Turn Monster Hunter's cat pals into man's true best friend with the Canine Palico mod

I love Monster Hunter World's Palicos. My feline companion rides with me into battle, heals me when I need healing (sometimes), and occasionally even puts a monster to sleep. He looks like kind of a smarmy wise-ass, as most cats are. But I still know in my heart of hearts that dogs are the superior pets, and I love that someone went to great lengths to replace Monster Hunter's palicos with pups in the Canine Palico mod "for those who prefer dogs. Now with sounds!"

There are three things I love about this mod.

1. I can't stop laughing at this picture of a bunch of dogs in armor. Adorable.

2. The earnestness with which modder UberGrainy explains this mod's creation: "I'm not particularly a cat or dog fan, but I know some people wanted a dog partner instead of a cat, so I wanted to see if this kind of MOD is possible. I was trying to make it look like a Shiba dog, but I think the neck needs to be a lot fatter, which causes clipping with most armor. So I reverted the neck to a thinner version."

3. The fact that the dogs still kind of look like cats, which just makes the whole thing even funnier.

Check out our full guide to the best Monster Hunter World mods here, which are mostly more practical additions. (But also less cute.)

Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

Latest in Action
An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
Western outlaws with masks and guns
'Players don't explore': former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online designer lays out the perils of 'open world fatigue'
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
Monster Hunter Wilds' first free update will feature 'a whole host of new additions' and a majestic water wyvern for players to blow sky high
Latest in News
A dried ghast, a ghastling, and a friendly ghast all smiling
The latest Minecraft Live uncovered the tragic truth of the Nether's most bothersome mob, which has unlocked new levels of guilt
An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC graphics card from various angles
The RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are rumoured to be mere weeks away, with board partners reportedly required to ensure at least one MSRP model at launch
Noctua's Thermosiphon cooler concept at its Computex booth in Taiwan.
Noctua's pumpless 'thermosiphon' liquid cooling unit is expected to be released in 2026 and has already given me a free lesson in basic thermodynamics
HP inkjet printer
HP settles the class action lawsuit which claimed its printer updates 'act as malware', avoiding either a big payout or admitting wrongdoing