Earlier in Destiny 2’s ongoing Season of the Seraph, developer Bungie added an adorable mechanical dog called Archangel — Archie for short — to the space fantasy looter shooter. Reaching him is a complicated process that involves destroying 50 security drones scattered throughout the game and then traversing through a secret area in the Operation: Seraph’s Shield Exotic mission. Once Archie is found, though, he gets transported to the H.E.L.M. hub area, where players can engage the “Good Boy Protocol” — also known as, petting Archie. You can pet Archie as many times as you want, and there’s even a tracker that keeps tabs on how many times you activate the Good Boy Protocol that you can equip on your Guardian’s emblem.
Beyond unlocking a Triumph achievement that players need for the Seraph title when discovered, Archie ultimately serves no purpose in Destiny 2 aside from being cute. Reddit user u/Goliathisbae apparently thought otherwise, though, because they pet Archie 1,000,000 times just to see if something special would happen. You can watch the one millionth pet in the video below.
Unsurprisingly, u/Goliathisbae didn’t find anything by doing this. “In case you were wondering, there is no special trigger/reward/etc for petting Archie in the H.E.L.M. one million times,” they wrote in a post on r/RaidSecrets, a subreddit community for Destiny 2 secret hunters. “Regardless, Archie is a very good boy. For those wondering, it was roughly 380 hours of petting.”
Reactions to the petting spree were quite humorous, with many making wisecracks or expressing amazement. “If that dog had fur, he wouldn’t anymore,” joked one fan in the post’s top comment. “You just haven’t petted him enough yet, try one hundred million,” wrote another. “I don’t think anyone expected anything for petting the dog 1 million times,” said one fan, to which another simply replied, “Dopamine. That’s a given, like the other 999,999 times.”
It’s truly ridiculous for someone to pet Archie this much, even if they taped buttons down or used a macro to speed up the process. While Archie is undoubtedly a very good boy, I don’t think I’d be willing to devote 400 hours of my life just to repeatedly activate the Good Boy Protocol. Then again, I suppose players have to get in all the pets they can, as Archie will be leaving the game for awhile when Destiny 2: Lightfall launches on February 28. At least Bungie said he’ll be back when Season 21 rolls around.
Destiny 2: Lightfall is slated to arrive on February 28 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PCs, and PlayStation systems. The DLC costs $40 and takes them to Neptune and the city of Neomuna, where they’ll face off against Emperor Calus and his powerful Shadow Legion. Ahead of its launch, check out our Destiny 2 Lightfall prep guide for an overview of the best ways to get ready for the expansion.
