Bronto Platform Saddle

A building platform on a Brontosaurus

Fitted to a Brontosaurus in place of the regular Bronto Saddle, the Bronto Platform Saddle turns the creature's back into ground you can build on, in both ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended. The in-game text reads: "Equip a Bronto with this to ride it. You can build structures on the large platform to make a mobile base." With the platform fitted, the rider can still attack and harvest with the Bronto.

Engram and materials

The engram unlocks at level 82 for 35 engram points, and our records list the Bronto Saddle as its prerequisite. The ARK Wiki names the Smithy and the Argentavis Saddle as places to craft it. A saddle takes 15 seconds to make, gives 462 XP and costs:

• 550 Hide
• 325 Fiber
• 125 Silica Pearls (or Silicate)
• 90 Metal Ingot (or Scrap Metal Ingot)
• 45 Cementing Paste (or Achatina Paste)

The finished saddle weighs 20, with 50 durability and an armor rating of 25. Crafting is not the only source: our records count 233 crate types that can contain it, among them Astraeos Lime and Astraeos Red, and list the Brontosaurus as a creature that drops it. They place the saddle on 14 maps.

What fits on the platform

Storage chests, beds, feeding troughs and most other structures can go on its back, up to a cap of 63 pieces. Everything counts toward that cap, from foundations down to electrical keypads and the ladders attached to the saddle. Some structures are not allowed at all: a Vault, an Industrial Forge, Auto Turrets, Pipes, Dinosaur Gateways, the Behemoth Gateway and Crop Plots growing Plant Species X.

• Bed: lets a player teleport to the Bronto after dying, or travel between several Brontos and their bases, as long as the Bronto is not close to an enemy structure.
• Feeding Trough: feeds allied creatures that are nearby.
• Rope ladders: from a foundation on the platform, 7 of them reach the ground safely; with an 8th, the bottom section sinks into the ground and you have to press E to jump off.

Load and losses

Items stored in containers on the platform still weigh on the Bronto, which makes it inefficient for moving a whole base's materials, and the wiki says that since v256 the full weight of animals is passed on to it too; creatures that reduce weight can raise the overall carry capacity. While any structure stands on the platform, the saddle can be neither removed nor dyed. Should the Bronto die, everything built on it is destroyed, though the saddle itself can be recovered from the corpse.