Yuri_Yslin
First time out of the vault
... or didn't care about. 
As a kid I always loved getting a full party in Fallout 2 and just watching the team kick ass!
Being the nerd I am, I also calculated their efficiency
Here's a bunch of useless trivia which may be actually new to you, since not many people care:
- in Fallout2's original release (1.00) and IIRC in the first patch (1.01), it was actually possible to get & keep 7 party members. That's because both Goris and K9 would join above the party limit in their initial conversations. You could not kick anyone out after that, so it was a bit difficult to manage, obviously (you must've become Captain of the Guard in Vault City before getting Goris&K9, for instance, or never go there again since dropping Marcus would mean not being able to re-recruit him).
- After sfall fixed the bug Fallout 2 was shipped with (making NPCs unable to reach level 6), there are four NPCs you may have not seen at their full potential: Sulik, Vic, Goris and Dogmeat. Sulik is especially fun at Stage 6, because he reaches 46% critical chance as oposed to 34% you probably remember from your playthroughs. Vic also gets a major upgrade, getting 12 APs, thus being able to shoot the Alien Blaster thrice per round without drugs.
- If you set the tactics to "Charge!", an NPC with a burst-capable weapon will actually move right in front of his target and empty the clip in his face. Which leads to some hilarious results with a Sulik equipped with an SMG... many instakills have been observed This is the best way to use burst weapons on NPCs as they will not only score way more damage (point blank, all bullets hit the intended target - with distance, there's an actual cone of bullets, so after a few hexes a lot of bullets will miss by default!), but also is way more safe as NPCs will no longer kill each other with burst weapons.
- The best weapons for <10 AP NPCs aren't shotguns or sniper rifles (early on) as most guides seem to suggest, it's the .44 Magnum and Red Ryder LE BB gun. That's because shooting twice > shooting once, and the only 4AP single shot weapons worth a damn are those two. Cassidy needs to reach his last level to get 10 AP, so you'll want him to carry that Magnum/Red Ryder LE a long time. It's probably better to get Vic something with an accuracy bonus early on, however, as hitting the target once is better than missing twice, and he's a terrible shot on his lower levels. You could also try Charge! with something like a FN FAL for Cassidy, but he doesn't have much APs so he won't be as good as Sulik with burst weaponry.
- The most AP an NPC can get is 20 (!). It takes a Stage 6 Sulik (13 AP) drugged with Psycho for Agility boost (+3 AP) and two doses of Jet (+4 AP). You can get him to single shoot an HK P90C 5 times per round that way, although it's better to just let him run around on Charge! and burstfire peeps in the face. With 46% cc, he's bound to score a ton of armor piercing criticals and kill a LOT of enemies.
You could get more with cookies (+1 AP each), but they aren't limitless. There's like 2 or 3 in the entire game.
- NPCs vary in their aggressiveness. For instance, if set to "On your own", Sulik or Cassidy will move to the next room to attack enemies there, Vic won't.
- A rather major problem with Marcus and Goris is their lack of "Stay close to me" tactical option, making them actively pursue enemies no matter what. This is a massive problem in Navarro or Enclave, where they will separate themselves from your pack and get themselves overwhelmed entering a room full of Enclave goons armed with deadly weapons. There is a "fix" of sorts, editing the PARTY.TXT to enable "stay close to me" option, but that is obviously not intended by devs thus can be seen as a hack/cheat.
- [RP Only] the Mutant Armor you can buy for Marcus in the Abbey will lose the bonuses it grants if Marcus levels up. So you may want to buy it for him once he reaches his stage 5.
- in Navarro, most enemies at base have energy weapons + the turrets have plasma weaponry. To get the maximum survivabiliy for armor-capable NPCs, you may want to use Tesla Armor+Psycho instead of Power Armor.
- the most average damage per round an NPC can cause (theoretically) against an Enclave Trooper in APA is 948. The record belongs to Marcus set to "Charge!" wielding a Vindicator minigun, although it's highly unlikely to happen, as he'd need to be Stage5, drugged (for 18 AP) and somewhat starting the round right next to three enemies with sfall's tweak of "critters try to spend leftover APs" on.
- the above is obviously not very useful because average damage for burst weaponry consists of both unimpressive regular hits and overkill armor piercing criticals. Thus, the best weapon for Marcus is actually Bozar, as it averages at 146 non-critical damage per burst against APA, vs. Vindicator Minigun's 136 or Avenger Minigun's 36. It also uses up less ammo per burst and runs on easily accessible ammunition, compared to 4.7mm caseless.
- The most damage per round against Enclave Troopers for single shot belongs to drugged Sulik with a Mega Power Fist (174 damage per round), although it's highly unlikely to happen since he needs to move in front of the enemy, wasting some APs on running.
- The most damage per round against Enclave Troopers for single shot ranged weapons is done by drugged Cassidy (RP only as you need heart pills to drug him up, and those only work in a mod) with 145 damage per round with 3 shots of a Gauss Rifle.
- against Advanced Power Armor, single shot NPCs at their max levels fare similarly in damage per round with their best possible weapon to use:
- Goris and K9 aren't fully unarmed, they actually weild weapons that give them "penetrate" perk (divides the DT of the target by 5). With Goris, it was hard for me to establish whether he uses 00000371.pro (Dclaw Melee weapon 1) or 00000372.pro (Dclaw Melee Weapon 2). The former does 3-4 damage, the latter does 5-10. It is assumed he uses the latter (that's the values I used for the calculations above), but I am not sure on that one. Maybe some can check his script to see what weapon he spawns exactly.
- Sulik is IMO the best NPC to have, because of his absurd burst damage potential with an SMG that makes him regularly score instant kills, pretty much from the very get-go as his enemies aren't that strong early on which mitigates his lower critical chance. He also has good tactics selection, and can drug up & use super stims on the field, finally he has the most HP of armor-capable companions, peaking at 146 at stage 6. He's also , somewhat ironically, way better than Goris at melee combat when equipped with Mega Power Fist.
- The second best NPC is Cassidy, although he will not be that useful if you follow Per's guide and suggested weapon progression from there. Do not give him Hunting/Sniper Rifles or Shotguns. He's an excellent shot and will often hit twice per round with the Magnum/Red Ryder LE, which is obviously better than hitting the target once with a sniper rifle. At 36% critical chance and with a gauss rifle, he is pretty darn useful and has a broad selection of tactics as well. RP gives you the ability to drug him up for an extra shot with the Gauss Rifle. Ouch.
- The third best is IMO Vic, but it takes a while for him to become acurate. At stage 6, which you've probably never seen, he has 12 AP, so he can shoot the Alien Blaster 3 times per round, 4 if drugged. That's plenty of damage. The only problem with him is that he's less aggressive than the two above, no matter what tactics you've picked for him. And he runs slower, so you have to wait for him at some maps.
- Marcus is arguably no.4. He really makes the game easier when picked for New Reno clearing (drugged, he can shoot the Turbo Plasma Rifle three times per round right from the scratch, which is a major contribution to those Mordino-Bishop family fights). Later on, with a Bozar and set to Charge!, he will likely instakill a lot of critters on the battlefield. He's not that great for Enclave/Navarro because he will get himself killed due to lack of combat options leading him to stupid behavior like charging into a room full of goons and getting blown to pieces. It is somewhat awkward to me since he's highly intelligent, if anything I'd expect Sulik not to have "Stay close to me" setting, not Marcus, but oh well. He's also frustratingly slow.
- The fifth position is a coin toss between Goris and Brain Bot (Skynet). I prefer Skynet, because he starts with 10 AP and 20% critical chance, so he's pretty darn useful right away (can use the .223 pistol early on and shoot twice with it, Gauss Rifle later). He doesn't waste APs for walking up to enemies to deal damage, he's not locked into Charge! getting himself quickly murdered in enclave, and he can self-repair after combat to full HP. However, there are some obvious problems with Skynet - first, you need 126% science to get the cybernetic brain, which is a b*tch to get at level 10 where you'd want him in your team (as he starts leveling up at level 10). And he's fairly fragile, his innate armor is metal-armor tier at best, though he does have the most HP out of all party members. Both Goris and Brain Bot cannot use Stims, which is a major bummer. Skynet also cannot get drugged. You may not care for that one much but in an Iron Man setting, being able to get an NPC to 90% physical resistance with a dose of Psycho is really helpful, as it will make non-armor piercing attacks do nearly no damage, and you can't have that with Skynet. Skynet is also very slow.
Goris is notoriously bad at Enclave (will charge against clusters of enemies in different rooms and get blown to pieces) nad Navarro (murdered by turrets). However, he does not need 126% science to get, he's fast and he doesn't waste ammo. You can also drug him up to 19 AP, which gives him six attacks per round, but he's a melee fighter, so lots of those APs will be wasted for moving around.
- it could be argued whether getting 8 CH (10 with Mentats) is worth it or not. I'd say it is for Gifted trait users. You'll likely have to reduce your IN by 2 to get 8 CH, but what's better, 4 extra skill points per level up, or, say, a robot doing two shots with Gauss Rifle per round with 25% critical chance?
- It is possible to beat Horrigan, the turrets AND Granite's squad at the same time and not lose any NPCs in the fight, I've done that before in an Iron Man setting. But you have to kill the turrets ASAP and be lucky somewhat, their armor piercing criticals will often do catastrophic damage to NPCs. Once the turrets are gone, your chances are way higher. If Frank Horrigan starts burst-shooting against Brain Bot or Goris (assuming you brought him to the Enclave and he didn't die along the way, which is easier said that done), you may lose it/him, though. They both can't use Super Stimpacks, so they go down quickly under focus fire. It's arguably a better idea not to bring Marcus or Goris into the Enclave in the first place, though, as it's nearly impossible not to have them killed without saveloading a lot.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
As a kid I always loved getting a full party in Fallout 2 and just watching the team kick ass!
Being the nerd I am, I also calculated their efficiency
Here's a bunch of useless trivia which may be actually new to you, since not many people care:
- in Fallout2's original release (1.00) and IIRC in the first patch (1.01), it was actually possible to get & keep 7 party members. That's because both Goris and K9 would join above the party limit in their initial conversations. You could not kick anyone out after that, so it was a bit difficult to manage, obviously (you must've become Captain of the Guard in Vault City before getting Goris&K9, for instance, or never go there again since dropping Marcus would mean not being able to re-recruit him).
- After sfall fixed the bug Fallout 2 was shipped with (making NPCs unable to reach level 6), there are four NPCs you may have not seen at their full potential: Sulik, Vic, Goris and Dogmeat. Sulik is especially fun at Stage 6, because he reaches 46% critical chance as oposed to 34% you probably remember from your playthroughs. Vic also gets a major upgrade, getting 12 APs, thus being able to shoot the Alien Blaster thrice per round without drugs.
- If you set the tactics to "Charge!", an NPC with a burst-capable weapon will actually move right in front of his target and empty the clip in his face. Which leads to some hilarious results with a Sulik equipped with an SMG... many instakills have been observed
This is the best way to use burst weapons on NPCs as they will not only score way more damage (point blank, all bullets hit the intended target - with distance, there's an actual cone of bullets, so after a few hexes a lot of bullets will miss by default!), but also is way more safe as NPCs will no longer kill each other with burst weapons.- The best weapons for <10 AP NPCs aren't shotguns or sniper rifles (early on) as most guides seem to suggest, it's the .44 Magnum and Red Ryder LE BB gun. That's because shooting twice > shooting once, and the only 4AP single shot weapons worth a damn are those two. Cassidy needs to reach his last level to get 10 AP, so you'll want him to carry that Magnum/Red Ryder LE a long time. It's probably better to get Vic something with an accuracy bonus early on, however, as hitting the target once is better than missing twice, and he's a terrible shot on his lower levels. You could also try Charge! with something like a FN FAL for Cassidy, but he doesn't have much APs so he won't be as good as Sulik with burst weaponry.
- The most AP an NPC can get is 20 (!). It takes a Stage 6 Sulik (13 AP) drugged with Psycho for Agility boost (+3 AP) and two doses of Jet (+4 AP). You can get him to single shoot an HK P90C 5 times per round that way, although it's better to just let him run around on Charge! and burstfire peeps in the face. With 46% cc, he's bound to score a ton of armor piercing criticals and kill a LOT of enemies.
You could get more with cookies (+1 AP each), but they aren't limitless. There's like 2 or 3 in the entire game.
- NPCs vary in their aggressiveness. For instance, if set to "On your own", Sulik or Cassidy will move to the next room to attack enemies there, Vic won't.
- A rather major problem with Marcus and Goris is their lack of "Stay close to me" tactical option, making them actively pursue enemies no matter what. This is a massive problem in Navarro or Enclave, where they will separate themselves from your pack and get themselves overwhelmed entering a room full of Enclave goons armed with deadly weapons. There is a "fix" of sorts, editing the PARTY.TXT to enable "stay close to me" option, but that is obviously not intended by devs thus can be seen as a hack/cheat.
- [RP Only] the Mutant Armor you can buy for Marcus in the Abbey will lose the bonuses it grants if Marcus levels up. So you may want to buy it for him once he reaches his stage 5.
- in Navarro, most enemies at base have energy weapons + the turrets have plasma weaponry. To get the maximum survivabiliy for armor-capable NPCs, you may want to use Tesla Armor+Psycho instead of Power Armor.
- the most average damage per round an NPC can cause (theoretically) against an Enclave Trooper in APA is 948. The record belongs to Marcus set to "Charge!" wielding a Vindicator minigun, although it's highly unlikely to happen, as he'd need to be Stage5, drugged (for 18 AP) and somewhat starting the round right next to three enemies with sfall's tweak of "critters try to spend leftover APs" on.
- the above is obviously not very useful because average damage for burst weaponry consists of both unimpressive regular hits and overkill armor piercing criticals. Thus, the best weapon for Marcus is actually Bozar, as it averages at 146 non-critical damage per burst against APA, vs. Vindicator Minigun's 136 or Avenger Minigun's 36. It also uses up less ammo per burst and runs on easily accessible ammunition, compared to 4.7mm caseless.
- The most damage per round against Enclave Troopers for single shot belongs to drugged Sulik with a Mega Power Fist (174 damage per round), although it's highly unlikely to happen since he needs to move in front of the enemy, wasting some APs on running.
- The most damage per round against Enclave Troopers for single shot ranged weapons is done by drugged Cassidy (RP only as you need heart pills to drug him up, and those only work in a mod) with 145 damage per round with 3 shots of a Gauss Rifle.
- against Advanced Power Armor, single shot NPCs at their max levels fare similarly in damage per round with their best possible weapon to use:
- Goris and K9 aren't fully unarmed, they actually weild weapons that give them "penetrate" perk (divides the DT of the target by 5). With Goris, it was hard for me to establish whether he uses 00000371.pro (Dclaw Melee weapon 1) or 00000372.pro (Dclaw Melee Weapon 2). The former does 3-4 damage, the latter does 5-10. It is assumed he uses the latter (that's the values I used for the calculations above), but I am not sure on that one. Maybe some can check his script to see what weapon he spawns exactly.
- Sulik is IMO the best NPC to have, because of his absurd burst damage potential with an SMG that makes him regularly score instant kills, pretty much from the very get-go as his enemies aren't that strong early on which mitigates his lower critical chance. He also has good tactics selection, and can drug up & use super stims on the field, finally he has the most HP of armor-capable companions, peaking at 146 at stage 6. He's also , somewhat ironically, way better than Goris at melee combat when equipped with Mega Power Fist.
- The second best NPC is Cassidy, although he will not be that useful if you follow Per's guide and suggested weapon progression from there. Do not give him Hunting/Sniper Rifles or Shotguns. He's an excellent shot and will often hit twice per round with the Magnum/Red Ryder LE, which is obviously better than hitting the target once with a sniper rifle. At 36% critical chance and with a gauss rifle, he is pretty darn useful and has a broad selection of tactics as well. RP gives you the ability to drug him up for an extra shot with the Gauss Rifle. Ouch.
- The third best is IMO Vic, but it takes a while for him to become acurate. At stage 6, which you've probably never seen, he has 12 AP, so he can shoot the Alien Blaster 3 times per round, 4 if drugged. That's plenty of damage. The only problem with him is that he's less aggressive than the two above, no matter what tactics you've picked for him. And he runs slower, so you have to wait for him at some maps.
- Marcus is arguably no.4. He really makes the game easier when picked for New Reno clearing (drugged, he can shoot the Turbo Plasma Rifle three times per round right from the scratch, which is a major contribution to those Mordino-Bishop family fights). Later on, with a Bozar and set to Charge!, he will likely instakill a lot of critters on the battlefield. He's not that great for Enclave/Navarro because he will get himself killed due to lack of combat options leading him to stupid behavior like charging into a room full of goons and getting blown to pieces. It is somewhat awkward to me since he's highly intelligent, if anything I'd expect Sulik not to have "Stay close to me" setting, not Marcus, but oh well. He's also frustratingly slow.
- The fifth position is a coin toss between Goris and Brain Bot (Skynet). I prefer Skynet, because he starts with 10 AP and 20% critical chance, so he's pretty darn useful right away (can use the .223 pistol early on and shoot twice with it, Gauss Rifle later). He doesn't waste APs for walking up to enemies to deal damage, he's not locked into Charge! getting himself quickly murdered in enclave, and he can self-repair after combat to full HP. However, there are some obvious problems with Skynet - first, you need 126% science to get the cybernetic brain, which is a b*tch to get at level 10 where you'd want him in your team (as he starts leveling up at level 10). And he's fairly fragile, his innate armor is metal-armor tier at best, though he does have the most HP out of all party members. Both Goris and Brain Bot cannot use Stims, which is a major bummer. Skynet also cannot get drugged. You may not care for that one much but in an Iron Man setting, being able to get an NPC to 90% physical resistance with a dose of Psycho is really helpful, as it will make non-armor piercing attacks do nearly no damage, and you can't have that with Skynet. Skynet is also very slow.
Goris is notoriously bad at Enclave (will charge against clusters of enemies in different rooms and get blown to pieces) nad Navarro (murdered by turrets). However, he does not need 126% science to get, he's fast and he doesn't waste ammo. You can also drug him up to 19 AP, which gives him six attacks per round, but he's a melee fighter, so lots of those APs will be wasted for moving around.
- it could be argued whether getting 8 CH (10 with Mentats) is worth it or not. I'd say it is for Gifted trait users. You'll likely have to reduce your IN by 2 to get 8 CH, but what's better, 4 extra skill points per level up, or, say, a robot doing two shots with Gauss Rifle per round with 25% critical chance?
- It is possible to beat Horrigan, the turrets AND Granite's squad at the same time and not lose any NPCs in the fight, I've done that before in an Iron Man setting. But you have to kill the turrets ASAP and be lucky somewhat, their armor piercing criticals will often do catastrophic damage to NPCs. Once the turrets are gone, your chances are way higher. If Frank Horrigan starts burst-shooting against Brain Bot or Goris (assuming you brought him to the Enclave and he didn't die along the way, which is easier said that done), you may lose it/him, though. They both can't use Super Stimpacks, so they go down quickly under focus fire. It's arguably a better idea not to bring Marcus or Goris into the Enclave in the first place, though, as it's nearly impossible not to have them killed without saveloading a lot.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
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