What do you guys think, who would win in a battle, the lone wanderer or courier 6?

In my opinion neither wins hands down - they would tire each other in battle :
In both cases I have seen that bad karma gives weak companions and good karma gives strong ones.
The Fallout series unlike the Metro & STALKER series do not have a canon story but objectives.

So having the above considered and putting together with all level gains from all DLCs - it would be a tie
Lonesome Wanderer has military strength and Courier has never ending money.

1.Fallout 3 seems to be based entirely around military and government proceeds and FONV is based entirely on private corporations making use of Vegas wealth- that said, The lone wanderer is a top ranking official while the courier.....is well a rich businessman.
The Lone Wanderer is too strong in outright fight - The Courier with better tactical instincts may even the odds.

2.Armor and Weapons - all FO3 weapons pack more punch than FONV - the common hunting rifle of FO3 is a rare find in FONV, if FONV has LAER then FO3 has Lincoln's repeater and according to me the Repeater hurts way more- when it comes to armor - Lone wanderer is all about power armors worth mentioning are T51D,T45 Winterized,Ashur's power armor, Medical power armor and Linden's Outcast power Armor while Courier is only about various kinds of weak ones like Elite Ranger duster,Courier duster,Assassin stealth suit,NCR ravaged armor,Legion loin cloth armor (lol),regular BOS armor but only the Enclave Remnant Hellfire power armor is worth mention.
In such a case something like Sonic Emitter if used by Courier might prove fatal for the Lone Wanderer but the our hero of Wasteland DC would gladly engage with a Xuanlong Chinese assault rifle in this case to rip off the advantage - another TIE.

3.Technological prowess - well in FONV - we have seen some very high tech stuff - like B52 bomber,Area 51(BiG MT) labs,Missile bases with fully loaded nuclear warhead trigger,underwater breather and last but not the least - very powerful robotic army and ghouls in space rockets - FONV definitely looks the winner in this case and so would the Courier be since he has these resources.But FO3 made news with Gigantic Liberty Prime,Orbital missile strikes,working alien spaceship,controlling deathclaws and usage of FAT MAN......yes carrying nuclear strike capability with bare hands........so the Lone Wanderer can end the war even before it begins with such kind of resource.
But then Courier nuked factions over a distance - good point but it fades when LW deep sixed Super Mutant Behemoths with mini nukes.
Given that both folks have access to alien blasters as last minute resort - another tie.

4.Toughness - the DLC environments in both FO3 and FONV seems to challenge each other in making things as difficult for the explorer to be in - be it LW or Courier - FO3's Pitt and Point Lookout seemed to have been from hell - especially those Ghoul reavers from Point Lookout while FONV had its share in Sierra Madre poison and ghost people and the harsh environ of the Divide.Evenly measured would be the toughness for both post apocalyptic heroes- okay so both guys can drink radiated water without even feeling it - datz an equal.

5.Companions - Boone,Raul Tejada,Arcade Gannon,Rose,Veronica,Eyebot and robodog , again the FONV seems to win the number game but given the number of companion to accompany Courier is only one and for the Lone Wanderer it is the same - I guess the one to one ratio would favor the LW companions namely - Charon,Cross,Fawkes and Dogmeat - these FO3 guys are real tough - especially where Fawkes has no psychological issue and is a full scale Super mutant whereas Lily suffers these psychotic breakdown which make her vulnerable.Charon fights like a robot have no feelings just shoots the hardest - Cross is a BoS veteran.LW seem to have tougher companions in 1:1......one point for LW.....despite all odds.

6.Braveness and Courage - did we have things like Cazador and Nightstalker in FO3 - no.......and the Courier went to their lair and got eggs for the Thorn - so thats how brave the Courier is, he walks all over the place over LW - ahem wait a sec - FONV did not have Giant Fire Ants though , well Lone Wanderer was brave enough to kill the royal guards infront of the queen in Grayditch and made friends with the Yao Guai - um OK.... a draw again.

7.Wealth : Nothing much to discuss - The Courier wins this hands down with a life time of 40 bars of Gold Haul from Sierra Madre while Lone Wanderer makes his living out of scrap metal deals and mapping data for Reilly rangers and being a test mule for a grocer turned researcher Moira and also from BoS payroll- but the nothing equals living in Lucky 38 and that humble theme based shack in Megaton is nothing really.Money works more when it comes to buying ammo and stocking up arms ...............one undisputed point for the Courier.

8.Who lost what - Courier lost his memories and Lone Wanderer lost his Dad - both are orphans to their own right and hence have such an even understanding of world.Both cheated death though - Victor pulled out Courier from his grave and Fawkes brought LoneWanderer GECK from inside the fatal irradiated environs of Vault 87.

Both were part of some put together army during their final push objective - none is a One man army.

Hence its an even - but undoubtedly very powerfully competent ......both.

So what do you guys think? I am eager to hear your opinions.

Every argument of this kind brings up "got shot in the head and survived" for the Courier. Going to go straight ahead and say that that means about as much as Lone Wanderer surviving having a piece of his brain cut out or being irradiated in the endgame. In other words, it doesn't mean a thing, just your average plot armor.

Now, with that out of the way, I will give this to the Lone Wanderer.
As much as I like the Courier and respect his successes in the base game and the DLC, the kid Lone Wanderer faced a much more fearsome enemy in the face of the DC Supermutants and the Enclave.

Some have argued that the Courier is a cyborg. Fine, if somebody wants to go that route I can remind them that Lone Wanderer is potentially a mutant and enhanced with the Institutes science.

One can say that the Courier has a lot of experience behind his belt. Well, the Lone Wanderer has less, but compare the lethality of the two Wastelands they inhabit.

One could argue that Mojave is better for stocking up on weapons... but DC is full of discarded military weapon caches and due to hosting the national guard pre-war has more armors and tech.

The one solid and very important advantage the Courier could be said to have are his companions, with whom he has a much stronger bond.
But even this is questionable, because the companions from DC are all-around much more battle-hardened individuals, rivaling Boone every step of the way.

Since they are both player character they could technically be called equal, but the world they are thrust in demand different levels of competence. It is like comparing Max Rockatansky to the Postman. The latter may have inspired a nation and led people, but the former is a survivalist killer.

Lone Wanderer:

Courier:

As a last word, my favourite character is still the Lone Courier. The beautiful amalgam of the two PCs, produced through TTW.

I agree to disagree. I believe that a fight between the two would be an epic battle that would most likely end in a tie, but I believe the the Courier has multiple advantages over the Lone Wanderer.

Weaponry. Whilst the Lone Wanderer has access to multiple weapons, the Courier has access to a wider range of weapon and more powerful versions. Whilst the hunting rifle may be a rare find in NV, the Lone Wanderer only has access to as a long gun. The Courier however has access to not only the hunting rifle but he can modify them as well, and he has access to the anti-material rifle. Another example is the fact the Courier has more guns than the LW. Pistol wise (not revolvers) The LW only has the 10mm, silenced 10mm, Colonel Autumn's 10mm pistol, Chinese pistol, and the Zhu-Rong v418 Chinese pistol. Whereas the Courier has the .45 auto, A Light Shining in Darkness, 9mm pistol, Maria, 10mm pistol, Weathered 10mm pistol, 12.7mm pistol, Lil' Devil, and the Silenced .22 pistol.

And that's not counting revolvers. Of which the LW can get get six, but only if he kills someone for one and blows up the brotherhood for the other. Compared to the Courier who can get nine, and he doesn't need to kill anyone for them. Except for maybe the Ranger Sequoia.

Overall the Courier has a wider range of wepons for any situation.

Armor. Once again the Courier has access to a larger variety of armor in comparison to the Lone Wanderer. For example, the Lone Wanderer has access to basic combat armor and then a few variants like rivet city and tenpenny tower. Whilst the Courier has the basic combat armor as well as the reinforced mk1 and mk2 versions.

Power armor. I will give the point to the LW for this one as the Courier only gets power armor if he joins the brotherhood. And even then only access to t-45 and t-51. The LW gets access to Winterized T-51d alongside Enclave type power armors.

Tech. NV gives the Courier the Big MT research facility, which is a huge bonus to them. And although many of the things you said are in FO3, they don't belong to the player.

Liberty Prime, belongs to the brotherhood not the LW.

Orbital missile strikes, Enclave.

working alien spaceship, I'll give you that one.

controlling deathclaws, again Enclave.

FAT MAN. The Courier also has access to them.


Toughness. I agree with you.

Companions. I can't really agree on this. Yes Lily is mostly insane, but the Couriers companions have a wider use than the LW. Paladin Cross is a BOS cyborg, only good for shooting things. Fawkes is a supermutants with a gatling laser who shows up to take on the Enclave by himself, so point to him. Charon is only loyal to whoever holds his contract, and Dogmeat is a dog.

VS

Veronica is a BOS scribe and an expert in hand-to-hand combat and tinkering with items, allowing you to craft things with her. Boone is an expert sniper, who gives you a spotter ability that makes enemies visible. Gannon is a doctor can use energy weapons, and has his own power armor Lily is insane, but can hit a lot harder in close combat. Raul is good at tinkering with stuff and is also an expert sharpshooter, he can also repair your items in the field. Cass is a drunk. E-DE is an eyebot, And Rex is a robo dog.

The Couriers companions have a lot more variety and usefulness and better backstories to them in my opinion.

Braveness and courage. NV did have giant fire ants and queens. No royal guards tho. It also had Rawr and Legendary deathclaws.

Overall I have to give more points to the Courier in the long run. The LW had a lot of stuff going for him but ultimately he is only a soldier in the brotherhood. Whereas the Courier can wind up leading Vegas.

Note; I’ll be referring to the courier as he. Don’t take it to heart. Now then, I’ve got to agree. From a narrative pov the Courier is much more impressive. In Fallout 3 the worst you could do was blast megaton, and the end game, based on your play through, had a minimal effect. Clean water. Clean water that kills people, ghouls, and mutants? Whoop. Courier six waged war on whatever faction stood against him. 6 has the potential to nuke a larger environment than the lone wander, through the lonesome road dlc. Courier six has also went toe to toe with the smartest minds of the wasteland (old world blues), and subjugated them. He’s uncovered the secrets of the Sierra madre. He’s decimated and wiped out a whole civilization (honest hearts). He could have potentially subjected the jewel of the Mojave with a robot army. Yes, BoS is powerful. However they wouldn’t blind die for the lone wanderer. The courier has an army of die hard, battle ready, killer bots.

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@"Xultrum" if I may, I would seriously argue about the "minimal effect" of the endgame. The endgame of New Vegas determines who runs the place, the endgame of base Fallout 3 determines if there will be a place to run at all, and Broken Steel marks the inception of a new and very powerful state.

Contending with the Think Tank from the Big MT means as much as, or even less then, contending with deep alien minds of Mothership Zeta. The Courier didn't beat them in a game of wits.

I will agree on the Robot Army being a solid argument, but without House that is the ceiling of New Vegas. There is no growth from there. New Vegas is, at best, a city-state. Having a city-state behind your back is definitely better that not, but without Houses guidance it is very vulnerable politically.

And at the end of Fallout 3 Brotherhood of steel are a step above a city-state.
True, it is not a power for Lone Wanderer to command. But he still has access to it.

The fact that Courier could have destroyed a location through Lonesome road means as much as the Lone Wanderer calling a satellite bombardment upon the Mobile Base Crawler or the Citadel. And that means nada, cause those are not feats they could call upon in a fight or a drawn out warfare.

If we insisted it was, than DC has shown to have access to systems of orbital bombardment, SatCom Array NW-05a being one example. Which makes sense, with DC being the former capital and all.

True, Courier waged war on whatever faction was against him. Now, within the constraints of that conflict, who is more dangerous: the NCR, the Legion, House... or the Eastern Enclave?

About the variability of weapons. New Vegas has higher variability. However, the weapons of DC are basically high tier to the majority of NV weapons. Sure, there is a new addition of the AMR on Courier's side, but then again, the Lone Wanderer still has the Gauss Rifle, and with energy weapons in greater availability and stronger average weapons, AND a broader range of Heavy Weaponry to go along with the Power Armor, the Lone Wanderer is a deadly threat.

Finally, there are custom build weapons Lone Wanderer uses. And the Dart Gun is a sonovabitch.

All in all, a Yes Man backed Courier has an edge over the Lone Wanderer.
But on their own Lone Wanderer is a "Mad Max" to Courier's "Postman".

The Lone Wanderer might be missing a piece of the brain, access to advance alien technology, alien robtos and an alien spaceship but the Courier has access to a research facility facilitated by a bunch of egg heads that could pretty much be demi-gods(depending on your choice), access to multiple ICBMs with nuclear warheads(again depending on if you destroyed all the nuclear warheads), and an army of gun powder soldiers/slavers/robots.

Not to mention the implants that the courier could have and the ability to replace the brain. So basically the courier could fight safely from a remote location while the body is fighting the Lone Wanderer.

I mean, this isn't exactly a fair discussion. We're not talking Nathan Drake vs Solid Snake here. Fallout is a role-playing series, where your protagonists are designed by you. My dumb moron but brutally strong Courier would get his ass kicked by my sneaky bastard Lone Wanderer.

If we're talking their experiences and access to weaponry and the like? Well, the Lone Wanderer is 19 and has almost no weapons or survival training from the getgo. Courier Six is well-travelled, is from a much more technologically advanced and infrastructurally-sound location, probably doesn't suffer from daddy issues or fear of open spaces, and has some general knowledge both of the wasteland's dangers and politics.

So the answer's Courier Six

@“damianwolff” Some of these points I agree with, while others I disagree with. Ultimately I respect your belief about it, however in my eyes the lone wanderer is.....lone. Just like you mentioned he’s fallout’s mad max. He’s one guy with limited, very limited access to the brotherhood. The brotherhood’s military might is not his. Ultimately the lone wanderer has, at most, 5 paladins that would risk their life for him without the brotherhood saying so. Oh, and so we’re clear, Mothership Zeta is vastly considered non cannon while all the DLC in NV are intertwined with each other and the main game, to a lesser extent. So, again, based on pure military might and personal feats alone—courier takes it. And I 100% agree that the courier couldn’t take out the brotherhood if they were to put all their resources into killing him...but they wouldn’t, and so those cards are off table. So based on the DLCs Courier Six has several genius level minds and their advanced tech(which does outclass brotherhood tech in some regards), he has a vast, vast fortune, he has access to airborne nuclear bombs, and he has a small army of tribal warriors, and on top of that he possibly has his robot army. Honestly, while I doubt he alone could take out the brotherhood, they 100% wouldn’t be able to touch him either.

As for the enclave...president eden is a lesser version of Mr. House. I don’t see why the courier would have ANY difficulties with eliminating him and the enclave, easily.

And if we’re to just consider how many possible factions the lone wander deals with vs the courier, I’d say the courier has much more to deal with. Powder gangers, NCR, Brotherhood, Legion, Great Khans, NV gangs. The courier at his very worst(evil) kills a lot more, and accomplishes a lot more than the lone wanderer at his worst(evil). So again, from a narrative point there’s just no comparison. They were just written so differently.


I guess what I’m trying to say is..the game was rigged from the start.

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I had put a lot of thought into this for a while, weighing accomplishments, potential, abilities, resources and all that jazz. But then it occurred to me that the Lone Wanderer has access to an orbital death ray... like a big one not the tiny laser pointer that Archimedes II is in comparison. Gonna have to give it to him/her just for that.

As a player character I much prefer playing as the Courier though, the Wanderer is kind of a stupid kid even with a high intelligence score. My favourite mod for TTW is one that makes him/her talk and act like the Courier in dialogue, its great.

Zeta isn’t canon, as far as I know.

I will be very short on this, the courier has a cyber-dog He instantly wins just because of that, and he also has a lot of combat experience from travelling through the wasteland

Honestly, who cares? LW and Courier are on par with each other, both are one man armies, both have powerful allies and both can change the fate of their wastelands.

In the end, it'll end up being who the player is controlling and who is the AI, because that will determine who wins, but because there is no chance Beth will bring either characters back, that cannot happen.

Not to mention that both probably have different classes and skills.

It's Apples or Oranges.

The Lone Wanderer is a fresh-faced youth who only gets credit because Bethesda gave him a cinematic action sequence up against on of the most powerful monsters in the entire game...while giving him the backup of Brotherhood Paladins in power armor with energy weapons, and just "randomly" finding a mini-nuke nearby to use. This isn't a powerful survivalist or warrior, it's the luckiest kid on earth!

Meanwhile, you have the Courier, a person that for all evidence was born and raised in the Mojave, a desolate, irradiated wasteland with warring factions, cannibalistic and drug-fueled raiders, and job that requires him to wander these lonesome roads with nothing but his wits and a package to deliver. It seems that in order to do all of that, you have to be someone that eats coffin nails and asks for seconds. No-one out here survives on handouts, you live or you die.

With that in mind, I'm giving it to the Courier, I think they're more experienced, I think they have more basic survival and likely combat skills, and the luckiest break they get is being shot (twice), and managing to walk away from it alive. From there, you're on your own.

I always think the Courier will come out on top no matter what.

Firstly, he survived 2 shots to the head, point blank. He's also acquired cyborg level technology. Hell, he's ( possibly ) armed with an EUCLID - C Finder.
That can tear people apart with the sun.

The Lone Wanderer has what? Enclave Telsa armor and a Fat Man??????
Genuinely, it'd be a fun battle to watch but might even last a few days. In the end I conclude that the Courier will end up on top.

But then again

WAR, WAR NEVER CHANGES.

Yeah, gonna have to give it to the Wanderer. He literally has a mothership at his command, and could death-ray any part of the planet. Can't see the Courier matching that.

Independent of what the player chooses to do in either New Vegas or Fallout 3, my opinion is that the Courier has the slight advantage over the Wanderer simply due to more experience.

In Fallout 3, we were born and lived a good portion of our lives in Vault 101, with no threats whatsoever except for being ruled by a mindless dictator.
In New Vegas, we don't know much about the Courier's backstory, except for small bits of information that may confirm that he traveled other roads and not only the Mojave's, concluding that it's likely that he faced way more challenges that the Wanderer probably did.

I saw this elsewhere but it kinda brought me back around - The Lone Wanderer is only 19 canonically. The guy / Gal has done all the crazy outrageous junk and he / she is literally only just starting their adult life. They get thrown into this absolutely hellscape of a wasteland (Especially compared to the relatively civilized Mojave) and dominate it over the course of a year. Dismantling raider armies, taking down the Enclave, mowing down who knows how many roided out supermutants...

People like to give the Courier the experience advantage but to be honest, he / she kinda has it easy compared to what the Wanderer is pushed into. And the Wanderer still has a bunch more experience left to acquire - They're literally just starting their journey. o.0

IIHawkerII wrote:

I saw this elsewhere but it kinda brought me back around - The Lone Wanderer is only 19 canonically. The guy / Gal has done all the crazy outrageous junk and he / she is literally only just starting their adult life. They get thrown into this absolutely hellscape of a wasteland (Especially compared to the relatively civilized Mojave) and dominate it over the course of a year. Dismantling raider armies, taking down the Enclave, mowing down who knows how many roided out supermutants...

People like to give the Courier the experience advantage but to be honest, he / she kinda has it easy compared to what the Wanderer is pushed into. And the Wanderer still has a bunch more experience left to acquire - They're literally just starting their journey. o.0

And that's why the Courier has an advantage compared to the Wanderer, the simple fact that they literally just started their journey.
About the difficulty between wastelands, I find both to be equally difficult, but never fail to give a proper challenge for the protagonist.