Fallout: New Vegas companions

Permanent companions
You can have up to two companions in your party (one humanoid and one non-humanoid). All permanent companions have a unique quest line that you can follow in order to "upgrade" them.

Humanoid companions

 * Arcade Gannon, a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse with a mysterious past. He can be found in the Old Mormon Fort. Arcade will not follow you if you are to far affiliated with Caesar's Legion.
 * Craig Boone, an ex-NCR sniper with a grudge against Caesar's Legion and a chip on his shoulder. He can be found at night in the dinosaur at Novac. Boone will warn you if you get to far affiliated with Caesar's Legion, if you continue to work for Caesar, he will leave you permanently.
 * Lily Bowen, a friendly nightkin and former assassin of the Master's army. She can be recruited in Jacobstown after you get the quest Guess Who I Saw Today.
 * Raul Tejada, a ghoul mechanic and former gunslinger held hostage by Tabitha, the mad leader of the State of Utobitha. Can be found in Black Mountain.
 * Rose of Sharon Cassidy, also known as Cass, a caravan merchant and the daughter of John Cassidy. She can be found in Mojave Outpost.
 * Veronica Santangelo, a disillusioned Brotherhood Scribe. She can be found at the 188 Trading Post.

Non-Humanoid companions

 * ED-E, a prototype eyebot designed for combat and reconnaissance operations. It can be found in Primm, sitting deactivated on the counter of the Mojave Express. ED-E is one of the earliest companions you can get. ED-E must be repaired with 3 scrap metal, 1 scrap electronics, and 2 sensor modules before you can use him.
 * Rex, a cyberdog belonging to The King. He can be found in The King's School of Impersonation in Freeside. Rex needs a replacement brain in the quest "Nothin' but a Hound Dog".

Dead Money companions
These companions are only available while playing the Dead Money add-on, they are only temporary and will not follow the player around as standard companions do:


 * Dean Domino, a ghoulified Pre-war lounge singer. He is found in the Residential District of the Sierra Madre.
 * Christine, a mute ex-Brotherhood Scribe found in the Medical District of the Sierra Madre.
 * Dog/God, a Nightkin found in the Villa Police Station of the Sierra Madre.

Honest Hearts companions
These companions are only available while playing the Honest Hearts add-on, they are only temporary and will not follow the player around as standard companions do:


 * Follows-Chalk, a novice scout for the Dead Horses tribe with wanderlust. He first accompanies the Courier for a while, before permenantly returning to the Dead Horse camp.
 * Waking Cloud, the midwife of the Sorrows tribe worried about her husband. She accompanies the Courier upon Daniel's recommendation.
 * Joshua Graham, former Legate and reborn New Canaanite acting as war chief for the Dead Horses. He will only accompany the Courier during either the Flight from Zion or the Crush the White Legs final quests.

Cut companions

 * Ulysses, Courier

Temporary followers
Temporary followers are accompanying you during a quest or offer their support only for a limited time or area.
 * Body guard (hired in Freeside)
 * Cannibal Johnson (Enclave Remnant)
 * Deputy Beagle
 * Joana (During Bye Bye Love)
 * Logan (during part of Wheel of Fortune)
 * NCR Ranger (activated via NCR Emergency Radio)
 * NCR Trooper (activated via NCR Emergency Radio)
 * Orris (hired in Freeside)
 * Private Halford Camp Guardian Cave
 * Rhonda, a Mr. Handy Bot looking for Tabitha.
 * Securitron Mk II (Or Securitron Mk I) (during No Gods, No Masters or All or Nothing)
 * Sunny Smiles
 * Ted Gunderson
 * Victor

Nerve
Each companion also has a special attribute referred to in the game as Nerve. Nerve boosts the damage and Damage Threshold of each companion by 5% for each point of Charisma a character has. So Nerve grants a total bonus of +50% damage and damage threshold to companions with 10 Charisma and only +5% to both at 1 Charisma. 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 (15% more damage with Guns) or Calm Heart (+50 max HP)
 * Veronica Santangelo - Bonds of Steel (+4 DT) (bugged; see article)
 * ED-E - Brotherhood Examination (+12 DT) or Followers Examination (+5 DAM, +8 DPS, +0.5% Crit Chance and +15 Crit Damage).
 * Rex - Rey's brain (+25 DMG), Violetta's brain (+50% speed) or Lupa's brain (+20 DT)

Weapons
All permanent 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.
 * Companions cannot use weapon upgrades (mods), the upgrades are simply "removed" when you give a modded weapon to a follower and the weapon works in its basic way.
 * Companions can use unique weapons with already built-in upgrades like the ratslayer.
 * Companions can use all types of ammo, but they seem to hold on to the particular type when you equip them with different sorts of one caliber. When out of ammo, instead of switching to the other type of that caliber they use melee instead or sometimes get stuck in a "reload loop". To avoid this, simply give them only one sort of the same caliber.

Armor
Permanent humanoid companions can wear and/or carry all types of clothing that is not associated with any faction. They can also wear all types of armor and power armor that is not related to a faction, even without having Power Armor Training. They only change gear if the given one has a better Damage Threshold than their own outfit. This may not always hold true, however; giving multiple copes of the same outfit to a companion may result in them equipping an inferior copy, despite the difference in DT.

Companions will refuse to wear or even carry faction-specific apparel, except apparel corresponding to their faction. Giving invalid faction apparel to a companion will result in that companion immediately dropping the item (see Bugs for errors that occur with this); it is not returned to the player, but must be picked up from the ground. This also applies to non-human companions who cannot wear armor, i.e. Lily Bowen, Rex, and ED-E. Only Boone and Veronica are able to carry or wear faction apparel. As a former member of NCR 1st Recon, Craig Boone will carry or wear any NCR faction apparel. Veronica, as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, will wear Brotherhood power armor. She will also accept apparel specific to the White Glove Society, and giving her the items White Glove Society attire or Formal wear will result in her teaching you the unarmed move Scribe Counter. She will not wear these items, however, because they are inferior to her default clothing.

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.

Bugs

 * Upon telling your companion to 'return to base' or go to the Lucky 38, your companion might not go, although you will still get the "(companion) has gone to the Lucky 38" message. This can be fixed by going to the location where you recruited your character, which will trigger the character to run to the Lucky 38. This bug happens more with the robotic companion, Rex.
 * This glitch allows you to recruit all humanoid companions. You need to do this before the quest I Could Make You Care start.
 * First, you need to trigger three conversations of the quest.
 * Second, when you trigger the third conversation, Veronica will ask you ‘ Hey, you got a second?’ then reply ‘Not now’ and the conversation will end.
 * Third, dismiss Veronica.
 * Fourth, recruit another humanoid companion.
 * Fifth, Go to 188 trading post with that companion.
 * Sixth, talk to Veronica and answer her with the following order ‘What did you want to talk about earlier?’ ‘Why don’t you just go back on your own?’ ‘I have things I need to do. You’d better be alone.’ Then the game will treat you as dismiss a companion.
 * Seventh, talk to her again and recruit her, now you have two humanoid companions.
 * Eighth, go to next companion you want to recruit.
 * Ninth, repeat the step six and recruit the third humanoid companion.
 * Tenth, repeat step six again and recruit Veronica. Repeat step eight to step ten again and again will allow you to recruit all humanoid companions.
 * Here is a walkthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoDZjTMVLXU


 * ED-E, Rex, and Lily will not carry faction-specific armor, despite the fact that they cannot wear any armor. This contradicts the warning given to the player when attempting to place these items in their inventories, which states that the armor was dropped because the companion cannot wear faction armor.


 * If you take Veronica to the brotherhood of steel bunker she will run off to the current overseer and finish the quest for you and because of that you cant do the glitch afterwords.


 * Sometimes, for example due to excessive fast-traveling, companions may go missing; see the Talk page for possible ways to get them back.


 * After installing patch v1.2 or higher, Loading a Savegame where companions were walking back to their home or the Lucky 38 may cause those companions to vanish from the game.


 * When fast traveling while a companion tries to reach to the player (e.g. after mountain climbing) the companions will start running towards the player's previous location. To fix this issue speak to the companion, or save and reload right after fast-traveling.


 * Clipping issues in mountainous regions may cause companions (or the player) to be stuck within a rock. The companion is unable to follow until the player enters another area or uses fast-travel.


 * If the player runs out of a companion's AI-area while the companion is still vainly trying to reach the player, the companion will go into "Wait" mode instead of zoning to the player.


 * Due to the way the loading system works, companion markers in the Pip-Boy will not be reset when you start a new character without exiting and restarting the game first.


 * Companions who are poisoned will have the full effect of their poison "dumped" when using a stimpak on them. This can result in negative HP which cannot be cured with more Stimpaks, and they will die as soon as you exit the companion wheel. (For weaker poisons, this may lower their HP, but since it doesn't go below zero, they don't die.) On the other hand, they will not use Antivenom, so the poison may end up killing them naturally. This is especially a problem with Veronica, as she prefers unarmed combat. Patched in Fallout: New Vegas patch 1.3.0.452.
 * One way to solve for it is to prevent them from being poisoned in the first place. Make sure they are set to ranged weapons before fighting dangerous poisonous creatures. (Veronica, despite her complaints about using ranged weapons, is very good at Energy Weapons.) If the fighting is really bad, just have them stay put and tank the creatures yourself.  (At least you can use Stimpaks and Antivenom without ill effect.)
 * Another way around this includes having hardcore mode turned off (if it is active). The poison will cause your companion to go unconscious a few times, but the poison will eventually wear off. After that, hardcore mode can be turned back on.  The reason for this working is simply because in casual mode, companions are set as essential and cannot die.
 * Note: Turning off hardcore mode at any point in the game will disable the hardcore achievement, so this solution is not recommended for anybody who is trying to get that achievement.
 * Yet another way is to tell the companion to wait, which appears to replenish the companion's health and remove the poisoning. The follower can then be asked to rejoin.  This can be performed even during combat.
 * Temporary solution is sending your companion home or to the Lucky 38 then recruiting them again.
 * Alternatively treating them with stimpaks very quickly after they are poisoned will prevent their health becoming negative and actually heal them instead of killing them. Note that it can take 20+ stimpaks to fully heal Rex.
 * 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.


 * 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)


 * After Arcade Gannons' quest For Auld Lang Syne, instead of going to the Old Mormon Fort, he may go to the Lucky 38.


 * Items in companion inventories will sometimes disappear from the inventory, yet the weight of the item(s) will still remain.


 * Sometimes, when entering combat from a disance with a melee enemy while your companions are also set to melee and placed right behind you can result in them getting stuck on the Courier and ultimately killing him/her when they try to attack the incoming enemy.


 * Patch 1.3.0.444 When fast-traveling or moving into rooms that need loading your companion(s) might start walking away from you, try to chase after them and they will start running away. If you can catch up to your companion(s) you can order them to Wait, then Follow and they will act normally.  Another way they will stop walking away from you is when they encounter an obstacle like a wall, they will turn around and walk back to you and resume normal companion following.  This isn't much of a problem within a building but outside where there maybe no obstacles to turn them around or trying to catch up with your companions and ordering them to Wait can be problematic, especially with ED-E and Rex who can run faster than you.

Unconfirmed bugs / isolated incidents

 * 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.
 * It's confirmed that Companions can have the said problem above.


 * After you complete the Dead Money DLC, and go to Primm to get ED-E (after upgrades), when you go into the Mojave Express building, he will be attacking Johnson Nash inside. It's not known if this may happen multiple times but it's confirmed that it did it. He will also be hostile towards the player and their companion.


 * All companions seem to have trouble following the courier through certain buildings such as The Kings School of Impersonation, Camp Golf, Camp McCarran and the Jacobstown Lodge. The best remedy for this is to just have them wait for you at the front door.

Fixed bugs (Patch 1.2.0.31x)

 * 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. Solution is recruiting the one that the other companions are ganging up on to list it as essentails once that companion is knocked out the fighting stops. This glitch is random but odds increase with weapons as the fight over them (Sandbox-AI caused human companions to attack non-humans if the latter carried consumable goods)
 * This may be not completely fixed in PC/1.20.352: Had an instance of Rex and/or EDE attacking human companions upon returning to L38: only seems to have been corrected after going back a couple saves and removing all remaining inventory from Rex; see more details at []


 * 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. (As of Patch 1.2.0.31x companions no longer walk to their residence but are teleported immediately).


 * The achievement/trophy The Whole Gang's Here doesn't count the companions you've currently recruited, but rather the total number of times you've recruited a companion. Furthermore, this count is not restricted to a single playthrough, so it will count "repeat" recruiting of a single companion. It is thus possible to recruit the same four companions over two playthroughs and get the achievement.

ru:Напарники Fallout: New Vegas
 * Sometimes when entering a casino, your companion will lose their weapons, and upon leaving, they will still not have their weapons. Mysteriously, the Courior will have it. It is impossible to give it back. To fix this, tell your companion to wait outside. This happens to ED-E too.