Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs quest and key location

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Thrown to the Dogs is a pre-order only AC Shadows quest in the Osaka region, and you get a free dog as a reward!

Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Thrown to the Dogs is an Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-order exclusive mission. In it, Naoe finds an injured dog near the Tennoji Temple in Osaka and helps investigate its owner's untimely death. The short side quest has you search for a key following an optional fight with the deceased's nemesis, and after completing it, you may see another friendly face around your AC Shadows hideout next time you return.

It's a relatively chilled out mission - as I said, the combat elements are largely optional - but it's a good early quest to break yourself into Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Plus, you'll get a free dog in the process! If you want to know where to start that mission, how to solve the tricky scavenger hunt, how to avoid unnecessary conflict, and what else exactly is in it for you, here's the location of the Thrown to the Dogs quest in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs key location

Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Because it's the biggest sticking point, I'll show you where to acquire the key in the Thrown to the Dogs quest first. After following the dog to Takako's farm and either talking her down or just fighting her, you'll need to find the key's location.

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To find it, you need to go to the East house and the east wall of it. Here you'll find a hole half covered by bushes (see above). From there, go prone and crawl under the house to find a crawlspace with Ichiro's Key inside. Once you have it, crawl back out and you can continue on with the quest.

How to start the Thrown to the Dogs pre-order quest

Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Thrown to the Dogs quest itself is not playable until you reach the point in the main story where you complete the mission "From Spark to Flame". This is where you unlock the Assassin's Creed Shadows base hideout with Tomiko, and gain a proper chance to explore the open world roughly 2-3 hours into the game.

At this point, head to the location marked above - the hilltop Northwest of the Tennoji Pagoda fast travel point (and Southwest from your hideout). At the top you'll find a dog that you can pet to start the quest. If you need help, go to the Objectives tab in the main menu, and you can choose to track the DLC quest from the top right section.

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Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

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