Fallout 4/Characters/Companions

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The Sole Survivor's Companions Only base game companions shown here - Left to right, from top to bottom - Top "row": X6-88, Paladin Danse, and Codsworth Second "row": Strong, Preston Garvey, Piper Wright, Nick Valentine, and Deacon Third "row": Curie, Robert Joseph MacCready, Dogmeat, John Hancock, and Cait (Fan Poster Property of KerriAitken)

Main Game

Like Fallout New Vegas, companions are a lot more than just expendable meat shields and many have their own greater or lesser connections to the story at large.

Tropes they all share

• Arc Welding: While they all are met at various points of the game, their own arcs tie into the overall story to some greater or lesser degree, with a few exceptions.
  • Ada from Automatron doesn't really have a greater impact on the larger story, her arc being mostly self contained to the titular DLC's (rather short) plot, but the abilities she unlocks can have a great impact on certain quests, since the robot building can greatly influence settlement defense and even make certain quests like the Minutemen "Defend the Castle" Quest much easier.
  • Old Longfellow is mostly confined to relevance in Far Harbor and its associated DLC quests, though he does have some commentary for the Commonwealth in general, and his arc intersects with Nick Valentine's own plot arcs, which have implications for the Commonwealth in general.
  • Porter Gage is mainly Nuka-World centric, but his designs and intentions, should the player go full raider boss, will have a big impact on the Commonwealth, and will be one of the very few ways to make an open enemy of Preston Garvey and the Minutemen.
  • Strong has the least impact on the overall plot in general, but does show that the Brotherhood of Steel's blatant racism against his kind is not entirely merited, while at the same time highlighting how Super Mutants are largely victims of their creators, which does tie back into the Institute plotline and can affect how the player decides to deal with them.
• Bi The Way: The Sole Survivor can flirt with Preston, Piper, Cait, Danse, Curie, Hancock, MacCready, and Gage regardless of gender. This partly seems to be for player freedom for romance options, as they all respond in kind. However, Cait, Hancock, Piper, and MacCready all have dialogue that makes them explicitly/"canonically" bisexual.
• Central Theme: Who/what do you define yourself as when you can't define yourself as that anymore? All of the Sole Survivor's companions are in some way traumatized by their pasts, struggling to reinvent themselves, working through some serious baggage from the past, or combination of the above. Each of them are struggling to building new lives for themselves that either incorporate who they used to be or completely discard their pasts.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Sole Survivor's companions are anything but a normal, well-adjusted group.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: All of the companions can be categorized in one of the five different philosophies.
  • The Optimists
    • Preston:
    • Curie:
    • Nick:
  • The Realists
    • Piper:
    • Hancock:
    • Deacon:
  • The Cynics
    • Cait:
    • X6-88:
    • Old Longfellow:
  • The Apathetics
    • MacCready:
    • Codsworth:
    • Dogmeat:
  • The Conflicted
    • Danse:
    • Strong:
    • Ada:
    • Gage:
• Gameplay Ally Immortality:
• May-December Romance:
• Optional Party Member:
• Permanently Missable Content:
• Polyamory:
• Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits:
• Really 700 Years Old:
• Relationship Values:
• Smoking Is Cool:
• Surprise Incest: An ambiguous case.
• True Companions:
• Undying Loyalty:
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
• What The Hell, Hero?:
• Worthless Yellow Rocks:
• You Lose At Zero Trust:

Dogmeat

Can be met as soon as you step outside of Sanctuary Hills, just down the road at the Red Rocket station. Like his predecessors in the other Fallout games, he's a loyal canine companion who will travel and fight alongside you.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Trope
• Trope
• Trope

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Codsworth

The Mr. Handy that was intended to be the family butler for the Sole Survivor's family, but who comes to view their family as his own. Can join you as soon as you return from Concord.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• AI Is a Crapshoot: He laments this about other, simpler robots with more rudimentary programming, though it ranges from sympathy, such as in the case of the broken Takahashi in Diamond City, to annoyance, such as with Deezer in Covenant - who tries to offer him, of all beings, lemonade.
• American Robot: Is quite proud of his US producer, General Atomics, even makes snide remarks about communists in certain areas.
• Badass: Downplayed. He admits he's no Mr. Gutsy, but will fight alongside you anyway, and while useful in the early game, other companions quickly outclass him him without the Automatron DLC.
  • Badass Automaton: With the Automatron DLC, you can upgrade Codsworth to being a robotic One Man Army.
  • Badass Normal: Relatively speaking.
  • Submissive Badass: He is a Mr. Handy after all, it's what they do.
• Crutch Character; Falls into this without Automatron. While initially a strong melee fighter and a decent ranged fighter due to the built in buzz saw blade and flamethrower, he drops off in power very quickly. Averted with Automatron because you can keep upgrading his arsenal.
• Moral Myopia: While his morality is easily mistaken for that of a Lawful Good type, Codsworth has some odd deviations from this norm:
  • Unlike most other companions with a similar code of morals, he's rather indifferent to cannibalism, though since Codsworth doesn't consider this a crime to a living, innocent being, he doesn't view it with anything other than dispassionate indifference.
  • While he approves of helping organizations like the Minutemen, he has reservations about the Brotherhood of Steel, which makes sense since the Minutemen define their role as selfless servants of others like Codsworth himself, while the Brotherhood defines itself as guardians who enforce their rules on others.
• Nice Guy: By default, he's unerringly polite to anyone who isn't hostile.
• Pride: In regards to his own machine nature, he's quite proud of his own robot type and the company that made him. He tends to be scornful of RobCo derived machines most of the time, but he does show them occasional sympathy, like in the case of the broken Takahashi in Diamond City.
• Pungeon Master: A standard feature of his robot type is to offer these sorts of jokes when he doesn't have anything else to say, also a Call Back to your Mr. Handy servant in Fallout 3.
• Robot Buddy: Quite proud of this status, though he considers himself just as much a friend and ally to the player as those who look humanoid. And the player can tell him they feel the same way.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Fairly high up on the scale, rather surprisingly since he's a mass produced model of robot easily purchasable before the Great War, but it's implied he may have learned to grow beyond his limited programming in the interval since the prologue. He still adheres to many basic principles of his stock programming, and thus even at zero trust he will not turn hostile and attack the Sole Survivor, but he will become disgusted enough with them he refuses to actively aid them in combat.
• What Measure Is A Non-Human?:

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Preston Garvey

Met in Concord, trying to defend a bunch of settlers from some Raiders. One of the last Minutemen after their organization started to fall from its heyday, he hopes you can turn their fortunes around.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• A Father To His Men: Even when the people he's charged with protecting have dwindled from 20 to 5, Preston will still stand with them to the very end.
• Acceptable Breaks From Reality: While his supplying of radiant quests can get very aggravating real fast, it serves as a replacement for the Sole Survivor having to sit and individually sort out/solve countless disagreements between the Minutemen's various officers - all of which would get insufferably boring and be (arguably) much worse than Preston's radiant quest supplying.
• Adorkable: Has shades of this.
• Badass: He's been a Minutemen for a long time now - and is the last one still standing for a damn good reason.
  • Badass Normal: He has no special advantages to his credit whatsoever. He has no backing of a powerful organization when you first meet him, lacks Piper's and Deacon's guile, and no raw strength beyond that of an average human, merely a Laser Musket and the ability to use it.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Submissive Badass: He's no leader, but he will happily support a more competent one in his stead.
• Berserk Button: Utterly hates the Gunners with a fervent passion. This is implied to be due to that many Gunners are Minutemen who gave up on their mission to protect the people of the Commonwealth, and instead decided to conquer and pillage them. By extension, he also hates Raiders.
  • To a much lesser extent, he has a profound dislike for the Brotherhood of Steel. It says something about his animosity towards them that he seems to have a warmer view on the Institute in comparison to the BoS.
• Broken Pedestal: The Minutemen as an organization nearly went through this in Garvey's eyes, since he looked up to them as his heroes and was heartbroken to see many of them degenerate into being Gunners/Raiders. Thankfully, the Sole Survivor can rebuild the Minutemen, bringing them up to new heights (rebuilding Garvey's respect for the organization in the process).
• Child Soldiers: He first joined the Minutemen when he was only sixteen years old.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: The entire reason he initially joined the Minutemen is because he wants to make the Commonwealth a better place.
• Death Seeker: Surprisingly enough.
• The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything: The Sole Survivor will normally lose him as a companion if they side with the Nuka-World Raiders and ravage the Commonwealth. However, there's a way out of this: If the Sole Survivor hasn't met Preston in Concord yet until after they become the Overboss, then they can save him and get the "Open Season" quest to kill off the Nuka-World Raiders and become the Minutemen's new General, allowing you to get both quest-lines! What makes this option this is that the quest to save Preston - "When Freedom Calls" - is usually given right at the start of the game, meaning that the player will have to do quite a bit of back-tracking to do both quest-lines.
  • There is also a much more mundane way to have your cake and eat it too: You won't make Preston mad until you lead the Raiders outside of Nuka-World, so you can do everything within the confines of Nuka-World, but so long as you don't decide to invade the Commonwealth, you can still enjoy all the benefits of being the Overboss insofar as they are available within Nuka-World.
• Foil: To Deacon. Preston sticks out among the companions as relatively normal and for having a professional soldier's personality. Deacon's an utter enigma - in no small part due to his near-constant lies - who speaks in a very breezy tone and uses a lot of lingo.
• Friendly Sniper:
• The Generic Guy: Relatively speaking.
• Hero of Another Story: He's been journeying around the Commonwealth and helping fight for the Minutemen since he was 16.
• Hidden Depths: He has lots of repressed rage, which is only really shown if the Sole Survivor takes him with them to single-handedly raze Gunner-occupied Quincy to the ground.
• Last of His Kind: Preston admits that while he's likely not the literal last of the Minutemen, he's the only one still active in the Commonwealth.
• Married To The Job: Much like Danse with the Brotherhood and Piper with her newspaper, his entire life is focused around being a Minutemen. This gets a surprisingly dark Call-Back later on in the story, with him revealing to the Sole Survivor that if the Sole Survivor hadn't saved him and his settlers at Concord, the settlers most certainly would've died - and Preston would've killed himself out of guilt..
• Nice Guy: Seriously rivals Curie in being the nicest person in the entire Commonwealth. He may not be fit to lead, but is most certainly the shining example of the Minutemen's ideals in action.
• Nice Hat: Wears a brown slouch hat, befitting his cowboy/revolutionary aesthetic. Funnily enough, this is even lampshaded In-Universe, with Jared's terminal at Corvega Assembly Plant in Lexington having him vow to take Preston's hat for his own.
• Not So Stoic: He outright shouts at the Sole Survivor if they side with the Nuka-World Raiders.
  • Bringing him to Quincy to cleanse the place of Gunners will have Preston make numerous comments full of scorn/contempt for the Gunners and display barely-disguised rage for what they did to Quincy.
  • In a more comedic example, he bursts into laughter when it's revealed that the Treasure of Jamaica Plain was actually just a Pre-War time capsule all along.
• Officer and a Gentleman: He more or less serves as the Sole Survivor's main assistant & adviser within the Minutemen’s command structure, and is incredibly polite and nice to (almost) everyone he meets.
• Only Sane Man: He comes across as this amongst the Sole Survivor's companions.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives the Sole Survivor an absolutely vicious one if they side with the Nuka-World Raiders after having previously been a member of the Minutemen.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: He even lampshades this, sheepishly admitting that he doesn't really have as bizarre characteristics as the other, more colorful companions the Sole Survivor picks up.
• Seen It All: Part of the reason why he's The Stoic.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He saw the Gunners massacre Quincy, and still holds that pain with him.
• Stepford Smiler: He's implied to be this.
• The Stoic: Relatively little gets a rise out of him, and he has a generally muted and calm delivery - much like the Sole Survivor's own. Makes sense since both Preston and the Sole Survivor are heavily implied to be suffering through a Heroic BSOD over the course of the story.
• Vague Age: The story is rather vague on how old Preston is. He's likely in his very early 20s, since he only served as a Minuteman after the Fall of the Castle and the organization was already cannibalizing itself. Additionally, his (somewhat) naive hope in the Minutemen would make sense for one so young.
• Weapon of Choice: Defaults to a Laser Musket.

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Deacon

Met in person when you try to join the Railroad, but you've run into him several times before and likely didn't notice, so he knows quite a bit about what you've been up to when you are trying to gain entrance to the Railroad, and organization whom he is a leading intelligence officer for.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Ascended Extra: Dialogue from Deacon implies that he was one of the nameless NPCs from Fallout 3, having been in the Capital Wasteland as one of the Railroad's spies and scouts.
• Badass: He's a member of an organization the Institute would love to wipe out and even has several different bounties on his head from the Gunners even before he teams up with you.
  • Badass Bookworm: He's a reader of William Shakespeare and Marcel Proust, according to his battle quotes.
  • Badass Normal: Despite some of the BS he spews about being a Ghoul or even a Synth, it's pretty clear all he has going for him is being a very resourceful human. One that is just as good at kicking ass as most other companions.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Don't let his penchant for spouting amusing one liners make you think less of him, he's plenty capable of fending for himself.
  • Cool Shades: One of the few things that remain constant despite all his disguises.
• Bald of Awesome: His "hair" is just a pompadour wig. He's bald by default because it helps him switch out disguises easier.
• Blatant Lies: Some of his tall tales are plain ridiculous. This just helps throw you off for when he tells more convincing lies to test you.
• Consummate Liar: Quite good at it, though it's fairly easy to tell when he's lying most of the time. In fact, if called on it, he compliments your ability to notice and tells you it's training for when people less nice than him will lie.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even more so than Piper, and is the mouthiest of the companions.
• The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: His disguises will change automatically depending on the area you are in, even if you didn't put any other clothing in his inventory.
• Gender Bender: Apparently had himself surgically altered to be a woman once, at least appearance wise.
• The Generic Guy: Tries to maintain this appearance so he can blend in and disguise himself easier.
• Kick The Dog: Heavily downplayed. He shows disdain for the Minutemen, feeling that they're too easy to corrupt into a darker organization. Justified since Deacon’s Dark And Troubled Past led to him gaining a big anti-authority streak, and he accurately points out that the Minutemen have been little better than policemen on a historical level.
• Mythology Gag: Supplies a few.
  • If taken to Deezer in Covenant, he attempts to use a deactivation code on him. The code he tries is the same one used by Mr. House in New Vegas as his personal override code. Deacon even notes that he got the code in a poker game.
  • One of his atmospheric lines is "I'm convincing the next raw recruit that I'm President Eden. Think I can pull it off?"
• Nice Guy: To the point even at zero trust he parts ways rather amiably.
• Spy Speak: Comes with being a member of the Railroad.
• Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?: Dialogue from him implies that he's afraid of heights.

---

Piper Wright

A reporter who runs the Commonwealth's only newspaper (found in Diamond City), and is met at the Diamond City Gate where she's trying to get back in after getting temporarily kicked out for angering the mayor.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Adult Fear: She's terrified of her little sister following in her footsteps and getting herself killed.
• Adorkable: She gets really flustered when she accidentally flirts with Magnolia in Goodneighbor.
• Affectionate Nickname: Gives the player the appellation 'Blue", either due to the Vault suit, or, if they aren't wearing it, their apparent demeanor.
• Badass: Is willing to piss off all sorts of people in the pursuit of getting a story, including the Children of Atom, countless Raiders, and even the entire Institute.
  • Action Girl: It can be hard to remember at times that she's not actually a soldier and is just a reporter.
  • Badass Normal: Even points this out about her herself, chalking her own survival up to being very resourceful.
• Bi The Way:
• The Cassandra:
• Cool Big Sis: To her own sister, but she herself is worried about this, as she doesn't want her little sister taking after her.
• Deadpan Snarker: It's easier to count the comments she makes when not snarking.
• Enemies Equals Greatness: Her measurement of how well she's doing her job is by how many people are trying to kill her.
• Hero of Another Story: She's had her share of colorful adventures, chasing stories that're as eventful as any Fallout protagonist's.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: She and Nick Valentine are the best of friends, and always talk amiably to each other when switching over from one to the other.
• Hidden Depths: Dialogue with her implies that part of the reason that she's so determined to find the truth is because she suffers from a severe lack of self-esteem and thinks incredibly lowly of herself.
• Hot Scoop: Enough so even Cait wanted to have a threesome with her.
• Intrepid Reporter: Has been shot, kidnapped, and poisoned, all for the sake of getting a story done. And that's only the stuff that she specifically mentions.
• Large Ham: She is a news reporter, after all.
• Married To The Job: Much like Paladin Danse is with the Brotherhood of Steel, she often hyper-focuses on her job as a news reporter.
• Nice Girl: Friendly, playful, and easy to get along with (unless you're a complete asshole), Piper is passionate about helping the common folk through her journalism, and generally approves of good deeds. She's even the only companion along with Nick who will approve (albeit with a hint of fear) of returning the Mother Deathclaw her egg in "The Devil's Due" side quest.
• Nice Hat: Wears an old style newsboy hat.
• Promotion to Parent: After their dad died, she became her little sister's parental figure.
• Shout-Out: Given her Chronic Hero Syndrome and her desperate search for the truth, her last name being "Wright" likely isn't a coincidence.
• Socially-Awkward Hero: She's prepared to follow you into battle and take on society to make it better, and has the gift of the gab when rooting out the truth, but becomes awkward and stumbling while flirting.
• Weapon of Choice: Defaults to a 10mm Pistol.

---

Cait

A cage fighter at the Combat Zone, a notorious den of Raiders and other thugs who engage in prize fights, where Cait reigns as their current champion. After losing to you, her manager, Tommy Lonegan, asks you to take her with you since her skills are getting rusty, despite Cait's initial protests, though his intentions seem to be more benevolent than they appear.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Abusive Parents: Her parents are probably the worst ones encountered thus far in the entire series.
• Ax-Crazy:
• Badass: Deconstructed in a very horrifying fashion.
  • Action Girl: Learned in the worst ways possible how much this was a survival requirement.
  • Badass Normal:
• Berserk Button:
• Bi the Way:
• Blood Knight: She lives for the thrill of combat.
• Broken Bird: Her life has been a living hell, to the point that the only things preventing her from crossing the Despair Event Horizon are her chems, booze and fights. And all of those are slowly killing her anyway.
• Dark And Troubled Past:
• Death Seeker:
• Depraved Bisexual: Averted, as her own sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with her behavioral issues. When she flirts with others, it's more of good nature teasing rather than being The Vamp.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even she has lines she won't cross. For example, while she personally has no love for the Railroad (as she sees them as completely suicidal for deliberately pissing off the Institute), she approves of the Sole Survivor describing helping Synths as "noble" while at Bunker Hill. She also has no problems with killing people, but is disgusted if the Sole Survivor kills innocents for no good reason.
• Expy: Of Jack from Mass Effect 2. Much like Jack, Cait is a young woman who comes from a traumatic childhood, has a criminal background, a violent and bitter personality that places pragmatism over kindness, a Blood Knight attitude, and an aggressive sexuality.
• Fighting Irish:
• Foil: To Rose of Sharon "Cass" Cassidy. Both are Fiery Redhead Deadpan Snarkers with a penchant for break-action shotguns & vice indulgence. However, Cass's vices are shown from a (generally) lighthearted viewpoint, while Cait's are shown to be self-destructive and an impetus for her bloodthirsty & vengeful attitude.
• Freudian Excuse: To put it politely, her entire life has been just one tragedy after another.
• Had To Be Sharp:
• Hidden Depths: Despite being a brutal cage-fighting Wastelander that was practically raised by Raiders, Cait is surprisingly knowledgeable of the Vault-Tec experiments, to the point where she seems to know about them more than what even the majority of Vault-Tec scientists and Vault Dwellers were aware of.
• Internal Homage: Her strong Irish accent and vice indulgence paints her as a partial Call Back (personality wise) to Colin Moriarty.
• Jerk With A Heart Of Gold:
• Jerkass Woobie: She's a bit of an asshole, even by her own admission. But given how badly her life has gone, it's hard to blame her.
• Kick The Dog: Almost literally. She, Strong, and X6-88 are the only companions to show an active disdain for Dogmeat, with her derisively calling the animal "a dirty little mole rat."
• Pet The Dog:
• Token Evil Teammate: Of sorts, given she's encouraging to a player who engages in amoral acts like theft and drug use. She can also be argued as being the closest thing the base game has to a Raider companion (before Porter Gage comes around).
  • If you complete her loyalty mission, she responds positively to avoiding drug abuse instead, and generally mellows out.
• Weapon of Choice: Defaults to a double-barreled shotgun. She also has a baseball bat in her inventory when you first recruit her.

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Paladin Danse

A Paladin in the Brotherhood of Steel, met in Cambridge at the Police Station trying to fight off a horde of Feral Ghouls with the remains of his squad. Tries to convince you of the Brotherhood's merits and is a respected field officer of their reigning Elder.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Badass: He's a Brotherhood Paladin - this should be expected by now.
• Bait and Switch Compliment: Upon seeing the Castle under Minutemen control, he has this to say -

Danse: The Minutemen remind me of the Brotherhood when Elder Lyons was in charge: Unfocused and far too charitable for their own good.

• Call Back: He claims to have started his life as a scavenger in Rivet City, and comes from Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland. He also specifically mentions the Brotherhood laying siege to Adams Air Force Base as part of their war with the Enclave.
• Captain Obvious: Practically a Running Gag with him.
• Character Development:
• The Comically Serious: Danse isn't really the jovial sort, but he still manages to have his silly moments when his attempts to stay professional fall flat.
• The Exile:
• Face Death With Dignity:
• Foil: To X6-88. Danse only focuses on the good parts of his faction to the point that he's completely shocked when he finds out that he's a Synth, and is clearly aspiring to be a Knight in Shining Armor. X6-88 does nothing to soften the actions of the Institute, and is a remorseless hunter.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Bizarrely inverted.
• Genre Blind:
• Hazy-Feel Turn: After his personal quest, his views on Synths are slightly better than they were before.
• Heroic BSOD:
• Heroic Build:
• Hidden Depths: He shows some remarkable knowledge about Wasteland economics and logistics. It's implied that this is a hold-over from him being a merchant in Rivet City before he joined up with the Brotherhood.
  • Amusingly, he's also a fan of country music.
• Hypocritical Humor:
• Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: He’s rather cruel to most of the Sole Survivor's nonhuman companions (and to nonhuman characters in general) and mostly acts like a dick, but he means well and his intentions for the Commonwealth are noble.
• Jerkass Woobie: Despite his acerbic-ness and biogtry, it's made clear that he's suffering from PTSD, and his personal quest always ends on a grim note.
• Knight In Shining Armor:
• Last-Name Basis: His last name is Danse. His first name is never revealed over the course of the game.
• Mark of Shame:
• Married to the Job:
• Pet The Dog: Despite his racism towards Ghouls, he approves of the Sole Survivor helping protect the Ghoul child Billy and getting him back to his family.
• Rated "M" For Manly:
• Replacement Goldfish: Downplayed.
• Sarcasm Failure: He often bitterly snarks at the Sole Survivor’s fellow companions, most notably Nick Valentine, John Hancock, and X6-88. However, Codsworth’s cheerful and genuine compliments confuses Danse enough that he just genuinely thanks him.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran:
• Tomato In The Mirror:
• Twenty-Four Hour Armor: He's never seen out of his Brotherhood T-60 Power Armor. The sole exception to this is during his companion quest "Blind Betrayal."
• Vague Age: It's unknown how old he is, and this is further exacerbated upon The Reveal that he's actually a Synth. All that's known is that considering his rank in the Brotherhood and the related time he would've spent to get there, he has to be at least 16-20 years old.
• Walking Spoiler: It's eventually revealed that he's a Synth that escaped from the Institute.

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Curie

A Ms. Nanny found in Vault 81, she wants to explore the Commonwealth and add to her store of learning about the world.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Ace Custom:
• Adorkable: If her general enthusiasm For Science! didn't clue you in, her general reaction to being brought to the various historical sites in Boston is to have a moment of Squee! and wonder if they still do tours.
• Badass: Zig-Zagged.
  • Action Girl:
  • Badass Bookworm:
  • Badass Normal:
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
• Become A Real Boy:
• Boyish Short Hair:
• Brain Uploading: A weird inversion. She's an artificial intelligence that seeks to be downloaded into a more human-like brain, out of hopes that this will increase her capacity to grow and learn.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
• Combat Medic:
• Due To The Dead:
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: She's programmed with a French accent, and is one of the companions you can romance.
• Expy: Downplayed, but her general character seems to be heavily based off of Moira Brown. Both are incredibly friendly Cloud Cuckoolanders that just want to help improve the Wasteland, contain elements of Mad Scientists in their personalities, and have accents that are quite different that the rest of the inhabitants of their respective regions (Moira has an Upper Midwest accent while living in the Capital Wasteland, and Curie has a French accent while living in the Commonwealth).
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: Like the Sole Survivor, Curie dates back to before the war, only she has a far worse time adjusting. She'll wonder if fights against Raiders should be reported to the police, and asks if famous landmarks such as the Old State House or Bunker Hill still give tours or distribute fliers. This is Played for Laughs.
• Foil: Like Nick Valentine and Paladin Danse, she's one to X6-88. Curie and X6-88 are both artificial lifeforms (she can even become a Synth like X6-88 is in her companion quest). However, while Curie sincerely wants to be seen as a person (even literally), X6-88 makes a point of being as cold and mechanical as possible in spite of looking like an actual human.
• For Science!: A positive example. She seeks to learn as much about the world as she can, researching ideas on how to improve it for everyone's betterment.
• Fun with Acronyms: The scientists she used to work for actually came up with her name, based on her title of "Contagions Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer", or C.V.R.I.E.
• Game of Nerds: It's offhandedly mentioned that she likes the statistical aspect of (the now functionally extinct) baseball.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Averted. She's been trapped in the experimental section of Vault 81 for hundreds of years with only horribly diseased Mole Rats for company, but when the Sole Survivor meets her she's still quite sane, perky, and happy to help.
• Nice Girl:
• The Pollyanna:
• Running Gag: She has unique dialogue with basically every doctor in the game, where she'd puzzle or confuse them by acting like the medical profession hasn't changed since the nukes fell. For example, she'll ask about organizing a medical conference with Dr. Carrington, what university Doc Crocker went to, or what the current medical publications are to some of the doctors in the Sole Survivor's settlements.
• Shout-Out: Her companion quest is loosely based after the fairy tale of Pinocchio.
• Squee!:
• Technical Pacifist: She dislikes fighting, but is not above disintegrating enemies to protect the Sole Survivor.
• What Measure Is A Non-Human?:

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John Hancock

The Ghoul mayor of Goodneighbour, a Wretched Hive he keeps running smoothly despite its reputation by being the toughest yet fairest Ultimate Authority Mayor they've ever had. Can join you after doing some work for the local mob bosses of the city, mostly because he figures it will help him avoid becoming Orcus on His Throne.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Badass: Definitely when you first meet him, as he shanks a guy in the gut who just tried to mug you, especially after the guy wouldn't take a polite request to knock it off.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Earned his way to this after deposing the previous tyrant who ran Goodneighbor, and is beloved for it because unless his predecessor, he's not a dick about it.
  • Badass Longcoat: The red frock coat he wears, based on the one worn by the original John Hancock.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Pissing Hancock off is a really stupid idea. He's a really nice guy most of the time, but making him mad is an easy way to wind up bleeding out in the street from a shank he just buried in your ribs.
• Bi The Way:
• Good Is Not Soft: His policy is to protect the innocent and hurt the hell out of the guilty.
• Foil: To Mayor McDonaugh of Diamond City. Both men are the respective leaders of their towns, but while Hancock runs a town of societal dregs, they are genuinely happy with each other and have a much better handle on the paranoia of the Institute. By contrast, Diamond City may be the town of the "decent people", but it's a paranoid place that tried to pretend synths don't exist and has a lot of societal backstabbing going on under the surface.
• Functional Addict: Even though he's a Ghoul and they have a built in resistance to most chems anyway, he still takes an unreal amount of them even for a Ghoul, but it doesn't seem to diminish his capabilities or judgment very much.
• Kavorka Man: For a Ghoul he's not especially bad looking, but it's a mystery just how he manages to get half as much action as it's basically confirmed he still gets in Goodneighbor, especially since he doesn't flex his authority to get things like that, which can only mean he must be one incredibly charming guy to score that much tail.
• Knife Nut:
• Named After Somebody Famous: The original John Hancock. Even wears the appropriate outfit for it.
• Neighborhood Friendly Gangsters: The boss of them, given he runs the resident Vice City of the Commonwealth, but he's generally chill about it, and he ignores most of the crap the others pull so long as they don't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it and they keep any shit that crosses that line out of Goodneighbour.
  • It's worthy of note he's good friends with Nick Valentine, who otherwise has little good to say about Goodneighbour itself given his take on the subject of crime and criminals, but despite that he and Hancock hold one another in high regard. It helps that they share considerable overlap on what justice should ultimately be like for the innocent.
• Nice Guy: Show him common courtesy and do right by the people of Goodneighbour, and he's the nicest guy around.
• Ultimate Authority Mayor: If he wanted to, he could exert almost god-like power over the people of Goodneighbor, but he refuses to, as that's why he helped depose the last guy who did that. Instead, he merely serves to make sure everyone in Goodneighbor doesn't screw each other over (at least, within the town), and otherwise let's everyone do their thing. He still enjoys the knowledge of knowing everyone in Goodneighbor would die for him at his request regardless.

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Nick Valentine

Nick Valentine is met in Vault 114 as a prisoner of a Post-War mob boss. On top of being Diamond City's resident detective, he's also a second generation Synth prototype, with him being the only Synth Diamond City has ever willingly tolerated and even come to like.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• American Accents: Has a Chicago-ish accent to his speech, which makes sense, as he's has more than a little dash of Eliot Ness to his character.
• Androids and Detectives: He happens to be both.
• Badass: His very first feat of badassery was faking Why Am I Ticking? to scare the piss out of an entire Raider gang. It worked, and since then he's happy to tangle with the various scum of the Commonwealth if he has to.
  • Badass Automaton: He was a prototype second generation Synth with memories of a police detective as well as all the advantages of being a Synth. The combination makes him a forensic genius with the ability to make all sorts of hoodlums regret trying to catch him in a firefight.
  • Badass Bookworm: Take a look around his office, and you'll notice he's into doing a fair amount of reading. He's also educated enough to compile some very detailed information on other cases he's working.
  • Determinator: He wants to hunt down the Mysterious Stranger, someone who only the Sole Survivor has a chance of seeing.
  • Heartbroken Badass: By proxy of the original Nick Valentine, the Synth version has all the memories of finding the dead body of the original Nick's girlfriend, and he still wants to put the original Nick's soul to rest by avenging her murder.
• Deadpan Snarker: As befitting a hardboiled detective.
• Film Noir: Nick Valentine's entire character is a love-letter to the genre.
• Foil: To X6-88. Nick Valentine is a badly degraded Gen 2 Synth and is obviously mechanical from a simple glance, but is a kind soul with a strong sense of morality. X6-88 is a realistically human-looking Synth who's clearly inhuman due to his behavior, and cannot feel empathy for others. It even goes into their respective professions: As a detective, Valentine's most common job is tracking down and rescuing those who've gone missing. X6-88, as an Institute Courser, has the job of hunting down Institute Synths and agents who've gone rogue.
• Hero of Another Story: The man he got his memories from was a police detective who was very close to slamming the cell door on a notorious mobster when he got screwed out of doing so at the last minute. The failure of doing so is one of the last memories the current Nick Valentine has from the original. He's also been in the Commonwealth for roughly a century, and has accomplished countless cases and saved numerous people during that time. The Sole Survivor's case is only the most recent one in that long line.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: He and Piper Wright are the best of friends, and always talk amiably to each other when switching over from one to the other.
• Nice Guy: Nick's one of the nicest people you'll meet in the Commonwealth. It's telling that the quickest way to get on his good side is to take missions that help people. In fact, he only started charging for his detective services once he got too many missing persons requests to keep up with that and being a handyman. Additionally, he's the only companion (along with Piper) that approves of returning the Mother Deathclaw her egg in "The Devil's Due" side quest.
• No Sell: Like all other Synths, he shrugs off radiation poisoning like it's nothing.
• Platonic Life Partners: He explicitly cannot be romanced, for two reasons - One: his body wasn't really made for it, and two: all of the psychological baggage from his former life.
• Shout Out: He looks more than a little like Dixon Hill.
• Smoking Is Cool: Generally does so for the image, he has no need or drawback from doing so as a Synth.
• Tomato In The Mirror: Happened twice over. He originally woke up in a trash heap in the Commonwealth with no memory of who he was save the last memories of the original Nick Valentine, and coming to terms with being a Synth was pretty harrowing for awhile. In the Far Harbor DLC, he discovers the truth about why he was in that trash heap, he was able to escape the Institute with another synth prototype, but an Institute failsafe wiped his memories of the place in the process, hence why he was so confused after waking up in the trash heap.
• Weapon of Choice: Defaults to a Pipe Revolver.

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Robert Joseph MacCready

Better known to Fallout 3 players as the incredibly foul-mouthed Mayor MacCready of Little Lamplight, he's now grown up into an adult. Met in Goodneighbour's Third Rail Club being threatened by members of the Gunners, a mercenary outfit he recently cut ties with, he still works as a gun for hire for his own reasons, but can be convinced to work for you.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Badass: He was already pretty capable even as a kid. Now, he's quite the marksman as an adult, enough he's able to fend for himself as a mercenary.
• Casanova Wannabe: Zig-zagged. His attempts at smooth flirtation fall flat with Piper, but they work just fine with Cait.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is prone to dry humored commentary on some of the places you visit.
• Friend To All Children:
• Friendly Sniper: Uses a sniper rifle by default and generally approves of moral actions for families, barring the occasional roguish activity (like stealing anything that isn't nailed down).
• He Is All Grown Up: He's gone from being a snot-nosed brat to a rather handsome & skilled mungo.
• Hero of Another Story: He ran with the Gunners (he doesn't like to talk about it, though), and clearly hasn't been just twiddling his thumbs in the 10 years between Fallout 3 & 4.
• Hitman With a Heart: He's a merc, but still has standards. He left the Gunners because they didn't. Specifically, they will take any job, no matter how brutal or depraved, and some of the depths they'd sink to he didn't have the stomach for. Doesn't mean he won't kill people for a living, but he wants to be reasonably sure you're an Asshole Victim first.
• Jerk With A Heart Of Gold:
• Loveable Rogue:
• Odd Friendship: With Strong, surprisingly enough.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. He definitely doesn't talk much about his past as mayor of Little Lamplight, and outright describes being a Gunner as "the biggest mistake of his life".
• Teen Pregnancy:
• Vague Age: Averted - Since Fallout 4 takes place 10 years after 3, MacCready is 22 years old.
• Mr. Vice Guy:

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X6-88

An advanced Institute Synth Courser given to the Sole Survivor as a bodyguard. He can be met after the Sole Survivor helps him recapture an escaped Synth at the Raider city of Libertalia.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Affably Evil: He's unfailingly polite to everyone he talks to despite being an utter sociopath.
• Badass: Well, he is an Institute Courser...
• Combat Pragmatist:
• Deadpan Snarker:
• The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything: He actually has some dialogue stating his disapproval should the player destroy the Institute, even though doing so requires siding against the Institute, which would make him hostile and unavailable as a companion. It can only be heard if you sided with the Railroad and remain undetected towards the very end.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
• Everyone Has Standards: Even he's creeped out by the Trappers on the Island and (potentially) the Sole Survivor engaging in cannibalism.
• Fantastic Racism: The people of the Commonwealth largely fear and hate Synths & the Institute. X6-88 returns their animosity, describing the surface dwellers as "disgusting carrion picking apart a corpse."
• Foil: To three different characters - Paladin Danse, Curie, and Nick Valentine.
• Gameplay And Story Integration: Institute Coursers are established as being Super Soldiers superior to humanity in every possible way. X6-88's stats total to 98 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points, almost twice of that of all of your other companions' individual stat sums.
• Gameplay And Story Segregation/Informed Attribute: The above being said though, he still doesn't have the in-game buffs that all other Coursers have so that he won't be a Game Breaker, with him more acting like another human companion.
• Hunter Of His Own Kind:
• Lack Of Empathy:
• Machine Monotone:
• No Social Skills:
• Not So Stoic:
• Pet The Dog:
• Pick Your Human Half: Averted.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He often advises the Sole Survivor to not excessively commit criminal acts. However, it's not because he actually cares about Wastelanders and their laws; it's because (as he actually points out) his job of helping protect the Sole Survivor will get a hell of a lot more difficult if half the Wasteland is constantly trying to shoot them for being wanted criminals.
• The Sociopath:
• Soft-Spoken Sadist:
• Straight-Edge Evil:
• Super Soldier:
• Token Evil Teammate:

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Strong

Strong is a Super Mutant who can be rescued from the Trinity Tower, where he was almost killed by his fellow mutants for basically being somewhat more intelligent than the rest them and coming to the conclusion he could be slightly more than a murderous monster.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Badass: Even for a Commonwealth Super Mutant, Strong's an incredibly dangerous and deadly fighter.
• The Big Guy/The Brute:
• Blood Knight:
• Boisterous Bruiser:
• Comedic Sociopath: His constant spoiling for a fight and generally savage personality is Played For Laughs.
• Comically Missing the Point:
• Defector From Decadence: Downplayed.
• Dumb Muscle: He's no Fawkes or Marcus, that's for sure.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even he is disgusted by the Sole Survivor brushing off and being disrespectful to Glory as she dies.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: His constant spoiling for a fight is depicted by it being impossible for him to enter sneak mode like other companions can.
• Guttural Growler:
• Hero with an F in Good: As noted, Strong is trying to be a better person. He's just pretty bad at it compared to previous Super Mutant companions.
• Hidden Depths: Downplayed, but still there. His comments allude to him (along with the rest of the Commonwealth Super Mutants) being a collectivist, and he admires both altruism & people with silver tongues.
• Hulk Speak:
• I'm A Humanitarian:
• Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Well, more bronze than gold, but it still counts. Despite being a Super Mutant that never truly got over his barbarism, Strong can at least be trusted to not harm his allies and is a loyal friend to the Sole Survivor.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
• Licked by the Dog: If the Sole Survivor adopts Synth Shaun, they will remark that they think Strong is "nice."
• Noble Demon: He's a slightly nicer twist on this trope.
• Noble Savage: His character seems to be partly designed with this archetype in mind.
• Odd Friendship: With MacCready.
  • He also already formed one with Rex Goodman during their capture in Trinity Tower.
• Pet the Dog: He's remarkably respectful towards Glory as she dies during the Railroad questline, admiringly stating "Let human die. Die like warrior."
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: His personality is generally focused around someone's skill on the battlefield and how impressive they are in combat. His affinity with you can even increase if you just take him with you on huge fights out in the Wasteland.
• Token Evil Teammate: Strong is a Super Mutant who never truly let go of his savagery, and still advocates bloodshed, cannibalism, & violence. However, he can become (slightly) nicer to the Sole Survivor with a little effort.
• Token Heroic Orc: To a degree. He has not abandoned being willing to engage in cannibalism or murder, and still enjoys raising hell in general, but this is tempered by a rudimentary morality based on similar species having an imperative to look out for one another, not to mention an odd fascination with those who use clever speech and conversational guile as opposed to constant violence.
• The World Is Just Awesome: Some of his comments allude to this. For example, taking Strong to a particularly scenic vista in Boston will cause Strong to quietly muse, "World is bigger than Strong ever knew."
• Worthy Opponent: Views Paladin Danse - and, by extension, the rest of the Brotherhood of Steel - as this.

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Automatron

Ada

The main supporting character of the Automaton DLC. A heavily customized Assaultron built by Jackson, a mechanically-inclined caravan merchant. Like Codsworth, Curie, and KL-E-0, she's achieved a remarkable level of self-awareness. After Jackson's caravan is attacked by the Mechanist's robots and everyone but her is slaughtered, she enlists the Sole Survivor's help in her quest for revenge to find the Mechanist and put an end to their reign of terror.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Action Girl: She seems to have a feminine personality, making her this.
• The Atoner:
• Badass: It's clear that Jackson put a lot of effort into making her able to vaporize her enemies.
  • Badass Automaton: She can get even deadlier by being customized by the Sole Survivor.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
• Boring Yet Practical: While it takes a bit for it to reset, she will randomly hand the Sole Survivor junk items after initiating dialogue. This on its own makes her one of the most useful companions in the entire game.
• Deuteragonist: Considering how Automatron introduces her as a new companion and the (admittedly short) story partly involves her learning to both come to terms with the deaths of her friends and her desire to avenge them, she's arguably the real main character of the DLC.
• Fem Bot:
• Mighty Glacier: She starts off with an Assaultron head and torso, but the stubby legs of a Protectron. As a result, she moves with the characteristic slow waddle of a Protectron, but has lots of health and hits reasonably hard. Of course, it's possible to change that.
• Mix-and-Match Robot:
• Nice Girl: A variant. She's remarkably polite and kind when talking to the Sole Survivor, but is still loyal to the point that she won't question any of your actions.
• Revenge Before Reason: Subverted.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Can be customized to this end, and her morals and intelligence are quite approximate to human standards.
• Robot Buddy:
• Shout-Out: One of her lines in battle is "Resistance is futile!"
• Sliding Scale Of Robot Intelligence: Ada's on an interesting place on this scale. On the one hand, her A.I. isn't advanced enough for her to really judge things from a moral perspective, and her dialogue is generally not as emotional as Codsworth and Curie's can be. However, she still has free will, and is self-aware to a not-insignificant degree, actually feeling pain and loss at the deaths of her friends.
• Sole Survivor: The only survivor of the robot attack on her caravan.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ada tends to state her emotions rather than, well, emote, being a robot.

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The Automatons

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Trope
• Trope
• Trope

Far Harbor

Old Longfellow

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Affectionate Nickname: Of the platonic variety. He tends to call the Sole Survivor "Cap'n."
• Badass Beard:
• Badass Grandpa:
• Had To Be Sharp: Longfellow lives and breathes this.
• Hero of Another Story:
• Jerk With a Heart of Gold:

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Nuka-World

Porter Gage

Porter Gage is the former Raider lieutenant of the Overboss of Nuka-World, a man named Colter who Gage helps you bump off in the hopes you'll be a worthier successor. The ultimate plans he has for the Commonwealth in general are visionary, but it's up to the Sole Survivor to either disappoint him or help Gage fulfill his dreams.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

• Affably Evil: He's a pretty nice guy for a Raider, to the point it's occasionally hard to remember he's a Raider, with all the brutality and ruthlessness that implies.
• Asshole Victim: Despite the fact that he's significantly humanized and well-rounded as a character, Gage honestly deserves his death at the hands of the Sole Survivor if they decide to go up against the Nuka-World Raiders. Gage may be a complex person, but he's still an unrepentant Raider who wants to rob the rest of the world because he thinks that the strong should only need to take and never give from the weak.
• Badass: Given how long he's stayed alive despite his profession in life, most definitely, especially since he's street-smart enough to take notes on the finer points of this trope to stay alive.
  • Ambadassador: Serves as this for the various Raider factions, all of which he manages to finesse into a loose confederation for mutual gain for the benefit of his own superior. He's recognized as tough enough in his own right each of the factions at least has enough respect for his ability to agree to the loose alliance, so long as he continues to adhere to the usefulness this trope implies.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Has a yellow metal patch over his right eye, which doesn't seem to ding his Badass cred any. Apparently, he has no depth perception in that eye either, but he's no less effective in combat without it.
  • Handicapped Badass: Has no effective combat use of one eye, which as mentioned above doesn't really slow him down.
  • Submissive Badass: By choice. Being the number one guy in any organization makes them a fine target, which is why he's prefers to be merely an assistant, which means his chances of getting shanked for his position are a lot lower.
• Combat Pragmatist: He was the one who provided the squirt gun needed to defeat Colter, even pointing out it might have been silly looking, but it was the smartest way to screw up his defenses. He also advocates solutions in general that lean towards pragmatism over those that are moral or emotionally based, in combat and otherwise.
• The Creon: Happily so.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: He's quite aware of all the tropes relating to survival and how gangs work, and it's clear that he's been around so long because of that.
• Even Evil Has Standards: On the one hand, he's an unrepentant Raider. On the other hand, he's just as frightened of the Institute as the rest of the Commonwealth is, with him seeing the organization as "playing God." Justified, as Institute Synths are just a big of a threat to Raider gangs as they are to everyone else, and the Institute has even infiltrated Raider gangs before to use for their own ends.
  • To a lesser extent, he also thought the concept of the Vaults was a bad idea bound to go to hell one way or another, generally to the detriment of the people who entrusted their safety to them. He's not wrong.
• Evil Counterpart/Foil: To Preston Garvey. While Preston embodies the hope of the Commonwealth, Gage embodies everything evil about Raiders.
• The Evil Genius: By Raider standards, he's the brightest bulb in the box by a wide margin. His advice is also tailored to help his boss succeed, and his counsel is very on point.
• Evil Mentor: This is his role, in a nutshell, within the DLC's storyline. He tries to instill into you all the "pros" of being a self-centered, pillaging scum of the wastes — all of which is done via a pseudo-sympathetic "I've been there before" fashion of engagement.
• Hero of Another Story: A villainous version.
• Jerkass: He's a Raider, so being a dick comes with the territory.
  • Jerk With a Heart of Gold: For a given value of this. He's still a Raider, so this doesn't mean he's in any way an altruistic sort, but he does shown the Sole Survivor genuine respect and even concern for their well being, especially if romanced.
• Killed Off For Real: If the Sole Survivor goes against the Nuka-World Raiders in the "Open Season" quest, it also turns Gage hostile and the Sole Survivor will have to kill him (even if he's romanced). Ironically, the most moral ending to the questline will result in his death.
• Manipulative Bastard: Admits after some befriending this is his standard way of staying alive under tougher raiders, and advises you do the same.
  • In gameplay terms, he likes when you succeed at intimidation or speech checks that put you at an advantage over someone else.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's a Raider, though a very clever and forward thinking one. For example, he frowns on chem abuse, which he feels makes Raiders sloppy. He's also a big picture thinker, with clear goals for long term prosperity as a Raider as opposed to immediate short term gains.
• The Social Darwinist: Gage believes that the world is split into "victors" and "victims" - and the "victors" always take, never give.
• Token Evil Teammate: Porter Gage is the only companion in the entire game who's explicitly evil, to the point where he actively revels in it. Cait and Strong come nowhere near this guy's level (in fact, both are capable of altruism and kindness, especially the former as she warms up to you), while X6-88 is both programmed to lack emotions and still thinks that his actions are for the greater good. Gage has no line he's unwilling to cross in the name of mayhem, carnage, and loot.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Gage sees human morality as something that only leads to failure. According to him, the only "true" way to survive is to see the world for the hopeless cesspit that he thinks it is and claim everything else by the power of the gun.

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