Does D-Dog's ability to sniff out enemies diminish during weather effects like sandstorms? I assume that it doesn't, but I just had an enemy spot me, because he didn't get marked until he was like 20 meters away. :(

D Dog suffers from seasonal affective disorder

DD is my preferred buddy, but I've never witnessed anything that would make me think his sniffer wasn't working properly in the rain or sandstorms. It does seem like the kind of system that would be included in a MGS game though.

I haven't noticed that he is. Then again I kinda assume I'll randomly run into an enemy in a sandstorm whenever I sprint around.

Could it be that the game tries to discourage sprinting around an enemy stronghold in a sandstorm by spawning enemies in front of you? They were on alert and calling in backup when this happened. I already suspect that when you're deep into an enemy base, the backup will spawn nearby instead of following the road from surrounding outposts and spawning at the entrance.

I think his ability to sense enemies is actually diminished by sand storms. I can't tell you 100% this is the case but I usually was using him and even when I was I believe I had moments where I kind of stumbled into enemies during a storm.

I seriously doubt that happens given how the game operates in all ways. Doesn't spawn enemies out of thin air like that.

I'm about 100 hours in and I noticed DDog can lag behind you if you are sprinting and skyrimming for extended periods. So in that case he can be a bit slower on popping notifications.

Also you can sleep gas him by accidnet.

@artisanbreads said:

(Outfit/item spoilers) Enemies can indeed just spawn in out of thin air. I've never seen it happen personally, but there you go.

Yeh enemies can spawn and despawn in plain sight but it is a bug when it happen.

I was just thinking about this yesterday when a sandstorm rolled in. From what i could tell D-dogs senses stayed sharp and he continued to mark enemies when the sandstorm roared.

Taking advantage and sprinting around in a base during a sandstorm is exactly what Kojima intended.

@mirado: haha okay well that seems like a big bug. Not something I ever saw at least. Nothing even close to it.

I believe he only adds one thing at a time that he 'smells', and it's not necessarily always the closest thing to you. I've sprinted into a large group of things and then dove behind a box and waited, and listened as he barked 6-7 times and things appeared one by one.

As far as I know the smell radius is around d-dog, not snake. Its possible he was caught up on terrain or something, so you were able to get close to the guard without d-dog detecting him.

As for the teleportation thing, I don't think its a bug. It only happens in OKB Zero when they call for re-inforcements, thats because that area is too isolated for guards to come from another base like they normally do. And afaik it only happens in that one location shown in the gif.

As a side-note, I kind of hate that you can't send D-Dog to scout out ahead like you can with Quiet. Another great thing would be if you could tell him to pick up resource items or blueprints.

That was the first thing I thought of when it began to rain while I was still getting familiar with him as a buddy. I don't actually think his ability is affected by weather, but it would have been a neat addition.

Backup totally just spawns out of nowhere at a random spot in the base, although the game tries to hide it by having dudes following the road once you're out of the base.

I jumped across a gap in Angola-Zaire. D-Dog was following. He didn't make the jump. Then Miller was yelling at me "What do you think you're doing?"

It's Kojima, so I'll just asume it works in the most elaborate and crazy way possible.

Yup. I think it only really happens there. But it certainly does happen.