Hey shelter heroes! 🐾 We've been deep in the kennels with a mop and a bug net, and Patch 1.5.6 is here: 51 fixes across the whole game. This is the big "we're back" pass, built from your reports and a top-to-bottom code audit. The goal was simple: kill the softlocks, smooth out the shelter, and make To The Rescue feel great from the very first dog. Here's what changed:
🐶 Tutorial & New-Player Flow
Fixed the "Bathe Peanut" tutorial softlock (a duplicate-name / spawn-timing race could leave you permanently stuck on the first task).
Talking to your companion dog during the kennel tutorial no longer freezes all input.
The tutorial dog (Ringo) now spawns reliably, so no more "No Dog Found" hang on a fresh game.
The "kennels full" tutorial moment no longer softlocks.
The "open the dog file" tutorial step no longer breaks.
Dismissed tutorial tips now stay dismissed after a reload.
Fixed a leash-mode tutorial crash and an empty-kennel spawn error on a fresh shelter.
🐕 Dogs, Visitors & Pathfinding
Visitors no longer freeze on blocked paths and pile up in the showroom. Unserved visitors now head for the exit (this was a major pile-up root cause).
Fixed adopter pathfinding pile-ups.
Fixed the "stuck in leash mode" lock.
Fixed helper stuck-detection and thought-bubble display.
🏠 Shelter, Economy & Upgrades
The Small Dog Zone upgrade now grants its extra small-dog / puppy capacity.
Apron capacity upgrade #4 (carry 6) no longer reverts to 5 after a save and reload.
The grant-payout skill now actually pays its bonus (it was paying 0%).
Foster homes are no longer double-listed in the Foster panel.
A selected grant now animates to the correct center slot.
Fixed shop double-restocking, feeding / watering accuracy, and errors after demolishing kennels. Added more event and food variety.
🖥️ UI, Reports & Camera
The daily report no longer lists adopted dogs in the "removed / euthanized" column, and removed dogs now show up correctly.
The analog clock hands now sweep through the day (they were frozen).
Fixed report colors for at-capacity and full-happiness states.
Cutscene cameras now frame vertically as intended instead of panning sideways.
The over-capacity cutscene no longer replays.
🛠️ Stability, Saves & Performance
Fixed a crash from the apron-capacity upgrade lookup on a fresh shelter, plus repeating errors during dialogue setup and a notification crash.
Shelter state, story progress, and events now survive a load hiccup, with save / load hardened across the board.
Plugged several memory leaks (companion entities, event ribbons, and more).
…and the rest
On top of the headliners above, this patch folds in another couple dozen smaller guards, edge-case fixes, and crash-proofing under the hood, for 51 fixes in total to keep your shelter running smoothly.
Update now and get back to saving good dogs. As always, tell us what you find. 🦴