The hunting dogs are a new enemy introduced in The Last of Us 2, and they’re pretty dangerous in that they can expose your position very quickly. If you’re trying to be as stealthy as possible, they can definitely mess up your plans quickly and draw you into an open gunfight. Here’s how to avoid hunting dogs in The Last of Us 2.
Avoiding Hunting Dogs in The Last of Us 2
You’ll start encountering these dog enemies once you get to Seattle, and they’ll occasionally accompany the Washington Liberation Front (WOLF) patrols in an attempt to sniff you out. Whenever a dog is present, you can bet that it’ll locate you in no time at all because of your scent.
Apart from Survivor difficulty, where Listen mode has been disabled, you can hold down the R1 button to check your scent trail, which is indicated by a white line following you. Dogs will follow that trail to your position, and you need to keep moving if you don’t want to get spotted, but also be careful that other enemies don’t spot you while you’re changing positions.
The good news is that dogs are extremely easy to kill, and you can take them down with just one fully drawn arrow. It’s almost impossible to get melee stealth kills on them, but if they do spot you, you can dodge their attacks easily with L1, then kill them quickly with just one melee hit. That’s pretty much it.
Dogs will also be distracted by thrown bricks and bottles, just like any other enemy type. If they ever get too close to you and you can’t change positions, throw a brick or bottle in the other direction to lure them away, then move out quickly.
That’s all you need to know about how to avoid hunting dogs in The Last of Us 2. Be sure to check our guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.
