One of Fallout 4’s most striking features is the ability to build relationships with companions that you find across the Boston wasteland. Each companion comes with a perk you can unlock when you reach maximum affinity with them, but they also have nuanced personalities and it can take some effort to make them like you. They may even develop romantic feelings for you. But how do you increase your companion’s relationship levels?
Cait (Human)
Location: Combat Zone (Quest: Benign Intervention)
Perk: Trigger Rush (when health falls below 25%, action points regenerate faster)
Likes: violent and selfish behavior, chem and alcohol use, lock-picking, pickpocketing and theft
Dislikes: eating corpses, murdering non-hostiles, generosity, peaceful behavior
Codsworth (Robot)
Location: Sanctuary Hills
Perk: Robot Sympathy (+10 damage resistance against robot energy weapons)
Likes: generosity, giving away items, nice or peaceful behavior, armor and weapon mods
Dislikes: selfish behavior, murdering non-hostiles, picking owned locks, speech success, pickpocketing and theft
Curie (Robot)
Location: Vault 81 (Quest: Emergent Behavior)
Perk: Combat Medic (heal 100 points if health falls below 10%; can only be used once each day)
Likes: peaceful or nice behavior, generosity, giving items away
Dislikes: being selfish, pickpocketing and theft, murdering non-hostiles
Paladin Danse (Human)
Location: Cambridge Police Station
Perk: Know Your Enemy (+20% damage when fighting Ferals, Super Mutants, and Synths)
Likes: armor and weapon mods, being nice, using Power Armor and Vertibird
Dislikes: being mean, picking owned locks, murdering non-hostiles, pickpocketing and theft
Dogmeat (Animal)
Location: Red Rocket Gas Station
Perk: None. But your Attack Dog perk can be used on him and he can be equipped with armor and handkerchiefs. He also starts with maximum affinity level.
Likes: he automatically loves you and nothing will change that.
Dislikes: see above.
Deacon (Human)
Location: Old North Church
Perk: Cloak and Dagger (+20% sneak attack damage, +20% Stealth Boy duration)
Likes: peaceful and nice behavior, computer hacking, lockpicking, speech success, generosity, giving items away
Dislikes: violent behavior, corpse-eating, alcohol and chem use, murdering non-hostiles
Hancock (Ghoul)
Location: Goodneighbor (Quest: Recruiting Hancock)
Perk: Isodoped (get criticals 20% faster at 250 rads and up)
Likes: generosity, peaceful behavior, giving away items
Dislikes: murdering non-hostiles, mean or selfish behavior, pickpocketing and theft
MacCready (Human)
Location: Goodneighbor (Quest: Long Road Ahead)
Perk: Killshot (+20% chance of headshots in VATS)
Likes: violent behavior, picking owned locks, pickpocketing and theft, speech success
Dislikes: nice or peaceful behavior, murdering non-hostiles
Piper (Human)
Location: Diamond City (Quest: Story of the Century)
Perk: Gift of Gab (+100% XP bonus for speech challenges and discovering new locations)
Likes: generosity, giving away items, a little bit of meanness, picking non-owned locks
Dislikes: eating corpses (don’t we all?), selfish or violent behavior, murdering non-hostiles, picking owned locks, pickpocketing, theft
Preston Garvey (Human)
Location: Museum of Freedom
Perk: United We Stand (when facing three opponents or more, +20% damage and +20% damage resistance)
Likes: generosity, giving items away, a little bit of meanness, calm behavior, weapon mods
Dislikes: selfish or violent behavior, corpse-eating, murdering non-hostiles, picking owned locks, pickpocketing and theft
Strong (Mutant)
Location: Trinity Tower
Perk: Berserk (+20% melee weapon damage when health falls under 25%)
Likes: giving items away, generosity, being violent, eating corpses (so if that’s your bag, this is a match made in heaven unless you have a Must Love Dogs policy)
Dislikes: lockpicking, healing Dogmeat, using Power Armor or Vertiberd, speech success
Valentine (Synth)
Location: Vault 114 (Quest: Long Time Coming)
Perk: Close to Metal (one extra guess and 50% faster terminal cooldown while hacking)
Likes: nice behavior, generosity, giving away items, computer hacking
Dislikes: eating corpses, murdering non-hostiles, picking owned locks, pickpocketing and theft
X6-88 (Synth)
Location: The Institute
Perk: Shield Harmonics (+20% damage resistance vs. energy)
Likes: computer hacking, armor and weapon monds, being peaceful, being selfish, using Power Armor, speech success
Dislikes: generosity, giving items away, healing Dogmeat (aw!), alcohol and chem use, using Vertibird
If these read like dating profiles, that’s because some of them basically are; you can build romantic relationships with Cait, Curie, Danse, Hancock, MacCready, Piper, and Preston. (And if you reach maximum Relationship level with a companion, you’ll unlock the Loveable achievement.)
For more simple Fallout 4 guides and tips, check out a few of our explainers: increasing inventory space, scrapping, changing your field of view, skipping the intro video, unlocking frame rate, which settings to turn on or off, companions, basic and advanced console commands, and disabling mouse acceleration.
