Prehistoric Beasts Part II Mod Guide

Prehistoric Beasts Part II is the second creature pack of Prehistoric Beasts for ARK: Survival Ascended. It is a separate mod with ten more creatures: a nanny bird for your babies, a drilling cephalopod, a lone-wolf hunter, a three-element stegosaur relative, a fish that speeds up water tames, a meat-tearing carnosaur, a sea-skimming pterosaur, an egg-carrying sailback, a fishing duck-dinosaur and a harvester that mines almost anything. If you are new to the series, start with our Prehistoric Beasts Part 1 guide. The other packs, Part III, Part IV and Part V, each have their own mod page.

The creatures at a glance

Anzu

An oviraptorosaur that is quick and has staying power, so it makes a good travel mount, though it is no brawler. Its real job is the nursery. Turn on baby care from the action wheel and it imprints on babies near it that weigh under 600 drag weight, makes nearby babies grow faster, and feeds them from its own inventory. It can be ridden without a saddle. The Anzu Tek Jesses, powered by Element, stop fall damage and make it faster. You cannot knock an Anzu out: find a nest and take an egg, and expect the parents to defend it to the death.

Baculites

A mid-sized shelled cephalopod that lives in the sea, often close to the coast. It is neutral. Its shell spin breaks rocks and gathers oil, and a quick dodge with it can stun a target. It carries oil, stone and metal at a quarter less weight and slowly makes organic oil in its inventory. It can also grab small creatures and players. Taming needs a tamed Lualabaea: use the Lualabaea's taming help, then feed the Baculites passively. Prime fish meat is its favourite.

Genyodectes

A hunter for players who like to go alone, and a good cave mount. Away from allied creatures it gets the Lone Wolf buff, with more damage, resistance and speed. Near other tames it gets stressed and takes damage less well, though a shoulder pet on the rider does not count. A baby can be given a Genyodectes Friend to keep it calm around allies, but it then loses Lone Wolf. With its metal helmet, the headbutt gathers stone almost as well as a Doedicurus, and the helmet adds damage. You can tell it to lie down from the wheel so it heals faster. Wild males are very rare. It is a plain knockout tame that likes Superior Kibble.

Jiangjunosaurus

A big, spiky stegosaur relative that is much faster than a Stegosaurus and hits hard. It switches between water, electric and fire damage, and in fire mode it and its rider are safe from the Genesis Part 1 volcano. When killed it drops Raw Tender Meat, which works like raw prime meat and is used for Savory Meatloaf, a healing food for carnivores. It is rare in the wild. The tame is passive but risky: you must be level 75 to feed it Extraordinary Kibble, and feeding can make Kentrosaurus spawn. Bring a ghillie suit, medical brews and a strong tame.

Lualabaea

A small fish you cannot ride, but it pulls its weight. Its taming help drains the food of wild water creatures much faster, which speeds up sea tames, and its swim help lets you swim faster. It tames passively with Simple Kibble.

Mapusaurus

A fierce carnosaur with a bite that tears through meat and bone. Running builds a charge that adds speed and damage, and hitting a target at top speed gives a heal and a damage buff. Ramming a creature also starts health regeneration. Repeated hits build up to Bloodrush, which keeps it fast and strong while it keeps biting. The risk is its hunting drive: it can throw its rider and go into a frenzy that hits you and your tames. A gang bonus of +2 or more stops that, and the gang bonus goes up to +4. It does extra damage to sauropods and strips their positive buffs, and it can be set to gather one kind of meat in large amounts, the way a Moschops does. To knock it out you need explosives such as grenades or explosive wires. Then feed it Exceptional Kibble or mutton, ideally inside a trap.

Ornithocheirus

An aggressive pterosaur of the open sea that is quick to turn. It moves in every direction like a Tapejara, glides like a Griffin or Snow Owl, and can swim and dive. It swims 30% faster but is slower out of the water, and it loses oxygen and stamina slowly. Below 20% stamina it may get Endurance, which puts its stamina back to half, and skimming the waves makes that more likely. The Advanced Ornithocheirus Saddle slows the rider's oxygen loss for deeper dives. It is a normal knockout tame: Exceptional Kibble first, then mutton or prime meat.

Ouranosaurus

An exploring mount with lots of stamina and good speed. It can protect its rider from incoming negative effects. Lying down, it incubates eggs, and players and tames near it are guarded from some debuffs, handy when a hazard suit breaks. The Ouranosaurus Carrier Saddle lets it incubate eggs on the move, and a higher-level Ouranosaurus incubates faster. It is a passive tame: walk up and it shows what it wants, from honey and sweet melons to berries, Winter Squash and Sego Lilies. Each wild one has a 5% chance to spawn as a Tek Ouranosaurus.

Paraxenisaurus

A fluffy, duck-like dinosaur that fights on land and in water. It can catch up to 12 fish and keep them alive in its throat, then eat them for a healing buff. While it holds fish, it cannot go into a cryopod or soul trap. Its quack protects allies from Shadowmane venom and lowers the damage they take. Its feathers give the rider a buff against bleeding on land and, in water, a buff to melee damage, speed and health regeneration that lasts 10 seconds after you leave the water. Knock it out and feed it Exceptional Kibble or prime fish.

Zuniceratops

The smallest ceratopsian on the Island and a harvester first. Its bite takes berries and items off the ground the way your hand does, including pearls and sticks, and its horn does the heavy harvesting. It also gathers on its own while wandering or while you carry it, and a Nasutoceratops from Part 1 nearby lets it carry more. Which resources it can gather depends on its saddle:

• Zuniceratops Saddle: wood, thatch and berries; gems, Element Shards, stone, metal and obsidian weigh 60% less.
• Advanced Zuniceratops Saddle: more armor and a little more damage, harder materials like stone, crystal and metal; that same group of resources weighs 80% less.
• Zuniceratops Tek Saddle: needs the Tek Tapejara Saddle engram. Powered by Element it harvests five times as much and cuts that group by 95% and everything else by half. Unpowered it works like the Advanced Saddle.

It cannot be tamed as an adult. Kill a parent and claim the baby.

Variants and alphas

Our database lists 48 creature entries for Part II: the ten base creatures plus their variants. Map versions come as Scorched for Scorched Earth, Aberrant for Aberration and Lost for Lost Colony, with X- and R- versions in the Genesis style. Some creatures add more: Eerie Genyodectes and Paraxenisaurus, a Tek Ouranosaurus, Asgardian and Skeletal Mapusaurus, and Crystal and Ghost Zuniceratops. Alpha Ornithocheirus and Alpha Paraxenisaurus are rare, stronger wild versions and a good source of saddle blueprints and chibis. See the full creature list for every entry and its spawn command.

Server notes

• Single player: the mod author advises turning off hibernation, because the mod's spawn control only works when it is off.
• Ini options: Part II reads the same [PrehistoricBeasts] header in GameUserSettings.ini as Part 1. If you change an option, copy it under the header of every Prehistoric Beasts part you run.

Getting started

• Early game: tame a Lualabaea, then use it to tame a Baculites for oil and stone at sea.
• Breeding: steal an Anzu egg; once it is grown, it raises the rest of your babies for you.
• Mid game: raise a Zuniceratops baby for mining, and an Ouranosaurus to carry and hatch eggs.
• Late game: bring explosives for a Mapusaurus, and reach level 75 before you try a Jiangjunosaurus.

Saddles, eggs, trophies and the pack's foods, such as Winter Squash and Raw Tender Meat, are listed under items, and each creature's drops under loot drops. Everything in the pack is on the Prehistoric Beasts Part II mod page.

Further reading: the mod team's own Prehistoric Beasts guide on Steam covers every part of the mod, with the ini options of each creature.