If one suddenly turns into a whole pack, then remember: you're being attacked by phantoms. The real pseudodog will hang back and only try to bite you now and again... Try to identify it. As soon as the real dog is dead, the phantoms will simply disappear.
Gonta's description
The Psy-dog is a term used to refer to a special type of pseudodog that appears in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Overview[]
The Psy dog resemble the regular pseudodog, but with white fur and shares many characteristics with its somewhat more common relative. Unlike other mutants, psy-dogs are relatively solitary animals, and can be encountered alone or with other psy-dogs.
Behavior[]
Psy-dogs will attempt to confuse stalkers with multiple illusions
The most distinguishing feature of the psy-dog is its ability to create seemingly live copies of itself. These even seem real and solid, as players cannot simply walk through them and they must be shot to be removed. These copies can even attack the player and damage them, and while looking identical to regular psy-dogs, do not leave bodies behind when killed, instead instantly dissipating. When around the influence of a psy-dog also, the player's vision is slightly brightened, has a few traces of noise in the vision and hears a familiar sound that is also done by controllers when around them. They do not generate a psi-field properly speaking, even though the effects of its presence on the player's vision resemble that of a real psi-field.
Psy-dogs prefer to summon illusions to attack enemies and retreat, relying on their generated illusions to swarm and overwhelm prey then attack. Once an unlucky prey is swarmed, the psy-dog will now usually close-in for the kill, who is masked along with the number of images that are also attacking. Killing it may be tricky for both new players and veterans, as there is no way to determine which of the visible dogs is the real one, and which ones are merely mirages. Shooting a fake dog causes it to disappear, after which a new copy is quickly spawned. This continues into a cycle until the perpetrators are finally killed. When a psy-dog is killed, all of its illusions instantly disappear.
The player's priority when fighting these mutants is to prevent the illusions from getting close to them; the psy-dog's premier tactic is to drown the player in fake images of itself then flank them while distracted, trapping the player between its jaws and the wall of fake dogs. Getting to high ground can be helpful to fend off these mutants.
Appearances[]
Shadow of Chernobyl[]
Psy-dogs can be found in the Radar, but rarely they also appear in the Bar area. They stay deep in the forest or near the Brain Scorcher. They do not go onto the main roads.
Clear Sky[]
The player's first psy-dog encounter is likely to be in the Dark Valley, where Lingov hands out a quest to kill a mutant which has been terrorizing the base. Though referred to by the commandant as a pseudodog, the monster turns out to be a psy-dog. Another psy-dog appears in Yantar and more appear in the Red Forest.
In Clear Sky, one can exploit the minimap's hostile squad markers to easily kill psy-dogs: since the dog's phantoms are considered by the engine as members of the psy-dog's squad, the map marker will always point to the real psy-dog, making it easy for the player to single it out.
Call of Pripyat[]
Due to the improvement on the A-Life and adding in random occurrences, psy-dogs can sometimes randomly be found in the deeper parts of Jupiter and Pripyat.
Two psy-dogs can be found around the Stingray 4 wreckage in the Jupiter plant, and another one is scripted to appear in the Oasis when the player retrieves the Heart of the Oasis. These three specific mutants do not respawn upon being killed.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Psy-dog's abilities bear similarities to that of the Phantom, a mutant which was scrapped during early development of Shadow of Chernobyl.
See also[]
| Mutated animals | |
|---|---|
| Humanoids | |
| Poltergeists | |
| Unknown | |
| Cut mutants | |