
    Danse: (visiting Vault 81's sealed experimental area) This is exactly the reason that science never belonged in the private sector.
  • Catchphrase: "Outstanding."
  • The Comically Serious: Not really the jovial sort, but he still manages to have some silly moments when his attempts to keep professional fall flat. Some examples: he gets flustered when Cait starts flirting with him, comes to the conclusion that Takahashi is a Communist spy, and has the below conversation with Deezer the "lemonade" selling robot in Covenant.
    Danse: That machine appears to be selling something. Unidentified Mister Handy unit... state your identification and intention, please.
    Deezer: My name is Deezer, and my intention is to provide you with the ultimate refreshment experience, Deezer's Lemonade!
    Danse: You're obviously malfunctioning. I suggest you report to a maintenance center as soon as possible.
    Deezer: Pardon me, Sergeant / Airman / Petty Officer / insert-rank-here... but you're mistaken. I'm simply here to quench your thirst!
    Danse: Oh, never mind.
  • Developer's Foresight: Bringing him to the bodies of Recon Squad Artemis during "The Lost Patrol" will have him comment on each of the deceased Brotherhood members and what he remembers of them.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: He falls into this after getting exiled from the Brotherhood. With the Sole Survivor's help, he can eventually decide that his new purpose is whatever he himself decides to ultimately make of it along with valuing his friendship (or possibly more) with the Sole Survivor.
  • Dramatic Irony: He is loyal to the Brotherhood and as invested in their crusade against Synths as any Paladin can be, only to learn that he is, himself, a Synth. Worse still, the Brotherhood, the army he swore his life to, turns on him and calls for his death.
  • Driven to Suicide: If you enter the bunker during "Blind Betrayal" and then leave without talking to him, the quest log will direct you to collect his holotags. Upon reentering the bunker, the player will discover that he has taken his own life.
  • The Exile: If Elder Maxson is convinced into letting him live, he plays the "dead to the Brotherhood" card and exiles Danse from the Brotherhood, having his marked as KIA as far as the rest of the Brotherhood is concerned and forbidding him from further contact with the organization on pain of death. After this point, Brotherhood members are immediately hostile to both him and you as long as he's your companion, though they're otherwise friendly as long as you're on good terms.
  • Expy: To an extent, he can be seen as one for Buzz Lightyear. Heroic, naïve, and idealistic soldier with a power armor who struggles with the revelation that he’s an artificial being? Check. Heck, there’s even a popular mod that replaces Danse's Power Armor with one colored to resemble Buzz Lightyear's jetpack.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Upon learning that you've come to kill him for being a Synth, he calmly accepts his fate since he knows that he himself is the enemy.
  • Fantastic Racism: As a Brotherhood Paladin and as shown by his unique perk, he hates robots and mutants. Not only does he disapprove of the Sole Survivor being sympathetic towards Synths and Ghouls, he treats companions such as Hancock and Valentine with complete disgust and believes that Curie should donate herself to the Brotherhood as a test subject. This becomes a case of Tomato in the Mirror after he learns that he's actually a Synth. Though it then gets Played for Laughs when he accuses Takahashi in Diamond City of being a Chinese spy.
  • Foil: To X6-88. While Danse focuses on the good parts of his faction to the point where he is shocked to find out that he's a Synth himself, X6 does nothing to soften the actions of the Institute and is a remorseless hunter.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • An optional objective in the very first Brotherhood mission is to activate engine fire from a rocket to incinerate the horde of hostile Synths dogpiling Danse with him getting inevitably caught by it in the process. He survives and chalks it up to the Power Armor, and it seems reasonable enough at the time. However, later revelations imply that Danse was only able to survive that from being a Synth, and if a human being had taken that heat, they would've probably been cooked inside their Power Armor.
    • If you raise your affinity with him enough, he will share with you a story of how a man named Cutler started him down the path to joining the Brotherhood of Steel. At the end, he found his friend had be exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus by a Super Mutant hive who captured him and was forced to perform a Mercy Kill. He will potentially face a similar fate, but due to being a Synth.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: More of an inverted case, actually. Danse's interactions with the other companions usually range from a bit rough to outright hostile due to his condescending nature and bigotry. The others tend to give as good as they get, but don't really hold grudges (most of them, at least). When Maxson orders you to kill him for being a Synth, Valentine and Hancock (both of whom he hates) are even quick to stick up for him. And Deacon? Here's what he has to say:
    Deacon: Danse may have a stick up his backside, but he's our pal.
    • However, it can really become obvious when your other companions start to have friendlier conversations with Strong of all people.
  • The Fundamentalist: Subverted and played with. All traditionalist Brotherhood of Steel members are this and he's no rebel like Owyn Lyons (who he considers a weak old man) or Veronica Santangelo. However, he focuses on the positive aspects of the code over the darker ones.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even after being exiled from the Brotherhood, most of his ambient dialogue still treats him as a Brotherhood member.
  • Genius Bruiser: He's built like a tank even before putting on the Powered Armor. He's also got a broad understanding of topics ranging from military tactics to economics.
  • Genre Blind: Danse completely misses the darker elements of the Brotherhood's teachings like unlimited warfare on Synths, Super Mutants, and Ghouls as well as their authoritarian paternalist tendencies towards Wastelanders. This all comes back to bite him in the ass when he discovers he's a Synth.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: After The Reveal that he's a Synth, he doesn't automatically reverse his opinion and accept Synths altogether, instead becoming extremely conflicted about the issue; he'll "like" generic shows of support for Synths, but any hardline statements on their rights and personhood, for or against, will elicit a "dislike" from him.
  • He Cleans Up Nicely: When out of his Power Armor and headgear, Danse can look remarkably handsome and charming.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Almost never wears the helmet to his Power Armor. He only wears one in his mission with you to Arcjet Systems, and that sometimes doesn't happen, due to a bug.
  • Heroic Build: He looks bigger than most companions because of his Power Armor, but even outside of it, he has a remarkably muscular physique. Justified since he is a professional soldier who also, as a member of the Brotherhood, has likely gotten access to a healthier and more reliable diet than most of the Sole Survivor's other companions.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Would you believe that soldier boy here likes country music?
    • PlayedWith. Danse has an almost nostalgic respect for pre-war life and culture, he's knowledgeable on US history and recognizes the USS Constitution on sight, and somberly muses on things that have been lost to the ages such as movies and lions. On the other hand, he has some particularly choice remarks on the evils of pre-war society, such as Mass Fusion's various nuclear dumping sites, Vault-Tec's existence and pre-war vices such as underground basketball courts and escalators.
    • Downplayed, but on occasion he'll show some remarkable knowledge about Wasteland economics and logistics (mostly when the Sole Survivor is working on their settlements). It's implied that this is a hold-over from him having been a merchant in Rivet City before he joined up with the Brotherhood.
  • Hunk: It can be hard to tell under his Power Armor, but Danse has a clear Heroic Build (being probably the most muscular of the Sole Survivor's base game companions outside of Strong) and is also quite attractive with a low voice (likely done at least in part due to him being a potential romance option).
  • Hypocritical Humor: Whenever you enter a dark area, like a cave system or an abandoned subway, Danse will boast that his training prevents him from feeling fear, only to immediately be spooked by some random noise.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be outright cruel to any of the non-human companions and often acts like a dick, but his intentions for the Commonwealth are truly noble and he generally means well.
  • Kick the Dog: If he's with the Sole Survivor when they meet up with the Vault-Tec Rep in Goodneighbor, Danse will coldly suggest that the old Ghoul should be Mercy Killed.
  • Killed Off for Real: While otherwise having Gameplay Ally Immortality, he can die for good if you follow Maxson's orders to execute him for being a Synth or fail to prevent Maxson himself from doing the same. He can also die if you ever turn the Brotherhood of Steel hostile to you, as this will cause him to attack you which will probably go badly for him unless he was already exiled from the Brotherhood, in which case he will simply never speak to you again.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Well, as close to one as you're going to get with the Brotherhood of Steel's "conservative" interpretation as he doesn't bend the code like the Lyons or Veronica Santangelo. Really, he's closer to Elder McNamara than anything else.
  • Last-Name Basis: Danse is his last name; his first name is never revealed in the game.
  • Manly Gay: Or rather, Manly Bisexual. He's the largest and most muscular of the companions (other than Strong), has a thick beard, and is a devoted Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel. Oh, and he can be romanced by the Sole Survivor regardless of gender.
  • Mark of Shame: After being found out as a Synth and exiled from the Brotherhood, he abandons his Brotherhood Paladin T-60c Power Armor and takes up an unmarked set of X-01 Power Armor, since he feels he is no longer worthy of wearing his original set (which is handed off to you instead).
  • Married to the Job: Danse is totally devoted to his duties as a Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel. It is the entirety of his existence and daily life. In fact, it's to the point where he doesn't take the advice of the Brotherhood doctor aboard the Prydwen to take a break. It's interesting because unlike most who show this attitude, he's a Wastelander who was adopted into the Brotherhood rather than one raised from birth. He's so devoted that he volunteers to be executed when he's discovered to be a Synth, only relenting if the Sole Survivor makes him see what a waste that would be. This also later gets deconstructed, since if he survives the events of "Blind Betrayal", he openly admits to the Sole Survivor that he has no idea what he should do with his life now since he'd never imagined what it would be like to live outside of the Brotherhood.
  • Meaningful Name: "Danse" is an old Anglo-Saxon name referring to "the son of Daniel." The Biblical Daniel was a valuable advisor to the Babylonian kings Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and is best known for a story where he was thrown into a lion's den but survived thanks to the aid of an angel. In Fallout 4, Paladin Danse is revealed to be a Synth and has his execution ordered by Elder Maxson, with Danse's continued survival completely dependent on the Sole Survivor's actions.
  • The Mentor: To both Scribe Haylen and the player, to a lesser extent. Inverted and lampshaded in the second case, where he realizes in a conversation that you've been teaching him lessons despite signing up as your mentor.
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: He's blunt about it if you attack or kill an innocent, losing affinity and calling you out on it.
    Danse: The Brotherhood does not kill innocents. It doesn't matter what kind of tech they're sitting on. If they aren't shooting at you, leave them alone.
  • Noble Bigot: Very much so; he's a good man who does his best to help others, but his hatred of Synths, Super Mutants, and Ghouls, despite all of the heroic (or at the very least, not evil) examples of each he's seen (especially considering that a sizable number of the other companions fall into one of those three categories) tends to influence his decision making, and he's even prone to outright racism.
  • Not So Above It All: Despite usually being quite serious, if you bring him to Vault 114, he'll dryly bet you a month's salary that you'll find an "illicit experiment gone awry" in there. He's technically right: the twisted experiment they planned went awry when the bombs dropped before they actually finished the vault.
  • Officer and a Gentleman: While Danse definitely has some rough edges and buys whole-heartedly into the Brotherhood's conservative views, he nonetheless invokes this trope. A composed, dignified, skilled, and dedicated professional soldier, he clearly has complete faith that the Brotherhood are the good guys. Most notable in the first quest in which the player gets to ride with him on a Vertibird; he allows you to man the minigun, but not before giving you a stern reminder to watch what you're shooting at. The Brotherhood is here to save the locals, not to make their lives even worse.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • A literal example. Danse varies between showing condescension or outright hostility to other companions when he's switching to be your active follower. But when he's replacing Dogmeat, who's just a regular wasteland dog, Danse sincerely reassures the pup that he'll bring his master home safe.
      Danse: Don't worry, boy. I'll make sure this soldier comes home alive.
    • Despite his hatred of Ghouls, Danse approves of you agreeing to escort Billy, a child Ghoul, back to his home. He also commends Wiseman (a Ghoul Wastelander and founder/resident of The Slog) for using a swimming pool to grow tarberries, calling it a "clever use of Pre-War architecture". He respects Kent Connolly, a Ghoul radio technician, for trying to make the world better (even if he considers Kent's methods "eccentric"), wants you to save Kent when he gets kidnapped, and praises Kent for keeping his wits in a hostage situation.
    • There is a bowl of pet food on the floor in his cabin on the Prydwen. The implication seems to be that he feeds Emmett, the cat on the ship.
  • Pick Your Human Half: Averted, like all Synths. Both his personality and his physical appearance are completely indistinguishable from a normal human, which makes sense, considering that as a Synth he needs to pass as one.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero:
    • Danse is prejudiced towards Ghouls, Synths and Super Mutants, expressing contempt and suspicion if he meets another companion matching those description.
    • He also harasses Takahashi the Japanese noodle vendor after mistaking him for Chinese, although it is Played for Laughs.
  • Powered Armor: He's (almost) always wearing his personally-customized Power Armor.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Paladin Danse is this compared to virtually every other Brotherhood of Steel leader in the history of the organization (with the exception of the Lyons family and John & Arthur Maxson). He offers fair pay for military services, averts Dude, Where's My Respect?, tries to recruit the player character early, and he's even nice enough to give you his own personal laser rifle without talking down to you like the West Coast Brotherhood likely would have. Danse's adherence to the rules is also explained as he actually takes his time to justify to the Player Character exactly why the Brotherhood does what it does.
  • Replacement Goldfish: In a similar way that Piper Wright can be this for Nora to the male Sole Survivor, Paladin Danse can be this for Nate to the female Sole Survivor, being a stern but occasionally goofy military man haunted by his past. The fact that Danse bears a similar resemblance to the default face for Nate in the character creation sequence in the beginning of the game only adds to this.
  • Sarcasm Failure: Danse usually has a barbed comment ready when he tags in or out for a different companion, particularly if they're non-human. Codsworth, however, effusively compliments Danse, which provokes a sincere (if somewhat confused) thank-you.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: As part of his demeanor as a professional soldier, he utilizes an expansive vocabulary, often expressing simple thoughts in long and roundabout ways. Amusingly, Piper believes that this was In-Universe Foreshadowing for Danse being a Synth.
    Piper: I can't believe Danse was a Synth! ...I mean, I can, because, you know, I've heard him speak.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: He's seen his share of harrowing experiences in his service to the Brotherhood, witnessing friends and comrades die, sometimes thanks to his own decisions. Knight-Captian Cade's medical evaluations even diagnose him with early onset PTSD and recommended that he take a break, which Danse acknowledged but chose to dismiss.
  • Significant Wardrobe Shift: After his reveal as a Synth, he ditches his Brotherhood T-60c Power Armor for the duration of the associated quest. Following its completion (assuming he lives), he switches to the X-01 model, which reflects his status as an exile.
  • So Proud of You: These are his last words to a Sole Survivor who follows Maxson's orders to kill him.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He towers over most of the other companions thanks to his Power Armor (which is also dark-colored), and is easy on the eyes.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: It turns out that he's actually an escaped Synth.
  • Undying Loyalty: When he learns that he's a Synth and that the Brotherhood plan to kill him, he gladly lays his life down when the player and later Maxson arrive. Even after he is exiled, he will still remain loyal to the Brotherhood and will refuse to travel with the player if the Brotherhood is destroyed.
  • Vague Age: It's not made that clear how old he is (though his general personality and mannerisms suggest someone in their thirties), and this is further exacerbated upon The Reveal that he's actually a Synth. All that's known is that considering both his rank in the Brotherhood and the related time he would've spent to get to that rank, he has to be at least 16-20 years old.
  • Walking Spoiler: As revealed in "Blind Betrayal," he's actually a Synth that escaped from the Institute.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a standard laser rifle, commonly used by the Brotherhood. He also hands the Sole Survivor his personal modification of the faction's standard laser rifle - "Righteous Authority" - as a reward for them helping him during the "Call to Arms" Brotherhood quest.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Not at the player, but at Elder Maxson for quickly turning upon him even after all his years of loyal service to the BoS, for the sole reason that he's a Synth. He believes the player is Just Following Orders if they decide to kill him.
  • You Are What You Hate: Here is a man who's sworn to dedicate his life into the eradication of Synths, only for a cruel twist of fate to reveal that he's one of them.

    Deacon 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deacon_6.jpg
Voiced by: Ryan Alosio

"Me? Get into trouble? I am the very definition of innocence! We're just going to spend all day playing canasta. Promise."

An enigma among enigmas, Deacon is by far the most mysterious member of the Railroad, and their top intelligence agent. Theories about his past run amok in the organization — some believe that he's a Synth, some that he's secretly the organization's leader, and at least one crackpot is convinced that he's a time traveler. This isn't helped by his constant, ridiculous, and breathlessly delivered lies.

His unique perk, "Cloak and Dagger", gives you a 40% bonus to sneak attacks and a 40% duration bonus to Stealth Boys.


  • Ascended Extra: It's implied that he's been to the Capital Wasteland as part of the Railroad and might very well have been some of the generic NPCs in Fallout 3.
  • The Atoner: In his younger years, he was a violent bigot who joined a gang that terrorized suspected Synths. But when they had one lynched, he grew disgusted with himself and left the gang. He eventually settled down with a woman who later turned out to be a Synth, which led to her being killed by his old gang. After what he's been through, he joined the Railroad as a way to atone for his past crimes. ...or so he says.
  • Badass Bookworm: He's clearly a bit of a lit nerd - Several of his comments reference classic books and authors like War and Peace and Proust, and he mourns the loss of so many books in the ravaged Boston Public Library.
  • Berserk Button: Unlike the other companions, he can and instantly will turn hostile and try to kill you if you attack settlers or anyone in the Railroad, if you side with the Brotherhood or the Institute in the endgame, or if you bring X6-88, an Institute Courser, to Railroad HQ.
  • Blatant Lies: Some of his tall tales are plain ridiculous. This just helps throw you off when he tells more convincing lies to test you.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Don't let the breezy tone and lingo fool you. He's actually been watching you along the way and you never suspected a thing. He's also the best intelligence operative the Railroad has despite constantly lying and exaggerating to his boss...
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Many of his lies and exaggerations make him come across like this, such as suggesting "The Death Bunnies" as a code name. Given his job and skills, though, this is likely a case of Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Consummate Liar: Zigzagged. Deacon lies a lot and does is so smoothly that it's easy to see how someone could be fooled. However, most people he interacts with regularly, including the Sole Survivor, know he's a liar and so have learned to never trust him at his word and take everything he says with a grain of salt. In speech checks, the player can variably play along with his lies in front of others, and can either call him out when he lies to them or believe him.
    Deacon: I'm convincing the next raw recruit that I'm President Eden. Think I can pull it off?
  • Continuity Nod:
    • He'll suggest the player names the team they form with him "Code Violet". That line is Harkness' memory re-activation code from Fallout 3 - more specifically, in the same quest that introduced Synths, the Institute, and the Railroad to the series.
    • If taken to Deezer, he attempts to use a deactivation code on him - the same code that is used by Mr. House in New Vegas as his personal override code. It doesn't work, though, since he forgets that Mr. Handies were made by General Atomics and not RobCo.
    • He mentions how the East Coast Brotherhood used to be friendlier, and that the water in the Capital Wasteland is drinkable - both references to Fallout 3 (and specifically, Project Purity).
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Veronica Santangelo. Both are remarkably friendly members of secretive organizations that have underground headquarters, use their sarcasm to help compensate for their grief, are frustrated by their organization's Single Issue Psychosis, love to lie and joke with the player character, and are still haunted by the loss of a loved one (Deacon's deceased wife, Margaret, and Veronica's missing girlfriend, Christine). The irony is that Deacon is a member of the Railroad and Veronica's a member of the Brotherhood of Steel — and both organizations are hostile to each other in the Commonwealth as of 2287.
  • Cool Shades: His most distinctive feature are his sunglasses. They're also one of the only things that's usually consistent between disguises.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Even more so than Piper. He's the mouthiest of the companions and is always poking fun at something... or someone. It's also his default mode when you do something he doesn't like.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Deacon's love of disguise and blending in doesn't end when he joins you as a companion. He has a variety of different outfits that he will wear depending on your location (such as a Triggerman outfit in Goodneighbor, or a guard uniform in Diamond City). You can potentially even add to it, as putting a Vault Suit in his inventory will make him wear it when you visit a Vault.
    • When you finally decide to meet the Railroad, Deacon introduces you to Desdemona by listing a variety of accomplishments you may have achieved already in the game. If you haven't done anything of note, he'll be forced to rely on his gut instinct (and the prerequisite achievement to meeting them of being able to spell "railroad").
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Prior to your first "official" meeting in the Railroad, Deacon actually lurks within the crowds at several areas in the game, posing as a generic NPC (so his name doesn't appear if you talk to him or target him).
    • When the player first enters Diamond City, Deacon is one of the city guards watching Piper argue with the mayor. He's the only generic guard without a helmet, next to Danny Sullivan. If you talk to him, he actually has to pause a bit to think of Diamond City's nickname of "the great green jewel", as he's not a local.
    • When the player first goes to the Memory Den, he's in a memory pod. On any subsequent visits to Goodneighbor prior to meeting him at the Railroad, he's posing as a drifter hanging around KL-E-O and Daisy's shops.
    • He's a generic Caravan Worker at Bunker Hill.
    • There's a Railsign for "Ally" in a tiny observation post overlooking Sanctuary Hills. Though Deacon says nothing about it he's probably been watching you from there too, perhaps ever since you walked out of Vault 111.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: He tells the player that he's a Synth, and entrusts them with an override code that he says will let the player access information about the institute, at the cost of mind wiping him. He's completely lying for his own amusement, and if you don't call him on his bluff immediately the only option that continues his dialogue is to use it, seemingly under the impression that it will effectively kill him.
  • Foil: To Preston Garvey. While Garvey is probably the most normal and one of the more sane companions with a soldier's demeanor, Deacon, on the other hand, is an utter enigma; a man who is very difficult to get a read on but keeps it very casual around you.
  • Former Bigot: According to one of the versions of his backstory he can tell you, he was a member of an anti-Synth group in his youth, but left the gang due to their extremist views, and now sees working for the Railroad as a way to atone for his past.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Like MacCready, Deacon was once married, and lost his wife to violence. Unlike MacCready, this was a tragic form of Laser-Guided Karma, since Deacon's wife was murdered for being a Synth, by the same anti-Synth lynch gang he once belonged to.
  • Killed Off for Real: Any story path that involves making an enemy out of the Railroad will require you to kill Deacon.
  • Master of Disguise: He's constantly changing his get-up depending on his location and is stated to regularly go through reconstructive surgery. His disguises are so good that they even fool the interface, with his name being replaced by a generic NPC description. See Early-Bird Cameo above.
    Deacon: I'm thinking next time I go into town I'll dress up as a Mr. Handy. If I pull that off, I'll be a legend!
  • Meaningful Name: Or codename, in this case, with "Deacon" meaning "messenger" in Greek. Considering how Deacon's primary job in the Railroad is to travel the Commonwealth (carrying messages from one Safehouse to another) and gathering intelligence for the organization, it's quite fitting. Furthermore, the fact that the word "deacon" is also the term for an assistant to the ministry in a Christian congregation and that the Railroad has lots of religious-related symbolism around their emancipation of Synths is definitely not a coincidence.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: He gets really outlandish when it comes to his past, even claiming that he's either a Synth or the founder of the Railroad itself with Desdemona simply being his puppet. When he tells what seems to be the actual truth, he even says you're free to believe him or not.
  • My Greatest Failure: At the final stage of his approval, Deacon reveals that he used to be part of a violent Synth hate group and only left after a lynching took place. The group caught up with him, and murdered his wife. It's clear that Deacon still hates himself for it, and may be one of the reasons he's constantly reinventing himself.
  • Nice Guy: He's easily one of the most laid-back and friendly people in the game. Even if you lower his approval enough for him to call you out, he doesn't get angry and insists that it's Nothing Personal.
  • Noodle Incident: Some of his various "different person" stints. There are two in particular mentioned: he spent a few months as a woman, which weirded everyone out, and his one month stint as a ghoul in 2275, which got him kicked out of Railroad HQ for a while.
  • Nothing Personal: Unlike most companions who express their hatred towards you if their affinity gets low enough to the point of leaving, Deacon only says that his own style doesn't match yours and is willing to keep a friendly demeanor. It drops, however, if you walk away during the final low affinity confrontation, expressing disbelief that he ever considered wanting to follow you in the first place.
  • Oh, Crap!: Switching him out with X6-88 will have him lowkey panicking about the Courser figuring out who he is.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In his final approval conversation, he drops his goofy, laid-back demeanor and talks to you seriously, thanking you for putting up with all of his bullshit. He then tells you what might actually be the truth about his past and gets genuinely pissed if you condemn his actions.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Like most members of the Railroad, "Deacon" is his code name and it's the only name he's ever referred by. Although one of the Railroad computer terminals mentions a "John D" who started calling himself "Deacon" around 2273. Of course, that doesn't help because it probably just stands for "John Doe".
  • Sad Clown: His constant lies are usually of a humorous nature, and he even cracks jokes in the middle of battle. If what he says is his true backstory really is true, though, it's all a defense mechanism against his intense self-loathing.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: He loves to sarcastically say "hooray" to things he doesn't like. One could imagine him rolling his eyes if the engine allowed it, and not always wearing his sunglasses.
  • Secret-Keeper: If he is Johnny D, he knows a lot more about the origins and history of the Railroad than anyone else, but won't share it. Desdemona understandably expresses some frustration with this in her journal.
  • Secret Test of Character: His constant lies about his background are his way of teaching you to be cautious of what others say.
  • Self-Proclaimed Liar: "I'm a liar. Everyone knows it. I make no secret of it."
  • The Spook: He is the most secretive of the companions and his background's almost a total mystery. He also likes to tell you all sorts of outrageous things about himself, though he'll eventually come clean once you get his approval high enough.
  • Spy Speak: Quite a fan of it and the Sole Survivor can gain rep with him by using it during Railroad quests.
  • Stealth Expert: The man's good with disguises and his perk is stealth-focused. He's also ambivalent towards theft compared to other companions.
  • Sunglasses at Night: He doesn't take them off, no matter the guise.
  • The Teetotaler: Deacon may be an easy-going guy, but he doesn't like you using chems or getting addicted. He admits he used to be on a first-name basis, and then gave it up.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: He loves to eat Mirelurk, and hopes taking back the Castle can be followed with an "epic clambake."
  • Trickster Mentor: His idea of mentoring the new agent is to constantly play tricks on you. He'll tell lies to see how gullible you are and advise you to lookout for bullshit merchants. High Rise even tells him not to screw with the Sole Survivor too much.
  • Vague Age: Between the (constant) plastic surgeries and the lies, it's impossible to gauge even an idea of Deacon's actual age. He's older than he looks... probably.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a sniper rifle.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
    • He sounds rather worried about heights and flying if you bring him onto a Vertibird.
      "This...thing is safe, right?"
      "Yeah. Heights. This'll be fun."
      "You know there's a lot to be said about good old terra firma, right? Right?"
    • Investigating the wreck of a plane leaves him bewildered at the idea of people actually flying around in them.
    • He also seems to have a pretty pronounced case of Agoraphobia, regularly complaining about being outside in the open and talking about how much he prefers being underground.

    X6-88 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallout_4_x6_88.jpg
Voiced by: David Paluck

"Do I like wading through the filth that is the Commonwealth and all of its vermin? Of course not. But if that's what the Institute needs me to do, then I'll do it."

An advanced Courser-class Synth, X6-88 is among the Institute's top field agents, aiding his creators in numerous shady operations - including Kellogg's brief stint in Diamond City. Should the Sole Survivor choose to hear out the Institute's leaders upon reaching their headquarters, he will be assigned to the wayward vault dweller as a bodyguard, as a token of good faith.

His unique perk, "Shield Harmonics", gives you +20 damage resistance to energy weapons.


  • Arson, Murder, and Admiration: X6-88 has a few instances of this:
    • If he respects you, and you ask him for his thoughts after committing certain brutal but pragmatic acts:
      X6-88: Sometimes I see the things you do, and I don't know whether to be awed or terrified. Probably both.
    • His response to Pickman's Gallery, full of sculptures made from mutilated corpses and twisted artworks painted with blood and viscera? He mentions, with a tone of mild appreciation, "I've used techniques like this before."
  • Badass Boast: One of his offhand remarks is a smug "People in the Commonwealth are terrified of Coursers. They should be."
  • Broken Pedestal: Should his approval be lowered significantly, not only will he tell the Sole Survivor he despises them and wishes they died in their cryopod, he'll openly resent Father for recruiting his (in X6's POV) horrible parent out of nepotism.
  • Closet Geek: Like Deacon and Nick, his affinity can be raised by hacking terminals.
  • The Comically Serious: Bringing him to some of the Commonwealth's wackier locations will result in comments like this:
    X6-88: (about the giant Mister Handy statue at the General Atomics Galleria) We [The Institute] sent a team to try to repair that robot, only to find it was hollowed out.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Rarely and with an emphasis on the 'deadpan' part.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Has a fully voiced line stating his disapproval should the player destroy the Institute, even though doing so requires siding against the Institute which would make him hostile and unavailable as a companion. It can be heard if you sided with the Railroad and remain undetected towards the end.
    • Additionally, Institute terminals state that all of the Bunker Hill merchants are Institute informants. If the Sole Survivor walks up to any of them with X6-88 in tow, they will visibly panic as if expecting X6 is going to execute them.
  • Do Wrong, Right: His reaction to murder. While he doesn't exactly approve of it like Strong does, it won't drop his approval rating and he'll just suggest that you keep it more covert in the future.
  • The Dreaded: X6-88 has a very long career as a Courser, and many in the Commonwealth rightfully fear his presence.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: He's the Courser in Kellogg's final memory that warped Synth-Shaun back to the Institute.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: While he doesn't really disapprove of it, X6-88 is noticeably put off if the Sole Survivor cannibalizes someone in front of him.
    • Like most of the other companions, he's appalled at finding the Sentinel Site missile launching silo and the homemade Mini-Nuke beneath Gorski Cabin.
    • He believes the Institute mutineers deserve punishment for their betrayal, but going so far as to order their execution earns his ire.
  • Evil Counterpart: Arguably one to Deacon. Both are acrophobic, shades-wearing Stealth Experts who perform covert missions in the Commonwealth for their respective factions. But whereas Deacon wishes the Railroad did more to help out wastelanders, X6-88 thinks the world would be better off if people from outside the Institute all died out.
  • Evil Is Petty: Being pointlessly rude is a good way to gain his favor.
  • Fantastic Racism: The people of the Commonwealth largely fear and hate Synths and the Institute. X6-88 returns their animosity, comparing them to "disgusting carrion picking apart a rotting corpse."
  • Final Solution: While he doesn't actively attempt it on his own, X6-88 firmly believes the Commonwealth, and the world as a whole, will be a better place once the people die out and the Institute takes over.
  • Foil: To both Curie and Nick Valentine. Whereas Curie is a sentient robot that sincerely wants to be seen as a person and Nick is very much human despite his "fake" Synth appearance, X6-88 remains a cold, heartless machine in spite of all the Institute's efforts to make him and his ilk flawlessly human on the outside.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Being the Institute-aligned companion alienates him from the other companions (particularly Danse). The fact that he's cold and threatening towards them doesn't help either.
  • Hero Worship: Like almost everybody in the Institute, he fervently looks up to Father, and will admonish you for betraying his legacy if you side with another faction.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: As a Synth Courser, his job is to track down runaway Synths for the Institute.
  • Informed Ability: Unlike the game's other Coursers (who are all outright bosses), X6-88 lacks the enhanced health and damage resistance that Coursers normally have so he won't be a Game-Breaker. Stat-wise, he's completely identical to all of the game's other human companions. His S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are unusually high, but this has a limited effect on actual gameplay.
  • Just a Machine: While he's not technically one himself, he acts and behaves like one.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • He's the only companion in the game, besides Strong, who loses affinity if the player heals Dogmeat, due to thinking it's wasteful to use the stimpak on a dog rather than himself and the Sole Survivor.
    • In addition, he would berate Dogmeat as stupid should he get injured and suggest giving him a Mercy Kill.
    • X6-88 is one of the two companions (the other being Strong) who like it if you say Blake Abernathy's daughter deserved to die for standing up to a group of raiders, snarking at her decision, whereas everyone else will dislike or hate you for it.
  • Killed Off for Real: If you encounter him within the Institute as an enemy, the next time he's killed, it's for good.
  • Lack of Empathy: Unless it's something that benefits the Institute in some capacity, he'll always disapprove of any altruism on the Survivor's part.
  • Machine Monotone: Even when he's expressing an emotion or snarking, it's (almost) always in the same flat voice that has absolutely no hint of humanity behind it.
  • No Social Skills: As many of the other tropes on this list will attest. Once he starts to trust the player, he'll admit this explicitly.
  • Not So Stoic: He sounds audibly disgusted if the Sole Survivor commits cannibalism where he can see them, as well as visibly frightened whenever he has to board a Vertibird. X6-88 also distinctly notes his disgust for the society of the Commonwealth as a whole, comparing it to filth.
  • Odd Friendship: He shows a decent amount of respect for Preston Garvey of all people, noting his sense of duty.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He occasionally drops his Creepy Monotone in the most extreme situations:
    • If his opinion of the Sole Survivor drops low enough for him to abandon them, he tries to maintain his cool, but his "The Reason You Suck" Speech still displays a surprising amount of rage and, more poignantly, disappointment.
    • On the other hand (albeit to a lesser extent), when he reaches the maximum relationship level, he becomes almost fawning as he confesses that he admires and even idolizes the Survivor.
    • In a much lesser example, as per Even Evil Has Standards above, his reactions to cannibalism convey a deep level of disgust.
  • Permanently Missable Content: Should you kill or walk out on the Institute's leader in your first meeting, you cannot gain him as a companion.
  • Pet the Dog: Despite his Lack of Empathy, he, like the other companions, offers condolences to you upon seeing your dead spouse.
  • Pick Your Human Half: X6-88 is the antithesis of Nick Valentine — a Synth with a "perfectly human" appearance, but one that lives and operates on pure logic, devoid of any humanity.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: He dislikes it if he sees the Sole Survivor strip naked in front of him.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: He actually approves of the Sole Survivor if they tell Elder Maxson that Paladin Danse doesn't deserve to die after Danse's reveal as a Synth. This is because he, as a Courser, says that it's his area of expertise to hunt Synths (and because he thinks it would be a waste of a perfectly good Gen 3 Synth). He also isn't thrilled (but also isn't upset enough to approval drop, he simply suggests against it) if the Sole Survivor commits excessive criminal acts - not because he actually cares about Wastelanders and their laws, but because it's harder for them to do their job if everyone in the Wasteland is shooting at them because they're wanted criminals.
  • Precision F-Strike: Though he doesn't drop the Creepy Monotone, he can't hold back a muttered "shit" when caught in a radiation storm. Then there's this, when he decides he's certain that, despite his previous doubts, you are worthy of leading the Institute:
    X6-88: If I've learned anything since we've started running together, it's this: holy shit, was I wrong about you.
  • Robo Speak: Always speaks in a dull monotone voice, driving the point home that underneath that visage is nothing more than a heartless machine. The only times he ever emotes (somewhat) is when extending his respect or disdain for the Sole Survivor, should his approval go high or low enough.
  • Scary Black Man: He's a rather imposing Synth with a serious absence of empathy. The black trench coat + Sinister Shades combo are just added bonuses.
  • Sinister Shades: Like Deacon, he wears sunglasses. Except in this case, the owner happens to be a cold, unfeeling robot designed & programmed to obey the Big Bad.
  • Stealth Expert: He'll use any Stealth Boys put in his inventory during combat, like his fellow Coursers.
  • "Stop Having Fun" Guy: Dislikes the Survivor getting into character as the Silver Shroud.
  • Straight Edge Evil: He dislikes it when the Sole Survivor uses chems, something usually found only in unambiguously noble allies. Of course, part of it comes from the fact that those chems weren't designed by the Institute; he claims to use Institute-made substances.
  • Super-Soldier: He's a Courser, so it comes with the territory.
  • Terminator Impersonator: Comes with being a Courser, but X6-88 stands out as being the one we get to know the best.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Although not nearly as Ax-Crazy as Strong or pre-rehab Cait, X6-88 more than makes up for it by being a cold-blooded, ruthless killer... with no regard for anything or anyone apart from his mission at hand. He does, after all, represent the Institute.
  • Weapon Specialization: Naturally defaults to an Institute laser rifle.
  • Undying Loyalty: If you max out his affection and are aligned with the Institute, he more or less swears this to you, as his future Director.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Surprisingly, X6-88 is actually afraid of something: heights. Have him board a vertibird or bring him up to a high place and you can hear him become ever so slightly nervous at the idea of being so high up.

Side Companions

    Cait 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cait.jpg
Voiced by: Katy Townsend

"Only thing better'n gettin' pissed is pickin' a fight. Am I right?"

An Irish pit-fighter and chem addict who resides in the Combat Zone. Cait has a harsh outlook on life. She is recruited after the Sole Survivor clears out the raiders in the arena and her manager Tommy, now out of a job, hands her over.

She is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. Her unique perk, "Trigger Rush", allows your Action Points to regenerate +25% faster if you are down to 25% of your Hit Points or fewer.


  • Abusive Parents: Cait was physically and verbally abused by her parents, and cannot recall a single time they ever treated her as their daughter. When she was eighteen, they sold her into slavery. As such, there are virtually no players who object to Cait coming back after buying her freedom and introducing her parents to the business end of her shotgun.
  • Action Girl: Or Dark Action Girl, depending on how you choose to deal with her.
  • Affably Evil: While Evil is a little bit of a stretch seeing that she doesn't actively rob, kill or do anything malicious without your order, she typically approves of greedy, selfish and cruel words and actions, dislikes helping others out and is generally pretty misanthropic. However, assuming you don't lower her approval too much, she is pretty friendly (if perverted, whiny and bloodthirsty) and even converses friendlily or even flirtatiously with the other companions when being swapped.
  • The Alcoholic: Along with her chem use.
  • Addled Addict: Is on the fast lane to becoming one due to her addiction to Psycho, which makes her unstable and eventually causes her to start coughing up blood.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: To a male Survivor, as being rude and greedy is a good way to gain her affinity.
  • Animal Motif: Downplayed, Tommy refers to her as a bird and calls her "little bird" despite how much she hates it. Tommy uses this motif to compare her to a bird of prey and a caged bird that longs for feedom.
  • Ax-Crazy: Downplayed. Her Chem habit has this as a side effect, but otherwise Cait herself is a pretty stable person... just a very bitter one.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: While she doesn't actually abuse animals herself, Cait finds it funny if you kill Ashes the cat and dislikes Dogmeat, even threatening to turn him into a fur coat if he gets you killed.
  • Batter Up!: Reflecting her violent tendencies and history of close-quarters cage fighting, her trademark weapon is a baseball bat — she joins the Sole Survivor with one, and her appearances in spin-off media like Wasteland Warfare and Fallout Shelter Online show her with a bat swung over her shoulders.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: She explicitly says that no one in her life has ever been kind to her, so she's utterly confused as to what to do when the Sole Survivor is. She eventually becomes totally loyal to the Survivor because of this and mentions that their relationship, romantic or otherwise, is the best thing in her life.
  • Berserk Button: After completing her personal quest, she'll get pissed at you for using chems around her, since she worked hard to get sober and sees your chem use as mocking her.
  • Best Served Cold: If you let her talk about her upbringing, and how her parents sold her off for slavery, she'll then talk about how she stole/saved up enough money to get her freedom. She then mentions visiting her parents again, and dishing out some payback for the impressively awful childhood upbringing, along with the selling her off thing.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Not to the Sole Survivor, as she is undyingly loyal unless she leaves from low affinity, but to Danse and Deacon. While she will make friendly banter with Danse and even flirts with Deacon if swapped with them, she will approve if the Sole Survivor goes through with slaughtering the Railroad, including Deacon, and executing Danse.
  • Blood Knight: Cait lives for the thrill of combat. Though with character development, she moves away from "reckless sociopath" to more of a friendly brawler.
  • Blood Sport: Recruited after she beats an opponent to death in the Combat Zone.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Because of her conflicted feelings on her troubled past, as well as her general cynicism and selfishness, Cait's moral compass is a bit skewed compared to other companions. She generally dislikes altruistic behavior, resolving situations peacefully, and unnecessary cruelty; on the other hand she likes it when you convince people to stand up for themselves, spare innocents instead of killing them, and choosing threatening and sarcastic dialogue options. Depending on the quest you're dealing with, or even just the exact line of dialogue you pick, similar behaviors may result in different reactions from her while opposing behaviors get the same response; as one example, she disapproves of you sympathizing with Blake Abernathy's daughter dying, but also dislikes it if you claim she had it coming for being stupid. In "Kid if a Fridge", she dislikes helping take Billy home, but likes it if you protect them from Bullet, and she hates it if you sell them into slavery.
  • Brains and Brawn:
    • During her time at the Combat Zone, she was the brawn to Tommy's brains. He was savvy enough to somehow convince an audience of Raiders into following his rules and "pay for entertainment" — which basically meant trying their luck against Cait. She went undefeated in over a hundred fights.
    • Compared to Piper and Curie, she definitely leans more on the brawn side.
  • Broken Bird: Her life has been a living hell to the point that the only things preventing her from crossing the Despair Event Horizon are her chems, booze and fights... which are slowly killing her anyway.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Rose of Sharon "Cass" Cassidy. Both are flirtatious and Fiery Redhead Deadpan Snarkers with a penchant for break-action shotguns and vice indulgence, along with noticeably being The Lad-ette among the Player Character's female companions in each game. However, Cass's vices are shown from a (generally) lighthearted viewpoint, while Cait's are shown to be self-destructive and an impetus for her bloodthirsty and vengeful attitude. Furthermore, Cait had to suffer through two absolutely hellish parents until she turned 18 and was sold into slavery, while Cass at the worst only had her father walk out on her and her mother when she was little.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her life has been absolute hell. She was raised by awful parents until she was 18, at which point she was sold to slavers and was forced to be their toy for five years, until she stole enough to buy her own freedom and could finally get revenge on said parents. She then ended up in the Combat Zone for three years, drinking and drugging herself into a stupor trying to forget about it.
  • Death Seeker: If you max out your relationship and cure her addiction, she admits that the reason she fought in the Combat Zone, getting bloodied for crowds she hated and only holding herself together with Psycho, was that she wanted to die.
  • Drugs Are Bad: Oh, boy. Cait's life of chems is part of her borderline Ax-Crazy Blood Knight nature, and it's revealed that she's been hitting Psycho for so long that no ordinary Wasteland doctor or amount of Addictol can cure it. She's even coughing up blood because of it.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: She likes it when the Sole Survivor walks around naked. This actually makes her one of the easiest companions to max out affinity for, since you can simply strip naked (technically to your underwear) and fast travel between a few safe locations repeatedly.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Despite being pretty cynical and noticeably less altruistic than most of the other companions to the Sole Survivor, she has some lines that prove she's not all bitter.
    • She'll complain about having to babysit if the player agrees to help Billy find his parents, but likes it if they choose to protect the kid and his family from the Gunners and absolutely hates selling him off, having once been a slave herself.
    • Likewise, she's not a fan of the Railroad, but will approve of a dialogue option describing helping Synths as "noble" in Bunker Hill.
    • She also has no qualms about murdering others, but still abhors the act of randomly murdering innocent people.
    • She'll shout at you if tell Blake Abernathy that his daughter deserved to die, calling it "uncalled for" even by her own standards.
    • She will be horrified if she sees an abandoned church nursery.
  • Fiery Redhead: Described as such almost word-for-word. Her attitude certainly shows.
  • Fighting Irish: As violent as they come in the post-apocalyptic world.
  • Freudian Excuse: See Dark and Troubled Past above. She's got a huge chip on her shoulder, and it all began from her horrific childhood.
  • Functional Addict: Subverted. Her dependence on Psycho only makes her more fearsome in the heat of battle. However, once you befriend her she admits that her addiction is catching up to her and has become so severe that regular medicine cannot cure her, requiring you to help her travel to a Vault with a special method of curing drug addiction.
    • Played straight with her alcohol use; she's a hard drinker, and that doesn't seem to slow her down at all. Unlike chem use, she doesn't give it up after her quest, though she no longer grants approval for consuming it, either.
  • Had to Be Sharp: Not book smart, but her street smarts are finely honed, which explains why she's much more alive than she otherwise should be.
  • Heel–Face Turn: If she leaves Chems, most of her antisocial behavior drops away. She also becomes anti-chem use.
  • Hidden Depths: When exploring the Vaults, Cait demonstrates knowledge of the Vault Experiments and Vault-Tec's true sinister agenda. Even many scientists and Vault Dwellers are unaware of this aspect of the Vaults' designs. One wonders how some random Wastelander who was practically raised by Raiders managed to become so knowledgeable about the Vaults.
  • Ironic Name: "Cait" is an Irish name meaning "pure." Cait herself is by far one of the most cynical and ruthless companions in the game, and is a loudmouthed bitter prick due to her entire life having pretty much been a downward spiral since her own childhood.
  • It's All About Me: Cait hates and distrusts everyone but herself and the Sole Survivor. And maybe a few of the companions purely because they look hot. If you lower her approval, instead of complaining that you're hurting the people of the Commonwealth or disgracing her ideals, she will complain that you are mistreating her.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cait is a cutthroat bitch when you first meet her, and generally approves of selfish and violent actions. But when she warms to you (and, by extension, most of the other companions) and drops her Psycho addiction, she becomes a lot nicer, and outright calls the Survivor a lifelong friend.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Aside from Strong, who just likes murdering people in general, Cait is the only companion to flat out approve of executing Danse in "Blind Betrayal" once he's revealed to be a Synth, immediately assuming the worst of him that he's a double agent. Even after hearing that he never knew until recently and remains so loyal to the Brotherhood that he offers himself up to die, Cait will still approve of killing him because she still thinks that he will still turn on the Sole Survivor and Danse also sort of annoys her. She will dislike it if the Sole Survivor talks Danse into living and defends him when Maxson arrives, even scolding them for not having the balls to kill Danse if they demand someone else (Maxson) do so. Especially telling as characters who Danse was previously nothing but rude to and likely plans to exterminate (Hancock, Nick, Curie) and even Deacon (who works for the Railroad, which is diametrically opposed to the Brotherhood) will still stick up for him here.
    • Cait will also like it if you go through with massacring the Railroad in "End of the Line", even assuring the Sole Survivor that the Railroad never did anything for them despite Tinker Tom being the reason the Sole Survivor got the Courser Chip data, arrived the Institute and reunited with Shaun.
    • She also "likes" it if you abandon Billy after freeing him from the fridge, and "loves" it if you shoot a kidnapped Kent in order to threaten Sinjin.
    • In a near-literal example, she, X6-88, and Strong are the only members of the Sole Survivor's companions to show an active dislike of Dogmeat, with her even derisively calling him a "dirty little mole rat" and saying she'll turn him to a fur coat if he gets the Sole Survivor killed.
    • In another near literal example, she likes it if you kill Erin's cat, Ashes.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Cait will approve if you threaten the well-intentioned but smug Dr. Li to work for the Brotherhood under threat of execution, remarking that she loves it when you "talk dirty."
  • The Lad-ette: She's tough as nails, loves using Chems, and is an alcoholic. Her personal quest softens this; while she does become fiercely anti-drug, she still loves fighting and drinking.
  • A Lighter Shade of Grey: Of the three "evil" companions in the base game. Cait isn't a saint, but compared to the likes of Strong (a brutal and violent super mutant) and X6-88 (a cold-blooded synth assassin), Cait is just a deeply cynical and bitter person who became that way because of her Dark and Troubled Past, which is wholly sympathetic. She's also the only one that can be "reformed", in a sense; if the player completes her personal quest and maxes out affinity with her, she's grateful to you for being a positive influence on her and helping her turn her life around. This is reflected in her affinity reactions to the use of chems and alcohol; she goes from approving of the player using chems and giving them to others, to disapproving of them. And unlike Strong and X6, Cait will express disapproval of cold-blooded murder of innocents.
  • Made a Slave: By her own parents, no less. They raised her to sell her, and her enslavement lasted for five years before she managed to buy her freedom back.
  • Master of Unlocking: She's an expert at lockpicking (to the point where she can unlock the most difficult locks in the game), making her a valuable asset for those who prefer to concentrate on other skills. Picking locks is also a decent way for raising her approval.
  • My Eyes Are Up Here: Cait will ogle the Sole Survivor (and will gain approval if the Survivor runs around in underwear) even if she hasn't been romanced. Then there's this:
    Cait: We'd move a lot faster if you kept your eyes on the road and off me arse.
  • Of Corsets Sexy: Her default outfit is simply called "corset".
  • Pet the Dog:
    • After rescuing Valentine, she will express hope that he will help the Sole Survivor find Shaun.
    • While she normally disapproves of charity and helping others, as well as Dogmeat and dogs in general, she likes it when you heal Dogmeat. She also praises Dogmeat as a "smart little mutt" if she accompanies him and the Sole Survivor to Fort Hagen and will warn the Sole Survivor if Dogmeat is injured.
    • She's just as compassionate and consoling as all the other companions when shown the dead pod of the Sole Survivor's spouse.
    • Despite disliking the Railroad, she likes it if you agree to honour Glory's dying wish of freeing the synths, and, despite her callous response, dislikes brushing Glory off.
  • Psycho Serum: Her drug of choice is Psycho. Fallout 3 revealed Psycho was designed on the orders of General Chase as a military Super Serum, and administered to troops despite its side effects, including increased anger. If you earn her trust, she'll admit to routinely dosing herself behind your back, and that she can't kick her habit even though she's beginning to cough blood. She then asks the Sole Survivor's help in finding some arcane Vault-Tec hardware that can cure her of her addiction. Once she gets clean, some of her antisocial tendencies drop.
  • Rape as Backstory: Heavily implied, though never directly stated. Between five years as a slave for her owner's amusement and three years in the Combat Zone, where she implies Raiders had sexual demands. note 
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After buying her freedom, she proceeded to track down her parents and took bloody vengeance on them.
  • Scotireland: Cait herself is Irish while her voice actress is Scottish.
  • Self-Made Orphan: After managing to buy her own freedom, she killed her horrible parents for having sold her into slavery. Notably, in her affinity conversations, she mentions that she actually has regrets concerning this. Sure, she hated them, they treated her like utter garbage, and they never even once made her feel like she was their daughter... but did she really have the right to decide that they deserved to die?
  • Sex Slave: What she essentially was to the Raiders her parents sold her to.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Her main weapon is a double-barreled shotgun.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Because of her past experiences, Cait dislikes it when the Sole Survivor is being charitable because she believes people will take advantage of you with neverending cries for help and ultimately stab you in the back.
  • The Tease: Aside from the player, Cait makes flirtatious comments with most of the male companions (Preston, MacCready, Deacon, Hancock, possibly Danse) in the game when the player switches them out, and also Piper. After romancing her, asking about the status of your relationship with her may provoke comments about looking for a bed if you're tired, and that she's "havin' some pretty naughty thoughts about you right now."
  • The Teetotaler: After you finish her loyalty quest, she will disapprove of chem usage and become ambivalent to alcohol usage (when those had previously been ways of getting approval). Justified, given the intent of that quest.
  • Title Drop: During the quest "In Sheep's Clothing" Cait can drop the title of the quest in two different ways, if McDonough is ordered to stand trial or killed outright.
    Cait: Well, scratch one wolf in sheep's clothin'. I guess we're done here.
    Cait: You did the right thing. Wasn't right havin' him hidin' out like some sort of wolf in sheep's clothin'.
  • Token Evil Teammate: One of the more morally unscrupulous of the base companions. While not necessarily evil, and certainly not on the level of X6-88 or Strong, she prefers greedy, violent and selfish actions compared to other characters. Indulging in self-destructive behavior such as alcohol and chems also gain her favor, at least before her personal quest. She mellows out quite a bit if you do.
  • Unexplained Accent: She speaks with a thick Northern Irish accent even though there's no indication she's from over the seas. Of course, it's the ruins of Boston, so the real question is why half of Diamond City doesn't sound Irish.
    • She does refer to herself as Irish a couple of times, but never attempts to explain how she got to Boston (assuming that she wasn't just born in the United States to Irish-born parents, and adopted their accent). It should be noted that - from the presence of fellow Irishman Colin Moriarty and the British Alistair Tenpenny, as well as the Russian Bobrov brothers - it seems transatlantic travelnote  isn't impossible in the 23rd Century, simply rare.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: Even if the Survivor agrees that what she did to her parents was just, Cait remains unsure, admitting that seeing their terrified faces whenever she closes her eyes is part of why she drinks and shoots up.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a double-barreled shotgun. She also has a baseball bat in her inventory when you first recruit her.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After completing her personal quest, she'll chew you out for taking chems while she's around.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her accent is ultimately more of a stereotypical view of an Irish accent than any actual one.

    Curie 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/curie.jpg
Click here to see her post Brain Uploading. 
Voiced by: Sophie Cortina

"My entire life has been in this Vault. I have analyzed and learned everything there is to know here. So now I must see the rest of the Commonwealth. Consult with scientists. Unearth more data to challenge my hypotheses."

A Miss Nanny robot, Curie was a researcher in Vault 81 experimenting with mole rats infected with diseases. After helping her and the Vault, she decides to follow the Sole Survivor to learn more about the outside world.

She is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. Her unique perk, "Combat Medic", lets you heal 100 hit points once every 24 hours if your health falls below 10%.


  • Ace Custom: Curie's programming is heavily modified by the late Dr. Collins, who programmed a personality based on Einstein, Kant and the real Marie Curie, and her voice to resemble a woman he'd dated in Paris during his university years. He also insisted in having her treated like a person, even giving her things to own, despite her protest that a robot cannot own things. This led to Curie becoming sentient.
  • Badass Bookworm: An extremely smart scientist who also happens (due to a unique quirk of how her health is calculated) to be by far the toughest companion in the game, especially with armor onnote , being even more durable than the giant Super Mutant you can recruit.
  • Badass Normal: Like Codsworth, she wasn't programmed to do violence or equipped with weapons. She still won't back down from a fight and shows no qualms about using her medical equipment and training to permanently disassemble people instead of healing them.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: She normally prefers avoiding as much violence as possible, but there a few characters she actually approves of killing (Gunners Baker and Clint, Eddie Winter, and the murderer in Vault 118).
  • Become a Real Boy: She wishes to download herself into a human brain to expand her research capabilities. Eventually, the Sole Survivor is able to help download her into the body of a brain dead female Synth with the consent of the Synth's caretaker.
  • Boyish Short Hair: Her Synth body sports this.
  • Brain Uploading: A weird inversion; she's an artificial intelligence that seeks to be downloaded into a more human-like brain, out of hopes that this will increase her capacity to grow and learn.
  • But Thou Must!: Played for Laughs. Even if you staunchly deny being a representative from Vault-Tec when you find her in Vault 81, Curie will Hand Wave whatever response you give until she finally just claims her audio circuits briefly malfunctioned and she heard you say "yes". She obviously just wants you to tell her what she needs to hear so she can finally leave and is trying to get you to play along.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Dips into this occasionally thanks in part to her Fish out of Temporal Water tendencies, for example saying that combat is good exercise as one of her random battle quips.
  • Combat Medic: It's even the name of her special perk. She can also make and give you Stimpaks.
  • Combat Tentacles: She's a Miss Nanny, after all. Like Codsworth, she sports three mechanical manipulator arms that she uses to defend herself with.
  • Creative Sterility: She feels stymied by the limitations of an electronic brain in her research endeavors, and seeks a way to become human to get The Spark of Genius.
  • Cyber Cyclops: As with Codsworth, although she technically has three optic sensors, her usual direction of them and her tendency to focus only one of them on you at a time makes her feel like this trope.
  • Dented Iron: As per Codsworth, she's a literal example, her body clearly showing the wear-and-tear of decades without maintenance, in contrast to a shiny new Miss Nanny.
  • Due to the Dead: Just before meeting Curie, you find three boxes containing the bodies of the science team she worked with; uniforms neatly folded on them as well as flowers. In her new Synth body, she experiences genuine grief when remembering her old team.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: She's programmed with a French accent and is one of the companions you can romance.
  • Expy: Downplayed, but her general character seems to be heavily based on Moira Brown. Both are incredibly friendly Cloud Cuckoolanders that just want to help improve the Wasteland, contain elements of Mad Scientists in their personalities, and have accents that are quite different that the rest of the inhabitants of their respective regions (Moira has an Upper Midwest accent while living in the Capital Wasteland, and Curie has a French accent while living in the Commonwealth).
  • Fem Bot: Zigzagged; she's got a definitely female personality, but appearance wise... she's a Miss Nanny; she looks like a floating metal bubble with three tentacles and three eyestalks. Her personal quest upgrades her to Robot Girl by using Brain Uploading into the body of a Gen 3 Synth.
  • French Maid: The typical personality type for Miss Nanny domestic service robots is that of a French maid, complete with French accent. Though Curie was adapted for the purposes of medical research, she still has the default personality and voice type.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: Like the Sole Survivor, Curie dates back to before the war, only she has a far worse time adjusting because she never seemed to know a life outside a Vault. She'll wonder if fights against Raiders should be reported to the police, and asks if famous landmarks such as the Old State House or Bunker Hill still give tours or distribute fliers. Unlike the situation with the Sole Survivor, though, this is largely Played for Laughs with her.
  • Foil: Like with Nick Valentine, she's a Foil to X6-88. Both are artificial lifeforms and if you complete a certain quest for her, they are both Synths, but while Curie sincerely wishes to be more human-like in her mannerisms and appearance, X6-88 makes a point of being as cold and mechanical as possible in spite of his outwardly human appearance.
  • For Science!: A positive example. She seeks to learn as much about the world as she can, researching ideas on how to improve it for everyone's betterment.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The scientists she used to work for actually came up with her name, based on her title of "Contagions Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer", or CVRIE.
  • Game of Nerds: It's offhandedly mentioned that she likes the statistical aspect of (the now basically-extinct) baseball.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even after she's uploaded into a brain-dead Gen 3 Synth, she and others will still use ambient dialogue that treats her like she's a Miss Nanny.
  • Glacier Waif: Post-brain transfer, she has a staggering 670hp, a level of health no other follower can match until the Sole Survivor's level is in the mid-to-high 50s. With the addition of armor, she is easily the most durable companion for much of the game... all while looking like a slightly petite young woman.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: Averted. She's been trapped in the experimental section of Vault 81 for hundreds of years with only horribly diseased Mole Rats for company, but when the Sole Survivor meets her she's still quite sane, cheerful, and happy to help.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: More like "Kindness Cannot Comprehend Jerkassery," but the point still stands that if the Sole Survivor coldly brushes off Glory as she's dying, she'll comment in a confused tone "But... she's our friend, yes?"
  • Head-Turning Beauty: Her Synth form is an immensely attractive young woman who can be romanced, and one of her offhand remarks is musing how odd she finds it that everyone is now distracted by her "backside" wherever she goes.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Despite being pro-Synth and opposing violence against them, Curie is one of the few companions to support the Brotherhood of Steel, an anti-Synth faction. Becomes doubly ironic once she becomes a Synth herself.
    • This is mostly due to her being predominantly For Science!, which is more important to her than her other opinions. Although she will still dislike people taking joy in killing, treating Synths poorly, or even unnecessary violence, she will, for example, geek out over both the Prydwen and Liberty Prime.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: After getting her new Synth body, one of her lines in conversation is to ask whether something is wrong with her behind, because of the way people keep staring at it. She will also blush and try to admonish the Sole Survivor if they try to flirt with her, with one of the flirtation lines even commenting that she looks too cute when flustered to not try and flirt with.
  • Just a Machine: Totally averted, much like Nick Valentine. She has just as much personality and sentience as any person. Not to mention that the long-dead science team in Vault 81 came to view her as an equal part of said team. Examined more deeply post brain-uploading; she remarks that her mind is now capable of so much more when running on a Gen-3 Synth brain than her robot processors, admitting that she underestimated what having a "human" body would be like.
  • Measuring the Marigolds: Averted. Once she's uploaded into a synth body, Curie finds that her preinstalled knowledge base doesn't help her to deal with the emotions she can now feel, but she's so enthralled by experiencing them that she doesn't feel the need to fully understand the How and Why.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: Just going by the multiple terminals that are found in the room that she was locked in, she is either an explicitly default Mr. Handy that was modified by the scientists into a custom robot identical to a Ms. Nanny, or a Ms. Nanny who was always mostly the way that she is now. Possibly Hand Waved by either data corruption screwing up some files or the scientists in question misremembering.
  • Named After Someone Famous: As noted below, she's named after the famous Marie Skłodowska Curie, a French-Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research regarding radioactivity and became the first woman in history to win a Nobel Prize.
  • Nice Girl: She dislikes the Sole Survivor being a Jerkass and approves of noble actions, politeness in conversations, and helping people throughout the wastes. Really, she might quite possibly be the nicest companion character in the series to date or at least the second behind Codsworth.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: When encountering the bloodsucking fauna, Curie often rattles off fun facts about them.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted. There was a Mother Curie III in Fallout 3. Both draw their names from the Real Life Marie Skłodowska Curie.
  • The Pollyanna: She likes it when you offer aid to almost anything or anyone — joining the Brotherhood, helping rescue Synths for the Railroad, or establishing settlements for the Minutemen. She doesn't seem to grasp that some of these organizations might eventually clash...
  • Poirot Speak: Usually, Curie speaks in perfect English, but sometimes she gets a little confused with phrases, or inserts certain French words into sentences (like "Monsieur/Madame"). Possibly Justified, since she isn't actually French - a French accent was simply selected for her when she was programmed.
  • Robosexual: She becomes available as a romance option after her A.I. is transferred into the very humanoid body of a Synth.
  • Running Gag: She has unique dialogue with basically every doctor in the game, where she'd puzzle or confuse them by acting like the medical profession hasn't changed since the nukes fell — such as asking about organizing a medical conference with Dr. Carrington, what university Doc Crocker went to, or what the current medical publications are.
  • The Spark of Genius: Curie comes to the conclusion that lacking this as a robot is an impasse in her scientific endeavors, calling it by name by using the term "spark" and invoking the names of Einstein and Curie. Being installed into a Synth body gives her the necessary expansion of consciousness to gain this.
  • Squee: Curie is by far the most enthusiastic companion whenever civilian, scientific and especially Pre-War matters come up. She geeks out over pretty much every famous landmark in the game, often even multiple times upon subsequent visits. She also becomes mildly ecstatic upon discovering the ruins of a Pre-War mall overrun by Super Mutants ("Oh! Shopping!"). That last one can be especially funny if she's still installed in her robotic Mr. Nanny shell instead of in a humanoid Synth body that could actually get some use out of the stuff she might find in the shops.
  • Technical Pacifist: She dislikes fighting, but is not above disintegrating enemies to protect herself and the Sole Survivor. Although unlike the other companions, who have a variety of battle cries, taunts and boasts, Curie treats fighting clinically and takes no joy in it.
  • Terrified of Germs: She'll frequently complain about the lack of cleanliness in the Wasteland. And make sure to wash your hands after looting/eating corpses, otherwise it's unsanitary...
  • Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to talk about her without eventually noting her having her mind and personality uploaded into a Gen 3 Synth.
  • Weapon Specialization: After becoming a Synth, Curie defaults to using a laser rifle in combat.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: She's puzzled by her feelings and emotions once she upgrades to her new Synth body, and becomes outright overwhelmed if the Sole Survivor begins to flirt with her.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Like Codsworth, Curie's Miss Nanny chassis has a higher-functioning robot brain than some other Handy/Nanny/Gutsy models.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her accent will feel slightly off to native French speakers (only slightly as her actress did have a French parent, even if she'd spent most of her life in the States). Considering that another Miss Nanny in Diamond City speaks with the exact same voice and accent, it's probably just the default programming for that line of robots.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Not herself, but she will say this verbatim about the diseased Mole Rats that now infest Vault 81.

    John Hancock 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallout_4_hancock.jpg
Voiced by: Danny ShoragoForeign dubs 

"Like it? I think it gives me a sexy, king of the zombies kinda look. Big hit with the ladies."

A stoner who became a ghoul after a bad trip, Hancock once lived in Diamond City, but upon its declaration to banish the entire ghoul population, relocated to Goodneighbor. After a long period living under the thumb of the town's oppressive bosses, he wound up tripping so hard he woke up in front of a museum exhibit about John Hancock. Inspired by the legendary figure, he took the name and the fashion, leading a quick revolution in the town and becoming its new mayor in the process.

He is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. His unique perk, "Isodoped", makes critical hits increase faster if the Sole Survivor has 250 rads or more.


  • Appeal to Force: Downplayed when compared to Danse or Cait, but Hancock runs on the mantra of "Be good to the innocent, merciless to the guilty."
  • The Atoner: He's trying to make up for being a bystander to the various injustices to innocent people caused by his brother as well as assholes in general.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: People don't just respect him for his title, as even Strong and X6-88 recognize his combat mettle.
  • Black Comedy: He's rather prone to doing this, especially when it comes to his jokes.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He may not go so far as to imitate everything about his namesake, but Hancock definitely tries to live up to the historical pedigree. To elaborate, he spends most of his time high as a kite, models himself after a historical figure, and comes across as wildly unpredictable. But he remains indispensable as the mayor of Goodneighbour because everyone idolizes him.
  • Bystander Syndrome: Back in his human days, he was just a stoner who was too cowardly to do anything to help people in need despite knowing full well that it was wrong. Even though he did eventually stand up on the second occasion, he sees it as too little, too late.
  • The Casanova: Take him to any settlement or major city, men and women will sometimes come up to ask if he's doing a "tour of the town." Despite being a ghoul, Hancock's got game.
  • Catchphrase: As Mayor of Goodneighbour, he has "Of the people, for the people!" It was how he began his inauguration speech after lynching the last mayor.
  • Cursed with Awesome: He regards his current state as an acceptable trade-off for near-immortality.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He's just as good as Piper and Nick in this department. Case in point: when confronted with anti-Ghoul rhetoric, Hancock's quick to fire back with witty retorts.
  • Developer's Foresight: Hancock is a minor quest-giver for a few missions in the game; he has a lot of dialogue during the Silver Shroud quest if he's still in his office as mayor, for example. If you have him as a companion he'll simply chime in at an appropriate time while the two of you are travelling (though this does mean you can't Speak As Shroud to him, sadly). If, however, you had him as a companion but caused him to leave due to dropping his affinity to "hatred", he still shows up during the quest to inform you about Sinjin, but says it is for Kent's sake, not yours (as he's still too pissed at you to work with you).
  • Driven to Suicide: He was previously trying to kill himself through drugs prior to his "Eureka!" Moment, which inspired him to turn his life around.
  • The Dog Bites Back: When he first came to Goodneighbor, it was run by a violent psychopath without any sense of decency who would let his thug brigade loose on the town sometimes just to let them blow off steam. Hancock eventually got fed up with it, banded some other drifters together (residents with a house could merely lock their doors to escape), convinced Kleo to lend some guns, trained out in the wastes, and then utterly slaughtered the mayor's thugs on their next rampage. He then went to the Mayor himself, tied a noose around his neck, and tossed the monster over the old statehouse railing to hang. By then a crowd had gathered, and he almost reflexively yelled "Of the people, for the people!" After that outburst led to raucous cheer, he found himself as Mayor of Goodneighbor.
  • The Don: Due to Goodneighbor's status as a Wretched Hive, he's less of a politician and more akin to a benevolent crime lord who controls the town and most of the criminal activities.
  • Easily Forgiven: If you work with Bobbi to steal from him and kill Fahrenheit, he'll make you kill Bobbi and reimburse him rather than simply kill you outright. Even then, it's possible to talk him down from 1000 caps to 200 by passing some speech checks, and convince Bobbi to walk away in return for the rest of the caps she stole (you won't even have to pay him off anyway). In the case of Fahrenheit, he accepts that you were just doing a job and it was Nothing Personal. If anything, allowing him to travel with you after killing Fahrenheit is you paying him back as you're technically working for him (much like how Danse is technically your superior officer in the Brotherhood).
    • Despite leading the most openly anti-Institute town in the Commonwealth, he reacts nowhere near as badly as Nick and Piper do to the Sole Survivor siding with the Institute.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Like Cait, Hancock will approve of the Sole Survivor walking around naked in front of him.
    Hancock: That's a good look for you.
  • Establishing Character Moment: When a thug in Goodneighbor tries to extort you, Hancock steps in and tries to talk the guy down. Then it becomes apparent that the guy would stir up more trouble if he simply walked away, and so Hancock shanks him to death right there. (He also likes it if you shoot the guy yourself during the moment of distraction). Even if you shoot and kill the thug immediately after his extortion attempt, Hancock will voice his admiration of you "walking into a new place" and making a "show of dominance". He will follow that up with his "of the people, for the people" introduction - and if you respond with a verbal eye roll, he'll laugh, and say he can tell he's gonna like you already.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Had one after an exceptionally powerful drug trip resulted in him somehow lying on the floor of the Old State House next to a set of clothes that belonged to the American Founding Father John Hancock. Inspired by the historical figure (and in awe of his fashion sense), he donned the outfit and took the name "Hancock," taking it upon himself to raise a revolutionary militia to overthrow the corrupt then-mayor of Goodneighbor.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: His eyes are solid black.
  • Face of a Thug: Hancock is a ghoul (with all of the physical deformities this comes with), but he's really a generally good person who dislikes violence on those who don't have it coming. It says a lot about his character that, under his leadership, Goodneighbor switched from a Wretched Hive to a dingy but halfway comfortable (at least in comparison to the wastes) place to live.
  • Freaky Is Cool: When he was turned into a ghoul, he considered it a genuine upgrade on what he had been, even with the drawbacks.
  • Functional Addict: In contrast to Cait, Hancock abuses every drug there is but doesn't seem to be especially bothered by it. While ghouls are naturally resistant to chems, he seemed to be the same back when he was a human.
  • I Hate Past Me: He knew what the drug that turned him into a ghoul would do, but he took it because he couldn't live with himself as the man who stood by while the ghouls of Diamond City were sent out to die in the wastes thanks to his brother's anti-ghoul policies.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Hancock loves helping out those who cannot help themselves and is generally a very reasonable man. But if someone gets on his bad side, he'll stab them in the gut without blinking an eye.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Hancock's philosophy is "protect the innocent, murder the guilty." And he's not above showing a little fear to people who deserve it. He also abuses every drug known to man.
  • Gutted Like a Fish: He does tricks with a knife in one of his idle animations, and uses one to gut a goon trying to extort the Survivor when they first enter Goodneighbor.
  • Hidden Depths: Despite being a habitual drug user and hedonist, he has the second-highest Intelligence score of all the Sole Survivor's companions, being only behind Codsworth. Furthermore, a "Join the Railroad" holotape can be found in his room, implying that he's a Railroad member or ally on at least some level.
  • Iconic Outfit: He wears the original John Hancock's clothes, which he stole from an exhibition. This also makes him a case of an Incongruously-Dressed Zombie.
  • Interspecies Romance: For a given definition of "species", but he can be romanced.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: According to a terminal in the Memory Den, pre-Ghoul Hancock was a complete stud.
  • Kavorka Man: It's something of a Running Gag the way he's constantly propositioned by both men and women of every major town and settlement to be "shown around town", despite the fact that he's a ghoul. And of course, he may end up with the Sole Survivor.
  • Ladykiller in Love: Implied to be this if he's in a romance with the Sole Survivor. When asked by men or women if he's there for a "tour of the town", Hancock tells them he's no longer "a wandering Ghoul", because "the one I got ain't someone you go wanderin' on."
  • Mirror Character: To Mayor McDonaugh of Diamond City. Both men are the respective leaders of their towns, but while Hancock runs a town of societal dregs, they are genuinely happy with each other and have a much better handle on the paranoia of the Institute. By contrast, Diamond City may be the town of the "decent people", but it's a paranoid place that tries to pretend Synths don't exist and has a lot of societal backstabbing going on under the surface.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: He's fond of personal vices, like chem usage (to the point where he sometimes hallucinates) and sleeping around. But not anything that hurts innocent people.
  • Named After Somebody Famous: As mentioned above, he dresses like and named himself after the American patriot, John Hancock. According to him, after a particularly good trip he woke up in front of the costume in an exhibit, where he had an epiphany and took the identity for himself. An old conversation with his brother reveals that his first name actually is John, making him "John McDonough" by birth.
  • Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Essentially what he is, and what he wants most of Goodneighbor to be — he's anti-authority, and is eager to indulge in schemes and chems, but he also doesn't mind if the Sole Survivor rubs out some of the nastier elements in Goodneighbor as well. This is especially true during "The Silver Shroud", where he approves the Survivor gunning down murderers and drug dealers, and uses them to take out Sinjin, the Raider boss who organized the other crooks.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe. He still has a lot of self-loathing related to his past Bystander Syndrome regarding first the purge of Diamond City's Ghoul population and later the death of a random Goodneighbor drifter at the hands of the Raider boss Vic.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: As shown in his intro cutscene, Hancock is quick to deal with anyone who takes advantage of others.
  • Pragmatic Hero: "Someone needs helping, we help 'em. Someone needs hurting, we hurt 'em. It's not hard."
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He generally tries to be a down-to-earth and relaxed ruler who earns the respect of his people. In the Silver Shroud quest, he approves of the Sole Survivor's stint of vigilantism and will eventually help you take down Sinjin after seeing your work. Afterwards, if Kent is alive, he'll give him a pep-talk and encourage him to continue his work. Additionally, according to Deacon, Hancock turns a blind eye to the Railroad's activities in Goodneighbor (implied to be due to him being an ally of the Railroad on at least some level).
  • Running Gag: If taken to any of the Sole Survivor's settlements, he will be either repeatedly either prepositioned by settlers to get "shown around town", or settlers will apologize to him about how they still owe him money and are trying to pay him back.
  • The Stoner: He loves chems and getting high yourself is a good way to get him to like you. In fact, he became a ghoul after using a particularly radioactive drug.
  • Tranquil Fury: If he hates the player, John will seethe in disgust whenever they talk to each other.
  • Ultimate Authority Mayor: Subverted. While he does call himself "Mayor of Goodneighbor" and, indeed, holds the highest influence in town, he deliberately avoids exerting his authority more than he feels it's necessary (unlike his brother). Part of the reason he agrees to accompany the Survivor is because he thinks he's going heavy on his position, and that he should leave power for just a bit to "keep himself real".
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: Mostly defied, but the end result is mostly the same. Although he has every reason to hate McDonough of Diamond City after his Ghoul purge, Hancock doesn't really plan to kill the bastard and is satisfied with being mayor of Goodneighbor. However, completing the "In Sheep's Clothing" quest beforehand in which McDonough is outed as a Synth agent for the Institute will alter his midway heart-to-heart so that he expresses his newfound frustration and confusion as a result of the quest's events.
  • We Help the Helpless: He's all about helping people who need it while punishing those who deserve it. Being nice to innocent folks while being an asshole to assholes is a good way of getting him to like you.
  • Weapon Specialization: Like Cait, he defaults to a double-barreled shotgun.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: It can be hard to tell, but he's wearing a tattered American flag as a sash.
  • Worthy Opponent: He sees you as this if you rob him with Bobbi No-Nose. He figures that if you can pull off something like that, he's losing his edge and needs to do some wasteland wandering for a while. Granted, this is after he makes you kill Bobbi and reimburse him for his losses.
  • Younger Than They Look: Most Ghouls you meet are Pre-War, to the point that even random Triggermen Ghouls will talk about life before the War. Hancock is one of the rare exceptions; he's only been a Ghoul for about a decade, and is maybe fifty or sixty years old at the outside.

    Robert Joseph MacCready 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maccready.jpg
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer

"You think this place looks bad? Go visit the Capital Wasteland some time."

The former mayor of Little Lamplight, R.J. MacCready has come a long way since his days as the town's bratty gate guard. Since becoming a mungo and heading out into the wastes, he's married a woman named Lucy and had a son named Duncan. Unfortunately, for reasons he doesn't like to discuss with strangers, he's had to leave his family in the Capital Wasteland behind and head north, selling himself as a mercenary in the town of Goodneighbor. Nominally, he stands in for the Gunners faction as a companion, although MacCready has already cut all ties with them by time he meets the Sole Survivor.

He is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. His unique perk, "Killshot", gives you a 20% accuracy bonus to headshots in V.A.T.S.


  • Ascended Extra: Hey, remember that foul-mouthed kid at the gates of Little Lamplight? Well, now he's a fully-matured grownup and can fight alongside you.
  • The Atoner: He's trying hard to make up for his past.
  • Badass Longcoat: By default, he wears a tattered beige duster.
  • Boom, Headshot!: His special perk gives you a bonus to headshots.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Zig-zagged. His attempts at smooth flirtation fall flat with Piper, but work just fine with Cait.
  • Continuity Nod: Much like Deacon, he supplies lots of these to Fallout 3 (aside from him coming from the Capital Wasteland).
    • Bringing him to the WRVR broadcast station will have him remark, "I miss the Capital Wasteland radio... Three Dog was a hell of a DJ."
    • When underground, MacCready will occasionally shout "Tunnel Snakes Rule!", referencing the Tunnel Snakes in Fallout 3.
  • Crusading Widower: His wife was killed by Feral Ghouls while they were hiding out in a metro station.
  • Debt Detester: He approaches a lot of things like a business contract, and insists on "keeping things even" with you whenever you help him.
  • Defector from Decadence: Much of MacCready's time in the Commonwealth was spent running with the Gunners, being part of their barbaric day-to-day activities, and hating himself for it. After one too many inhumane killings, he quit the gang and struck out on his own, never to look back.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's a more pragmatic person than straight up amoral, since he approves of ripping people off for extra profit and likes ending situations with violence. Still, he despises the murder of innocent lives, will chew you out for pointless cruelty, hates getting hooked on Chems, and likes to help out the Minutemen.
  • Friendly Sniper: Uses a sniper rifle by default and generally approves of moral actions for families, barring the occasional roguish activity (like stealing anything that isn't nailed down).
  • Friend to All Children: He generally approves of stealing, pickpocketing, and being greedy. But he loves it when the Sole Survivor helps out children and/or their parents.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: He tries to watch his language and corrects himself when he swears, having promised his son that he'll be a better person. Talk about a full 180-degree turn from his Cluster F-Bomb-prone younger self...
    MacCready: "That's all you have to say? Really?! You know what? FUCK YOU! That's right! Fuck you! I promised someone that I'd never talk like that again, but I think in this case they'd make an exception."
  • Has a Type: Maybe not just them, but he seems to have a thing for Ghouls. He flirts with Daisy in Goodneighbor and likes it when you flirt with Holly in The Slog.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Losing his wife to such a horrible event left a deep scar inside MacCready. He has never really gotten over the tragedy, continuing to be burdened by Survivor Guilt up to the present day.
  • He Is All Grown Up: He's gone from a snot-nosed brat in the Capital Wasteland to a rather handsome mungo in the Commonwealth.
  • Hidden Depths: Despite his claims of being Book Dumb, he knows a pretty decent bit of biology for the average Wastelander, being aware of Deathclaws being descended from the Jackson's Chameleon and snarking that he missed his tetanus vaccination at Rocky Narrows Park.
  • I Hate Past Me: He doesn't talk much about his past as the foul-mouthed brat of a mayor of Little Lamplight.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he mainly approves of selfish actions and does not hold back in expressing his disgust when necessary, he's also equally willing to show admiration to those he respects, such as the Sole Survivor (if they gain his friendship), and Strong.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: He's a decent person, but he's able to steal anything that isn't nailed down.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: He'll gripe and moan about do-good behavior and openly mocks the Minutemen, but helping people out and doing quests for the latter nonetheless earns his approval.
  • Last-Name Basis: Everyone refers to him as "MacCready" rather than "Robert".
  • The Lost Lenore: He still reminisces about Lucy from time to time, fondly recalling the happier days back when she was alive.
  • Lovable Rogue: While he's a mercenary at heart and has no problem with seedy dealings, he nonetheless has an acceptable moral compass and a friendly disposition.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: While he initially approves of executing Danse when it's revealed he's a Synth, having MacCready actually present at Danse's execution will have him express horror and disgust. In fact, if later prompted, he coldly notes that it was "low" of the Sole Survivor to kill Danse.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: He loves theft, isn't above making a quick buck, and is perfectly cool with finagling extra money out of quests. But he's good-hearted, friendly, and great with kids.
  • Noodle Implements: If you romanced MacCready, one of his post-Lover's Embrace quotes upon waking up is "I never knew you could do that with mutfruit..."
  • Noodle Incident: If he's to be believed, MacCready has literally killed for a drink before.
  • Odd Friendship: With Strong. MacCready is one of only three companions (the others being Hancock and X6) to earn Strong's respect for his strength, and becomes the only companion Strong refers to by name (or at least tries to). MacCready also seems to return the favor, calling Strong his 'massive mutated friend' when changing places with him.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe. He definitely doesn't talk much about his past as mayor of Little Lamplight, and outright describes being a Gunner as "the biggest mistake of his life".
  • Older and Wiser: The years have changed him for the better. Remember that Bratty Half-Pint who used to grate on your nerves? Gone — replaced by this humble fella.
  • Only in It for the Money: He's a mercenary by trade, so you have to hire him for 250 caps in order to actually recruit him, though you can lower it to 200 with a speech check. Adopting a mercenary attitude yourself (such as negotiating for more caps and stealing) is a good way to raise his approval. Subverted once you've helped him deal with the mercs after him. He'll gladly pay you back the caps and follow you out of loyalty.
    • He's one of the only characters who approves of you siding with Covenant during the Human Error quest. Not because he has any particular love of hunting down Synths, but because he'll take a paycheck over none any day.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know he's being serious when he starts up a Cluster F-Bomb, which happens if his approval of you goes too low to remain as a companion.
  • Papa Wolf: As it happens, he's in the Commonwealth searching for a cure to a horrible disease that his son is dying from.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: If you accrue enough disapproval via murder, MacCready will become peeved, not because you're killing innocents, but because killing too many innocents attracts the wrong kind of attention.
  • Reformed, but Not Tamed: Okay, he was more obnoxious than actually evil, but he has matured enough as an adult but still doesn't mean he's a goody two-shoes.
  • Shout-Out: His full name is R. J. MacCready.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He doesn't like it if you try to appeal to people's better natures, although it's unclear if it is because of the very act itself, or that it often succeeds that he's unhappy about.
  • Sticky Fingers: MacCready absolutely loves robbing people blind. He is indifferent to lockpicking if it's an unowned device, but enjoys it when you pick a lock belonging to someone else. Notably, he's one of only two companions who will steal for you (the other being Cait).
  • Survivor Guilt: One that's been driving him close to despair, coupled with the added pressures of being a single parent and having a very dangerous job. At one point, his train of thought even goes so far as to consider that maybe he and Duncan would've been better off perishing alongside Lucy, leaving no one left alive from those events, which the Survivor can call him out on, seeing how selfish he's behaving.
  • Talk Like a Pirate: When confronted with the sheer absurdity of the Revolutionary-era British-talking robots aboard the USS Constitution, MacCready decides to just roll with it and talk like a stereotypical buccaneer.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Gender-inverted. He's only 22 in Fallout 4 but he has a son old enough to walk and talk. It's not stated how old Duncan and his mother are, but MacCready was very likely a minor when he was born.
  • Took a Level in Badass: RJ here went from a snotty little brat to a respected mercenary. Strong, Hancock and X6-88 will even compliment him on his abilities when MacCready is switching places with them.
  • Weapon Specialization: Appropriately enough for a mercenary sniper, he defaults to a sniper rifle in combat.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: MacCready is audibly unnerved when brought to fight against Feral Ghouls. It is likely because he saw the mother of his son torn apart by a pack of them.
    • Zig-Zagged concerning the topic of aliens. He's unnerved while talking about the possibility of alien life with Jack Cabot, but he still suggests investigating a crashed alien ship.
  • Would Hit a Girl:
    • As a kid, he punched Princess after she appointed herself Mayor/Princess and usurped her.
    • While he's more gentlemanly as an adult, he will suggest they throw Dr. Li off the Prydwen for refusing to cooperate with the Brotherhood and approves of threatening to shoot her. He will also taunt Desdemona before attacking her if brought along while betraying the Railroad.

    Strong 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/strong_fo4.png
Voiced by: Sean Schemmel

"Human and Strong fight together. Share together. Human and Strong one."

A Super Mutant from Trinity Tower who has been imprisoned by his brethren for being "different." This is due to the influence of a human intellectual, Rex Goodman, who tried to teach the Mutants culture using classic literature, starting with Macbeth. Whereas most of them laughed at the idea, Strong took it to heart... sort of. He believes that "the milk of human kindness" is a literal drink that holds the key to human power, and seeks it for himself.

His unique perk, "Berserk", gives you 20% boost to melee damage at low health.


  • Anti-Intellectualism: He responds negatively to all smart and non-violent methods of problem solving such as hacking and lockpicking. In fact, he will hate accepting the "Public Knowledge" quest.
  • Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: He averts this in practice since he's willing to kill other Super Mutants in self-defense (though he'll complain about it to the Sole Survivor), but plays it straight otherwise in how he believes that species have a common imperative to look out for each other and derides humanity for their infighting compared to Commonwealth Super Mutants. For instance, below is what he has to say if the Sole Survivor helps a Settler:
    Strong: (approvingly) Like should help like. Human should help human.
  • Aroused by Their Voice: A non-romantic example. Strong responds well to a Sole Survivor who can charismatically talk their way into people's good graces, similar to how Rex Goodman won him over with the latter's "Shakespearean eloquence".
  • Badass Boast: If you encounter a Deathclaw, he might have this to say:
    Strong: Hah! Come Deathclaw, Strong will teach you how to die!
  • Barbarian Hero: "Hero" is honestly pushing it a little, but he's a Super Mutant with immense strength, a loincloth, and not much in the way of culture or brains. His values are also significantly different from the more "civilized" companions, hating solutions that require too much lockpicking or other "smart" activity, while loving cannibalism and violence and respecting a Warrior Poet who can back up his violence with Charisma.
  • Berserk Button: Not quite, but he'll react negatively if he's with you when you're lockpicking, complaining that he wants to smash stuff.
  • The Brute: Skewed moral compass aside, he also loves wanton murder...
  • Blood Knight:
    • Strong greatly enjoys murder, mayhem, and slaughter like most East Coast Super Mutants.
    • Bonus points if they're giant enemies like Super Mutant Behemoths and Mirelurk Queens. He admires anyone who's brave/crazy enough to take on these monstrosities.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: His ethics, likes and dislikes have a certain internal logic to them, but they have little in common with normal human ethics.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Go ahead and take him along for a Wasteland stroll. He's always hungry for a good fight, yelling and taunting incessantly while bashing some poor schmuck's brains in.
  • Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He's a vicious Social Darwinist Super Mutant who brandishes a sledgehammer by default.
  • Comically Missing the Point: His "life calling" was born out of one; Strong not only fails to realize the "milk of human kindness" is purely metaphorical, it's actually described as a weakness of humanity in context since it's what prevents Macbeth from killing. It's also one of only three reasons he's even on the side of humanity; the other two being simple curiosity, and an odd appreciation for "word-gifted" individuals.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He basically serves as a foil to every other Super Mutant companion (Marcus, Fawkes, Lily, Dog/God) in the main games. Strong still generally acts like a savage East Coast Super Mutant and lives by their original ideals, while the others were either good-natured, intelligent Mariposa mutants or heroic outliers in a breed of savages.
  • Defector from Decadence: He's one of a handful of East Coast Super Mutants to broaden their sense of awareness beyond pure savagery. However, it's noticeably downplayed; he has neither given up cannibalism nor random murder, even liking it when the Sole Survivor engages in the same. But to his credit, he at least seems to have developed some measure of "control" — satisfying his berserker urges only when out traveling with the Survivor (or when provoked). Left on his lonesome within a settlement, and he'll never attack anyone... even becoming a productive member if given mundane tasks! He'll still complain non-stop, however, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Dramatic Irony: His ultimate goal is to find and drink the secret milk of human kindness to become stronger. He also sometimes notes that humans, when banding together, go from weak individuals to a strong army. He's able to figure out why humans have the capability to be stronger than Super Mutants, but he still thinks they get most of their power from some drink.
  • Due to the Dead: He approves of the Sole Survivor eating the corpse of a fallen Super Mutant, stating "Give honor to brother by taking of his flesh" and "Eat well, human. Take strength of brother. It is [Super Mutant] way."
  • Dumb Muscle: Strong's no Fawkes or Marcus, that's for sure. He hates it when you pick locks or use computers successfully, too.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Even he is disgusted by the Sole Survivor brushing off and being disrespectful to Glory when she dies.
    • Strong's response to returning the Deathclaw egg is to suggest that eating or burning it would be a better idea. The first is the usual fair for Strong, but that he would suggest just destroying the egg shows that even as a Dumb Muscle Blood Knight Strong thinks that allowing another Deathclaw to hatch is a bad idea.
    • A relatively minor case, but he is the only non-DLC companion to dislike it if the Sole Survivor lies and keeps the modified Protectron Buddy for themselves during the "Trouble Brewin'" sidequest, finding it dishonorable and selfish.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's very confused if the Sole Survivor heals him with a Stimpak if/when he gets sufficiently wounded in a fight.
  • Fantastic Racism: Downplayed since it never reaches outright genocidal levels, but he derisively refers to Synths as "fake men" and is perfectly happy with wiping out the Railroad whereas he doesn't enjoy helping them progress through their questline otherwise. That said, when Glory is bleeding out, Strong shows respect to her, outright calling her "human" and suggesting the Sole Survivor let her die as a warrior instead of prolonging her death.
    • Played straight with robots, as he will be vocally annoyed at having to interact with them.
  • Foil: Interestingly, he's one to Cait. Both are bloodthirsty savages who revel in violence, but while Cait is self-centered and misanthropic thanks to her hellish backstory under Abusive Parents and time in the Combat Zone, Strong is surprisingly altruistic and very interested in other people and equally sharing resources thanks to his time with his fellow Commonwealth Super Mutants.
  • Friendly Enemy: The Commonwealth Minutemen have been fighting the Super Mutants for at least a century — and yet, they're the faction Strong most approves of, as the way they aid settlers reminds him of how his "brothers" work together and share recourses.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • His constant spoiling for a fight is depicted by it being impossible for him to enter sneak mode like other companions can.
    • Additionally, being a Super Mutant, he has both one of the highest health pools and strongest Strength stats among the Sole Survivor's companions, being Made of Iron and capable of lugging tons of gear wherever he goes.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: His odd curiosity for those with silver tongues and genuine desire for the common benefit of the group to be put above the self have inspired him to side (more or less) with first Rex Goodman and later the Sole Survivor, as he believes that finding "the Milk of Human Kindness" will give Super Mutants enough strength to kill off the remainder of humanity. In short, Strong's basically accomplished the first step towards the closest thing that any ordinary Dumb Muscle East Coast Super Mutant can accomplish regarding a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Hero with an F in Good: As noted, Strong is trying to be a better person. He's just pretty bad at it compared to previous Super Mutant companions.
  • Hidden Depths: In his own way, Strong is surprisingly philosophical when admitting his respect for the Sole Survivor. He describes his belief in finding strength through sharing with others, something that most humans utterly fail at, which makes them lesser beings than those who do. In Strong's eyes, selfishness is the height of dishonor and it's only through teamwork that a species can progress/survive.
  • Hulk Speak: As with most of his brethren.
  • Humans Are Ugly: Has this outlook, with him even getting a pretty good jab in at Piper when she trades off with him:
    Piper: (disgusted) Jeez, you Mutants are not much prettier up close.
    Strong: (dismissively) Strong say same about little lady.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Comes with being a Super Mutant. Approves if the Sole Survivor is one, too, making him the only companion in the game to do so. note 
    • His comments when the Sole Survivor commits cannibalism mostly consist of advice, like what organs are best and that human tastes better after hanging for two days. He will also sometimes ask the Survivor to save some for him.
  • Irony:
    • Strong leaves with the Sole Survivor in order to find the milk of human kindness, which he thinks is the source of human strength. His dialogue with the Sole Survivor makes it clear he knows that humans are strong thanks to teamwork, unaware that is the milk of human kindness.
    • Strong dislikes "intellectual" activities (he'll berate you for repairing or upgrading your weapons at a workbench, as an example), yet it was an "intellectual" who taught him about humanity and inadvertently set him on his quest for the milk of human kindness.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Well, more "tarnished bronze" rather than gold, but for a Super Mutant who never fully gave up his savage roots, Strong still likes it when you help people, sincerely desires for progress and equality (in his own weird way), and can prove to be a truly loyal friend to the Sole Survivor.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • One of the things that makes you lose Affinity with him is simply healing Dogmeat, because he was hoping to eat the pup.
    • Strong loves it if the Sole Survivor kills Virgil, and is the only companion (besides X6-88) who approves of the Sole Survivor mocking Blake Abernathy over the death of his daughter Mary.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: He doesn't do (or, more accurately, understand the concept of) stealth. Any attempts at sneaking aren't going to work with him in the party, because he'll gleefully run out of the shadows and begin fighting legions of enemies, requiring you to go save his dumb ass. Though really, you only have yourself to blame for bringing him on a stealth mission considering how spending less than five minutes around any Super Mutant will be enough of an indicator to the player regarding how they all view stealth. Doesn't help that 8 foot tall mountains of green muscle are almost impossible to hide.
  • Licked by the Dog: Synth-Shaun likes him well enough, noting that "for a monster, he seems pretty nice."
  • Literal-Minded: He thinks that Macbeth's references to the "Milk of Human Kindness" are non-metaphorical, and refer to some kind of beverage that makes you powerful.
  • Made of Iron: Out of the Sole Survivor's companions, Strong has one of the highest health pools aside from (oddly enough) Curie until after Level 50, and it takes a lot of damage to keep this Super Mutant down for the count.
  • Meaningful Name: He's a physical powerhouse, able to lug the most gear (approximately double the weight) out of any other companion. This is even shown in his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat, with him having a whopping 24 Strength, which is more than any other NPC in the game.
  • Moral Myopia: By Commonwealth Super Mutant standards, he's practically a saint, which doesn't endear him to either humanity or most of his kind.
  • Mysterious Past: Strong's life before becoming a Super Mutant is never explored or elaborated on, and Strong himself doesn't care about it, as he loves being a Super Mutant.
  • Necessary Drawback: As mentioned above, Strong is easily one of the...well, strongest companions the Sole Survivor can have, and his high HP pool makes him quite deadly on the battlefield. However, he's limited to using only certain weaponsnote  due to him (like all other Super Mutants) having a unique body shape, and can only equip other types of Super Mutant armor.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: He likes it if the Sole Survivor describes the hideous Pickman's Gallery to Hancock as "beautiful," and finds it "funny" to explore if taken there in-person.
  • No True Scotsman: He doesn't have a lot of respect for Virgil and Erickson, derisively referring to them as "not real Super Mutants."
  • Noble Demon: Strong is an... interesting case. While the "murderous rage" instinct remains hardwired into his brain (such as it is), he also surprisingly averts the single most defining characteristic of your average Frankenstein, in that he actually likes acts of altruism (not always, but mostly). This suggests that maybe Rex's teachings weren't altogether lost on him after all.
    • He also possesses his own inherent code of honor. He is okay with being harsh and murdering, but only in a Tough Love manner. He also responds positively to kindness, as he believes humans should help other humans, since Super Mutants help other Super Mutants. In a sense, he's actually a better person than Cait, who by contrast, is unabashedly self-centered. Get your affinity low enough and he'll chew you out specifically because he thinks that humans should share with humans like Super Mutants share with Super Mutants, and that by being a selfish asshole, you're weakening humanity as a whole.
  • Noble Savage: He has some trappings of this, coming from a "simple" culture that, while seemingly backwards, has some noble traits as noted above. In addition, he himself occasionally drops some surprisingly introspective comments while traveling.
    Strong: World is bigger than Strong knew...
  • Odd Friendship:
    • Rex Goodman, theatrical Shakespearean actor, and Strong, a bloodthirsty Super Mutant.
    • He gets into this with MacCready as well. While he does note having respect for some other companions, MacCready is the only one who seems to like him back. MacCready calls him friend, and Strong respectfully greets him by name. Note that he will call the Sole Survivor human even when idolizing them.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Played for Laughs, with one of his environmental comments being a contemplative "Someday, Super Mutants kill everything."
  • Pet the Dog:
    • He's remarkably respectful towards Glory when she dies during the Railroad questline, admiringly stating "Let human die. Die like warrior."
    • One of the easiest ways for the Sole Survivor to level up their affinity with Strong is to aid Minutemen settlements. Strong likes this, as it reminds him of his brothers equally sharing their resources together for the benefit of the whole. Additionally, he likes it if the Sole Survivor hands the cure over to Austin in Vault 81, gives Emogene Cabot the mysterious syrum, and gives Sheffield in Diamond City a Nuka-Cola.
    • Zig-Zagged if he is shown the pod of the Sole Survivor's dead spouse; he will call them weak, but will offer to avenge them.
  • Pragmatic Villainy:
    • Despite otherwise being a savage maniac, he's decided to work with humans like the Sole Survivor since he reasons that if he can work with them long enough to discover what the milk of human kindness is, than he can bring it back to the other Super Mutants and make them all stronger (all of which in theory would be a lot easier than just trying to kill every human in his path).
    • He also dislikes the Sole Survivor drinking alcohol, as he feels that it makes them sloppy in a fight.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: His personality is generally focused around someone's skill on the battlefield and how impressive they are in combat. In fact, his affinity with you can even increase if you just take him with you on huge fights out in the Wasteland.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Another common trait among his kind, and Strong's no exception, basking in violence with cathartic glee. That said, he's not completely without discipline or honor. See Defector from Decadence and Noble Demon above.
  • Real Men Eat Meat: Similar to how MacCready will randomly hand the Sole Survivor ammunition and Piper will hand them sweets, Strong will hand the Sole Survivor slabs of meat taken off of various Wasteland critters. He’ll also be pleased if the Sole Survivor cannibalizes a corpse.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He, of all companions, will give the Sole Survivor a pretty harsh one if he loses enough affinity towards the Player Character, angrily stating that they're a terrible leader and are indirectly screwing over the rest of humanity through their selfishness.
  • Science Is Bad: He hates it whenever you do...well, anything involving your smarts. Hacking, lockpicking, and pretty much anything else other than caving enemies' heads in will displease him. Strangely, he even grouses about you upgrading your weapons and wearing Power Armor.
  • Screaming Warrior: When he's not laughing at the enemy' misery, he's roaring at them in bloodlust.
  • So Much for Stealth: He never sneaks. At all.
  • The Social Darwinist: Interestingly deconstructed. While he fits a lot of the stereotypical criteria of this archetype (he's a member of a Proud Warrior Race and thinks that the weak are worthless and only fit for being enslaved or devoured by those stronger than them), he's actually savvy enough to understand that with enough numbers and by working together, the "weak" can become "strong." As such, he dislikes selfish actions and argues for the benefit of the group above the individual, recognizing that while weak individuals can get killed off through natural selection, weak groups can survive and become stronger through adversity and teamwork. In a weird sense, Strong has a better grasp of actual Darwinism and natural selection than most other self-proclaimed "Social Darwinist" villains in fiction.
  • Straight Edge Evil: Strong is against the use of chems and alcohol, viewing them as things that weaken the user. Additionally, he will dislike the player giving Mama Murphy chems.
  • Super-Strength: Like any other Super Mutant. It's even reflected in how he has the highest Strength stat in his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats out of any NPC in the whole game.
  • The Teetotaler: He doesn't approve of alcohol, feeling it makes people sloppy and useless in a fight.
  • Third-Person Person: He almost exclusively refers to himself by his name - see the various quotes throughout his article.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While it initially appears that he's set to be another Fawkes or Marcus-type, Strong actually remains relatively true to his roots — indulging in the likes of cannibalism and/or killing of non-hostiles at the Survivor's behest. Noble Demon traits aside, he's still a murderous beast at his worst.
  • Token Heroic Orc: To a degree. He hasn't abandoned being willing to engage in cannibalism or murder, and still enjoys raising hell in general, but is tempered by a rudimentary morality based on similar species having an imperative to look out for one another, not to mention an odd fascination with those who use clever speech and conversational guile as opposed to constant violence.
  • Tsundere: Some of his dismissal dialogue definitely fits:
    Strong: Human not want Strong? Bah! Strong not want human either!... Strong wait at home until human changes mind.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a sledgehammer, often used by Super Mutants.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Part of Strong's character seems to serve as a glimpse into how Northeast Super Mutant society functions. While they're near-uniformly against humanity, they also operate with a surprisingly collectivist mindset, focusing on the equal sharing of all resources among each other for a common goal of regional conquest.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • Strong will be noticeably delighted when fighting a Behemoth:
    Strong: "Yes! Strong challenge you, brother!"
    • He views the Brotherhood of Steel as this for Super Mutant-kind. In fact, when he trades off with Paladin Danse and mentions Danse having slain "many brothers," he sounds like he's giving Danse a compliment rather than a warning to the Sole Survivor.
    • One of his environmental comments has him noting that Deathclaws are "worthy foes."
    • He also approves of the fighting skills of Hancock, MacCready, and X6-88, and will eventually declare the Sole Survivor to be a worthy leader to him by mostly talking about how much he approves of their badassery.

DLC Companions

    Ada 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ada_1.jpg
Ada's default appearance.
Voiced by: Rachel Robinson

The main supporting character of the Automatron DLC. Ada is a heavily modified Assaultron built by Jackson, a mechanically-inclined caravan merchant. Like Codsworth, Curie, and KLEO, she has achieved an exceptional degree of self-awareness. After Jackson's caravan is attacked by the Mechanist's robots and everyone except for Ada slaughtered, she enlists the Sole Survivor's assistance in a quest for revenge to find the Mechanist and put an end to his reign of terror.


  • The Atoner: She repeatedly mentions how she's trying to make up for the deaths of her caravaner friends, convinced that because she chose the route they were using, she led them into the Mechanist's robot ambush.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Ada is always polite and self-effacing, but that doesn't stop her from ripping apart her fellow robots and raiders if they attack.
  • Boring, but Practical: Sharing the trait with Automatrons with their Personality Sub-routines activated, Ada will also give random junk items to the Sole Survivor.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Asking about if she can self destruct will have her state that she's pretty sure her creator had more in mind for her than becoming a pile of debris.
  • Fem Bot: Like all Assaultrons, her upper torsos chassis has a vaguely feminine cast, mostly because the armored protrusion on the upper torso looks like a heavy bustline. Furthermore, she has a female voice and personal identity.
  • Forgiveness: Can do this for the Mechanist at the end of the Automatron questline, if you opt to spare her. While she still has some anger over what happened, Ada accepts that Isabel genuinely meant well for the Commonwealth, that the Robobrains deciding "help people" meant "kill them" was a horrible mistake, and that Isabel will have to live with the guilt of causing hundreds of innocent deaths, which she can relate to.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed, since she's not romanceable, but if you visit the settlement she's at with another companion, she'll say:
    Ada: I'm detecting high levels of jealousy and envy... oh, wait... that's me.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: For a long time, she laments being the only survivor of her caravan, especially because she picked the route the day they were attacked so she feels some responsibility for their deaths. At a particularly low moment, she wishes her personality matrix were never activated so she could have remained an emotionless machine.
  • Mighty Glacier: She starts off with an Assaultron head and torso, but the stubby legs of a Protectron. As a result, she moves with the characteristic slow waddle of a Protectron, but has lots of health and hits reasonably hard. Of course, it's possible to change that: hook her up with some Assaultron legs and with further upgrades she's practically a Lightning Bruiser.
  • Mix-and-Match Critter: One of the main features of the DLC is the ability to upgrade Ada's chassis with an assortment of parts from all the different robots in the Fallout universe. She even begins as an Assaultron torso with Protectron legs and both an Assaultron and a Sentry Bot's arms.
  • Named After Somebody Famous: Ada's name, like the rest of her caravan's robots (e.g. Turing), references famous pioneers of computer science — in her case, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, a mathematician often regarded as the first computer programmer, who would become the namesake of the Ada programming language.
  • One-Steve Limit: Zigzagged — an Assaultron in East City Down is called "Lady Lovelace", sharing the same namesake as Ada.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Subverted; she personally desires to take bloody vengeance against the Mechanist for the slaughter of her caravan, but she's aware that it isn't what her late friends would have wanted and so opts to stay her hand.
  • Ridiculously Human Robots: Like a handful of other robots encountered in Fallout 4, Ada has achieved a much higher degree of self-awareness to the point of seeming fully sentient, likely owing to the extensive modifications her builder Jackson made to her.
  • Robot Buddy: Always asking how she can help you, and worrying when you're injured.
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ada tends to state her emotions rather than, well, emote, being a robot.
  • Sole Survivor: She's the only survivor of the robot attack on her caravan. Being a custom-built combat robot probably helped in that regard.
  • Undying Loyalty: While she'll occasionally comment on what the Sole Survivor does, she doesn't feel strongly enough about it to have Affinity, and will never abandon her new master.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Like Codsworth, Curie, and Nick Valentine, she's high up on the robot intelligence scale, enough to feel a deep sense of loss over her failure to save her friends.

    The Automatrons 
Voiced by: Rachel Robinson (Female Voice), Taliesin Jaffe (Male Voice), Wes Johnson (Sentry Bot Voice), Colleen Delaney (Assaultron Voice), N/A (Bleep Voice)

"This unit is ready to serve."

The selling point of the Automatron DLC, they are customizable robots that you can build and have fight by your side or staff your settlements. They are unfailingly loyal and have next-to-no personality, or can even be set to not talk at all.


  • Action Bomb: If they don't have any usable weapons (either because you didn't equip them with any or because they had unstable ones which broke), they will respond to an attack by charging at the foe and initiating Self-Destruct Mechanism.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Their limbs can be blown off by enemies in combat, though they always come back after combat ends.
  • Boring, but Practical: While it does take a while to reset, Automatrons with their personality sub-routines activated will occasionally give random junk to the Sole Survivor.
  • Character Customization: Automatrons are highly customizable, from their chassis to their weapons, all the way down to their voices.
  • Combat Medic: An upgrade allows them to heal nearby allies.
  • Combat Tentacles: With a Mr. Handy Torso, the player can add these to their Automatron. They can give your robot more firepower, as well as a buzz saw melee attack, at the cost of being less durable than other robot torsos.
  • Gameplay Ally Immortality: Averted. Any robots that you construct from scratch can indeed be Killed Off for Real. You can find and use Stimpack-like repair kits to try and prevent that.
  • Gatling Good: All robot types with arms can be given a minigun.
  • Just a Machine: They can be given a "personality subroutine" that seems to include self-awareness, but lack free will (unlike Ada) and will always be under the Survivor's control.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: They can be geared with a Shishkebab sword.
  • Necessary Drawback: Automatrons used as settlers have their personal happiness rating set at 50%. While this means they can never get unhappy, they also can't produce excess resources from happiness either (and bring down the average happiness rating of a settlement).
    • The "unstable" variants of automatron weapons deal higher damage, but will ocasionally burn out and become temporarily unusable.
  • Nuke 'em: They can be geared with Mini-Nukes, and if you activate the self destruction procedure, they themselves serve as one.
  • Ordered to Die: If you order them to activate their self-destruct, they will comply (although certain voice types will instead reply "Error: Command unrecognized.") One voice type even comments "It's not for me to judge your actions. I'm sure you've exhausted all other options if you're willing to issue this command."
  • Robo Speak: The male and female voices have this tone by default. The Assaultron and Sentry Bot voices can only use this type of voice.
  • Robot Buddy: Like Dogmeat, they lack Affinity, and will never leave you.
  • Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: All Automatrons can be used as settlers and will do mundane tasks like farming, minding stores or delivering provisions between towns. This doesn't stop you from equipping them with deadly Gatling guns or back-mounted missile launchers. In fact, this trope makes them especially good at being provisioners, as they double as patrol bots, stopping to annihilate whatever group of raiders was dumb enough to try and menace the route.
  • The Unintelligible: The "Bleep" voice speaks in ED-E style beeps and boops.
  • Mix-and-Match Critter: Their main trait. They can be set up with parts from different robots, such as an Assaultron's torso on a Mr. Handy thruster. Though nothing stops you from making a proper pre-war model robot.

    Old Longfellow 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/old_longfellow.png
Voiced by: Jim Ward

"The Fog can do a number on you. Gets you all... turned around."

A retired hunter and long-time resident of Far Harbor. He now spends most of his free time getting drunk and helping people navigate the dangers of the Island, often in that order. Looking for someone to guide them to Acadia, the Survivor finds him drinking in Mitch's Bar, and hires him as a guide. After guiding the Survivor to Acadia, he offers his services as a Companion.

His unique Perk, "Hunter's Wisdom", lowers the damage resistance of animals and sea creatures by 25%.


  • Affectionate Nickname: Of the platonic variety. He tends to call you Cap'n.
  • The Ahab: He's been hunting Shipbreaker, a gigantic Fog Crawler, for decades. He's even got a unique harpoon gun for the sole purpose of hunting it down. He gives it to the Sole Survivor if they help him finally take down the beast.
  • The Alcoholic: He spends a lot of his free time getting drunk. If you can't convince him to work with your through persuasion, you need to buy the next round before he joins up. When travelling with you, he'll often complain that he's running low, and likes it if you down a particularly strong bottle of hooch, like bourbon or vodka.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: His perk reduces the armor of enemy animals.
  • Badass Longcoat: It's a nifty Hunter's Long Coat.
  • Berserk Button:
    • He does not like the Church of the Children of Atom. He will always disapprove anything that benefits them while the opposite will give him approval.
    • He also has some pretty strong opinions regarding the Brotherhood of Steel, seeing them as cowards who act like bullies because they have a lot of firepower and power armor.
    • He also hates Raiders and is almost as opposed to the Nuka-World Raiders as Preston Garvey. In fact, his only general extreme dislike reaction that isn't tied to a specific quest is raiding settlements.
  • Cool Old Guy: As the name suggests - he's one heck of an old-timer. He's possibly the only person whom everyone in the town of Far Harbor respects.
  • The Cynic: His overall worldview. While he's got no qualms with helping people, he's quick to remind the Sole Survivor that, in the world they live in, people can easily take advantage of such behavior. He also likes it if the Survivor makes cynical remarks as well, such as telling the people of Warwick Homestead their garden smells like shit.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    Child of Atom: Your words cannot hurt me! I am shielded by my faith.
    Old Longfellow: What about bullets? Your faith shield ya from those?
  • Determined Homesteader: This is the attitude he encourages, that people should fight for their homes. He disapproves if the Sole Survivor moves people like Old Ken from their homes.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: He's doing this when the player meets him for the first time. He claims it's because of the many people who have died under his watch, but it's more likely because of the loss of Hannah to the Children of Atom and the Trappers.
  • The Drunken Sailor: Complete with the occasional sea shanty!
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Downplayed, but he derogatorily calls Nick Valentine "Metal Man" when swapping out with him.
    • Played straight regarding Ghouls as he believes that eventually they will go feral no matter what.
  • The Fatalist: He believes that people should accept the consequences of the decisions they make. As such, he doesn't dwell much on his fiancée, who joined the Church of Atom. However, he does regret not becoming a father, as his pregnant wife miscarried the baby, since it couldn't handle the radiation.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Unsurprisingly, he's a really surly old-timer in much of his dialogue. Longfellow dislikes it if you bother him too much with unnecessary conversation, and Captain Avery notes that even by Harbormen standards he's considered acerbic, stubborn and unpleasant to be around.
    Old Longfellow: Gettin' too damn old for all this runnin' around nonsense...
  • Had to Be Sharp: Compared to the other companions, Longfellow especially lives and breathes this. His home is a cluster of islands blanketed by radioactive Fog, which is also inhabited by Fog Crawlers, Gulpers, Anglers and Rad Chickens.
  • Heroic Build: He's broad-shouldered and well built, second only to Danse. Given that he's lived in the Death World of Far Harbor throughout his life, this isn't much of a surprise.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Supplementary material clarifies that "Longfellow" isn't a nickname he earned due to being a fellow who others considered "long" in some way, it's just his actual surname.
  • I Call It "Vera": In Fallout Shelter, his rifle is called Henrietta.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: One of his combat remarks is that he's too sober for this, and he'll often remark on how he could use a drink at other times.
  • It's Personal: He does not care for the Church of Atom. Probably because they attacked him and left him for dead. As well as abducted his fiancée.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a salty old timer, but at the end of the day he is willing to lend a helping hand to the people in need of his talents, often for free. Notably he’s against the Brotherhood because of how they treat outsiders. He also approves of taking on Minutemen quests back in the Commonwealth.
  • Like a Son to Me: He all but outright says this regarding the Survivor at max affinity.
  • The Lost Lenore: He lost his fiancée to the Church of Atom when they converted her. He lost her for real when she was killed by Trappers.
  • Named After Somebody Famous: He's named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a poet who also hails from Maine.
  • Only in It for the Money: Sort of. This isn't why he joins the Survivor, but he does like it if the Survivor asks for more money during quests.
  • Only Sane Man: He and Avery seem to be the only ones to realize that the movement of the Fog is natural, not caused by the Children of Atom, which is what the other paranoid citizens of Far Harbor believe.
  • Seen It All: Nobody knows the Island better than Longfellow.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to one of the lever-action rifles used by the other residents of the Island.

    Porter Gage 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/porter_gage.png
Voiced by: Mark Rolston

"You ask me, this whole damn world is here just to tear you down. Deck's stacked against you from the very beginning."

The former right-hand man of Overboss Colter. He joins the Sole Survivor after betraying Colter by helping the former kill the latter.

He is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. His unique Perk, "Lessons In Blood", raises your damage resistance by ten and gives an additional 5 percent of experience points from killing enemies.


  • Affably Evil: The guy's pretty nice and always offers his advice, but he remains an unrepentant raider. He also has such a chill demeanor (compared to, say, Cait) that while adventuring it's almost easy to forget he's a thieving, murderous scumbag.
  • Blood Knight: He won't go out of his way to pick a fight, but he loves violence.
  • Blood-Splattered Warrior: His shirt is stained with several streaks of blood.
  • Book Dumb: He admits to know nothing about lockpicking or terminals, and likes it when the Sole Survivor does.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: To him, raiding is just a job; any other job is for the suckers.
  • Character Death: Like Deacon or X6-88, he's a faction-aligned companion, so if you turn against the Nuka-World Raiders, you'll have to put him down, even if you romanced him.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: You can discuss this with him, particularly if the Sole Survivor is sarcastic.
  • The Creon: Cheerfully; as he says, the one in charge makes the biggest target, so it's safer to stand aside and let the leader clear the way to what he's after. If the Sole Survivor pokes him about it, he says he's always preferred it that way. He even provides the page quote for this trope, outright admitting his reason for not wanting the top spot himself.
  • Diabolical Mastermind: Organises three separate Raider gangs into cooperating under a charismatic leader figure in order to make them all rich by rebuilding the Nuka-World park and using it as a staging area for launching raids into the Commonwealth.
  • The Dragon: Becomes this to you, the player, during the Nuka-World storyline. While you work to take over the park and prove yourself to your new underlings, he advises you on how to appease them and what to do to assign territory. If you take him as a companion, he can be right by your side the entire time, up until you finally restore power to the park and cement your hold on it.
  • Drugs Are Bad: He has seen firsthand what happens to raider gangs that get hooked on Chems, which is why he disapproves of their use.
  • Enraged by Idiocy: He is disgusted by the typical mentality of Raiders.
    Gage: Fucking Raiders... They get so greedy, so focused on 'right now' they make shitty mistakes, and wind up dead. Hell, maybe some of them are trying to get killed.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being an unrepentant Raider, he does view the Institute as "playing God" and has a view of them not unlike that of most of the rest of the Commonwealth. Completely justified in that the Institute poses every bit as much of a threat to raiders as they do to anyone else, and Synths have infiltrated Raider gangs before.
  • Evil Mentor: His role, in a nutshell, is to try and instill into you all the "pros" of being a self-centered, pillaging scum of the wastes — done via pseudo-sympathetic "I've been there before" fashion.
  • Eyepatch of Power: He wears a metallic eye patch. It's non-removable and he keeps it regardless of what outfit he's given.
  • Foil: To Preston Garvey. While Garvey embodies the hope of the Commonwealth, Gage embodies everything evil about Raiders. They share the disdain of chems for being a part of petty Raider culture & even same initials.
  • For the Evulz: Subverted. He enjoys the pillaging and he's fine with death and mayhem, but prefers to have a grand scheme for things.
  • Freudian Excuse: He had an ordinary life once, but the entire time he tried that, he saw ordinary people being bullied and victimised by Raiders, his own parents included. By the age of 12, he'd constantly seen them roll over at the first sign of aggression and hit his limit when he saw them cowering before one punk with a gun, running away from home and eventually joining a Raider gang at the age of 16. But joining the Raiders was a double-edged sword, as he saw firsthand how Raiders' greed and impulsivity made them careless and inefficient, and the first time he tried actually improving a gang by advising his boss, said boss ended up trying to get him killed in a Uriah Gambit because he was paranoid Gage wanted his position. All of this just solidified to him that it's a Crapsack World where too many people are either oblivious to the realities of life or too aware of it and may or may not have a death wish as a result, and that the ones who'd hold onto power would be practitioners of Pragmatic Villainy above all else.
  • Handicapped Badass: Lacks depth perception due to his missing right eye; still a veteran Raider and a crack shot with his rifle.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: To the boss of a previous gang he was with and to Overboss Colter. The same cannot be said with the Sole Survivor.
  • Insult Friendly Fire: While discussing the Stupid Evil of most Raiders, the Sole Survivor can remark that all Raiders are stupid. Gage indignantly points out that they probably shouldn't say things like that now that they're Overboss.
  • Last-Name Basis: He's referred to as "Gage" by everyone. He introduces himself by his full name once on the train ride into Nuka World and that's the only time you'll hear or see it outside of the UI.
  • Lean and Mean: Remove his armor, and he's a lot skinnier than Hancock or MacCready. And of course, far nastier than either of them.
  • The Man Behind the Man: He prefers to whisper in the ear of the man in charge andremarks he's been like that since before Nuka-World.
  • Manipulative Bastard: All three of the Nuka-World bosses wanted him and Colter dead. Being aware of this, he set Colter up to be killed, and immediately appointed a new overboss for the gangs to devote their attention towards.
  • More Dakka: He's the only companion who defaults to an automatic weapon.
  • The Name Is Bond, James Bond: He introduces himself to you this way over the Nuka-World transport's announcement speakers.
    Gage: The name's Gage. Porter Gage.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: When befriended, he'll tell the story of a former boss who abused his trust by pumping him for information, and then betraying him and leaving him for dead. A good-aligned player who was planning to kill him off but wanted to get his affinity perk first might be feeling a bit of a heel right about that moment...
  • Pragmatic Villainy: With heavy emphasis on "pragmatism." He wants to put together a huge Raider coalition with the long-term goal of robbing the Commonwealth as efficiently as possible. "Action" and "fun" are part of that, but they're not the main purpose. In fact, he outright despises other Raiders who never think beyond their next kill or hit of Psycho and get themselves killed for it.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: He swears more than the rest of the game's companions put together, more than Cait even.
  • The Social Darwinist: To Gage, the world is only divided through the roles of "victims" and "victors" — and the "victors" always take, never give.
  • Spanner in the Works: He's the only reason you're able to beat Colter at all and he makes that clear every chance he gets. If he hadn't stashed the Squirt Gun you use to short out Colter's Power Armor, then the Overboss would've just shrugged off everything you threw at him.
  • The Starscream: An unusual example. He's perfectly fine with betraying his old Overboss... just so that he can serve whom he feels would make a far better leader, in this case the Player Character.
  • Stop Being Stereotypical: Very much dislikes raiders who play into the stereotype of being drugged-up loons who kill everyone they meet, because it's really hard to corral said drugged-up loons into an actual criminal organization. He's run with a lot of Raider gangs who fell apart after using chems and being Stupid Evil.
  • Straight Edge Evil: Like X6-88, he dislikes use of chems and alcohol, knowing all too well how self-destructive these vices are in the long term run, especially for the raider lifestyle. As told from past experiences, many gangs he signed up with would inevitably fall apart the moment they'd start using chems, leaving him no other choice but to hightail it.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Looks down on the non-criminal elements of the Commonwealth for being too naive and short-sighted to see the world for what it is and inevitably dying as a result, but also looks down on other Raiders for being too careless and impatient to have it all as soon as possible to avoid an equally messy end. He'll warm up to you if you demonstrate that you have a dark side, but focus on the long-term.
    Gage: All these people, they either try too hard or not enough. Maybe, not at all.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Gage is explicitly evil and revels in it. Cait and Strong come nowhere near this guy's level (indeed, both are capable of altruism, especially the former as she warms to you), while X6-88 at least believes that his actions are for the greater good. There is no line Gage isn't willing to cross for mayhem, carnage, and loot. However, he averts the Stupid Evil traits common to his archetype, being a clever opportunist who waits for the right moment.
  • Unexplained Accent: He has a fairly subdued Southern accent.
  • Villain Team-Up: It was he who assembled the alliance of Raider clans in Nuka-World to make a play at raiding the Commonwealth en masse.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: Human morality, in Gage's mind, leads to nowhere but failures. The only "true" way to survive is to see the world for the hopeless cesspit that he thinks it is, and claim everything by the gun.
  • Visionary Villain: He's a man with dreams and goals, and crafty enough to use whatever means are present to acquire them. Said dreams and goals just happen to involve uniting as many Raiders as possible to then rob the rest of the world's suckers. He also expresses frustration that most typical Raiders are brain-dead chem-junkies who only think about short-term gains and are barely organized to start with.
  • Weapon Specialization: Defaults to one of the handmade rifles used by the rest of the Nuka-World Raiders.


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