Fallout 4 MacCready: Affinity, Romance, Long Road Ahead
Short answer: MacCready is a mercenary at the Third Rail in Goodneighbor, and you can hire him for 250 caps. His affinity stalls partway until you finish his personal quest, Long Road Ahead, and at 1000 you get his companion perk Killshot (+20% V.A.T.S. accuracy against the head). This guide covers how to recruit him, how to raise affinity, the quest, the romance and the perk, based on Nukapedia (the community-run Fandom wiki).
This guide reflects information as of 19 October 2026. The latest Fallout 4 game update on Steam and PC is the one of 18 August 2026. The update of 15 October 2026 contains PlayStation-only game crash fixes and Creation Kit fixes, and says nothing about companions or MacCready.
MacCready at a glance: five points
- Hiring costs 250 caps. Speak to him at the Third Rail in Goodneighbor after you witness his confrontation with the Gunners Winlock and Barnes. A successful Charisma check lowers the price to 200 or 100 caps. Finish the first half of his personal quest and the caps are returned.
- Affinity stalls until his personal quest is done. It stops at 499 until you finish the first half (killing Winlock and Barnes), and at 999 until you finish the second half (getting the cure at Med-Tek Research).
- His likes and dislikes run opposite to Curie's. He likes mercenary behavior, theft, sarcasm, joining the Minutemen and helping children or parents. He dislikes preaching, joining the Brotherhood of Steel and menial jobs.
- Affinity 1000 gives you the perk Killshot, and MacCready hands you a wooden soldier toy.
- He can be romanced. While romanced, he dislikes chem addiction and flirting with non-companions.
How to recruit MacCready (the Third Rail)
MacCready sells his services from the back of the Goodneighbor bar, the Third Rail. The steps:
- Go to the Third Rail in Goodneighbor.
- Watch MacCready's confrontation with the Gunners Winlock and Barnes (this makes him recruitable).
- Speak to MacCready and hire him for 250 caps. A successful Charisma check lowers it to 200 or 100.
- Take him with you.
MacCready is an essential companion (he cannot be killed). According to Nukapedia, the caps you paid are returned when you finish the first half of his personal quest.
Watch out in Goodneighbor:
- If you order him to steal, or do anything hostile, inside Goodneighbor, MacCready leaves and turns hostile. You then get an option to send him to a settlement.
- The same happens if you are caught stealing in the Third Rail's VIP room. If you are not caught, he likes the theft.
How affinity works (the numbers)
Affinity is a hidden number. It starts at 0 and rises and falls with your actions and dialogue.
| Affinity | Relationship | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Neutral (tolerate) | The starting point |
| 250 | Friend | Roughly where the first half of his quest starts (between 250 and 499) |
| 500 | Admiration (admire) | New dialogue. The romance "flirt" option begins to appear |
| 750 | Confidant | The second half of his quest starts |
| 1000 | Infatuation (idolize) | Companion perk Killshot. The internal cap is 1100 |
| -500 | Disdain | He warns you once to change your ways |
| -1000 | Hatred | He leaves and can never be recruited again (the quest also fails) |
- A dialogue reaction is worth +15 for "liked," +35 for "loved," -15 for "disliked" and -35 for "hated," multiplied by 0.5 to 1.5 depending on the size of the action.
- Simply traveling with him raises affinity every 10 minutes by 40 − 0.033 × current affinity, provided you earned at least 1 XP in that 10 minutes. From 0 to 500 takes about 160 minutes.
- Recruiting him raises affinity by 3%.
- There are caps. Affinity stops at 499 until Winlock and Barnes are dead, and at 999 until you hand the cure to Daisy. While capped, the "liked" message still appears but affinity does not increase.
What he likes and dislikes
MacCready is a realist who keeps an eye on the money and is soft on children and parents. The reactions are below (a selection from Nukapedia's list, base-game items only).
| Reaction | Action |
|---|---|
| Like | Passing a Charisma check to get a bigger reward (mercenary behavior) |
| Like | Stealing, and picking locks on owned doors and containers |
| Like | Sarcastic, threatening or cynical replies (except toward friendly ghouls) |
| Like | Joining the Minutemen |
| Like | Destroying the Prydwen with the Minutemen's artillery in With Our Powers Combined |
| Like | Helping children or parents (for example, finding Billy's family in Kid in a Fridge) |
| Like | Taking disreputable jobs such as The Big Dig (Bobbi No-Nose) or The Cleaner (Whitechapel Charlie) |
| Like | Refusing to clean out the Diamond City reservoir in Pool Cleaning (Sheng Kawolski) |
| Like | Keeping the mole rat cure for yourself in Hole in the Wall |
| Love | Asking Fred Allen for a higher reward in Hazardous Material |
| Love | Killing Baker in the Quincy ruins |
| Love | Digging up Shem Drowne's grave in The Gilded Grasshopper |
| Love | Sparing Theodore at the end of Mystery Meat |
| Dislike | Taking the moral high ground or appealing to people's better nature |
| Dislike | Joining the Brotherhood of Steel |
| Dislike | Menial work (Painting the Town for Abbot, Pool Cleaning for Sheng Kawolski) |
| Dislike | Offering the cure to Austin Engill, or offering to split it, in Hole in the Wall |
| Dislike | Releasing Lorenzo Cabot in The Secret of Cabot House |
| Dislike | Saving Pickman from the raiders |
| Dislike | Becoming addicted to chems (only while romanced; he does not react to chem use without addiction) |
| Hate | Getting caught committing crimes |
| Hate | Unprovoked violence |
| Hate | Giving all your possessions to the Pillars of the Community |
| Hate | Selling Billy to Bullet in Kid in a Fridge |
| Hate | Killing Trish in Diamond City Blues |
| Hate | Stealing the Gwinnett pils recipe from the Third Rail |
| Hate | Flirting with non-companions while romanced (for example, Magnolia) |
Two points to note. First, the cure choice in Hole in the Wall. This quest is also how you recruit Curie. MacCready likes it when you keep the cure and dislikes it when you use it on Austin Engill or split it (Nukapedia thinks the "like" is a developer oversight, since he helps children and parents elsewhere). Second, stealing the Gwinnett pils recipe from the Third Rail is a hate.
A repeatable method: stealing
Nukapedia's "Repeatable actions" lists stealing as a way to raise MacCready's affinity. You put one of your own items into a container owned by someone else and take it back out, ideally somewhere out of sight such as a Goodneighbor hotel room. You must wait 48 in-game hours between each item. Companions who dislike stealing (Preston and Codsworth hate it; Nick, Piper, Curie, Danse and Hancock dislike it) lose affinity if they are nearby, so bring only MacCready.
His personal quest, Long Road Ahead
Somewhere between affinity 250 and 499, MacCready speaks to you and the quest starts. If the game does not start it by itself, try talking to him.
First half: kill Winlock and Barnes
- Accept his request. The Mass Pike Interchange is marked on the map.
- Go to the Mass Pike Interchange. According to Nukapedia there are 10 to 15 Gunners, a commander and one Assaultron, and at higher levels Winlock or Barnes may wear T-60 power armor.
- Kill both Winlock and Barnes. You do not need to bring MacCready himself.
- Speak to MacCready. The caps you paid to hire him are returned.
Second half: the cure at Med-Tek Research
The second half starts when affinity reaches 750. MacCready tells you his son, Duncan, has a disease that will eventually kill him, and asks you to go to Med-Tek Research for a cure.
- Enter Med-Tek Research with MacCready.
- Find the executive terminal on the top floor and override the containment lockdown. MacCready gives you the password when you reach the terminal.
- Go down to the sub-level. In the room full of cells, a ramp leads down through the floor in one of the cells on the south side.
- Take the cure (Prevent) at the lowest level.
- Bring the cure to Daisy in Goodneighbor. Completing the quest gives 250+ XP.
Med-Tek Research has feral ghouls spread over a wide area, including one Glowing One. Nukapedia says resistance overall is fairly low.
How the quest fails
If MacCready's affinity drops to -1000 (Hatred) or below, the quest fails and he can never be recruited again.
The companion perk Killshot, and the toy
- Killshot: a permanent 20% increase to accuracy in V.A.T.S. when you target an enemy's head.
- Requirement: reach maximum affinity (1000), which is possible after you finish his personal quest.
- Wooden soldier toy: MacCready gives it to you when his affinity reaches "idolize." It is filed under junk, so be careful not to scrap it.
According to Nukapedia, a companion perk is permanent once you have it, even if affinity later drops. You also get it without romancing him.
Romance and Lover's Embrace
MacCready can be romanced, through the same conversations as other companions.
- In the second conversation after affinity 500, a "flirt" option appears.
- In the final conversation, a "romance" option appears.
- Both are Charisma checks. A successful flirt makes the final check easier.
- If you fail, after a while he starts a conversation about your relationship and you can try again.
MacCready's affinity stays at 999 until his personal quest is done, so you can probably reach the final romance conversation only after finishing the quest (this site's inference).
- Once romanced, he can share an unowned bed with you.
- If you sleep in an unowned bed near your romantic partner, you get the perk Lover's Embrace: 15% more XP for 8 hours.
- While romanced, MacCready dislikes chem addiction and flirting with non-companions (for example, Magnolia at the Third Rail). Dismiss him and let him walk away before you flirt.
- To end a romance, affinity must drop below 750.
Common bugs and fixes (per Nukapedia)
- MacCready does not give you the password at Med-Tek Research. One cause is entering with Jacob's password from Covenant in your inventory. Another is MacCready falling through the hole in the floor and getting separated. Save before you get near the executive room and fight without losing him. Going back to the terminal later does not trigger the password.
- Console fixes on PC. If MacCready does not hand over the password,
player.additem 001965f8adds the correct password to your inventory. For a stuck quest,SetStage COMMacCreadyQuest 160is listed. Save before you try them. - The quest may not start if you bring MacCready to a Mass Pike Interchange you have already cleared (PC and PS4).
- Winlock and Barnes may not turn hostile, even after the other Gunners are dead.
- PS4 and Xbox One: Winlock may be in an unreachable spot on the upper freeway platform. On PS4, it is reported that you can climb a collapsed structure to the south and jump from girder to girder to reach him.
- Daisy only offers trading. This happens because MacCready wanders off in Goodneighbor. Order him to stand in front of Daisy's counter and it clears.
- You picked up Prevent before the quest. Once inside Med-Tek Research, drop it on the floor with the console (
player.drop 4e700 1) and pick it up again to move on.
What we have not confirmed
- Japanese names. Quest names, character names and the perk name are given in English as published.
- Where between 250 and 499 the quest starts. Nukapedia says only "between 250 and 500."
- The results of the console commands. We have not run them ourselves; they are as Nukapedia records.
- Effects of the latest update on MacCready. We found no announcement that changes him. But the numbers and steps here come from Nukapedia and were not tested in the game.
