01. Overview & Why K9s Matter
The K9 system lives behind a city building, the K9 Tactical Center, which becomes available on Server Day 55. You tame up to five dogs (three from Server Day 55, two more from Server Day 72), then develop each through four parallel systems: Leveling, Breakthrough (rank-up), Drilling (RNG secondary stats), and an active Skill. On top of that, dogs can be deployed on Special Operations for materials and alliance loot. The crucial thing to understand up front is how that value reaches you.
✓ The Three Things That Change How You Play
- ▸Every dog is always active — there is no equip slot. Each owned K9's Level buffs, Breakthrough buffs, and all six Drill attributes are summed into your account-wide stats, simultaneously. You never pick a "main" pet. Acquiring and developing all five is strictly additive — more dogs is always more stats.
- ▸K9s never fight in hero battles. They contribute zero to the RPG (Patrol/Arena) battle layer. Their value is passive troop stats, utility skills (construction speed, Energy refund, instant confiscation, free Kibble), Special-Op loot, and one squad-battle debuff from Magnus. Don't think of them as combat units — think of them as a permanent buff package.
- ▸The dog walking around your city is a one-time unlock, not idle loot. Clicking its bubble starts taming the next un-owned dog, then it despawns. There is no repeatable "tap the dog for rewards" mechanic.
How K9 Buffs Reach Your Troops
Two buff categories flow from every dog into your standing account attributes — applied to all combat, with no pet needing to be "out":
| Source | What It Buffs |
|---|---|
| Level + Breakthrough | Squad Attack + Squad Defense (percentage buffs, climb with level and rank) |
| Drills (6 secondary attributes) | Health + Penetration for each troop class — Marksman, Biker, Guard (percentage buffs) |
💡 The Power Formula
A dog's K9 Power = Level Power + Breakthrough Power + Drill Power. Drill Power equals the sum of your committed Drill values × 120. The active Skill adds zero power — it's pure utility. Every dog's power then rolls up into your account power. This matters for Special Operations, which gate the best missions behind a K9-power requirement (see Section 07).
02. Unlocking & Taming the Dogs
Each dog passes three gates before it's yours: a server-age gate, a prior-dog level gate, and a taming minigame. Radar and Magnus add a fourth: Agility Training before the tame. The minigames are fast; the level gates set the pace.
The Unlock Chain
| Dog | Server-Day Gate | Prior-Dog Gate | Then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreman | Day 55 | None (first dog) | Tame |
| Beacon | Day 55 | Foreman at Lvl 1+ | Tame |
| Buggy | Day 55 | Beacon at Lvl 15+ | Tame |
| Radar | Day 72 | Buggy at Lvl 15+ | Agility Training, then tame |
| Magnus | Day 72 | Radar at Lvl 15+ | Agility Training, then tame |
So the real chore is the chain of Lvl-15 gates: Beacon to 15 opens Buggy, Buggy to 15 opens Radar, and Radar to 15 opens Magnus. The Foreman → Lvl 1 requirement is trivial. Radar and Magnus also wait for Server Day 72.
Taming: Frisbee Training
Each dog is tamed through Frisbee Training — a timing/QTE minigame. Each session is 5 throws, and each throw is judged: Perfect +30%, Outstanding +15%, Mistake +0%. Progress carries over between sessions, and the tame completes at 100%.
Taming is not the bottleneck. Four Perfect throws finish a tame in one session, and each dog gets 2 sessions per day. The Server Day and Lvl-15 gates set the pace.
Agility Training
Radar and Magnus must pass Agility Training before Frisbee Training. It is a three-lane runner: collect coins and avoid hits. 30 coins wins the run; 3 hits end it.
Each coin adds 2% progress, and you keep that progress when a run fails. A won run is worth 60%, so you need at least 2 winning runs — doable in one day with the 2 daily runs per dog, which are separate from Frisbee sessions. The dog's stats have no effect on the run.
⭐ Start the Chain Immediately
The fastest route to all five dogs is: tame Foreman → level it to 1 → tame Beacon → push Beacon to Lvl 15 → tame Buggy → push Buggy to Lvl 15 before Server Day 72 → tame Radar on day 72 → push Radar to Lvl 15 → tame Magnus. Every day you sit below the next gate is a day the next dog arrives later — and since dogs are additive, later means less standing power.
03. 🦴 The 5 Dogs
Foreman is a Quality-1 dog; Beacon and Buggy are Quality-2; Radar and Magnus are Quality-3. Quality drives the level/rank ceiling, the size of the per-level Squad buffs, and — importantly — the Drill value caps. A Quality-2 dog is roughly twice the long-term stat engine Foreman is, and a Quality-3 dog is roughly three times.
Foreman
Quality 1
Max: Lvl 50 · Rank 5
Squad Atk/Def: +0.05% → +2.50%
Skill: Building Buddy (construction speed)
Beacon
Quality 2
Max: Lvl 60 · Rank 6
Squad Atk/Def: +0.08% → +5.03%
Skill: Cuddly Contribution (restore Energy)
Buggy
Quality 2
Max: Lvl 60 · Rank 6
Squad Atk/Def: +0.08% → +5.03%
Skill: Loyal Escort (instant confiscation)
Radar
Quality 3
Max: Lvl 70 · Rank 7
Squad Atk/Def: +0.11% → +7.54%
Skill: Radar Search (free K9 Kibble)
Magnus
Quality 3
Max: Lvl 70 · Rank 7
Squad Atk/Def: +0.11% → +7.54%
Skill: Enforcer's Intimidation (enemy squad debuff)
Power Ceilings (Level + Breakthrough, no Drills)
| Dog | Max Level Power | Max Breakthrough Power | Base Max (no Drills) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreman | 180,000 | 181,440 | 361,440 |
| Beacon | 362,160 | 362,160 | 724,320 |
| Buggy | 362,160 | 362,160 | 724,320 |
| Radar | 542,880 | 542,880 | 1,085,760 |
| Magnus | 542,880 | 542,880 | 1,085,760 |
Drill Power stacks on top of these and is capped by Drill value limits — Quality-1 caps run roughly half of Quality-2 and a third of Quality-3.
Total Materials to Fully Max
| Dog | K9 Kibble | K9 Supplement | Training Document | Gene Chip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foreman | 28,875 | 240 | 60 | 10 |
| Beacon | 83,770 | 515 | 110 | 30 |
| Buggy | 83,770 | 515 | 110 | 30 |
| Radar | 188,955 | 835 | 190 | 70 |
| Magnus | 188,955 | 835 | 190 | 70 |
K9 Kibble feeds Leveling; Supplement, Training Document, and Gene Chip feed Breakthrough. Whistles (Drilling) are separate and effectively unbounded — you spend them until you're happy with the rolls.
04. Leveling & Breakthrough
These are two separate progression axes that alternate. Leveling spends K9 Kibble and adds Squad Attack/Defense. Breakthrough (rank-up) spends the rarer materials, adds a bigger Squad Attack/Defense step plus power, upgrades the Skill — and raises your level cap. You level to the cap, breakthrough to lift it, then keep leveling.
Level Cap by Rank (Foreman example)
| Rank | Level Cap |
|---|---|
| Rank 0 (fresh) | Lvl 10 |
| Rank 1 | Lvl 20 |
| Rank 2 | Lvl 30 |
| Rank 3 | Lvl 40 |
| Rank 4 | Lvl 50 |
| Rank 5 (max) | Lvl 50 |
The last Breakthrough adds power and a Skill rank but no new levels. Beacon and Buggy follow the same pattern one tier higher (Rank 6, Lvl 60), and Radar and Magnus two tiers higher (Rank 7, Lvl 70). When the UI shows "Breakthrough" instead of "Level Up," you've hit the current cap and need to rank up to continue.
💡 Skill Unlocks at Lvl 10 + First Breakthrough
A dog's active Skill doesn't exist until it reaches Lvl 10 and completes its first Breakthrough (Rank 1). After that, every Breakthrough levels the Skill up alongside the rank. So the first real milestone for any dog is Rank 1 — it opens both the higher level cap and the Skill in one step.
05. 🎲 Drilling — The RNG Stat System
Drilling is the pet system's gacha. Each dog has six secondary attributes — Health and Penetration for Marksman, Biker, and Guard troops (all percentage buffs). Every Drill rerolls all six at once and costs one Whistle. You then keep or discard the result.
The Keep-or-Replace Loop
| Choice | Result |
|---|---|
| Replace | Commits the new values over the old. If the net change is negative, the game warns you before overwriting. |
| Retry | Discards the pending roll and keeps your previous committed values. Costs another Whistle to roll again. |
There is no per-stat lock — you can't freeze one good attribute and reroll the other five. The only thing that persists is the Quality ratchet.
⭐ The Quality Ratchet (One-Way Gate)
Every attribute starts at Common. When Drilling pushes an attribute's value to the cap for its current tier, that attribute promotes a Quality tier — Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary — and can never drop back below it.
That's the whole game: you grind rolls to ratchet each attribute up tier by tier, locking in every promotion. Premium Whistles bias the roll positive, so they ratchet faster than Normal Whistles.
Level Gates the Reachable Tier
You can't drill an attribute past the tier your dog's level allows. This is the single most important efficiency rule in the system — level to the breakpoint before you spend Whistles chasing the next tier.
| Drill Tier | Required Level |
|---|---|
| Common (drilling begins) | Lvl 10 |
| Uncommon | Lvl 20 |
| Rare | Lvl 30 |
| Epic | Lvl 40 |
| Legendary | Lvl 50 |
Higher-quality dogs use the same level breakpoints but roll into bigger value caps per tier — Quality-2 Legendary attributes are about twice Foreman's, and Quality-3 (Radar, Magnus) about three times.
Auto-Drill
After 20 manual Drills, Auto-Drill unlocks. You set a Whistle budget and it rolls for you. It saves every roll where the six attributes add up higher and keeps rolling until the Whistles run out, or until all six attributes are maxed for the dog's current level. When the budget ends, it discards a last roll that is net-negative and leaves a net-zero roll pending for you to decide.
The check is on the total, not on each attribute. A saved roll can lower one attribute while it raises the others, even though the dialog text suggests otherwise. Your Drill Power never goes down, so Auto-Drill is still the right way to grind power. Drill manually when one troop type's attribute matters more to you than the total.
06. ⚡ K9 Skills
Each dog has one active Skill, unlocked at Lvl 10 + first Breakthrough and upgraded with each subsequent rank. Skills are manual — you tap to fire, then they go on cooldown. They add no power. Four are city/world utility; Magnus's is the one Combat skill, a debuff on enemy squads. None of them touch hero battles.
Building Buddy — Foreman
Increases Construction Speed for any building construction started within the next 5 minutes. A roughly once-daily building accelerator — fire it right before a big construction starts.
Value by rank (1→5): 5% → 7% → 9% → 12% → 15%
Cuddly Contribution — Beacon
Instantly restores the Chief's Energy. Roughly once-daily free Energy — and Energy is exactly what Special Operations spend (see Section 07), so this skill partially self-funds your deploys.
Energy by rank (1→6): 35 → 40 → 45 → 50 → 55 → 60
Loyal Escort — Buggy
Arms an effect so your next State confiscation at a Resource Point completes instantly. Once cast it stays armed until you trigger it — the cooldown only starts after you use it. Cast it, then go confiscate.
Cooldown by rank (1→6): 35h → 31h → 27h → 23h → 19h → 15h (this is the one skill that improves by shrinking its cooldown rather than raising a value)
Radar Search — Radar
Instantly grants K9 Kibble. Roughly once-daily free leveling material — and Kibble is what every dog spends to level.
Kibble by rank (1→7): 300 → 500 → 700 → 900 → 1,100 → 1,300 → 1,500
Enforcer's Intimidation — Magnus
The first K9 Combat skill: lowers the Health of enemy Marksman, Biker, and Guard squads for 2 hours. It affects squad battles, not hero battles. On maps with a K9 button (Alliance Training is one), the button opens your Combat skills, and Quick Use fires them all. With one cast every 22 hours, cast it right before a planned squad attack or defense, not the moment the cooldown ends.
Enemy Health by rank (1→7): −1.5% → −2% → −2.5% → −3% → −3.5% → −4% → −5%
07. 📦 Special Operations & Contraband Crates
Deploy a dog on a timed errand for 10 Energy. On completion it always pays a guaranteed personal reward, and has a chance to also drop an alliance-shareable Contraband Crate. You have three concurrent mission slots; a deployed dog is locked until you claim.
The Four Missions
| Mission | Duration | Spawn Chance | Crate Chance | K9 Power Needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Beginner | 3h | 55% | 5% | Any |
 Intermediate | 4h | 35% | 10% | Any |
 Advanced I | 5h | 8% | 40% | 10,000 |
| Advanced II | 5h | 2% | 40% | 300,000 |
"Spawn Chance" is not a success rate. Every Special Operation succeeds and pays out. That percentage is how likely each mission type is to appear in a slot — the rarer the mission, the better the loot. The two Advanced missions are the prize, and they're power-gated at 10,000 and 300,000 K9 power: only a well-developed dog can run them.
Mission Rewards (personal, guaranteed)
| Mission | Reward |
|---|---|
| Beginner | K9 Supplement ×4, Normal Whistle ×1, K9 Kibble ×700, 5-Min Speedup ×5, Lvl 1 Chest ×10 |
| Intermediate | Training Document ×1, K9 Supplement ×7, Normal Whistle ×1, K9 Kibble ×1,200, 5-Min Speedup ×8, Lvl 1 Chest ×20 |
| Advanced I | Training Document ×2, K9 Supplement ×10, Normal Whistle ×2, K9 Kibble ×1,600, 1-Hr Speedup ×1, Lvl 2 Chest ×5 |
| Advanced II | Premium Whistle ×1, Training Document ×3, K9 Supplement ×15, Normal Whistle ×4, K9 Kibble ×2,000, 1-Hr Speedup ×2, Lvl 2 Chest ×10 |
Slots, Caps & Refresh
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Concurrent slots | 3 missions available at once; one dog per mission, deployed dog locked |
| Daily deploy cap | A per-day budget shared across all dogs — when it's gone, deploys are blocked until reset |
| Slot refresh | A new mission only appears in a slot after you complete and claim the current one — no manual refresh |
| Deploy cost | 10 Energy per deploy (Beacon's skill helps refund this) |
Contraband Crates (Alliance Sharing)
When a mission triggers a crate, you can share it with your alliance. Each crate can be claimed by up to 20 allies, and each Chief can claim a maximum of 5 ally crates per day. Crate contents:
| Item | Drop (count @ chance) |
|---|---|
| K9 Kibble | 300 @ 10% · 100 @ 30% |
| Normal Whistle | 2 @ 5% · 1 @ 25% |
| Premium Whistle | 1 @ 2% |
| Diamonds | 500 @ 2% · 200 @ 6% · 100 @ 20% |
Always share your crates — sharing costs you nothing and your allies do the same. Claiming all 5 ally crates daily is free materials and the occasional Premium Whistle or Diamond hit.
08. Strategy & Priorities
Because every dog is additive and none compete for an equip slot, there's no "best dog" decision to agonize over — the goal is simply to unlock all five and develop all five. The strategy is about sequencing and not wasting materials.
Build Order
1. Race the unlock chain. Tame Foreman, level it to 1 to open Beacon, then push Beacon to Lvl 15 to open Buggy. Get Buggy to Lvl 15 before Server Day 72 so Radar is ready on day 72, then push Radar to Lvl 15 for Magnus. Taming itself is fast — the Lvl-15 gates are the bottleneck. Every dog online sooner is permanent stats sooner.
2. Get each dog to Rank 1 early. Lvl 10 + first Breakthrough unlocks the Skill and the next level cap in one move. A Rank-1 dog is a functioning dog; a Rank-0 dog is missing its skill and capped at Lvl 10.
3. Favor the Quality-3 dogs for deep investment. Radar and Magnus have about 1.5× a Quality-2 dog's base power ceiling (1,085,760 vs 724,320), about 3× Foreman's, and the biggest Drill caps. Foreman is the gateway and Beacon and Buggy are the middle tier, but your biggest long-term stat returns come from the two Quality-3 dogs.
🏆 Breakthrough Event Points
The Chief Almighty and Alliance Showdown events list K9 Breakthroughs as a point source. Breakthroughs 1–7 are worth 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,000 / 4,500 / 6,750 / 10,000 points. When you have the materials for a high-rank Breakthrough, hold them until one of these events runs.
⭐ Drill at the Breakpoints, Then Auto-Drill
The reachable Drill tier is level-gated (Lvl 10/20/30/40/50 → Common/Uncommon/Rare/Epic/Legendary). Don't pour Whistles into a dog sitting below a tier breakpoint — you'll cap out at the lower tier and waste rolls. Level to the breakpoint first, then grind. Once you've done 20 manual Drills, hand the grind to Auto-Drill: it saves only rolls where the six attributes add up higher, so your Drill Power never goes down. One attribute can still drop inside a saved roll — drill manually if you need to protect a specific troop type's attribute.
Special-Ops & Resource Loop
- ▸Keep all 3 slots working. Deploy whenever Energy and your daily cap allow — missions always pay, so idle slots are pure lost materials.
- ▸Build at least one dog toward the Advanced power gates. The 10,000 and 300,000 K9-power missions carry the best loot (Premium Whistles, the most mats). A maxed Quality-2 dog clears the 300,000 gate.
- ▸Use Beacon's Energy skill to feed deploys. Each deploy costs 10 Energy; Beacon refunds 35–60 daily. Fire it, then deploy.
- ▸Share every crate and claim your 5 daily. It's free materials for the whole alliance, you included.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- ▸ Looking for an "equip pet" button. There isn't one. All owned dogs are always active — develop all five, never swap.
- ▸ Expecting dogs in hero battles. They contribute nothing to hero battles. Their value is passive stats, utility skills, Special-Op loot, and Magnus's squad-battle debuff.
- ▸ Tapping the city dog expecting repeat loot. Clicking it starts that dog's one-time unlock and it despawns — there's no idle-reward mechanic.
- ▸ Drilling below the tier-unlock level. You'll cap at the lower tier and burn Whistles for nothing. Hit Lvl 20/30/40/50 first.
- ▸ Manually Replacing a worse roll. The game warns you when a Replace lowers your total — Retry instead, or just let Auto-Drill handle it.
- ▸ Leaving daily caps on the table. 2 Frisbee sessions and 2 Agility runs per dog, your daily deploy budget, and 5 ally-crate claims all reset daily. Skipped = gone.
TL;DR — The Quick Hits
- 1. The K9 Tactical Center and the first three dogs unlock on Server Day 55; Radar and Magnus on Server Day 72.
- 2. Every dog is always active — no equip slot. All their buffs stack into your account stats at once. More dogs = strictly more power.
- 3. K9s never fight in hero battles. Their value is passive stats, city/world skills, Special-Op loot, and Magnus's squad-battle debuff.
- 4. The walking city dog is a one-time unlock — clicking it starts taming and it despawns. No idle loot.
- 5. Unlock chain: Foreman (first) → Beacon (needs Foreman Lvl 1) → Buggy (needs Beacon Lvl 15) → Radar (needs Buggy Lvl 15) → Magnus (needs Radar Lvl 15). Taming is fast: one good Frisbee session; Radar and Magnus first need 2 winning Agility runs.
- 6. Five dogs: Foreman (Q1, Lvl 50/Rank 5), Beacon & Buggy (Q2, Lvl 60/Rank 6), Radar & Magnus (Q3, Lvl 70/Rank 7). Q2 dogs are ~2× Foreman; Q3 dogs are ~3×.
- 7. Leveling and Breakthrough alternate — level to the cap, rank up to raise it. Skills unlock at Lvl 10 + first Breakthrough.
- 8. Power = Level + Breakthrough + Drill Power. The Skill adds no power.
- 9. Drilling rerolls all 6 attributes at once; Replace commits, Retry discards. No per-stat lock.
- 10. The only persistence is the Quality ratchet: attributes climb Common → Legendary and never drop a tier once promoted. Premium Whistles bias positive.
- 11. Reachable tier is level-gated: Lvl 10/20/30/40/50 → Common/Uncommon/Rare/Epic/Legendary. Level to the breakpoint before you drill.
- 12. Auto-Drill (after 20 manual drills) saves only net-positive rolls — Drill Power never drops, but one attribute can. Use it to grind power.
- 13. Skills: Foreman = construction speed; Beacon = restore Energy (feeds Special-Op deploys); Buggy = next confiscation instant; Radar = free Kibble; Magnus = 2h enemy squad Health debuff (cast before a fight). All ~daily.
- 14. Special Ops always succeed (the % is spawn rarity, not success). The Advanced missions hold the best loot and are power-gated at 10,000 / 300,000 K9 power.
- 15. Crates: each shareable to 20 allies; claim up to 5 ally crates daily. Share everything — it's free mats both ways.