Paleo ARK: Legends Expansion Mod Guide

Paleo ARK: Legends Expansion is a creature mod for ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam mod ID 2804332920), based on the Paleo ARK video series by its author. Most of it is a set of new looks for vanilla creatures, which spawn in place of the normal ones. On top of that come two new species, the Evotyrannus and the Tarbosaurus, and the (EVO) Giganotosaurus, a full rework of the Giga with its own taming method. Our database holds 34 creature entries (a few of them are dossier entries for the same animal) and 42 items, most of them eggs, saddles and cosmetics.

Before you start

• Variants replace part of the vanilla spawns: a Paleo variant appears where its vanilla creature would. It does not replace Aberrant, X-, Eden or Rockwell versions of that creature.
• Keep vanilla spawns in place: the EVO Giga only appears where vanilla Gigas, R-Gigas included, can spawn. Avoid mods that swap all vanilla spawns for their own creatures, or the Paleo creatures have nothing to replace.
• Tamed creatures are left alone: the mod does not turn your existing tamed Gigas into EVO Gigas.
• Kraken's Better Dinos: the two mods work together. Add the line shown under Server settings so the Paleo creatures get the Better Dinos changes too. The Paleo ARK Carnotaurus and Paleo ARK Tropeognathus do not get them yet.
• ARK Additions: The Collection: with both mods loaded you also get Paleo versions of the Acrocanthosaurus and the Deinosuchus. They live in the ARK Additions files, not in this mod's creature list.

The variants of vanilla creatures

A variant is a vanilla creature with a new skin and, unless noted, vanilla stats. Some are bigger or smaller, some differ between males and females, and a few have an extra move.

Notable variants

Paleo ARK Tyrannosaur

Males and females wear different patterns. The new roar does not stop the Rex, so it can walk or run while roaring. The Alpha Paleo ARK Rex takes the place of the vanilla Alpha Rex, and killing one is how you get the Rex Bone Armor saddle skin.

Paleo ARK Carcharodontosaurus

This is the one variant with real balance changes. It is 20% smaller than the vanilla Carcha, has 50,000 health in the wild and drops to 1,350 health once tamed, then levels up normally. Base melee is 62. It uses the vanilla Carcha saddle and has a cosmetic roar on left Ctrl that works on the move. It can enter boss arenas; our data lists its drag weight as 550.

Paleo ARK Parasaur

Bigger than a normal Parasaur, with a longer bill and a classic crest. It defends itself when attacked. Press X for a tail whip that stuns small creatures and players for a few seconds; our data lists the stun as three seconds. The whip has a 10-second cooldown.

Paleo ARK Smilodon

A heavier, short-tailed take on the Sabertooth. It needs the Smilodon Saddle, which has spikes on the harness and more armor than a normal saddle. With Kraken's Better Dinos loaded it also gets a swipe on right click and a roar on C.

Paleo ARK Kentrosaur

Grown to about half the size of a Stegosaurus, it is big enough to ride. Craft the Kentro saddle for it.

Paleo ARK Greater Yuty

A larger Yutyrannus with heavier brow horns, a feathered beard and new roars, plus a cosmetic roar on left Ctrl. The R-Greater Yutyrannus is its Genesis 2 form, the only Genesis-style version the author made.

New species

Evotyrannus

The mod's evolved Tyrannosaur, also called the Evolved Rex or Evolved Tyrannosaur in its item names. Males carry a strip of protofeathers along the spine; females have none. It is very rare: by default about 1% of Paleo Rex spawns become one, and a Paleo Rex has a 1% chance to lay its fertilized egg. Ridden, it stomps with Space to knock enemies back and shake off creatures on its back, and C picks up a player or a small creature (press again to drop it). The Alpha Evotyrannus is the one to hunt for its saddles: it has a chance to drop Evotyrannus and Tarbosaurus saddles.

Tarbosaurus

A desert-themed twin of the Evotyrannus. It has the same stats and moves and uses the same saddles. Both sexes have protofeathers. Server owners can keep it out of the wild (see Server settings).

EVO Giganotosaurus

The (EVO) Giganotosaurus is a full rework of the Giga, with a new model, new textures and its own animations. It spawns only where vanilla Gigas spawn, on any map.

How to tame it

1. Get a Giganotosaurus heart. Vanilla Gigas, Carcharodontosaurus, the Paleo ARK Carcharodontosaurus and EVO Gigas all drop one when killed.
2. Carry the heart and approach a wild EVO Giga. It sniffs the air and slowly comes to you. When it sniffs the ground, the heart leaves your inventory. A tail slam and a roar mean taming has started.
3. It now attacks, going first for the player who carried the heart. Every attack it makes adds torpor to itself. Hurting it makes it rage and use a double stomp, which adds a large amount of torpor.
4. When it falls asleep, feed it the same kibble or meat as a vanilla Giga. Its torpor drops fast, so keep it down.
5. It wakes up tamed.

Riding it

• Left click: bite. Look left or right while attacking for a tail swipe to that side.
• Right click: a roar, for show only.
• C: crouch, to fit through tight spots such as tek caves. It cannot attack or roar while crouched.
• Space: double stomp, only during Fury.

Fury

Fury is the EVO Giga's take on vanilla Giga rage. It builds faster when the Giga takes damage and fades more slowly. As it rises, the Giga hits harder, more so as its target loses health. At full Fury it slams its tail and roars, its eyes glow, and for about 35 seconds it heals 50 health per second. During that time it can also hit your own creatures, so keep them out of the way. Stay mounted: if you get off, you cannot get back on until Fury ends.

One or two Gigas can reach Fury without throwing their riders. With three or more allied Gigas close together, vanilla ones included, one enraging sets off all of them, and they all throw their riders. The limit can be changed in the ini.

Stats, breeding and colors

At level 1 it has 400 stamina, 150 oxygen, about 4,000 food and 700 weight. Breeding works exactly like a vanilla Giga. Our data lists 2d 1h 59m 46s of incubation and 11d 16h 35m 1s to grow up. Its drag weight is 550 by default, the same as a Rex, so it fits into boss arenas unless the server changes that. Color regions: 0 is the main body, 1 the throat and belly scales, 4 the lower body and 5 the back and stripes.

Items and cosmetics

Saddles

Cosmetics and drops

• Straw Hat Skin: a straw hat you can put on almost any helmet except Tek, also on helmets worn by creatures. Alpha Paleo ARK Raptors drop it.
• Rex Bone Armor: a bone-plated skin for any Rex saddle. It comes from Alpha Paleo ARK Rexes.
• Chibis: Chibi-EVO Giganotosaurus, Chibi-Evolved Tyrannosaur and Chibi-Barbatos.
• Alpha Tyrannosaur Tooth: the mod's own trophy item.
• Eggs: 21 fertilized eggs for the mod's creatures, from the Fertilized Paleo Rex Egg and the Fertilized Evotyrannus egg to the Fertilized Evo Giga Egg.
• Event extras: the mod also carries holiday items such as the Pumpkin, Scarecrow, Stolen Headstone, Bunny Egg, Box o' Chocolates and Valentines Dino Candy, and an Actor Berry with a Hide Actor Costume.

Server settings

All options go in GameUserSettings.ini under a [PaleoARK] section that you add yourself.

• VariantSpawnChance= sets how often each variant replaces its vanilla creature, as Tag:Chance pairs. The default is 0.6 and the maximum is 1. Example: VariantSpawnChance=Dilo:1,Spino:0.2.
• Name tags: Allo, Baryonyx, Rex, Trike, Spino, Stego, Dilo, Kentro, Therizinosaurus, Sabertooth, Raptor, Yutyrannus, Megalosaurus, Para, Carno, Andrewsarchus, Thylacoleo, Carcha, Tropeognathus, Moschops and Gigant. Acro and Deinosuchus need ARK Additions.
• VariantLevelMultipliers= uses the same pairs to raise the final wild level of a variant. Tek creatures use 1.2.
• TarboLevelMultiplier= and EvolvedRexLevelMultiplier= do the same for the two new Tyrannosaurs, which cannot be set through the line above.
• RexSpawnWeights=PaleoRex:1,Evolved:0.01 is the default roll between a Paleo Rex and an Evotyrannus. Set Evolved to 0 to stop wild Evotyrannus.
• PreventDesertTarbo=True keeps Tarbosaurus out of the wild, so Rex spawns on Scorched Earth stay Rexes.
• Gigant:1 in VariantSpawnChance replaces every wild vanilla Giga with the EVO Giga.
• GigaBerserkThreshold= sets how many Gigas can enrage together before riders are thrown off. The default is 2; 1 copies vanilla behaviour, a very high number turns dismounting off.
• PaleoGigaDragWeight=950 gives the EVO Giga the vanilla Giga's drag weight and keeps it out of boss arenas. The default is 550.
• RidableDilos no longer does anything. For rideable Dilophosaurs the author points to Kraken's Better Dinos.

For Kraken's Better Dinos, add BuffsIncludeSource=PaleoARKLegends under its [BetterDinos] section. If you use Dino Storage V2, its ConvertClass option can turn stored vanilla Gigas into EVO Gigas, for example ConvertClass=/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Giganotosaurus/Gigant_Character_BP.Gigant_Character_BP:/Game/Mods/PaleoARKlegends/PaleoVariants/PaleoGiga/PA_Giga_Character_BP.PA_Giga_Character_BP.

Spawn commands

• (EVO) Giganotosaurus: admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Mods/PaleoARKlegends/PaleoVariants/PaleoGiga/PA_Giga_Character_BP.PA_Giga_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 150
• Evotyrannus: admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Mods/PaleoARKlegends/PaleoVariants/EvolvedRex/NeoRex_Character_BP.NeoRex_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 150
• Tarbosaurus: admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Mods/PaleoARKlegends/PaleoVariants/Tarbosaurus/Tarbo_character_BP_Paleo.Tarbo_character_BP_Paleo'" 500 0 0 150
• Paleo ARK Carcharodontosaurus: admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Mods/PaleoARKlegends/PaleoVariants/PaleoCarcha/Carcha_Character_BP_Paleo.Carcha_Character_BP_Paleo'" 500 0 0 150
• Paleo ARK Giga Saddle: cheat gfi PaleoGigaSaddle 1 0 0

Tips

• Get a Giganotosaurus heart before you go looking for an EVO Giga. Any Carcha, the Paleo one included, can give you one.
• During the EVO Giga tame, let it attack and hurt it to trigger rage: its double stomp adds the most torpor.
• Do not park three or more Gigas together if you plan to ride one into a fight, unless the server raised the threshold.
• Hunt Alpha Paleo ARK Rexes and Alpha Paleo ARK Raptors for the Rex Bone Armor and the Straw Hat Skin.

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

Further reading: the author's own Paleo ARK Expansion: Official Guide on Steam, with pictures of every variant.