Tropeognathus Saddle

A saddle with a jet and a cannon

The Tropeognathus Saddle lets a survivor ride a Tropeognathus in ARK: Survival Evolved, and it is the one saddle outside the Tek line that comes armed. "Equip a Tropeognathus with this to ride it. Saddle is mounted with a cannon that fires grenades and a gasoline-powered jet engine." Both of those features change how the creature flies and fights.

Flying on the jet

• The jet runs on Gasoline, which has to be in the creature's inventory. It has 3 speed settings, and each faster one burns fuel more quickly.
• While the jet is on, the rider can barrel-roll to dodge attackers or change direction sharply in the air.
• At jet speed it outruns the boosted flight of the Wyvern and Pteranodon, even the Crystal Wyvern, and keeps pace with a Griffin.

The flak cannon

The cannon can only be fired with the jet running and switches off together with it. Its ammunition is Grenade, loaded into the creature's inventory, and a direct hit on a flyer deals 450 damage. Saddle quality raises that damage but not the saddle's armor. The ARK Wiki reports a cap of 500% in single player, for at most 2,250 damage per direct hit, and about 369.3% on official servers, or roughly 1,662.

Crafting the saddle

The engram unlocks at level 65 for 21 engram points. It was the first saddle that could be built in a Fabricator, and a Tek Replicator or Exo-Mek works as well. The recipe:

• 600 Metal Ingot (or Scrap Metal Ingot)
• 450 Fiber
• 325 Hide
• 250 Polymer (Organic Polymer or Corrupted Nodule also work)
• 120 Crystal (or Primal Crystal)

Crafting takes 10 seconds and gives 22.2 XP. The saddle weighs 20 and has an armor rating of 25 with 50 durability. High-quality copies are found in deep sea crates, the desert crates on Ragnarok and as Genesis mission rewards; in total, 178 crate types can contain it, including Fjordur Deep Sea, Island Deep Sea and the Beyla and Hati crates.