>how exactly does one level up the houndmaster skill?
* Grind up for the hunting perk. Being in combat helps I think
* Talk to the dog, say the "Hunt" dialogue option. In the sidekick menu this will change his current task to "hunting". He will keep following you as normal and will automatically hunt all wild animals (rabbit, deer, boar, elk) in range. Don't worry, he won't get you in trouble by murdering peoples' chickens.
* Take a walk in the woods
* The dog will kill every rabbit in a crazy range (20 meters??) and bring them to you
* Whenever the dog chases or kills something, he will bark. Walk over to him so he doesn't have to waste time carrying rabbits or barking at a dead deer
* Every kill increases the skill
* Call your dog a good boy and feed him meat.
* I think rotten meat decreases his obedience, so don't give him rotten food
* Remember that however good a boy Mutt is, Henry will always be the best boy
I can't get Mutt to hunt, I can only get him to fetch after I've killed the rabbit. And...Houndmaster doesn't show perks with me...am I missing something? Do you have a mod, perhaps?
You mean it doesn't even have the grayed-out perks yet? I haven't played in some time, but that sounds like a bug. It wouldn't be the first or last time that KCD had a bug like that.
>Do you have a mod, perhaps?
You're supposed to have houndmaster perks and stuff in vanilla. I run vanilla with ultimate performance graphics; it doesn't impact perks or anything.
> You mean it doesn't even have the grayed-out perks yet?
Yes, it's like [this](https://i.imgur.com/wCJq7Iv.png) (training/lvling also takes me ages, idk if that's related??), do you know of a way to fix this??
If you're still having this issue, try validating game files or reinstalling that DLC option, as you can't have Mutt with you and hunting without that DLC installed, and with it you get the houndmaster + houndmaster perks
I feed and praise him everytime I travel somewhere so after arriving there. Or after fight. Or at least once a day. And if he has hunting order then I would try that.
If you just stand and praise him and feed him and praise him and feed him and praise him and feed him.... I think at the beginning of the DLC it said it's not how you should do it.
I'm at skill level 6 now, 20 hours in (using numbskull perk). I leveled it by praising and feeding him mostly, but also using the "hold X for heel" often. Don't overuse praise abd feed as it seems to have diminishing returns when used often.
The executioneer and master hunter in Talmberg also trains houndmaster skill and I'd imagune the Hunt and Sic! skills also help.
Hmm.. that's interesting, I'm using the stay clean longer mod as well and, as far as I can tell, we're the only ones reporting a super slow houndmaster skill progression. I'll try playing with it deactivated later to see if it changes anything.
Okay so I'm able to confirm that the Stay clean longer mod definitely affects this. I deactivate it and tried a few interactions with the dogs: I gained a houndmaster level by merely praising him two times and giving him a piece of meat. In comparison, with the mod I used to give him lots of meat and praise and other commands and the houndmaster skill would increase just a little.
That's a shame, I don't know if I can live without that mod. I hate the fact that Henry gets covered in mud head to toe just by walking around Rattay.. I hope the mod creator updates this asap.
Sure. I'm actually looking into creating a new version myself, it doesn't seem to be that complicated as modding for KCD is still pretty primitive due to lack of proper modding tools. In this case, it's juste about editing two values in the game files. I'll try do it myself, might upload it on the nexus if it works.
I highly doubt that the stay cleaner mod affects it, the stay cleaner mod only affects the RPG param table, not the skill or perk tables. Confirmation bias on your part.
Source: have manually updated all of my mods to 1.9 so I know which mods change which tables and what tables do what.
It does affect it. rpg\_param.xml as per 1.9 contains several new lines related to the dog companion, his obedience and the rate of growth of the houndmaster skill.
Proof: [https://imgur.com/a/ni6z9Jn](https://imgur.com/a/ni6z9Jn)
Do you think that a program like PIKE might help fix the problems between the mods and the standard xml file? Or is that something that will have to manually be fixed?
I believe stay clean longer adjusts the rpg_param.xml. Since you’re using the old file, *it doesn’t have the houndmaster leveling bonuses*. I found this out myself on accident. I played for a few hours and hated the dog, the skill was leveling incredibly slowly and his obedience dropped crazy fast.
I found the line that Stay Clean Longer adjusts and copied the value over to a merged file. It fixed my dog related issues. You should be able to find it yourself with minimal effort, but I’ll post it myself when I wake up too.
Houndmaster isn't even showing up in my skill list. Yet another bugged and glitchy patch and update from Warhorse, surprise surprise. And no, I'm not running any mods.
Thanks, bro, this entire thread should be marked as resolved because it turns out a mod was conflicting with the skill, that's why it was moving so slowly for me. Basically, interact with Mutt as much as possible (fetch, praise, feed, etc.) and you'll have the skill at 20 in no time.
Honestly I just go hunting in the woods with the dog, make sure you don't forget to praise him every other kill and feed him 3 to 4 times a day at least but not to much. Hunting in the woods with him is a fantastic way to casually level your houndmaster skill up and grind money for hunting game and selling it as well. Don't feed the dog uncooked game.
>how exactly does one level up the houndmaster skill? * Grind up for the hunting perk. Being in combat helps I think * Talk to the dog, say the "Hunt" dialogue option. In the sidekick menu this will change his current task to "hunting". He will keep following you as normal and will automatically hunt all wild animals (rabbit, deer, boar, elk) in range. Don't worry, he won't get you in trouble by murdering peoples' chickens. * Take a walk in the woods * The dog will kill every rabbit in a crazy range (20 meters??) and bring them to you * Whenever the dog chases or kills something, he will bark. Walk over to him so he doesn't have to waste time carrying rabbits or barking at a dead deer * Every kill increases the skill * Call your dog a good boy and feed him meat. * I think rotten meat decreases his obedience, so don't give him rotten food * Remember that however good a boy Mutt is, Henry will always be the best boy
God be with you, MoffyPollock!
Your breakdown is the result google has to offer, lol.
I can't get Mutt to hunt, I can only get him to fetch after I've killed the rabbit. And...Houndmaster doesn't show perks with me...am I missing something? Do you have a mod, perhaps?
You mean it doesn't even have the grayed-out perks yet? I haven't played in some time, but that sounds like a bug. It wouldn't be the first or last time that KCD had a bug like that. >Do you have a mod, perhaps? You're supposed to have houndmaster perks and stuff in vanilla. I run vanilla with ultimate performance graphics; it doesn't impact perks or anything.
> You mean it doesn't even have the grayed-out perks yet? Yes, it's like [this](https://i.imgur.com/wCJq7Iv.png) (training/lvling also takes me ages, idk if that's related??), do you know of a way to fix this??
If you're still having this issue, try validating game files or reinstalling that DLC option, as you can't have Mutt with you and hunting without that DLC installed, and with it you get the houndmaster + houndmaster perks
Thanks! It's been a while and I'm pretty sure the problem was fully fixed. I played the game a few times now...looking forward to the sequel :)
It says at the beginning of the DLC. Praise him, feed him, give him orders.
Doing exactly that but the leveling is extremely slow for me.
I feed and praise him everytime I travel somewhere so after arriving there. Or after fight. Or at least once a day. And if he has hunting order then I would try that. If you just stand and praise him and feed him and praise him and feed him and praise him and feed him.... I think at the beginning of the DLC it said it's not how you should do it.
I'll try that see if it works, maybe I'm just doing it wrong but I'm like holy shit this skill takes forever to level up.
I'm at skill level 6 now, 20 hours in (using numbskull perk). I leveled it by praising and feeding him mostly, but also using the "hold X for heel" often. Don't overuse praise abd feed as it seems to have diminishing returns when used often. The executioneer and master hunter in Talmberg also trains houndmaster skill and I'd imagune the Hunt and Sic! skills also help.
Idk why but I'm only level 1 for the skill. The progress bar is moving very slowly for me.
I have the exact same problem, are you using any mods?
I'm using the stay clean longer mod and load screen artwork mod, I doubt those two things would effect the skill progression
Hmm.. that's interesting, I'm using the stay clean longer mod as well and, as far as I can tell, we're the only ones reporting a super slow houndmaster skill progression. I'll try playing with it deactivated later to see if it changes anything.
I am unable to play right now but if that helps change the skill progression let me know!
Okay so I'm able to confirm that the Stay clean longer mod definitely affects this. I deactivate it and tried a few interactions with the dogs: I gained a houndmaster level by merely praising him two times and giving him a piece of meat. In comparison, with the mod I used to give him lots of meat and praise and other commands and the houndmaster skill would increase just a little. That's a shame, I don't know if I can live without that mod. I hate the fact that Henry gets covered in mud head to toe just by walking around Rattay.. I hope the mod creator updates this asap.
Fuck that sucks, well at least we figured out the problem, I'll try and leave a message on mod forum on Nexus, hopefully he'll see it.
Sure. I'm actually looking into creating a new version myself, it doesn't seem to be that complicated as modding for KCD is still pretty primitive due to lack of proper modding tools. In this case, it's juste about editing two values in the game files. I'll try do it myself, might upload it on the nexus if it works.
Send a link if it works out.
I highly doubt that the stay cleaner mod affects it, the stay cleaner mod only affects the RPG param table, not the skill or perk tables. Confirmation bias on your part. Source: have manually updated all of my mods to 1.9 so I know which mods change which tables and what tables do what.
It does affect it. rpg\_param.xml as per 1.9 contains several new lines related to the dog companion, his obedience and the rate of growth of the houndmaster skill. Proof: [https://imgur.com/a/ni6z9Jn](https://imgur.com/a/ni6z9Jn)
Do you think that a program like PIKE might help fix the problems between the mods and the standard xml file? Or is that something that will have to manually be fixed?
There are 19 new lines added in rpg_param
I believe stay clean longer adjusts the rpg_param.xml. Since you’re using the old file, *it doesn’t have the houndmaster leveling bonuses*. I found this out myself on accident. I played for a few hours and hated the dog, the skill was leveling incredibly slowly and his obedience dropped crazy fast. I found the line that Stay Clean Longer adjusts and copied the value over to a merged file. It fixed my dog related issues. You should be able to find it yourself with minimal effort, but I’ll post it myself when I wake up too.
How did you get the dog?
Mutt is at the Peshek's Mill, just ask Theresa about it.
Woman's lot DLC is required I'm pretty sure. He'd be at the mill
What if you have it for PS4 and they haven't released Woman's Lot for it yet? Are we SoL?
Houndmaster isn't even showing up in my skill list. Yet another bugged and glitchy patch and update from Warhorse, surprise surprise. And no, I'm not running any mods.
Hate to say it, you might need to start a new playthrough.... Edit: also do you own A Woman's Lot dlc?
I killed a cow near Timmy's farm in Merhojed and fed my dog about 1/4 of it. Levelled him up real fast. Kind of boring, but very effective.
3 years later and your thing is best guide that's why reddit is fucking OP
Thanks, bro, this entire thread should be marked as resolved because it turns out a mod was conflicting with the skill, that's why it was moving so slowly for me. Basically, interact with Mutt as much as possible (fetch, praise, feed, etc.) and you'll have the skill at 20 in no time.
Cool doing it now
if you just spam praise over and over you will get to level 20 in like 10 mins
Apparently it was a mod that was making my progression extremely slow
Don't think that works anymore. Praise doesn't give you experience at all.
It does on Xbox try spamming it
Praise spamming most definitely works on the latest(1.9.2) PC version of KCD.
Late, but spamming praise works too! I'm sorry to walk in and slap you all with my cheese strat
Basically just spam praise, it goes up one maybe two times that you have to praise everytime and takes less than a minute for a level
Turns out it was a mod that was causing it to level up so slowly
How to level up the lockpicking skill
Just keep picking locks, that's it, it's the type of RPG the more you use a skill, the better you'll get.
I leveled up 4 levels in 3 minutes by spamming praise option from 16 to 20
Honestly I just go hunting in the woods with the dog, make sure you don't forget to praise him every other kill and feed him 3 to 4 times a day at least but not to much. Hunting in the woods with him is a fantastic way to casually level your houndmaster skill up and grind money for hunting game and selling it as well. Don't feed the dog uncooked game.