Ark Survival Ascended Taming Guide - Tame Smarter, Not Harder - Ready Games Survive (2024)

You are nothing without your tames on Ark: Survival Ascended.

Tames protect you and can help gather resources and make it easier to tame other creatures in the future.

There are many different ways to tame creatures in Ark, but not all of those methods are efficient or effective.

Let’s take a look at how you can tame smarter in Ark: Survival Ascended.

Bottom Line Up Front – A Quick Dino Menu

The taming system in Ark has changed over the game’s history. To ensure you’re using the right taming food for the right creature, take a quick look at the table below.

Taming with Kibble – Save Yourself Time and Losses

Most dinosaurs on Ark: Survival Ascended require kibble for taming. You can use other types of taming food like meat, mutton, mejoberries, etc., impacting the creature’s taming effectiveness. All dinosaurs have a preferred taming food, and feeding them anything else can make them unhappy.

You’ll still be able to tame them but get fewer levels out of them. Taming effectiveness determines how many levels add to the dino’s overall level post-taming. So, if it’s a level 150 and you’re taming it with its preferred food, you will add as many levels as the dino can receive. If you’re feeding it something besides its preferred food, you may only get a handful of levels that will add to 150.

You can end up with a 200+ level dino right after taming it with its preferred food.

To make kibble, you need an egg from a specific dinosaur. Here’s a quick breakdown of each kibble and the eggs used to craft them.

• Basic Kibble Eggs: Dilo, Dodo, Featherlight, Kairuku, Lystro, Parasaur, Vulture
• Simple Kibble Eggs: Archaeo, Compy, Dimorphodon, Gallimimus, Glowtail, Microraptor, Morellatops, Oviraptor, Pachy, Pego, Ptera, Raptor, Sinomacrops, Trike
• Regular Kibble Eggs: Anky, Bary, Turtle, Carno, Dimetrodon, Diplo, Doedicurus, Ichthyornis, Iguanodon, Kapro, Kentro, Pachyrhino, Pelagornis, Sarco, Stego, Terror Bird, Thorny Dragon, Troodon, Velonasaur
• Superior Kibble Eggs: Allosaurus, Argentavis, Mantis, Megalania, Megalosaurus, Moschops, Snow Owl, Spinosaurus, Tapejara, Titanboa, Tropeo
• Exceptional Kibble Eggs: Basilosaurus, Brontosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Karkinos, Managarmr, Mosasaurus, Quetzal, Rex, Spinosaurus, Therizinosaurus
• Extraordinary Kibble Eggs: Griffin, Megalania, Rock Elemental, Thylacleo, Yutyrannus

Kibble has certain quality tiers. Basic is on the lower end and helps tame low-threat dinosaurs. Extraordinary kibble is the top-most kibble and can tame any dinosaur that uses kibble for taming without losing effectiveness. It’s why I usually go and tame a bunch of Yutys.

I can create a Yuty egg farm with them and have a steady supply of extraordinary kibble. I don’t have to worry about taming dinos, which I’ll never use solely for their eggs. If you only want to make one type of kibble, then I recommend taming Yutys to make extraordinary kibble.

Specialty Dino Taming – These Tames Are Picky Eaters

Kibble taming is the easiest way to tame in Ark: Survival Ascended. Unfortunately, there are some creatures out there that don’t want kibble. You have to jump through a few hurdles to tame them.

I group these other taming methods into the following categories:

• Passive Hand-Feeding/Petting
• Impregnation
• Dino Sacrifice
• Hatching and Raising

Let’s dive into each to show you some examples.

1. Passive Hand-Feeding or Petting

Knockout tames typically require kibble, but there is a large number of creatures that prefer passive taming. In this instance, you need to walk or sneak up to the creature and have its preferred taming good in the right-most slot of your hot bar. A prime example is a Lystro. By having its kibble or mejoberries in the right-most slot of your hot bar, you can interact with the Lystro when it’s hungry.

You basically follow it around and feed it.

Other creatures have a unique system of passive taming. The Hyena, for example, requires petting. You have to sneak up on it and give it pets without it noticing you. It’s a tricky tame but a unique challenge.

2. Impregnation

Things can sometimes get a little frisky in Ark: Survival Ascended. Particular creatures like the Reaper Queen need to impregnate your character for you to tame a Reaper King. The process is quite complex, but the gist is you need to bring her health down to 10% and then let her grab and impregnate you.

There will be a period in which you must kill creatures to help the baby growing inside you level up. After the time is over, you’ll give birth to a Reaper King–who will immediately try to kill you before you claim it.

It’s a strange, challenging, but fun way of taming creatures.

3. Dino Sacrifice

The cruelest taming method for some dinosaurs or creatures is sacrificing your own tame for them. The Troodon is one of the creatures that will eat a tame you sacrifice to it and become tamed in the process.

The Rhyniognatha also uses an element of dino sacrifice, although it’s more of an impregnation-taming method. After impregnating your dino, the baby will ultimately kill it after its birth.

Only some creatures are worth the sacrifice, so determining if you want to lose a tame to gain another that isn’t useful is worth it.

4. Hatching and Raising

Finally, there are dinos out there that have eggs in nests. Magmasaurs, Wyverns, Deinonychus, and Rock Drakes are some examples. You must travel to their nests, steal their eggs, then hatch and raise the baby. The good news is that Ark has made these creatures breedable over time.

You only need to steal eggs until you have a breeding pair. Then, you won’t need to steal into nests anymore except to find higher levels.

However, you’ll need to do some egg-stealing to tame these creatures.

Taming Pens – Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken

Kibble is only one-half of the equation when taming dinos. You also need to be able to capture them in a safe environment. Not only does this allow you to knock them out safely, but it can also protect them from other wandering dinosaurs.

There are three main traps players tend to use to tame. There hasn’t been a lot of innovation when it comes to taming traps and pens, but that’s largely because the current designs work great. The traps include:

• The Drop-Down Taming Pen
• Dino Gate/Behemoth Gate Pen
• Flyer Trap

Let’s take a look at how these traps work and how to make them.

1. Drop-Down Taming Pen – Great for Most Small and Medium Dinos

A drop-down taming pen is one of the most popular traps you’ll see scattered around the server. This type of trap uses foundations, doorways, and ramps. Someone will bait the dino up the ramp and drop them into the trap.

Since they can’t climb out, they’re stuck in the trap. The player can then shoot through the doorways to tranquilize the dino.

You can also build this trap on a raft which allows you to transport your dino safely away while it’s sleeping and taming.

A typical drop-down trap uses the following structures:

• 4-6 Foundations
• 8-10 Single-Door Walls
• 2-4 Ramps

While this works best for small and medium dinos, you can build higher walls to enclose larger ones. Depending on the dinosaur’s size, you may need to double or triple the walls.

2. Dino Gate/Behemoth Gate Trap – Great for Large Dinosaurs

Another popular trap is using a series of dino or behemoth gates in a line. The idea is to bait a dino through one door and get it within the gates. This can be a tricky trap to pull off since you also need to close the other door before the dinosaur escapes.

If done successfully, you have a dino trapped within the gates. You can shoot through the gaps in the gates to knock it out. The structures you’ll need for this trap include:

• 4-6 Dino/Behemoth Gateways
• 2 Dino/Behemoth Gates

This trap works for large dinosaurs and flying creatures, too. You can also trap medium dinos by moving the gates closer together.

3. Flying Tames Pen

Flying creatures can be challenging to tame, but some players make a trap that causes them to get stuck. Making the creature pass through the opening is the hardest part. You can use another flying tame to bait them through or do it on foot.

There are many fly traps, but one of the most popular is a simple trap that doesn’t require many parts. Here are the structures you’ll need:

• 1 Foundation
• 3 Double Door Walls
• 1 Sloped Roof

This inexpensive trap keeps flying creatures in place while you knock them out for taming.

Questions and Answers

Get the Stats You Deserve by Taming the Right Way

There are a lot of nuances to taming in Ark: Survival Ascended. Knowing which kibble each dino prefers is a hassle in itself. Using the proper kibble, traps, and patience, you can tame with 100% effectiveness and end up with a dinosaur with incredible stats. Now comes the real challenge–tracking down high-level dinos.

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