Affinity

Affinity is a companion gameplay mechanic in Fallout 4. Companions can develop personal connections to your character and some may ask for your help with quests of their own. Each companion has a distinct personality and values. Actions or dialogue that please one companion may displease another.

Raising the affinity value grants additional dialogue into their history or the possibility of romance. Reaching maximum affinity with a companion will unlock a special perk. The affinity value is a hidden statistic, meaning it is not possible to check your progress without console commands.

Scale

Typically, all companions begin at an affinity value of 0. If the affinity value reaches 500, they will "admire" you and often reveal new dialogue. Raising their affinity to 1000+ (max is 1100) will result in them "idolizing" you, at which point you are granted their companion perk.

Lowering the affinity to a sufficient negative value will displease the companion, and they will issue a single warning to you, asking you to change your ways. If the affinity value drops further, they will become angry and refuse to travel with you. This decision is permanent.

For most companions, new dialogue will be triggered when the affinity value reaches 250, 500, 750 and 1000.

Reactions

There are four different reactions a companion can have towards your actions/dialogue that will affect their affinity value:

Reaction	Affinity change
"<Companion> liked that."	+15
"<Companion> loved that."	+35
"<Companion> disliked that."	-15
"<Companion> hated that."	-35

Some actions, such as modifying weapons, picking locks, and entering power armor will raise affinity with certain companions and can be repeated indefinitely. Performing a single one of these actions within range of multiple characters who respond to said actions will trigger the respective increases or decreases with all of them. However, these responses have a cooldown period, meaning it is not possible to perform the same action several times in a row to gain/lose affinity. For example, entering power armor will trigger only one instance of approval from Paladin Danse and/or X6-88 until sufficient time has elapsed.

It is however possible to perform different actions back-to-back and receive two or more separate instances of approval. (For example, picking a lock and then hacking a terminal will grant two separate approvals from Deacon.) Similarly, in a conversation with an NPC, each dialogue choice counts as an action unto itself, independent of the rest of the overall dialogue, so it is possible to obtain multiple likes and loves in the same set of dialogue with the same NPC. (For example, in Order Up, you can gain two likes from Piper by saying "You're both wrong" to Wolfgang, then agreeing to talk down Trudy.) For a more-detailed list of what specifically pleases or displeases a companion, see the respective companion page.

Affinity can be also increased passively by simply having a companion follow you. The increase depends on the current affinity level and will be lower with higher affinity values. The formula for the increase is 40 - 0.033 x affinity value. (i.e. companions with 100 Affinity will gain a 36.7 increase, companions with 250 = +31.75, 500 = +23.5, 750 = +15.25, 990 = +7) This only applies if a quest has been completed since the companion was last chosen. Thus, the method is most effective in the time just after meeting them, with the addition of sending them to the same settlement(s) to be rotated with greater ease between turning in quests.

Romance

Certain companions are potential candidates for romance and throughout the course of their affinity based conversations, the dialogue option to "flirt" will be available. At the highest level of affinity - and final conversation - the "romance" option will be available. Both options are speech checks. Successfully flirting will reduce the difficulty of the final romance check and successfully passing that will make the companion a love interest. This is result in them addressing you in a more affectionate manner (for example Preston Garvey will call you "Babe" or Danse will say "I always have time for you" when attempting to talk to him). Also, sleeping in a bed with them nearby will also grant the Lover's Embrace perk.

Companion romances are not mutually exclusive; if a new companion is romanced, previously romanced partners will still confer the benefits of the Lover's Embrace. However, some romanced partners will "hate" or "dislike" flirting in their presence, including flirting with Magnolia at The Third Rail.

Even if one fail to romance a companion, they still have chances to try this again: after a certain amount of time the companion will initiate a conversation regarding their relationship with the Sole Survivor as their best friend and from there the player can try to romance him/her if they want to.

To end a romance, drop the companion's Affinity value below 750. You can make this happen by doing things they dislike or hate until they tell you they want to take a break. You can check your progress by selecting them with the console and then using the command getav ca_affinity.

A shortcut is to use the console command setav ca_affinity. Select the companion with the console and then use the command setav ca_affinity 764. Now do something the companion dislikes, lowering the Affinity value by 15 and dropping it to 749, the maximum it can be for them to initiate the break-up dialog. Only the action itself can initiate the dialog, and only if it drops the Affinity value from 750+ to below 750.

To fix a romance, raise the companion's affinity value back up to 1000+. You can use "setav ca_affinity 985" and then do something the companion likes or loves.

Companion perks

Those perks are acquired by reaching the maximum level of affinity with a companion. The perks obtained this way are permanently obtained, whether you keep travelling with the associated companion or not.

Perk	Associated character	Benefit	Base ID
Trigger Rush	Cait	The player character's Action Points regenerate +25% faster, if the Hit Points value is below 25% of its maximum.	001F4187
Robot Sympathy	Codsworth	The player character gains +10 Damage Resistance against robots' energy attacks.	001EB99B
Combat Medic	Curie	The player character can heal 100 Hit Points if their current number of Hit Points is below 10%.	001E67BC
Know Your Enemy	Paladin Danse	The player character deals 20% more damage against irradiated ghouls, mutated humanoids and androids.	0008428D
Cloak & Dagger	Deacon	The player character gains +20% sneak attack damage and the duration of effects of Stealth Boys are increased by +40%.	0008530E
Isodoped	John Hancock	The player character's Critical Hit value increases +20% faster, if the player character has 250 Radiation value.	00178D57
Killshot	Robert Joseph MacCready	The player character has 20% greater chance to hit an enemy's head in V.A.T.S.	00178D50
Close to Metal	Nick Valentine	1 additional guess at choosing passwords in terminals, 50% faster terminal cooldown at hacking	001E67BD
Gift of Gab	Piper	The player character gains double the XP value when persuading other people or when discovering new places.	00178D54
United We Stand	Preston Garvey	The player character's Damage Resistance is increased by +20% and the player character deals +20% damage when outnumbered.	00084298
Berserk	Strong	The player character deals +20% Melee Damage, if the number of Hit Points is below 25% of original value.	00084290
Shield Harmonics	X6-88	The player character's Energy Resistance is increased by +20% if hit by an energy weapon.	000842A0

Notes

• Paladin Danse, Curie, Cait, and Nick Valentine cannot reach max affinity until their respective personal quests have been completed.
• Robert MacCready's quest cannot continue until an affinity level of 750 is reached.
• Affinity will stall if the appropriate dialogue has not been activated yet. When they've reached a tier limit - no actions are counted towards positive affinity, but the messages of approval still appear. For example MacCready will stay at 499 until you help him with his quest, Cait will stay at 999 until you complete her quest (romance dialogue appears at 1000 affinity), Danse stays at 999, until Blind Betrayal quest.
• Saving and reloading your game will reset the cooldown associated with affinity gains, allowing you to easily farm affinity increases with several companions.

Exploits

The following actions not only increase the affinity of the listed companions, but can be repeated after an internal "cooldown" has reset. Saving after performing the action and reloading the file will reset any triggered cooldowns, allowing large amounts of affinity to be produced in a relatively short period of time.

Weapon modding

• Codsworth and Danse love this. Preston and X6-88 like this. It is easily repeated with the "None" attachment, which simply removes an existing modification and costs nothing to produce. They can all be affected by being within range of the weapon workbench simultaneously, making it much easier to raise all four companions' affinity.

Armor modding

• Codsworth and Danse love this. X6-88 likes this. See Weapon modding.

Entering power armor

• Danse and X6-88 like this. Note that Strong dislikes this, so he should not be in the same settlement or general location while performing this.

Stealing

• MacCready likes this. Can be repeated by placing an item in a container owned by someone else and taking it back out, preferably in an area you can close from prying eyes such as a hotel room in Goodneighbor.
• Cait likes this.

Lockpicking

• Cait, Deacon, and Piper like this. MacCready likes this, but only to locks owned by others, whereas Piper dislikes picking owned locks. Strong dislikes picking any locks.
• Can be repeated by using a safe that has a terminal attached to it, opening the safe then using the terminal to lock it again.

Such safes can be found in:

• Sanctuary (unless scrapped)
• Fiddler's Green Trailer Estates
• Medford Memorial Hospital (advanced)
• Back Street Apparel (advanced 1st floor)
• Hubris Comics (Grognak's axe case)
• Greenetech Genetics (expert 7th floor)
• Super-Duper Mart (advanced)
• Ticonderoga (expert 1st floor near exit terminal)
• Cambridge Polymer Labs (up the staircase and to the left in the main lab)
• Fraternal Post 115 (Second floor office at North side. Novice terminal and Floor safe)

Using chems

• Hancock likes this, as does Cait before her companion quest. Afterwards, she dislikes it.

Using alcohol

• Cait likes this before her companion quest. Afterwards, she is indifferent to it.

Nudity

• Cait and Hancock like this for both sexes. Triggers by transitioning between two areas (indoor or outdoor) while not wearing any clothing underneath armor (player can still wear arm guards, leg guards, and chest pieces, but nothing underneath like the vault jumpsuit)
• A fast way to do this is to buy the Home Plate house in Diamond City for 2,000 caps. Place a bed in front of the door, sleep for two hours, then exit to Diamond City and re-enter Home Plate. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
• Another way is to find two areas with chairs you can wait in and a door separating them into two different maps. 'Wait' for 2 hours in one, go through the door and wait 2 hours in the other, and go back through the door. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Approval triggers once on each pass through the door. A good example is the couch in Publick Occurrences and the chair against the wall of the barber stand outside.

Cannibalism

• Strong likes this. As such, this is one of the few actions that can be used to maximize his notoriously difficult affinity. (Requires Cannibal perk)

Healing Dogmeat

• Everyone except Strong and X6-88 like this. Repeating this will likely require deliberately wounding Dogmeat in a settlement with the character(s) in question nearby, as you can only have one companion out at a time. Note that sometimes settlers will attack you if you attack Dogmeat, so be sure to bring him to an area with no settlers.

Easing settlers' troubles

• Curie, Nick and Preston like accepting quests from settlers, though only if peaceful dialogue is used. This can be repeated, and will occur if talking to the settler first, or after receiving the quest from Preston Garvey or Radio Freedom, then talking to the settler.

With the exception of healing Dogmeat, Nick Valentine has no repeatable/farmable actions, so the approval gained from accepting and completing quests should be prioritized to him. He likes hacking terminals, but the game has a finite number of them (but still more than enough to max his Affinity as long as his companion quest is completed before running out).