Spawn with a squad of your side, customize them, recruit others while in the raid, and command them on the battlefield.

This mod makes it possible to have bots follow you around and fight alongside you against enemies. You can either spawn with a squad that is customizable through the Config Manager (default F12 key) or recruit others while in a raid.

If you enjoy this mod and would like to show your appreciation you can support me at Ko-Fi!

With the friendyPMC mod, you will be able to spawn with a predetermined number of followers that will help you during battles, listen to your commands, carry your loot, and return it at the end of the raid. Scav players can also spawn with allies, though they will be limited in what commands they follow and will not return loot. The same will be true for any follower picked up during the raid (PMC or Scav). They are considered allies, not team members.

There are 3 dependencies this mod relies on:

• Big Brain
• Unity ToolKit
• Virtual's Custom Quest Loader

However, bots will have a hard time following around if you do not also have WAYPOINTS - EXPANDED NAVMESH

Extract the contents of the downloaded zip and it will result in 2 folders: BepInEx and user. Simply paste them into your SPT installation directory and you are ready.

Squad Configuration:

• Squad Size - The number of squad members to spawn with
• Squadmate return chance after death - Chance your followers will return the items you gave them should you die. This applies only to members you spawned with
• Use Squad setup - Enable customization for each squad member
  • Squad Member Nickname - Set a custom nickname for the squad member. Leave blank for default
  • Squad Member Equipment - Set custom equipment for the squad member. You can choose between default (SPT random equipment) or user-created loadout presets that can be made on the character screen.
  • Squad Member Top - Set what the top clothes for the member should be. Leave blank for default. Only tops you've unlocked will show here
  • Squad Member Bottom - Set what the bottom clothes for the member should be. Leave blank for default. Only the bottoms you've unlocked will show here
  • Squad Member Tactic - Set the member's fight tactic. See the Gameplay Guide > Tactics for details on available tactics.
• Maximum pickup followers - Maximum followers the player can pick up during a raid. This is in addition to the squad

Miscellaneous:

• Maximum scan distance - Maximum distance to pick up any visible enemy that the player is signaling when issuing the "Contact" command
• Patrol Radius - Maximum distance from the player the followers will patrol around
• Time to forget about the enemy (in sec.) - Maximum time a follower will remember an enemy. This is applied only at the beginning of a raid
• Squad Health Multiplier - Health multiplier for the followers you spawn with. This is applied to each body part.
• Report Status Volume - Volume of the radio sound when triggering report status
• Enemy Marker - Show enemy position when reporting status. If disabled, the enemy marker sound will also be disabled
• Raid End Messages - Followers will send messages at the end of the raid based on conditions such as if all made it out or if you picked up a follower and kept him alive. Return items messages are excluded
• Friendly PMC Side - Should PMC Bots of the same side always be friendly towards one another and ignore the new PMC Karma system.
• BEARs speak English - Should BEAR bots speak English or Russian
• PMC Arm Bands - Should PMC bots have armbands (red for BEARs, blue for USECs) for easier identification
• Followers use grenade - Allow followers to use grenades
• Ping Squad - Shortcut key for triggering the Report call if you find it too hard to use the quick gesture menu that the game offers with F1-F12 keybinding
• Enemy Report - Shortcut key for triggering the Contact call if you find it too hard to use the quick gesture menu that the game offers with F1-F12 keybinding
• Followers Teleport - Shortcut key for teleporting all followers to the player's position
• Followers Heal - Shortcut key for healing all followers. This also gets them out of the healing animation or grenade-throwing animation
• Prefetch follower data - Prefetch follower data to reduce the time it takes to spawn them. If you experience problems with followers spawning, disable this option and try again. Take note that this can increase the spawn time.

The squad commands are found under the Phrase Menu of the game (Default double tap Y) and are part of groups. The mod utilizes the existing phrases as a means to issue commands to your followers. These commands can be issued to the entire squad or to an individual member of the squad by looking at them. The maximum distance for phrases to be picked up while looking at a member is 35 meters and for gestures, it is between 25 and 15 meters based on the gesture.

Not all types of followers will listen to all the commands. Scav and allies have restrictions, see below the list of commands for details.

Take note: These commands, the game makes them available based on what voice or side your character is. These commands will all be available for standard PMC voices. Custom voices can result in some of them not showing up.

In COMMAND:

• Follow Me - Ask a member of the same faction to follow you or if issued to your squad, tell them to resume follow
• Attention - A command introduced due to the glitchy behavior of Tarkov's AI to help reset your followers in case they are stuck or you want them to forget about an enemy (does not work if the enemy is still in view or too close)
• Regroup - Tell your followers to resume following if out of combat or come near your position if in combat
• Get Back - Tell your followers to follow you at a distance
• On Your Own - Tell your followers to follow at a distance, to no longer prioritize covering you during fights, and to switch to their initial tactic (initial tactic can be changed to "Holder" when issuing "Hold Position"). When out of combat, the followers will patrol around you at a configurable distance. If you wish to stop the patrol, but still have them follow you at a distance, say "Follow Me".
• Cover Me - Regroup, set them to follow you close, and make them cover you during fights
• Hold Position - Switch from the initial tactic to the "Holder" tactic
• Go Go GO - Switch back to the initial tactic
• Go Forward - Issue a push command to them to get closer to the enemy
• Stop - Tell your followers to stop in place. Does not work during combat
• Suppress - Ask for suppression fire
• Silence - Ask them to not talk for 1 minute. This command does not work when using SAIN
• Spread Out - Tell your followers to find some cover

In HELP:

• Need Help - Same as regroup, but only the closest follower will execute it

In CONTACT:

• All direction commands (in front, left, right, on six) - Makes your followers look towards the direction you signaled, relative to your look direction. All but the "in front" can also be issued to a single bot by looking at him.

In ENEMY:

• Contact - Makes your followers look toward the direction you are looking and if you have an enemy in your visual they will pick him up. This is dependent on "Maximum scan distance" and if you can clearly see the enemy's head or torso.
• Over There - Same as Contact, but instead of voice signaling it does a hand gesture toward the direction

In GESTURES (these do not work while in combat, except for "There Direction" and "Come To Me"):

• Come To Me - The bot you are looking (maximum 15 meters) at will come near your position
• There Direction - The bot closest to you, within 20 meters distance, will go towards where the player is looking at a maximum of 50 meters distance.
• Stop - All bots within 15 meters distance will stop

There are also commands under the quick gestures (Default Y) which become available when interaction is possible:

• Open Door - Shows up when facing a door and being close enough to it. The closest bot to you will attempt to open the door. He must be within a 20-meter distance
• Loot This - Shows up when looking at loot. The closest bot to you will attempt to pick up the loot. Only squad members you spawned with will return the loot at the raid end
• Cooperative - Shows up when looking at a bot of the same faction that you can recruit.

As mentioned above, scavs and allies will not listen to all the commands. The commands available for them are: regroup, follow me, stop, and attention. You can imagine them being in the permanent "On Your Own" command.

It is best no to overuse the regroup, help me or cover me commands when in combat. Bots analyze their sorounding covers and choose the best for either hiding or shooting from. Instead of you trying to get them to your position, which can have weak covers and thus making them vulnerable, you should try and follow where they are going. Letting them lead is the recommended approach as you provide cover fire for them. This is especially the case when running with the Goons since they are already set to do their own thing.

Utilize the "There Gesture" to have them go in front while you get ready for any suprize attack. You followers have much better eye sight than you. Take advantage of that and either have them walk in front or look towards a certain direction by utilizing the direction commands.

Tactics Details:

• Default - A balanced tactic between hold position and push. Followers will stay around you if the enemy is too far, looking for spots to shoot from and if the enemy is close enough, and is weaker than them, they will attempt to push him.
• Support - A follower with support tactic will provide frequent suppression fire, will be able to use grenades(even if SAIN disables that), and will be able to use the grenade launcher if he has it as a secondary weapon. He can use the launcher on his own or when asked to provide suppression fire.
• Marksman - A tactic best suited for a sniper bot as he will avoid getting close to the enemy and instead will try to look for spots to shoot from. If none are found they will just try to cover you. The marksman will not obey the push command
• Holder - Bots with the Holder tactic will stand around you, mostly in cover, and waiting for the enemy to come into their vision or be close enough for an ambush.
• Pusher - The opposite of Holder. In Pusher mode, the bot will prioritize pushing the enemy.

Dealing with Custom Loadouts:

You can have your bots use custom load-outs provided you have created custom equipment presets. You can create presets by pressing the save button and naming the preset in the section that is above your character's loadout section in the Character screen:

This will save the loadout that can be viewed in the custom presets screen:

Any custom preset saved here will also show in the equipment list for followers in the Configuration Manager:

Knight Quests Guide:

Knight will have quests available at level 20 and they involve doing specific tasks while being teamed up with Knight. Pay attention to the description of the quest as some of the killing quests require them to do the kill instead of you, others just you, and others anybody can make the kill.

You must have "Squad Spawn" disabled when doing Knight Quests or they won't spawn and just you won't be able to complete the quest

As soon as you start the first quest, the Rogue faction will no longer be hostile but shooting them will make them hostile. After you complete the first quest the Goons also stop being hostile but killing any of them will result in Knight standing going down (-0.1 per kill).

After completing the first quest Knight will appear as a friend in the friend list and you can have him join you in raids by right-clicking on him and choosing "INVITE TO GROUP". The "Squad Spawn" disabled rule applies here as well, he will not spawn if this is enabled even though you invited him. This will be the case for all the Goons as you unlock them.

When running with the Goons, everyone is hostile towards you except the Rogue faction.

Killing any of the Goons will penalize you on Knight's standing once you complete the first quest and having the standing go below 0.5 will lock BigPipe and BirdEye from the friend list. Every time you end a raid with any of them alive, the standing will go up by 0.05 and that is per Goon.

Giving them items will not give any return after a raid so stick to giving them only meds, if needed.

Note: BirdEye has practically unlimited vision distance and we cannot do anything about it.

The mod is sensitive to changes that touch bots behavior. A lot of bot mods do that in order to either improve or fix whatever they see as problematic. This in turn can result in this mod breaking as one thing that sets this one apart is the fact that you are a boss with followers. Almost all bot mods focus on hostility towards the player or improving the "senses" of a bot which in turn makes your followers hostile, not hostile towards anything, or just go crazy. So you will have problems when using it in combination with other bot mods that touch the AI. The mod is currently being developed with SAIN, Looting Bots and QuestingBots mods installed - thus I can only speak of compatibility in relation to them. Anything else, if you have problems, you have to figure out where the conflict is by following the rule of elimination: take your mods out one by one until you see the problem stops and thus reveal which is the one that it conflicts with. Otherwise, I will ignore your issue as I am not about to install all the mod packs everybody else uses.

Known conflicts:

The "Performance improvements" mod can cause conflicts with this mod.

The "Please just fight" mod can cause friendlies to turn hostile. Spawn followers I think are fine.

QuestingBots can spawn squads. When trying to pick up a follower who is part of a squad it can end up with the squad following you but only he is responsive to your commands.

The "Pause" mod can result in your followers no longer having any footsteps sound.

Mods that change static loot containers can cause issues with Knight's Quests. If you reach the "They robbed us" quest but you are not able to find the quest item, remove such mod until you complete that quest.

Known Issues:

Be careful with teleportation. You can teleport a bot while he is trying to open your door. This will break the bot, the only way to restore him is to get him to open another door. You can also end up having the followers running and ducking until they reach the player if you use teleportation too much. Go within the follow range (~12 meters) to snap them out of it

When followers use grenades, they do not check the impact radius in order to avoid you.

Followers can end up stuck after throwing a grenade. Use the "fix heal" command to attempt to un-stuck them. (this is an ongoing issue, I try to fix it with every release, but it happens randomly with no clear indication thus making really hard to find the cause). You have the config option of disabling the use of grenades entirely if you find this too problematic.

In very rare cases, your follower can end up stuck in a healing animation and there is no way to restore him. A way to avoid that is to notice if he keeps healing after combat while the health does not seem to go up. Use the "fix heal" command to fully heal him and prevent the bug from happening.

Sometimes followers will not heal a black limb. Use the "fix heal" command to fully restore their health.

"Bad Guy" and "Friendly PMC side" flags do not guarantee every PMC will be friendly or hostile. The new PMC karma system can still affect the bots. But, it would be 1-2 per raid that can end up not obeying these flags.

Bots can sometimes pick up an enemy that they never saw or heard. Use the "Attention" command to reset. In some cases, you have to actually take the enemy out as they keep reacquiring him. (this is not fixable, this is part of the game's detection logic and you can't have workarounds without breaking the logic altogether)

Bots follow in a straight line and can end up intersecting with one another. Yes, that is the navigation logic of the game and cannot be resolved.

Map transit won't work while having followers

Not quite yet...