DinoOverhaul X (DOX) Mod Guide

DinoOverhaul X, usually called DOX, is a full creature overhaul for ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam mod ID 710880648). The author calls it the first complete dino overhaul and dates it to June 2015. On a DOX server, the player is the hunted one. Creatures are rebalanced, the AI is tougher, and progress runs through tiers of ever harder creatures, ending with the roaming TITANs. Our database holds 607 creature entries, 859 items and 130 engrams from the mod.

Before you start

• Legacy notice: the Workshop page warns that changes to the game may have broken legacy mods like this one, and points players to DOX 2 for ARK: Survival Ascended. That is a separate mod with its own Dino Overhaul X 2 guide. Everything below is about the original ASE mod.
• Maps: the supported maps are The Island, Crystal Isles, Ragnarok, Valguero, The Center, Scorched Earth, Genesis Part 2, Fjordur and Lost Island.
• Load order: DOX must be first in the mod list, and it does not work with other dino mods.
• Levels: by default creatures and players both go up to level 151. Do not set DifficultyOffset above 1 or OverrideOfficialDifficulty above 5. Higher values break the mod: stats reset and creatures stop behaving as intended.
• Do not wipe wild creatures: every tier has its own life cycle, and spawns need time to mature. Automatic wild wipes every 24 hours stop them from maturing, and you end up with little variety in the spawns. In single player, add -preventhibernation to the launch options. Solo dedicated and single-player worlds may still need a wipe about once a week.
• Difficulty presets: the author's recommended settings image has Hardest and Hard presets for group play, and Medium and Easy for teams of one to four players.

What changes in the base game

• Rebalanced creatures: creatures move and hit closer to how their real counterparts might have. Dilophosaurs are fast. Megalodons no longer fill the ocean. Argentavis are much weaker than a Rex, and a Pteranodon cannot lift a creature twice its size.
• New stat system: one stat point no longer gives a 20% boost to yields. Each class of creature scales best in its own stats. A Rex gains more melee per point than a Bronto. Tame the highest level you can find and breed it up.
• Tiering in fights: your tames can tier up for extra damage and damage reduction, but wild creatures can tier up too. Boss creatures roll random power buffs.

The creature tiers

The Workshop page names the tiers normal, Apex, Pygmy, Unique and Prime, Ancient and Primal. Above them sit the bosses: Prime WILDs, then Megas, then the TITANs.

Taming and knockout

• Wyverns, Dragons and Manticores: wild Wyvern eggs cannot be stolen until you are level 127. To ride a Dragon, Manticore, Dodo Wyvern or Wyvern you must force-feed it Prime Kibble. The Workshop page says Prime Kibble comes from killing Prime WILDs. The mod also has a recipe that turns three Corruption Crystal Shards into one Prime Kibble at the DOX Crafting Station.
• Pygmies: the DOX Taming Treat (level 25) is fed to a wild Pygmy passively by opening its inventory. Do not force-feed it. The Blue Berry, Green Tart, Purple Grape and Red Cherry treats give a tamed Pygmy a chance to evolve.
• Tranquilizers: the DOX Tranq Arrow X (level 21) flies faster and adds more torpor, but it only works in the DOX Superior Bow X, which you can only find as loot. The DOX Tranquilizer Adv Dart (level 75) adds ten times more torpor after a five-second delay. It is ammo for the advanced one-shot rifle. The DOX Longneck Advanced Rifle is a strong tranq and metabolism rifle that also works underwater.
• Trapping: the DOX WoodTrapper Cage (level 5) and DOX Forged Trapper Cage (level 45) are dropped over fleeing creatures.
• Scouting: the DOX Super Spyglass (level 25) shows detailed stats, including wild and tamed level-up points, with variable zoom and longer range.

Progression and bosses

Apex to Prime

Kill Apexes for drop-only saddles, Titanium and Tungsten. Five ores refine into one ingot in the DOX forge, and the ingots go into DOX gear. Prime WILDs come next. The Prime Compy, for example, drops a variety of loot that pushes your progress forward. Fragmented Artifacts, which drop from non-boss creatures with the Corruption Festers buff, give a corruption consumable or a 25% chance of a Prime Summoning Artifact. With a Prime Jerboa you can gamble Prime Kibble for saddles, with a 33% chance that the saddle comes as a blueprint.

Evolving your tames

Many upgrades work the same way: put the item in your tame's inventory, mount it and press X. Examples:

• Prime and Mega heads (Dragon, Manticore, Gorilla, Dodo Wyvern) raise the matching tame's stats by up to 50%.
• A Prime Wyvern Head turns a Zombie Wyvern into a Prime.
• A Mega Reaper Head or Mega ZomWyvern BRAINS! evolves a Prime Ferox into a Reaper Queen.
• A Mega Zombie Wyvern Head evolves an Ancient Wyvern into a Wyvern X.
• The Mega Prime Rex Head gives a Prime X creature double health, 25% more melee and 10% less damage taken.
• The DOX Sacrifice Elixir (level 65) sacrifices a Prime for a greater cause. Sarco Eyes are one of the items used to make it.
• A Paragon Orb, dropped only by Corrupt Megas, adds one Paragon level to any Prime or higher.

The Transmute Shrine and summons

The DOX Transmute Shrine (level 50, made with 150 Stone, 50 Fiber, 25 Titanium Ingots and 75 Tungsten Ingots) turns relics into Ancient Primes. Prime Dragon, Fire Manticore, Ice Manticore and Gorilla hearts each give their Ancient Prime, and the Prime Wyvern Heart gives a random Ancient Prime Wyvern. Activate the transmute with one heart in your inventory. Mega and TITAN summons need open ground or they fail. The DOX Death Worm Shrine (level 25) is a summoning shrine that starts a battle when you place it. It is made with five ApexYeti Heads, an artifact and 10 Obsidian. The DOX TITAN Eel Summoning Shrine must go in open deep water. The four TITAN Soul Crystals (Fire, Ice, Physical and Poison) are used to summon the TITAN Overlord.

Corruption

Megas drop the corruption stone. Put one of the five DOX Enhanced chest armors into a Prime Compy's inventory with a corruption stone, and you get a random Corrupted piece with stronger effects for you and your tame. The crystal items convert into each other:

• 25 Corruption Crystal Shard (CCS) items make one DOX Corruption Crystal (CC). One shard breaks into 6 Corruption Crystal Dust (CCD).
• A Corruption Crystal corrupts Enhanced armors, potions and tames, buffs tames from the tool belt, or converts into 250 Element. Ten of them, combined in a Prime Ferox's inventory, make a pure corruption stone.
• In the DOX Industrial Mining Forge, one shard mines 2,500 to 5,000 Element Shards.

Feeding Corruption to an Apex-tier tame gives it 20% more damage and damage reduction for 20 minutes. It does not work on Primes or higher. Killing Fenrisúlfr X unlocks the DOX Invulnerability Elixir, and killing R-Giganotosaurus X unlocks the very fast DOX Cloning Pad.

World events

From the first day, Bounty and Corruption events can start, and the TITANs roam the map.

Items and stations

• Enhanced armors: Cloth, Hide, Chitin, Riot, Manticore X, Unstable Flak and Corrupted X sets. Each piece has its own perk, such as up to 600% crafting speed on Cloth gloves, 100% or 200% more XP on Hide pants, or up to 40% less damage from enemy creatures on the Manticore X chestpiece. The Chitin pieces only affect tames. A full Corrupted X set lets the player levitate and gives a tame 45% more damage and defense in total.
• Buff meats: the cooked Calien, Doom, Enduro, Focal, Fria, Holy and Lazarus prime meats give small buffs. Raw Doom Prime Meat feeds baby Dragons, and Raw Holy Prime Meat feeds baby Manticores.
• Base building: DOX Forged metal structures unlock from level 45. The DOX Mega Metal Wall, Forged Dome and Forged Gate Large keep Megas out.
• Potions: health regeneration potions, the DOX Paragon HP Elixir (level 105, restores 150,000 health) and the DOX Mindwipe, which resets player or creature levels. Unstable Kibble gives a tame 25% more melee, size and speed for 15 minutes (60 for Unstable Kibble X). It blocks cryopods and dismounts the rider when it ends.
• In-game help: the Workshop page points to the DOX Book Of Smarts for more detail. It cannot be activated from the player inventory.

Server settings

• DifficultyOffset at 1 or lower and OverrideOfficialDifficulty at 5 or lower.
• Turn off automatic wild creature wipes, and use -preventhibernation in single player.
• The DOX Corruption Crystal Shards recipe cannot be crafted when Tieredbosses=True. The Workshop page links the full ini configuration.

Tips

• Gear up before every fight. Prime WILDs cannot be knocked out, so bring firepower, not tranquilizers.
• Kill Prime WILDs to stock Prime Kibble before you raise any Wyvern, Dragon or Manticore.
• Bank your Corruption Crystal Shards. They become Prime Kibble, Element and corrupted armor.
• Build Mega walls before Megas find your base: they ignore render distance.

Every creature, item and loot drop of the mod is listed on its mod page, with spawn commands.