Update 0.2.4 : Dog Companion Update

Hello survivors!

Update 0.2.4 is here, and the main addition is something I’ve been working on for a little while now: the Dog Companion system!

Your German Shepherd is now much more than just something following you around. It has its own commands, storage, progression, defensive behavior, and a few small interactions to make it feel more alive.

Dog Companion

Every player now starts with their own German Shepherd companion.

Using the F6 Dog Menu, you can:

• Follow – your dog follows you while exploring
• Stay – your dog remains at the selected location
• Pet – interact with your dog and trigger different animations
• Access its 6-slot storage
• Rename your dog whenever you want
• Select between Passive and Defensive combat modes

Your dog also knows how to recover if it gets stuck or falls too far behind.

When entering a vehicle, the dog temporarily disappears and safely returns near you after you exit, instead of trying to chase the vehicle across the map.

Passive & Defensive Modes

The dog can now help protect its owner.

Passive

• The dog will never attack.

Defensive

• The dog protects its owner only
• If a zombie is actively attacking you, your dog can engage it
• It focuses on one enemy at a time
• Once that enemy is dealt with, it can move on to another threat
• In co-op, your dog will not automatically protect another player's character

The dog is designed as a defensive companion rather than an autonomous zombie-hunting machine.

Dog Levels & Zombie Meat

Your dog can now level up by feeding it Zombie Meat through the F6 menu.

The maximum Dog Level is 99.

Progression starts at:

• Level 1 → 2: 10 Zombie Meat
• Level 2 → 3: 20
• Level 3 → 4: 30
• Level 4 → 5: 40
• Level 5+: 50 per level

Each new level increases the dog's bite damage by +5 damage.

The menu now includes a progression bar showing your current Dog Level and how much Zombie Meat is needed for the next level.

Explosive Mutant Warning

Your dog can also help warn you about one particularly dangerous enemy.

If an Explosive Mutant gets close, your dog will stop and bark to alert you.

For now, the dog will not attack the Explosive Mutant.

Safe Mobile Storage

Your dog includes a 6-slot storage inventory.

Items stored on your dog are kept separate from your normal player inventory and remain safe through normal death and respawn.

The storage is owner-only in multiplayer, so other players cannot access your dog's inventory.

More Dog Personality

The dog now has additional behaviors and sounds:

• Barking
• Pet animations
• Resting while staying in place
• Command acknowledgement
• Warning behavior

More interactions and animations can be expanded in future updates.

Free Camera Returns – J

The J Free Camera has also been added back with an important fix.

Previously, the old Free Camera could cause the player's character to move or effectively teleport when returning from the camera.

That is no longer possible.

Now:

• Press J to enter Free Camera
• Press J again to return to your character
• WASD – move
• Mouse – look around
• Space / Ctrl – move up/down
• Mouse Wheel – adjust camera movement speed

The Free Camera now moves only the camera.

Your actual character remains exactly where you left them, so the camera can no longer be used to teleport around the map.

This feature is available to the Host / Solo player for screenshots, videos, trailers, and content creation.

SIG MCX Ammo Fix

The SIG MCX has also been corrected to use:

5.56mm ammunition

instead of the incorrect ammo type.

As always, thank you for playing, reporting bugs, and helping improve Not Quite Dead.

The Dog Companion system is something I plan to continue expanding over time, but this update gives it a much stronger foundation to build on.

Have fun — and take care of your new companion!

— Mazxz