Hunting Dog

Three jobs in the field

Search signs is the scouting command: the dog finds animal sign so you are not walking timber blind. Locate life zones points at active animal areas, which is how you turn a cold ridge into a hunt instead of a hike. Blood track starts after a hit, following the trail the bullet camera already told you was messy. Those three verbs are the entire 1.0 command set in the captured records.

The dog works on New Laurentia and Kilimaya. There is no separate African training tree. Headquarters still lets you take the companion on the overlap animals, but the blood-track tutorial you actually need is a wounded moose or buffalo, not a snowshoe hare. Keep the dog close on charging species; the FAQ does not give the companion a lion-stop ability.

Bonding now, breeds later

Bonding is the reliability curve: use the dog and obedience improves. Advanced training is explicitly a later update, so do not expect a 1.0 skill board with locked perks. The Season Pass language includes a new dog breed among the eight year-one DLCs, which is why extra breeds are named only as future Season Pass content.

If a track dies, shot review is still the forensic tool — the bullet camera shows angle and placement, and the dog only follows blood that exists. Pair this page with shot review when you are learning wounded recoveries, and with New Laurentia when the moose investigation is the story reason you brought the companion at all.

Limits a 1.0 hunter should not invent

There is no published stamina number, no breed list in the base game, and no command that marks a trophy as recovered without you. Mods are not supported, so a custom dog pack is not a 1.0 plan. Co-op does not promise a shared dog between two hunters in the captured FAQ; bring your own expectations down to “two people, one session, separate animal populations.”

Read The Road Ahead if you want the studio’s own later-dog sentence, then come back here for the three commands that actually work today. The species ledger is the other half of a blood-track: know whether you shot a mallard or a buffalo before you ask the dog to finish the story.

Running the dog on both 100 km² maps

On New Laurentia, send the dog into timber before you walk a moose trail you cannot see. On Kilimaya, use sign search on brush that hides buffalo and lion. Blood track after the bullet camera, not before: the camera tells you whether there is a trail worth following. Life zones keep you from hunting empty ridges at noon.

Bonding is time in the field, not a menu. There is no 1.0 perk that makes the dog stop a charge. Keep distance on lion, hippo, and buffalo; the companion finds sign, it does not tank. Extra breeds are Season Pass language. Advanced training is a later update. The three commands are the kit.

Co-op does not document a shared dog. Bring your own companion expectations down to one hunter’s dog in a two-player session. Mods will not add a second breed. If a track fades, you still have shot review and your own feet. Pair this chapter with New Laurentia when the moose file is why you opened the game.

Recoveries the companion cannot skip

A clean shot still needs you to walk up. The dog shortens the walk when blood exists. A miss on a charging buffalo is not a dog problem; it is a placement problem the bullet camera will show. Send the companion after the camera, not as a substitute for holding for a better angle.

Sign search in timber is the New Laurentia habit. Life zones on Kilimaya keep you off empty grass at midday. Bonding is the slow reliability curve. There is no published numeric bond meter in the FAQ, so treat it as “used the dog, the dog got better,” not as a spreadsheet.

Season Pass’s later breed is a year-one DLC line. Advanced training is a later update line. Neither is a 1.0 button. Hunt with the one companion you have, on both reserves, and hang what you recover in Elijah’s hall.

Keep the companion on a short leash around lion and buffalo even after bonding. The three commands find sign, zones, and blood. They do not block a charge. Use shot review first, then the dog, then your own walk-up. That order keeps 1.0 recoveries honest on both continents.

Name the animal before you send the dog. A mallard blood trail is not a buffalo blood trail, and the companion will follow whatever you actually hit. Shot review tells you which one it was. Species tells you where that animal lives. Together those three pages are the recovery kit; the dog is just the middle verb.

Hunt with the dog you have today, not the breed on a poster.

Send the dog after the camera, then walk up yourself and finish the recover.