In keeping true to its Bethesda heritage, Fallout 4 allows players to choose a companion from a wide variety of NPCs. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, and some come with their own questline. This is how to unlock Piper as a companion and romance her in Fallout 4.
How to Get Piper as a Companion in Fallout 4
As a follow-up to our guide on the French robot, Curie, we wanted to focus on feisty journalist, Piper Wright. She’s a renegade journalist operating in Diamond City with a tenacity for publishing the unfiltered truth.
You’ll first meet Piper outside the gates of Diamond City, either alone or with Mayor McDonough, depending on whether they’ve already met Nick Valentine.
To gain Piper as a companion, visit the Publick Occurrences office after first meeting her. This is in the Diamond City Market section of town. There’s an open Airstream where Nat Wright, Piper’s sister, slings newspapers that have the Publick Occurrences sign above them. You want to head into the building to the right of that.
Once inside, chat with Piper and agree to an interview. This will start the very short “Story of the Century” quest. When complete, she’ll be available as a companion. You can bring her along on all your adventures or tell her you’d rather not. If you’ve left her behind previously, you’ll be able to find her in the office.
How to Increase Piper’s Affinity in Fallout 4
As an investigative journalist, Piper is a moral person, but she’s also a bit of a hothead. She values generosity and peacefulness and tolerates meanness but hates greed and violence.
When Piper is your companion, choose generous, mean dialogue choices or those that de-escalate a situation. Avoid those that are selfish (such as asking for a higher reward) or that might lead to a fight. Stealing or pickpocketing should be avoided while Piper is around, as she disapproves of both.
Below we’ve listed a variety of specific, repeatable actions that will improve your relationship with Piper, as well as those that will hurt it.
Focus on these actions to improve your relationship with Piper in Fallout 4:
- Heal Dogmeat in Piper’s presence.
- Modify your armor.
- Pick a lock that is NOT owned.
- Choose a generous dialogue option when speaking to another character.
- Choose a “mean” dialogue option when speaking to another character.
- Donate items gained from Miscellaneous Quests.
- Help innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, avoid doing these repeatable actions with Piper:
- Steal, pickpocket someone, or pick owned locks.
- Lie to other characters (members of the Brotherhood of Steel are an exception).
- Choosing a “violent” dialogue option (e.g. intimidating another character).
- Choose a “greedy” dialogue option (e.g. bribing or demanding caps from another character).
- Eat a corpse.
- Murder a non-hostile character.
- Help the Institute in any quest.
These are not the only ways to affect your relationship with Piper. During the course of many quest lines, you will have to make choices that will affect Piper’s opinion of you, should she be your companion during the quest. Below are actions that you can only perform once, or that are connected to a specific quest.
*As usual, possible spoilers ahead depending on where you are in the game.*
One-time actions with a positive effect on Piper:
- Give the Vault-Tec Rep a new home.
- Join the Minutemen faction.
- Join the Railroad faction.
- Reply sarcastically to Finn in Goodneighbor.
- Convince Mama Murphy to stop taking chems in the Museum of Freedom.
- Refuse to join the Brotherhood of Steel faction when Danse asks.
- “Emogene Takes a Lover” – Give Emogene the mysterious serum you just got from the previous “Special Delivery” quest.
- “The Disappearing Act” – Talk Doc Crocker down peacefully, causing him to commit suicide.
- “The Devil’s Due” – Return the deathclaw egg to its nest.
- “Tradecraft” – Tell the truth about Deacon when speaking to Desdemona.
One-time actions with a very positive effect on Piper:
- “In Sheep’s Clothing” – Give Danny a stimpak before confronting Mayor McDonough.
- “In Sheep’s Clothing” – Demand that Mayor McDonough stand trial for his actions.
- “Hole in the Wall” – Give Austin the cure to the mole rat disease instead of keeping it/asking to split the dose.
- “Human Error” – Side with Honest Dan/Amelia Stockton and kill Doctor Chambers.
- “Confidence Man” – Convince Travis to stand up for himself.
- “The Silver Shroud” – Save Kent Connolly at the end.
- “Diamond City Blues” – Stop Paul Pembroke from shooting Henry Cooke.
- “Mystery Meat” – Discover what’s causing the food poisoning.
- Random encounter – Save Jules (the Synth) from being killed by Fred and Angie (the humans).
One-time actions with a negative effect on Piper:
- Join the Brotherhood of Steel.
- Give drugs to Mama Murphy.
- Gain entry to the Covenant.
- Encourage Tinker Tom’s paranoia (in The Railroad HQ).
- “Diamond City Blues” – Take more than 50% of the cut.
- After “Diamond City Blues” – Lie to Malcolm Latimer about killing his son.
- “The Secret of Cabot House” – Kill or release Lorenzo Cabot.
- “The Devil’s Due” – Come back to the nest after returning the deathclaw egg and steal it.
- “Tradecraft” – Go along with Deacon’s lie when speaking to Desdemona.
The following one-time actions have a very negative effect:
- “Diamond City Blues” – Kill Trish at any point.
- After “The Glowing Sea” – Convince Virgil there is no serum, tell him that he should commit suicide, or give him the serum and then return later and kill him.
- “The Secret of Cabot House” – Kill Edward Deegan.
- After “Diamond City Blues” – Promise to Malcolm Latimer that you will kill Marowski for the death of Nelson Latimer.
- “Blind Betrayal” – Kill Paladin Danse.
- Decide to destroy The Railroad faction.
- “Duty or Dishonor” – Kill Initiate Clarke.
Continue asking her about her backstory and her journalistic ambitions using any new dialogue option that comes up, and be sure to look out for those “admire” and “idolize” notifications as your relationship improves.
Piper is a companion that the player can romance (regardless of their character’s sex), but romance is not a requirement for reaching max affinity and unlocking her perk.
Once you see the “idolize” notification, you can choose to romance her or keep the relationship platonic.
If you choose not to pursue romance with Piper, you’ll need to continue taking as many of the above actions as you can. Find the quests on the list you haven’t done, especially the ones that have a very positive effect. If you’re able to modify many different armor pieces, then use that for small increases. Keep working at it, and eventually, the hidden relationship counter will max out.
Eventually you will get a notification saying “you have achieved the highest level of affinity with Piper”. This means you’ve unlocked the “Gift of Gab” perk. This perk gives double XP for successfully persuading other characters or discovering new locations. It’s always in effect, regardless of whether Piper is your current companion.
How to Romance Piper in Fallout 4
If you choose to romance Piper, you will need to take advantage of the “Flirt” and “Relationship” dialogue options at every opportunity. Your relationship will improve rapidly when focus on these dialogue prompts.
The Flirt options are speech checks, so make sure your Charisma is adequately high enough to pass them. If you have a lower Charisma, you can temporarily boost it with various items: clothing like Reginald’s Suit and Agatha’s Dress, or consumables like beer, Day-Tripper, or Daddy-O (those last two give big boosts, but are addictive). If you have a spare point, the “Lady Killer perk” is very useful.
Once you’ve raised your affinity enough by flirting, the “Romance” option will appear. Again, be sure that your Charisma is high enough to pass this speech check. If you succeed, Piper will express her love for you and you will have maxed out your affinity with her. The achievement will pop up on your screen, announcing that you’ve unlocked the “Gift of Gab” perk (see above for the perk’s effect).
Don’t forget that with romantic companions, you can get an extra bonus. Sleeping in an unowned bed for any length of time, making sure that the companion is nearby (they don’t need to be your current companion). When you wake up, you’ll gain the “Lover’s Embrace” perk. This perk grants a 15% boost in XP for 12 hours and replaces the “Well Rested” perk that beds normally provide.
That’s how to get Piper as a companion and max out her affinity, along with how to romance her in Fallout 4. Check out our other Fo4 guides for more companion help or quest walkthroughs.
