Wasteland 3 Companions Guide (& Which Are The Best)

Wasteland 3, the new frozen Colorado-based apocalyptic game has eight different companions that players can choose from to bundle up alongside. Companions are a hefty aspect to a player’s survival in this game, so choose wisely. Not only do the companions affect survival and access to certain materials, but they can even impact the story’s outcome.

The eight companions are of various backgrounds, genders, play styles, and personalities. Each one can be found along the way of a playthrough or specifically hunted down to join the player’s party. Either way, the players can only bring a couple with them, so which ones will they be?

Wasteland 3’s Best Companions and How to Find Them

Before diving directly into picking a companion, players may need to ask themselves some questions. What are they looking for in a companion? What type of playstyle do they want their companion to have? What skills should their companion be focused on based on the skills they have chosen for their character. With these in mind, let’s look at the options.

Fishlips

Fishlips is the rough and tumble leader of the Hard-Heads gang. As a cannibal with a facial tattoo and a knowledge for chopping people up, he isn’t the kindest companion players will likely meet. Fishlips is incredibly defensive of his gang’s territory, so to access him as a companion, just head on over to Union Station. To earn his respect a player will need to beat him in a fight, otherwise, he’ll kill and eat the player for being weak. Due to his hostility and viewpoints, there is a lot of reasons players may not be interested in recruiting Fishlips.

However, if the player isn’t too worried about him turning on the player and eating them, Fishlips is a great companion for players who want someone in the front to battle it out in melee for them while they hang back. His top two attributes are strength and speed and has the unique scrapper background. He is heavily skilled in melee combat, armor modding, and toaster repair. Not sure how useful toaster repair will be here, but who knows?

Ironclad Cordite

Cordite is a former gang leader with the dreams and aspirations of becoming a king. As the head of the Scar Collectors, Cordite learned of 12 trials to set him on his way to uniting the warring tribes in the eastern wastes and becoming a king. From his days in the Scar Collectors, Cordite has several body modifications that make him a cyborg. With this in mind, players may enjoy the dreamer or be worried about how skewed his perspective might be.

Ironclad has points in the Brawling, Leadership, Explosives, and Mechanics skills. He also has high attributes in luck, speed, intelligence, and charisma. He is a natural leader and would work well as a companion to someone who can be upfront and taking hits while Cordite calls the shots. Players can find Cordite in the Old Survivalist Bunker after completing the Bizarre quests.

Jodie Bell

Jodie is a young designated driver for the Desert Rangers. Originally from Arizona, the cold beauty of Colorado is new to her. Players can save Jodie in the quest Welcome to Colorado by persuading the Dorsey stalker than has taken her hostage. Jodie makes for a softer character to join the player with a love for cars.

Jodie has points in Sniper Rifles, Mechanics, Animal Whisperer, and First Aid. She also has high attributes in awareness, coordination, and intelligence. She’s great for someone who needs a player that can stay back and take the precise shots for a melee fighter. Jodie can be recruited after the Peterson Air Force Base is restored.

Lucia Wesson

Lucia is part of the Hundred Families, a faction that is the ruling class of Colorado Springs. Known as the best shot in Colorado Springs despite never having fought in anything. Due to living such a sheltered life, she is well-mannered but idealistic and naïve.

She has the Small Arms, Weapon Modding, Barter, and Survival skills. As well as high points in the awareness, speed, and intelligence attributes. She is meant to be more of a ranged character but could be specced differently for a closer gunslinger type. Lucia is one of the companions available to the player earlier on in their game. She will ask to join the player as early on as in Downtown Colorado Springs as soon as the player accepts the Cornered Rats quest.

Marshal Darius Kwon

Darius is a cop from the area, who is street-smart and uses his silver tongue to evade danger. As a Marshal, Kwon works for people on both sides of the law, playing as more of a neutral character. However, this also means that a player will likely need to stick with a more neutral stance as well to keep him at their side.

With proficiency in Automatic Weapons, Sneaky Shit, and Kick-Ass Kwon makes a good upfront character who is slick enough to get out of sticky situations. His higher attributes are coordination, awareness, strength, and charisma making him a very well balanced character. Darius would work well alongside a player who is more interested in dialogue and sneaking than fighting.

Pizepi Joren

Pizepi is one of the more interesting characters, as a mutant from the Darwin Village her green skin may scare off quite a few players’ interests. However, Pizepi is very knowledgeable and focused much more on the scientific aspects of the game. With these more unique and fine-tuned skills, she is likely more useful to a character who hasn’t paid much attention to those things as of yet.

Pizepi starts with proficiency in Automatic Weapons, Nerd Stuff, Weird Science, and First Aid. Most of these skills are incredibly high. Her highest attributes are awareness, intelligence, and charisma. With this in mind, though her stats are quite a bit higher than most other characters, she is still fairly rounded. Pizepi can be recruited in Aspen or Little Hell.

Scotchmo

Scotchmo is a legendary hobo who is known for his unquenchable thirst for alcohol. Despite this Scotchmo has not lost his marbles and is very centered in reality. His alcoholism stems from the loss of his wife in the previous game.

Scotchmo has an aptitude for Small Arms, Sneaky Shit, Lockpicking, and Melee Combat. His highest attributes are luck, awareness, and speed. He has the Way of The Squeezins quirk which is a form of drunken kung fu and the hobo background. This makes him a great partner for a sneakier built character. He can be hired at Peterson Air Force Base after the player completes the refugee missions.

Victory Buchanan

Victory is the sadistic disowned son of the Patriarch of Colorado. Victory has all the makings of a serial killer, being genuinely insane, hurting animals as a young child, and just doing generally evil things. So terrible in fact that his father created a fund to support the families of Victory’s victims and was sent to Aspen under house arrest. Unfortunately for the Hundred Families, he escaped.

He has an aptitude for Small Arms, Big Guns, and Hard Ass. His higher attributes are awareness, coordination, intelligence, and charisma. He is a rather well-rounded character with violence in his nature. He would be a good team member to a player doing an evil playthrough.

Going off of these eight characters outside of what players would find them useful, which are the top best characters to team up with from a skill and attribute-based perspective? Pizepi Joren is a highly-skilled character and would make a great team member to any player, especially in the tech department. Ironclad Cordite is a secondary great pick, highly skilled with a great backstory, he’d make a great partner to anyone who didn’t mind or impede his dreams. Finally, the third choice would be Scotchmo. As a great sneak based character, he could make the team impressively deceptive and stealthy.

Wasteland 3 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Linux, and Mac OS.

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