ARK: Dinosaur Taming Guide
ARK: How to Tame!
The Basics
The dinos fall into two categories: Herbivores and Carnivores. Or Vegetarians and Meat Eaters! Feeding the wrong Dino the wrong thing will hurt and possibly outright ruin your efforts. Most Dinos have an Egg Kibble that they prefer, a system that has for the most part replaced the favorite berry or meat theory. This primarily carnivorous food type is loved by a great many of the dinos. Keep in mind that there are several types of Kibble and each Dino has a preference. If you use the right Egg Kibble you'll get a 5x bonus to taming speed.
Another point to keep in mind is how to bring the Dino down so you can try to tame it. What seems to be the best is the Tranq Arrow. These do require a bow, a few engrams, and a Mortar and Pestle to make, but it is definitely worth the effort and resources. Tranq Arrows are fired from either a Bow or Crossbow. The Crossbow is far more expensive but far more effective. An Elite solution would be Tranq Darts in a Longneck Rifle. We have a table here in The PACK that has a 2x Tranq arrow, Bolt, and dart. These are really your best options, but are hard to come by really early on in the game.
Be aware also that the level of the Dino has a very big impact on taming times, the number of tranq arrows required, food, narcotic, or narcoberry requirements. Very low level Dinos will require very little of these compared to high level Dinos. The high level Dinos will require a great deal more. As for keeping it out cold, Narcotic is the most effective and does not spoil. Otherwise, it's Narcoberries.
Taming Herbivores
For the herbivore, you'll want a ton of berries and a ton of Narcoberries. The best results will occur if the creature has a favorite Egg Kibble. If it does, then you should use that to get yourself a 5x bonus on taming speed. Do keep in mind that each Dino has a preferred food, and when it comes to herbivores there are a number of different berry types. Also note that once the Dino is down for the count, Narcotics are stronger and don't spoil, so this should probably be your method of choice.
Taming Carnivores
For the carnivore, you'll want a ton of meat and a ton of Narcotics. Do keep in mind that each Dino has a preferred food. When it comes to carnivores, there are three (3) different types of meat normally used in taming. Also note that once the Dino is down for the count you'll want to use Narcotics. Prime Meat can be better than regular Raw Meat, and often a Carnivore will relish Mutton over any other meat. You'll get the best results if the creature has a favorite Egg Kibble. If it does and you use the right one, you'll get a 5x taming speed bonus. Spoiled Meat should be used rarely, and only with a few Dinos such as the Scorpion.
Egg-Based Kibble & Which One To Use
Kibble is one of the Rockwell Recipes. It is created in the Cooking Pot. There are many variations, but the basic idea is this: 1 Egg, 1 Meat, Mejoberries, Fiber, 1 Veggie, and Water.
KIBBLE CHART
Below are some Kibble Charts I found around the innerwebs. The Top one is the most up-to-date one that I have found.
The older ones are just here for Legacy. Ark has been with us, and Us with it a long time!
Taming Methods
Knock-out Taming (KO)
Knock-out Taming (KO)
First, render the creature unconscious.
This can be achieved through the following methods: Punching the creature with your bare hands. This is the most basic, albeit least effective, way to knock out dinos, and lowers your health. Punching the creature when unconscious can make its Torpor stay up, but you will lose taming effectiveness.
Using a Slingshot, Wooden Club, Electric Prod, Bow/ Crossbow/ Tek Bow/ Compound Bow with Tranquilizer Arrow, Harpoon Launcher with Tranq Spear Bolts, or Longneck Rifle with Tranquilizer Dart or Shocking Tranquilizer Dart.
Crossbows/Bows/Rifles with Higher damage will result in more Torpor per shot. The Crossbow and Harpoon Launcher can be used underwater.
Once the creature is unconscious, open its inventory and feed it an appropriate food item by dragging food into its inventory and waiting for the creature to eat it. The food needed to tame it will vary based on the creature you are trying to tame. Keep plenty of food in the animal's inventory while taming; if the creature runs out of food, the taming bar will begin to go down until it gets more food.
Force feeding them anything other than Narcoberries or Narcotic will fill their hunger but will not affect the taming bar, effectively making the tame take longer.
Every time the animal raises its head to eat, the Taming bar increases. Herbivores will eat Berries when their hunger falls 20 points (30 points for mejo berries) and Crops when it falls 40 points. Carnivores will eat Raw Prime Meat, Cooked Prime Meat, Raw Meat, Cooked Meat, Raw Fish Meat, Cooked Fish Meat, Raw Prime Fish Meat, Cooked Prime Fish Meat, Spoiled Meat or Cooked Meat Jerky when their hunger falls 50 points. All applicable creatures will eat Kibble when their hunger falls 80 points (for a few creatures it is 135, 120, 53.3, 25, or 20).
If a creature's preferred food is in its inventory, they will wait for their hunger to decrease enough for them to eat it, even if other food is present.
Keep the creature unconscious throughout the process. The Unconscious bar decreases with the creature's Torpor, and can be refilled with Narcoberries, Narcotic or Bio Toxin. Narcoberries will raise torpor by 8 points over 3 seconds, Narcotics will raise it by 40 points over 16 seconds, and Bio Toxin raises it by 80, over 16 seconds. It also stops the creature's fight against the torpor in this time, so torpor will not fall in addition to the raising. The creature will not voluntarily eat these items, and so they must be force fed by hitting the use-key (E, Y, Triangle) in the creatures inventory when hovering over the item.
If the creature wakes up any items in its inventory will be lost.
Turret Knock-out Taming
Turret Knock-out Taming
For certain creatures, such as the Titanosaur, Rock Elemental, Karkinos and Astrocetus, tranquilizers are ineffective. In order to inflict torpor on them, you will need to do damage to their head using a turret weapon. Because turrets themselves are immobile, one may have to mount said turret upon a platform saddle, usually the Bronto Platform Saddle, Paracer Platform Saddle, or Quetz Platform Saddle, or utilizing Unassembled TEK Hover Skiff. The most efficient weapon is the Cannon, as it's torpor-to-damage ratio will be the highest. Although you can also use the Rocket Launcher on Rock Elemental, and the Catapult Turret on the Karkinos. Although related, Rubble Golem can't be tamed.
= Tamed Titanosaur will refuse to eat anything, but in our servers it can be force-fed.
Non-Violent Taming (NV)
Non-Violent Taming (NV)
Most of the creatures below can be tamed non-violently. Diplodocus can be tamed with both methods.
Put the food you plan to feed to the creature in the far-right slot of your hotbar. Approach the creature and press the use key (default: E, Y, Triangle) to feed it when prompted.
Lystrosaurus and Moschops are peaceful and not scared, you don't need to hide yourself. The Ichthyosaurus is curious, it won’t run away. For all other Ghillie Armor is recommended. If touched during the taming process, Gigantopithecus and Manta will attack and Mesopithecus will run. Diplodocus wants to play with you and shoves you around. You need to have Bug Repellant applied to yourself to tame an Araneo, Arthropluera, or Onyc and can be helpful to tame the Dung Beetle and Manta, as these creatures are aggressive and will otherwise attack you on sight or on being touched.
Wait for the creature to become hungry enough up to roughly 90% of its hunger ex:36000-40000 to eat again. This can take varying amounts of time depending on the creature in question and the food you are feeding it. Repeat this process until the taming bar is filled. Note that the first instance of food you feed to the creature is akin to knocking it unconscious with a violent tame - it binds the tame to the Survivor (or their tribe) and the creature's hunger will begin decreasing.
At this point - the taming effectiveness and taming progress will not begin to diminish unless the creature starts taking damage (i.e. enters combat or starts dying of starvation). The initial delay between the first and second feedings compared to all subsequent feedings is also greater. Once fed a second time, progress will begin to reset if you take too long to feed. Moving too far away before a second feeding will also un-bind the tame - resetting everything (although its food may take a few moments to update).
As with violent tames, you can bulk-feed a starved creature with an approximately 5-10 second delay between feedings. Due to the complete reset if you move too far away and the fact most long-duration non-violent tames don't have sufficient food to be substantially starved: this trick is only really helpful for taming skittish Ichthys or monkeys .
Unique Non-Violent Taming
Some dinos must be tamed with unique methods.
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