Damn these huge dogs

[Chezz]

I have some kind of masochistic fetish and I have to play every game in the hardest difficulty setting from the very beginning.

So here I go being super cautious, two first playthroughs end kinda early but I am getting the grip of it. Third one I take it 'seriously', I don't spare resources to defend myself (realized you are kinda overwhelmed with supplies basically, at least in hideout 2) and go pretty slowly exploring everything and taking care not being surprised by any enemy.

I learn to fight savages very efficiently, they are easy and predictable. Chompers are more tough and fast, but with some practice and dodging spam I can fight them too in melee only taking a few hits.

But oh boy, the huge dogs. After almost being killed by one who surprised me behind a rock, I decide I am not taking any chances. Every single time I see one now I don't think about it. Pistol shots, molotovs, anything before getting any close to these beasts.

Night 14, everything is going kinda alright. I feel confident, I have tons of healing items with me, the workbench, wardrobe and shelfs in hideout with plenty of stuff I don't even know what to do. Surviving pretty well and about to go to the 3rd area of the woods.

Something is breaking one of my barricades. Barks, it's a dog. I position myself close to it with my gun pointing. I hear a wood noise on my left, I look, and another dog is coming at me from the door!! I'm being attacked by opposite sides by dogs. I quickly dispatch one, the other in the barricade just broke it and is closing in. I need to reload, the dog is on me by now. I have full hp, I should be able to take a hit or two while reloading and then end him!! Bite, bite, bite. I'm dead in less than a second.

These dogs are just insane. No windup between their attacks, if they corner you you are dead. Even chompers have a delay between attacks of a second or two that allows for maneuvering, these dogs just chain bites super quickly if they get close and it's impossible to escape.

This is the first game in a long time which I am going to give in and play it in not the highest difficulty. It's too damn frustrating having to start all over again. Too much of a time sink for being killed in a second because of clunky combat mechanics :/

Not really complaining tho, just needed to vent. Loving the game so far and looking forward to learn WTF is going on that forest!

[dogthinker]

I've barely just started, but I think perhaps traps are the counter to dogs. Stop them moving and it doesn't matter how fast they can attack.

EDIT: and yeah, I'm getting battered by the clunky combat too, although I'm really starting to warm to it. I kinda liked it when I realised that selling my nailed plank after 'upgrading' to the shovel was a huge mistake (shovel kills the humanlikes more easily, but is too slow against big dogs)

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by dogthinker:

I've barely just started, but I think perhaps traps are the counter to dogs. Stop them moving and it doesn't matter how fast they can attack.

EDIT: and yeah, I'm getting battered by the clunky combat too, although I'm really starting to warm to it. I kinda liked it when I realised that selling my nailed plank after 'upgrading' to the shovel was a huge mistake (shovel kills the humanlikes more easily, but is too slow against big dogs)

Middle mouse clcik for fast attack.

Shovel is just about the best melee weapon in the game really, you gotta side step the dogs with a quickdodge then attack them.

[Null Winter]

A sharpened shovel can take out a huge dog in one combo. Wind up a normal swing, sidestep their lunge and swing or knock them out of it by swinging early, and then use the alternate attack to stab them before they can even stand up.

[Merlinx]

^^^ (this)

If you have a shovel you shouldn't have issues with them.You can stand still and wait for them to attack you.Your range is better.Just need timing, it's not that hard.

[Meoman8]

The issue here is that you've locked yourself into somewhere where you have no room to fight. You need to have space to dodge and move. The real thing you should have done was to go outside of the house, kill them before they could break down the barricades, and then hide in the house again. You should not let them break down windows to the point of actually breaking in.

[Knin3]

tbh if you mess up jus press esc when the screen goes dark, then you can hav another go

[Jesus Cristo]

the chompers need shotgun blasts, i hate those bastards

[Jhonny G]

Was just eaten by those giant dogs.. Had a perfect game going, was running toward my hideout, slightly injured, ran into a pack of three huge dogs, killed two of them, weapon jammed on the last one, mauled to death in a instant. Major facepalm..

[Chezz]

Well, after finally beating the game, these dogs felt like puppies at the end, compared to stuff that stalks you in the Swamp like the Centipedes.

Jezz, arrived to chapter 2 with 3 lives and lost two super fast trying to escape from these things... learned you can't really escape from them as they seem to teleport+hit super fast, didn't hesitate to shotgun blast them at sight after that. Almost lost my last life to a banshee ambush that turned off all the lights in the house and then the shadow ghosts showed up... Had to eat 3 pills super fast just to tank the hits and wait for light to turn on again. It was bad... I was about to rage if I had been killed by that and had to re-do all over again!!

Altho now that I completed it I see it can probably be done pretty fast... 90% of supplies went unused at the end, knowing you can't transfer all the stuff from chapter 1 to 2 before would have prevented a lot of trips to scavenge stuff that I end up not using anyway... and also lost like a week in-game trying to find the damn Elephant's house because didn't expect it to be in the middle of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tree maze... that was tedious too.

All in all, it was a good trip tho! Prolly will do another one someday but with the Musician path this time.

[King Dickus]

Originally posted by Null Winter:

A sharpened shovel can take out a huge dog in one combo. Wind up a normal swing, sidestep their lunge and swing or knock them out of it by swinging early, and then use the alternate attack to stab them before they can even stand up.

i personally used the upgraded fire axe. its range is a bit shorter and you dont wanna hit them during their lunge as they will most likely hit you. but sidestep and move in right away and you'll kill it in one hit

[Oc]

You trapped yourself in a corner that’s close to where they break in with no traps in between you, you need to use bear traps for sure. They’re fast and can easily get to you if it’s more then one at a time.

[King Dickus]

Originally posted by Ocular:

You trapped yourself in a corner that’s close to where they break in with no traps in between you, you need to use bear traps for sure. They’re fast and can easily get to you if it’s more then one at a time.

they cant seem to be able to break chairs tho. once was saved by 3 chairs cuz the enemies just kept walking into them and push me and the chairs in the corner.
i killed them with my pitchfork

[Oc]

Lol that’s great, never knew that.

Originally posted by King Dickus:

Originally posted by Ocular:

You trapped yourself in a corner that’s close to where they break in with no traps in between you, you need to use bear traps for sure. They’re fast and can easily get to you if it’s more then one at a time.

they cant seem to be able to break chairs tho. once was saved by 3 chairs cuz the enemies just kept walking into them and push me and the chairs in the corner.
i killed them with my pitchfork

[King Dickus]

Originally posted by Ocular:

Lol that’s great, never knew that.

Originally posted by King Dickus:

they cant seem to be able to break chairs tho. once was saved by 3 chairs cuz the enemies just kept walking into them and push me and the chairs in the corner.
i killed them with my pitchfork

they cant break lamps either. so you can try to build a fort out off lamps and chairs. just dont forget the sign that says :"no girls allowed"