How to Cheese Dog in Animal Well

Source: Animal Well, Developer: Billy Basso

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In video games, more often than not you are given tools to fight your adversaries, but sometimes, you are left powerless with only one option – to flee. Animal Well takes that idea to its retro, yet vibrant and beautiful, metroidvania-like world, where your weapon is cunningness. Due to that, boss battles resemble more of horror escapes. The feeling of being chased and helplessness makes it harder to make good decisions leading to silly mistakes on the way. There is, however, a method of making the Ghost Dog chase easier by cheesing it with a little help of Animal Flute. If you are fed up with this segment and look for an easy way out, we’re here to help.

Ghost dog cheese in Animal Well

Animal Well charms with its distinct aesthetics, yet it’s not always cute, as boss sequences resemble more of a B class horror movie. If you want to deal with Ghost Dog fast, there is a bit of a cheesy way to make it, avoiding enemies on your way to Mock Disk Shrine completely, but it requires some preparation. Here we go.

1. After taking the Mock Disk from the dog’s mouth, its ghost version will appear to chase you. Immediately after this is done, flute to the fast travel hub and wait for the ghost there. As a reminder, you have to use: right, right, left, left, down, down, up, up.
2. The dog will arrive there in 15 – 20 seconds. As soon as it appears, go through the bear mouth (upper left-hand corner of the hub).
3. Drop down from the jaws and turn right to the room where you must use slinky (or slink, how the game calls it). Travel up to the top right portion of the screen.
4. In the next area, use the ladder to get higher up to jump through the two platforms and make your way through the roof of the room in its top left corner.
5. The chamber with two dog statues will require you using yo-yo to bring down a stalactite hanging on the right part of the screen. With the rock fallen, make your way right to the next area.
6. Continue further right in the following section to finally arrive to a chamber with 5 trap doors. Drop down through one in the middle, and then make your way up through the ladder hanging on the right side of the screen.
7. From there it’s easy sailing right to your destination – Mock Disk Shrine.

There are few things to remember though:

1. In order to have the bear head unlocked in the fast travel hub, it must be discovered in the world beforehand.
2. It is also important to know that it is only the head of the ghost dog that can damage you. You are free to go through the rest of its astral body without any harm.
3. Additionally, it would be recommended to go through the route several times to prepare the stalactite in one room, for example, and learn the way through the maze.

Hopefully those tips will help you out with the dreaded ghost dog section of Animal Well. If you have problems with other puzzles like, for example, opening Circular Recess or solving the Clock Mystery, we’ve got you covered. Also if you are unsure how to get Bouncy Ball or Top Tool, you are free to check out our articles. It may prove useful as the game is quite lengthy, especially considering that it’s an indie production. Good luck!