Top 10 Raid Dinosaurs in Ark Survival Ascended You Can’t Raid Without!

Summary

  • Quetzal with platform saddle is essential for raiding bird bases due to its unique ability to carry heavy dinosaurs efficiently.
  • Reaper acts as a support dino, slowing down enemies and offering protection, critical for maintaining a strong FOB during raids.
  • Karkinos is a versatile support tame for raids, especially useful for throwing turret-soaking dinosaurs into enemy bases, creating chaos.

Ark Survival Ascended is created by Studio Wildcard, representing an upgraded version or new take on the popular dinosaur survival game, Ark Survival Evolved. In this game, 70 players on a server engage in competition with one another, working together to establish tribes, navigate the wilderness, create items, construct bases, and domesticate powerful dinosaurs. The primary objective is to ascend as an “Alpha Tribe,” ruling over the server, or as a “Mega Tribe,” controlling multiple servers.

To excel as an Alpha Tribe in Ark, it’s clear that players require robust dinosaurs for raiding. The most effective creatures for raiding vary depending on the battle location. Needless to say, a Wyvern can’t be flown within a cave. Keeping this in view, this list will rank the best tames based on their usefulness and importance during raids, according to the current game dynamics.

This list excludes dinosaurs, specifically the Tapejara equipped with a Tek Saddle, Griffin, and giant worm-like creature called Arthropleura, for potential raiding operations.

10. Quetzal

Platform Saddle

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
1600 800 150 1200 800 100

A bird of prey known as the Quetzal has discovered its role, particularly in player versus player (PvP) scenarios. Not all strongholds are located in caves or on the ground; some are perched precariously on cliff edges, platforms, or tree platforms. A strategic method to conquer such bases is by utilizing a Quetzal equipped with a platform saddle.

In PvP settings, the Quetzal, an avian predator, has found its place. Unlike traditional fortresses that are built in caves or on the ground, some strongholds are situated high up on cliffs, platforms, or tree branches. A smart tactic for taking control of such bases is to employ a Quetzal outfitted with a platform saddle.

As an enthusiast, I’d put it this way: A Quetzal, this colossal bird, can hoist players on Stegosaurs and soar above adversaries’ bases, targeting turrets that are exclusive to players and dinosaurs. The secret to taming these aerial titans? None other than Exceptional Kibble.

If players don’t place a 1×1 base on the platform saddle, they risk getting removed from the game (Quetzal).

9. Reaper

Support Dinosaur

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
4500 480 150 3000 415 75

On Aberration, The Reaper stands as the dominant predator, equipped with the ability to momentarily immobilize dinosaurs and bring flying ones crashing down with its “Corrosive Debris.” In times of danger, it can burrow beneath the ground for safety. When confronted by numerous airborne dinos, this formidable creature can jump powerfully to evade them. This makes it an effective deterrent against hostile forces trying to attack a Forward Operating Base (FOB).

As a gamer, here’s how I would put it:

“To acquire a Reaper, I must first lure a Reaper Queen into a trap using dinosaur gates, then set up a charge lantern to weaken her. Once she’s weakened, I unleash my shotgun or sniper fire until she’s on the brink of death (10-5% HP). With the Queen down, I turn off the lights and brace myself for the inevitable – she impregnates me, leaving my health plummeting. To survive, I’ll need to keep healing with medical brews.

Building a small base becomes essential next, as I wait for the baby Reaper to burst forth from my chest, much like an Xenomorph from Alien. With a Pheromone Gland (obtained from defeating a Queen), I quickly imprint the baby Reaper to ensure it stays tamed. Now, it’s up to me to raise this new pet just like any other.

8. Karkinos

Dino Laucher

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
1200 600 N/A 5000 800 100

The Karkinos is a massive, ominous crustacean resembling today’s Spider Crab, but much larger. This creature serves as a unique auxiliary pet in battles, particularly during raids, due to its throwing prowess. The Karkinos are employed in a strategic maneuver called “Stegosaurus and Carbonemy bombing.” In this approach, tribes hurl their valuable tames, which they are willing to sacrifice, into an enemy’s stronghold to help deplete their defensive turrets. However, it’s important to note that only the “player-exclusive” turrets might remain intact.

The Karnikos is a beneficial creature to farm since it can gather venom, transport dinosaurs, and hurl them when they’re overloaded, similar to an Ankylosaurus. This trait proves useful in Aberration servers as there are no airborne mounts available for transporting farming creatures back to the base. To tame these spider-phobic crabs effectively, it is advisable to use Exceptional Kibble.

In some cases, a crab can pick up both enemies (dinos) and opponents (players), moving them towards the turrets. For amusement, players might toss Troodons into an adversary’s camp, causing confusion when they do so aggressively.

OR

1. The crab is capable of grabbing certain dinos and players to transport them close to the turrets. To add a fun element, players can hurl Troodons into the enemy base, creating pandemonium by doing so in an aggressive manner.

7. Giganotosaurus

The Iconic Melee Dino

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
80,000 400 150 4000 700 100

In the game Ark: Survival Evolved, Giganotosaurus (Giga) is a legendary top-tier predator. In the past, the dominance of alphas was determined by their Giga lineage, and even today, these dinosaurs continue to strike terror during raids. Interestingly, the Giga has more base health and melee power compared to its latest rival, the Carcharodontosaurus. However, it often falls short due to its sluggish movement and the potential for it to enrage and kill its rider and any allied creatures.

When dealing with Gigas during a raid, it’s crucial to show respect due to their formidable combat abilities. To make them manageable, use top-notch saddles. Furthermore, these dinosaurs are exceptional for gathering meat, which is essential for maintaining your Daeodon and Snow Owl populations, ensuring they continue to provide healing benefits.

To tame these behemoths effectively, it’s advisable to employ high-quality food kibble.

6. Yutyrannus

Buffing & Debuffing Dino

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
1100 420 150 3000 500 100

The Yutyrannus, affectionately known as “Yuti”, is a frequently overlooked yet valuable addition for raids. It serves as a supportive dinosaur, enhancing your stronger dinosaurs with boosting effects while weakening opponents, causing chaos in their ranks. Here’s how it operates:

The buff it provides strengthens the dinosaurs it targets, making them more formidable in combat. On the other hand, the debuff it applies weakens the enemies, disrupting their fighting ability and creating confusion.

  • Troop Support: This buff applies a 25% damage boost and a 20% damage reduction to all incoming attacks on your dinos, lasting for 25 seconds.
  • Intimidation: A roar that can terrify enemy creatures with or without a rider. This debuff makes enemies take more damage and reduces their overall damage output by up to 50% and 30%, respectively.

The mighty roar of the Yuti can scare off enemy riders on Pteranodons, keeping our tribe members safe from being carried away by dinosaurs. This fright causes the enemies to lose control over their mounts’ flight direction. In addition, the Yuti’s roar provides an advantage during battles with Carcharodontosaurus and Giganotosaurus, making our tribe stronger in large-scale fights. Players can also use the Yuti’s buff to increase the damage reduction of their soakers, allowing them to drain turrets more effectively. The ideal food for taming this beast is the special Kibble.

5. Wyvern

Lightning

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
1295 315 150 1800 400 100

Drawing inspiration from European folklore, Wyverns exhibit a range of potent forms: Fire, Poison, Ice, Blood, Tropical, Zombie, and Void. Currently, the preferred mount for Player versus Player (PvP) engagements is the Lightning Wyvern, due to its impressive single-target damage and user-friendly targeting. It can hover at a moderate distance, firing simultaneously at Carchas, Gigas, and their riders without repercussions.

Wyverns can be acquired by snatching eggs from their nests, except if you own a pair for breeding purposes. They excel in defending your base against approaching enemies.

4. Daeodon

Raid Healer

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
900 250 150 2500 400 100

A voracious eater often found in groups, the “hell pig” is a common figure. The Daeodon stands out significantly in raids and extended player-versus-player encounters because of its healing abilities. It can simultaneously heal up to 30 tamed creatures, making it an essential asset for recuperating your tames before or following combat. Additionally, it restores players’ health at a rate of 10-300 HP per second and dinosaurs’ health at a rate of 20-400 HP per second.

As a fan, I’ve found that when venturing into the wilds, it’s crucial to have plenty of food on hand for healing purposes. In my experience, the Daeodon is an absolute game-changer during raids and it also happens to be quite efficient at collecting cactus sap on Scorched Earth. To get this pig under control, you’ll need Superior Kibble. Alternatively, you could try using a Snow Owl, but they are more specialized and not as effective healers compared to the Daeodon.

3. Carcharodontosaurus

Pure Melee

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
70,000 480 150 4000 650 100

Every daring attack needs a formidable land predator, and none fill that role quite like the Carcharodontosaurus (often called Carcha). This creature is crucial to many raids, as it surpassed the once-dominant Giganotosaurus due to its unique trait of not becoming enraged. This ensures the safety of the riders during battles’ heated moments. Additionally, the Carcha boasts numerous advantages or buffs in combat.

  • Killing Frenzy: Upon felling a creature, the Carcha’s movement speed increases, and it becomes immune to stuns for 10 seconds.
  • Bloodrage: Gained alongside Killing Frenzy, Bloodrage grants the Carcha a stacking buff: Landing killing blows increases the Carcha’s healing rate and melee damage by 1.75% per stack, up to an impressive 175%. This decays over time whenever the Carcha stops killing wild/enemy dinosaurs.
  • Incited: Upon roaring, all the Carcha’s stacks of Bloodrage are consumed and provide a temporary movement speed buff to allies, but not itself, which lasts up to 55 seconds.

The Carcha, with its impressive passive advantages, can surpass and outsmart the Giganotosaurus in combat, given it has enough stacks, while also offering some unique team support. However, these aren’t its only strengths. It boasts an Area of Effect tail whip to push back adversaries when under duress, and it doesn’t necessitate force-feeding for healing because it’s a “hyper-carnivore.” Instead, it simply needs raw meat to alleviate its hunger and recover.

To subdue this monster, it’s advisable to keep dinosaurs with high health in cryopods. Enclose the Carcha within several gates, slay a few creatures, and move their carcasses near it until its trust is established. Then, release the high-health dinosaurs from the cryopods, unclaim them, and climb on the Charcha to eliminate them. Dinosaurs with higher health yield better taming affinity.

While domesticating, players have the opportunity to mount a feral Carcha. This creature, boasting superior wild characteristics, will assault other players. The outcome varies: either the Carcha becomes tame, the player meets an untimely demise, or the process concludes due to time constraints.

2. Rex

Tech Saddle

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
1100 420 150 3000 500 100

Without needing a formal introduction, everyone’s familiar with the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex – a fearsome, rideable carnivorous dinosaur. However, its position on this list stirs up debate. Despite being outmatched in a direct confrontation by giants like the Giganotosaurus or Carcharodontosaurus, remember that battles aren’t always about one-on-one fights. When equipped with a Tek saddle, a Rex isn’t just a fierce beast; it transforms into a devastating force. The Tek saddle doesn’t only harm other dinosaurs but also causes splash damage to enemy riders, making them think twice before charging ahead when attacking structures or pushing further in a raid.

Here’s another way to phrase that:

The Rex, another protective dinosaur, stands behind your water-dwelling dinosaurs and its main job is to demolish structures and eliminate players, not dinosaurs. It would be wise for all players to strive towards taming and breeding a powerful Rex. The best meal for this beast is Exceptional Kibble.

1. Stegosaurus

Soaking Turrets

Health Stamina Oxygen Food Weight Melee Damage
650 300 150 6000 500 100

The Stegosaurus (Stego), a four-legged armored herbivore that can be mounted, is widely recognized as an exceptional choice for raids. This is mainly because it excels in tasks like eliminating X-Plants, Tek, and heavy turrets during both surface and cave raids. Without the Stegosaurus, these defenses would quickly overpower other raiders. It offers three operational modes:

  • Heavy Plate: Reduces the enemy’s movement speed and can ground flying dinos on hit, and boosts thatch-gathering rate. (Do not switch to this stance near turrets, as they will be able to hit the player).
  • Sharp Plate: Attacks penetrate armor and boost berry-gathering rates.
  • Hardened Plate: Halves damage taken and boosts wood-gathering rates (The Best Stance).

This creature offers great versatility as it excels in both farming and raiding roles. Its various modes also provide protection for the rider against being knocked or picked off, making it an excellent choice for the Redwood Forest and PvP encounters. In combat, the Stego can impale enemies the size of a Carnotaurus with its secondary attack, dealing damage and pinning them down, as long as its drag weight is 550 pounds. Moreover, it can immobilize Wyverns in its “Heavy Plate” stance. Therefore, the Stego can be considered the most versatile turret-draining dinosaur and a must-tame. The easiest way to tame a Stego is by using Regular Kibble.

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2025-04-22 10:39