Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (2024)

Highlights

  • Romance is essential in Fallout 4 for affinity bonuses, with plenty of options beyond companions like Gilda Broscoe and Magnolia.
  • Hanco*ck, Cait, and Piper offer interesting companionship with varying perks, but MacCready and Curie bring the most utility with their perks.
  • Preston's United We Stand perk can be useful in group battles, while Danse's Know Your Enemy perk is great against common enemies like Ghouls and Synths.

In today’s RPG landscape, romance is almost a required inclusion in any companion system. At some point, you will need to foster a relationship with your companions in order to reap the best rewards from them. The Commonwealth of Fallout 4 is no exception to this rule. The world may have ended, but people are still looking for love.

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The Fallout 4 romance options aren’t limited to your companions in this game, but you do have plenty of options among them. Including some outliers, here are the romance options you’ll find after leaving Vault 111. We’ve gone ahead and ranked them for you, specifically by how useful their affinity bonuses can be. We've also offered a few thoughts on the quality of the characters themselves.

Updated April 29, 2024 by Quinton O'Connor: We have added additional context for each of Fallout 4's companion perks. As much as we've loved talking about the companions themselves, we realized, hey, you might want more info on the primary subject of our article!

10 Gilda Broscoe

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (2)

Kicking this list off is a romance option that is not with a companion at all.

Gilda Broscoe was once a beautiful and famous actress before the Great War. Before the bombs dropped, Gilda paid for a place in the ultra-exclusive Vault 118 along with her love, Keith McKinney.

The two became subjects in the Robobrain experiments, which led to their appearance in Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC as robots.

During the quest Brain Dead, the player will encounter Gilda and can eventually flirt with her. If successful repeatedly, the player is able to take Gilda on a date which will result in the temporary perk Lover’s Embrace, which can typically only be obtained from sleeping in a bed with a romanced companion.

Temporary Perk

Description

Lover's Embrace

15 percent additional experience for eight in-game hours

Flirting with, and even dating, Gilda Broscoe will not anger any of your companions. Yay, we guess?

9 Magnolia

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (3)

Like Gilda Broscoe, Magnolia is not a companion. Also, like Gilda Broscoe, romancing Magnolia will grant you the Lover’s Embrace temporary perk.

Unlike Gilda Broscoe, Magnolia is a synth, meaning she very much looks human. You encounter Magnolia in the town of Goodneighbor where she performs as a singer in The Third Rail.

Since Magnolia isn’t a companion, there aren’t many opportunities to build a relationship with her. If the player wants to romance her, they will have to pass a few Charisma checks based on her limited interactions at the bar.

She’s definitely a step up from Gilda, but the lack of commitment keeps her below the companions on this list.

Temporary Perk

Description

Lover's Embrace

15 percent additional experience for eight in-game hours

Magnolia's voice actress is none other than Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame!

8 Hanco*ck

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (4)

Speaking of Goodneighbor, the town’s ghoul mayor who you can recruit is another potential partner for romantic involvement.

John Hanco*ck is an odd sort who enjoys when you use chems, and when you act violently or generously. As with other companions, these actions are derived from his own nature.

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Hanco*ck is a fantastic companion for flavor. He’s an extremely aggressive ghoul with a perpetual chip on his shoulder and a heart of gold hidden deep down. Nevertheless, his companion perk doesn’t stack up with others, making an investment of time better spent elsewhere.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Isodoped

20 percent faster Critical Hate rate if the player has at least 250 rads

'Isodoped' won't come up in Merriam-Webster - it's a portmanteau of 'isotope' and 'doped'.

7 Cait

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (6)

Hanco*ck isn’t the only chem-chugging companion available for romance. Cait is a former slave and cage fighter with a very upsetting background. She appreciates anything criminal, drinking hard liquor, and using chems.

Over time, bonding with her, some of Cait’s likes and dislikes take a pretty radical turn as she comes to terms with certain aspects of her history.

Cait’s certainly an enjoyable companion, but maxing affinity with her needs a payoff, and her companion perk isn’t the best. It beats Hanco*ck's, but there's not a lot of breathing room.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Trigger Rush

Action Points regenerate 25 percent faster when the player’s health is 25 percent or below.

After completing Cait's companion quest, 'Benign Intervention', she'll no longer approve when she sees player characters using chems and stims. Just an FYI!

6 Piper

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (7)

Moving on from chems, Piper is a reporter living in Diamond City with her sister Nat. The two publish a newspaper known as Publick Occurrences, which has a tendency to land Piper in trouble with Mayor McDonough and others. As a result, she is frequently threatened.

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Piper really appreciates a mixture of the things the two previous companions do. She enjoys helping the innocent and lockpicking, but does not support stealing, lying, or feeding certain characters chems.

In reaching maximum affinity with Piper, you obtain the Gift of Gab perk. The earlier you get it, the better, as it allows you to accumulate a lot of extra experience points.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Gift of Gab

Bonus experience for successful Persuasion checks and the discovery of new locations.

5 MacCready

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (9)

Robert MacCready is a mercenary who you'll first encounter in the Capitol Wasteland of Fallout 3. He is a fantastic sniper who occasionally offers you ammo when being used as a traveling companion.

MacCready enjoys asking for money on quests and most criminal activity. Given his affiliation with Goodneighbor, he does not condone any actions that cause hostilities there.

MacCready’s companion perk is immensely useful. Using this perk wisely can make you a much more effective sniper, and it doesn’t have a limited window of use like Gift of Gab.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Killshot

Gives the player 20 percent increased chance of scoring headshots when using VATS.

4 Curie

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (10)

Just when you thought you were done with robots, there's Curie. This optional companion can be recruited as a Nanny Bot if you access Vault 81 and retrieve the cure from her.

Curie appreciates a wide berth of kindnesses, and will eventually seek to be transferred into a synth body, which is how romance becomes an option.

For reaching a relationship with Curie, you'll be granted the Combat Medic perk. This is understandably powerful and is definitely worth building a relationship with Curie for.

Suddenly, you have what essentially amounts to double the health to endure Fallout 4's hardest fights.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Combat Medic

Heals the player to maximum health once they fall below ten percent. (Once per day.)

3 Porter Gage

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (11)

Porter Gage is introduced in Fallout 4's Nuka-World DLC. He's a hardened raider who persuades the Sole Survivor to take on the role of the Overboss and bring glory back to the raiders of Nuka Town.

Porter's a strong companion in combat and prefers to use his handmade rifle to take down enemies. To find him, head to the Fizztop Grille.

Given that he's one of the last companions to be added to the game, he's also among the toughest. Like a good raider, he'll appreciate similarly violent and harsh views on life.

Due to being betrayed in the past, it will take a while for him to warm up to a romance. His affinity perk is a fantastic one to unlock, since it's so general that it applies to almost any character build.

The five percent experience boost (obviously) isn't as good as the 15 percent from other companions, but it's permanent. The +10 Damage Resistance is excellent to boot.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Lessons in Blood

Gives the player five percent more experience per kill and +10 Damage Resistance.

2 Preston

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (12)

Oh, Preston Garvey. If you have played even two hours of Fallout 4, you’re likely surprised to see Preston this high on the list. Just know that it’s certainly a bittersweet placement.

Preston is the leader, and sole remaining member, of the Minutemen. He offers plenty of insight early in the game and introduces you to the settlement system. He's also, er, let's be nice and call his constant reaching-out to the player... "tenacious."

What really helps Preston is that his companion perk is very useful. Given that enemies in the Commonwealth tend to attack in groups, there’s plenty of value here. 20 percent more damage means foes drop 20 percent faster, and the Damage Resistance is never a bad thing.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

United We Stand

Increases damage dealt by 20 percent, and +20 Damage Resistance, when battling against three or more enemies at once.

1 Paladin Danse

Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (13)

Danse is a companion who isn’t accessible until relatively late in the game. Initially, he is only intermittently involved with you until certain events occur that cause him to question the nature of his existence. Until that point, Danse is the commander for Recon Squad Gladius.

Danse has some interesting story elements which make building affinity with him a relatively enjoyable experience. The biggest downside to this relationship is that Danse is very supportive of the Brotherhood of Steel.

If you aren’t planning to join this faction, you might want to consider a different option. If you do build a relationship with Danse, you will unlock his companion perk, which offers bonus damage against Ghouls, Synths, and Super Mutants — three of the most common enemies you encounter.

Maximum Affinity Perk

Description

Know Your Enemy

20 percent bonus damage against Ghouls, Synths, and Super Mutants.

So, why do we rank Danse's 'Know Your Enemy' perk over Preston's own perk? Preston's +20 bonus damage is more situational; you need to be up against three foes at once. Plenty of Fallout 4's niftier builds would benefit greatly from you avoiding such sizable encounters when possible!

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Fallout 4: Every Romance Option, Ranked (2024)

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