Primal Fear Boss Expansion Guide

Primal Fear Boss Expansion is an add-on for the Primal Fear creature mod in ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam mod ID 899987403). It places boss creatures in your world in six power tiers: Vanilla, Alpha, Apex, Chaos, Spirit and Primal. The author describes it as an expansion to Primal Fear and warns that running it without Primal Fear installed may or may not cause problems. Our database holds 64 creature entries and 71 items from the add-on, mostly the bosses themselves, their saddles, taming kibble and eggs. If you are new to the main mod, read the member-written Primal Fear guide first.

Before you start

• Run it with Primal Fear: as noted above, the author cannot promise that it behaves without the main mod, so load both.
• No summoning needed: the Workshop page says the bosses spawn in your world. Our data has no summoning item or altar for them.
• Author's notes: the Workshop page links a Google spreadsheet and suggests its Boss Expansion tab for more boss details. Comments and discussion for the add-on happen on the main Primal Fear mod's page.
• Admins: every boss has a spawn command on our mod page, which helps if you want to test a fight first.

The bosses

The author lists six boss types, each in every tier: the Gorilla (the Megapithecus), the DodoRex, the Dragon, the Broodmother (Broodmother Lysrix), the Dodo Wyvern and the Manticore. Our data also holds a DodoReaper line in all six tiers, with its own saddles and eggs, even though the Workshop list does not name it.

The add-on also carries aggressive Araneo, Mesopithecus and Gigantopithecus in the Alpha, Apex, Chaos, Spirit and Primal tiers. Since both the Broodmother and the Megapithecus can summon minions, expect smaller creatures to join those two fights.

The six tiers

Each tier is a full set of the same bosses with much higher stats. The table brings together what the author says about taming and what our database holds for each tier. Base health is the creature's stat before wild levels are added, so the bosses you meet will have more.

Saddle engrams cost 20 engram points in the Vanilla tier and 30 in every other tier. The kibble engrams cost 12 (Basic), 15 (Alpha), 18 (Apex) and 25 each (Chaos and Spirit). In our data the Primal versions are the only ones flagged as boss creatures, and their health is more than ten times that of the Chaos and Spirit versions.

Taming a boss

• One kibble per tier: each kibble's own text says it is the only food that tier of boss accepts for taming. Basic Boss Kibble is for the Vanilla tier, and every other tier has a kibble with its own name.
• Apex Boss Tribute: the add-on also has a tribute item that, by its description, is used to tame an Apex boss.
• Boss Essence: a resource dropped by Primal Fear bosses. Its description says it goes into the boss taming item. Our data does not hold the recipe, so check the engram in game for the exact cost.
• Primal bosses stay wild: the author lists them as untameable, and they have no kibble and no saddle.

Plan your engram points before you start. You need a kibble unlock for the tier you want to tame and a saddle unlock for each boss in that tier, and the Chaos and Spirit unlocks sit at level 90 and above.

Fighting them

• Start low: the Vanilla tier has the lowest health of the set, so it is the natural first fight. Health climbs with every tier after that, so move up one step at a time.
• Know the damage types: the DodoRex and Dragon use fire, the Manticore uses poison, and the Dodo Wyvern switches between lightning, fire and poison breath.
• Watch for adds: the Broodmother and the Megapithecus call minions, so bring creatures that can deal with crowds as well as the boss.
• Primal is end game: with base health between 17 and 32 million, the Primal tier is a different scale of fight from everything below it.

Rewards

• Blood and hide: in our data the Alpha bosses drop Alpha Blood and Alpha Hide, the Apex bosses Apex Blood and Apex Hide, and the Primal bosses Primal Blood and Primal Hide, plus raw meat and prime meat. In Primal Fear, blood is an ingredient in many recipes, such as narcotics, taming helpers, kibble, boss tributes and health potions.
• Boss Essence: the resource behind the boss taming item.
• Loot tables: our data has separate drop tables for the Vanilla, Alpha, Apex, Chaos and Primal bosses. Their contents are not recorded.
• Eggs: there are Boss Egg, Alpha Boss Egg and Apex Boss Egg items, and fertilized eggs for the Vanilla, Alpha and Apex Broodmother, Dodo Wyvern, DodoReaper, DodoRex and Dragon, 15 in all.
• Costumes: the Primal Dodo Rex Costume and the Primal Dodo Wyvern Costume give a tamed DodoRex or Dodo Wyvern the look of its Primal version.

Saddles

There are 35 saddles: one for each of the seven boss types in the Vanilla, Alpha, Apex, Chaos and Spirit tiers. Each one takes 10 seconds to craft. The mod spells them its own way, for example Megapithicus Saddle, Alpha Dodorex Saddle and Spirit DodoWyvern Saddle, so search the item list with care. Armor goes from 30 in the Vanilla tier to 125 in the Chaos and Spirit tiers.

Other items in the files

The add-on ships a few items that have nothing to do with bosses: the Pumpkin, Scarecrow, Stolen Headstone and Bunny Egg decorations, the Festive Dino Candy, Valentines Dino Candy and Box o' Chocolates, Magic Charcoal (drop it on Raw Meat to cook it at once) and Dinosaur Bone. Its files also include a Bunny Dodo, a Bunny Oviraptor and a Coel.

Tips

• Unlock Basic Boss Kibble (level 50) and the Vanilla saddles (level 40) first. They are the earliest unlocks in the add-on.
• Keep the Alpha, Apex and Primal Blood the bosses drop. Primal Fear uses blood in many of its recipes.
• Collect Boss Essence from every boss kill. It goes into the boss taming item.
• Do not try to tame a Primal boss. Fight it for its drops.
• Check the Boss Expansion tab of the author's spreadsheet when something here differs in game.

Further reading: the Russian-language Steam guide Мод: Primal Fear covers the main mod's tiers, blood and add-ons.

Every boss, saddle, kibble and egg of the add-on is listed on its mod page, with spawn commands.