Can Love Bloom in the Wasteland? – How Romancing Works

As you wander the wastelands of the Commonwealth, you’ll start to find various AI-controlled companions who can join you on your journey. They initially serve as combat and quest support, but you can eventually decide to start a romantic relationship with them. While this may sound like a useless feature at first, being in a romantic relationship can reward you unique benefits and narrative details. So here’s a guide on how to properly romance your companion and what you need to do to take things to the next level!

Step 1: Doing Things They Like

First off, to enter a romantic relationship with your companion, you need to cater your actions and decisions to your companion’s unique preferences. By doing so, you’ll steadily increase their affinity towards you. But depending on the companion, these preferences can vary. For instance, one companion could admire generosity to others, taking chems, and eating human flesh, while another could dislike all of those qualities. Either way, the game will tell you when a companion liked something you’ve done. To check how your companion feels about you, talk to them and choose the relationship option.

Step 2: Flirt Until Romance Triggers

As you increase your companion’s affinity towards you, they’ll begin to share details about their background and how their feeling. And once it reaches a certain level, you’ll open up the ability to flirt with them to help you get on their good side. Successful attempts at flirting and consistency in exhibiting desirable behavior will eventually max out their affinity towards you and unlock the option to initiate a romantic relationship. But keep in mind that like all dialogue challenges, the flirt and romance options both require a charisma check, so make sure to stat accordingly or wear clothes that boost charisma. Also, don’t be discouraged if your companion isn’t willing to be with you after initiating a successful romance check. If it happens, keep up their desired behavior and keep asking them to be with you until they accept you.

Step 3: Reap the Benefits of a Committed Relationship

Once you’ve maxed out your companion’s affinity and have entered a romantic relationship with them, you unlock their unique perk, which grants you a specific stat bonus, and a special bonus perk called “Lover’s Embrace,” which earns you +15 percent XP for a limited time. To activate it, sleep in a bed or mattress when your companion is nearby. Additionally, you can keep checking up on them for new dialogue exchanges.

With those details out of the way, check out the following slides with each companion’s specific likes and dislikes.

Important Notes:

• It’s still possible to unlock a companion’s unique perk without entering a romantic relationship with them.
• You cannot romance the following companions: Codsworth, Nick Valentine, X6-88, Strong, Dogmeat, and Deacon.
• It’s possible to have same sex relationships with each of the companions listed in this gallery.
• Any behaviors or actions not listed in likes and dislikes section of each companion’s respective slides are fair game.

Piper

Description: Piper is a wasteland journalist that admires kindness and assertiveness, but isn’t against breaking the rules as long as it’s for a reasonable cause. She isn’t a fan of pushovers and reckless moral behavior.

Likes:

• Generous decisions
• Mean decisions
• Donating items
• Heal Dogmeat
• Picklocking

Dislikes:

• Selfish decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Violent decisions
• Eating corpses
• Murdering non-hostiles
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Stealing

Cait

Description: Cait an Irish pit-fighter and Chem addict who has only known a life looking out for herself. Forced to survive in the lower edge of society, she appreciates violence, debauchery, and breaking into places she doesn’t belong. But having known pain in her past, Cait doesn’t take kindly to cruelty and killing people who don’t deserve it.

Likes:

• Selfish decisions
• Violent decisions
• Drink alcohol
• Heal Dogmeat
• Picklocking
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Walk around naked
• Chem Use*
• Chem Addiction*

Dislikes:

• Generous decisions
• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Eating Corpses
• Murdering Non-hostiles
• Donating Items*

* Important Note: After completing Cait’s “Benign Intervention” quest line, she dislikes Chem use/addiction and admires it when you give people items.)

Preston Garvey

How to Increase Affinity: Preston Garvey is committed to starting up a new community across the Commonwealth and strengthening his rag-tag militia, known as the Minutemen. He appreciates kindness and reasonable behavior as long as it’s in line with his goals, but has no tolerance for those who mirror the behavior of raiders or other questionable individuals.

Likes:

• Generous decisions
• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Donating items
• Modifying weapons
• Building more settlements

Dislikes:

• Selfish decisions
• Violent decisions
• Chem addiction
• Eating corpses
• Murdering non-hostiles
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Stealing
• Pickpocketing

John Hancock

Description: Hancock is the eccentric mayor of Goodneighbor who won’t hesitate to stab a man if it means preserving the ideals he’s set up for his community. Despite this, he admires people who are kind and charitable and is heavily against those who are cruel, murderous, and are only out for themselves.

Likes:

• Generous decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Violent decisions
• Chem use
• Donating items

Dislikes:

• Selfish decisions
• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Murdering non-hostiles
• Stealing
• Walk around naked

Paladin Danse

How to Increase Affinity: As a Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel, Danse is generally a kind person who holds strong beliefs in support of his faction. He doesn’t like people who engage in cruel and questionable behavior, and he isn’t a fan of those who easily compromise during tense situations.

Likes:

• Nice decisions
• Violent decisions
• Entering Power Armor
• Enter Vertibird
• Modifying Power Armor
• Modifying weapons
• Picklocking
• Completing Brotherhood of Steel missions

Dislikes:

• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Chem use
• Eating corpses
• Murdering non-hostiles
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Stealing
• Pickpocketing

MacCready

How to Increase Affinity: Fallout 3 fans will recognize MacCready as young child mayor of Lamplight. However, he’s all grown up and is now acting as a mercenary in the Boston wasteland. Given his new career path, he opts towards settling disputes in the most realistic and efficient way possible, even if that means getting violent in the process. As a result, he has no patience for pushovers and reckless drug users.

Likes:

• Violent decisions
• Chem use
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Successful bartering
• Stealing

Dislikes:

• Nice decisions
• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Chem addiction
• Donating items
• Murdering non-hostiles

Curie

How to Increase Affinity: Curie is a Mrs. Handy robot with a french accent who works as an independent researcher. She’s fond of kindness and the occasional assertiveness, granted it’s well-placed (and if it’s in the name of scientific advancement). However, she cannot stand bad behavior and immoral activity.

Likes:

• Nice decisions
• Mean decisions
• Peaceful decisions
• Donating item
• Heal Dogmeat

Dislikes:

• Selfish decisions
• Chem addiction
• Murdering non-hostiles
• Picklocking (Owned)
• Stealing
• Pickpocketing