Pugnacia Dinos Mod Guide

Pugnacia Dinos is a large creature overhaul for ARK: Survival Evolved by Mistrfister (Steam mod ID 833379388). It reworks the existing creatures, adds many new ones, and builds an end game around Primeval creatures, sacrifice bosses and a chain of Ascension fights. It also replaces the supply crate loot with its own tables and changes the player character so you take less fall damage and can pick any colour. Our database holds 416 creature entries, 668 items, 198 engrams and 14 crafting inventories from the mod.

Before you start

• Other dino mods: Pugnacia does not stack with mods that remap the existing creatures. Mods that only add new custom creatures should be fine. You can add other core dino mods to the spawns yourself, but the author does not support that mix.
• Read the in-game guide: every new character starts with the Pugnacia Dino Guide in the inventory. It lists spawn codes and what each creature does. If you lose it, it costs one Thatch to craft again.
• Wild levels: the mod raises the default creature levels to 672, and to 840 on The Center. Levels are set with OverrideOfficialDifficulty. The Workshop FAQ says difficulty 5 gives level 840 creatures. If your creatures spawn in the thousands, this setting is the cause.
• No Classic Flyers: every Pugnacia creature can already level movement speed. The author says adding Classic Flyers on top makes the mod play worse.
• Built-in tools: the mod has its own Dino Landing Pistol. Shoot near flyers and every creature in the radius lands. Aquatic creatures can breed.
• Your corpse: add bUseCorpseLocator=true to Game.ini if you cannot see the green beam over your body. The Corpse Retriever (level 1) brings your body back. Other mods' corpse retrievers need extra setup because of the changed player character.

Creature groups

Most of the 416 entries are reworked or recoloured versions of creatures you already know. The groups below matter most for progression:

The Workshop page lists the Broodmother, Dragon, Megapithecus, Manticore, Dodo Rex, Dodo Wyvern and Phoenix as tameable.

Taming and knockout

Special taming foods

• Instant Golden Kibble: it never spoils and tames any normal or Primal creature at once. It is the only way to tame Primals. You get it by killing an Ancient Rex or Ancient Mosasaur.
• Satiating Nutriment: one Primal Meat plus one Primeval Energy. It tames Primevals. The engram unlocks at level 75.
• Brains: needed to tame every Zombie. Do not eat them yourself.
• Box o' Chocolates: fully heals a creature or moves its taming forward.

Tranquilizers

The Pugnacious Tranqualizing Rifle only comes from looting the largest bosses. The Colossal Wall has a cutout for taming behind it. The Acetylcholine Tonic removes torpor and restores stamina after a five-second delay, which gives you time to run. Pugnacia Spy "Glasses" (level 45, crafted at the Smithy) show a creature's wild and tamed points in each stat. The skin version shows health, level and sex before you tame.

Progression and bosses

1. Place an Ascension Portal

Bosses and Primevals do not spawn until someone places an Ascension Portal. The engram is listed as Boss Spawner and unlocks at level 50 for 15 points. The Portal costs 100 Cementing Paste and 100 Metal Ingots, and its spawn values can be changed in the ini file.

2. Hunt and tame the Primevals

Each Primeval drops its own Energy, such as Dragon Energy or Phoenix Energy. Fuse one Energy with Primal Meat for Satiating Nutriment to tame more Primevals. The Energy text also says that if you bring all the Primeval Energies to an Ascension Portal, your Primeval becomes a boss creature. The Primeval itself is destroyed in the process.

3. Sacrifices and trophies

The Sacrifice items unlock at level 75 and can only be crafted in the Ascension Portal. Each one needs one Energy from each of the eight Primevals and one part from its boss, such as Tempest's RGB Circuitboard (taken from Tempest's corpse) or Skarner's Decapitated Head. The Elemental Titanosaur Sacrifice warns that it must be used inside a Primeval and that you lose the Primeval. A trophy costs one Sacrifice and 15 Element. Placed in a tame's trophy slot, it gives:

4. The Ascension chain

The Ascension Arena unlocks at level 95 for 50 points and costs 5,000 Metal Ingots, 5,000 Stone, 3,000 Wood and 2,000 Hide. Crafting a totem in it spawns that Ascendant boss. It is neutral until you attack, but once the arena is active you cannot leave, and you have 45 minutes to win. Never build it near your base. The fights unlock in a fixed order, because each totem is made from the previous boss's part:

1. Ascendant Broodmother Totem: 1,500 Element. Gives the Ascension Broodmother Fang (Apprentice tier).
2. Ascendant Megapithicus Totem: made from the Fang. Gives the Ascension Megapithicus Eyeball (Journeyman tier).
3. Ascendant Dragon Totem: made from the Eyeball. Gives the Ascension Dragon Talon (Mastercraft tier).
4. Ascendant Manticore Totem: made from the Talon. Gives the Ascension Manticore Quill (Ascendant tier).
5. Ascendant Hippo Totem: made from the Quill. Gives the Chipped Hippo Tooth.

The Ascension bosses are the only source of the Max Experience Potion. The buff tiers are Ramshackle, Apprentice, Journeyman, Mastercraft and Ascendant. Buff items for each tier exist for players who do not use the Pugnacia player character, and the in-game guide explains the bonuses. The mod also has Ascension tools and weapons: a Club, Hatchet, Pick, Pike, Sickle, Sword and Whip.

Items and stations

• Colossal walls and gates: stone, metal and Tek versions block even the Titans. The 9x9 Tek hatchframes need the Tek 9x9 Attach Point (level 45).
• Boss armor: Volcanic armor only drops from the hardest bosses. The boots give speed, swim speed and no fall damage. The chestpiece gives scuba-style oxygen and 50% more carry weight. The gauntlets give 500% crafting speed and 250% melee. Vulcan armor combines the Tek and Volcanic bonuses.
• Mek modules: shield, rocket launcher and siege cannon modules for the Mek. The M.O.M.I. merges three Meks into a permanent Mega Mek. Level your Meks first, because their levels boost the Mega Mek.
• Creature costumes: speed costumes from 0% to 90% fix creatures with too many points in speed. Others remove fall damage, or add oxygen or flippers underwater.
• Useful extras: the Pugnacia Mindwipe Tonic resets engram points. The Tribemate Tracker shows your tribe every 5 seconds. The Zombie Wyvern Ice Spear (level 55) turns a Wyvern into its zombie form. The Panacea Tonic is a full heal you can use from the hotbar.

Server settings

The Workshop page shows two custom ini sections. It does not say which file they go in, but it links an example pack with both Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini.

• [PugnaciaDisableBreeding]: one line per creature class, for example Achatina_Character_BP_Pugnacia_C=True. True means that creature cannot breed. Every creature is False by default.
• [PugnaciaHardLimit]: caps how many of a class can exist, for example TheIsland-Titanosaur_Character_BP_Pugnacia_C=1 or Aberration_P-Titanosaur_Character_BP_Pugnacia_C=10.
• OverrideOfficialDifficulty sets the wild levels, and bUseCorpseLocator=true in Game.ini brings back the corpse beam.

Tips

• Place an Ascension Portal early, or no Primevals or bosses will appear.
• Farm Ancient Rexes and Ancient Mosasaurs for Instant Golden Kibble before you go after Primals.
• Keep one Energy from every Primeval in storage. Each Sacrifice needs all eight.
• Run the Ascension fights in order, and save each boss part for the next totem.
• Look a creature up in the Pugnacia Dino Guide before you fight it. The guide explains what each creature does.

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