Charon (Fallout 3)

, (pronounced 'Kar-on') 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.

Location
Charon resides in the Underworld as a bouncer in The Ninth Circle. He 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, actually blowing Ahzrukhal's head off.

Equipment

 * Charon's default equipment includes a special shotgun: Charon's Shotgun, a Combat Knife and a 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 (no longer true with the Fallout 3 patch 1.1) 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 shotgun 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, and any armor given to him does not appear to degrade with usage. 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.

NOTE from playing with XBox360: I've found that neither his armor (currently Linden's Outcast from the Oasis quest) nor his shotgun is immune to degradation over time - it just takes a long time for his armor and his weaponry to degrade. It's easy enough to repair, however. Just trade it from him, repair, and give it back. Edited by BOP 01/27/2009


 * Charon will equip clothing items which boost his skills or stats, such as the Stormchaser Hat or Pre-War Bonnet. Surprisingly, Charon will also occasionally equip at least some purely cosmetic clothing choices (tested with all kinds of glasses).


 * 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).


 * Charon seems to not care about his Big Guns skill when it comes to the Flamer, as he will favor this over his shotgun.

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.


 * 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.


 * 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 a Scoped .44 Magnum, Chinese Assault Rifle or the Shishkebab over his shotgun. If you subsequently order him to use ranged combat, he will switch back to the Chinese Assault Rifle. A fully repaired Chinese Assault Rifle is deadly in Charon's hands. However, he will sometimes apparently switch over to a melee weapon without warning despite orders, most prevalently the Shishkebab.


 * 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.


 * When in combat if fighting deathclaws more then anything else, that whatever weapon charon was holding during combat can be easilly be swatted out of his hands, as this can be an unfortunate loss of a fully repaired chinese assault rifle at daylight.

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, its 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.


 * 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?"


 * "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 (that was thrown at Charon, though it might not matter).


 * End of fight
 * "Good enough."
 * "Phew...that's end of that."
 * "Glad that's over."
 * "Better him than me."

Statistics

 * Health: 240 &rarr; 315
 * SPECIAL: 6ST, 7PE, 5EN, 3CH, 3IN, 6AG, 5LK


 * 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 the name of the ferryman of the dead in the underworld in Greek Mythology. 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. 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".


 * 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 is the name of one of the dwarf planet Pluto's moons.

Bugs

 * 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.


 * 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. Therefure 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 Charons 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 jsut 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.