Additional Creatures: Wild Ark Mod Guide

Additional Creatures: Wild Ark is a creature mod for ARK: Survival Ascended by TheRealShadlos (CurseForge ID 1009115). The creatures are tuned to vanilla balance. Some give you a different take on an animal the base game already has, while others do a job no vanilla creature does. Our database holds 76 creature entries, counting Aberrant, Scorched, X-, R-, Alpha and Crystalline variants, and 139 items, most of them saddles and fertilized eggs.

Before you start

• Many unusual tames: many of the creatures do not use a plain knockout. Some are passive tames, some only come from stolen eggs, and a few need a special trick or a duel.
• Herbivore foods: several plant-eaters prefer the mod's own Crop Blend, which needs Strawberries, a crop the mod adds. Start a Strawberry patch early.
• Saddle levels: saddle engrams start at level 18 (Austroraptor) and end at level 105 (Smok Saurovindico).
• One Fasolasuchus, two names: the mod's Fasolasuchus loricatus is a port of the Additional Creatures 2 version from ARK: Survival Evolved. It carries the extra name so it is not mixed up with the official Fasolasuchus.

The creatures at a glance

The special tames

Smok Saurovindico

The mod's apex predator, bigger than a Rex, and it cannot be tamed in the wild. Instead you win an egg in a duel. Craft An Ultimate Challenge (level 105, three artifacts) and pick a single challenger: only Rex, Therizinosaur, Spinosaurus, Ossidon, Magnapaulia, Deinocheirus, Tarchia, Fasolasuchus loricatus, Tyrannotitan and Deinosuchus qualify, plus some creatures from the author's other mods. The challenge lasts ten minutes. The Smok heals first and then hits 50% harder, and anything other than the challenger only does 5% damage to it. Bring it to 15% health or lower with your challenger and it leaves an egg behind and disappears. Only four wild Smoks can exist on a map at once.

Magnapaulia

This large hadrosaur attacks carnivores and survivors on sight and refuses both darts and hand-feeding. Craft A Worthy Challenge (level 95, made from artifacts) and place it in the inventory of a herbivore or omnivore mount. Carnivores, flyers and players on foot cannot use it. Ride up and stay mounted. While challenged, the Magnapaulia deals three and a half times its normal damage and barely feels hits from anything except your mount. Bring it down to 25% health to knock it out, then guard it for 300 seconds, because it draws in carnivores while it is down. Stay within 2,500 units when it stands up: it turns neutral to you and can then be hand-fed. Tamed, it builds a meter with rapid jabs and spends it on a roar that heals and refreshes allies over a wide area.

Inostrancevia

Catch it with a chain bola, get it under 75% health, and hit it once with a Wooden Club to stun it for five minutes. When the bola wears off, feed it while it is still stunned. You can club it again to keep it down: damage does not lower the taming. Tamed, it takes one Mindset, made from an artifact. Only one per Inostrancevia, and it is permanent:

• Collector Mindset: lighter inventory and a big harvest bonus on pearls, gems, Element Shards, Element Dust and Mutagel.
• Traveler Mindset: 25% faster, but 15% weaker in attack and defense.
• Frenzied Mindset: 25% more damage above 75% health, and a heal after a stretch of fighting.
• Survivor Mindset: after each kill, it takes less damage and heals for a short time.
• Estute Mindset: big kills give bonus experience to it and nearby allies: 1.5x for five minutes, 2x for 30 minutes after an Alpha, 4x for an hour after a boss.
• Challenger Mindset: 15% more damage to, and 15% less damage from, bosses, mission creatures and Alphas.

Tarchia

A heavily armored ankylosaur that shrugs off narcotics. Hit it with explosives: it takes only a quarter of explosive damage, and each blast has a good chance to flip it onto its back. While it is flipped, beat it with a Wooden Club. Every hit has a small chance to break its spirit, shown by a blue glow around the head. It is then harmless and can be hand-fed, but it also will not fight back if a predator shows up, so guard it. Tamed, it switches between a fast Active mode and a slow, very tough Bastion mode. In Bastion mode its tail breaks stone structures, harvests wood, stone and Metal, and can break bones.

Tyrannomimus

A grumpy smaller cousin of the Deinocheirus. Wild ones roar at survivors on foot. Hit one in the head with a slingshot during that roar and it turns docile, so you can feed it by hand before its mood returns.

Egg-only creatures

Deinocheirus and Erythrosuchus are raised from stolen eggs. When a wild Deinocheirus lays an egg, there is a small extra chance for a full clutch of five, and the extra eggs roll their own new traits.

Notable creatures

• Albertosaurus: earns Hunt Points from kills: 1 for prey of at least 250 drag weight, 3 for 500 or more, and 15 extra for an Alpha. Spend them in its inventory on upgrades such as Ability: Swift Swim (25), Ability: Crushing Bite and Ability: Shoulderbash (50 each), or one of the three Skin abilities (500 each, only one per Albertosaurus). The points stay with that one creature.
• Angaturama: each is born Neutral, Carefree or Frenzied, and that never changes. Carefree ones are friendlier and can be passive-tamed with fewer feedings. Frenzied ones hit harder and can grab and maul small targets.
• Deltadromeus: one of the first big theropods you meet on the beach, and not a predator. At night its glowing eyes scare off small wild creatures. That is also the only time it accepts food, though nightfall and fights do not reset the tame. Its saddle unlocks at level 25.
• Eryops: it waits buried in the ground and cannot be tamed there. A grenade thrown into its mouth brings it up. It also surfaces when it runs out of stamina or drops below 45% health. Tamed, you can order it to dig in as a living trap that holds or chews whatever steps on it.
• Gargoyleosaurus: its tail hits build up Blood Loss, which ends in a 150-damage burst that no armor reduces. It fills fastest on small targets. For taming it only eats Crop Blend, Honey-Glazed Strawberry and Strawberry, in that order of value.
• Hadal Dragonfish: often invisible in the wild, and strong only in deep water or at night. Valguero has no deep-water marker, so there it only works properly at night, and other modded maps may behave the same way.
• Skorpiovenator: turns any Chitin or Keratin in its inventory into Digested Cementing Paste, one for one, and this cannot be switched off. It goes berserk against insects.
• Vallibonaventrix: wears a Vallibonavenatrix Muzzle and Vallibonavenatrix Gauntlets, both made with Megalodon teeth, for stronger bite and claw attacks. Bio Toxin powers an electric shock, and Angler Gel fuels a flame breath that works underwater.
• Yangchuanosaurus: makes Sparkpowder in its inventory by itself, makes Preserving Salt and Gunpowder on command, and turns Oil and Raw Meat into Candlewax. Fighting builds heat until it can breathe fire.
• Squalicorax: too small to ride, but a pack of up to ten guards a waterway. Each kill of a Hesperornis has a 15% chance to give a Golden Egg.

Variants

Many creatures also come as Aberrant, Scorched, X- and R- versions, and Smok Saurovindico also has a Crystalline version. There are also Alpha versions of the Deinocheirus, Fasolasuchus loricatus and Vallibonaventrix. Our database also lists Styracosaurus, Varanidae and Dragon of Cedar Mountain, which the author's species guide does not cover yet.

Items

• Crop Blend: five each of Strawberry, Longrass, Citronal, Savoroot and Rockarrot. It is the top taming food for several herbivores, and it also works on passive tames. Unlocks at level 45.
• Strawberry: a berry with better taming value than Tintoberries. Its seeds are rare drops from bushes, and Strawberry Seed grows in a small, medium or large crop plot.
• Honey-Glazed Strawberry: made from Strawberry and Honey, and one of the Gargoyleosaurus taming foods.
• Pet Food Kibble: 6 Fiber, 10 berries and 5 Cooked Meat. It is useless for taming, but very light and slow to spoil, so it is a good food for troughs.
• Coal and Anthracite: new minerals. Coal is found with Sulfur and can stand in for Sparkpowder. Anthracite is found with Obsidian and can stand in for Charcoal.
• Concussive Arrow: an arrow with a small grenade tip for explosive taming. It cannot damage structures and only hits once. Unlocks at level 55.
• Candles: once placed and powered, the Clarifying Candle speeds up crafting four times, and the Soothing Candle adds slow healing and lowers food and water drain. Both are made from 25 Candlewax, Fiber, Stone, Cementing Paste and dye, and neither works on large creatures.
• Saddles: Erythrosuchus has two: a standard saddle with two passenger seats, and a Combat Saddle for one rider with more armor. The Hadal Dragonfish rides with the Hadal Dragonfish Implant instead of a saddle.

Tips

• Tame a Magnapaulia before you go after a Smok: it is one of the few creatures allowed to challenge one.
• Keep a few artifacts spare: the two challenge items and every Inostrancevia Mindset use them.
• Plant Strawberries early. Crop Blend tames Magnapaulia, Tarchia, Torosaurus and Gargoyleosaurus.

Further reading: the mod author's own species guide and items guide on Steam list every attack and key binding.

Every creature, item and spawn command of the mod is listed on its mod page.