Companion Dogs: Breed Manual

A guide to every breed: what each one does best, the moodles, the traits, and how to pick the right one for your game.

To learn how the mod works (taming, commands, food, saddlebags, tricks, hunting), see the other manual: Features.

The numbers in this manual assume the default options. What a breed gives at birth counts in any configuration: base bite power, knockdown, nerve in a fight, exclusive moodle, saddlebag and litter size. Hiding the tricks is the option Obedience tricks.

1. What a breed actually changes

A breed touches seven things:

What does not change with the breed:

• Running speed. Every breed runs the same.
• Sentinel, scent and hunting range. These depend only on the skill level.
• The tricks. All four unlock by Obedience level, the same for every dog.
• Hunger and thirst. The rate is the same for every breed, Husky included (see its entry).
• Saddlebag capacity, except for the Husky.
• Body size. It is separate from Strength.

The cat is the exception. Beyond these seven things, it changes which jobs exist: it does not fight, does not mind livestock and only breeds with another cat. The interface does not even show the button.

Size and Strength are not the same thing

Strength is a gene. It raises bite damage by up to 30% and sets saddlebag capacity.

Body size comes from a gene of the game's own, which the mod neither rolls nor touches, plus the puppy's growth up to the adult size. Two dogs of the same breed can be different sizes with the same Strength, and the bigger one does not bite harder for it.

The breed sets both things at once, each on its own track: a German Shepherd is big and born strong, a Caramelo is small and born weak. An individual dog's Strength shows on the Strength bar, in the Traits section of the dog window.

One breed, one look

Each breed has one texture, and male and female use the same one. The five cats are five breeds, not one cat in five colours.

A puppy of any breed is born at the same reduced size and grows into the adult size of its breed.

2. Quick pick

One line each

3. The five breeds in the base mod

These come with the main mod, nothing else to install.

Caramelo

The mutt of the base mod.

The most basic breed in the game, not good at anything in particular and can't kill zombies, but very charismatic.

Where to find it: residential houses, in towns and neighbourhoods. 3% per house, the most common breed in the game.

Learns: everything at normal speed.

In a fight: it is the only dog that cannot finish a zombie off. Its bite takes the zombie to just short of dead and stops there, and no sandbox setting changes that.

It is also the most nervous dog in the mod: it builds combat stress five times faster than a German Shepherd and it is the first one to panic.

Traits: the weakest in the mod, Low in all three, always.

Litter: 2 to 4 puppies, the biggest in the mod. Saddlebag: 4 to 5 cargo, the smallest.

Moodle: Good Company

"The Caramelo is a wonderfully affectionate, charismatic mutt. Its loyal company lifts your spirits, so sadness and boredom fade faster while it's near."

It reduces Unhappiness and Boredom continuously while it stays close.

Who it is for: everyone, early on. Later it stays useful for its moodle, which no other breed has.

German Shepherd

The combat breed of the base mod.

A strong, intelligent dog. Learns Combat and Obedience quickly and gains little stress in a fight.

Where to find it: police stations, prisons, jails, military bases, barracks, gun stores and ammo rooms. 20% per building. In a residential house, 0.5% per house.

Learns: Combat at double speed and Obedience 50% faster. Hunting a bit faster too.

In a fight: the hardest bite in the base mod, and it kills a zombie on its own. It builds stress five times more slowly than the Caramelo, and its panic threshold is the highest in the mod.

Traits: Average in all three.

Litter: 1 to 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Moodle: Courage

A bold German Shepherd at your side steadies your nerves: its fearless presence eases your panic while it stays close.

It drives Panic down continuously. It is the strongest moodle by the numbers in the base mod. Panic hurts your aim and your melee.

Who it is for: anyone who fights up close, mostly in town.

The in-game description only says little stress: in numbers, it is a fifth of what the Caramelo builds up.

Golden Retriever

The scent breed of the base mod.

"A friendly, keen-nosed gun dog, learns Hunting faster, average fighter. Its nose helps you forage and track game from farther away."

Where to find it: residential houses, on a roll separate from the Caramelo. 1% per house, a third of the Caramelo's chance. One house can have both.

Learns: Hunting at double speed and Scent 50% faster. It is the breed that reaches Hunting level 6 earliest, which is when a dog starts taking on deer.

In a fight: average damage, kills on its own. It frays more than the Shepherd and less than the Caramelo.

Traits: a bit above the Caramelo, below the Shepherd.

Litter: 1 to 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 7.

Moodle: Keen Nose

"Your Golden Retriever works the ground with you. While it stays close, fed and loyal, you spot forage from farther away and learn Foraging, Trapping and Aiming faster."

Two effects:

• +20% XP in Foraging, Trapping and Aiming.
• +4 tiles on your Search Mode vision radius, on top of the bonus any dog already gives.

Who it is for: anyone living off hunting, foraging and trapping, usually from a rural base.

The in-game description does not say how much faster: it learns Hunting at double speed, and Combat at the same speed as the Caramelo.

Husky

"A hardy sled dog, by far the breed with the most raw strength, saddlebag weight buff and keeps you warm in the cold. Average fighter. Stubborn (slower to learn Obedience), gets hungry and thirsty faster."

Where to find it: two sources.

• Residential houses: 2.5% per house in winter and 0.2% all year round, on separate rolls.
• Pet shops and vet clinics, 10% per building, all year round. This is the reliable source.

Learns: Scent at double speed (the fastest Scent in the mod, tied with the Belgian Malinois), Hunting 50% faster and Combat a little above average. Obedience 20% more slowly, the only breed penalty among the dogs.

It takes longer to unlock the tricks, it stays disobedient for longer and its loyalty floor comes down more slowly.

In a fight: above average damage, kills on its own. It frays a lot more than a Shepherd.

Traits: the widest Strength range in the mod, by far: it often comes out High.

Litter: 1 to 2.

Saddlebag: 13 to 16 cargo. It is the only breed with a saddlebag bonus (+50%) and it carries two to three times more than any other dog.

Moodle: Warmed

"Your husky pulls its weight at your side. While it stays close, fed and loyal, keeping up with it builds your Strength faster and it helps you keep your wind, so you tire more slowly; and when the cold sets in, its thick coat keeps you warm."

Three effects:

• Strength rises 50% faster while it is nearby. Strength is the slowest skill in the game and it decides how much you carry and how hard you hit in melee.
• Endurance recovers continuously, so you tire more slowly.
• A walking heat source that switches on by itself once you start getting cold and off when you warm up. It only kicks in during real cold (below -3 °C outdoors) and counts for more the closer you stand to the dog. It softens the drop in your temperature, but it does not replace winter clothing.

The Strength gain applies to the XP you would earn anyway: it speeds up the training, it does not hand out XP on its own. It pays while you exercise, travel loaded or fight.

Who it is for: anyone who does long loot runs and comes back loaded, and anyone playing a heavy winter.

The description says it gets hungry and thirsty faster. Only hunger runs faster, and only while it is still a wild dog. Once tamed, its hunger and thirst run at the same rate as every other breed.

Border Collie

The herding breed of the base mod.

An intelligent herding dog. Buff for tending farm animals, but an average fighter.

Where to find it: barns, stables, silos, chicken coops and pens, out in the countryside. 15% per building. That roll ignores the urban filter, so a farm lost in the middle of nowhere counts. In a residential house, 0.5% per house.

Learns: Herding at double speed, Obedience 50% faster and Scent a little above average.

In a fight: average damage, same as the Golden. Kills on its own. It frays less than the Caramelo and a lot more than a Shepherd.

Traits: mid ranges, a little above the Golden.

Litter: 1 to 3, the second biggest in the base mod. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Its specialty is the calming aura: it gives 50% more per level than any other breed, both in the Care for animals here mode and in its moodle.

A stressed animal gives no milk or wool, miscarries and scatters.

Moodle: Herding Instinct

"Your border collie works the herd with you. While it stays close, fed and loyal, the animals around you settle down, and you learn Animal Care and Farming faster."

Two effects:

• +20% XP in Animal Care and Farming.
• Calms the livestock in a radius around you, automatically, while you work.

Who it is for: anyone building a farm with cows, sheep or chickens.

The farm buff in the in-game description is two things: Herding at double speed and the strongest calming aura in the mod.

4. The addon breeds

These come as separate mods on Steam and depend on the base Companion Dogs. The link for each one is in its entry below, and all of them together in Installing the addons.

Rottweiler

(mod CD: Rottweiler, separate addon)

A fighting breed with a moodle that gives endurance back in melee.

"A powerful guard dog bred for protection work, a true warrior on par with the German Shepherd: it learns Combat twice as fast, hits hard at high skill, knocks zombies down and keeps fighting where most breeds panic."

Where to find it:

• Industrial building (warehouse, self-storage unit, factory, workshop, shipping area): 30% per building.
• Residential house: 0.5% per house.

Learns: Combat at double speed and Scent 50% faster. It gets no Obedience bonus.

In a fight: it ties with the German Shepherd on bite and on nerve: it builds stress five times slower than the mutt and its panic point sits at the maximum. It knocks down and it kills.

Traits: the same as the German Shepherd's.

Litter: 1 to 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Moodle: Front Line

"Your Rottweiler is fighting at your side. While it is engaged in combat close to you, fed and loyal, your melee swings drain less endurance."

Gives back 35% of the endurance spent on each melee swing.

The icon shows up whenever the Rottweiler is nearby, but the effect only counts while it is actually fighting.

Who it is for: anyone who clears hordes in melee.

Doberman

(mod CD: Doberman, separate addon)

A fighting breed with a moodle built for firearms.

"A lean, watchful guard dog and the quickest study of any breed. In a fight it is all edge and no armour: weak while untrained, but at full Combat skill it bites hard, though it soaks up less punishment than a Rottweiler."

Where to find it:

• Police station: 18% per building.
• Military building (ammo store, barracks, bunker, guard post, checkpoint): 22% per building.
• Residential house: 0.5% per house.

Military buildings are rare on the game's base map (about five rooms like that in the whole of Kentucky). Look in police stations.

Learns: Combat at double speed and Obedience 50% faster, the same package as the German Shepherd.

In a fight: it has the steepest damage curve in the mod. Untrained it hits a lot softer than a Rottweiler; at Combat 10 it reaches the same top damage.

Strong nerve (panic point at the maximum), but it takes less punishment: its Resistance is the lowest among the fighting dogs.

Traits: the highest Aggressiveness range in the mod, which makes it earn combat XP faster still. Strength and Resistance a little below the Rottweiler.

Litter: 1 to 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Moodle: Steady Aim

"Your Doberman is watching your back. While it is nearby, fed and loyal, your stress drains away, your aim recovers faster after each shot and you reload more quickly."

Firearms only:

• Your stress drains continuously (high stress makes you aim worse).
• Recoil recovers 45% faster after each shot.
• Reloading is 15% faster.

Who it is for: anyone who plays with a gun.

The in-game description says it trains Obedience faster than even the German Shepherd and that at full Combat it bites harder than any other dog in the pack. Both are a tie: it matches the German Shepherd on Obedience and matches the Rottweiler on level 10 damage.

Labrador

(mod CD: Labrador, separate addon)

A hunting breed. The best dog for bringing kills back.

"A hunting dog built to bring it back: it trains Hunting twice as fast, with Obedience close behind. By design it is one of the worst fighters in the family: only the Pug bites weaker, no knockdown, and a brawl leaves it badly rattled. Its gift is its mouth."

Where to find it:

• Residential house: 1% per house, the same chance as the Golden.
• Out in the wild (hunting cabin, campsite, boathouse, fishing spot, ranger station): 20% per building.

Learns: Hunting at double speed and Obedience 50% faster.

In a fight: one of the worst in the mod.

• The weakest bite of all after the Pug.
• It does not knock zombies down. Only it and the Pug cannot.
• It builds stress three and a half times faster than a Rottweiler and panics at the same low point as the mutt.

It kills a zombie if you insist.

Traits: the lowest Aggressiveness range in the mod. It takes longer to learn to fight because of that.

Litter: 1 to 3, the only addon that goes above 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Moodle: Soft Mouth

"Your Labrador brings back every kill from its first hunt on, and often something extra. While it is nearby, fed and loyal, you also learn Butchering and Short Blade faster."

• It brings the kill back from Hunting 3 on, which means as soon as it can hunt at all. Every other breed only starts bringing them back at Hunting 6.
• It keeps at the delivery three times longer before dropping the carcass on the way.
• 60% of deliveries come with an extra item dropped on the ground beside you: a small animal bone, a chicken feather, twigs or a wild egg. Your Labrador brought you something else: ...
• +20% XP in Butchering and Short Blade, the skills for processing what it brings you.

Who it is for: anyone who lives off hunting. The Golden learns to hunt just as fast, but the Labrador delivers from the start.

Pug

(mod CD: Pug, separate addon)

A companion dog, with a mood moodle.

"The house dog: the first companion whose worth is not fighting, hunting, herding or hauling. It trains Obedience twice as fast as any other breed, and its bond never fades on its own."

Where to find it:

• Residential house: 3% per house, three times the Labrador and the same chance as the Caramelo. It is the easiest addon to find in a house.
• Pet shop and vet: 12% per building, the same spot as the Husky.

Learns: Obedience at double speed, with Scent 50% faster and Hunting 20%. It climbs the trick tree (go to a spot, distract zombies, sniff out an item, fetch while you sleep) before any other dog.

Every other dog loses loyalty when you are away or careless with its care; the Pug does not. Come back from a month on the road and it is as you left it.

At the same level of Scent, the Pug senses zombies from 35% further away than any other breed.

In a fight: it is the weakest dog in the mod, below the Caramelo.

• The weakest bite of all, by a wide margin.
• It does not kill zombies and does not knock them down. It is the only dog with both turned off.
• It gains stress faster than any other and panics before all of them.

Other weak points:

• Its bark is the loudest of all breeds and draws zombies the same way it warns you. The Pug is the only dog that does not take the Quiet and Silent modes: both buttons stay off on its window. (With dog noise switched off in the sandbox options, this applies to the Pug like to everyone else: the bark stays loud, but it pulls nobody.)
• It cannot keep up at a run. In a sprint it falls behind any other dog.
• It suffers in the heat. Above 28 °C it starts to stress, stops comforting you and the moodle leaves the HUD; at 36 °C the penalty maxes out. Indoors is cooler and it works again.
• Saddlebag of 2 to 3. It wears one, but it is no pack animal.

In exchange it eats and drinks little: half the hunger and a third less thirst than a medium-sized dog.

Traits: the smallest Strength and Resistance ranges in the mod. It is born weak and frail in any litter.

Litter: 1 to 2.

Moodle: Your Shadow

"Your Pug never leaves your side. While it is nearby, fed and loyal, unhappiness, boredom and stress fade faster than with any other dog. Heat undoes it: a panting Pug comforts nobody until it finds somewhere cool."

• Unhappiness and Boredom drop 60% faster than next to a Caramelo.
• Stress drops too. Only it and the Doberman touch stress by presence, and the Doberman drains it faster. Beyond those two, the only way to lower stress with a dog is to sleep beside it (Well Rested).

Who it is for: base play, long runs, and anyone tired of losing loyalty by staying away too long. Take a guard dog along if you are leaving town.

Belgian Malinois

(mod CD: Belgian Malinois, separate addon)

A police and scent dog, with a moodle that marks hidden zombies.

"A police and detection dog. Focused on scent, obedience and combat. A dog with a unique mechanic: it doesn't just scent the zombie, it shows you its exact location. Found at police stations, military buildings and, rarely, in houses."

Where to find it:

• Police station: 15% per building.
• Military building (ammo store, barracks, bunker, guard post, checkpoint): 15% per building.
• Residential house: 0.5% per house.

Military buildings are rare on the game's base map. Look in police stations.

Learns: Scent at double speed, tied with the Husky as the fastest in the mod. It also learns Combat 50% and Obedience 20% faster.

In a fight: a medium bite untrained. At Combat 10 it reaches about 2.1x the Caramelo's, between the Husky and the Doberman. It knocks zombies down and kills them.

Its nerve is the Doberman's: it builds little stress in a fight and its panic point is at the top.

Traits: Strength, Aggressiveness and Resistance from 0.30 to 0.50, the same range as the German Shepherd and the Rottweiler.

Litter: 1 to 2. Saddlebag: 6 to 8.

Moodle: K9 Scent

Your Malinois is the best at scent: it can sniff out the exact position of the nearest zombie.

• Every 5 seconds it sniffs around you, up to 25 tiles and one floor up or down.
• If there is a zombie you are not seeing (behind a wall, outside your field of view or in the dark), an arrow like the foraging one points to where the nearest one was. When that spot fits on the screen, the arrow lands on it.
• The arrow marks where the sniff happened and does not follow the zombie. It goes away when no hidden zombie is left nearby.
• It only works with the dog close, fed, healthy and loyal, and with the sandbox option Breed moodles on.

Who it is for: anyone who explores towns and closed buildings and wants to know where the zombie is before opening the door.

The in-game description says it is the best at scent. In Scent speed it ties with the Husky.

5. The cat: the first other species

(mod CD: Cats, separate addon)

Every breed up to here is a dog.

"Not a dog with worse numbers: an animal that simply does not have some of the jobs. A cat never fights the dead, is never posted to a pen, and only breeds with other cats. It hunts rodents and rabbits, and leaves deer alone. Your own animals are never prey: it will not touch a chicken, or anything in a pen. What it gives you instead is warning: it notices the dead further out than any other companion, and it is quiet about everything else."

What it does NOT do

These mechanics do not exist for the cat, and the interface does not show the button, not even greyed out.

Its small-game ceiling is the same as the Labrador's and the Golden's. It meows while giving chase, so hunting with the cat makes noise. Outside the hunt it stays quiet.

What it does better than any dog

Since it does not fight, warning is its job, and the cat has the longest sentinel range in the mod:

It is also the quietest. The noise its meow spreads is half a dog's and a third of the Pug's bark.

It learns Hunting at double speed, tied with the Golden and the Labrador, and its Scent goes up 50% faster.

The price

It is the most stubborn animal in the mod. Obedience at 0.7, the steepest learning penalty there is (the Husky, the only other breed with a penalty, has 0.8). It unlocks all four tricks, but gets there well after any dog.

It gets distracted by rats. Every so often the cat spots a rodent nearby and goes after it, dropping whatever it was doing. It hunts the rodent down and kills it on its own. This happens in any mode and at any Hunting level, and while it lasts the cat does not obey: any order comes back as gets distracted and ignores you. Only Come here gets through and cancels the chase. Meanwhile, you have no lookout.

After the kill, the cat walks back to the body, carries it to you and drops it at your feet. It delivers prey from day one. The Labrador also delivers untrained, but only when you ask.

The distraction covers rats and mice. Rabbits only with Hunt mode on and the level for it.

It is also the most independent. Its bond fades 50% faster than a dog's when you disappear or slack off on care (the Pug is the opposite extreme: its bond does not fade).

Saddlebag: 2 for any cat. In the other breeds the saddlebag is a range; in the cat the maths gives 2 however strong it is born.

It is nervous: it has the second worst hidden stress gene in the mod, behind only the Caramelo. Since it does not fight, this does not show up in combat, but in fright: loud noise, shouting, injury. A panicking cat stops keeping watch and stops bringing the gift.

On Stay the cat stays on its feet instead of lying down. Cosmetic only.

Traits: tied with the Pug for the smallest Strength range in the mod, with Aggressiveness and Resistance just as low.

The five coats

Black, White, Orange, Calico and Tuxedo. To the mod they are five breeds (their own name, their own entry in the spawn menu and in the kennel), but the numbers, the moodle, the voice and the trait ranges are the same. The coat is appearance only.

Each coat rolls for its own building, independently. The chance already comes in divided by five, so the total amount of cat in the world is the same as when only the black one existed.

Where to find them: 2% per residential house, 2% per shop, grocery or diner and 2.4% per pet shop or vet clinic, per coat. A cat spawns in buildings, not in the wild: half the time inside the building, half on its grounds (the yard, the sidewalk, the lot or the alley behind the shop).

The cat has its own spawn multiplier in the sandbox, Cat spawn rate multiplier, separate from the dog one. A world with few or no stray dogs still has the same amount of cats.

The night gift

You wake up and there is a dead animal at your feet. The cat goes out while you sleep and leaves the prey. There is no chase and nothing dies in the world, so the gift keeps working with Hunting switched off in the sandbox options.

It fires on waking up from sleep, with the cat 8 tiles or closer, the same radius as Well Rested.

The chance is its Hunting level:

Hunting also decides what arrives:

The difference matters: a worm is 3 calories, a rat is 324 and takes 22 off your hunger on top. A frog doubles as fishing bait.

One gift per day, per owner. With two cats nearby you get one, not two.

The cat gains Hunting XP every time the delivery succeeds, so a well-kept cat trains itself up.

A cat with hunger or thirst at 75% or more, sick, disobedient or panicking does not go out. The failure is silent, with no message on screen. If the gifts stopped, check its bars.

The Fetch an item while you sleep trick (Obedience 10) is a different thing: it brings an item off the ground. Both fire on waking and do not compete. A cat with Obedience 10 does both on the same morning.

Moodle: Cat's Eyes

"Your cat sees what you cannot. While it is fed, watered and bonded to you, the dark stops hiding what you are searching for: foraging at night works close to how it does by day."

In pitch dark the game drops your foraging range to 1.5 tiles, and you have to be almost on top of the icon to see it. With the cat nearby, the small hours give you roughly 60% of the range you would have by day.

The gain comes all at once, not gradually.

Who it is for: anyone who plays the small hours, anyone who wants the earliest possible warning without announcing their own position, and anyone who wants small game without taking a big dog along. It is no guard: take a dog along if you are leaving town.

6. Comparison tables

Learning speed

The higher the number, the faster the dog learns. Normal speed is 1.0.

The dash on the Cat means it does not have the skill: Combat and Herding do not appear in its window.

Combat

The Doberman starts with about two thirds of a Rottweiler's bite.

The Cat is not in this table because it does not fight.

Nerve in a fight

The lower the number, the cooler the dog stays in a fight.

A dog that panics stops fighting, stops keeping watch and stops doing tricks. A dog with a hard bite that panics early gets less done than a weaker dog that lasts the whole fight.

The Cat is also out of this table, but its stress is the second worst in the mod, behind only the Caramelo. A panicking cat stops keeping watch and stops bringing the gift.

Traits (birth ranges)

The higher the range, the better the dog can be born. Below 0.34 the window shows Low, above 0.66 it shows High, and the middle appears as Average.

• The Caramelo shows Low in all three.
• So does the Pug, and its Strength range is smaller still.
• The Cat ties the Pug for the smallest Strength in the mod.
• The Husky is the only one that usually shows High in Strength.
• Aggressiveness comes out Low on the Golden, the Husky and the Labrador.
• The Golden and the Doberman also land on Low often in Strength and Resistance.
• German Shepherd, Rottweiler and Belgian Malinois are the only ones that show Average in all three nearly always.

Saddlebag

Litter size

The father's breed does not count.

Where to find each breed

The dog chances scale with the sandbox option Animal spawn multiplier. The cat ones follow a different option, Cat spawn rate multiplier, so turning stray dogs down or off does not change how many cats the world has.

The roll happens once per building and the result stays saved.

Internal breed names

Spawn mods and debug mode ask for the dog's internal name, which is different from the name shown on screen:

Male and female are different types, not an option of the same type. The addon breeds only exist with that breed's addon installed.

The five cat coats share the same type and are told apart only by breed: the model is the same and only the texture changes. Here the breed takes an underscore (cat_white), unlike the rest of the mod.

7. Moodles: the complete list

Dog moodles show up in a column of their own, to the left of your normal moodles.

The rule that applies to every breed moodle

The bonus only exists while all of these hold at the same time:

If any one of them fails, the moodle switches off.

With several dogs nearby, only the closest one counts, so the Shepherd's Courage and the Husky's Warmed do not stack.

The moodle keeps working while the dog travels in your arms or in the car with you.

The breed moodles

The moodles any breed gives

Well Rested is the only one that does not depend on the dog staying close. It also ignores the care filter, so it works even with a mistreated dog. The three warnings for hunger, thirst and intoxication ignore the filter the same way.

8. Traits (the genes)

Beyond the breed, every dog has three traits, shown in its window under the Traits section. They are rolled when you tame the dog, within the breed's range, and do not change afterwards.

Genes vary from one animal to the next, even within the same breed. They never go up.

There is also a fourth gene, for general stress, that does not show up in the window. It multiplies all the stress the dog picks up from fighting. The Caramelo has the worst one of all, the German Shepherd and the Husky the best.

The label in the window uses the same scale for every breed: below 34% is Low, between 34% and 66% is Average and above 66% is High. That is why a Caramelo shows Low on all three, every time.

How much this really matters

The genes move damage and combat XP by up to 15% either way, and stress resistance by up to 10 percentage points. The difference between one breed and another is much bigger than that.

The exception is the saddlebag: there the Strength gene is the main factor.

The only way to improve a gene is to cross dogs.

9. Mixed breeds: crossing different breeds

When a male and a female of different breeds have puppies, you get a mixed breed.

What happens to the puppy

The lineage is the average of the parents. Caramelo with German Shepherd gives a 50/50 puppy. Crossing that puppy with a pure German Shepherd gives 25% Caramelo, 75% German Shepherd, and so on with each generation.

The looks are one of the breeds in the lineage, drawn with the percentage as the weight. A 50/50 puppy is born looking like a German Shepherd or like a Caramelo, never like a visual blend.

The breed that came up in the draw is the dog's functional breed. A 50% Husky / 50% German Shepherd mix born looking like a Husky is a Husky for every purpose: Warmed moodle, Husky learning speed, Husky saddlebag.

The genes land midway between the parents, with a variation of about 6% either way.

The puppy's gene range becomes the union of the ranges of the breeds in its lineage. A Caramelo + Husky mix can be born with any Strength between 0.00 and 0.80, above the Caramelo's ceiling. By crossing the strongest dogs of each litter, the lineage rises over the generations.

The puppy is born at level 0 in all five skills, always. What it inherits from the breed is the learning speed.

The "Mixed" label

A dog with more than one breed in its lineage gets (Mixed) next to the breed name, in its window and in the context menu. The percentage breakdown (50% Husky, 50% German Shepherd) shows up when you hover the Breed line in the dog's window, along with the description of the dominant breed.

10. Installing the addons

Rottweiler, Doberman, Labrador, Pug, Belgian Malinois and the cat are separate mods on Steam. Each one:

• Requires the base Companion Dogs installed and enabled.
• Adds one breed, with its own model, texture, moodle and spawn locations.
• Ships with the 14 translations, the same ones as the base.

And the base mod, if you do not have it yet: Companion Dogs.

If the base is too old, the addon does nothing: no error, no crash, the breed just does not exist. If you installed the Labrador and never find one, check the base version first.

Do not remove an addon from a save that still has live dogs of that breed. The dog loses the model and the texture it refers to.

Installing an addon changes nothing about the breeds you already have. The new breeds join the breeding and mixing draws on their own.

The cat is different here. It adds five entries (one per coat) instead of one, and its breeding is closed by species: the five coats cross among themselves and the litter mixes the two like any other cross.

11. Breed FAQ

Which breed is the best? Depends on what you do. For combat, German Shepherd or Rottweiler. For hunting, Labrador. For cargo, Husky. For the farm, Border Collie. For firearms, Doberman. The Caramelo has the worst numbers, but its moodle is still useful.

Can my Caramelo get strong with training? No. It never kills a zombie, however much you train it. Training raises Obedience, Scent and Hunting, and there it improves like any other dog.

I found two dogs of the same breed, which one do I take? There is no way to know beforehand: traits are rolled at the moment of taming. Tame it and look at the Traits section in the window.

I got a dog with bad traits. Do I release it and tame it again? That does not help. The genes are rolled once, on the first taming, and the dog keeps the same ones after being released and tamed again (it keeps its skills too). For another roll, tame a different dog. To improve over time, the way is to cross them.

Can I have two breed moodles at the same time? No. Only the closest dog counts. Well Rested is the exception, because it does not depend on proximity.

Why did the moodle disappear? Almost always hunger or thirst above 75%, or loyalty below the floor. Feed it, give it water and pet it. Also check that the dog is 8 tiles or less away and on the same floor.

Is any breed faster? No.

Is there a Husky in another colour? No. Each breed has a single texture, and males and females use the same one. The cat has five coats, but each one is a separate breed.

Do big dogs hit harder? No. Size is visual only and does not enter the damage math.

Where do I find a Doberman? Police stations. Military buildings have a slightly higher chance, but there is almost no military building on the game's base map.

I installed the Labrador and can't find any. Check your Companion Dogs base version: the Labrador needs 0.6.6 or newer. Also check whether the houses in the area have already been explored: the spawn roll happens once per building and does not repeat.

My mixed dog doesn't have the moodle of both breeds. That is expected. For the mechanics, a mixed dog is the breed it looks like. The mix only changes the gene range of the puppies and the percentage label in the window.

Is a cat better than a dog? It does something else. It watches further than any dog, in silence, and it is the only companion that forages at night. In exchange, it does not fight, carries almost nothing and only breeds with another cat.

Why can't I put my cat on Guard? The mode does not exist for the cat, so the button is not there. A cat has no Combat: it does not guard, does not protect you and does not attack a zombie, even while you are being hit beside it.

My cat ran off on its own and stopped obeying me. It saw a rat. While it runs it refuses every order except Come here. It comes back on its own, usually with the rat, and there is no way to turn this off.

What does the cat hunt, exactly? Rodents and rabbits. It will not even point at a deer. Farm animals (chickens, cows, anything in a pen) are off limits to every companion, dog or cat. For big game and for retrieving, use a Labrador or a Golden.

How do I get kittens? The same way as puppies: a male and a female of yours, adult, loyal, well fed and close to each other. Cats only breed with cats.

Do the five coats have different numbers? No. Same skills, same moodle, same trait ranges, same voice. Which one you find is luck.

My cat went disobedient far too fast. A cat's bond drops 50% faster than a dog's when you disappear or let care slip (the Pug is the opposite). Regular petting, food and water keep loyalty up.

I stopped waking up to gifts. Check its bars. A cat with hunger or thirst at 75% or more, sick, disobedient or panicking does not go out at night, and the game does not warn you. It is one gift per day and per owner.

I want to spawn a dog with another mod, which name do I use? The internal name, not the one shown on screen. The list is in Comparison tables, at the end of the section.