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Not to be confused with Dog.
Huge dog
Creatures huge dog
Location
Crop field
Silent Forest - Random
Silent Forest Hideout
Old Woods - Random
Old Woods Hideout
Church Basement
Doctor's House (determinant)
Swamp - Random
Swamp Hideout
Ruins
Behavior Aggressive Carnivore
Attack type Melee
Drops Odd meat
Health 45
Running Speed Walk - 4
Sprint - ? (Fast)
Stamina 50
View Distance 300
Damage 21
Notes 3 second sniffing before attacking.
Able to vault obstacles.
Can be baited with Meat.
Release Initial release

The Huge Dog is an aggressive creature in Darkwood. It is the mutated, much more vicious variant of the normal dog.

Huge dogs tend to roam the Silent Forest and the Old Woods in random places, but one can be encountered early on in the Dry Meadow should a certain crop field be thoroughly investigated. They often spawn near the Silent Forest Hideout and sometimes the Old Woods Hideout and the Swamp Hideout during the night phase. One huge dog with a broken chain on it can be found in one of the ruins in the Swamp.

Characteristics[]

Huge dogs are tougher, stronger, faster, and more aggressive than dogs, their more domesticated counterpart, but they possess less stamina and are much less flexible as a result of their mutation. They are incredibly dangerous carnivores that attack on sight and can lunge over fences without losing momentum, so the player may still end up receiving damage even if running away from a huge dog due to its high speed. They are also able to quickly detect things through doors and walls by smelling.

Unlike normal dogs that occasionally bark and growl, these mutated ones only make noise when detecting an enemy nearby. Despite having a slightly shorter view distance than dogs, huge dogs appear to be able to sense things from further away and will stop dead in their tracks to assess their surroundings while growling demonically should there be a presence nearby. Once they have spotted an enemy within their view distance, they will growl loudly before pouncing on it. They have a lunge attack where they run toward their prey and make a swift, long leap for the bite that deals 21 damage.

Huge dogs have an inventory space of 2 slots and drop a piece of odd meat when killed.

Strategies[]

  • It can be too risky to engage huge dogs without experience, proper preparation, or access to firearms.
  • Fights with multiple huge dogs at once are ill-advised without fully securing the hideout during the night or having access to high-tier firearms.
  • Huge dogs, like other carnivores, can be lured but not distracted by throwing some meat onto the ground.
  • Despite their size and ferociousness, huge dogs are rather stealthy predators. It may already be too late for an unsuspecting player to avoid getting damaged by their attack once their growl is heard.
  • Dodging a huge dog's attack can prove a little tricky for inexperienced players as its lunge attack is much quicker than the dog's bite attack. To accurately time the dodge, start sprinting left or right as soon as the huge dog gets into position at the optimal distance (which is quite short) to lunge in for the attack and just before it makes the jump.
  • Because of their poor mobility along with their low stamina, huge dogs take more time to adjust themselves after every attack and cannot keep attacking for long before they are forced to slow down to regain stamina. This makes it easy to outrun them if the player manages to dodge their attacks more than once for they will attempt to clumsily turn their body around for another attack or be forced to walk due to exertion, during which the player can safely sprint away.
  • Unlike dogs, huge dogs perform their attack by throwing themselves on an enemy, which also causes them to travel a fair distance forward in the process. The player can take advantage of this by kiting huge dogs into environmental hazards (like poisonous mushrooms) or a bear trap, the latter of which can instantly kill one.
  • An alerted huge dog can be sneaked up from behind under specific conditions, though it is unknown whether this is a bug and therefore not guaranteed to happen every time.
    • After successfully dodging the huge dog's attack and sprinting a certain distance away from it, there is a chance for the beast not to turn its body around and instead be completely motionless. At this point, the huge dog will not be able to smell anything and can be approached safely from behind. It will revert back to its aggressive state, however, if physical contact with it is made or something gets in its sight. Its behavior may reset if the player goes too far away from it.
    • It is possible to detect the huge dog from a far-enough distance that it will begin scanning for threats but not yet attack. It can then be flanked from behind by keeping a good distance from it while slowly walking around it, though this can be hard to perform as the huge dog's sight may still follow the player's movement if the distance is not far enough.
  • The best weapon for a one-on-one fight with a huge dog is a sharpened axe as only one hit can potentially kill it.
  • A few strategies for dealing with dogs may still prove useful against huge dogs.

Trivia[]

  • The huge dog is labeled as "Dog Mutated" in the game files.
  • A huge dog may appear in the Doctor's House if one of these two scenarios plays out: the Doctor's dog was not put out of its misery during the Prologue or the player has chosen to skip the Prologue upon starting a new game. Either way, it is implied that the dog was infected with the Plague and could undergo a full transformation into a huge dog if left undealt with.

Gallery[]

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