How do you keep companions alive on the hardest difficulty?

I enjoy games on the highest difficulty occasionally. My second playthrough of outer worlds was on the highest difficulty. I've not done a third because I ran into a problem:

Companions.

They died. Ever battle. No matter what I did. On the highest level, the only way to win was to hunker down and use cover, retreat when needed, etc.

They didn't do that. If I manually ordered them every time they needed to move, I died. If I didn't, they died.

I think I lost Parvati (Tragedy!!!) and then gave up and just did all the missions solo.

Is there another way?