Charon (Fallout 3)

Charon is a possible ghoul companion NPC in Fallout 3. Brainwashed as a child he is blindly loyal to the holder of his contract.

He resides in the Underworld as a bouncer in The Ninth Circle. His contract can be bought from Ahzrukhal for 2000 caps (1000 caps if your barter skill is 50 or higher). Alternatively, you can also retrieve his contract from his employer, by killing Greta in Carol's Place. Either way he will loyally follow you. His very first act as your new employee will be to have a "chat" with his former employer.

He is also the only NPC (along with Dogmeat) who can join you regardless of your karma.

During the final mission, Charon will follow you and you can ask him to enter the control chamber of Project Purity. He will decline however, stating something to the effect of "Haven't I saved your ass enough times already? Not this time."

Equipment
Charon's default equipment includes a special shotgun: Charon's Shotgun, a Combat Knife and a Leather Armor.

His unique weapon, Charon's Shotgun, has infinite ammo 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 MUCH higher accuracy and longer range with smaller magazine size (5 instead of 12). Generally speaking, Charon's shotgun outclasses any other shotguns in game.

Despite the fact that its look is identical to standard combat shotgun, Charon's shotgun appears to be a re-skinned Lincoln's Repeater; he 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. New weapons given to him do not have unlimited ammo/durability, so you will have to resupply him with ammo. Thankfully non-default weapons used by companions degrade very slow compared to normal usage by Player. Charon is specialized in small guns, sneak and explosives. But still can use powerful big guns and energy weapons.

You can equip him with new armor which he will happily wear. He knows how to use Power Armor even if you do not. If you managed to acquire a suit of power armor early on but are unable to equip it yourself, give it to Charon.

Any armor given to him does not appear to degrade with usage.

Total carrying capacity: WG 183.5

Combat
Charon seems to fearlessly confront any possible enemies. His perception is very good; he normally says something if enemies are approaching and you have not noticed. Normally he attacks from mid-range with his Shotgun. He is incredibly accurate with his unique shotgun. There seems to be little to no spread when he fires, enabling him to hit targets at medium range with it. He sometimes randomly runs around and ducks for cover.

Charon rarely uses his combat knife. However, giving him a powerful melee weapon like a Shishkebab is not always a great idea, because he tends to favor it over ranged weapons even when enemies are far away. Without the Shishkebab, he'll fire a few shots with his shotgun and surely kill most faraway enemies. But with the Shishkebab, he'll often wait for the enemies to get close and possibly harm the player character before attacking. He'll still use his shotgun occasionally, but he seems unable to pick the most appropriate weapon for the situation.

He is very resilient and is able to take a lot of damage before dying. Most enemies are usually no problem for him to deal with unless its a larger group of Deathclaws or Enclave soldiers.

If you give Charon the T-51b Power Armor and helmet he becomes extremely powerful and can easily clear rooms with 4 or so super mutants single handedly with very little problems/loss of health (even on higher difficulty settings). Another good reason to give him this armor as it is very hard to repair but does not degrade on Charon. When sneaking or searching, he may draw his combat knife.

Due to Charon aiming for the torso instead of the face, Mirelurk Hunters can occasionally kill him if the player does not assist.


 * There is a trick to make Charon reload without 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.

Dialogue
"Talk. To. Ahzrukhal." -- when the player attempts to make conversion with Charon before getting the contract.

"This place is not safe."

"I don't like the look of this place."

"It may be dangerous here."

"Be cautious."


 * 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?"

"I've got your back."

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"Keep firing."

"Help me."

"I am hit."

"Damn!"

"Need help on this one."

"Fire in hole!" -- 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).

"Duck" -- when throwing a grenade


 * End of fight

"Good enough."

"Phew...that's end of that."

"Glad that's over."

Statistics

 * Health: 240 &rarr; 315
 * SPECIAL
 * Strength: 6
 * Perception: 7
 * Endurance: 5
 * Charisma: 3
 * Intelligence: 3
 * Agility: 6
 * Luck: 5


 * Skills
 * Barter: 11
 * Big Guns: 15
 * Energy Weapons: 19
 * Explosives: 51 &rarr; 100
 * Lockpick: 19
 * Medicine: 11
 * Melee Weapons: 17
 * Repair: 11
 * Science: 11
 * Small Guns: 49 &rarr; 100
 * Sneak: 49 &rarr; 100
 * Speech: 11
 * Unarmed: 15

Trivia

 * Charon is most likely a take on the ferryman of the dead, Charon, of Greek Mythology, because he is in the "underworld". Charon is also the name of the ferryman of the river Acheron in Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy", the name being a reference to the bar the character appears in titled "The Ninth Circle", as in Dante's "Inferno" Hell contains nine circles. Charon is also the name of the moon that orbits the (dwarf) planet Pluto.

Bugs

 * Xbox360 non-default equipment doesn't degrade when Charon uses it, (Sniper Rifle stays at 40 DAM forever, power armor never gets damaged, ect, ect)
 * Charon can disappear after the the rescue mission Project Purity. He is located in the tunnels. Go to the Citadel and there is a sewage grate on the ground outside the Citadel near the river. Back track the exact route you took to rescue the NPCs.


 * On the PC, XBOX 360 and PS 3 Charon will sometimes get stuck and fail to kill Ahzrukhal and thus not follow the player. So make sure to save before you buy his contract. If Ahzrukhal is not tending the bar when you buy his contract, Charon will get stuck trying to confront him.  Wait until Ahzrukhal is awake and behind the bar to buy the contract. Sometimes it also happens that Charon gets stuck after killing Ahzrukhal and stands still beside his corpse.


 * A minor bug: when Charon spots an enemy at extreme range, he sometimes pulls his combat knife at the same time he gives his vocal cue (what he says seems to be random, but you can always hear the little "shing" sound of him drawing the knife out of it's scabbard), and it takes him a while to switch to something more appropriate. This seems to happen more in the Wastes, maybe because of longer encounter distances.  He does this even when equipped with more powerful melee weapons.  It also seems to be hit-or-miss regarding whether or not he'll pull out the Ripper for close combat when appropriate even if it's the best melee weapon he has, although he seems to prefer Shishkebabs or the Vampire's Edge and switches to those if he's carrying one of them.