At last! After years of toiling away as special currency shopkeeper and trader of shiny purple stones, Gem Dog, of KleptoCats and KleptoCats 2 fame, takes center stage in HyperBeard Games’ newest mobile entry, KleptoDogs.
Perhaps too much close association with the fiendishly thieving felines of other games has given Gem Dog and her friends some bad habits. Just like its cousins, KleptoDogs sees you gifted a magical, teleporting animal to do your bidding — and steal some cool stuff to fill up your empty yard.
Here’s a quick guide to give you the rundown on this newest iteration in the franchise. We’ll give you some nifty tips and tricks along the way, too! Let’s dive in.
So How Does KleptoDogs Play?
Somewhat disappointingly, KleptoDogs follows the mechanics of the original KleptoCats rather than the much more polished (and so much cuter) KleptoCats 2. Gem Dog and a collectible army of adorable cartoon doggos can be sent out to steal things, but only one at a time per room.
The options to feed, pet, and bathe your pet are still here, and they can be used to raise your dog’s heart bar to 100%. But they can be used interchangeably, which makes differentiating them rather useless.
You will also need to save gems in order to unlock different areas of your house instead automatically unlocking them through the game’s storyline.
Why Fill Up the Heart Bar?
Having a 100% heart bar will increase your chances of Gem Dog (or whichever doggo you’re sending out into the unknown) bringing back something you haven’t already collected.
It’s true that when you first start out on your grand, slightly felonious venture, it might not be as important to get Gem Dog up to 100% heart. That’s because the chances of dupes are fairly low at the beginning of the game.
However, while I was fairly lucky in the first day or so and didn’t get many dupes, some users have reported getting dupes even when they’ve only collected two or three items (one poor soul got the same dupe about four times in a row!).
If the luck of the draw isn’t turning in your favor, up your chances by keeping your pet’s heart bar up. The quickest way to increase your health bar is to pick the “pet” option and speedily mash the screen in order to fill up the bar. It takes about two to three petting sessions to hit 100%.
In the end, I am fundamentally a lazy person and split my attention between finding out what my dogs bring back and what new dogs I can trade my cash for (since there are currently 30 different dogs that you can collect).
If you prioritize collecting items exclusively, keep that heart bar up and save your cash for unlocking new areas.
Let’s Talk Money Matters
Since this game is rather simple and, well, money matters, we should talk a little about currency.
As in the two KleptoCats games before it, there are two types of currency in KleptoDogs:
- Gold Coins: This is the most common type of currency and your reward for completing activities. Gold coins can be used to pay for ringing the bell (100 gold each time), which brings your dog back immediately, or to trade for purple gems
- Purple Gems: These are your premium currency and what you use to trade for new dogs (8 gems each) or new expansions to your tiny kingdom. You can trade them back to coins, but it’s not worth it.
How Do I Get Gold Coins?
Gold coins are the easiest currency to get, and you can rack up a ton of them very quickly for doing almost anything. Here are the best ways:
- Completing a successful theft mission: Get gold coins when your dog grabs a new item
- Getting an item dupe after your theft mission: Trade the dupe item in for more cash
- Taking screenshots of your new stuff: Take screenshots by using the in-game screen capture buttons when prompted (using your device buttons won’t net you the rewards).
- Watching ads: Everyone knows ads give them rewards in mobile games. Either wait for ads to pop up or click the permanent “Watch Ads” button in the main menu.
- Keep an eye out for the Coin Cat: The Coin Cat (dark cat surrounded by purple fire) shows up from time to time in the background and may look for all intents and purposes like one of the items your dogs have picked up on their travels. Keep an eye out and tap rapidly on it to drop tons of coins for a short while.
- Playing Mini-Games: Since there’s so much time between when you send your furry pals out to thieve and when they get back, you can waste some time playing KleptoDogs mini-games for gold. You won’t get much gold very quickly, but you can play these mini-games indefinitely, which will eventually help you rack up the riches.
- Daily Rewards: Of course, KleptoDogs has daily rewards. Every day, you have the chance to pick between a regular and a premium reward (you will need to watch another short ad for the latter) for extra cash.
- Trading in your purple gems: You can certainly do this if you really, really wanted to, but I’m inclined to suggest that you’re a little crazy if you do so because the trade-in value between the two currencies are not the same. One purple gem can be exchanged for 125 gold coins whereas it takes 250 coins to get one gem.
How Do I Get Purple Gems?
Getting purple gems is a little trickier than getting gold coins. It takes more time to do (unless you want to pay), but you can still amass a number of purple gems fairly quickly if you:
- Finish the tutorial: KleptoDogs is exceptionally easy to pick up, but the game still tries to show you how it’s done. Indulge and afterward, it will reward you by giving you enough gems to buy a new friend.
- Save your coins and trade them in: It may take longer, but don’t spend your coins on ringing the bell just yet. Instead, collect your coins from every avenue possible and trade them in for gems.
- Note: Keep an eye on your screen when you first send your dog out; occasionally, a button will pop up for a free bell ring as a reward for watching an ad instead of more coins.
- Daily drops: Sometimes you’ll get a gem drop in your daily rewards, so make sure to get them.
- Buy gem packs: This is not my recommended solution (although if you want to support the game devs, do so!) since you will blow through the different currencies so quickly, it likely isn’t worth the expense.
What Do I Collect First?
Why not both?
While you really only need one or two dogs (if you unlock the Kitchen expansion) to keep the goods and the cash rolling in, collecting new dogs means that they will also show up in your yard and your kitchen, interacting a little bit with the items you have there.
Send your dogs out for cash and treasure, but save the cash for gem trade-ins and then new dogs. This way you’ll manage to get more of each thing all at the same time.
Then, once you’ve maxed out your dogs and your collectibles, start spending your currencies on buying cute hats and customizations for each of your dogs!
Of course, you could potentially ignore gems altogether and spend your cash exclusively on ringing bells and sending your dogs out as often as possible, so your decisions on the matter are exclusive to you and your play style!
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That’s it! That’s all you need to know to get started in KleptoDogs. Remember you have all the time in the world, so don’t worry too much about dropping real money just for a chance at new collectible faster.
