“Animals will not attack one of their friends, unless the animal is threatened or attacked first. Exactly what an animal is in this world is open to debate.”— in-game description, Fallout
Animal Friend is a perk in Fallout, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Van Buren.
Contents
Fallout and Van Buren[edit | edit source]
In Fallout, with this perk, some animals will not attack the player character, unless the animal is attacked first. This perk applies to all forms of rats and radscorpions except those in Shady Sands' radscorpion caves. In Van Buren it would have been the same but with some extra purposes like being able to tame Devil Dog more easily.
Notes[edit | edit source]
Coyotes, dogs, brahmin, deathclaws and mantises are not classified as animals for the purposes of this perk.
Fallout 3[edit | edit source]
With the first rank of this perk, animals will simply not attack the player character. With the second rank, these creatures will come to their aid in combat, but never against other animals.
This perk affects:
Additional dialogue[edit | edit source]
A new dialogue option becomes available when speaking to Tree Father Birch in Oasis. He will then explain to the Lone Wanderer why there are many animals in Oasis and how they are attracted to the sanctuary, though this doesn't have any benefits other than a little backstory of Oasis.
Notes[edit | edit source]
Having this perk will provide a significant advantage when going for the Sneak bobblehead in the yao guai tunnels, since the yao guai that inhabit these tunnels will no longer attack.
Fallout: New Vegas[edit | edit source]
With the first rank of this perk, animals will not attack the player character. With the second rank, these creatures will come to the character's aid in combat, but never against other animals.
This perk affects:
Additional dialogue[edit | edit source]
- In The Fort, this perk makes it possible to bypass the fight with Antony's dogs to get back Sergeant Teddy by telling him that animals are friendly to the Courier so the dogs will not attack. He will remark that he thought there was something wrong with his dogs, as they usually have to be pulled off new visitors to the Fort, and since the fight would not be fun, he will just give up the bear.
- During the main quest You'll Know It When It Happens, the search dog can be taken from the ranger, allowing the player to find the disguised engineer.
After Borous has been given Gabe's bowl and told that Gabe has been put down, this perk gives the option to express understanding of his feelings for the cyberdog.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- The perk icon in Fallout is visually different from future games, due to the rabbit having an extra ear, eye, tooth and a webbed foot.
- In Goodsprings, bighorners will attack the locals or Powder Gangers during the quest "Ghost Town Gunfight" or "Run Goodsprings Run" rather than fleeing.
- When attacking any Caesar's Legion members with Legion mongrels, the dogs will turn on their owners.
- Despite being classified as animals for the Animal Control challenge, lakelurks and fire geckos are unaffected by this perk. Conversely, night stalkers are affected by this perk, despite being classified as abominations.
- While the usefulness of this perk did not scale very well in Fallout 3, the presence of highly dangerous night stalkers makes this useful even into very high levels and areas, such as in Old World Blues (especially against Shadis in Big MT) and also against the legendary night stalker inside the Bloodborne cave.
- The picture for the Animal Friend perk is a reference to Harvey.
- Unlike the yao guai in Fallout 3, yao guai in Honest Hearts are not affected by this perk.
- With the 2nd rank of this perk, animals will not come to aid someone who is fighting members of the Dead Horses.
Fallout 4[edit | edit source]
“Commune with beasts! But only if you're successful and aim your gun at the animal in question; you may wish to check the level of your target first in V.A.T.S. with the Awareness perk. The higher ranks allow you to use more interesting commands, allowing you to chance upon, say, a Yao Guai lair and bringing the beast with you to a nearby Raider camp. At Rank 3, the beast acts a little like a dumber pet, with more control over where you can send it, usually into areas to cause a distraction. Animals are beasts that were naturally occurring before the bombs dropped.”— Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide description
Effects[edit | edit source]
| Rank | Requirements | Description | Base ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CH 5 | Commune with beasts! With your gun, aim at any animal below your level and gain a chance to pacify it. | 0001E67F |
| 2 | CH 5, LVL 12 | When you successfully pacify an animal, you can incite it to attack | 0004A0D9 |
| 3 | CH 5, LVL 28 | When you successfully pacify an animal, you can give it specific commands | 001D2450 |
Affecting an animal requires looking down a weapon's sights and pressing the confirm/use button. Success will be indicated with an animation, whereas failure will result in a notification. Once one has made an attempt on an animal, they cannot immediately make a second attempt. One must be within a certain range of the animal to pacify it, while Inciting/Commanding requires an even closer range. This perk affects the following animals (list may not be complete):
Dialogue[edit | edit source]
The Sole Survivor will make species specific comments when pacifying and inciting targets.
| Creature | Pacify | Incite | Command |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brahmin | "Shhh... It's okay, girl." | "Get 'em girl! Attack!" | "That's it, girl." |
| Dog | "Good dog..." | "Sick 'em!" | "There's a good dog." |
| House cat | "Now now... It's okay..." | ||
| Mole rat | "Heeyy... little buddy." | "Go little guy. Kill, kill, kill!" | |
| Mutant hound | "Be calm! Obey!" | "Rip 'em apart!" | "I'm your master now." |
| Radstag | "Great stag! I am friend!" | "You've got this. Attack!" | "Ready, little guy?" |
| Yao guai | "S'okay, big bear." | *Bear Growling* "Attack!" | *Bear Growling* "You ready?" |
Notes[edit | edit source]
- Initial pacification has a flat 40% chance of success, so long as the enemy is a valid target. Inciting/commanding a pacified enemy always succeeds.
- If a pacification attempt fails, another attempt cannot be made on the same enemy for 60 seconds.
- A failed pacification attempt will also trigger a minor alert to nearby enemies, which will put you in Caution state while sneaking and can lead to enemies discovering you.
- Legendary enemies can be pacified.
- Enemies incited by rank 2 of this perk will attack other incited or pacified enemies.
- Sneak bonus damage is applied to attacks on pacified enemies, if applicable.
- Holstering your weapon or leaving and then returning to the area will make all pacified enemies hostile again. This includes using terminals or sitting down.
- Incited enemies will remain incited after holstering, but will still revert to being hostile if one leaves the area and then returns.
- Using the perk on brahmin and other animals owned by NPCs will turn them hostile.
- Insect creatures such as bloatflies, stingwings and radscorpions are not affected by this perk, instead requiring the Wasteland Whisperer perk.
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
This perk was implemented into Fallout 4 by level designer Justin Schram.[1]
Fallout 76[edit | edit source]
“Commune with beasts.”
| Rank | Description | Base ID |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aim down your gun at an animal to gain a 25% chance to pacify it. | 003A4A52 |
| 2 | Aim down your gun at an animal to gain a 50% chance to pacify it. | 003A4A53 |
| 3 | Aim down your gun at an animal to gain a 75% chance to pacify it. Chance to tame animals and send them to your camp if Charisma is high enough. |
003A4A54 |
This perk affects the following animals:
Creature taming[edit | edit source]
Main article: Creature taming
At rank 3 of this perk, one may have a rare chance to tame an animal instead of pacifying it. Higher levels of Charisma improve the chance of successfully taming an animal. After an animal has been tamed, it will walk to the player character's camp and will from then on guard the camp. Only one tamed animal may be kept at camp at a time, and tamed animals do not respawn.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 4:30)
Justin Schram: "For Fallout 4, I actually developed three of the perks...the hold-up system. So, Animal Friend, Intimidation, and Wasteland Whisperer were these perks where you could get an enemy to not fight, you could essentially pacify them. I was trying to make a non-combat sort of play style."
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