ARK: Survival Evolved – How to Tame Dinosaurs and Other Animals

Need some tips on how to tame dinosaurs and other animals in ARK: Survival Evolved? All you’ll need is some choice food, a handful of narcotics, and a delicate whack on the head.

All but 5 creatures in ARK must be tamed violently, and you’ll start this by knocking the beast unconscious. This can be done by hitting them over the head with a club or your fists, or shooting them with tranquilizer arrows or darts.

You’ll then need to go into the dinosaur/other prehistoric animal’s inventory and place there the particular food it prefers. Dodos like berries, for example, while carnivores will want meat. The dino will eat these items when their hunger falls a certain number of points. With each consumption, the Taming bar will increase.

It’s incredibly important to keep your creature unconscious during the taming process. The purple Unconscious bar will slowly deplete, and if it runs out, the animal will wake up and the taming will end. Even worse, you’ll lose any food you stuffed into their inventory, and trying to club them back to sleep will often kill them.

To keep your dinosaur buddy unconscious, like any true friend would, you need to put either Narcoberries or Narcotic in their inventory. Clicking “Remote Use Item” for these will increase the creature’s Torpor and keep them knocked out. These must be manually fed to them, as the animal won’t eat these on their own. If you’re short on drugs, bonking it on the head or hitting it with a tranquilizer can increase Torpor, but will lower the Taming bar and could kill the creature. Also keep in mind that Stimberries will decrease Torpor and make them wake up sooner.

Continue feeding and drugging the animal, watching over it as it awkwardly munches on food in a half-conscious state. This could require a large stock of consumables, and will take longer and demand more supplies the higher the animal’s level. Keep at it, and eventually the Taming bar will fill completely, awarding you with a new dino buddy to be used as defense, companionship, or as a living storage container.

Gigantopithecus, Mesopithecus, Onyc (bats), Ichthyosaurus, and Araneo (spiders) can be tamed nonviolently. To do this, equip their preferred food in your right-most hotbar slot. Approach your target with the food selected, and you’ll receive a prompt to feed them. Keep satisfying their hunger until they are fully tamed. You’ll also have to avoid touching these animals, and make sure they don’t get distracted by nearby prey.

Apply Bug Repellent before attempting to tame any Onyc or Araneo, or else they’ll ignore your food offerings and instead attack you incessantly.

Now you’re ready to get out their and tame to your heart’s content.