Characters / Fallout 4: Main Story Companions

Fallout 4 Main Character Index
Sole Survivor and Family | Companions (Main Story Companions) | Factions (The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel — The Railroad — The Institute) | Commonwealth Citizens (Diamond City — Goodneighbor) | Island Citizens | Nuka-World Citizens

This is a page for the Main Story Fallout 4: Companions within Fallout 4. For other companions, look at the main companion page.

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Codsworth

Voiced by: Stephen Russell

"As I live and breathe! It's... It's really you!"

The Mister Handy robot belonging to the player character's family. He can join the player as a companion after the arrival of the refugees that Preston is escorting (or just by entering Concord).

His unique perk, "Robot Sympathy", gives the player bonus damage resistance against robot weapons.

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• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: He has been waiting patiently around the player's house for 210 years for them to return.
  Codsworth: That means you're, erm... two centuries late for dinner! Perhaps I could whip you up a snack? You must be famished!
• Badass Boast: Quite a few of his combat lines.
  Codsworth: I don't feel pain, you know!
• Badass Normal: He was designed as a general-purpose worker/Manservant and thus lacks dedicated weaponry or combat programming (buzz saw notwithstanding). He's just as capable in a scrap as you are.
• Battle Butler: Despite being a domestic service robot, he'll gladly fight alongside you and roast raiders and mutants alive. Typically using a flamethrower or a buzzsaw.
• Benevolent A.I.: Even as a machine with politeness programmed into him by default, Codsworth is among the nicest and most kind-hearted companions of the game and consistently approves of acts of generosity and altruism.
• Boisterous Bruiser: His combat dialogue is pretty darn boistrous for a simple Mr. Handy.
  Codsworth: I've got a buzzsaw with your name on it!
• Broken Pedestal: If you drop his approval to "disdain" level, he'll tell you how disappointed your spouse would be to see what you've become, and start using sarcasm to mask his own disappointment in you.
• Can't Catch Up: Played straight in the vanilla game. Codsworth can be recruited early and he's a pretty good fighter, able to cut through most low leveled enemies with a buzz saw and torch the rest with a flame thrower; he even Lampshades that he's no Mr. Gutsy, but he'll have to make do. Thanks to his unmodifiable state though, he can't be given better weapons or armor like the human companions, making him hit a brick wall in terms of combat prowess. With the Automatron DLC however, he can have his armor reinforced and his weapons swapped and upgraded to apocalyptic armaments, all to your hearts content. This'll easily make him the deadliest companion loyal to you if you go far with upgrades, though he'd still be incapable of switching strategies on the fly if he's too specialized in his specs.
• The Constant: The first NPC the player is likely to meet is the domestic robot they had to leave at home before getting frozen by Vault-Tec. Conversing with him for the first time will inform the player just how long After the End it is.
• Crazy-Prepared: Whoever designed and engineered Codsworth's model line clearly were thinking of any eventuality.
• Crutch Character:
  • He shines early-game thanks to having a painful melee attack (enough to one-shot low level raiders and ghouls) and a strong area attack. However, he can't be equipped with weapons and armor like most of your other companions, so his power and defenses drop off heavily later against much tougher enemies. Justified since proper combat measures aren't in his programming.
  • Becomes subverted with the addition of the Automatron DLC, where he's now customizable with much tougher weapons and armor.
  • If you play on Survival difficulty, the free Purified Water he gives you on occasion will also be welcome during the beginning.
• Cyber Cyclops: He's got three eyes, but they're on separate stalks, and only one may be looking at you when he talks to you. Even if all three are pointed at you, the focus will be on the one closest to you with the others in the back.
• Dashingly Dapper Derby: The only thing that can be equipped on Codsworth is a dapper bowler hat.
• Deadpan Snarker: While Codsworth is overall pleasant, he's not above making some dry and sarcastic comments every so often.
• Dented Iron:
  • Puns aside, Codsworth is in pretty good condition, all things considered, but the years have definitely left more than a few marks on him. He initially had a chrome finish before his dented and rusty appearance.
  • The Automatron DLC allows you to customize Codsworth, allowing a greater range of limbs and body types... or you could just give him a new paint job.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In his base form, he is already this. You can later turn him into a nuke for the rest of the game with the Robot Workbench from Automatron, or even literally turn him into a nuke by giving him a Sentry Bot torso and the shoulder-mounted Fat Man launcher.
  • He also has much more power in his base form than a similarly-equipped Mr. Handy has that you build yourself; apparently, his stats are buffed compared to them.
• Empowered Badass Normal: The Automatron DLC allows you to do this with Codsworth, giving him multiple upgrades to be a more able companion.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: He's equipped with a flamethrower.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: As with all Mr. Handies, Codsworth was specifically programmed to act as a robotic imitation of The Jeeves, but unlike most of his fellow factory-line brethren (many of which have either stagnated or gone haywire in the ensuing years since the apocalypse), his A.I. has advanced to a point where he's become fully capable of independent thought and morality. Impressively, he even surpasses both Curie and Ada's grasp on human emotion despite never having gone through custom A.I. upgrades like they did.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Codsworth has a rather extensive list of names. This also includes terms like "Fuckface" or "Boobies" if you enter that as your name. This also invokes the trope Sophisticated as Hell.
• Heroic BSoD: He essentially breaks down crying if you take him with you when you revisit Vault 111 and sees your spouse's corpse in the cryopod.
• Innocently Insensitive: In Boston Airport and the Trinity Church nursery, Codsworth will wistfully reminisce on the Sole Survivor's Pre-War life with their family before hastily backtracking and apologising for reminding them.
• It Has Been an Honor: When the nuclear alarm sirens ring throughout Boston, during the prologue. The protagonist flees towards the Vault 111 with their spouse and infant son. As Codsworth is left behind, the latter accepts his fate.
  Codsworth: Goodbye, sir/ma'am. May I say what an honor it has been to serve you and your family.
• The Jeeves: The typical Mr. Handy domestic service model's personality is that of an English butler, and Codsworth is of this typical model.
• Neat Freak: As part of his manservant/housekeeper programming, Codsworth disapproves of littering with your unwanted inventory clutter. It also contributed to him nearly going mad over the last two centuries of trying to clean the Survivor's house, as it was impossible to scrub fallout from the floors, dust a house with a collapsed roof, or polish a rusted-over car. He did eventually clean out the rest of the house/town at least.
• Nice Guy: It's telling that a good way to gain his favor is by performing acts of compassion and altruism. He's also the only companion, besides Nick and Piper, who approves giving the mother Deathclaw its egg back.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know something is wrong when Codsworth sounds panicked. Something like the news announcing nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. And you know that he's serious when he starts to brutally criticize you of all people, considering his otherwise unwavering loyalty and his politeness whenever he speaks to you. This happens when his approval drops low enough. Even he is amazed that he would speak to you in such a tone.
  Codsworth: While the idea of taking a scolding tone to an adult appalls me, you leave me little choice.
• Pick Your Human Half: Human in personality, robot in appearance, just like all sapient Mr. Handies.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed. One of Codsworth's jokes is about a Chinese man being a spy and a communist. However, he will dutifully serve his master/mistress regardless of their race, and Chinese surnames "Qin", "Shen" and "Li" are coded amongst the names he will address the Sole Survivor as.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • One of the few, if not the only time he swears is if he's brought onboard the Chinese submarine responsible for nuking Boston during the nuclear exchange. His animosity despite being an optimist otherwise is understandable, given he lived through the consequences of that nuke for over 200 years (and was programmed by Americans). Somewhat averted if you give yourself a vulgar name that he recognizes, namely Fuck or some variation of it, as he'll be saying it rather often.
  Codsworth: Hmph. I suppose the red bastards deserve some credit for the state of this submarine.
  • He will also refer to the Raiders as "bloody psychotic gits" in a line and apologise right after.
  • While at a brewery, he will wonder aloud what it's like to get "pissed" (drunk).
• Pungeon Master: His ‘Thoughts’ command can crank out some hilariously terrible jokes. A Call-Back to the Mister Handy butler in Fallout 3, who had some cringe-worthy jokes of his own (as well as the same voice actor).
  Codsworth: I've decided to sell the vacuum. It's just collecting dust!
• Ragnarök Proofing: A testament to General Atomics engineering. Despite over 200 years, he still has all three eye stalks, all three arms, nearly all his casing panels, and hasn't gone haywire.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Codsworth is very high on the AI scale, considering it's never established that he underwent AI upgrades like Ada or Curie had. A popular fan theory is that the Sole Survivor or their spouse tinkered with his intelligence when setting him up.
• Robot Buddy: Acts as one even before the bombs fell, helping you out around the house and looking after your son.
• Robot Maid: Robot Butler, rather. All Mister Handy robots serve this function.
• Shout-Out: One of the things he'll say if you become overencumbered is "having trouble letting go?"
• Sophisticated as Hell: If you name yourself something like "Boob" or "Fuck," then he'll gladly call you by that name without any issue, so long as it's in his name list.
• Stepford Smiler: At first, he tries to hide how upsetting the 210 years you've been in cryo have made him, but you can get him to open up, at which point he reveals how miserable he's been without you... in his own way. Later conversations reveal less silly depths - over the centuries he's seen many people broken by the wastes, and clung to the Survivor in the hopes they would be an exception.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maid: Mister Handy robots are just supposed to assist in basic domestic work, like cleaning and yard care. And yet he came factory-equipped with a circular saw and flamethrower (although to be fair he is seen using the flamethrower part to spray dishes in the opening tutorial, which would imply that it's actually a general sprayer device that can be loaded with a variety of fluids). Right out of the box he's a very capable fighter, and this can be further upgraded to insane levels with the Automatron DLC, but he'll still retain his default behavior of trimming the bushes even if he's now packing Gatling Lasers.
• Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to the Automatron DLC, Codsworth can take as many levels as you require of him, so long as you have the Robot Workbench and the scrap needed to build him the necessary weapons and armor parts, effectively turning him into a super-powered Mister Gutsy. You can turn him into a Sentry Bot and give him miniguns if you want. But why think so small?
• Undying Loyalty: Even after 210 years, he still remembers and recognizes you as his master and is happy to be by your side again.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: One of the only companions who doesn't give you any crap over committing cannibalism, which is weird considering his character. (The other one who's ambivalent about it is Curie, who duly points out that some rare diseases can be caught that way but isn't really disgusted).
• We Used to Be Friends: If his Approval is low enough, Codsworth will tell the Sole Survivor they aren't the master he used to know.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Some Mister Handy robots are more aware than others. Codsworth is on the high end of the scale, and bringing him to other, more narrowly-programmed bots like Deezer in Covenant or Takahashi in Diamond City will have him express mild annoyance at the fact that they can't do anything besides their most basic function.
• Who Are You?: Codsworth starts out with a Neutral opinion of the Survivor, and basically says he doesn't know who the Survivor is anymore.

Dogmeat

Voiced by: River

"Woof!"

A dog that the Sole Survivor finds at the Red Rocket truck stop between Sanctuary Hills and Concord. According to Mama Murphy, he's something of a free spirit, and sought out the Survivor due to the latter's great destiny.

Unlike other companions, he does not grant you a special perk and has no loyalty meter; instead, you give him new biting abilities with the "Attack Dog" perk in the Charisma tree. He can also sniff around for enemies or hidden loot stashes.

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• Adopt the Dog: Literally. The player comes across Dogmeat and takes him in as their animal companion.
• Armour Is Useless: He can use dog armour that you can loot from slain raider dogs, but they're just for decoration.
• Badass Adorable: He's a sweet doggy that can do cute tricks and tear apart ghouls with the best of them.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In one moment, he could be a happy pooch like in his picture, but in the next he's viciously ripping out a Raider's throat.
• Big Friendly Dog: To you and your teammates. There's no Approval meter for Dogmeat, because you don't need to get Dogmeat's approval; he just loves you unconditionally from the moment you meet him.
• But Thou Must!: Even if the player avoids the Red Rocket station, they will end up meeting Dogmeat (and he'll also be named) once Valentine calls in his assistance to track down Kellogg, from which Dogmeat will be an available companion.
• Canine Companion: You find him at the end of the tutorial and he sticks with you for the rest of the game. If you skip visiting the Red Rocket station right outside Sanctuary, he will show up when Nick Valentine needs him for the "Getting a Clue" quest; he will also do this if he isn't in your party at the time, saving you from having to trek across the Wasteland to go get him.
• Dog Stereotype: German Shepherds are typically portrayed as heroic dogs or the dog version of The Ace; so naturally Dogmeat is awesome.
• Finishing Move: He deals a mortal blow against weakened organic humanoids (especially Raiders) by pinning them down and ripping out their throats. He'll also do it to some non-humanoid enemies like Mole Rats and Wild Mongrels.
• Fragile Speedster: His Perception and Agility stats are 14^note The base Cap is 10, and his base Hit Points are 35 points lower than most of your companions. Couple this with his small hitbox, relatively faster running speed, and the lack of effective armour for him (most canine armours are purely cosmetic and provide no actual defence bonuses) and he fits this trope to a T.
• Guest-Star Party Member: During "Getting a Clue", unless he's already in your party; otherwise, he'll exist as an NPC alongside whatever companion you're with, and can be re-recruited at Fort Hagen. This is slightly annoying, as it also means he is targeted by VATS.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He is voiced by, modeled after, and even imitates the actions and behaviors, of River, the dog that played him.
• I Work Alone:
  • Dogmeat is described by Mama Murphy as being "his own man" and "a free spirit". Until he meets the Sole Survivor, he has no owner.
  • The "Lone Wanderer" perk still works when you have Dogmeat with you. This is apparently intentional, as notes from early in the game's development show that originally the game intended you to be able to recruit both Dogmeat and a human companion at the same time, like in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
• Legacy Character: He is the third Canine Companion named Dogmeat to appear in a Fallout game (fourth if you count Fallout 2's Secret Character Dogmeat).
• Post-Apocalyptic Dog: The fourth one to bear the name of Dogmeat in the series.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: With a few cigars, some bloody bandages, and a beer bottle, he can track Kellogg from Diamond City halfway across the Commonwealth to his hideout at Fort Hagen.
• Team Pet: To the Survivor's band of companions. The only ones who don't like him are X6-88 and Strong^note Even Cait, who is rude to his if you switch him out for her and approves of murdering a little girl's pet cat, approves of you healing him.
• Took a Level in Badass: The previous Dogmeats could only bite your enemies, and the older ones having very bad AI. This one can subdue enemies, tear their throats open and use armour, though the latter is just for show. There is also one specific perk, "Attack Dog", that will give Dogmeat various abilities, including holding an enemy (level 1), crippling (level 2), bleeding an enemy (level 3) and giving the Survivor a 10% defense (level 4).
• Undying Loyalty: Dogmeat will help you fight scores of Raiders and other monstrosities throughout the Wastes. He's also the only companion who has no relationship meter: he's simply always loyal to you.

Piper Wright

Voiced by: Courtney Ford

"Never thought a reporter could consider themselves a success until someone threatened their life. Me? I'm very successful."

A long-time resident of Diamond City, Piper is the owner, publisher, and sole writer of the town newspaper, "Publick Occurrences." With the help of her younger sister Nat, she does her best to expose every bit of corrupt dealings and dirty laundry the town's elite may have — whether anyone cares or not. In particular, she's utterly convinced that the Institute has infiltrated the town's government, and has been looking for any excuse to raise awareness of the organization's diabolical nature.

She is a romance option for the Sole Survivor. Her unique perk, "Gift of Gab", doubles the experience points earned by passing skill checks and discovering new locations.

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• Action Girl: She's ready to travel the hostile, irradiated wasteland at a moment's notice, and is in fact quite eager for some action. Sometimes it's hard to remember that her primary job lies in reporting news... In her defense, however, her father was a soldier, so it's not entirely unlikely that he taught her and Nat how to defend themselves in such a rough world.
• Affectionate Nickname: Piper likes to call the Sole Survivor "Blue" in reference to the iconic Vault jumpsuit (even if they're not wearing it). She justifies the use of "Blue" if the Survivor isn't wearing a Vault jumpsuit because of their Pip-Boy, and their "Fish out of Water" look in general. She also calls Nick Valentine "Nicky," and is good friends with him (to the point of being visibly distraught after learning from Ellie Perkins that he's disappeared).
• All of the Other Reindeer: Piper was considered a good friend and confidant in the past but ever since she started her newspaper, people around her, particularly the citizens of Diamond City, have become wary of her, fearing she might gossip about their activities in her paper. Certain dialogue also implies she's been romantically unsuccessful.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Interjects with one when the Sole Survivor is swearing loyalty to the Brotherhood of Steel aboard the Prydwen in Elder Maxson's company.
  Sole Survivor: I refuse to allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated.
  Piper: (grimly) And how many lives are you willing to end just to do it?
• Badass Adorable: A plucky socially awkward reporter who will go to great lengths to uncover the truth.
• Badass Boast: Strong, if ejected from the party in favour of her, comments that she "won't live long". Piper, being, well, Piper, doesn't let this slide:
  Piper: Now hold on, big boy. I know a few of your brothers who would disagree.
• Badass Normal: In a sense. A good bulk of your companions in The Commonwealth are synths, elite soldiers, robots, mutants, or fighters for hire. Piper is a reporter from the city who can easily stand side-by-side with any of them and hold her own.
• Being Good Sucks: Piper lost all of her friends and confidantes when she started her paper due to fear she'd snoop into other people's secrets and expose them. She also worries that her younger sister might one day try to emulate her dangerous lifestyle and get herself hurt or worse. Nevertheless, she soldiers on, firmly believing in her work's noble intentions.
• Berserk Button: If you attack a traveling doctor, their brahmin, or a settler, Piper will go hostile on you. Even if you've romanced her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Piper is one of the friendlier companions who will gladly offer help to those who need it and is a capable combatant. When she is in reporter mode, she will shout to the world if you have done anything wrong. Piper is also not afraid to criticize anyone, including the Sole Survivor.
• Brutal Honesty: Being someone who values the truth, she won't hesitate to tell most people how she really feels about things that displease her, sometimes with a dose of sarcasm. The few times she isn't brutally honest or sarcastic is when she responds to readers who complain about her journalism, preferring to write a personal and less professional response she leaves unpublished on her terminal, or if she friendzones the Sole Survivor.
• The Cassandra: She adamantly believes that Diamond City is being infiltrated by the Institute and that their mayor is one of them belonging to that faction. Her pleas initially fall on deaf ears and even gets herself locked out of the city by the mayor for supposedly spreading lies about him. She's not completely disbelieved, as her rabble-rousing has raised enough question that Mayor McDonough needs to address the concern. As it turns out much later in the game, she was right all along.
• Closet Geek: Piper sheepishly admits that she would like to read any Grognak the Barbarian comic she and the Sole Survivor can find in Hubris Comics for "research purposes" (which is proven to be a lie if accessing her terminal where she admits to unwinding by reading comic books), and if visiting the basketball court of Boston mayoral shelter, she will remark that she'll never understand Pre-War games while also saying that she enjoys playing Red Menace, an Expy of Donkey Kong.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Bears a passing resemblance to Krysten Ritter.
• Covert Pervert: invoked Heavily implied to have a promiscuous side that she clamps down hard on, given the lawlessness of most of the places she goes (and that the authorities in Diamond City wouldn't be unhappy if she just disappeared), she probably has a well-justified fear of doing anything that gets her perceived as sexually desirable.
  • For one, she can accidentally flirt with Magnolia if brought to The Third Rail, with her eagerly complimenting the singer's "great set" before hastily emphasizing that she was talking about her songs and then awkwardly slinking away.
  • Additionally, even putting aside her Closet Geek tendencies, she seems very interested in collecting all remaining copies of Grognak the Barbarian (a.k.a., a comic series prominently featuring a Hunky Barbarian Hero who only wears a loincloth), and is mentioned to like "spend the evening relaxing" with them over a Nuka-Cola.
  • Finally, one of her offhand remarks is complaining that the Brotherhood of Steel "sure knows how to take all the fun out of dressing in rivets and leather."
• Deadpan Snarker: And how. Nearly every word that comes out of her mouth is either this, or an inquisitive remark. Or both. It's usually both, to the point that your reputation with her actually improves if you use sarcastic dialog choices.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father went missing under suspicious circumstances and to her discovery, was actually murdered by a treacherous associate. This tragic event became the catalyst that molded her into who she is today.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Like Preston, she appeared in Fallout Shelter as a Legendary Dweller before the actual game's release. Unlike Preston, who was in the game from the beginning, Piper was added in through an update.
• Enemies Equals Greatness: She measures how well she's doing her job by how many people are trying to kill her.
• Establishing Character Moment: First time the Sole Survivor runs into her, she's been locked out of Diamond City under orders from its vindictive (corrupt) mayor. After a brief attempt at snarking her way in, she immediately enlists your help, fools the guard with a simple bluff... and you're both clear.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • She might not like Commonwealth Super Mutants (as they're a predominantly Always Chaotic Evil race of Dumb Muscle cannibals), but is clearly disturbed by Paladin Danse's eager enthusiasm when talking about subjecting Super Mutants to a Guilt-Free Extermination War by the Brotherhood of Steel during "Show No Mercy".
    Paladin Danse: (after the Sole Survivor states that they agree with wiping out all Super Mutants) I wished all of mankind shared your sentiment.
    Piper: Hey, I hate 'em as much as anyone, but maybe we pull back on the bloodlust a little?
    
    Paladin Danse: (after the Sole Survivor states that they actually pity Super Mutants to an extent) Have you taken leave of your senses?!
    Piper: (shrugs helplessly) Killing's killing, Danse. There's always a cost to taking a life.
  • She might be no fan of Paladin Danse (as he can be a humorless, paternalistic, and anti-Ghoul and Synth prick), but she's openly horrified by Elder Maxson ordering Danse to be executed for being a Synth. If present at Danse's execution, she can even sadly note that he did nothing to deserve this. Most notably, below is what she says when the Sole Survivor is secretly meeting with Scribe Haylen to track down Danse:
    Scribe Haylen: (soberly) If you're not convinced by what he says, or somehow he's become truly lost to us, then you... do what you have to do.
    Piper: (quietly furious) What we "have to do" is not follow orders given to us by a lunatic!
• Expy: Her dark hair, confrontational attitude, slightly outdated New York City accent, Intrepid Reporter status makes her a pretty transparent one for Lois Lane. The fact that she writes the story which introduces the Sole Survivor to the Commonwealth can also make him/her one for Superman (especially if they take a hopeful optimistic tone).
• Fairy Tale Motifs: There are some subtle connections between Piper and Little Red Riding Hood. The obvious being both wear red colored clothing. In her adult life, Piper has developed a skill in identifying liars and believes there is a synth within the city. The synth in question was Mayor McDonough and this was discovered in the mission "In Sheep's Clothing" while he was holding a woman hostage. In the ending, Piper can either fight McDonough herself or have the player assist her.
• Friend in the Press: Implied to have this sort of relationship with Nick Valentine before meeting the Soul Survivor. The two's interactions throughout the game do overall suggest a level of friendship (with Piper even affectionately calling him "Nicky"), fitting with their status of being the only proper and capable investigators within Diamond City (if not the whole commonwealth).
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Fitting her Guile Hero role, Piper has the highest Charisma score of all the companions.
• Going for the Big Scoop: She's more than happy to place herself in danger for the sake of her journalism, and believes that a reporter shouldn't consider themselves a success until someone else has threatened their life.
• Guile Hero: Alongside her companion perk encouraging this in the player (as it gives an XP bonus to successful Speech checks), she herself engages in this during her Establishing Character Moment, and her frequent interviews and interactions with other characters/companions show that she's quite the skilled huckster despite also being a Socially Awkward Hero.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Piper is one of the most uncompromisingly selfless characters in The Commonwealth, always trying to better the lives of her fellow citizens in Diamond City and beyond. It doesn't stop people like Mayor McDonough from sometimes making her life a living hell.
• Hero-Worshipper: Although — as with all the companions — Piper can become this to the Sole Survivor if you achieve the maximum level of friendship with her, she is also on the receiving end; in her dialogue, she discusses how her sister Nat idolizes the hell out of her. She also admits that this troubles her since she doesn't want Nat to throw her life away and become ostracized and despised by the people around her like Piper is.
• Hidden Depths: She puts on a tough, snarky, fearless Intrepid Reporter front, but when you start to get to know her more several different facets become apparent. It's revealed that she runs an agony-aunt column in her paper, and the responses she gives to people's letters suggest a rather lonely and romantic side to her personality; she confesses at one point that she's scared that her younger sister is going to end up just like her; and she collapses into an adorable flustered mess whenever the Sole Survivor flirts with her, suggesting self-esteem issues deep down.
• Hopeless with Tech: Implied when successfully hacking terminals, as she sometimes admits that she can barely get hers to save.
• Identical Stranger: She looks a lot like a default Nora.
• Intrepid Reporter:
  • Writes for her own newspaper, hence "Reporter", and serves as a companion for the player-character, hence "Intrepid".
  • Besides that, she takes pride in getting into trouble — or as she puts it, "hairy situations". One of her stories was about a caravan racket driving up food prices; they poisoned her drink for revealing their scheme and she was forced to down a whole bottle of moonshine in order to induce vomiting. Another one was on the Children of Atom, who tried to sacrifice her to their "god"; she ended up faking a vision to save her life.
• I "Uh" You, Too: If the Sole Survivor decides to romance her and the player picks "You're perfect for me", she initially has trouble accepting the compliment until she says, "Well, I think you're perfect, too."
• Meaningful Name: Piper sounds like "paper" and Wright sounds like "write". She writes stuff for the papers. She's also one of the Good-aligned companions who wants to make the world a better place and approves of you when you perform actions that do so — in other words, she's committed to doing the (w)right thing.
• Missing Mom: Piper's mother died shortly after her sister, Nat, was born, leaving both sisters to be raised by their father.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Piper is quite animated when she speaks, especially noticeable in her introduction scene.
• 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 is even the only companion along with Nick and Codsworth who will approve (albeit with a hint of fear) of returning the mother Deathclaw her egg.
• Promotion to Parent: After their father's murder, Piper took full responsibility in raising Nat. Unlike a lot of examples, she handles it fairly well given that she was already a young adult when it happened. From a story standpoint, she also becomes this to Synth Shaun, if romanced by the Survivor and if the Survivor manages to find him and bring him home.
• Properly Paranoid: She's ardent in her belief that the Institute has infiltrated Diamond City's ruling elite with a Synth. And she's right, it's Mayor McDonough.
• Punny Name: She Wrights a newspaper and has the tendency to Pipe up.
• Replacement Goldfish: Just to rub in the tragic circumstances surrounding a male Sole Survivor fresh out of the Vault, Piper looks almost exactly like his murdered wife Nora (assuming you kept her default appearance) and has a very similar personality too. Synth Shaun's comment about their similarities further supports this.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Piper knows that her paper would sell a lot better if she'd only tell people what they want to hear, but believes that unless they know the harsh truth, they won't be able to make anything better.
• Self-Deprecation: Often makes comments about herself being loud, nosy, and rude. She's actually not very proud of these elements to her personality as they've alienated all of her friends as well as her career.
• Sherlock Scan: She will pull one of these to recognise the Sole Survivor as a Vault Dweller even if they're not wearing a Vault suit, judging by the Pip Boy on their wrist and general confused reaction to the Commonwealth.
• Shout-Out: Given both her Chronic Hero Syndrome and her desperate search for the truth, her last name being "Wright" likely isn't a coincidence.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: To a male Sole Survivor, as she approves of good-natured actions, and if picking the right dialogue choice should they break up, Piper will state that she fell for his generousness, compassion, and aversion to violence. She also bluntly turns down Dark Action Girl Cait and Mr. Vice Guy MacCready's attempts at flirting, and if a romanced Piper witnesses the Sole Survivor commit murder, she berates them and says she would never have fallen for him if she knew he was capable of such acts.
• 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 she becomes awkward and stumbling while flirting.
• That Came Out Wrong: Piper's social awkwardness makes her prone to clumsy statements. When reaching "Confidant" on the affinity scale, Piper unintentionally insults the player's intelligence by saying "So, you're not an idiot", and immediately backpedals when the Sole Survivor responds. She also compliments Magnolia's set of songs, only to realize she made an accidental come-on, much to her embarrassment.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • She's quite fond of Mole Rat, saying they're "good eating" if encountering a pack of them.
  • Also deviled eggs, since there are about five boxes of them under her dresser.
  • And she appears to have a bit of a Sweet Tooth, since the travel grub she'll offer the player is always things like candy, Nuka-Cola and pastries.
• Tranquil Fury: In her worst moments, she lets people know how angry she is when she restrains herself, most notably if the player murders someone a second time or when she leaves forever.
  Piper: Blue, please. I'm trying real hard to not yell at you right now.
  • She also shows a similar attitude when around the Brotherhood of Steel, often responding with biting sarcasm whenever she calls bull on Maxson or Danse's semi-philosophical excuses for their war against the Institute and Synthkind.
    Elder Maxson: (to the Sole Survivor) The Brotherhood is here to prevent a war by starting one of our own. The difference is our war won't reduce civilization to ashes.
    Piper: (disgusted) The claim of every tyrant. "Don't worry, my war will be better."
• Was It Really Worth It?: Cut dialogue indicates that Piper can have one of these conversations with a male Sole Survivor if he admits he fought in the Resource Wars.
• Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a 10mm pistol.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She is not happy if the Sole Survivor sides with the Institute. She even sounds on the verge of tears when she points out that it just means more kidnappings and paranoia for the people above ground. Subverted if she has reached sufficient affinity as, given enough time to think about it, she decides she trusts the Survivor enough that they will bring the Institute into the light or "rejoin the human race" as she calls it.
  • If Paladin Danse is executed, she will ask the Sole Survivor in a disbelieving tone "This is how [the Brotherhood] plans to make the Commonwealth safe?"
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is her reaction if the Sole Survivor agrees with Paladin Danse that with the Prydwen on the Brotherhood's side, their war with the Institute will be a short one.
  Piper: (incredulous) You two can't be that naïve. That thing, it's just going to escalate everything! You can't honestly believe it will stem the bloodshed?

Nick Valentine

Voiced by: Stephen Russell

"Told you, I'm a detective. Look, I know the skin and metal parts ain't comforting, but it's not important right now."

Diamond City's resident detective, Nick Valentine may very well be the only synth that the city has ever knowingly tolerated. Through a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (metaphorically, of course) he became accepted by the city's population as the go-to guy for finding missing people. His past certainly helps — being abandoned by the Institute in a trash heap with his memories wiped earned a great deal of sympathy points. The Sole Survivor comes to his office in search of help, but things turn out to be a lot more complicated than scheduling an appointment...

His unique perk, "Close to Metal", gives you one extra guess and a 50% cooldown to terminals while hacking.

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• And Then What?: After killing Eddie Winter, Nick wonders if it was all worth it and what'll become of him now that the last loose end of the "original" Nick Valentine's memories has been tied up. The Survivor can convince him that delivering justice is something that's genuinely of his own accord, not to mention succeeding where the "original" Nick failed.
• Androids and Detectives: Played with. He's both the android and the detective.
• Awesome by Analysis: He is capable of figuring out pretty quickly that the Institute were the ones that kidnapped Shawn by a brief description of the kidnapping itself. Raiders would have been too disorganised to crack open the vault to begin with, Super Mutants probably could have broken in but the assailants were described as human and finally while the Gunners would have been capable of pulling off such a heist (even accounting for the expensive hazmat equipment), they would have resorted to violence far quicker than Kellogg had.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Lucked out in that the humans he met were accepting of him and allowed him to be a part of their community. This led to him being a hero saving others from slavery because he felt it was right.
• Berserk Button:
  • Downplayed, but he's not exactly a fan of the Silver Shroud. On a serious level, he definitely has a major one if it's anything that supports the Institute.
  • The Mysterious Stranger. When the figure appears Nick will get upset, as he has been trying to figure out who he is for years. He really begins ranting the more times the Stranger appears.
• Best Served Cold: The Survivor can help him finally track down Eddie Winter, the notorious gangster who killed Nick's fiancée before the War. By 2287 however, Eddie's long since become a reclusive ghoul living out his "retirement" in his makeshift bunker, and will call out Nick for being too obsessed with a crime that happened 200 years earlier. It's also deconstructed in that Nick's been pursuing Eddie partly out of an attempt to find some peace in silencing one last "loose end" of the "original" Nick's memories.
• Brain Uploading: His neural patterns are based off of a real, pre-war police detective, which is why he thinks like a human (and talks like Humphrey Bogart). The Institute trash canned him because he still wasn't human-looking enough on the outside. Nick also suspects the Institute wasn't crazy about him being a By-the-Book Cop, and wanted a synth that would do their dirty work. According to his "brother," DiMA, in Far Harbor, Nick wasn't actually "trash canned." Instead, DiMA helped him to escape but not before the Institute could upload one last "brain" into his body. Disoriented, Nick attacked DiMA, who was forced to incapacitate Nick. Nick awoke an unknown amount of time later with no memory of DiMA or the incident. Interestingly, DiMA says that even with new brain uploads, Nick would still think of himself as "Nick".
• Body Horror: He's missing a lot of his rubber 'skin'. It doesn't bother most people because he's just that nice.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Downplayed, but justified. Part of the reason why he acts like a Hardboiled Detective straight out of a Humphrey Bogart movie is because his neural patterns are from a Pre-War police detective. Doesn't stop him from being a good sleuth though.
• Can't Catch Up: Downplayed. Nick can't equip armor, but has slightly more health than a normal companion and also has innate damage resistance about equal to a full set of mid-tier upgraded leather armor. He's not as tough as an optimally equipped human companion, but generally is still good enough to do the job.
• Clone Angst: His synth brain is a neural copy of a pre-war police detective and he's aware of it, resulting in a closely similar angst. The idea never comes up in-game, but one could interpret him as the same pre-war Nick Valentine, just reincarnated as a Synth.
• Cool Old Guy: Nick was built over a century before the events of Fallout 4, and is quite friendly with a good sense of wit.
• Creepy Good: His outer shell is miscolored, mistextured and damaged. His eyes are obviously mechanical and an eerie, glowing yellow. You'll be taken aback when you first find him, but make no mistake, he's one of the Commonwealth's best people.
• Cultured Badass: He quotes a lot of literature, especially during major events of the game and the DLC:
  • He quotes The Raven after seeing the Prydwen arrive in the Commonwealth:
    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing.
  • He makes the same reference twice to The Tempest; once during his affinity conversation, and one after you blow up the Institute:
    Nick: (bitterly) They've cut you loose. Welcome into the Brave New World... with such people in it.
    Nick: (cheerily) This is a brave new world you've ushered in, but I suppose it'll do.
  • He references the Bhagavad Gita and Robert Oppenheimer if you blow up the Nucleus:
    I am become death, destroyer of worlds...
  • When brought to the General Atomics Galleria, he hilariously paraphrases "Ozymandias":
    Nick: "My name is Mr. Handy, tidier of things. Look upon this room I said I'd cleaned and despair!"
  • He references Hamlet if you kill Skinny Malone."
    Nick: "May a flight of angels bring thee to thy rest, Skinny."
• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty capable at this, as befitting the Hardboiled Detective look and dialect. He can even go full-on Snark-to-Snark Combat with the Sole Survivor if they decide to pick "Sarcastic" dialogue choices.
  Sole Survivor: Mr. "Metal for Hands" doesn't know how to get back to the factory?
  Nick: No, I skipped that part in the orientation.
  • Nick also has some truly excellent zingers when arguing with anti-Synth racists aboard the Prydwen:
  Brotherhood Scribe: No machine should have free will!
  Nick: Why? You jealous you had to turn yours in?
  • He also has some great one-liners for bigoted Vault Dwellers in Vault 81:
  Vault 81 Dweller: Oh God! You're here to snatch me, aren't you?
  Nick: Lucky for you, I expect the Institute has standards.
• Death by Irony: Proving the Mysterious Stranger is real is one of Nick's obsessions. If you have the related perk, then should you dismiss him, turn him hostile and attack him in VATS, there is a chance that the Stranger will appear and kill Nick himself.
• Defector from Decadence: He may be a Synth, but he's got absolutely no love for the Institute, because they threw him away like garbage one day. As Far Harbor reveals, this wasn't exactly the case... He's also really pissed off if you decide not to blow them up and instead side with them.
• Determinator: Aside from his origin story and his quest to find Eddie Winter, Nick is trying to arrest The Mysterious Stranger, and even has notes on him in the office. Let's repeat: Nick's trying to apprehend a mythical figure no one else but the Survivor can see.
• Distressed Dude: His first appearance is being held captive by Skinny Malone's gang. He lampshades this if you rescue him as a female Sole Survivor:
  Nick: While I appreciate the irony of the reverse damsel-in-distress scenario...
• Deuteragonist: Counts as one for the Far Harbor DLC, considering that it's him being hired to track down Kasumi Nakano that starts the story as well as his relationship with DiMA.
• Facial Horror: Nick lacks large portions of "skin" around his face and neck, exposing his metal endoskeleton. A conversation with Joe Savoldi implies that it is a fairly new occurrence.
• Foil: To X6-88. While Valentine is an 'obviously fake-type' synth with the fully human personality of a pre-war detective (and has a strong sense of morality), X6 is a 'realistically human' synth made to hunt down those that have gone rogue (and cannot feel empathy). Taken further as Nick suspects the reason he was disposed of was because he wouldn't do the Institute's dirty work, which is exactly what X6 does. Far Harbor reveals that this wasn't exactly the case...
• Everyone Has Standards: Merrily takes any sarcasm from the Sole Survivor in stride, befitting his role as a gumshoe. Mouth off in front of him when/if DiMA is executed in Far Harbour, however, and he will have none of it.
• Flawed Prototype:
  • He suspects himself to be one, given that he's halfway between 'dumb, all-metal' Synth (Gen-1 and Gen-2) and 'indistinguishably human' Synth (Gen-3). That, and his 'skin' appears to be some kind of rubber composite, possibly a reference to the rubber-skinned T-600s mentioned in the backstory of Terminator. It's entirely possible that he might've been an early model Courser, as his job of finding people and bringing them home isn't that far removed from X6-88's purpose...
  • Far Harbor reveals that this is ultimately subverted, as he was one of the first of the self-aware Synths. Rather than being junked by the Institute, he actually escaped alongside his "brother" DiMA.
• The Fog of Ages: The reason he can't remember his past in the Institute is because his brain doesn't have enough memory space to retain memories of that time period, which is about a century ago.
• Friendly Enemy: He and Skinny Malone go way back, and in some unspecified incident in "the quarry" they apparently saved each others' lives. It's enough that Malone is reluctant to kill Valentine.
• Grandfather Clause: Nick joined Diamond City decades ago when Synths and the institute were far more obscure. It is clear that he is trusted because he has been there for longer than anyone else, but no other Synth would ever be given the same leeway.
• Guile Hero: Nick's a clever bastard. In his backstory, he rescued a girl from some slavers by claiming he was rigged to explode, then started making "beep, beep, beep" noises. Scared the hell out of them. He clearly got a kick out of that too, judging by the grin he sports when telling the tale to the Sole Survivor.
• Hardboiled Detective: Aesthetically faithful, no less. Nick has both the get-up and slang of a stereotypical Film Noir hero. Raising your affinity with him also reveals that his mind is a direct copy of a pre-war police detective's. He says that the job and outfit just felt natural to him.
• The Heart: Appropriate for someone named Nick Valentine.
• Heartbroken Badass: 'His' fiancee, Jennifer Lands, was murdered. It gets a little complicated due to his memories of Jenny being inherited from the original Nick Valentine. She was dead long before Nick the synth was even made.
• Hidden Depths: Nick quotes "The Raven" if he's with you as you watch the Prydwen arrive. And when he opens up to you with the story of his first days outside of the Institute, he paraphrases The Tempest. Either he made the classics a priority in his down time, or those memories came with his download package, which means the real Nick got a lot of his moral streak from the heroes of literature.
• I See Them, Too: Nick is the only companion who will react to the Mysterious Stranger, recognizing him before trying to apprehend him futily.
• Just a Machine:
  • Totally averted. His strong personality and long history with Diamond City means people think of him as "Nick the Detective" rather than "Nick the Synth." Even his enemies think of him as a person first.
  • There are NPCs who treat him this way, but Nick always has a cutting response ready (see above) and tells the Survivor not to waste any effort on them.
• Large Ham: He quotes classical literature and theater at the drop of a hat, tends to use poetic language in general, and has the voice and mannerisms of a Hardboiled Detective straight out of a Film Noir.
• Limited Wardrobe: While most companions can equip various clothes and armor, Nick will only ever wear his own iconic Faded Trench Coat and hat. He wouldn't quite be "Nick the dick", otherwise. Although, nothing's stopping you from giving him an armored variant, though for some reason it fixes his right hand too.
• The Lost Lenore: Jennifer Lands.
• Nice Guy: Along with Piper and Preston, he's one of the nicest people you'll meet in the Wasteland. The quickest way to get on his good side is to take missions that help people; 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.
  • How much of a Nice Guy is Nick Valentine? He, Codsworth, and Piper are the three only companions in the whole game who respond positively to the Sole Survivor helping a mother Deathclaw. He'll also approve of the Sole Survivor warning scientists to flee with their families before blowing up the Institute.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He's a robot detective. And the fake flesh he wears looks more than a little necrotic, what with the missing chunks and yellowed color tone, giving him an almost zombie-like look (something he himself points out, noting that some people think he's a really sick Ghoul).
• Pick Your Human Half: From all outward appearances, Nick is nightmare-inducing — what with his glowing eyes and eerily human face. But it only takes one conversation with him to establish the fact that he's very much 'alive'... and an empathetic being.
• Playful Hacker: As he says, he's fluent in "stubborn old machinery" and can be commanded to hack some terminals. He's also impressed with you if you hack a terminal yourself.
• Private Detective: This is Nick's job, and he's pretty damn good at it, too. After rescuing him he invites you to help him clear out some of his back log of cases, allowing you to be one too.
• Really 700 Years Old: Far Harbor reveals that Nick was built at least a century ago.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nick usually responds to your sarcasm well (depending on the scenario). But in Far Harbor, when DiMA is executed for his past crime and you make a sarcastic joke about it, he gives you a short yet very sharp retort.
  Nick: You know, why don't you just shut the hell up for once? I swear, you care more about sounding smart sometimes than you do about who has to listen to it.
• Red Herring: Kellogg speaks through Nick once after the "Dangerous Minds" quest, making it seem as if Nick will have a good/evil split personality the rest of the game. It doesn't happen.
• Refuge in Audacity: He once rescued the victim of a group of kidnappers by claiming that he'd activated his (nonexistent) self-destruct, then ran at them while making "beep, beep, beep" noises.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: He carries a pipe revolver by default.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Acts very human-like, has a very expressive face, and has taken up a job as a private detective. This is due to Nick being a prototype synth capable of independent thinking.
• Seen It All: In addition to his Brain Uploading, he's been around the block long enough (at least 100 years) to have seen his fair share of life in the Commonwealth.
• Smoking Is Cool: It helps to reinforce his image as a hard-boiled detective, even though being a prototype synth without lungs means it's just for show.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Tends to receive the most relevance out of the companions with him being involved in four quests in the main story, being the only main story companion to have a companion quest, and going on to become the Deuteragonist of the Far Harbor DLC.
• Super Prototype: As revealed in Far Harbor, Nick was one of the two prototype Synths capable of independent thinking and judgement, the other being DiMA.
• Tap on the Head: He's been knocked unconscious from a blow to the head at least twice in his backstory, including by the bat-wielding Darla. Either he's really good at simulating concussions or his Cranial Processing Unit doesn't like being knocked around.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You/This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Nick's approval is far greater if the Survivor allows him to kill Eddie Winter by himself.
• Token Heroic Orc: From the perspective of most of Diamond City, who no matter how paranoid or anti-Synth, see Nick as a definite exception.
• Uncanny Valley: Invoked and played with. Many Wastelanders have issues with Synths, but Nick is so obviously mechanical that most people have no problems with him on that front.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Combining sarcastic dialogue options whenever you talk to him with actions that improve his opinion of you allows you to create this relationship between Nick and the Sole Survivor.
• Vocal Evolution: Due to Stephen Russell having to voice Dima as well in the Far Harbour DLC, all of Nick's new dialogue recorded for the expansion sees Russel giving Nick a more distinct accent and vocal inflation, one more in line with the gumshoe detectives of the '40s that Nick draws a lot from.
• Weapon Specialization: Defaults to a pipe revolver.
• What the Hell Are You?: The Survivor may ask Nick this when they first meet him. Justified since, even if the Survivor has seen synths, they've probably only encountered ones who are mindless Killer Robots, and not a Ridiculously Human Robot like Nick. Especially given that the "wild" synths are obscenely almost-but-not-quite human-looking Skelebot 9000s, while Nick is more of a fully-clothed robot-zombie.
  Sole Survivor: Just... what are you, Nick?
  Nick: You really don't know? I'm a synth. Synthetic man. All the parts, minus a few red blood cells.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He's really disappointed in you if you choose to side with the Institute. Nick also disapproves of the Brotherhood of Steel given, well, they're out to kill all synths.

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