Charon (Fallout 3)

Charon is a possible ghoul companion NPC in Fallout 3. He is noticeably larger than other human or ghoul characters, standing a full head taller than a normal NPC. Brainwashed as a child, he is blindly loyal to the holder of his contract. This loyalty could have been the key factor in him becoming a ghoul.

Location
Charon resides in the Underworld as a bouncer in The Ninth Circle. The player can purchase his contract for 2,000 caps from Ahzrukhal, or, with a Barter skill of 50 or more, for 1,000 caps. It is also possible to receive Charon's contract for free, if the player agrees to kill Greta, the barmaid running Carol's Place. She can be found smoking at around 9pm outside the Underworld and then that would be the good time to kill her. Charon is beholden to the one who holds his contract for "employment," and acquiring this contract is the essence of the unmarked quest Hired Help. See that quest article for details.

Charon is the only NPC (along with Dogmeat) who will join the player regardless of karma. His very first act as your new employee will be to have a "chat" with his former employer, ending with Charon blasting Ahzrukhal's head off. Or more likely is he will glitch slightly like Amata can when in a scripted shooting and fire upon Ahzrukhal's shins, then shoot his head to pieces.

Equipment

 * Charon's default equipment includes a special shotgun: Charon's Shotgun, a Combat Knife and Leather Armor.
 * Charon is specialized in small guns, sneak and explosives, but still can use powerful big guns and energy weapons. His unique weapon, Charon's Shotgun, has infinite ammo (check the Notes section for more information on this) as well as infinite durability. Like default weapons for other NPCs, this shotgun cannot be traded. Compared to the standard Combat Shotgun, Charon's Shotgun has far higher accuracy and longer range, at the cost of a smaller magazine size (5 instead of 12). Generally speaking, Charon's shotgun outclasses any other shotgute in the game.
 * Despite the fact that its look is identical to the standard combat shotgun, Charon's shotgun appears to be functionally identical to Lincoln's Repeater. Charon pumps it after each shot, and it even ejects rifle shells similar to Lincoln's Repeater. If you give him a standard combat shotgun and ammo, he will use it and not pump it.
 * Charon can be equipped with alternate armor. He knows how to use Power Armor even if the player does not. Giving him the T-51b Power Armor can be a good choice. His total carrying capacity is 183.5 pounds.
 * Charon will equip clothing items which boost his skills or stats, such as the Stormchaser Hat or Pre-War Bonnet. He therefore seems to prefer Ranger Battle Armor over even fully repaired Power Armor. Charon will also equip all kinds of glasses, sometimes leading to very comedic results. Lincoln's Hat in particular emphasizes his larger stature, though bits of his forehead poke through the hat. Be aware that any armor that lowers his agility will have some negative impact on his Small Weapons ability.
 * A particularly effective combination appears to be to give Charon Ranger Battle Armor and a standard Combat Helmet along with Desmond's Eyeglasses. This combination gives him exceptional protection (45 if all items are fully repaired) along with massive bonuses, including 5 points to his already-excellent Explosives and a whopping 15 points to his Small Guns, along with further bonuses due to the extra Luck and Action Points the Ranger armor gives. He will preferably choose a Power Helmet over glasses and standard combat helmet, but if so you may just want to take any Power Helmet he chooses away from him; a well-repaired Combat Helmet plus Desmond's glasses will give him 6 points of protection whereas most Power Helmets only give 2-4 more points of protection without boosting his combat abilities anywhere near as much. Giving him these glasses will make him look comically like Desmond but will make him incredibly dangerous with small weapons and significantly better with grenades. He seems virtually unstoppable with his standard Shotgun, a fistful of grenades, the Ranger Armor, Desmond's Glasses, and a standard combat helmet, often killing many enemies before you've even had a chance to react to them. And, unlike many forms of Power Armor (such as standard Enclave, Brotherhood, and Outcast), it will not interfere with (will in fact slightly enhance) his excellent Sneak ability. (Many types of Power Armor lower agility, which weakens his Small Arms and Sneak).
 * Apart from the looks, giving him headgear that increases perception may further improve his sense of danger (nearby enemies; though he seems to notice them further than a PC's compass radius at 9 PE with his base 7 PE alone). Be advised, however, that Charon can be very aggressive and will chase after enemies that you may not be aware of, and this will occasionally get him in over his head.
 * Charon seems to not care about his Big Guns skill when it comes to the Flamer, as he will favor this over his shotgun. This may not be a bug, though, since he is quite effective with it--even more so when he is wearing Linden's Outcast Power Armor (which suits him nicely by the way, especially when combined with Red's Bandana).

Combat

 * Charon is very resilient, able to take significant damage before dying. Most enemies are usually no threat to him unless those enemies are Deathclaws, groups of Giant Radscorpions or Enclave soldiers. Due to Charon aiming for the torso instead of the face, Mirelurk Hunters can also greatly harm him if the player does not assist. By giving him stimpak or buffout he is able to heal himself. (NOTE: It is possible for Charon to kill two Giant Radscorpions without assistance, but don't push your luck.)
 * Charon seems to fearlessly confront any possible enemies and will often notice them and speak out before the player does. He is incredibly accurate with his own shotgun. Occasionally, he will randomly run around and duck for cover.
 * Despite his ability to sneak, Charon may not be a great choice for sneaky characters. Even wearing Chinese Stealth Armor he has a tendency to engage enemies on his own, blowing your team's cover. He also refuses to use silenced projectile weapons such as the Infiltrator because of their weak damage compared to his own shotgun.
 * While Charon can hold and use weapons he has ammunition for, it is quite difficult to get him to put down his shotgun. This is due to the fact that a companion will not use a weapon less powerful than their default, and Charon's shotgun is quite strong. He will use Scoped .44 Magnum, Chinese Assault Rifle or Railway Rifle over his shotgun. A fully repaired Chinese Assault Rifle is deadly in Charon's hands, but if you can manage to get the Xuanlong Assault Rifle then Charon is an invaluable fighter. Charon is also deadly with the blackhawk if you can spare the ammunition.
 * Charon tends to fire once or twice at dead enemies. Therefore, it isn't recommended for a player to equip him with precious ammo (i.e; .308 caliber or .44 magnum) unless one has a large supply.
 * Charon if shooting at a dead enemy while they are airborne (from a gun shot or falling) the body parts will sometimes fly across the screen. Making it difficult to find the body of the enemy.
 * He will sometimes switch over to a melee weapon despite orders, most prevalently the Shishkebab. If you subsequently order him to use ranged combat, he will switch back. Generally he does a decent job at choosing the right weapon for a particular range (e.g. if you give him a Burnmaster and/or Missile Launcher in addition to his shotgun). However, the time it takes him to do so, in addition to his weapon's all-round capability and zero ammo consumption, may set off their higher efficiency to the point that it is rarely worth the weight. Also keep in mind that weapons other than his custom shotty can be swatted or shot out of Charon's hands by enemies and easily lost.
 * There is a trick to make Charon reload without a time delay. Simply talk to him when fighting, ask for trade (force reload) or just close the dialog when he is about to reload. This can save him from dangerous situations.
 * Charon is the only follower who is expert in sneak and explosive weapons. Unless you play a melee character, giving him grenades generally is a good idea. He will use them whenever he cannot get a direct shot in (e.g. when enemies duck behind cover). Listen for him shouting things like 'get down' and watch the grenade marker in order to avoid friendly fire.
 * Charon is quite deadly with a Sniper Rifle, but because of the rarity of the ammo it makes it quite hard to take care of his weapon. Charon also tends to favor the Reservist's Rifle over the Victory Rifle.
 * If you give him an Railway Rifle, he will burn through the Railway Spikes really fast, so if you're near an enemy, you will hear continuous steam whistle sound.

Quotes

 * General
 * "Talk. To. Ahzrukhal." -- when the player attempts to make conversation with Charon before getting the contract.
 * "I don't care, talk to Ahzrukhal." -- rarely when the player says "I Just..." in reply to his rudeness.
 * "This place is not safe."
 * "I don't like the look of this place."
 * "There may be danger here."
 * "Be cautious."
 * "Well whatever it was, it's gone now." -- when giving up searching for an enemy.
 * "Oh well, I've got better things to do anyway." -- when giving up searching for an enemy.
 * "Stand down." -- when giving up searching for an enemy.
 * "No. Go talk to Ahzrukhal." -- when the player initiates a conversation with Charon before getting his contract.


 * Combat
 * "What's the matter, can't stand the sight of your own blood?"
 * "That's it! That's it!"
 * "You want some of this?"
 * "You like that? You Bastard!"
 * "Where?"
 * "Bring it!"
 * "Over here!"
 * "Flank'em!"
 * "Had enough?"
 * "Did I hit him?"
 * "I've got your back."
 * "Yeah! Yeah!"
 * "Keep firing."
 * "Help me."
 * "I am hit."
 * "Damn!"
 * "Need help on this one."
 * "What do we have here?"
 * "No!" said rather softly if some protected female slaves are killed in Paradise Fall by the player (Better not fire Charon right after that one because he'll turn against his boss just as for his former boss.)


 * "Physical violence on your part invalidates our contract." -- After turning Charon hostile and trying to initiate dialogue
 * "Fire in hole!" -- When throwing a grenade.
 * "Duck" -- when throwing a grenade
 * "Come out, come out, wherever you are ..." -- when searching for enemies.
 * "I am sure I heard something." -- when searching for enemies.
 * "Hello, anybody there?" -- when searching for enemies.
 * "Better him than me." -- when you performed one-shot kill (snipe without being detected).
 * "Good riddance." -- when you performed one-shot kill (snipe without being detected).
 * "Holy shit!" -- when you shoot a grenade in the air, causing it to explode (that was thrown at Charon, though it might not matter).
 * "It's gonna blow!" -- grenade that's been thrown at him(or you),and Derelict vehicles that are going to explode.
 * "maybe i'm just jumpy" -- when giving up searching for enemies


 * End of fight
 * "Good enough?"
 * "Phew...that's end of that."
 * "Glad that's over."
 * "Better him than me."
 * "Murdering Bastard" or "Coward" if you kill Mister Crowley in his presence.
 * "She's dead!" in a soft dramatic tone when the player kill some slave girl and... an obvious signal that the player can't let Charon take a leave in Underworld because Charon will kill a slave murderer.
 * "Murderer!" -- when player kills Greta on her smoke break outside Underworld. This probably applies to all the ghouls in Underworld.
 * "You're going to pay for that." -- when player kills Greta.
 * "Now there was no call for that!"

Trivia

 * In Greek mythology, Charon was the ferryman of Hades who carried souls of the newly deceased across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Charon is also the name of the ferryman of the river Acheron in Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy". He is the first named character Dante meets in the underworld, in the third Canto of Inferno. In these instances, the name is pronounced "Kare-on".
 * Charon will tell you a thing that makes him happy if you tell him to switch his combat strategy to melee, then back to ranged weaponry. He tells you that he "Finds happiness in a warm gun", an allusion to the Beatles song "Happiness is a warm gun", itself a reference to the Charlie Brown quote, "Happiness is a warm puppy".
 * If you look closely at the image of Charon's Employment Contract in the Pip-Boy, you can read what is written on it: "Note - A piece of paper with some writing on it." This is probably placeholder text, and not meant to be canon.
 * Although your early interactions with Charon in The Ninth Circle lead your character to refer to him as "quiet," after recruiting him he is quite chatty, if not a bit cantankerous. (He will occasionally mutter incoherently while following you around the Wastes.)
 * Charon's speech can be rather humorous at times. Initiating dialogue with him in your Megaton house will almost always cause him to say "I don't like the look of this place." He will also seemingly talk to himself on occasion when starting combat: "Over here! Where?"
 * Charon is the name of the largest of the dwarf planet, Pluto, only moon.
 * Charon has a slight Jersey accent, such as pronouncing the word 'with' as 'witch' or 'you' as 'chu'.
 * During the 'Aiding the Outcasts' quest, Charon can be found on the highway west of the Alexandria Arms fighting a group of Raiders that have set up camp here. When you approach him he asks if he should rejoin you again.
 * The denizens of Underworld pronounce his name "Share-en" or "sChar-on" with a slurred "Ch". Where as the original Greek pronunciation was "Khar-On".
 * Try looking at Charon's face when he's standing still.Instead of blinking normally,his eyelids flicker upwards.

Bugs

 * If you push Mr. Lopez off the bridge tower in Rivet City and leave Charon right on the edge where Mr. L was and leave him there for a few hours, he will inadvertently fall off to share Mr. Lopez's fate. (Confirmed over 20 times). The only way to save him when Charon is on the edge is to shoot him in the back with a missile, moving him forward.
 * If Charon is equipped with a missile launcher and it is equipped for a short while it will appear as if the missile launcher is going through his groin creating a rather hilarious image of Charon. The apparent cause of this is his carrying of this missile launcher in the same fashion as he sometimes equips other weapons (One-Handed).
 * Charon can disappear after the Project Purity rescue mission. He is located in Taft Tunnels. Go to the Citadel and there is a sewer grate on the ground outside the Citadel near the river. Backtrack the exact route you took to rescue the NPCs.
 * Those who have downloaded Operation Anchorage should take note that if you give him weapons such as Jingwei's Shock Sword (the only one confirmed so far) that the weapon will somehow disappear from both your inventories. There is no currently known way to get it back beside reloading a previous save. Be careful if you're going to give him weapons from a DLC.
 * It is possible that Charon will fail to kill Ahzrukhal and thus not follow the player, especially if Ahzrukhal is not tending the bar when Charon goes to confront him. Therefore it is recommended that the player save before acquiring his contract. Sometimes it also happens that Charon gets stuck after killing Ahzrukhal and stands still beside his corpse. A common way to cause this bug is to buy Charon's Contract when the scripts for the NPCs are changing. In other words, if Ahzrukhal was sleeping and on his way to the bar, Charon will just stand there and not attack him, thus breaking the chain of events necessary for him to join you. On the PC you can use the console to reset the variable that tells Charon to kill Ahzrukhal. Click on him in the console and use to get him to restart all his scripts.
 * When you open a suitcase on the shelf in Underworld Outfitter's store, he will attack you. If he is somehow connected to this suitcase is unknown.
 * Sometimes after the PC performs a one-hit kill sneak attack on an enemy, Charon will call the enemy the opposite gender while commenting. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)
 * Not a bug per se, but unexpected and repeatable. If the player blows up a car with Charon a bit too close and Sydney is present, Charon will pop a one-hit-kill shotgun blast to the back of her head.
 * It is possible that when fast traveling to a location which is pretty much open to the wasteland, Charon will run for a long distance and then come back. This can be a problem if he runs into enemies as they will follow him back to the player's location.
 * A bug can occur where his hand turns into what looks like a wing (as below). This can occur at random when out on the wasteland fighting a Radscorpion. It is known to disappear upon entering Paradise Falls.
 * Sometimes for unknown reasons when you fire Charon, He will immediately turn and try and kill both you and your other follower. Possibly due to an Evil or Very Evil karma rating. However, if you kill a defending female slave in Paradise Falls and you hear him saying tender "she's dead" or "No" and tell him he's fired just after, he'll just tell his usual bound by a contract line and waiting for you in the underworld before firing upon you with his strongest weapon. Apparently, they forgot to program a line about Charon warning that he'll kill the player upon the death of certain innocents.
 * Charon may very occasionally attack the residents of Megaton after fast traveling. This bug has occurred on several PC saves. It is unknown why Charon may randomly attack the Megaton residents. If you are not paying attention he can wipe out the whole town, as the residents will not turn hostile to you when he attacks them and he is strong enough to kill all of them with a bit of luck, including the companion Jericho. He is also known to do this to the Brahmin outside of the Regulator HQ.
 * Upon entrance of the Test Labs in Vault 87 with Charon, after completing the Finding Garden Of Eden quest, Charon was lifeless on the floor by the door while retaining his health and still being prone to damage, after making him hostile and putting away your weapon you can talk to him and give him a command like wait or you're fired and will then remain on the floor as if unconscious. Attempting to talk to him opens an empty inventory (even if he has the items you equipped him with) as does pickpocketing. After passing through a loading door into a new area, his body will appear and drop by the door before your screen loads yet he doesn't follow you. (This happened to me on the way to get Fawkes out of the test labs after he glitched and stayed there instead of meeting me outside raven rock.)
 * Giving Charon certain pieces of clothing (such as Tesla Armour) may cause him to vanish, leaving only a floating armor to talk to(Unconfirmed). This may also be caused by the activation of a stealth boy in his inventory upon the equipping of power armor.
 * Charon can somehow lose his shotgun either when in battle or some other way. If this happen he was no longer use his shotgun and the only weapon he can use is his knife.(Unless you provide him with weapons)
 * If you do the mission in order to gain Charon; after you have killed Greta if the ghouls are hostile and you retreat back into the Ninth Circle Charon and Ahzrukhal will attack you.
 * Even when told to used ranged weapons, he will switch to the Shishkebab when it is given to him.
 * Charon occasionally ignores orders to stay where he is and will pursue and attack an enemy if one is nearby.