Overview
This tells you what about the companions of new vegas like what they do and what their opinions of factions are. I hope this comes in handy during play throughs. Like this got all the lore for your mind to vore.
Disclaimer
Watch out buddy because there a spoilers up ahead for every single Companion quest in the game and then some.
Fighting styles
Arcade Ganon: Energy Weapons, probably because of his past with the Enclave who were advanced in technology
Boone: Sniper/Rifle weapons, because of his past as a NCR first reconn sniper
Rose of Sharron Cassidy (Cass): Shotgun weapons, probably has to do with caravans
Veronica: Unarmed, because it is a gift
Lilly: Melee, because her only weapon is a sword
Raul: Pistol, because that is how it is
Rex: He bites people, because hes a dog
ED-E: Laser, because he was programed that way
Opinions on Factions
Arcade Gannon: Arcade Gannon’s time with the Follower’s and what he’s seen with them has made him decide that an independent strip is the best possible outcome (Yes Man, not House), while the Legion is the worst. His opinion on the Legion has to due with them being messed up and Ceasar’s past in the followers.
Rose of Sharon Cassidy (Cass): Cass likes house the most of all the factions. She’s fine with the NCR but has some problems with them because they support the Crimson Caravan Company, who are stupid. She likes the legion the least due to their style of governing and because it’s the legion.
Veronica: Veronica doesnβt really care who you side with but due to her philosophy that you must adapt to survive she belives the Brotherhood should emerge from their base and form a BoS x NCR treaty the most, and bring back their former glory (i.e. Fallout’s 1 -3). She likes the Legion the least because of their brutal forms of torture and their objectification of women.
Lily: Lily lives in secluded town of Jacobsville so the polotics of the mojave have no value to her so what ever you choose doesn’t really matter.
Raul: Raul is a chill dude and is fine with any faction because he knows the good they’ve done. He respects the NCR’s attempt at rebuilding the old world so he likes them. House was some hot stuff back in the day so he’s fine with him. He’s also seen how the Legion has fixed the states it controls by getting rid of all raiders and making trading extremely safe for caravans.
Rex: No opinion but probably Legion because he was once Caesarβs dog
Ed-e: He is a robot so he has no opinion, but if we want to get technical then he would choose the best faction in the mojave which is the tunnel snakes, because they rule.
How you get them
Arcade Gannon: Talk to him at the old mormon fort in freeside (the giant brick building near where Orris and the Mick and Ralph’s Crier is), pass a speech check after talking to him for a while. If you are with the legion then he won’t join you because you are “Friends with Caesar”
Boone: Go to the Giant Dinosuar in Novac, Aka dinky, at night in Novac (the town south of Helios one and north of ranger station charlie) and talk to Boone who is in the mouth of Dinky. After talking to him for a little while you can help him out with finding out who killed his wife. It wants you to ask around but just go to the room where you can get a room and lockpick the safe behind the cashier’s desk and take the note of sale, wake up the lady in charge of the rooms and get her killed. Tell Boone that you knew it was her because of the note of sale and you should be able to get him. Note that if the NCR dislikes you than he refuses to talk to you.
Cass: Go to Mojave outpost, the NCR outpost in the bottom of the map that you have to go to if you do vulpe’s first quest “Cold, Cold Heart”. Cass is in the seat of the left side of the bar that is the most right one in the middle in the building that ranger ghoust is on top of (the other person involved in “cold, cold heart”). Talk to her for a while and you will get her
Veronica: Go to the one 188 trading post (it is quite a ways north of Helios one so take the road to get there, it is your average bridge but with way more people), and talk to Veronica, she is wearing a very distinct outfit that is all brown and has this weird hood thing. Talk to her for a while and pass an inteligence check (or don’t it still works because how off your lack of knowledge regarding the brotherhood of steel amusing), and she’ll join you
Lily: Lily can be found in Jacobstown (the communinty of super mutants that is in the north western part of the map, do not repeat do not make fun of a super mutant for taking the bunny slope) and is needed to complete the short quest “Guess who I saw today”, which starts with you talking to Former Enclave member Dr. Henry about the Nightstalker virus, then find it with lily in a near by cave, return to him and deside if lily should be sane but weak or insane but insanly powerful.
Rex: Rex is the King’s dog, he can be found in freeside in the King’s HQ – King’s School of Impersonation. Tell the guy gaurding the door that you are in town by passing a speech check of thirty of fourty or pay him off with fifty caps. Talk to the king and complete the Quest GI blues which should be a solid half hour. After that you have gained the king’s respect and he gives you his (Even though it is rightfully Caesar’s) dog so it can under go brain surgery, which leads you to Jacobstown. If I was you I would suggest doing this quest then getting Lily, and doing this in a legion run because you can make Rex have the brain of Antony’s (the guy near caesar’s tent who’s tribe liked dogs and sounds like he is crazy) dog Lupa.
Raul: After completing the quest “Crazy, Crazy, Crazy”, or as it is more commonly known the Black mountain quest you can get Raul. The Black Mountain quest starts with you talking to Neil at the base of the mountain about overthrowing Tabitha’s regiem, and then going to the summit and doing three things. The first thing you could do to complete the quest is fix the mister handy owned by tabitha Tabitha, the mountain’s leader, resulting in the peaceful ending – but to do so you will need a repair of sixty. You could also confront her in the room where she brodcasts her propaganda and kill her. The final way to end the quest is by freeing Raul with the password from the computer with the entrys (last entry), and having him become your companion. But when you do this Tabitha will run up to you with a super sledge yelling “You can’t have my Raul!”. If you free him after the peacful ending there is a glitch were a random nightkin yells her line about Raul.
ED-E: ED-E can be found in the Mojave Express building/Nash Residence on a table in Primm (the town south of Goodsprings with the Rollercoaster that gives you the sherrif quest). To fix him you need a repair or Science of Thirty, or the necassary parts to fix him.
Their Quests
Please note that I haven’t beaten New Vegas dozens of times so some of these methods may not work, in that case read a review deseganted to the Companion you are looking into and use them as a refrence instead.
Arcade Ganon: Arcade’s quest is called “For Aulde Lang Syne”. Also please note that to do this quest you need to at least be liked by the NCR and hated by the legion. Bring Arcade to several loctions, I don’t know all of them but I do know that you have to go to the Crashed Vertibird (It’s North West of Searchlight, when you find a ton of sentry bots and harden mr. Gutsys you are there), he’ll tell you he read about the Vertibirds in a “book”, after that bring him to the Repconn headquaters, he either comes clean about his former affiliation with the Enclave or you pass a speech check. After that you have to find five members of the enclave scattered through out the Mojave, each with there own word for their secret code for there secret enclave base which is a ways south of Jacobstown. You get their code which is “remember, remember dear friend navarro” (Yep, they guilt you for being the good guy in Fallout 2), then you go in there and see a virtibird and get enclave power armor, and get to choose which side the enclave fights for in the second battle of hoover dam.
Boone: Boone has an unnamed questline in store for you called “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” for you aside from “One for My Baby”, his introductory quest. If you spend enough time around him killing legionaries he’ll become more and more comfortable with you and tell you about his past and what happened with his wife. You can gain his trust by; not killing the hostages at Nelson, Killing Vulpes Inculta, If the Legion POW in McCarrann Dies, Killing Caesar, Completing the quest “I Put a Spell on You” (That’s the really cool one with the train bombing), Completing the quest “Booted” (Thats the one the Powder Ganger Boxcars gives you and you have to save his Powder Ganger Friends from the Legion Raid Camp), and finally killing everyone (aside from the slaves) at Cottonwood Cove.
Cass: Cass’ quest is good but I’m not going to go into great detail, so go to another guide or the wikia for a “Heartaches by the number” walk through. Basically you talk to her and you uncover this huge conspiracy that ends up with there being a Crimson Caravan x Van Graff alliance in the hope that all other caravans could be eliminated so there could be a monopoly. The quest ends with you killing the lady in charge of the CCC, if you don’t want to lose a ton of karma with the NCR then use Mr. Sandman when no one is looking.
Veronica: Veronica doesn’t technicaly have a quest, rather she is the door to several quests. And what is behind that door is those steel brotherhood πΆπππ½ππππ, and without her you can’t join the brotherhood. But she does have an unmarked quest where you get a dress for her, this isn’t a joke she teachs you a special unarmed move if you give her a dress and walk into Ultra Luxe with it. The Dresses for Veronica are the Parkstroller Dress, an Ultra Luxe uniform, and Pre-war causal wear. But you probably don’t care about that so I’ll tell you about the brotherhood stuffs.
Lily: I already explained Lily’s quest in the previous section, so scroll up little boy.
Raul: Talk to the injured Ranger in Novac, Corpal Sterling (the NCR guy who gives you Three Card Bounty) in McCarran, and Loyal, the leader of the boomers, at Nellis Air Force Base – with Raul around. Upon completion the character will either get Full Maintence which makes his pre existing perk 50% better or the Old Varqeuro perk.
Rex: Rex’s quest is “Ain’t nothing but a hound dog”, and it’s given to you by the king. He tells you that Rex’s brain is bad so he needs to get a new one. You go to Julie Farkas and the Old Mormon fort but she’s no help but she tells you to go to Dr. Henry in Jacobstown. So you go to Jacobstown and he tells you to get a new brain. You can get the brain Rey (one of Old Lady gibson’s dogs), Violet (The dog of the fiend Violet who you need to kill for Major Dhatri’s quest), or Lupa (The legionary antony’s dog, they are west of Caesars tent and south of the howizter). Each has there own benifits which I’ll go over in a diffrent type of section. After you choose your dog brain go back to Dr. Henry and tell him to do the experiment, the benifit shows up after you do this.
ED-E: Eddie doesn’t have a real quest in the base game, but he is hugely important in Lonesome road, him being one of the 3 characters in it.
Default Perks
Arcade Ganon: Better Healing – Eating Foods heals 20% more than it usally would
Boone: Spotter Perk – Highlights enemies in red so you know where they are (helps in the dark)
Cass: Whiskey Rose – Drinking alcohol adds DT and has no negative effects
Veronica: Scribe’s assistant – You can craft stuff through dialog with Veronica
Lily: Steal Girl – Steal boys last 2 times longer and you do 10% damage while using one
Raul: Regular Maintenance- the rate at which armor and weapons detiorerates at is 50% slower
Rex: Search and Mark – Lootable things are Hightlighted in green (goes well with Boone’s perk)
ED-E: Enhanced sensors – You get a perception of 10 (good for sniper characters)
Extra Perks
These perks aren’t ones that you will naturally are going to be given, completing a quest will get you them. For Example: Completing Ain’t nothing but a hound dog with Lupa gives you the blood of the Legion perk.
Arcade Ganon: Completing Arcade Ganon’s quest will quest will result in you getting the perk “Power Armor Training”, which allows you to wear any type of power armo, this is a permenant perk and even if you do not have Aracade with you it will still remain active.
Boone: Boone has no extra perks to offer you upon completion of his quest.
Cass: Rose of Sharon Cassidy has two perks that she can get.
Veronica: Completing the brotherhood of steel main quest then you will get power armor training, which allows you to go in any type of power armor.
Lily: Lily only can give you stealth girl.
Raul: One of Raul’s extra perk is full maitenence. It’s regular maitnence but better because instead of the rate of deteriation being slowed 50%, it is 75%. Raul’s other perk is Old Vaquero which gives him a cowboy outfit and makes him 33% better with pistols.
Rex: Rex has Three perks he can get. Blood of the Legion, with Lupa’s brain he gains +10 DT and 100 more Hp (Defense Threshold), Unshakable Tracker with Violetta’s brain which makes him go 50% faster, and Faithful companion from Rey’s brain which makes him do 25 more damage.
How to lose them
I’m not going to waste yout time so I’m pretty sure that you can’t lose the following companions; Rex, Ed-E, Lily, and Raul. But they are all human, well atleast most of them once were – but what I’m trying to say is that you can always kill them
Arcade Ganon: If you have too much good Legion karma than Arcade will decide he doesn’t want to be assossiated you.
Boone: If you kill two NCR soilders then Boone will leave you
Cass: If you have too low or high Karma then Cass will leave you, and she’ll leave the game itself if complete the “birds of a feather” quest
Veronica: If you destroy the Brotherhood or just make hate you, she will leave for 188 trading post
Getting Everyone at Once
-Recruit Veronica
-Take her to her companion quest triggers
-tell her you dont have time to talk
-dismiss her to 38 (where all other companions will be if you prepare)
-go to 38, grab any humanoid companion
-talk to cass and say that she should go see the brotherhood on her own
-this basically tells the game you -1 companion even though still have whoever else you got
-hire another companion
-talk to veronica again (she’ll be walking away so I usually make her tiny with setscale so shes slow and dont walk outta the house)
-keep telling her to go alone and grabbing peeps
-then you can just re-recruit her last
Special Thanks
I’d like to thank the following commenters for making this guide even more informative then it ever could have been without their help:
