Dog and God



Dog is a Nightkin who helps Father Elijah by capturing "assistants" for him and fitting them with explosive collars. His alternate identity, God, is trying to break Dog free of Elijah's grasp.

Background
The "Dog" identity can be triggered by the sound of Father Elijah's voice, and the "God" identity is triggered by the sound of his own voice (via holotape or radio). When one is dominant, the other is said to be in "the cage" or "the basement." The two are never given a collective name, only referred to as their two names collectively.

With the destruction of the Mariposa Military Base, then the Cathedral, and the subsequent loss of connection to the commanders, his grip on reality broke as the two identities emerged. The first identity the player meets is Dog. The other, God, is the subconscious voice of reason.

Dog's hunger would always drive him to the surface, but when the hunger was satiated and/or fatigue set in, God would emerge. Dog is unaware that the God identity is actually a part of him. He refers to the other identity as climbing into his head and constantly being mean to him in a misinterpretation of God's attempt at protecting them both from harm by locking Dog away. Despite this, God continues to try to protect Dog, seeing him as his younger sibling. Both would grow to resent the suppression of the other being in control, each referring to the other putting them in the cage, or the basement. While in the cage, each identity would only perceive glimpses of the other's actions.

While God is in control, he refers to the body as a "shell" and states that it is hard to fight in. In contrast, Dog seeks to eliminate the God personality.

Quests

 * Find Collar 8: "Dog": The Courier has to travel to the Villa police station and recruit Dog or God.
 * Fires in the Sky: The Courier has to escort Dog or God to Salida del Sol South to Trigger the Gala Event and hunt down some ghost people for Dog or God to eat.
 * Put the Beast Down: The Courier must confront Dog or God in the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.

Other interactions
After recruiting Dog and watching him kill and consume one of the ghost people, the Courier can talk to Dog and, after going through a few speech options, receive the Ghost Hunter perk from him. However, if they have the Cannibal perk, it is possible to get the Ghost Hunter perk from him without fighting.

Effects of player action

 * If the Courier has the Wild Wasteland trait, Dog will say "OM NOM NOM" the first time he eats a ghost person.
 * Should Dog/God be killed in the Cantina Madrid and if the area is revisited, his corpse will be shown to have exploded into bloody chunks, due to the fact he ate his collar.

Companion interactions

 * God will engage Dean Domino in conversation while they are both dismissed to the Villa fountain by the Courier. He is apparently familiar with Dean and expresses contempt for the ghoul for not leaving the Sierra Madre when he had the opportunity.
 * Similarly, if Dog is a companion, he will engage Dean Domino in a short conversation if they meet at the Villa fountain. Dog will refer to Dean as if he was some kind of food, Dean's reply being "you stay in your corner while I stay in mine". Then, Dean will talk quietly with the Courier, asking them to "keep him away from this thing".

Inventory
Like Lily Bowen, Dog and God are limited in the weapons they can use. These weapons are:

Since Dog/God cannot equip any weapons unique to Dead Money and outside weapons cannot be brought into the Sierra Madre, Dog/God are effectively restricted to Unarmed fighting, frag grenades, and the sledgehammer.

Appearances
Dog and God appear only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.

Behind the scenes
In the game files exists an unused character named Dog Script Test Dude, which is a generic super mutant used to test scripts related to Dog and God.

Bugs

 * The dialogue options "Who's this old man that brought us here?", "So you're the one that knows how I got to the villa", "You Brought Me Here to the villa", and "I want to know more about the man who brought us here" remain highlighted even if you have selected them.
 * Sometimes Dog/God may be unable to heal when idle or given stimpaks.
 * Sometimes when he is ordered to wait, Dog/God will attack the first ghost person he can find before waiting.
 * There is an exploitable bug where you can obtain God's perk without him following you. By having God as a companion, use Elijah's voice to summon Dog's persona. This is only temporary, however; as soon as you dismiss him at his post for Fires in the Sky, this perk will be lost.
 * Dog/God is prone to getting stuck in walls around the villa and may be unable to follow the player in the same cell.
 * Sometimes Dog will bug and repeat the phrase "Let Dog out. Hungry, hate being in here" after you have brought him to the fountain. This is because the game still thinks Dog is in the cage at the police station due to the result of buggy dialogue options when you are convincing him to leave the cage.
 * FIX: If updating the game or returning to a previous save is not an option, the console is the only solution. Go to Dog and open the console, then click him. Remember the first two digits of the number at the top then type set . Replace XX with the two digits from before.