Top 10 Best Fallout New Vegas Companions To Know (2023)

In addition to the weapon or weapon type you select to progress the game’s story, certain NPCs help you out in this journey. Our Fallout New Vegas best companion guide entails a list of NPCs that can be taken into battle for assistance.

Related: Fallout New Vegas Companion Locations

Fallout New Vegas Best Companions

Companions or Followers are NPCs that fight alongside the player and assist them in battle, using their perks. They may vary from purely offensive ones, with their builds dealing a ton of damage, to purely defensive ones, focusing on tanking or maximizing health. There are also builds that focus on replenishing lost hit points in battle; they all rely on the perks the companions provide.

Raul Tejada

Raul Tejada is, without a doubt, the best companion in Fallout New Vegas. His perk, Old Vaquero, improves the rate of fire of revolvers and lever-action firearms by 33%. His other perk, Full maintenance, is a buffed version of the regular maintenance perk. Full maintenance reduces the decay of weapons or firearms by 75%.

Raul Tejada has six Strength, six Perception, two Charisma, four Endurance, seven Intelligence, eight Agility, and finally, five Luck. His level can be upgraded from 14 to 37, after which it cannot be leveled up any further.

His other skills include; Guns, Repair, and Science. Raul Tejada is overall a great choice for builds that use pistols as their primary weapon. Raul Tejada’s experience, combined with his Old Vaquero perk, makes him the best companion you can get in Fallout New Vegas.

Veronica Santangelo

Veronica Santangelo is ranked second best on our list. She has five perks in total, but her Scribe Assistant perk is the most important. Using the Scribe assistant perk, players can craft workbench items, without even a workbench, through Veronica’s dialogue. In fact, it is the only character perk that requires a dialogue to be used.

The most important feature about this perk is that it allows recycling energy weapon ammunition in combat, resulting in less ammo than usual. The rest of her perks like Causeless Rebel and Bonds of steel only give a bonus to her abilities. Veronica’s perk, Elijah’s Last Words, buffs her melee attack speed by 150% and provides her melee attacks a chance to knock down enemies by 25%.

Veronica has seven Strength, five Perception, six Endurance, three Charisma, six Intelligence, seven Agility, and three Luck, making her an over-powered character. Her minimum level is 5, and the maximum level to which she can be upgraded is 37.

At level 5, Veronica has 235 Health points, and by level 37, she has a total of 395 Health points. Her other stats include; 3% critical chance, 2.90 to 5.50 unarmed damage, 10% radiation resistance, 25% poison resistance, and can carry 220 weight. When it comes to Veronica’s area of expertise, she is quite fairly skilled at unarmed, hand to hand or fist combat. This is partly the reason why Veronica Santangelo has Strength higher than normal.

Craig Boone

Craig Boone was formerly part of the NCR First Recon. His perk, called Spotter, spots all hostile enemies and marks them red when the player is hard-scoping or aiming down their iron sights. This perk comes in very handy as in nighttime or long distances, and it gets hard to detect them. This is also the reason why Craig is one of Fallout New Vegas best companion.

So this perk simply highlights them and makes it easier for the player to spot and hunt the enemies down over long distances or at night. Craig Boone can be upgraded from level 5 to a maximum level of 37. His hit points vary from 230 to 315, with 230 at level 5 and 315 at level 37.

Craig Boone has Tag skills of; Guns, Melee weapons, and sneak. Both the Guns and Melee weapons Tag skill start at 50 and progress its way to 100 when Craig finally reaches level 37. However, the sneak skill starts from 48 and progresses its way to 100 when the max level is reached. Craig Boone has seven Strength, eight Perception, five Endurance, one Charisma, three Intelligence, seven Agility, and finally, six Luck.

Overall, Craig Boone should be your first choice if your build is sniper-based or uses a marksman weapon. His perk, combined with the damage his sniper deals, makes him easily the best companion NPC.

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Lily Bowen

Lily Bowen is the first-gen mutant and is more commonly known as a Nightkin. Lily Bowen’s perk, Stealth Girl, basically increases Stealth Boys’ time duration last. Stealth Boys is a consumable item that generates a field that makes the player go invisible.

It lasts for 2 minutes, so this perk increases its duration by another 2 mins. Not only that, but this perk also increases the damage dealt by Sneak Critical Attack by an additional 10%. Lily Bowen starts with a level of 10 and max outs at level 37, just like all other companions do.

She is a very tanky companion, with her hit points starting at 240 to reaching 888 by level 37. This easily makes her the best Fallout New Vegas companion for tanking. Moreover, she has six tag skills, namely; Energy weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee weapons, Sneak, and finally, unarmed.

This makes Lily a great all-rounder, give her a gun or a knife, and she’s got it all. Lily Bowen has nine Strength, three Perception, eight Endurance, five Charisma, three Intelligence, ten agility, and six luck. Her other stats include; 6% critical chance, 3.50 unarmed damage, 35% poison resistance, 14% radiation resistance, and finally, she can carry 240 weight. As Lily has super strength, her area of expertise is Knives or melee weapons by default. She also excels at close-ranged, unarmed combat.

Joshua Graham

Joshua Graham is the Co-founder of Caesar’s legion and the first of its Legate. Joshua Graham’s perk, The Way of the Canaanite, reduces recoil spread by 0.4 and boosts the critical chance of .45 by x2. This perk doubles its effect if you get your hand on the “A light shining in the Darkness” pistol. You get x4 crit chance and a recoil spread of only 0.275. Joshua Graham can be upgraded from level 10 to 50. His hit points vary from 240 to 440, with 440 at level 50 and 240 at level 10. Joshua Graham’s tag skills include; Barter, Guns, and repair.

Joshua Graham has six Strength, seven Perception, ten Endurance, seven Charisma, seven Intelligence, eight Agility, and five Luck. His other stats include; 6% critical chance, 45% poison resistance, 18% radiation resistance, and he can carry 210 weight.

Dean Domino

Dean Domino is also a ghoul, just like Raul Tejada. While Dean Domino does not have any specific perk, he does have the 1% health regeneration. So he would constantly be regenerating health while in combat or idle. Dean Domino’s tag skills include Explosives and Guns, making him one of Fallout new Vegas best companion.

Explosives can be upgraded from 45 to 100, and Guns can be upgraded from 53 to 100. His level can be upgraded from 5 to 35 to 50 as well. Note that Dean Domino’s level from 35 to 50 can only be upgraded if you have the DLC, or else it just caps at 35.

Dean Domino has six Strength, four Perception, eight Endurance, seven Charisma, six Intelligence, eight Agility, and five Luck.

Dog/God

Dog/God is also a super mutant, just like Lily Bowen, except he’s a little rude. He has two perks: Dog: Nightkin Toughness and God: Health Regeneration. His Dog: Nightkin Toughness gives him 30% damage resistance of all kinds of damage, making him tougher. And his second perk, God: Health Regeneration, gives him 5% health regeneration.

Both these perks make him a great tank. Dog/God has dual identities, so he also has dual stats and hit points. Dog can be upgraded from level 5 to 35 to 50(DLC), and God can be upgraded from level 1 to 35.

Dog has ten Strength, three Perception, eight Endurance, five Charisma, three Intelligence, ten agility, and six luck. God has five Strength, five Perception, five Endurance, five Charisma, five Intelligence, five agility, and five luck. Moreover, Dog has 175 to 1225 hit points, with 175 at level 5 and 1225 at level 50.

God has 50 to 1750 Hitpoints, with 50 at level 1 and 1750 at level 35. This concludes that the latter is tankier than the former. Not only that, but God has no max health, so it keeps getting higher as players level up.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy

Rose of Sharon Cassidy is the owner of Cassidy Caravans in Mojave. Rose of Sharon Cassidy has many perks, but her most valuable of them all is, without a doubt is, the Shotgun Surgeon perk. This perk takes effect when using shotguns, and it does not matter what ammunition you use; players ignore additional 10 points of a target’s damage threshold.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy’s other perk, Hand of Vengeance, increases the damage she deals with guns by 15% of her base damage or the damage she normally deals. Her Calm Heart perk is also useful in battles and combats, as using it provides her an additional +50 Hit Points or replenishes 50 hit points she lost in battle. Finally, her Whiskey Rose perk allows consumption of alcoholic beverages without bearing any consequences.

Moreover, consuming whiskey buffs her damage threshold from 2 to 6. The same goes for ingesting wasteland tequila, except this time, the damage threshold rises from 3 to 6. This is, however, dependent on the courier’s survivor skills. Rose of Sharon Cassidy can be upgraded from level 5 to 22 to 37, with level-ups after level 22 only being possible if players have the DLC.

Her hit points range from 210 to 295, with 210 at level 5 and 295 at level 37. This, however, can be boosted by using her Calm Heart perk. Her Tag skills include Guns, Melee Weapons, and Sneak. Rose of Sharon Cassidy has seven Strength, six Perception, four Endurance, four Charisma, four Intelligence, six agility, and four luck.

Cassidy is one of the best companions in Fallout New Vegas for ballistic weapons, and he can get you sniper rifles. Not only that, but she outsmarts opponents when it comes to using shotguns at close range. Another side skill she possesses is stealth, making her a great all-rounder as she can fit in many builds.

Arcade Gannon

Arcade Gannon is a member of Followers of Apocalypse. He has two perks in total, namely Better Healing and Companion Suite. Better Healing increases the amount of health restored from consumable items by 20%. Arcade Gannon’s Companion Suite boosts multiple stats while also decreasing some.

Note that it only works for Companions only. It multiplies weapon damage by 0.75 and multiplies the target damage threshold by 0.75. However, it decreases the weight that can be carried by 75, it also decreases damage resistance by 33%, so this perk is more of a double-edged sword. It buffs on offensive stats and nerfs defensive stats. Lastly, it increases sneak by +100.

Arcade Gannon’s level can be upgraded from 5 to 22 to 26 to 30 to 33 to 37, and all these level upgrades are dependent on the player character’s level. Since he is a follower of Apocalypse Doctor, his tag skills include; Energy Weapons, Medicine, and Melee Weapon.

His energy weapon skill can be upgraded from 50 to 100. His medicine skill starts at 59 and goes all the way up to 100, and this is because he is a doctor, so he gets a head start in the medicine skill. Meanwhile, his Melee weapons start from 51 and go to 100 at level 37. His hit points at level 5 are 170, which is pretty low but is justified by the fact that he is a medic and does not fight on the frontlines.

Arcade Gannon has six Strength, six Perception, four Endurance, five Charisma, ten Intelligence, six agility, and finally, four luck. Arcade Gannon’s other stats include 4% critical chance, 1.10 unarmed damage, 15% poison resistance, 6% radiation resistance, and can carry 210 LB of weight. Arcade Gannon is one of the best medic companions in Fallout New Vegas.

ED-E

ED-E has six Strength, Ten Perception, five Endurance, five Charisma, five Intelligence, seven Agility, and nine Luck. This is one of the only robot companions in Fallout New Vegas. It has the Enhanced sensors and Camaradar-E perks. ED-E’s enhanced sensors perk allows the player to have vision equivalent to having 10 Perception. Not only that, but it also allows the player to detect enemies which are cloaked. This perk is put to great effectiveness if players combine ED-E’s Enhance sensors with Craig Boone’s spotter perk; with that, they can even take out snipers from a long-range.

So that is pretty much everything that you need to know about Fallout New Vegas best companions. Which companion is your favorite so far in the game? Let us know more of your thoughts in the comments section below.

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