Dungeon Dogs is a mobile Idle Game by PocApp Studios, and is a canine counterpart to their game Castle Cats.
The land of Lupinia is ruled by an evil cat king. While some dogs are content to live under his rule, there's a small rebellion, which you're the captain of. It's up to you to recruit dogs to the rebellion and to stop him once and for all.
- Allegedly Free Game: Without paying real money, you won't be able to collect all the characters in the game or earn all of the characters available in an event, even if you grind.
- Alliterative Name: Some of the quest names, such as Savanna Sweep, Beach Boars, and Poky Pines.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can earn clothing items for your character.
- Animal Jingoism: Cats vs dogs. According to the dogs, cats smell terrible.
- Audience Participation: The game held a design-a-dog contest right before launch for dogs that would be added to the game; here
is the post announcing the winners. - Bears Are Bad News: Bears are a common enemy in quests.
- Big Eater: Poppy. In one of the story missions, she goes back for a fourth helping.
- The Big Guy: Lulu is easily the biggest dog in the game.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Raimu's name means "lime" in Japanese.
- Tykva's name is Russian for "pumpkin".
- Blind Seer: Donna is blind, and claims she can see bad things in the near future.
- Cool Sword: These can be equipped to your character, and some heroes carry them.
- Crossover: The game's release event was a crossover story with Castle Cats, where Francis is sent to the dogs' world and found by your group of rebels. It also introduced the Castle Cats characters Francis, Conan, Catniss, and Chloe as recruitable heroes.
- Cryptic Conversation: Mhumi of the Sunseekers constantly talks in riddles and metaphors. Lyra complains about this in the Mythic Tales 2021 event.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three main characters. Poppy is the Fighter, constantly eager to fight and swing her axe, Lyra the sorceress is the Mage, and Ken the scout is the Thief.
- Forced Tutorial: The game starts you in a tutorial that teaches you how to quest, recruit heroes, and craft items.
- Full-Boar Action: Boars are a common enemy in quests. Some are even armored.
- Gender-Blender Name: Queenie is a male dog.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The goal is to collect all the dogs in the game.
- I Call It "Vera": Gaspard's crossbow is named Colette.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Several characters have one, and you can equip one to your character.
- The Magnificent: In the Halloween 2020 quest, the ghost is named Fiona the Savage.
- Martial Pacifist: Citra says she only fights in self-defense. Trixie also hopes that the war can end with words instead of fighting.
- Match-Three Game: One of the two minigames is match-three game called Matching Mania.
- Memory Match Mini-Game: One of the two minigames each game has that lets you earn gems daily is a memory matching game. The images of the characters used in the matching games rotate each season.
- Mini-Me: You can equip your character with miniature versions of the heroes called "plushies". These "plushies" are animated just like their hero counterparts and can be seen alongside them in battle, even playing attack animations, but they're simply decorative.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the Halloween 2020 story, it's remarked that things are serious if Poppy stops talking in third person.
- Play Every Day: The game has daily login rewards, from gold and items to unlockable characters.
- Power Up Letdown: You can "promote" certain heroes by exchanging fifteen of the fully-leveled character plus 100,000 gold and 150 embers. This doesn't actually give them any new abilities, just a new winged costume, plus you need an extra copy of the character to actually be able to wear it.
- Pun:
- The developers call themselves the "developaws".
- Kili enjoys making puns. One of his lines has him ask Ken if he's had a "ruff" day.
- Shout-Out:
- Donna looks a lot like Lady from Lady and the Tramp, and her name also means "lady".
- Kili is the Pun Dog meme, with the same markings and facial expression, and he loves to make puns.
- Rockbell is based on Winry Rockbell from Fullmetal Alchemist, and like his namesake he can create anything from metal, including new limbs.
- Raimu is based on the Doge meme, being a shiba inu with the classic stare. His name is also a reference to the meme, since "Raimu" means "lime" in Japanese, and the dog that inspired that meme is named Kabosu, which is a similar citrus fruit. Ken also says something like "I am not a 'doge' and I will not do the stare".
- Since Toto is an African wild dog, her name might be a reference to Toto, the band behind the song "Africa" that became a meme.
- Freckles claims she has "many, many, many, many siblings".
- Annie says "Tomorrow is only a day away", which is a reference to the song "Tomorrow" from Annie.
- San, like the character of the same name in Princess Mononoke, believes that the spirits of the land should be protected and that the mines should be destroyed. Her appearance and the mention of delivering medicine is also a reference to Jenna from Balto, as confirmed by the developaws.
- Rita appears to be based on Rita the fox from Jungledyret Hugo, due to her name and species, and her line "I have a special friend in the jungle".
- Like Minty Heart in Castle Cats, Minty Bark is a reference to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Minty Bark is earned by inviting friends to the game, and is a reference to the background pony "Minty"; they're both mint-green with pink highlights, and Minty Bark even has a cutie mark.
- Shiro wears a green cape, goes on quests to help people, smashes pots, and cuts bushes in order to find gems. Sounds a lot like Link from The Legend of Zelda!
- Two of Quinn's lines are references: "I feel pretty, oh, so pretty" is a line from a song in West Side Story, and "That is so fetch" references Mean Girls.
- John Barker is a reference to Jonathan Harker from Dracula.
- Spy Speak: In the main quest, the heroes meet a fox named Finn, aka "The Red Wind". When he meets them, he asks, "Where does the sun set?" and Ken responds with the phrase, "Wherever your eyes are watching."
- Stock Animal Name: Blue, Rex, Toto, Bernie the St. Bernard, Queenie, Rita the vixen.
- Tactical Withdrawal: One of the main-story quests, appropriately titled "Tactical Retreat", involves this.
- Tagalong Kid: The three main heroes are Lyra, Ken, and Poppy, but Poppy's little sister, Poof, often tags along on their adventures.
- Third-Person Person: Poppy. If she breaks the third-person talk, things are serious.
- Your Tradition Is Not Mine: One of Silas' lines is "Becoming a singer is my father's dream, not mine..."
