Prehistoric Beasts Part IV Mod Guide

Prehistoric Beasts Part IV is the fourth creature pack of Prehistoric Beasts for ARK: Survival Ascended, a separate mod with ten more creatures. Several of them are support tames: a shoulder pet for Extinction, a buff-giving fluffball, a wearable armored backpack and a sauropod that helps with knockouts. The rest include a wyvern hunter, a terror bird, a beginner fiber gatherer, an acid-spitting browser, a deep-sea fish and a shark with miniguns. If you are new to the series, start with our Prehistoric Beasts Part 1 guide. The other packs, Part II, Part III and Part V, each have their own mod page.

The creatures at a glance

Acheroraptor

A small feathered raptor found only on Extinction, in the City and the Sunken Forest. You carry it on your shoulder. It makes you immune to the Wasteland effect of Extinction, and if you ride a creature while you carry it, that creature hits corrupted dinosaurs harder: two and a half times by default, a value server owners can change in the ini. To tame one, feed it Element by hand.

Dilong

A small, aggressive and furry carnivore that supports players. Each Dilong carries one random buff out of ten for players near it: cooling, warming, faster crafting, health regeneration, stamina regeneration, damage resistance, more damage, faster movement, faster experience, or being noticed less by predators. Give it a Spirit of the Ark to reroll the buff. It can also carry artifacts. Any Dilong may spawn or hatch as a Greater Dilong, a larger rideable version that roars to trigger its buff and still breeds with the small ones.

Knock it out, then place a Spirit of the Ark or a Dilong Spike Collar in its saddle slot, and it is tamed on the spot. A collar can stay on as decoration, and a collar-tamed Dilong can still take a Spirit of the Ark to reroll.

Dracovenator

An apex hunter that lives alongside wyverns and Magmasaurs and uses their power against them. When it kills a wyvern, it takes that wyvern's essence; an alpha wyvern gives a random mix. Each essence changes its breath and claw:

• Fire: fire breath, burning claws, and protection for it and the rider from the Genesis Part 1 volcano.
• Lightning: lightning breath; claws apply Zapped, which adds torpor over time.
• Life, from poison wyverns: a gas ball; claws apply a curse that damages the target and heals the Dracovenator.
• Ice: frost breath that can freeze; claws apply Chilled, which slows.

It deals two thirds more damage to wyverns, Managarmrs and Magmasaurs and takes two thirds less from them, and the matching essence makes it immune to their breath. It is a knockout tame with special food: an Alpha Dracovenator head, or fertilized eggs, best to worst Magmasaur, Ice Wyvern, the other wyverns, then Crystal Wyvern. Its torpor is high and falls fast, so carry narcotics. While in life mode it cannot be tranquilized; wait for it to switch, or push it to switch by attacking with an elemental mount.

Hyneria

A neutral deep-sea fish that fights back hard and suits players who travel alone. In water its headbutt stuns and opens a tail-spin follow-up, it can spit a toxic projectile, and it can dodge. On land it grabs targets under 250 drag weight and throws them aside; larger ones get a mega bite instead. It also has a toxic barf and a bellow. It is a passive tame that prefers Sea King Kibble; Ammonite Bile works too, less well.

Kelenken

A large, aggressive terror bird often seen with Terror Birds. Its bite is solid. Its ground stomp is fast but scales with the target's drag weight, so it is weak against big prey, and a jumping talon swipe causes bleeding. It also does well in caves. Its beak click gives it 30 seconds of tracking vision that outlines players and creatures, shared with allied Kelenken and Terror Birds nearby. Creatures it marks take 20% more damage while the mark lasts. Kelenken Greeves, worn next to the saddle, add armor, speed and damage and lower its stamina use.

Its tame takes four steps:

1. Bring it below 25% health. A red glow appears around its head.
2. Hit it with a bola.
3. While it is held, feed it Fermented Sweet Melons until it falls unconscious. Each melon also extends the bola.
4. Put food in its inventory as usual: Regular Kibble, then mutton, then raw prime meat.

If it breaks free while it still glows, bola it again; once the glow is gone, start over.

Lirainosaurus

A small, friendly sauropod that suits beginners. It harvests fiber, carries a lot and has a gang bonus up to +6. Fiber and berries always weigh 75% less in its inventory, and with a saddle all resources weigh half. Once it drops to about half health, it gets a brace buff that cuts the damage its allies around it take by 20%. Walk up and feed it Berry Jam, made from berries.

Massospondylus

A browser that gathers berries well, plus wood and thatch. With Fermented Sweet Melons in its inventory, it gains a ranged barf that pierces player armor and also damages structures. Regular Sweet Melons let it heal. Taming is passive but hands-off: drop a melon on the ground and let it eat. When it acts and calls out that it is hungry again, drop the next one quickly, because if it waits too long it turns on you. Fermented Sweet Melon is its favourite; a plain Sweet Melon will do.

Scelidosaurus

A small, neutral herbivore with a very hard shell that you wear on your shoulder like a backpack. It protects you from damage, and its protection stacks with your armor but does not scale with any stat. It is a knockout tame that bites back, so keep your distance; a bola helps. Feed it Superior Kibble, then Citronal, Longrass, Rockarrot or Savoroot, then Mejoberries.

Thresher Shark

A quick shark that turns well. Its health is low, but its thrash pins a target for a few seconds so it can tear off flesh and heal. The Thresher Shark Saddle carries two miniguns that fire the same advanced bullets as the Assault Rifle and adds chainmail protection. Switch them on and fire until ammo or durability runs out. It is a normal knockout tame: Superior Kibble first, then mutton.

Venenosaurus

A mid-sized sauropod with a nasty spit. It works as a mortar and pestle, crafts faster while resting, and makes meat spoil faster in its inventory. Craft Bio-Narc in its inventory and it uses it for its spit, which makes it a strong help for knocking creatures out and keeping them down. It is a passive tame that asks for a random food, usually something sleepy such as Narcoberries or Narcotics.

Variants and alphas

Our database lists 32 creature entries for Part IV: the ten base creatures plus their variants. They include Scorched, Aberrant and Lost map versions, X- and R- versions in the Genesis style, Eerie Massospondylus and Scelidosaurus, a Tek Lirainosaurus, a Crystal Dracovenator and a Thresher Shark Ghost. The Alpha Dracovenator is the pack's alpha, and its head is a taming food for the normal one. The Skeletal Massospondylus drops a skeletal chibi and skin. 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: the Acheroraptor's bonus against corrupted creatures can be changed in the ini. The mod team's guide lists the options and the header to use; if you change one, copy it under the header of every Prehistoric Beasts part you run.

Getting started

• Early game: feed a Lirainosaurus Berry Jam for fiber, and wear a Scelidosaurus for extra armor.
• Utility: a Venenosaurus makes Bio-Narc and helps every knockout tame; a Dilong buffs the base.
• Mid game: farm Fermented Sweet Melons for a Massospondylus and a Kelenken.
• Late game: tame a Dracovenator to hunt wyverns, and a Thresher Shark for sea fights. On Extinction, carry an Acheroraptor.

Saddles, eggs, trophies and the pack's foods, such as Berry Jam, Sea King Kibble and Fermented Sweet Melon, are listed under items, and each creature's drops under loot drops. Everything in the pack is on the Prehistoric Beasts Part IV 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.