Psy dog

Psy dog
General Characteristics
Type	Mutated dog
Statistics
Health	Low-Medium
Attacks	Teeth / Fangs
Abilities	Can leap at the enemy Can create illusionary copies of itself
Body parts	None
Locations	Shadow of Chernobyl Red Forest (Rare) Clear Sky Dark Valley Yantar Red Forest Call of Pripyat Yanov Jupiter Pripyat

The Psy dog is a term used to refer to a special type of Pseudodog. Psy-dogs appear in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games to date.

Overview

Physiology

It resembles a Pseudodog but with white fur and shares many characteristics with its somewhat more common relative.

Behavior

Psy dogs will attempt to confuse you with multiple illusions

The most distinguishing feature of the psy-dog is its ability to affect human minds, where it is able to create seemingly live images of itself. It can be theorized that the psy-dog can either manipulate the minds of man similar to the abilities of a Controller, or they themselves generate psy-emissions and are able to bend it to their will. 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.

Psy Dogs typically do not directly attack, but instead rely on their generated illusions to swarm and overwhelm prey.

Appearances

Shadow of Chernobyl

Psy-dogs can be found in the Red Forest, 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. 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. It is easy to sneak up on this one however, and kill it before it creates live copies of itself. If the original one is killed, all the images disappear. Another Psy-dog appears in Yantar and more appear in the Red Forest.

It is useful to use the radar to look for the red dot to target the real one. The illusions can be ignored since they cause no damage.

Call of Pripyat

Due to the improvement on the A-Life and adding in random occurences, psy-dogs can sometimes randomly be found in the deeper parts of Yanov, Jupiter and Pripyat. There are also two scripted encounters, two inside the Jupiter plant near the crashed Stringray when you enter the room, and one at the Oasis once the Heart of the Oasis is plucked from its branch.

Unlike previous games, each illusionary Psy Dog can inflict significant damage when they attack, more than that of a normal strength Pseudodog.

See also

• Gameplay tips

Trivia

• The Psy-Dog's psy-emission abilities were adopted from the Phantom, a mutant which was cut from Shadow of Chernobyl. Unlike some of the other cut mutants that have been added to the series, it is unlikely the Phantom will make an appearance as it has now become the Psy-dog's predecessor.

Gallery

A dead Psy dog.