Zytharian Critters Mod Guide

Zytharian Critters is a creature mod for ARK: Survival Evolved by Zythara (Steam mod ID 1754846792). It mixes a small set of original creatures with large families of reworked vanilla animals: Tek, Skeletal, Feathered and Corrupt versions. The author keeps them close to vanilla, so most variants use the stats of the creature they are based on. Our database holds 191 creature entries and 105 items from the mod. That count is high because most creatures are listed twice, once as the normal version and once as the Ark Omega version (see below).

Before you start

• Download size: the Workshop lists the mod at about 1.2 GB, so give players and the server time to fetch it.
• Ark Omega: the mod works with Ark Omega out of the box. Load both and most Zytharian creatures turn into Omega variants, with nothing to set up on the server.
• Do not spawn the _AO classes: the blueprints in the mod's AO folder, whose names end in _AO, are helper files that let Ark Omega talk to the mod. The author warns that spawning them by hand can cause problems. When you look up a spawn code, use the path under Creatures/.
• Support: the author answers questions on Discord and says Steam comments are easy to miss.

How the creatures appear

Many of the mod's creatures arrive through a chance system: when a vanilla creature spawns, there is a percentage chance that a Zytharian version appears from it. The Tek, Skeletal and Feathered families each have a 5% chance by default and use 1.2 level scaling. The Tek, Skeletal, Feathered and Alpha families, and each custom creature, can be switched off or tuned in the server settings.

The custom creatures

These are the mod's own designs. The last column is the vanilla creature each one spawns off, as listed in the author's spawn sheet.

Notable creatures

Dodo Reaper

The site's namesake is a cosmetic take on the Reaper: new look, same numbers. You knock it out to tame it, and the mod has no skin to put the look on a vanilla Reaper. The author's notes place it in Monster Island spawners. Because it runs on the vanilla Reaper's status code, it takes the same stat cuts a Reaper takes when tamed, so a weaker tame is expected and not a bug. Its saddle is the DodoReaper Saddle.

Dragolf

Another pure reskin, this time of the Ravager, with no stat changes.

Skrillsaur

A carnivore in the Allosaurus's weight class. It has no pack bonus, so the author gave it a bit more health and melee than an Allosaurus to make up for it. Look for it wherever Allosaurus live and in some mountain biomes. Its saddle engram unlocks at level 50 in our data.

Plate Wyvern and Metal Wyvern

Both are wyverns you get by stealing an egg from a nest. The Plate Wyvern's breath reaches only a short way, but whatever it hits turns to stone for a moment: it cannot move and takes extra damage. The Metal Wyvern fires metal shards that deal damage on impact. Both appear where vanilla wyverns live and on Monster Island. There is a catch: a map with no wyvern nests gives you no way to claim one, even if you see it. The Island is the author's example, since it has the Monster Island spawn but no nests. Another mod that adds nests, such as a spawner mod, can fix this. Their trophies are the Stone Talon and the Metal Talon.

Vepent

A big sea serpent of the deep water, in the same zone as the Mosasaurus and Tusoteuthis. It also likes narrow tunnels and rocky edges. Males spray a sulfuric plume that eats away at their target, while females use a necrotic plague that drains the enemy's strength. It is a knockout tame, and its trophy is the Vepent Fang.

Trovant, Geodog and Geode

The Trovant is a large crab of rock and roots that lives deep in the forest. It fights by clubbing, and its flat stone back works as a building platform, much like a Megachelon's. The Geodog is a dog made of stone, found in tundra and mountains, that can burrow and travel underground. Each of the three has its own armor in our data: Trovant Armor, Geodog Armor and Geode Armor.

The Tek collection

The Tek family is the largest part of the mod. Each Tek creature keeps vanilla stats, and skins are available: Bionic costumes give many vanilla tames the same machine look. The author's spawn sheet covers the Tek Therizinosaur, Griffin, Ankylosaurus, Magmasaur, Bloodstalker and Managarmr, the Fire, Lightning and Poison Tek Wyverns, the Tek Reaper King and Reaper Queen, Shadowmane, Rock Drake, Spino, Tapejara, Ravager, Baryonyx, Tusoteuthis, Megalodon, Astrodelphis, Sinomacrops, Woolly Rhino, Deinonychus, Direwolf, Shinehorn, Pegomastax, Velonasaur, Astrocetus, Equus, Unicorn and Meganeura. Our database also lists a Tek Otter, Tek Featherlight and Tek Thorny Dragon in the mod's creature folder, which are not on that sheet.

The Tek Therizinosaur has a Tek saddle that lets the rider fire plasma shots. The guns work only on the Tek and Skeletal Therizinosaur, because a vanilla Therizinosaur would need changes to its base file. The Tek Managarmr has its own Tek saddle as well.

For ARK: Survival Ascended, the author has released his Tek variants as a separate mod, Zytharian Critters - Additional Tek Dinos Collection.

Skeletal, Feathered and Corrupt

• Skeletal: bone versions of the Dodo, Griffin, Therizinosaur, Spino, Rock Drake, Thylacoleo, Titanoboa, Golem, Dodo Reaper, Giant Queen Bee, Megalodon, Gacha and Argentavis, with vanilla stats and Bone costumes for some of them. The Skeletal Golem has a platform saddle, so it can carry a mobile base.
• Skeletal bosses: the Skeletal Broodmother and Skeletal Dragon are bosses you summon, and they cannot be tamed. Our data also has summoners for a Skeletal Megapithecus, Skeletal Manticore, Skeletal Dodorex and Skeletal Dodo Wyvern. All of them are crafted at the Skeletal Totem.
• Feathered: a Feathered Giganotosaurus and a Feathered Rex, with vanilla stats. The Feathered Corrupt Rock Drake is only a costume and never spawns.
• Corrupt: the Corrupted Therizinosaur, Corrupted Brontosaurus and Corrupted Griffin spawn only in Extinction's wasteland zones. They stay wild, but their costumes can still be used on your own tames.

Items

Most of the 105 items are cosmetic or breeding-related: 38 skins, 28 fertilized eggs, 6 saddles and 5 armor pieces, plus a few resources, structures and seasonal decorations. The groups worth knowing:

• Costumes: Bionic costumes give a creature the Tek look, Bone costumes the skeletal look, and there are Corrupt and Feathered costumes too.
• Saddles: the Skrillsaur, Quadlodon, Skeletal Golem Platform, Managarmr Tek and Therizinosaurus Tek saddles, and the DodoReaper Saddle.
• Crafting stations: the Zytharian Crafting Bench (Skin Bench in the engram list) makes items from materials and blueprints, and the Skeletal Totem crafts the boss summoners.
• Trophies: the Stone Talon, Metal Talon and Vepent Fang.
• Obelisks: the Zytharian Obelisk comes in a left and a right version, each described as a large Tek obelisk.

Server settings

All options go under a [ZytharianCritters] header in GameUserSettings.ini.

• Families on or off: SpawnTek, SpawnBone, SpawnFeathered and SpawnAlpha. Set one to false to remove that whole family.
• Family chances: TekChance, BoneChance, FeatherChance and AlphaChance take a percentage from 0 to 100. The default is 5.
• Custom creatures: each one uses its own name as its group, so you get SpawnDodoreaper, SpawnSkrillsaur, SpawnWyvern_Plate and so on, with a matching chance key such as DodoreaperChance or QuadlodonChance.
• Per-class control: PreventSpawn:Classname_character_bp_C=True keeps one class out of the chance system. DestroyOriginal:Classname_character_bp_C=True decides whether the new creature removes the vanilla one it came from. TargetDino:Classname_character_bp_C=Dinoname changes which creature it spawns from. Put the mod's class name in place of Classname.
• Timing: DestroyTimer sets how long after the new creature appears the original is removed, when removal is on.

Tips

• Spawn codes take the form admincheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Mods/Zythara_Critters/Creatures/Dodoreaper/Dodoreaper_Character_BP.Dodoreaper_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 120. Swap in the path of the creature you want, and avoid the AO folder.
• Want a Plate or Metal Wyvern? Play on a map with wyvern nests, or add nests with another mod.
• Do not expect a Dodo Reaper to beat a Reaper: it is the same creature in a new skin.
• If the Tek family feels too common or too rare, adjust TekChance before removing it with SpawnTek.
• Seeing two entries with the same name in our creature list is normal: one is the creature itself, the other its Ark Omega helper class.

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

Further reading: the author's Zytharian Critters page on the Steam Workshop links the spawn code spreadsheet and the pinned threads on settings and creatures.