Dogmeat (Fallout 4)

Dogmeat, initially named just Dog, is a dog residing in the Commonwealth . He is a possible companion of the Sole Survivor.
==Background==
A typical Commonwealth canine, though distinctly unlike a mongrel, Dogmeat is noted as being capable of tracking a man's scent for miles. While he doesn't really have an owner, he is a loyal and faithful companion to those he accompanies, according to Mama Murphy; she states that Dogmeat "is his own man."
Prior to the Sole Survivor waking up in Vault 111 in 2287, Dogmeat apparently had assisted Nick Valentine on a number of cases and the detective thought of him as a "specialist". Later, Dogmeat was either with, or later joined Preston Garvey and his group of settlers fleeing from Quincy after the Quincy Massacre. After they reached Concord, Dogmeat apparently split off during or prior to the raider attack by Gristle and is searching around the Red Rocket truck stop near Sanctuary Hills when he meets the Sole Survivor.
Later in 2287, Dogmeat traveled to Diamond City where the Sole Survivor and Nick Valentine enlisted his keen sense of smell to track Conrad Kellogg across the Commonwealth until finding his stronghold at Fort Hagen.
==Interactions with the player character==
===Interactions overview===
===Other interactions===
* When first encountered at the Red Rocket truck stop, an objective entitled "Greet the dog" will appear in the "Miscellaneous" section of the "Quests" tab in the player character's Pip-Boy. The objective is completed when the player character first initiates a "conversation" with Dogmeat.
* Like with every companion character, the player character can command Dogmeat to do certain tasks, such as commanding him to go to a certain location of their choosing or fetching a specific item for the player character. 
====Equipment====
Dogmeat can be equipped with a variety of cosmetic items, according to the type of item, into four distinct slots. These slots are: "eyes," "headband," "neck" and "torso." However, none of the items (including any "armor") provide any actual protection for Dogmeat, though they do take up inventory weight.
Equipment 	Dog equipment slot	Location
Welding goggles 	Eyes 	Abundant
Dog helmet 	Headband 	Heavy armored dog at Hyde ParkArmored Dog at Thicket Excavations
Spiked muzzle 	Headband 	Attack dogs
Dog collar 	Neck 	Attack dogs
Double dog collar 	Neck 	Attack dogs
Chain dog collar 	Neck 	Attack dogs
Spiked dog collar 	Neck 	Attack dogs
Reinforced dog collar 	Neck 	Attack dogs
Red bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Blue bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Gunner's camo bandana 	Neck 	Can be found by killing attack dogs
Gunner's green bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Jangles bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Leopard print bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Skull bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Stars and Stripes bandana	Neck 	Abundant
Striped bandana 	Neck 	Abundant
Light dog armor 	Torso 	Attack dogs
Dog armor 	Torso 	Attack dogs
Heavy dog armor 	Torso 	Attack dogs
===Effects of player's actions===
* When first met at the Red Rocket truck stop, Dogmeat's name is simply "Dog" and remains that way until one either enters the Museum of Freedom during When Freedom Calls and talks to Mama Murphy or, if Dogmeat was not met, he will be called by Nick Valentine with a whistle during Getting a Clue, at which point he will be called Dogmeat.
* By reading the Astoundingly Awesome Tales issue "Have Dog, Will Travel!", the Sole Survivor can boost Dogmeat with a perk that reduces damage by 10%.
====Range of interests====
Dogmeat loves the Sole Survivor unconditionally and thus is neither negatively nor positively influenced by their actions. Apart from add-on-specific companions and temporary followers during quests, he is the only companion who is considered to be truly neutral.
==Notes==
* During Reunions, dismissing Dogmeat after finding Fort Hagen will make him stay there until the end of the quest, regardless of the location the player asks him to go.
* Dogmeat is the only companion with an associated perk (Attack Dog) that must be unlocked via raising one's level and using perk points instead of raising Affinity.
* When the player character is rebuilding a settlement, they can place a doghouse for him to stay in. If he is dismissed to a settlement before that he will go and live in or around one of the existing dog houses.
* Dogmeat can be healed during battle if a stimpak is used on him when he is down. 
* Dogmeat is able to "fetch," detecting the surrounding for the choice of items, enemies or containers. Upon finding something, Dogmeat will either stand in front of the item (if on the floor), bite the enemy (triggers enemy detection) or pull out the items from the container. If told to fetch an item near Custom House Tower, he will run to a rubble pile near some existing mannequins in the display windows and pull out random hats. One of these hats can apparently be the lieutenant's hat or Captain Ironsides' hat.
* When traveling with Dogmeat, he may occasionally detect enemies and containers on his own without being asked to do so by the Sole Survivor, which prompts the player character with messages such as "Dogmeat found something," when he finds a container or "Dogmeat found an enemy," when he detects enemy presence nearby.
* Upon detecting containers or enemies, no matter if told to or otherwise, Dogmeat will react accordingly: he growls if an enemy is detected and keeps doing so while he tracks them, or, when he finds a container, gives the player character a warning bark, runs towards it, and then happily stomps his front paws, while pointing his head to whatever he has found.
** If not able to reach a container he found, he will still point his head towards the direction of what he found, giving the player character a hint on chests, trunks and other containers with valuable loot usually placed in the top of buildings.
* despite being considered a companion, the benefits of Lone Wanderer still apply if one travels with Dogmeat.
* If sent to wait at the Red Rocket truck stop where he is first met, one of Dogmeat's idle animations is putting his front legs on certain objects, like the hole in the pillars. Other dogs encountered, such as the one sold by Gene, will also do this.
* If Dogmeat is sent back to a settlement (by dismissal) and is then asked to trade, the Sole Survivor will refer to him by his real name, regardless of whether they know it yet.
* Dogmeat does not count as a settler when in a settlement and will not respond to the "Settler Rally" bell. He will stay wherever he is at the time, likely near the closest doghouse.
* If entering the "Command" menu while crouched, the Sole Survivor will whisper to Dogmeat. If entering after telling Dogmeat to stay and being a fair distance from him, they will shout and whistle.
* When not in combat, Dogmeat will occasionally pull out a teddy bear and will chew on it and throw it into the air, playing with it. The teddy bear will not be "consumed" and remain in his inventory for storage. This happens regardless of whether Dogmeat has a teddy bear in his inventory or not.
* If an ally of any faction is killed, Dogmeat will give a "mournful howl," as called by subtitles.
* When listening to Arthur Maxson's speech aboard the Prydwen, Dogmeat will walk to the center of the room and will be unable to be interacted with for its duration. Once Maxson finishes it with his "Ad Victoriam" salute, Dogmeat will perform his "bunny trick."
* Dogmeat appears in Fallout Shelter as a legendary German Shepherd.
* When engaged in combat against humanoid enemies, Dogmeat can trigger a variety of melee moves during the fight, such as a limb bite move, which he uses to hold an enemy in place by biting their limbs, which works with humans, synths, super mutants and feral ghouls, and a neck bite finishing move, which can eventually trigger when he engages a human enemy with health low enough to be instantly killed by his attacks, on which he jumps and knocks them down to finally kill them with a deadly neck bite.
* Dogmeat has the highest stealth compared to other companions.
* He is the only dog of the German Shepherd breed to appear in the game, making him unique among other canines in the Commonwealth.
** Despite appearing to be a purebred German Shepherd, a few companions including Deacon, Cait and Codsworth will refer to Dogmeat as a mutt, usually when he is injured.
==Appearances==
This version of Dogmeat appears , , , and .
==Behind the scenes==
* Dogmeat is modeled after River, a female German Shepherd who was the pet of Joel and Michelle Burgess.Michelle Burgess on Twitter
** After River passed away in June 2021, Joel Burgess wrote a Twitter thread talking about River's role in development. Dogmeat was designed as a companion first and a combat ally second, which is why Bethesda chose a more personable dog than a professionally-trained one. Much of Dogmeat's in-game behavior was inspired by River, who would attend meetings and hang out with the team during development, in addition to providing modeling references and audio. Dogmeat's brown eyes are replications of River's own eyes. Dogmeat's walking behavior, and emphasis on stalling enemies rather than direct damage were all inspired by River.Joel Burgess on Twitter (see full thread for further references)
** Dogmeat's item-fetching and seeking functionality, developed by Jon Paul Duvall and Jay Woodward, among others, was inspired by River's tendency to retrieve large objects as a show of affection.
* Dogmeat's ability to wear dog armor, bandanas and other clothing items was developed by Mark Teare and Ryan Sears."Decorating Dogmeat" on Mark Teare's Tumblr
* Joel Burgess stated that Dogmeat is "trapped out of time" and "does not belong" in 2287, just like the Sole Survivor. As such, Dogmeat's origin is intentionally left vague, with differing clues in-game, so players can develop their own theories about his past.
* Originally, the Sole Survivor was going to be able to have a full-fledged companion (such as Nick Valentine) as well as Dogmeat as a "pet" companion simultaneously, for a total of 2 companions, like with Fallout 3's version or ED-E/Rex in Fallout: New Vegas. However, the concept was scrapped due to the risk of the system breaking during gameplay. Dialogues revolving around this system (such as companions commenting when Dogmeat is hurt, Nick Valentine: "Damn. You have any Stims? Dogmeat's hurt."(Nick Valentine's companion dialogue) or Vault 81's security asking about "what about his/her friend and dog?") are still left in the game's files.
==Bugs==
* In Survival mode, when Dogmeat is downed there is no quest marker to heal him as there is with other companions. 
* In Survival mode, Dogmeat's carry weight is set as 25 by default, and will be increased to 150 when Dogmeat has a piece of equipment on (i.e. any bandana, armor, or dog collar). Welding goggles do not count. 
==Gallery==
===Fallout 4===
DogFO4.png|Dogmeat in the Fallout 4 trailer
Fo4-stand-concept.jpg|A Brotherhood paladin, the Sole Survivor, Dogmeat and Preston Garvey.
FO4 charactercomp thumb06.png|Portrait
Dogmeat equipped items.jpg|Dogmeat with equipped items
Fo4 Dogmeat's trick.png|"Bunny" trick
Fo4 dogs apparel.png|Dogmeat with all four equipment apparel slots in use: welding goggles, dog helmet, chain dog collar and heavy dog armor
Dogmeat in doghouse.jpg|Dogmeat in a doghouse
FO4 Loading Screen Dogmeat.png|Dogmeat sitting on the loading screen
FO4 ending scene3 05.jpg|Dogmeat in an endings slide
===Fallout: Wasteland Warfare===
Fo-promo-dogmeat.png|Dogmeat in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
WastelandWarfareDogmeatcard.png|Unit card
FOWW,DogmeatGuardDog.jpg|Dogmeat guard dog
FOWW,DogmeatGuardDogUnitCard.jpg
Fo-promo-dogmeat-goggles.jpg|Dogmeat scout
FOWW,DogmeatScoutUnitCard.jpg
FOWW,HeroesOfSanctuaryHillsSet.webp
FOWW,HeroesOfSanctuaryHillsSetOverview.webp
===Fallout Shelter Online===
FSO UI C ShopIcon Dogmeat.png|Dogmeat's hero card in Fallout Shelter Online
FSO UITex YS C Bg HeroShare gourou.png|Dogmeat's maxed hero card in Fallout Shelter Online
FSO Dogmeat Splash 1.gif
FSO Dogmeat Loop 1.gif
FSO Dogmeat Splash 2.gif
FSO Dogmeat Loop 2.gif
===Magic: The Gathering===
Fallout Magic Scrappy Survivors Red-Green-White deck.png|Scrappy Survivors Red-Green-White deck
Fallout Magic Dog Meat Scrappy Survivors Packaging Art.jpg|Packaging Art
Fallout Magic Dogmeat, Ever Loyal.png|Dogmeat, Ever Loyal
Fallout Magic Dogmeat, Ever Loyal (Etched Foil).jpg|(Etched Foil)
Fallout Magic Dogmeat, Ever Loyal (Showcase Pip-Boy).png|(Showcase Pip-Boy)
Fallout Magic Island full art Sole Survivor.png|Island
Fallout Magic Swamp full art Sole Survivor.png|Swamp
Fallout Magic Mountain full art Sole Survivor.png|Mountain
Fallout Magic Forest full art Sole Survivor.png|Forest
Fallout Magic Basilisk Collar.png|Basilisk Collar
Fallout Magic Basilisk Collar Extended Art.png|Basilisk Collar (Extended Art)
==External links==
*Dogmeat on Wikipedia
==References==
Category:Dog characters
Category:Fallout 4 animal characters
Category:Fallout 4 companions
Category:Fallout Shelter characters
Category:Fallout: Wasteland Warfare characters
Category:Fallout Shelter Online characters
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