When you make your custom characters, at least 1 should have max Charisma.So your full party size is six (not four), two of whom must be Companions, and you should plan your Skill distribution across all six characters accordingly. Very early in the game you'll get 2 Companions, Luca and Kwon, who you can respec however you want when you save some more money (though they don't get Quirks).You can just come back to HQ and swap out whoever you need for these skills just when you need them. Now you don't have to take these Skills on anyone in your main party. You can then keep the two Punk Lovers at HQ, and have one max Weapon Modding and Armor Modding, and the other max Barter and Toaster Repair (though this is useful in the late game for a Fire focused character, you won't likely have enough Skills points to get 7 Toaster, 10 Weird Science, and a 10 in a weapon skill until mid game). After you complete the Tutorial, you can create 2 custom characters for free, and 2 more at a low cost after just an hour or two of playing and selling loot.She'll tell you to offer cigarettes to Major Tomcat, a unique pet near the end of the tutorial.
During the tutorial, you can use Hard Ass or Kiss Ass to save Jodie.I suggest Punk Lovers, for 10% crit chance and +4% Strike Rate (which doesn't seem important but is actually uber).
A lot of the online articles/guides/wiki have incorrect information or offer bad advice, because they were written before various patch updates.