Automatron (companion)

Automatrons are craftable companions for the Sole Survivor via the robot workbench.

Background
Automatrons are specially crafted companions designed by the Sole Survivor to suit their own personal needs. They can be created, upgraded and renamed at a robot workbench, provided the resource requirements are met. They start with Protectron parts without any armor, but individual parts from other robots can be scavenged, then built and attached, and upgraded further with quality armor attachments to meet (or exceed) factory quality.

Created automatrons can have one of nine different voices, many with similar functionalities. All automatrons start with the male voice selected.

The first four similar voices are the male, female and the relative processed variants of each. The voices all sound like well spoken servants, with the normal variation sounding like well recorded voices and the processed variants sounding more mechanical and modified. This voice type has personality subroutines that can be activated by selecting yes when requested when the robot is first created or by navigating through dialogue when the automatron is the current follower. These voice types are the only voice types that allow one to command the robot to self destruct, this is accomplished by navigating to the self destruct dialogue and giving the requested secondary confirmation, the unit will then begin the self destruct sequence and count down from ten, then it will explode.

Another set of similar voices are the assaultron and sentry bot voices, both having the same voice lines, mimicking the voices of the respective robots. When asked to initiate personality subroutines both voices also respond with "ERROR, command not recognized," although there are cases of both sentry bots and especially assaultrons with personalities; they respond the same when asked to self destruct.

The last three voices are different sounding beeps and clicks (beep-click, beep-dark and beep-bright). Robots with these voices appear to exhibit emotion, but have no programmed personality subroutines in-game, and other robots upon encountering them may be heard exclaiming something along the lines of "your personality appears to be an error in your program, have you considered having it purged." Robots with this voice type will respond with a (negative beep) when asked to self destruct. Which means it is impossible for automatrons with the last 3 voices to self-destruct.

Automatrons will almost always fight on the side of the Sole Survivor, but may turn against them if they attack a settlement that the robot is a part of or was recently part of, even if they are the Sole Survivor's current companion.

Creating an automatron
If one doesn't want to rely on the random chance of finding mods on robot bodies, they may want to invest in the Science!, Robotics Expert, Blacksmith, Gun Nut and Armorer perks, as they're a requirement when it comes to crafting some of the more advanced parts.

Optimization
When building an automatron, the head and both arms are optional - an automatron can be finished without them, although in such a case it will usually be lacking means of inflicting damage or interacting with its surroundings, as demonstrated by Bosun aboard the USS Constitution. However, robots with the Mr. Handy torso have more build options available without head and arms.

Robot parts can be freely mixed with almost no restrictions, enabling the player character to create unique automatrons with a range of utility and offensive capability.

Head types

 * Robobrain head:
 * Perks needed to craft: Science! - Rank 2/Robotics Expert - Rank 1
 * Description: The robobrain head is a mid-to-long range engagement. It gives a robot an extra projectile attack in the form of a Mesmetron pulse and it provides a big boost in accuracy.
 * Assaultron head laser:
 * Perks needed to craft: Science! - Rank 2/Robotics Expert - Rank 1
 * Description: The assaultron head laser gives an automatron the ability to fire off an assaultron's laser blast from its eye.

Torso types

 * Mr. Handy torso:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 1
 * Description: Three arm-slots provide an advantage for a melee based robot. The Mr. Handy torso boosts movement speed, allowing a mechanical ally to get in close with minimal fuss.
 * Robobrain torso:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 2/Armorer - Rank 1
 * Description: The second bulkiest torso that one can build. The robobrain torso has one advantage over its beefy brethren in that it won't overheat and leave a robot vulnerable for set periods of time.
 * Sentry torso:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Robotics Expert - Rank 1
 * Description: The sentry torso sports the best health boost of all torso models, but using it can make a robot overheat during combat - a trait that's a usual sentry bot's biggest weakness.

Arm types

 * Assaultron arm:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 1/Armorer - Rank 1
 * Description: The assaultron arm offers the best melee damage of all the arm models.
 * Sentry arm
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Robotics Expert - Rank 1
 * Description: The sentry arm allows for the best carrying capacity, the best health boost and adds decent melee damage.

Leg types

 * Mr. Handy thruster:
 * Perks required to craft: None
 * Description: The fastest leg type available, the Mr. Handy thruster allows an automatron to quickly zip from enemy to enemy.
 * Assaultron legs:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 1/Armorer - Rank 1
 * Description: Although the assaultron legs don't offer quite as much mobility as the Mr. Handy thruster, they're a better choice for beefier 'bots, as more armor parts can be added to them.
 * Sentry legs:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Robotics Expert - Rank 1
 * Description: Offering the best carrying capacity and a ton of health, the sentry legs are the choice for a tank-like robot. The only real downside is that with these legs, one's mechanical partner may not be able to move all too freely in enclosed spaces and will be fairly loud.

Melee weapons

 * Shishkebab:
 * Perks required to craft: Blacksmith - Rank 3
 * Description: The fastest melee weapon; makes targets take burn damage.
 * Hammer saw:
 * Perks required to craft: Blacksmith - Rank 3
 * Description: Brutal melee weapon that packs a devastating punch. The hammer saw also stuns opponents and makes them bleed on hit.

Arm weapons

 * Heavy flamer gun:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Gun Nut - Rank 1
 * Description: The heavy flamer gun is effective at close-ranges;.
 * Minigun:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Gun Nut - Rank 1
 * Description: The minigun is a solid choice for reliable damage from mid-range.
 * Gatling laser gun:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3
 * Description: Offers reliable damage at medium ranges.
 * Missile launcher:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3/Gun Nut - Rank 1
 * Description: Another solid choice at range, the missile launcher is particularly useful when taking on groups of enemies, as the blast can catch multiple foes.
 * Nuka-Cherry Launcher:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 4/Gun Nut - Rank 1
 * Description: The Nuka-Cherry launcher has the highest damage output of any weapon system.

Shoulder weapons

 * Unstable Fat Man launcher:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 4
 * Description: Highest AoE damage output of any weapon system. Fat Man's maximize one's options and initial engagement spike damage without fear of breaking diminishing overall effectiveness.
 * Nuka launcher:
 * Perks required to craft: Science! - Rank 3
 * Description: If aiming for maximum efficiency, Nuka's are almost as deadly without the drawback of breaking or collateral damage.

Other interactions

 * Automatrons will regularly give the Sole Survivor 2-3 junk items when talked to while they're the active companion.
 * Automatrons can be ordered to self-destruct if the Sole Survivor desires.

Range of interests
Automatrons are unconditional companions and their affinity cannot be changed.

Bugs

 * Any automatron may turn hostile upon encountering robots in other locations, causing other NPCs in the same faction to also turn hostile. This has been known to apply to the following locations, with the exact conditions remaining unknown.
 * Old Rusty in Vault 81
 * The Mister Handies at Graygarden
 * KL-E-0 in Goodneighbor
 * Brotherhood of Steel Vertibirds
 * Ada will quickly float around after the player character's first encounter with her.
 * Automatrons with a robobrain head will occasionally fire their mesmetron at the Sole Survivor instead of hostile targets.
 * After using Kellogg's terminal, all named automatrons' names will revert back to "Automatron" once interacted with and cannot be changed back to anything else.
 * Possible fix is a preemptive one. When instructed to use the terminal, do not. Instead open up the console and type, this will skip the step to use the terminal and move onto the next objective. You may have to use "tcl" to clip through the maglocked doors that can be opened using the terminal. When creating or renaming a robot, you should be able to rename the Automatron and keep the name.
 * When selecting an automatron companion in workshop edit mode, it will prevent you from dismissing them. To fix this edit one item on the automatron, then use the dismiss dialogue.
 * When assigning an automatron to a vendor position they will not initiate the vendor dialogue when talked to.
 * If building an automatron with a sentry bot build (torso, arms, legs and head) and shoot it in the head, it might turn into a Protectron (Protectron animations and AI on the sentry body).
 * The same thing may happen if sending an automatron to a settlement on the Island.
 * Any automatron created may also randomly turn into Protectron for no apparent reason.
 * If building an automatron with a sentry bot build (torso, arms, legs and head) then assigning it to a guard post, it will shrink in size while remaining still, then revert back to normal size upon leaving.