Fallout: New Vegas companions

Companion wheel
The companion wheel is a new feature that is added to Fallout: New Vegas. The wheel provides easier control over non-player companion characters in the game.

There are 8 sections on the wheel, each with a specified function.

The available orders are:
 * Toggle melee/ranged fighting - also displays the weapon they are currently using when highlighted. Also if you instruct a companion to change their combat style, they will make a comment hinting towards the best combat style for them.
 * Open inventory - This displays the companion's current inventory, inventory weight, and weight limit. Be advised, however, as it appears that not all companions can carry just anything: ED-E and Boone, for instance, will not carry Legion armor of any kind.  Instead, any Legion armor the player tries to give either of them will simply be dropped on the ground. Boone also seems to refuse to carry any Great Khan or Powder Ganger armor.
 * Toggle stay close/keep distance.
 * Back up - makes them back up a few yards.
 * Toggle aggressive/passive AI. Aggressive indicates that they will any attack enemy on sight, whilst Passive mode means that they will wait until you enter combat. This is very handy when sneaking around places with lots of enemies, as they will hold back on a [Caution], and wait until the enemy has properly engaged you in combat.
 * Use stimpak - heals your companion, and also shows current health.
 * Toggle wait here/follow me.
 * Talk to your companion with the regular dialogue boxes. This also provides an alternative method of giving orders to your companions, but somewhat redundant considering you have to use the companion wheel to get to dialogue mode in the first place. You do need to go into this mode to be able to dismiss your companions, however.

Nerve
Each companion also has a special attribute referred to in the game as Nerve. Nerve grants a total bonus of +50% damage and damage threshold to companions with a perfect charisma of 10 and only +5% to both at the minimum score of 1. A person with a starting charisma of 1 can boost their companions nerve to the maximum by use of an Empathy Synthesizer or Intense Training, Party Time Mentats (+5) and high Survival (so that alcohol adds +3 charisma).

This is most effective with companions that gain increases to their damage or damage threshold upon completion of their companion quests and less important for companions who gain items or abilities not associated with nerve.


 * Rose of Sharon Cassidy - Hand of Vengeance
 * Veronica Santangelo - Bonds of Steel
 * ED-E - Brotherhood Examination (DT+8) or Followers Examination (+??% Damage).
 * Rex - Rey's brain

Faction Armor
Permanent Companions will refuse to wear or even carry faction-specific apparel, except apparel corresponding to their preferred faction (see Exceptions). Giving invalid faction apparel to a companion will result in that Companion immediately dropping the item (see bugs); it is not returned to the player, but must be picked up from the ground.

This limitation does apply to non-human Companions who cannot wear armor, i.e. Lily Bowen, Rex, and ED-E. Giving these Companions any faction-specific apparel will result in them dropping it, as described above.

Although a temporary companion, Primm's Deputy Beagle is subject to a similar restriction, and will not accept any Powder Ganger apparel given to him.

Exceptions
Some Companions can be considered to be already allied with or accepting of certain factions, and as such will carry and/or wear apparel specific to those factions.

Although these Companions will wear some faction-aligned apparel they are not subject to the same effects, namely they are not treated as being disguised as a member of the faction in question.

Boone
As a former member NCR 1st Recon, Craig Boone will carry or wear any NCR-faction apparel.

Veronica
Veronica will accept any apparel specific to the Brotherhood of Steel. Additionally, Veronica will accept apparel specific to the White Glove Society, and giving her the item White Glove Society attire will result in her teaching you the unarmed move Scribe Counter.

Permanent companions
You can have up to two companions, one humanoid and one non-humanoid. All companions' default weapons have unlimited ammo. If you equip your follower with a better weapon, (DPS is checked) add ammunition and check its count from time to time - they seem to hold on to the new weapon when out of ammo or switch to melee instead. All permanent companions have a unique quest line that you can follow in order to "upgrade" them.

While actively following you, permanent companions are treated as essential (unless you are playing on Hardcore Mode, see below). It is important to note that they are only essential when following you, and they can be killed both before they join you and after you tell them to leave. In Hardcore Mode, companions can be killed even while actively following you, but they do not require food or drink and are not affected by radiation or drowning either.

Should you tell your companion to wait for you at The Lucky 38 they will be waiting in your presidential suite ready to be rehired. Note that you have to tell them you want to split up through the talk menu for them to go and wait for you. Just selecting the wait here option in the Lucky 38 will not work. In both Casual and Hardcore mode, companions sent to wait in the Lucky 38 will take consumable items left out and can possibly even take items stored in containers (they will take and consume items from containers. Preferably Nuka-Cola Quartz...). These items are not retrievable from your companions' inventories. Consumable items may also be used by active companions when transferred into their inventory. In fight situations even ED-E will use consumables.

There are 8 permanent companions and recruiting them all will earn you The Whole Gang's Here Trophy/Achievement. Note: This does not mean you must hire all 8 companions within a single play through the game. You may recruit half of them with one character build, and recruit the other half the next time you build a character. It seems to be enough trying to hire a companion for that achievement, even in one game. If you already have one or two followers (1 human + 1 non-human), and try to hire another one of the same category, the potential companion will refuse stating that there's no space. This already counts towards the achievement. (It is possible to collect all 8 if you wish, just send each of them to the lucky 38 one after the other, this is easier if you wait to attack any factions until you have collected them)

Humanoid companions

 * Craig Boone, an Ex-NCR sniper with a grudge against Caesar's Legion. He can be found in Novac.
 * Lily Bowen, a friendly nightkin and former member of the Master's army. She can be found in Jacobstown.
 * Rose of Sharon Cassidy, also known as Cass, a caravan merchant and the daughter of John Cassidy. She can be found in Mojave Outpost.
 * Arcade Gannon, a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse with a mysterious past. He can be found in the Old Mormon Fort.
 * Veronica Santangelo, a disillusioned Brotherhood Scribe. She can be found at 188 Trading Post.
 * Raul Tejada, a ghoul mechanic and former gunslinger held hostage by Tabitha, the mad leader of the State of Utobitha. He can be found in Black Mountain.

Non-Humanoid companions

 * ED-E a prototype eyebot designed for combat and reconnaissance operations. It can be found in Primm.
 * Rex, a cyberdog belonging to The King. It can be found in The King's School of Impersonation.

Temporary companions

 * Sunny Smiles
 * Ted Gunderson
 * Deputy Beagle
 * Securitron Mk II (Or Securitron Mk I)
 * Rhonda, a Mr. Handy Bot looking for Tabitha.
 * Private Halford
 * Victor
 * NCR Ranger (activated via NCR Emergency Radio)
 * NCR Trooper (activated via NCR Emergency Radio)
 * Body guard (hired in Freeside)
 * King Member (hired in Freeside)
 * Cannibal Johnson (Enclave Remnant)

Cut companions

 * Ulysses, Caesar's Legion member

Behind the scenes
Several remaining resources point to the game having at one point allowed for the Courier to have multiple humanoid companions. Primarily this is found in disabled dialogue options, such as a conversation with Mortimer where the Courier would have needed to specify which of their human companions they were offering to Mortimer.

Returning Lost Companions
The following fixes work when you lose one or both companions and are unable to find them at either your Lucky 38 suite or in their original home locations


 * Go to Vault 22 and use the central elevator (which you may need to repair at a skill level of 50). Take the elevator to another level. Your missing Companion(s) will be waiting there at the exit of the elevator. You will need to use the Companion wheel to tell them to follow you again as they will be in "Wait Here" mode. It appears that the game does some sort of companion check when using this elevator, and will move your companions here regardless of their status. . The same behaviour can be found in the Hoover Dam using the elevator that leads up to the control room, where you install the override chip.
 * Another (unconfirmed) method for returning a companion, if fast travel or entering a structure doesn't work, is to simply use the wait feature from the select button on the controller. Choose to wait for 24 hours and once that time is up, your companion should be standing near you. The reason for this seems to be that the companion is stuck somewhere in the world, just like if they were to run off by themselves to fight an enemy or like they do occasionally when fast travelling somewhere. By waiting in one spot, you are allowing them to catch up with you, because just like the previous examples, they have to run from where they are to where you are standing.
 * Push the Tilde key and then type in.

The Ref id's for companions are listed on their respective pages. You can use (instead of both commands stated above) too - if you want to know where you lost your companion. Be sure to make a new save before using any Console Commands. This bug might be related to times when a companion wants to converse with you about his/her quest. In that case, after retrieving him you will need to initiate such a conversation yourself to make the person start following you again. If he/she still stands there and doesn't run after you after the conversation, you can try firing the person from the team and rehiring soon after. This should make them follow you again.


 * Sometimes a companion will disappear and not seem to be retrievable by fast travel or the moveto command.


 * In that case, attempt this:

Move all items from the targeted companion over to yourself to avoid losing them.

See Console Commands for more information on how to use the console.


 * When entering the Legion Fort, upon leaving via fast travel, your companion(s) may not follow you. They will be waiting at the Forts main gate.


 * Sometimes, if you direct Rex to go back to the Lucky 38, he will disappear; in this case, he may be inside The King's School of Impersonation - simply go inside, look around, and you may see him run past you, out the door, and up to the Presidential Suite at the Lucky 38, where he'll be available for dialogue again.

Bugs

 * Sometimes when Fast Traveling to a location your companions will start running in a random direction.


 * Everything in ED-E's inventory will be lost when you leave it with the Brotherhood of Steel or Followers of the Apocalypse for upgrades. This is because 'old' ED-E is replaced by 'upgraded' ED-E.
 * This has been fixed by Patch 1.2.


 * Be careful when entering an area populated with enemies such as caves because if you enter and your companions are too far away when you enter, they might be placed in the middle of a group of enemies and possibly die before you can get to them.


 * Dismissing companions to the Lucky 38 can sometimes result in them staying in the same location instead of moving to the Lucky 38. So if you cant find your companions at the 38, check where you dismissed them.


 * Make sure your companions are not stuck before you zone into another area as they will sometimes remain still and not follow you into the new area.


 * The option to dismiss companions to the Lucky 38 will disappear even before Mr. House becomes hostile to the player.(Verified on Xbox 360 12/09/10)


 * Sometimes when wandering near mountains, your follower(mine was Arcade)may get stuck in a part of the mountain. When I had Arcade, he was only shown from the waste up and he was stuck in the rock. You will still be able to speak and dismiss the follower but the follower just stands in place. Reloading from a previous save where this wasn't happening will fix this, but try fast traveling first if possible. "Needs confirmation" On the PC, this can be fixed by targeting the companion in the console and typing moveto player.(Different person, PS3, I was near gibson scrap yard in the ravine nearby fighting some molerats with boone and e-de in which they both got stuck in the rocks. Fast travel was an easy workaround.


 * If the player recruits Boone, Veronica, Raul, Rex, and Ed-E they will get the achievement "The Gangs All Here".


 * If you have several companions in the Lucky 38 at one time and leave Weapons laying around they may start to fight each other and they will die due to the fact that they are no longer listed as an essential anymore.No solution as of now


 * Sometimes, if the player climbs a rock that his companion can't climb, the companion will try finding another way to reach the player. This can be fixed by fast traveling to somewhere, but as soon as you fast travel, your companion will star running straight. You can run after him and speak to your companion. This will fix the bug.


 * Fast travel to Cottonwood Cove and you may lose all of your companions.


 * It's possible that you can lose the ability to hire or dismiss companions that you've already previously hired -- the dialogue option simply doesn't show up. An apparently-related bug is that during certain sequences where your companions are not allowed to follow you (most notably when entering the Lucky 38 for the first time), your companions are ordered to wait but will not resume following you when ordered.