Kickaha87

Set Leadership skills/Inspiration to 60 points: Companion skill bonus to Player skills + 100%.

I have increased the Science skill with 10 points at each new level until I reached 100. I liked the increase in damage for plasma and shock and the reduction in tinkering cost to -90%. Weapons and armor can be leveled up with tinkering up to +5 from your current player level. So you have to get higher level weapons and armor at a higher player level and upgrade with tinkering (instead of keeping and upgrading the weapons you already have). E.g. a Dead-Eye assault Rifle II upgrading from a start level of 27 to level 35 (at player level 30 i.e. MAX) can be done at reasonable tinkering costs. Using Shock ammunition you can kill a trooper with 1 or 2 shots and a commander with 2 or 3 shots. Also a plasma rifle can be upgraded to a damage level of 350 or higher for killing beasts.

Leadership consists of Inspiration and Determination. On Supernova the companions can die, so to make them more resilient I have set Determination to 100 (When companions kill an enemy, they gain 50% health). Inspiration set to 60 (Companion skill bonus to player skills +100%) to efficiently use skills for e.g. dialogues or stealth without increasing the skill points of your own. There are no diminishing returns but it will take some levels to get Determination to 100 skill points (which you could use for other skills). It is a choice how you want to play the game from the beginning of course.