Chibi-Skeletal Carno

A bony chibi from Fear Evolved 4

Players of ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended can equip the Chibi-Skeletal Carno, a chibi-pet the ARK Wiki traces back to ARK: Fear Evolved 4. It has come back for every event after that, and the wiki dates its addition to patch 315.2. The game describes it this way: "Earn XP from Alpha creature kills when equipped, to increase its level and earn additional max-levels for your Survivor!"

Five level-ups, five extra survivor levels

Experience comes from killing specific predators while the chibi is equipped. After each of its five level-ups, whoever has it equipped at that time gains +1 to their level cap for good, up to 5 levels in total. The wiki's list of qualifying kills includes the Alpha Skeletal Carnotaurus, the Alpha Fire Wyvern, the Alpha Basilisk, the Alpha Mosasaur and the Enraged Corrupted Triceratops. A few apply to one game only: the Abyssal Alpha T-Rex and the Alpha Tridacna on ASE (Steam only), the Astral T-Rex and the Enraged Lightning Rex on ASA.

Where it sits and what happens on death

ASE puts chibis in the off-hand slot; ASA has a dedicated chibi slot. The pet then trails the survivor from the front left, sits in their lap while mounted and stays close by when they sleep in a bed. Chibis are treated as items rather than unlockable skins: death drops the carno along with the rest of the inventory, and it is lost if the death cache is never retrieved. Our records list 3 crate types that can contain it: DodoRex and Dodo Wyvern, Fishing Items (Valentine's) and Fishing Meat (Valentine's). It weighs 0 and has a stack size of 1.