Fallout 4 Companions, Affinity and Romance
How to locate every Companion in Fallout 4, increase your Affinity with each one, and gain access to their powerful bonus Perks.
Companions are a vital part of Fallout 4, as they are in most Bethesda RPGs. Here, having a Companion join you on your adventures through the wasteland can be a huge help when it comes to combat, as an extra pair of gunslinging hands is often just what you need in order to survive.
Not only that, but by romancing and increasing your Affinity with particular Companions, you can unlock special bonus perks and abilities. So to make sure you're getting the most out of your Fallout 4 playthrough, here's our in-depth breakdown of all Fallout 4 Companions, what you need to do to increase your Affinity with them, and how to potentially romance them.
On this page:
- Fallout 4 Companions and Perks
- Fallout 4 Companion Affinity behaviour
- How to increase Companion Affinity
Fallout 4 Companions and Perks
First up, here's a list of every Companion in the game, how you pick them up, their potential for romance, and the Perk benefit you'll get for increasing your Affinity with each one.
| Companion | Related Quest | Found | Romance? | Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cait | Benign Intervention | Combat Zone | Yes | Trigger Rush - AP regenerates 25% faster when below 25% Health |
| Codsworth | N/A | Sanctuary | No | Robot Sympathy - +10 Damage Resistance against energy weapons |
| Curie | Emergent Behavior | Vault 81 | Yes | Combat Medic - +100 Hit Points once per day if Health falls below 10% |
| Paladin Danse | N/A | Cambridge Police Station | Yes | Know Your Enemy - +20% Damage against Synths, Feral Ghouls and Super Mutants |
| Dogmeat | N/A | Red Rocket Truck Stop | No | N/A |
| Deacon | N/A | Old North Church | No | Cloak & Dagger - +40% Stealth Boy duration and +20% Sneak Attack Damage |
| John Hancock | Recruiting Hancock | Goodneighbor | Yes | Isodoped - Gain Criticals 20% faster at 250 Rads or more |
| Robert MacCready | Long Road Ahead | Goodneighbor | Yes | Killshot - V.A.T.S. Headshot Accuracy increased by 20% |
| Piper Wright | Story of the Century | Diamond City | Yes | Gift of Gab - XP is doubled for discovering new locations and speech challenges. |
| Preston Garvey | N/A | Museum of Freedom | Yes | United We Stand - +20% Damage and +20 Damage Resistance when fighting 3+ enemies |
| Strong | N/A | Trinity Tower | No | Berserk - +20% Melee Weapon Damage when below 25% Health |
| Nick Valentine | Long Time Coming | Vault 114 | No | Close to Metal - +50% faster terminal hacking and one additional guess |
| X6-88 | N/A | The Institute | No | Shield Harmonics - +20 Energy Resistance |
Companion Affinity behaviour
In order to develop your relationship with each Companion - and access their powerful Perk - you'll need to build up your Affinity with them. Here's an overview of how your general behaviour and dealings with people will affect your relationship with each Companion.
As an example, Codsworth and Hancock will like you more for being generous, but Cait will start to actively dislike you if you're generous in her presence. If a character has a neutral response to your behaviour, their Affinity with you won't change either way.
| Behaviour | Cait | Codsworth | Curie | Danse | Deacon | Hancock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generous | Negative | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive |
| Mean | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral |
| Nice | Neutral | Positive | Positive | Positive | Positive | Neutral |
| Peaceful | Negative | Neutral | Positive | Negative | Positive | Negative |
| Selfish | Positive | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Neutral | Negative |
| Violent | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Negative | Positive |
| Behaviour | MacReady | Piper | Preston | Strong | Valentine | X6-88 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generous | Neutral | Positive | Positive | Positive | Neutral | Negative |
| Mean | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Positive |
| Nice | Negative | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Negative |
| Peaceful | Negative | Positive | Positive | Positive | Positive | Neutral |
| Selfish | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Positive |
| Violent | Positive | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral |
How to increase Companion Affinity
As well as your general behaviour towards your fellow citizens, there are some specific actions which affect your relationship with a Companion - for better or worse. Here are some of the various acts you can use to influence your relationship with each Companion.
| Behaviour | Cait | Codsworth | Curie | Danse | Deacon | Hancock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chem Addiction | Both (quest dependent) | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Positive |
| Chem Usage | Both (quest dependent) | Negative | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Positive |
| Consume Alcohol | Both (quest dependent) | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
| Eat Corpse | Negative | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Neutral |
| Give Away Items | Negative | Positive | Positive | Neutral | Positive | Positive |
| Hack Terminal | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral |
| Heal Dogmeat | Positive | Positive | Positive | Neutral | Positive | Neutral |
| Modify Armour | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Neutral |
| Modify Weapon | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Neutral |
| Murder Non-Hostile | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative |
| Walk Around Naked! | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive |
| Pick Lock (Owned) | Positive | Negative | Neutral | Negative | Positive | Neutral |
| Pick Lock (Unowned) | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral |
| Pickpocketing | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Neutral |
| Speech Success | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral |
| Theft | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Negative |
| Use Power Armour | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Neutral |
| Use Vertibird | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Neutral |
| Behaviour | MacReady | Piper | Preston | Strong | Valentine | X6-88 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chem Addiction | Negative | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Neutral | Negative |
| Chem Usage | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Negative |
| Consume Alcohol | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
| Eat Corpse | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Positive | Negative | Neutral |
| Give Away Items | Negative | Positive | Positive | Neutral | Positive | Negative |
| Hack Terminal | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Positive |
| Heal Dogmeat | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Positive | Negative |
| Modify Armour | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive |
| Modify Weapon | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Positive |
| Murder Non-Hostile | Negative | Negative | Negative | Positive | Negative | Negative |
| Walk Around Naked! | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Negative |
| Pick Lock (Owned) | Positive | Negative | Negative | Negative | Negative | Neutral |
| Pick Lock (Unowned) | Neutral | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Neutral |
| Pickpocketing | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Negative | Neutral |
| Speech Success | Positive | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Positive |
| Theft | Positive | Negative | Negative | Neutral | Negative | Neutral |
| Use Power Armour | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Positive |
| Use Vertibird | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Neutral | Negative |
Need more helping playing the game? Read our Fallout 4 walkthrough for a complete run-down of how to complete Fallout 4, and don't forget to make a note of all the Fallout 4 Bobblehead locations, how to use cheat and console commands to help you out in combat, and how to get started with Fallout 4's base building.