Permafrost: How to Get the Dog in Bone Cave (Dog Days Quest)

In Permafrost, your dog is not with you from the beginning. You choose its name, breed, and coat during character creation, but encounter the injured animal deep in Bone Cave during the main quest “Dog Days.” Robyn, the leader of Horizon settlement, sends you to find it.

Quick answer: Bring any Bandage and one piece of raw Meat to Bone Cave. Press E on the dog to treat it, then press E once more to feed it. This finishes “Dog Days,” and the dog will follow you afterward.

How to unlock the Dog Days quest from Robyn

You cannot walk straight to Bone Cave. The marker only appears once Robyn hands you the quest, and she does that after a short cooking errand.

Finish the opening quest “A New Beginning” by gathering wood and stone, then building and lighting a campfire. Follow “Feel the Heat” through the cave and out to the Horizon settlement.

Find Robyn in the leader’s cabin and speak with her (the objective says “Find the leader”). She assigns the short task “Horizon’s Kitchen,” which has you cook meat before talking to her again.

Robyn gives the Dog Days quest — Speaking with Robyn in her Horizon kitchen is what triggers Dog Days and marks Bone Cave on your map. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

Cook one piece of Meat at any lit campfire. There is a stone hearth with a cooking-pot sign inside the Horizon building. Return to Robyn and tell her “Dinner is ready.”

When “Horizon’s Kitchen” closes, the “DOG DAYS” banner appears with the objective “Enter Bone Cave.” The journal reads that Robyn told you to head toward Bone Cave and marked it on your map, with the goal “Find a new ally in the Bone Cave.” In the same talk she also hands out the side quest “Separated” about a man named Liam. That is a different task and has nothing to do with the dog.

What to bring before you leave Horizon

Two items in your inventory decide whether you can rescue the dog on arrival. Pack them before you set off so you do not have to backtrack.

Any Bandage. You can craft a Makeshift Bandage in the inventory (TAB) using 2 Cloth. Pick up Cloth around Horizon’s buildings, from clothes bins, and from suitcases.
One raw Meat. It must be the raw “Meat” item, not a cooked Dish. Red deer graze outside Horizon’s gate and along the route to the cave.
A light source. The cave is dark. The flashlight sits on the Radial Menu, which you open by holding Q.

To obtain Meat, shoot a deer with the Crude Bow. Equip a knife and hold E on the carcass to skin it, then open it and collect the Meat. A Stone Shiv works as a knife.

You need a blade equipped to skin an animal. With a bow or axe in hand, the carcass displays “Unsuitable tool used!” and yields nothing.

Bone Cave location and route

Robyn’s quest places a yellow diamond on the compass with the distance in metres. Leave Horizon through its main timber gate and follow that marker. A few landmarks confirm you are on the right path.

A broken snowmobile sits beside two fuel barrels not far outside the gate.
A fenced trail runs under a cliff, leading to a frozen riverbed dotted with wrecked white cars. Each “Damaged Car” can be searched.
The cars end at a shallow trench crossed by concrete slabs. Farther along, a wooden post bearing a tattered red flag identifies the cave entrance beside the frozen river.

Walking in ticks off “Enter Bone Cave,” the location banner “BONE CAVE” appears, and the objective updates to “Go deeper into the Bone Cave.” Outside Horizon you will also see the “BONE-CHILLING COLD” warning, and the cave itself can read around -13°C on entry, so warm up before you go.

Healing and feeding the dog in Bone Cave

Keep to the marker through the main passage. After a brief walk, you’ll reach another chamber, with a flare burning on the ground for light. A dead survivor dressed in white lies there, and the dog stands beside them in a yellow pack harness.

The injured dog in the flare-lit chamber — The flare on the ground marks the chamber where the hurt dog waits, next to a dead survivor in a white suit. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

The objective now splits into two parts, “Heal the dog with any Bandage” and “Feed the dog with raw meat.”

Face the dog to see its name and the prompt “Press E Heal.” Press E to use one Makeshift Bandage.

The prompt changes to “Press E Feed.” Press E again to use one raw Meat.

Healing and feeding the dog — After the bandage is applied, the prompt switches to Feed; press E a second time to give the dog raw Meat. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

Once both are done, “DOG DAYS – QUEST COMPLETED” appears, followed by the “DOG COMPANION” tutorial. The next main quest, “New Home,” begins at once with the objective “Exit Bone cave.”

If you get to the dog without a Bandage or raw meat, the corresponding objective remains unfinished. You can make a Makeshift Bandage there from 2 Cloth, or leave to hunt for Meat and return.

What the dog does once it follows you

The tutorial explains that the dog takes commands through the radial menu, carries items, warns of danger, and searches for interesting loot. After the rescue, hold Q to open the dog’s entry on the Radial Menu and give commands; it also follows automatically through caves and across the map.

Its pack works like any container. Look at the dog and the prompt shows “Press E Check container” to open the harness, where R takes everything out. You can also move your own items into it to free up inventory space, which makes the dog useful as a carrier on long trips before you empty it into chests at your base. Holding E brings up “more options” for further interactions.

The dog pack as storage — Checking the dog's harness opens it like any container, so you can stash pelts, food and supplies on long trips. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

Your character-creation choices in “COMPANION SETTINGS” set the dog’s name, breed and coat. Breed options include Husky, Shepherd, Border Collie and more. Rex is the default name, and no way to change these choices afterward is shown.

The bear and leaving Bone Cave

A bear occupies a lower cavern level deeper in Bone Cave, along the route to the far exit. It becomes hostile if struck. With only a Crude Bow, avoid fighting it on the cavern floor; you can shoot from a high ledge that it cannot climb.

The frozen body next to the dog is worth searching too, and the cave holds Flint Boulders and Coal Boulders you can mine with a pickaxe on the way through. “New Home” then sends you out of the far side of Bone Cave into the area called Woods, where you build your first shelter.

Permafrost is in early access, so quest steps, item costs and the numbers above can change with future updates.