Here is D-Dog saving me after I used the box to fast-travel into a hot zone and got myself surrounded: D-Dog can waltz right into a heavy combat area, tag a guy with the wormhole fulton and stroll right out without anyone giving him shit, and they can't even fucking shoot the guy down.
And the wormhole upgrade is crucial because it can't be shot down, and can be deployed indoors and in bad weather. I never expected the rocket arm projectile to be able to run through more than one dude before needing to be fired again, but man does that change things. You know what else has made my solider farming runs that much easier? The Rocket Arm (stun) variant of the bionic arm, and the Wormhole upgrade for the fulton. This has made my soldier farming Side-Ops runs go that much smoother without having to worry about resupplying rarely at all. Also, that fulton tactical gear he has on? Yeah, he fultons unlimited dudes for free. I can sprint full on into battle areas knowing exactly where all of the enemy soldiers (and prisoners) already are.
Firstly, vanilla D-Dog's natural spotting abilities are unbelievably useful. I wanted to share a little bit about why D-Dog is my favorite buddy, and how I've been using him on my missions. ***This post contains spoilers about D-Dog at max rank (obviously), but also 2 specific high level equipment upgrades for the fulton and bionic arm (both of which were already shown in gameplay demos prior to release, but wanted to give a warning anyway)***