Fallout 4: Companion Perks

Likes and Dislikes List for All Companions

Getting your character to max affinity with each companion (except Dogmeat and Automatrons) will unlock a special perk that is a permanent boost to your character. Many players will want to max affinity for all of the companions who have Perks useful to their build, or one they'd like to have a romance with. Here is a master list of their likes/dislikes in order to help you to avoid doing things they do not like while around them, and to gradually improve your relationship when they're following you.

Befriending your Companions: Affinity
Each action taken around the companion (whether following them or not) will result in your score going up or down. Getting to +1000 will result in the companion's unique perk being unlocked, giving you a permanent boost. At max relationship status, some companions are available for romance, as well, which will let you sleep with them and get the Lover's Embrace buff, resulting in a 12 hour +15% increase to XP gains instead of the usual 10%.

Being x refers to dialog choices, which can have a big impact on affinity. Use your best judgment when talking to Quest NPCs to decide if this or that dialog choice is mean (sarcastic) or violent (start the fight). However, with everyday actions (particularly chem use, armor/weapon mods) you can farm more affinity by doing them regularly. Expect 'hated' and 'loved' to greatly decrease or increase gains in follower affinity, while liked/disliked will be a step forward/back.

Some Companions hate or like it when you help certain Factions. I've noted those that have strong feelings about this, so you can send them off to another location and work with a different companion when you're doing faction quests. Radiant quests, being repeatable, are a good source of affinity for some companions.

Some actions will rarely be taken, such as when you heal Dogmeat, as you can only have one follower at a time - it'll be rare for the dog to be injured in town, though you may try causing that yourself if you have the spare Stimpaks! For now, it works and you can heal him over and over with companions who like that action in town. No one dislikes shooting the dog. Commonwealth decency standards are remarkably low.

If a companion likes you in the nude, you can fast travel over and over without wearing any armor and with them following you to gain affinity quickly. Those who like drugs are generally easiest to befriend, as well as those who like modifications to gear.

There are a variety of quest interactions that are highly specific and cause a +/- modification depending which companion you have around. I did not list every condition that causes a gain/loss but stuck to the major ones.

Getting the Perk
Once you hit 1,000 you should see that the companion 'Idolizes' you. This means you now have the new Perk if there are no other conditions. Danse requires Blind Betrayal to be complete, and some Companions must be talked to for the Perk to kick in. Some companions will have a quest for you once you reach a certain level of Affinity.

Cait

Where to Meet Cait: Combat Zone, after clearing it.
Companion Perk: Trigger Rush - AP Regenerates 25% faster when your hit points are below 25%. Currently bugged and only triggers when the character is below 25 AP and then regenerates AP only 8% faster - a joke. PC players can download a mod to fix it here. When fixed it will work wonderfully with armor that slows time when HP is low.

Raising Relationship with Cait

Codsworth

Where to Meet Codsworth: He's in Sanctuary at the beginning of the game.
Companion Perk: Robot Sympathy - Grants +10 Damage Resistance against energy attacks from robot enemies. Highly specific, eh? Overall one of the weaker perks here but Codsworth is fairly easy to please.

Raising Relationship with Codsworth

Curie

Where to Meet Curie: Vault 81, after you complete Hole in the Wall
Companion Perk: Combat Medic - Once per day, you'll heal 100 health when your life drops below 10%. Theoretically you can still be one-shot, but this Perk can at times save your life.

Raising Relationship with Curie

Danse

Where to Meet Paladin Danse: Cambridge Police Station, save some Brotherhood soldiers then complete Tour of Duty
Companion Perk: Know Your Enemy - A great perk - deal +20% damage to ghouls, mutants, and synths. The hatred of all things foreign is strong in you! The quest Blind Betrayal (which comes up in the BoS quest chain) is required to get this Perk.

Raising Relationship with Paladin Danse

Deacon

Where to Meet Deacon: Join the Railroad and complete the Tradecraft Quest.
Companion Perk: Cloak & Dagger - Increases Sneak Attack damage by 20%. It changes the multiplier by 20% over base, so from 2.0 to 2.4 for ranged and 3.0 to 3.6 for melee sneak attacks - toss in Ninja to get huge sneak attack damage, and for (ranged only) mister sandman with silenced weapons for 6.3x damage. I've read of a bug stating that the order you take them matters - try to have some ranks in Ninja/Mister Sandman before reaching max affinity with Deacon.

Raising Relationship with Deacon

Gage (Nuka World DLC)

Where to Meet Porter Gage: Follow the Main Quest of Nuka World and complete An Ambitious Plan.
Gage's Companion Perk: Lessons in Blood - Your relationship with Porter Gage grants you +10 Damage Resistance, and you'll permanently gain +5% more XP per kill in combat. As an added bonus, and without becoming friendly with him, Gage can sell you ammo and other items at any time although he only carries 100 caps. This shopkeeper benefit is only available while you're in Nuka World.

Raising Relationship with Porter Gage

Hancock

Where to Meet Hancock: Goodneighbor. Do The Big Dig Quest (from Bobbi No-Nose), then he'll join.
Companion Perk: Isodoped - With 25% of the bar filled with Radiation, you'll fill your crit bar 20% faster. Works wonderfully with weapons such as Righteous Authority and anything with the Relentless Legendary Mod, such as Kellogg's Pistol.

Raising Relationship with Hancock

MacCready

Where to Meet MacCready: Goodneighbor - inside The Third Rail. Hired for 200-250 Caps.
Companion Perk: Killshot - Adds a flat +20% to hit an enemy's head in VATS. Super-potent in combination with the Sniper Perk, which also stacks additively, meaning you can make headshots at great distances. This + Deacon's Cloak and Dagger Perk are incredibly potent together in a sniper build.

Raising Relationship with Robert MacCready

Nick Valentine

Where to Meet Valentine: Do the Quest Getting a Clue, he is in Vault 114 which is found following the main quest from Diamond City.
Companion Perk: Close to Metal - Gives you one more chance at hacking terminals, while also reducing the time for a terminal to reset by 50%, bringing it down to 5 seconds. Why bother with rank 4 of hacker when you could have this!

Raising Relationship with Valentine

Old Longfellow (Far Harbor DLC)

Where to Get Old Longfellow - Do the Far From Home Quest in Far Harbor, then accept him as a guide for Walk in the Park.

Unique Perk: Hunter's Wisdom - Lowers the damage and energy resistance of animals and sea creatures by 25%, increasing your ability to damage them.

Raising Relationship with Longfellow

Piper

Where to Meet Piper: Diamond City, she'll be at the entrance. Complete the Story of the Century Quest to befriend her.
Companion Perk: Gift of Gab - You'll get double XP for discovering new locations and successful Charisma speech checks. A useful Perk to get early in the game, but will help you to level regardless of when you get it.

Raising Relationship with Piper

Preston Garvey

Where to Meet Preston: Museum of Freedom, in Concord. He'll join after The First Step which is after When Freedom Calls
Companion Perk: United We Stand - Deal +20% damage and gain +20 Damage Resistance any time you're fighting 3 or more enemies (which is almost always). Obviously it's a very strong perk, particularly early in the game when +20 DR really matters, though the damage boost is the main draw here. As much as people hate on Preston, they should probably grab this one then send him off to a farm they rarely visit if they don't want his quests.

Raising Relationship with Preston Garvey

Strong

Where to Meet Strong: Trinity Tower, after the Curtain Call Quest. Near the tower, you'll pick up a distress signal on the radio.
Companion Perk: Berserk - Deal +20% Melee Damage when your HP is below 25%. Similar to Cait's Perk, only for melee despite the image for this Companion Perk showing a gun.

Raising Relationship with Strong

X6-88

Where to Meet X6-88: Do the main quest, join the Institute and finish their chain to the point of Mankind-Redefined.
Companion Perk: Shield Harmonics - Gain +20 Energy Resistance. Like Codsworth's Perk, only not as specific and double the value. It stacks with it, however, and will give you +30 against Robotic opponents such as Assaultrons.

Raising Relationship with X6-88

That's all, folks. Share any specific incidents your companion liked/disliked using the form below and you can help your fellow gamers. I didn't want the lists to be too overbearing so that people could get to the main ways to farm affinity and get these perks. Once I have pages on all these companions, which will be where I will detail how to get each of them, I'll link them here.