The Good Life: Team Cat or Team Dog

The Good Life is a surprisingly complex title, as you might expect from an experience created by Swery. There are a ton of little connecting systems, and the game doesn’t always do the best job of explaining how everything works. Point in case is the whole Team Cat vs Team Dog system, which can be a bit hard to wrap your head around. Luckily we’re here to explain it.

Team Cat or Team Dog - Which Should You Pick in The Good Life?

The two different teams essentially correspond to all the villagers of Rainy Woods. On the top left of the screen, above Naomi’s portrait, you’ll notice a gauge with a slider between a cat and a dog icon. This represents the team that you have the strongest affinity with, which in turn decides how the members of that “team” treat Naomi. So if you have a stronger affinity with Team Cat, villagers that are on Team Cat will treat you better. This results in them being nice to Naomi, and merchants will offer their goods to her for discounted prices if she’s on their team. 

You can tell which villagers are on which team by looking at the icon above their head, as it’ll either be a little dog or a little cat. If you’re looking to spend a lot at a specific merchant, it’s a good idea to boost your team affinity with them in order to get discounted prices. For example, if you want to purchase expensive camera upgrades, you’ll want to be on team dog. Here’s how all of the essential merchants in The Good Life break down.

• Bruno Evans - Mushroom & Evans (food) - Team Dog
• Thomas Berryman - Grocery & Butcher Shop (food) - Team Dog
• Michelle O’Reilly - 1977 (food & alcohol) - Team Dog
• Jan Yi Han - Scones (food) - Team Dog
• John Berryman - John’s (cameras) - Team Dog
• Virginia Yeats - Fancy & Bunny (clothes, seeds, plants) - Team Cat
• Douglas McAvoy - McAvoy Construction (home improvement) - Team Cat
• George Fakhoury - RW Veterinary Hospital (healing, medkits, medicine, etc) - Team Cat
• Pauline Atwood - Witch House Pharmacy (concoctions, medicine) - No Team 

As you can see, more of the game’s merchants are on Team Dog, but the more expensive ones are on Team Cat. Near the beginning of the game you’ll likely be spending more money on food and camera upgrades, so it might be a better idea to lean toward Team Dog. However, as time goes on you’ll start spending more money on home improvement and medical treatments, so it may be a better idea to switch to Team Cat at some point. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do so. 

How to Raise Team Cat Affinity and Team Dog Affinity

A lot of the interactions you have with the residents of Rainy Woods will have an effect on the Team meter. Turing into a dog or cat and playing with residents can have a tiny effect while completing side quests for members of either Team can also contribute. The most influential way to change your Team, however, is by offering Dog or Cat tributes at a shrine, which appear on the map as little yellow towers. One tribute will cost you £100, so if you’re looking to really swing the meter it’s going to cost you a bit of money. Because of that pick which team you want early on and focus on that, then later in the game when you’re making more money, it’ll be easier to switch teams.