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You Can Completely Avoid Killing Dogs In The Last Of Us Part 2

The Last of Us Part II

Killing dogs is pretty much an integral part of The Last Of Us Part 2. There is one particular dog that everyone has to kill as part of the story as Ellie, and it’s meant to be crushing because of the game’s second act. However, there are a couple of ways that you can avoid killing every other dog in the game entirely, and I think dog lovers need to know about it. Full disclosure, I grew up with dogs being working animals, yes I loved them, but I don’t get quite as sad as other people when it comes to putting them down in The Last Of Us Part 2, so this subject barely seems to register with me.

The first way to avoid killing dogs in The Last Of Us Part 2 is to just kill their owners. Dogs are tied to handlers with the WLF faction, and they won’t go running off unless they see you and are released, or if you create a noise somewhere that they’re sent to investigate. It’s best to wait until the dog handlers are out of the way of the path you want to take. This can be difficult if you don’t have the bow, or another silenced weapon, but as long as you do, and you land a headshot on the handler, you should be safe.

Killing a dog handler will see the dog hang around the hander’s body for a while before starting a short patrol to and from it. Like I said, as long as you stay out of their way, you shouldn’t have any trouble with the dog once you’ve killed the handler.

The second way to avoid killing dogs is just to mess with the accessibility options in the game’s settings. There’s an option that makes you completely invisible while prone, a position in which enemies would usually see you as they get closer to you. With this option on, you can simply go prone and crawl through every encounter, avoiding any dog death.

This does have a payoff in the game. If you avoid killing the god called Bear in Ellie’s campaign, then the dog will appear in Abby’s campaign. Some players love this dog, and killing it can be a bit too much. Thankfully Naughty Dog has provided a way to pretty much avoid any dog death, which can only be a good thing for the majority of their fans.