Dog

*This is about New Lands & Two Crowns.*

The **dog** is a small companion that helps the Monarch to foresee where the greed are coming from by barking in that direction. The dog does not engage in any form of combat, much like villagers and farmers.

## Barking

As soon as a portal opens, the dog will stare in that direction.
When the first monsters come out of that portal, the dog will start barking towards there.
When the Greed gets closer to the Monarch, the dog will hide behind the Ruler, and keep barking.

This behavior is especially useful just before one-sided waves.
It's the easiest way of knowing where these waves are coming from.

Rulers without a dog on Blood Moon days can use the scouting tactic in order to have that information.
On counterattack waves however, when there isn't enough time before the raid to check the portals, this is not possible.
The dog is the only way of knowing which side of the Kingdom a retaliation wave will hit.

On regular nights, when the Greed is attacking from both sides of the Kingdom, the dog will bark in one direction first (usually towards the nearest portal), proceeding to turn and bark in the other afterwards.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* –
Around dusk, as a form of last creepy warning received before an incoming Blood Moon wave, instead of simply barking, the dog howls.

## Unlocking

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>  | Dog is the real MVP.—Angelica  | „
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Dog is the real MVP.Angelica
The dog is found stuck under a fallen tree within a forests. Dropping a coin on the tree, breaks it and frees the dog, who will follow the Monarch from that point on, even between lands by boarding the boat as it sets sail. The coin used remains on the ground and can be recovered right away.

 *Kingdom: New Lands* – The dog can be unlocked by paying for the signpost on the second island. Thereafter, a new dog will be found under a tree in all next islands.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – The dog is only found and released on the second island. Revisiting this island with the same Monarch won't make a new dog appear.

## Keeping it safe

If the Monarch crosses an active portal, a greedling may spawn just when the pup reaches the portal and take him. To prevent that, one should avoid exploring behind portals after midday or follow one of these strategies (listed from the slow-costly-safe on top, towards the fast-cheap-risky on bottom):

* stop before the portal, drop a coin, wait for a greedling to pick it up, then run past the portal. 【  】This is slower and may trigger more than one greedling if the dog takes too long to come.

* drop one or two coins at the portal without stopping. 【  】This is faster, but inexperienced Monarchs may feel uncomfortable with. Dropping two coins, one just before, and the other just after the portal hole, makes it ultra safe. If ever a greedling comes out, it would be forced to take one of the two coins and go back to the portal, before trying to take the dog.

* with a very fast mount (for example, the stag) just run, run, and drop no coins. 【  】This will work if the mount is fast enough to not trigger a portal reaction. If the dog is so far behind, that it cannot be seen on the screen (and even takes sometime to reach the Monarch after they have stopped), it's a good sign that the mount is fast enough for this method to be successfully used.

## Kidnapped

The dog can be kidnapped by a greedling, that will try and flee with it into a portal.
It is possible though to save the dog if military units or a mount with an aggressive ability can neutralize the greedling before it crosses the portal goo.
If the dog is taken away, a new one won't appear on that land.

 *Kingdom: New Lands* – A new dog will be found in every new island, even if the Monarch already brings a dog with them. Freeing the newer animal though will result in the old dog running away and disappearing. A kidnapped dog can not be rescued.

## Rescue

*This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.*
Besides killing the greedling that stole the dog, there are other two ways to get the dog back. The first one is to lose the Crown (or Crowns if playing in co-op) and then to go back to the second island to free a new dog stuck under the trunk. The second way is to destroy the cave with a bomb on the island the dog was kidnapped. If the Monarch escapes the explosion, they will find the stolen dog in front of the destroyed cave, along with any hermits and gems that may likewise have been stolen on that island.

## More than one dog

If the Monarch already has a dog the moment they free a new one from under the trunk, the older dog will wander around for awhile, and will eventualy run away, to be gone forever.

 *Kingdom: New Lands* – After unlocking the feature, this can be seen on all lands, since there will be a poor dog stuck in every new island.

 *Kingdom Two Crowns* – A second dog around the Monarch should be seen if the Monarch loses the dog to the Greed, then their Crown, then the Heir releases a new dog from the trunk, and rescues the older one by bombing the cave.
However this doesn't seem to be the only way of getting more than one dog, and sometimes, for unknown reasons several dogs can be seen following the Monarch.

## Wolf pup

*For the wolf cub and its own characteristics, see: Dire Island § Wolf pup.*
## Trivia

* There is a humorous visual glitch, where the dog normally jumps on to the boat last second, when departing. However, if the Monarch can get a large distance from the dog (via rebuilt portals or very quick mounts), the dog will leap an enormous amount and seemingly in a flash it is on the boat.

## History

Version 1.0.1 (*Xbox* and *PS4*) – There was no way to recover the dog.
This problem however has probably been fixed, as players haven't posted about that in the past few years.

## References

1. ↑ **“***The main purpose of the dog, the big reason, was during the Blood Moons, during the day, once the portal spawns (because it's random where it will come from), they'd bark in the direction that the Greed were coming from. So it was a way for you to kind of know where they're coming from, so you could run to the correct side, if you wanted to back up your troops.***”**—developer Gordon on Jack plays Kingdom Two Crowns with the Game Director! First look! (at 44m 33s). *Youtube*. 9 December 2018.
2. ↑ Developer Angelica on a Steam post. 16 September, 2020.
3. ↑ As seen in this video, where the lizard is used (three times!) to burn greedlings that try to take the dog away, in a Shogun co-op campaign (*Two Crowns* v. 1.1.3). October 2020.
4. ↑ *Reddit* posts from December 2018 to June 2022:
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5. ↑ Pretty sure the greed ate my dog. 2 May 2019.