Slugpup

Slugpups are creatures added in the Downpour DLC. They are unlocked after completing the food quest and traveling to Journey's End, upon which they will begin spawning in Gourmand's, 's, and 's campaigns. As they are the infant form of the, they have to rely on the player to survive.

Appearance
Pups are the juvenile version of s, being about half the size of an adult. Pups' bodies and eyes come in a variety of different colors and brightness, with green and yellow hues being the most common while red and violet are the rarest.

Abilities & Behavior
Slugpups are initially afraid of the player, running away upon spotting them. The player can press the grab button to hold the pup's hand or hold the grab button to carry the pup to calm it down. Afterward, Slugcat must sleep with the pup in a, after which its food bar appears above their own. The Slugpup will begin following Slugcat, who may need to throw food to the pup to feed it; though they are capable of taking food on their own, including catching and most edible objects.

Pups can tug on the player and point as well as pick up and throw items like and jump over terrain. Upon entering a room with a hostile creature, like, any pups that are not being held will scatter. If any are captured their food bar will start blinking red, alerting the player so they can save them. If a pup is killed (by being carried off-screen by a predator, drowning, falling down a bottomless pit, etc.) their food bar will fade to a dull grey. While they cannot defend themselves when grabbed, if the player happens to be captured, they may throw spears and rubbish in an attempt to rescue them.

Every cycle, pups have a chance to spawn in the current region, in a random. The spawn chance differs per region, being relatively high in regions such as and  (50% and 30%, respectively) and very low in regions such as  and  (2% and 4%, respectively). However, when factoring in the number of shelters per region and general difficulty, is a recommended region to search for pups, as there is a moderate 15% chance and traversing from shelter to shelter is relatively easy.

Utility
Slugpups can hold extra and  for the player. Slugpups can also throw them to catch food and give the player a chance to escape when they are captured. They do the same amount of damage that does, so they can be quite adept at killing creatures that are distracted by the player.

Training & Memory
Slugpups have a memory of creature interactions and general player actions in-game. They typically watch and remember what the player does, which leads to them attempting to mimic them. Slugpups can learn to consider different creatures as threats, as well as learn to ignore others. Pups will also learn to hunt and kill creatures that the player kills often (this means that a slugpup could theoretically be trained to hunt and kill ).

Playing & Player Interaction
Slugpups can additionally be given certain commands.
 * If the player jumps while crouched (down + jump), the slugpup will be told to stay in their current location.
 * A singular jump without directional inputs will tell a slugpup to play with the player. In this "play with me" mode, slugpups will stick with the player more and stay closer to them.
 * A jump with the up direction held will tell the slugpup to stop playing with the player.

Idle slugpups will occasionally play with items and shuffle them around in their hands, as a form of fidgeting. They may also wiggle and jump around, and tug on the player's hand. Pups may also decide to nap while idle, laying down on the ground and closing their eyes.

Giving pups items and gifts will make them like the player more, as they love playing with them. The player can also wiggle the pup around a lot, which will cause the slugpup to jump and move around slowly as if dizzy.

Food Preferences
Slugpups have unique food preferences. If a slugpup likes a type of food, it will dance around in joy to a level according to how much it likes the food. However, if a slugpup dislikes a type of food, it will close its eyes in disgust and shake slightly.

Slugpup food preferences are impacted by personality traits, which can be modeled in the following table:

Personality
Slugpups have six personality traits that affect their behavior: sympathy, bravery, energy, nervousness, aggression, and dominance.

Out of these six, sympathy, bravery, and energy are hard-coded, and the other three traits are influenced by them.

Sympathy

Bravery

Energy

Nervousness

Aggression

Dominance

Variants & Attributes
Slugpups have many RNG-based attributes that affect their physical appearance and performance, such as metabolism, stealth, balance, etc. These hard-coded attributes affect additional traits that are seen by the player, such as rotundness, speed, color, or lung capacity. Pups have numerous variables affecting their body and eye colors, one of which is a true/false statement determining whether the slugpup is dark. (This variable is called IsDark? in the game files.) Eye color is based on this variable since dark-colored pups have white eyes while light-colored pups have dark-colored eyes.

Trivia

 * Pups are a reimagining of Cut Content: another version of pups shown in alpha trailers, which had a different code base and was removed prior to release.
 * Successfully hibernating with a Slugpup for a few cycles will reward you with the Passage of "The Mother." The more slugpups you care for, the more progress is earned per hibernation.
 * Pups can eat, and upon consuming them will shake sporadically for a short period of time; the player's perception is unaltered.
 * The ending cutscene in Journey's End for Survivor will change depending on the number of pups the player brings with them.
 * Slugpups can be fed to and will increase their tameness.
 * Slugpups can be targeted for tutorials by an . This is most likely an error in the entity being targeted.
 * s are terrified of them, although this is likely a glitch.


 * Slugpups cannot ascend with the Player and will be stopped by an invisible horizontal wall. They will also swim up to the surface of the Void Sea the player manages to take them there.
 * Slugpups also do not gain any Karma from or  and will be attacked by  upon entering.