Companions & Hotkeys

Dogs, survivors, mercenaries, Pack Mule, and every shortcut

Three kinds of allies

• Companions follow you without being hired: your starter dog, more dogs from Billy Bob (German Shepherd, Pitbull, Labrador, Husky, Golden Retriever, Doberman, Dalmatian, and Bull Terrier), a Panther, the Berserker's Rage Panther, and the Witch Doctor's undead (Skeleton Warriors in five tiers, a zombie skeleton, and a Horror Panther). The Guardian Droid is one per player, needs at least one rank of Charismatic Nature, and counts as a survivor.
• Survivors wander the world fighting zombies and bandits. With enough Charisma, the Charismatic Nature perk, and money, you can hire them. They level up with experience, carry loot, gather resources, and repair blocks on command for a fee.
• Mercenaries come from contracts with Raël (see Traders & Money).

Keeping them alive, and getting them back

• Pets and survivors respawn on your bedroll, or where they died if you haven't placed one. A dead ally drops its inventory; check your map for its backpack.
• Reset a hurt pet's health by picking it up (talk to it and take it with you) and putting it back down. Its inventory drops when you do, so collect that separately.
• In multiplayer, followers stay put when you log out, so they don't wander off. Tell them to follow you again when you return, or you may lose track of where they are.

How many you can have

• Your Charismatic Nature perk sets the limit. Armor mods that raise Charismatic Nature count too.
• Survivor hires are capped by the perk rank. You can hire as many survivors as your rank; at the cap the dialog tells you to increase Charismatic Nature. Whether a particular NPC will accept can also depend on your player level and their level and weapon type.

"Pets & minions" counts dogs, panthers and the Witch Doctor's undead together, and you can never have more than 3 dogs. The Guardian Droid is separate: one per player, from rank 1. Numbers and costs for every ally are in Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

Pack Mule: more than backpack slots

• Level 3: two new inventory buttons send your inventory to your companions within 50 meters and pull it back. With several companions, items are split randomly between them. Level 3 also unlocks 3 armor loadouts (Alt + 1–3), and level 6 unlocks a fourth.
• Level 4: your vehicle automatically collects dropped loot bags. Switch Auto Loot on in the vehicle's options first. A craftable loot box does the same thing where you place it.
• Level 5: send your backpack to the nearest vehicle you own (within 50 meters), or pull from it, even from inside a POI.

Rebirth hotkeys

These are hardcoded, so they can't be rebound.