Since the early days of theHunter there has been an important part missing in the hunting experience: Dogs. It has been brought up as a possible feature for the game countless times but circumstances where never quite right. Until now.

With adding dogs to theHunter we have two different roles for them in mind. First, perhaps the most important one, is to add to the immersion of the game. Having a dog with you who reacts to the surroundings and to yourself is something that intensifies the hunting experience. What we want to give you is the experience of the hunter and the dog – a companionship going back in time to as long as some ten thousand years or more. If we could even slightly tap into that ancient human-canine bond the hunting immersion would increase significantly. This is what we’ve tried to achieve here. So not everything about the dog has to do about gameplay: It is more an enhancement of the hunting experience.

Second role that the dog plays is, obviously, an aid to the hunter in the game. In real life it is an arduous task to go fetch a downed mallard through waist deep water. The task may not be as tough in theHunter but the dog will at least let you focus on the shooting.

Why retriever (or a specific dog type at all)?

When we were looking around in the different dog threads over the forums and asked our trusted hunting experts, the first dog type that would come up in almost all cases was a bird retrieving dog. Our decision to make one was solely based on this. Many has also suggested a more “multitalented” dog that could, for instance, track as well as retrieve. Although we considered making dogs that could do multiple tasks, it quickly became obvious that it developing an easy-to-use interaction (GUI) system for a dog that could flush, retrieve, track and partake in driven hunts would be impossible. It was also difficult to find a suitable breed to base such a multitalented dog on. So, we decided to focus on specialized dogs instead.

Impact of the dog on the game

The retriever is much more of an experience and a convenience addition rather than a game changer. You won’t have to zip around fetching a whole bunch of birds; you can let your dog do the work while you keep an eye on the skies. The dog has no real impact on missions or competitions either since the hunting is still done by you.

How it works

Taking a dog with you on a hunt is simple: Just drag it out from the lodge or tent inventory and place into the dog slot in your own inventory. It will spawn next to you once you close the inventory screen. If this is the first time you bring your dog with you, you will be prompted to give it a name (choose wisely, as it is not possible to rename your dog, at least for now!) Once you leave the lodge or tent area you won’t be able to unequip the dog (try putting a labrador into a backpack and see how that goes). You can access a set of dog commands by pressing the V-button. While holding V, simply select the command you want to give your dog with the left mouse button. Play around with different commands and see how your dog behaves – it’s a lot of fun!

Experience

When you first purchase a dog, it is inexperienced and a bit rowdy (same as in real life). It may have some issues obeying and following commands, but the more time it spends out hunting with you, the better it gets at understanding what you want it to do. If the dog does not understand or chooses to ignore a command, a small icon with a question mark in the bottom left corner is shown. If the dog understands the command then an icon with an exclamation mark will be shown. Better experience will also make your dog calmer and more focused – it will make less noise, ignore other dogs more easily and be less prone to bark at animals close by. Yes, your lab will spook other animals but who wants to see a dog walking through a group of Whitetails who leisurely continue with their grazing? Your dog has 50 levels and each new level comes with a skill increase or a small gift. Leveling up is fairly quick in the beginning but will slowly become tougher and tougher. You can see your dog’s experience and level, as well as its stamina state, in the right corner of the screen when you bring up the commands menu.

Once your dog reach level 50 it will be the perfect hunting companion: Quiet, focused and efficient. It’ll do everything but shoot the birds for you.

Stamina

Each performed command reduces your dog’s stamina a little. This doesn’t have much impact on how long your dog can work with you, but a lower stamina means it can gain less experience, such as a tired dog learns a bit less than a well rested one. Letting your dog mind its own business will regenerate its stamina.

Skills

On your dog’s profile page you’ll see two sets of icons: one set governs basic dog skills called Loyalty skills, the other set is specific for retrieving dogs. The number in the upper left corner shows which level your dog is at on that particular skill. Each skill starts out on level 1. All retriever skills have maximum 3 levels but some of the Loyalty skills have more than that. To get information about what each skill does, just hover the mouse over the skill icon.

Make sure to watch this short tutorial video to see it all in action.

Now go and do it!