Dog

For the stronger variant, see Huge Dog.

Dog
Location
My Cottage Dry Meadow - Spawns randomly Dry Meadow's camp Dry Meadow's rocks Burned houses Dry Meadow Hideout at night Silent Forest - Spawns rarely Piotrek's house - Garage's backroom Barn Ruins
Behavior	Passive Carnivore
Attack type	Melee
Drops	Meat
Health	20
Running Speed	Walk - 2 Sprint - 10
Stamina	90
View Distance	450
Damage	15
Notes	5 second barking before attacking. 3 second sniffing before attacking. Can be baited with meat.
Release	Initial release

The Dog is a passive creature in Darkwood. It is the first entity to be encountered in the game during the Prologue while playing as the Doctor in his cottage.

Dogs constantly roam over the Dry Meadow and rarely the Silent Forest in random places and predetermined locations. They may spawn near the Dry Meadow Hideout during the night phase. One particular lone dog who is referred to as "the beast" by Piotrek resides in the backroom of the garage at his house in the Silent Forest. They have an inventory space of 2 slots and drop one piece of meat upon death.

Being territorial animals, dogs will attack other creatures that cross paths with them. They may also howl to attract nearby dogs to come help them. Dogs behave differently toward their target depending on the distance between both parties. They also have a keen sense of smell, capable of sniffing out anything out of sight if close by in less than 3 seconds.

Dogs met during the day do not attack on sight; instead, they stay in place while barking and growling when spotting something within their view distance. They will start attacking if the target stays within their view distance for longer than 5 seconds or gets too close within their attack range. They attack by sprinting toward their target then going in for the bite that deals 15 damage. At night, dogs spawning near the hideout are always aggressive and will attack on sight.

From the Silent Forest onwards, dogs are mostly supplanted by Huge Dogs, their stronger and more aggressive variant.

Strategies

• A dog's attack can be interrupted by a successful hit from a melee weapon that can interrupt attacks. Once engaged, a dog can be kited by walking backwards and attacking when it is within range or by dodging/sprinting out of the way of its lunging attack, effectively looping it around as a result.
• Attacking a dog with a throwing weapon such as a stone will instantly trigger it to attack, but only if it is unaware of the player's presence. If it has spotted the player and begins to bark, it will not attempt to move or dodge attacks while doing so, rendering it an easy target. This tactic can be repeated to reset the 5 second aggro timer.
• The player can scare away a pack of dogs by shooting a firearm.
• Like most creatures, dogs can only focus on a single target at a time and do not get distracted from that target. It is possible to direct their attention toward another creature to have them fight each other using throwing weapons.
• With enough stamina, dogs can be outrun, after which their behavior and target priority will reset.
• As dogs are carnivores, they can be lured by a piece of meat.
• Dogs are the main source of meat, so it can be hard to find some in later game when dogs are rarely found.

Trivia

• Before Alpha 6.0, dogs became peaceful once the "Animals are less aggressive" skill was learned and would even follow the player around for a limited amount of time.
• In the Barn Ruins, there are several dogs with greatly swollen bellies lying prostrate on the floor either due to infestation or advanced pregnancy.
• The Protagonist has a pet dog, Szurek. Szurek can be briefly seen in the Epilogue, and the only available interaction with him is petting him. It should be noted that Szurek is the real-life pet of the game's developers, Acid Wizard Studios, and therefore his presence in the game may be more of an Easter egg rather than canon.
• Dogs have a unique sprite for getting bear-trapped.

Gallery

A dog, as seen in-game.

Ditto, dead.

An infested dog.

Another infested dog.

Yet another infested dog.