Fallout 3 exploits

Equipment Effect Stacking Exploit
After a follower equips armor, headwear or glasses that has some effect that increases an attribute or skill, its effect will stack every time you enter the trade window with the follower. You don't actually need to trade anything, just tell him or her you need to trade equipment then exit. Leaving the conversation entirely before entering the trade window again is unnecessary.

Damage Resistance is unaffected, and does not stack. The accumulated effects will stay with the follower even after you save and reload. Removing the item giving the effect will remove all accumulated effects from that item and put the follower back to normal.

This makes it possible for a follower to maximize skills or attributes they normally wouldn't be able to. As an example, Charon could get over 100 in Big Guns by applying this trick if he equips Torcher's Mask or similar gear. Be careful if you do this with a piece of equipment that lowers an attribute, since negative effects will stack as well (for instance, Button's Wig will lower Perception).

This is probably most useful when a follower equips a single piece of equipment that increases Luck (Lucky Shades, Ranger Battle Armor, Three Dog's Head Wrap) and applied until they reach Luck 10 which gives them a 10% Critical Chance. Doing it further is pointless, since Luck will not provide bonuses beyond 10 points, thus capping Critical Chance will cap at 10%.

Another nice combination is to apply the trick after equipping the follower with Poplar's Hood in combination with Enclave Power Armor and Lucky Shades. This will maximize the follower's Strength and keep Agility untouched (since the Agility loss from the Power Armor is negated by the Agility gain from the hood). The follower will also maximize his or her critical chance from the added Luck from the glasses. This makes for a really strong melee character, perfect for Clover, as long as you don't mind her looking ridiculous.

On the PC version of the game, to see if this actually works, you can open the console and target the follower: for example, to target Charon. Look at the follower's Wiki article to find their exact id number. After you've targeted the follower, you can use the command to make queries about their skills and attributes (,, ,  etc.)

Multiple Temporary Companion Exploit

 * Including Dogmeat and a permanent follower, it is possible to have a maximum of ten people following you without running into massive errors. Red, Shorty, Sticky, Sydney, Cherry, Initiate Pek, Paladin Hoss, and Paladin Hoss's anonymous co-paladin can all follow you around Falls Church area after rescuing Initiate Pek.  However, after five game days, Cherry will return to Dukov's Place, and it's best to directly or indirectly kill Paladin Hoss, Initiate Pek, and their tag-along Brotherhood Paladin before leaving Falls Church, or you'll encounter some interesting game issues (360+ps3 unpatched).  Because of this, the easiest sustainable number of followers is actually 6: Dogmeat, the permanent follower, Sydney, and the 3 Big Towners.  This is the largest known following attainable resorting to game exploits, not glitches or coding errors.

Multiple Permanent Companion Glitches
Note that if you have the Broken Steel DLC you can use the Puppies! perk to get every companion without much hassle.. just keep killing the new Dogmeat puppy and hire the companions.

The following is possible in the latest patched version of the game.


 * Dogmeat has a reserved companion slot, meaning you will be able to get him no matter if you already have a companion. However, his death frees that slot. By killing him you'll be able to get two companions.


 * When you first meet Star Paladin Cross, she will join you (as long as you have good karma) even if you already have Dogmeat and one other permanent follower. NOTE: In the conversation, you will come to a point where you have 2 conversation options, you must pick the second of the two:
 * "I want you to come with me."
 * "I don't suppose I could stop you."


 * When you meet Fawkes in the entrance of Raven Rock, he'll join you even if you have a follower. You'll need to fast travel away from the location, pick your companion and then fast travel back, before Fawkes talks to you. Save before doing this, though. Fawkes may attempt to follow the Enclave soldiers that run away, and dissapear (or be very hard to find).


 * Clover and Sergeant RL-3 can be acquired even if you already have a follower, by abusing a "fire/rehire" glitch. This consists of firing your current companion, hiring Clover/Sergeant RL-3 and rehiring your previous companion before the recently 'bought' one starts conversation with you.

Combining those glitches, it is possible to have up to 6 permanent followers, if you didn't use any of those prior to visiting Raven Rock. The method is explained below.

Following tested and still works post-patch.
 * 6 Companions (including Dogmeat).
 * To get 6 companions, you must not have used any fire/rehire glitch prior from your escape from Raven Rock.
 * 1) When you escape from Raven Rock, you will be in a short tunnel, just before reaching the hatch, you will get the "You have found Raven Rock" message. Don't move any further, just stay inside the tunnel. This will also allow you to re-enter Raven Rock. You will see 3-4 hostiles and 1 friendly in your radar. The friendly who is fighting the 3-4 enclave soldiers is Fawkes and is here to rescue you. WAIT for him to kill all hostiles. He will then walk towards you or stop moving. Fast travel to Underworld and hire Charon. Because you will need to change your karma back and forth, Charon is easiest to work with since he has no karma restriction.
 * 2) Get positive Karma and Fast travel back to Raven Rock. Fawkes will run up and initiate dialog. Let him join you. You might want to double check that the Raven Rock hatch is still open and that no invisible barrier is blocking you from going into the short tunnel and using the entrance door to Raven Rock.
 * 3) Get karma to evil, go to Eulogy in Paradise Falls. Fire Charon, quickly talk to Eulogy and buy Clover. Before Clover initiates dialog with you, rehire Charon. Clover will join you now. Since you are evil now, you might want to fire either Fawkes or Clover and hire Jericho. Depends on whether you want a more powerful party or a party that can all wear power armor. Do not fire more than 1 companion at any time, or you will permanently lose 1 companion slot.
 * 4) Get karma to neutral, go to Tinker Joe outside Robco building. Fire Charon, quickly talk to Tinker Joe and buy Sergeant RL-3. Before the Sergeant initiates dialog with you, rehire Charon. Same choice, you can keep Sergeant RL3 or hire Butch if you have already revisted Vault 101.
 * 5) Get karma to good, go to Star Paladin Cross in the Citadel. She'll tell you that Elder Lyons is looking for you and won't say anything else. Just look for elder Lyons and let the cutscence play out. When Sarah asks if you are ready, tell her you need a minute. Now look for Cross again and speak with her. Select the lines that talks about your dad. When you reach the part where you can ask her to join you or say "I don't suppose I can stop you", select the latter. She will then ask to join you out of her own accord, now you can accept. If you had asked her to join you instead of the other way around, you will get a "Only 1 follower allowed" message.
 * 6) Go get Dogmeat to join you. This can be done at anytime since he ignores the follower limit. However, he does create 1 if you kill him. So if you really want to, you can kill Dogmeat and get 1 of the remaining 2 companions (Butch or Jericho) in your party.

NOTE: As RL-3 requires neutral Karma, you may need more or less karma to acquire other followers. A quick way to lower karma is to hack a computer multiple times. A quick way to raise karma is by donating to Confessor Cromwell or by giving away purified water. (to fix this just type ~ : setessential  0 : enter)
 * Unlimited Companions (All platforms) (Confirmed on PS3)(Confirmed on Xbox360)
 * With this glitch, you can get as many companions as you want, how many times you want. This means you can do this glitch prior to Raven Rock, then after it, without a problem. It is rather slow, though, so patience is necessary.
 * 1) Hire Sergeant RL-3.
 * 2) Go to the companion you want to hire, and tell Sergeant RL-3 to wait. Then talk to him again, and choose the second option("not just yet, I want to talk about something"). Then, fire him, and hire the other companion.
 * 3) Wait 7-8 days, on an inside location (being outside voids this, for some reason). You should receive a "Sergeant RL-3 has returned to Canterbury Commons" message. This opens a companion slot.
 * 4) Go hire him again.
 * 5) Repeat steps 2-4 until you have all companions.
 * '''Unlimited Companions (Broken Steel only)
 * It is possible to get all companions including Dogmeat (his puppy annyway) once you reach level 22. The only requirement for this glitch is use of the Puppies! Perk. Also, be sure to keep Dogmeat alive until you get the Puppies! Perk, because if he dies before this, the Perk is void.
 * 1) Get Dogmeat.
 * 2) Get another follower to fill your Companion Slot.
 * 3) Kill Dogmeat in a cell that is close to the next companion you want to hire (You need to move fast so that you can fill the open slot before Dogmeat's puppy spawns). An easy way to do this is to tell Dogmeat to go to Vault 101, and then put a live grenade in his "Pocket" as he walks away.
 * 4)Hire the Companion, he will fill the open slot.
 * 5)Pick up Dogmeat's puppy, he has created a new Companion slot.
 * 6)Repeat steps 3-5 until you have every possible follower.
 * By use of this glitch it is possible to have a lot of followers both before and after your Escape from Raven Rock. This also allows you to complete the Fallout 3 add-ons without fear of breaking your follower glitches (keep in mind, however, that you will have to redo the entire setup, but this glitch never breaks, so feel free). This glitch make the Puppies! perk one of the most useful perks in the game, as by exploiting this gltich, you may never have to fire your gun again.
 * Unlimited Companions (PC version only)
 * Using the console you are able to hire ALL companions that meet your karma requirements. You will need Dogmeat to do this, because when you first meet Dogmeat there isn't a check for a free companion slot.  If you then kill Dogmeat there will be a free slot, which can be used for another companion. Using console you have to resurrect Dogmeat, resetquest 943ed which reset Dogmeat dialogue like you met him for first time, hire Dogmeat, kill Dogmeat, and now you have another free companion slot. You can do this as many times as you need.
 * Open the console by hitting tilde key "~"
 * Kill Dogmeat: click on Dogmeat or type "prid 6a775", hit enter, then type "kill" exit console and hire desired humanoid companion or RL-3
 * Resurrect Dogmeat: type "prid 6a775", hit enter, then type "resurrect" hit enter, type "resetquest 943ed" and hit enter, exit console and hire Dogmeat
 * NOTE: This is not possible if Dogmeat is immortal (setessential command). After you killed him he will fall unconscious and you aren't able to hire ANY other companion. After a while he will stand up and live again.