WARNING SPOILERS

When you start of a new character in West of Loathing and get to Boring Springs, there are a few people you can choose from to take with you on your adventure. In this guide, I will be giving you step by step instructions on how to get a goblin named Gary as a partner.

EVERYTHING BOLDED IS IMPORTANT for thoses who want to skim through this guide.

When you fall off the turnip cart, the first thing you want to do is GO INTO THE BAR. you can talk to everyone if you like but talk to the bartender about errands and accept the job Then, talk to the hostler and go into the cellar and grab the alcahol. DO NOT FIGHT THE GOBLIN OR YOU WILL KILL YOUR SOON TO BE FRIEND! You can also find a newspaper for Cactus Bill.

Then go to the barn and you can ask the hostler some stuff. talk to him again about his injuries. Also don’t forget to look through haystacks to get some very useful needles.
go back to the bar's cellar and talk to the goblin. Introduce yourself to Gary
Then go to the nurse' house. It’s the one with the boarded up window. talk to her, enter, and give her the alcohol. Then look at the book shelf and read all the books. You should get a perk called Goblintongue which allows you to talk to goblins. You can also use her mirror for free xp.

You can now do everything else in the prolog (DO NOT TAKE THE HARD HAT). When you leave, you can choose to take Gary (the goblin) with you on your adventure! You can still do every other quest you can normally do with the exception of the bartenders quest and getting the Hard Hat at level 40 of the mine.

Gary is a funny and useful companion and can help you with random encounters and points out where all the goblin related areas on the map are. In combat he can reproduce making weak goblin minions to fight for you, or he can also do a melee attack with low-mid damage. If you're playing this game for the comedy or like trying to talk yourself out of battles, Gary is the right partner for you, but if you want the advantage during fights, he isn't recommended as he is quite weak.

This is (to my knowlage) the first guide of how to get the companion Gary in game.
~JACOBDOGGIE