Taxidermy Tool

Collecting a creature's Dermis

The Taxidermy Tool is an Extinction item in ARK: Survival Evolved, also found on Fjordur, Lost Island and Genesis: Part 2. The game's description: "Used to capture the Dermis of a dead creature." It works on any creature whose corpse can be harvested, and a tamed creature only needs to be hit with it to give up its Dermis. The Dermis takes its name from the named creature at the moment of the hit, whether that creature is alive or dead.

One Dermis per creature, with exceptions

Each creature's Dermis can be collected only once. Babies are the exception: the wiki explains that a Dermis taken from a baby counts as a separate one, so a bred creature can be recorded at each growth stage, as Baby, Juvenile, Adolescent and Adult, for 4 in total. With Cryopods, the wiki adds, an unlimited number of Dermis can be gained. In singleplayer, survivors can collect the Dermis from their own character's corpse, though hair and dye do not appear when it is shown on the Taxidermy Base.

Other uses of the tool

Used on a corpse to harvest other resources, the tool yields more Meat than a Stone Hatchet, and its reach matches that of a Spear or a Pike. A Dermis taken from a Crystal Wyvern always shows orange eyes on a taxidermy base.

Crafting and carrying

The engram unlocks at level 10 for 3 engram points. The tool is crafted in the inventory from 10 Wood or Fungal Wood, 4 Flint and 2 Stone, in 5 seconds for 0.75 XP. It weighs 0.5, has 40 durability and does not stack. Our records count 76 crate types that can contain it, such as the blue, red and yellow Extinction Cave crates and the Bulbdog Fetch mission crates on Genesis Part 2.