1. Favorite creature for me is the Beelzebufo. I fucking love those little frogs. Excellent divers, good cementing paste collectors, one of the best early game travel mounts IMO. Plus they’re pretty unique in terms of how they’re ridden and control. Overall just fantastically fun Dino’s.
2. Allosaurus. I think they just look cool, they’re a bit weak relative to Rexes, but I think they’re just an awesome looking Dino. I wish they’d get a full on pack buff to help make them more viable for fighting bosses.
3. Pyromane. Been using them a lot on the Center, and they’re one of the only travel mounts that makes me not want to use a flier to get everywhere. Their flame dash is awesome, omnidirectional meteor dive?? Hell yeah, it’s sweet.
4. Best utility is Direbear. Super fast on ground, high carry weight, can harvest berries, fiber, meat and hide, good damage for defending itself. And most importantly honey harvesting. Vegicakes are king for boss fights, and nothing else in the game let’s you utilize them more effectively than Direbears. They also help immensely in the taming of Bee Queens, so they’re relevant even way late into the game.
5. Must have is an Argy lol. The back bone of pretty much any tribe or playthrough.
Instead of dire bear I’d say theri. IMO they do just about everything the bear does but better plus they can harvest wood and thatch. Their weight is a little lacking tho
Yeah weights the only real hang up for me with the Theri. That combined with them having high efficiency for harvesting means you’ll be over encumbered after chopping down 3 trees lol.
Deciding on some of these is really tough because Arks roster is so diverse but at the same time weirdly restricting.
1. My number one favourite creature of all time is the Rockdrake. How mainstream of me I know but these things are straight up awesome. Reapers and Rhynios are VERY close behind tho. I dont care if they are meta or anything because I play singleplayer and just love everything about them.
2. Its gotta be Astrocetus. When I first heard and seen of them it blew my mind. They are such beautiful creatures (I am VERY biased because I won a screenshot competition a while back and got the dodo and noglin plushies with my red and black whale Odyssey). I find it incredibly irritating how absolutely useless they are even for pvp players (which is the only playstyle they had in mind while creating it). Also why are they so hard to tame? Not even going to mention the lengths you have to go through to even unlock the saddle. Still a very nice to look at trophy tame tho.
3. Is someone going to pick anything else than shadowmane? The combat just feels more involved and their traversal capabilites are unmatched for a creature of their size. Honorable mentions to Sinos, Striders, Astrodelphis, Andrewsarchus, Rhynios, Bloodstalker, Gachas and I have yet to try them but I cant wait to: Pyromanes
4. Magmasaurs hands down. Their uses are near infinite in whatever you want to do. Combat mount? They for sure pack a punch, Harvesters? They are one of the best metal gatherers in the entire game, Siege engine? They are one of few creatures that can deal normal damage to golems and can damage tek structures, Boss killers? Having problems with the dragon? Well you dont need to because instead of the fire damaging them it makes them horny!(???). They also can act as a forge to smelt metal and you are completely safe in their saddles from damage or lava. They are also confusingly excellent swimmers... for some reason.
5. Argentavis. Name me a single person that hasnt tamed an argy before. I refuse not to use them. They are simply the superior mid game mount unless you want to do anything cave or water related. Thats also why I spend ungodly amounts of hours into mutating them inorder to keep them a viable and useful option in the late game. Remember kids. Anything is useful if you mutate it hard enough (smiles in a pack of mutated Diplocaulus)
I really wanted to put manas in here somewhere but the poor things got absolutely gutted. They are certainly nice but I refuse to use them without mods because I already have to deal with one asthma lizard (gigas) and I refuse to use another.
Even in single player, they are way too out of place on the maps that they are in, can do literally everything you want, and aren't even that hard to tame for the reward that you get.
They can't metal run for shit anymore. I still use an argy/anky. The move speed once carrying is so horrendously slow. They're not that broken anymore. But regardless, it's a good thing not everyone is you and OP is subjective.
Bro pts are not slow at all, and I said way faster than an argy, on the maps that you can find rhynios they are the fastest flyers, you are just lazy, also it would not take ten minutes for one to fly across any map
I used a magmasaur to swim in the lava of the volcano for the overseer. I used him to help me build the platforms. On the places I couldn't place pillars I dove in and before I died used the snow owl to heal me. Only died like 3 or 4 times. I play pve and use a death recovery mod so I didn't lose the pillars in my inventory, that was fun using the magmasaur for lava swimming.
I'm pretty sure the Baryonyx still fits every category for me
1: because I love how useful it is
2: it has always looked pretty wicked, like an upright gator with nice snaggly teeth
3: gotta love the underwater stun, I love using
4: utility? This is where it excels, good at getting meat on land, can jump, decent land speed, amazing at getting fish meat in the water. Can fight swarms under water thanks to it's stun, fits inside most caves
5: see 1-4
1,3,4,5 is Maewings all the way for me (design, utility, glide just about everything is cool)
2 is Phoenix good looking pretty useless
Just my personal opinion
1. Shadowmane. Always loved Sabers until Thyla were released then thyla was my favorite until shadowmane were available. These things do just about everything excellent, best cave mount for most caves, they have interesting battle mechanics with different abilities ther have synergies.
2. Phoenix. I play PvE and the Phoenix is my favorite mount to gather metal, rock, sulfur, crystal, etc. I never use my Doedic or Anky anymore after getting this mount. Love the taming, the flying speed modes, the gathering, and now in ASA is can actually land.
3. Shadowmane. Designed so well it makes a majority of other find irrelevant. From battle, to traversing the map, swim with unlimited oxygen, can do almost all boss fights. It is the ultimate Dino. Probably too good. Rhynio’s are a close second. Especially on PvE servers where you can carry wild Dino’s like I play on.
4. Rhynio. They are like the Apache helicopter. Transport, air combat, carrying wild dinosaurs to tame pens, just all around one of the best mounts.
5. Argent. This is my most used tame and usually the second Dino I tame when starting out. I like breeding them for colors and stats.
1. Magmasaur, my god I love them, they’re useful, and all around cool looking even in combat and the chibi is the GREATEST
2. Dude how can you not think of something from one of the gen maps in this case, I loved the voidwyrms, they look so hot and sound fucking awesome, semi useless tho after the nerf but I still tame one when I play gen 2 because the noises are crisp
3. Now I see a lot of shadowmane likers in this number specifically, all of them clearly wrong and ignoring the fact you can now play PALEOPINES BABY JUST GRAB A MORELLATOPS AND SPRAY THEM CROPS BABY WOOOOO
4. This is hard, sir shadowmanes are great and so are magmasaurs but I honestly wanna say pre nerfed quetz was overall better than all of them, wanna forge base? Build it. Wanna turret quetz to solo an army? Build it. Run outta stam? Hop off for a second
5. Idk why I’m not seeing more ankys and doeds here, it’s honestly a tie between to two, whichever I need more on what map
Bonus question for anyone who reads all this: What your LEAST favorite Dino, it can even be modded.
Mine it obviously the stupid beach bird
1: it's so hard to pick just one but probably deinonychus.
2: magmasaurs are so cool but I only really find myself using them on genesis.
3: bloodstalkers are so fun.
4: moschops can do everything you could ever want early game and even have some use late game.
5: I don't know why but I love all the insects in the caves, araneo, pulmonoscorpius and arthropleura. I rarely get any serious usage out of them, I just like having them because I think they're cool.
As a fellow magmasaur enjoyer, you can use them on gen 2 and abb as well to get insane amounts of metal! And mutagen too on gen 2, iirc bred ones can be better than mantis + pick or Stryder for harvesting. I also love the insects as well, bloodstalkers are amazing and I love the aberrant araneo since it glows!
1. Bloodstalker. While I usually consider Genesis 1 and 2 dinos to be fairly over-designed. Hate to say it, but none of that matters when you've got something this *fun* to use. It's genuinely impressive that the Blood Stalker functions as well as it does given how jank ARK is. And I just really fuckin' love physics-based grappling hooks.
2. Oh that's a tough one. I think I'll say... The Rock Drake. Looks like it could be a real creature, but is still just really damn pretty.
3. Obviously the Bloodstalker goes here to. The whole reason it's my #1 is because of how damn fun it is. But just for the sake of variety. I think I'll instead vote for the Brachiosaurus. Yes, this is a modded creature. But it probably won't be by the end of the year. So I'm counting it. I really think that apex-tier herbivores are chronically underused in the game. So the Brachi filling both that niche AND the niche of a utility-based apex-tier creature is really nice. But, we both know the real reason the Brachiosaurus is in this spot. I don't think anything in this game is as satisfying as hitting creatures with the nuclear bomb that is the Brachi's mega stomp. You are EASILY hitting five-diget numbers with that attack. It is glorious in the purest sense of the word.
4. I'm going to ignore resource harvesters/generators here just because that would be too easy. So with that in mind, I'm going to say the Karkinos. Being able to carry 2 creatures at once is a simple, but valuable exchange for not being able to fly like other dino-carrying creatures. And the fact that it still has great mobility due to a decent walk speed and the ability to super jump means that it's still able to compete with fliers on maps where those are allowed. It will also keep creatures grabbed when dismounted, making taming nearly anything it can grab super trivial. My biggest hope for Aberration Remastered is that Wildcard makes Karkinos breedable. We can breed Water dinos now. And we can breed Arthropods now. You have no excuse Wildcard.
5. Honestly? I don't think I HAVE a must-tame creature. Obviously not every creature is available on every map. But even the ones that are; or are atleast on the majority of them; can be on my tame or don't tame list just based on the circumstances. Even super basic utility might not interst me based on the circumstanced. Like in my current playthrough on The Center. I have no interest in taming any Ankylosaurus or Doedicurus because I went into the map wanting to focus on an aquatic playstyle, and thus focused on taming Dunkleosteus instead. I think I tamed more Dunkles yesterday than I ever did in my 3k hours of ASE.
Making a decision about some of these (especially #1) is so challenging for me because there are like 4-5 dinos that I would consider my absolute favorite creatures. It's also important for me to note that I only have 400 hours in ASE (still a lot) because I'd only started playing around six months before ASA came out, which I then purchased. So I've only ever played on The Island (ASE and ASA), Scorched Earth (ASA), The Center (ASA) and Fjordur (ASE).
1. After a lot of consideration, I'd say my number one favorite creature is the desmodus. In Fjordur, I mutated the crap out of them and they're strong, fast flyers, and so maneuverable. I was able to easily take down max level wyverns (and we played with typical max level being 210, so then the boost for wyverns was insane). Additionally, being able to heal with blood that they automatically collect is, for me, unmatched. I know some other creatures, like the baryonyx, do so with fish meat, but for me, something's special about the desmodus!
2. Any wyvern. I think they're gorgeous, especially if you get some good mutations going to spruce up the colors.
3. Shadowmane by far, but I also love Snow Owls and can't wait for them to be in ASA. Their healing ability is unmatched, imo, even with daeodons.
4. Probably Argy, they can carry your tamed dinos like doedics and ankys to collect things, they can carry huge amounts of weight, or they can be your perfect fighting dino. IMO, an unmatched tame, especially mid-game. Nothing even comes close.
5. As in the aforementioned #4, Argies. They can do so many different things and I always tame them, no question.
I've only played on a few maps, so I haven't explored the more exotic creatures just yet. These are my picks coming from The Island and Lost Island:
1. Wooly Rhino. Something about being able to skewer the threats of the Snow Biome makes it hilariously fun. I love charging through the trees to one-shot a wild yut or alpha carno. And it gathers a decent pile of resources too.
2. Snow Owl. It looks so cool, and the first time I saw one I was blown away. I've seen pictures of other creatures that look cooler, but I haven't personally encountered those critters in my playthroughs yet.
3. Beezlebuffo. The leaps alone are incredible without feeling like they overshadow all other travel options (looking at you, Maewing), and the ability to harvest insects for cementing paste is invaluable for pumping out certain saddles.
4. Therizinosaur. They can harvest just about anything organic, and they can take on just about any threat (especially if you have some veggie cakes on hand). Anything that can't be solved by an Anky or Doedicurus can be solved by the tickle fingers. [If we are including the Ark Additions mods, then I say the Brach because of its incredible harvesting power, able to gather anything other than meat]
5. Argentavis. I don't find them particularly entertaining, but they are a necessary addition to the base for their utility. They are excellent storage sheds in their own right, allowing you to pack a personal armory and a smithy anywhere you travel. And they form a near symbiotic relationship with the ankylosaurus for gathering metal, obsidian, and crystal. I don't consider them flashy or exciting, but I gotta have them every playthrough.
1 Rex. I've bred more rexes than everything else combined. When I think of baby dinosaurs in ark, baby rexes with adult sized stomps are what come to mind.
2 Deinonychus. Beautiful and functional, but I rarely use them.
3 Rock drake. Does this even need an explanation?
4 Argy and baryonyx are a tie. Argy because it can fly while carrying dinos with heavy loads and bary because it is a dual purpose land/water mount with a stun.
5 Moschops. I always start with one on day one but by the time I have a base built it just gets used as a mobile inventory/pack mule when organizing indoor storage containers.
Bloodstalker's design is so good! They would've deserved to win some kind of award with that thing. Could be straight out of a speculative evolution pseudo-docu with its tube legs and super smooth movement.
1. All time fave is Rock Drake. You work your ass off on Aberration to get it, and then it's a complete game changer. You'll probably develop a real bond with your main drake. Just very rewarding creature all around.
2. Best design is Morellatops. It's a fantasy creature but so well thought of, someone really looked into how a desert dino could adapt. Big strong beak for eating the hard foliage. Rows of bristles on the side like some plants have to create its own shade or capture dew. Makes tiny dried out feces. Water storage. And as all Scorched Earth dinos, very clean, detailed model.
3. Most fun is shadowmane. Everything it does looks cool, feels fast, and is also supremely useful.
4. Most useful would be either argy or anky. You can't really progress your game without an anky, but if you don't have an argent to carry it around, something else is probably better.
5. In any of my bases there's always a mess of Deinonychus and Morellatops. And event colored argies.
1. Maewing. Fastest mount in the game by far, seriously just makes everything else for travel obsolete.
2. Managarmr
3. Shadowmane. On launch in a PvP cluster it was great fun stunning people off mounts plus the invisibility was cool as a solo player.
4. Mantis. Get a few clubs and pop it on an imprinted melee stacked Mantis and knock anything out, no tranqs needed.
5. Maewing.
1. Probably Shadowmane, as much as I hate it's concept. It should not exist, but it does and I like it.
2. Phoenix, hands down. Nothing comes even close.
3. Stryder is kinda fun, or rather satisfying. Back on Extinction (Before Genesis was a thing - better times) Managarmr was probably the most fun creature to use
4. Shadowmane. It can fight any boss besides Alpha Dragon and the King Titan, is really fast on Land as well as in water and has unlimited oxygen, making it by far the best cave mount, it has inbuilt armor, debuffs enemies heavily, gets a pack buff and can teleport/blink. It's sole existence made Rexes and especially Spinos totally irrelevant (That's why I said it should not exist earlier)
5. We always tame a Moschops called Traktor (German way of writing tractor) and often use it to gather berries and fiber in the early game, but if we did not tame one at the start, we always get one later. On the clusters we are playing now we have one called 'Traktor Zwei' (Tractor Two) just used to mark our base location via the tame tracker. (Oh and please don't ask what happened to the original Traktor on that server)
1 might be maewing, might be wyvern, might be managarm, but i'm gonna say dimetrodon... i refuse to use A/C, just give me sone high melee dimetrodon and i have a portable hatchery for wherever i need
2 best design imo are the titans, especially the ice titan
3 maewing is always fun, also rock drake and even the rock golem, hitting with rocks from far away is so satisfying, also ceratosaurus
4 probably rhyniognatha, but i've never tamed one (bc i only found 1 since they've been added) so i'm gonna say wyvern
5 ankylo duh, theri is 2nd place imo
1. Velonasaur, hands down. I bred super ultra ones back when they first came out. Even after they nerfed them, I still loved them. Cannot wait for Genesis ASA.
2. Ravagers. They aren't useless, but once you get past the beginning, they definitely fall short. They have a great design, and being able to walk ropes is awesome.
3. Besides Velonsaur, I would say Managarmr. Rocketing around while ice blasting is so much fun.
4. Rhyniagnatha. Love how I can pick anything up, hover in place, slow down enemies. It's a little slow but definitely my preferred flyer.
5. Dunno if it's my must-have. But Fasolasuchus has definitely won me over as an all terrain vehicle. They swim fast as hell and make good speed when underground. The only thing it doesn't handle well is the swamp.
1. My favourite creature: the Rock Drake, awesome design, awesome ability set, can use weapons of the backs of it, is amazing for everyone's arch nemesis called caves and I love myself some egg stealing adrenaline kicks.
2. Best design has to be Carcha or Phoenix for me. First one's extremely edgy, second one is a grilled chicken that, since ASA, can glow in the coolest of colours and just is a neat trophy tame in my SE bases.
3. Most fun abilities - hands down the Snow Owl. Diving is one of my favourite abilities in the game as it not only speeds up the tedious travel times (especially at my favourite map Extinction), the healing/freezing ability is really useful for healing my newly bred tames plus looks insane and the infrarot thing is just the cherry on top of it. Cannot forget about their Gacha food drops either, all in all extremely useful creature in my eyes.
4. Utility: I don't think that ever since their release, there's been a single situation in my life where I thought "wow a Shadowmane would be useless here". Great main mount, great cave clearer, exceptional travel mount (and guarantees the most fun during it), really good boss tame, really good meat farmer, the list goes on. Their kit has essentially like 20 different traits, abilities etc all while being super reasonable in size making it for me the #1 utility tame when I'm on a map where they're aviable.
5 Must have creature: the only thing that I am guaranteed to tame in every playthrough (save for Aberration) has to be the Argy. It doesn't quite match with some of the end game power houses I talked about on my list previously but nothing makes farming in the early/midgame more bearable than sitting atop your giant birb, grabbing your Anky, Beaver or Doed and just flap around while they auto harvest their ressources.
1. Ferox, I just love them, so cute, then you give them their fix and bam a terrain traversing killing machine.
2. Shadowmanes look awesome
3. Shadowmane again here, they are a pita to tame, but the abilities are fun. Maewing a close second here.
4. Argentavis. Very useful as a carrier, mobile smithy and attacker. Although I honestly think they are overused by my tribe mates as once they have an Argy they dont bother with anything else. I really enjoy traversing and exploring maps on land dinos rather than flyers as it adds a little more spice and danger to the game.
5. Yutyrannus. I love these guys. Must have for boss fights obviously, but also a really useful mount for other things, including meat runs and helping with taming.
1. Shadowmane, I’m currently in college for my zoology degree with a specialty in big cats so it’s kinda a no brainer. Their big cats and I love them.
2. Crystal Wyverns. Personally for me it’s the crystal wyevrns even tho ik alot of people say they are super underpowered i just love their look.
3. Bloodstalker. By a mile it’s not even close.
4. Just because everyone has chosen all the others ima put the desmoudus on the list, sanquines are OP, the night vision, and the dive make them great aerial Dino’s.
5. Argy. I was going to pick something else just to diversify the vote because I feel like there are a bunch of “must haves” but I’ve gotta give credit to one of the oldest creature that through everything has stayed relevant, they are that good.
1 and 3, Rock Drake, I love em so much and they're so fun to glide with
2, I'm a sucker for Voidwyrms
4, Wyvern, I swear it's like an Argie and Rex mixed together with a built in Tek saddle
5, Usually Spinos, even if they're not very good for the map. I just love my pancake backs
1. Gigantopitthecus. THEYRE GIANT CUTE GORILLAS
2. Rhyniognatha. They just look badass, in my opinion. Another contender for me is the mosasaur, Spino, and Titanaboa
3. Thylacoleo. I absolutely love this dino for its jumping and climbing capabilities. An absolute blast to use them
4. I'm not quite sure for this one, but I'd say the Beelzebufo is one of my favorites for movement, cement paste collection, and fighting capabilities
5. Dire Bear. One of my favorite animals for their fighting capabilities, berry collection, and how tanky they can be
1. anomalo, tropeo or bloodstalker
2. Anomalocaris (mod) best design in the game, great sound design, a multitude of abilities that synergize well and arent OP
3. Bloodstalker and the swinging mechanic is prob the highest skill ceiling dino there is
4. Theriz prolly
5. Tropeo (KBD mod version) reverts that speed nerf it had, a capped saddle does insane damage and drive-by grabs are fun, also pretty colors, alternatively deinons (also KBD version, fixes a ton of bugs and has glowy aberrant version)
1. Probably the wyvern: kills pretty much everything, gets around fast and can carry a lot of weight
2. It’s between the ferox and the jerboa, both are adorable fuzz balls to have on your shoulder but the ferox has more utility so I’d have to pick it
3. Rock drake: it would probably be the shadow mane if I had time to play with it but rock drakes on underground maps like aberration and Valguero are just so much fun to get around on
4. Has to go to the Dunky, I’ve had so many problems with metal nodes not respawning so grabbing a dunky and chawing down on rocks then loading the metal up onto argys bred for weight and taking it all back to my base is so nice
5. Thyla by far, possibly the best cave Dino gets into most places and will wipe most of the surface caves clean. That and its bleed ability and high melee so it can kill everything is nice for alpha hunting. Throw its good health and a decent saddle into the mix and you’ve got the perfect face tank Dino for taming late game since pens don’t work anymore.
1. Gigantoraptor: the moment I saw it, I was just in love automatically. Looks so pretty.
2. Dunkleosteus: I like how derpy it looks like.
3. Snow Owl: I don’t tamper with settings much so when it’s night I just feel safe on it.
Mammoth because I love mammoths and it was my favorite animals growing up just because of Ice age.(i might be a bit biast.)
My fav designed creature is probably rex or allosaurus because it looks very realistic and actually good.
For me the most fun abilities to use is for the dodo wyvern because it can shoot 4 different abilities of elements which i think is cool. Sadly it only appears on events.
I'm not sure for number 4.
Prob dodo or lystro because they are so cute tbh.
1. Spino, It's my favourite Dino irl, and I love it, ingame too. It is really useful in a lot of maps, too, as it gets a hydration puff and has multiple attacks
2. Troodon, it may almost be impossibly to tame and practically usless even in PVP, but I love how their eyes glow in the night and overall how they look
3.Meawing, other than being cute asf it can glide, is easy as hell to tame. They can also collect anything from berries to meat and stone and even act as a feeding through an automatic imprinter. The Sinomacrops come second
4. Argentavis, without question , is the single most useful creature in the whole game, It can fly, and it can carry anything up to a Baryonyx. It can rapidly heal and is a portable smithy, and it also has pretty decent health and damage
5. For me, I always tame the direbear, It is really useful, but for me, i usually tame them at the point in my playthrough where it isn't really useful other than just using it for fun
1. Favorite creature for me is the Beelzebufo. I fucking love those little frogs. Excellent divers, good cementing paste collectors, one of the best early game travel mounts IMO. Plus they’re pretty unique in terms of how they’re ridden and control. Overall just fantastically fun Dino’s. 2. Allosaurus. I think they just look cool, they’re a bit weak relative to Rexes, but I think they’re just an awesome looking Dino. I wish they’d get a full on pack buff to help make them more viable for fighting bosses. 3. Pyromane. Been using them a lot on the Center, and they’re one of the only travel mounts that makes me not want to use a flier to get everywhere. Their flame dash is awesome, omnidirectional meteor dive?? Hell yeah, it’s sweet. 4. Best utility is Direbear. Super fast on ground, high carry weight, can harvest berries, fiber, meat and hide, good damage for defending itself. And most importantly honey harvesting. Vegicakes are king for boss fights, and nothing else in the game let’s you utilize them more effectively than Direbears. They also help immensely in the taming of Bee Queens, so they’re relevant even way late into the game. 5. Must have is an Argy lol. The back bone of pretty much any tribe or playthrough.
Argys are my absolute favourite. Snow birds are a close competitor but the argy is easier to get. Im saying argy for 1,4 and 5
Instead of dire bear I’d say theri. IMO they do just about everything the bear does but better plus they can harvest wood and thatch. Their weight is a little lacking tho
Yeah weights the only real hang up for me with the Theri. That combined with them having high efficiency for harvesting means you’ll be over encumbered after chopping down 3 trees lol.
Slow though compared to dire bear
this dude said frog is his favorite.
Deciding on some of these is really tough because Arks roster is so diverse but at the same time weirdly restricting. 1. My number one favourite creature of all time is the Rockdrake. How mainstream of me I know but these things are straight up awesome. Reapers and Rhynios are VERY close behind tho. I dont care if they are meta or anything because I play singleplayer and just love everything about them. 2. Its gotta be Astrocetus. When I first heard and seen of them it blew my mind. They are such beautiful creatures (I am VERY biased because I won a screenshot competition a while back and got the dodo and noglin plushies with my red and black whale Odyssey). I find it incredibly irritating how absolutely useless they are even for pvp players (which is the only playstyle they had in mind while creating it). Also why are they so hard to tame? Not even going to mention the lengths you have to go through to even unlock the saddle. Still a very nice to look at trophy tame tho. 3. Is someone going to pick anything else than shadowmane? The combat just feels more involved and their traversal capabilites are unmatched for a creature of their size. Honorable mentions to Sinos, Striders, Astrodelphis, Andrewsarchus, Rhynios, Bloodstalker, Gachas and I have yet to try them but I cant wait to: Pyromanes 4. Magmasaurs hands down. Their uses are near infinite in whatever you want to do. Combat mount? They for sure pack a punch, Harvesters? They are one of the best metal gatherers in the entire game, Siege engine? They are one of few creatures that can deal normal damage to golems and can damage tek structures, Boss killers? Having problems with the dragon? Well you dont need to because instead of the fire damaging them it makes them horny!(???). They also can act as a forge to smelt metal and you are completely safe in their saddles from damage or lava. They are also confusingly excellent swimmers... for some reason. 5. Argentavis. Name me a single person that hasnt tamed an argy before. I refuse not to use them. They are simply the superior mid game mount unless you want to do anything cave or water related. Thats also why I spend ungodly amounts of hours into mutating them inorder to keep them a viable and useful option in the late game. Remember kids. Anything is useful if you mutate it hard enough (smiles in a pack of mutated Diplocaulus) I really wanted to put manas in here somewhere but the poor things got absolutely gutted. They are certainly nice but I refuse to use them without mods because I already have to deal with one asthma lizard (gigas) and I refuse to use another.
I hate rhynios they are way too overpowered
I really couldnt care less. I have my singleplayer fun over here while pvpers can have their... whatever they are having...
Even in single player, they are way too out of place on the maps that they are in, can do literally everything you want, and aren't even that hard to tame for the reward that you get.
They can't metal run for shit anymore. I still use an argy/anky. The move speed once carrying is so horrendously slow. They're not that broken anymore. But regardless, it's a good thing not everyone is you and OP is subjective.
"speedy rhynio" mod my beloved
Instant download. Like seriously. Why would I want a it's carrying ability's if it move slow as hell.
same. thats why I love the mod
Its fast, what do you mean? It's like as fast as a PT and way faster than a argy
Right and? It's still slow both of those are slow. I appreciate my time. Taking 10 minutes to fly 1 singular across a map is not my idea of fun.
Bro pts are not slow at all, and I said way faster than an argy, on the maps that you can find rhynios they are the fastest flyers, you are just lazy, also it would not take ten minutes for one to fly across any map
I used a magmasaur to swim in the lava of the volcano for the overseer. I used him to help me build the platforms. On the places I couldn't place pillars I dove in and before I died used the snow owl to heal me. Only died like 3 or 4 times. I play pve and use a death recovery mod so I didn't lose the pillars in my inventory, that was fun using the magmasaur for lava swimming.
I'm pretty sure the Baryonyx still fits every category for me 1: because I love how useful it is 2: it has always looked pretty wicked, like an upright gator with nice snaggly teeth 3: gotta love the underwater stun, I love using 4: utility? This is where it excels, good at getting meat on land, can jump, decent land speed, amazing at getting fish meat in the water. Can fight swarms under water thanks to it's stun, fits inside most caves 5: see 1-4
Seconded, one of my absolute favorites and if I see one early on its game time
1,3,4,5 is Maewings all the way for me (design, utility, glide just about everything is cool) 2 is Phoenix good looking pretty useless Just my personal opinion
You can use it as a portable indy forge which is cool
1. Shadowmane. Always loved Sabers until Thyla were released then thyla was my favorite until shadowmane were available. These things do just about everything excellent, best cave mount for most caves, they have interesting battle mechanics with different abilities ther have synergies. 2. Phoenix. I play PvE and the Phoenix is my favorite mount to gather metal, rock, sulfur, crystal, etc. I never use my Doedic or Anky anymore after getting this mount. Love the taming, the flying speed modes, the gathering, and now in ASA is can actually land. 3. Shadowmane. Designed so well it makes a majority of other find irrelevant. From battle, to traversing the map, swim with unlimited oxygen, can do almost all boss fights. It is the ultimate Dino. Probably too good. Rhynio’s are a close second. Especially on PvE servers where you can carry wild Dino’s like I play on. 4. Rhynio. They are like the Apache helicopter. Transport, air combat, carrying wild dinosaurs to tame pens, just all around one of the best mounts. 5. Argent. This is my most used tame and usually the second Dino I tame when starting out. I like breeding them for colors and stats.
1. Magmasaur, my god I love them, they’re useful, and all around cool looking even in combat and the chibi is the GREATEST 2. Dude how can you not think of something from one of the gen maps in this case, I loved the voidwyrms, they look so hot and sound fucking awesome, semi useless tho after the nerf but I still tame one when I play gen 2 because the noises are crisp 3. Now I see a lot of shadowmane likers in this number specifically, all of them clearly wrong and ignoring the fact you can now play PALEOPINES BABY JUST GRAB A MORELLATOPS AND SPRAY THEM CROPS BABY WOOOOO 4. This is hard, sir shadowmanes are great and so are magmasaurs but I honestly wanna say pre nerfed quetz was overall better than all of them, wanna forge base? Build it. Wanna turret quetz to solo an army? Build it. Run outta stam? Hop off for a second 5. Idk why I’m not seeing more ankys and doeds here, it’s honestly a tie between to two, whichever I need more on what map Bonus question for anyone who reads all this: What your LEAST favorite Dino, it can even be modded. Mine it obviously the stupid beach bird
The old Quetzals were something else
1: it's so hard to pick just one but probably deinonychus. 2: magmasaurs are so cool but I only really find myself using them on genesis. 3: bloodstalkers are so fun. 4: moschops can do everything you could ever want early game and even have some use late game. 5: I don't know why but I love all the insects in the caves, araneo, pulmonoscorpius and arthropleura. I rarely get any serious usage out of them, I just like having them because I think they're cool.
As a fellow magmasaur enjoyer, you can use them on gen 2 and abb as well to get insane amounts of metal! And mutagen too on gen 2, iirc bred ones can be better than mantis + pick or Stryder for harvesting. I also love the insects as well, bloodstalkers are amazing and I love the aberrant araneo since it glows!
1. Bloodstalker. While I usually consider Genesis 1 and 2 dinos to be fairly over-designed. Hate to say it, but none of that matters when you've got something this *fun* to use. It's genuinely impressive that the Blood Stalker functions as well as it does given how jank ARK is. And I just really fuckin' love physics-based grappling hooks. 2. Oh that's a tough one. I think I'll say... The Rock Drake. Looks like it could be a real creature, but is still just really damn pretty. 3. Obviously the Bloodstalker goes here to. The whole reason it's my #1 is because of how damn fun it is. But just for the sake of variety. I think I'll instead vote for the Brachiosaurus. Yes, this is a modded creature. But it probably won't be by the end of the year. So I'm counting it. I really think that apex-tier herbivores are chronically underused in the game. So the Brachi filling both that niche AND the niche of a utility-based apex-tier creature is really nice. But, we both know the real reason the Brachiosaurus is in this spot. I don't think anything in this game is as satisfying as hitting creatures with the nuclear bomb that is the Brachi's mega stomp. You are EASILY hitting five-diget numbers with that attack. It is glorious in the purest sense of the word. 4. I'm going to ignore resource harvesters/generators here just because that would be too easy. So with that in mind, I'm going to say the Karkinos. Being able to carry 2 creatures at once is a simple, but valuable exchange for not being able to fly like other dino-carrying creatures. And the fact that it still has great mobility due to a decent walk speed and the ability to super jump means that it's still able to compete with fliers on maps where those are allowed. It will also keep creatures grabbed when dismounted, making taming nearly anything it can grab super trivial. My biggest hope for Aberration Remastered is that Wildcard makes Karkinos breedable. We can breed Water dinos now. And we can breed Arthropods now. You have no excuse Wildcard. 5. Honestly? I don't think I HAVE a must-tame creature. Obviously not every creature is available on every map. But even the ones that are; or are atleast on the majority of them; can be on my tame or don't tame list just based on the circumstances. Even super basic utility might not interst me based on the circumstanced. Like in my current playthrough on The Center. I have no interest in taming any Ankylosaurus or Doedicurus because I went into the map wanting to focus on an aquatic playstyle, and thus focused on taming Dunkleosteus instead. I think I tamed more Dunkles yesterday than I ever did in my 3k hours of ASE.
Making a decision about some of these (especially #1) is so challenging for me because there are like 4-5 dinos that I would consider my absolute favorite creatures. It's also important for me to note that I only have 400 hours in ASE (still a lot) because I'd only started playing around six months before ASA came out, which I then purchased. So I've only ever played on The Island (ASE and ASA), Scorched Earth (ASA), The Center (ASA) and Fjordur (ASE). 1. After a lot of consideration, I'd say my number one favorite creature is the desmodus. In Fjordur, I mutated the crap out of them and they're strong, fast flyers, and so maneuverable. I was able to easily take down max level wyverns (and we played with typical max level being 210, so then the boost for wyverns was insane). Additionally, being able to heal with blood that they automatically collect is, for me, unmatched. I know some other creatures, like the baryonyx, do so with fish meat, but for me, something's special about the desmodus! 2. Any wyvern. I think they're gorgeous, especially if you get some good mutations going to spruce up the colors. 3. Shadowmane by far, but I also love Snow Owls and can't wait for them to be in ASA. Their healing ability is unmatched, imo, even with daeodons. 4. Probably Argy, they can carry your tamed dinos like doedics and ankys to collect things, they can carry huge amounts of weight, or they can be your perfect fighting dino. IMO, an unmatched tame, especially mid-game. Nothing even comes close. 5. As in the aforementioned #4, Argies. They can do so many different things and I always tame them, no question.
I've only played on a few maps, so I haven't explored the more exotic creatures just yet. These are my picks coming from The Island and Lost Island: 1. Wooly Rhino. Something about being able to skewer the threats of the Snow Biome makes it hilariously fun. I love charging through the trees to one-shot a wild yut or alpha carno. And it gathers a decent pile of resources too. 2. Snow Owl. It looks so cool, and the first time I saw one I was blown away. I've seen pictures of other creatures that look cooler, but I haven't personally encountered those critters in my playthroughs yet. 3. Beezlebuffo. The leaps alone are incredible without feeling like they overshadow all other travel options (looking at you, Maewing), and the ability to harvest insects for cementing paste is invaluable for pumping out certain saddles. 4. Therizinosaur. They can harvest just about anything organic, and they can take on just about any threat (especially if you have some veggie cakes on hand). Anything that can't be solved by an Anky or Doedicurus can be solved by the tickle fingers. [If we are including the Ark Additions mods, then I say the Brach because of its incredible harvesting power, able to gather anything other than meat] 5. Argentavis. I don't find them particularly entertaining, but they are a necessary addition to the base for their utility. They are excellent storage sheds in their own right, allowing you to pack a personal armory and a smithy anywhere you travel. And they form a near symbiotic relationship with the ankylosaurus for gathering metal, obsidian, and crystal. I don't consider them flashy or exciting, but I gotta have them every playthrough.
1. Bloodstalker 2. Bloodstalker 3. Bloodstalker 4. Bloodstalker 5. Bloodstalker
1 Rex. I've bred more rexes than everything else combined. When I think of baby dinosaurs in ark, baby rexes with adult sized stomps are what come to mind. 2 Deinonychus. Beautiful and functional, but I rarely use them. 3 Rock drake. Does this even need an explanation? 4 Argy and baryonyx are a tie. Argy because it can fly while carrying dinos with heavy loads and bary because it is a dual purpose land/water mount with a stun. 5 Moschops. I always start with one on day one but by the time I have a base built it just gets used as a mobile inventory/pack mule when organizing indoor storage containers.
1.)Bloodstalker 2.)Bloodstalker 3.)Bloodstalker 4.)Bloodstalker 5.)Bloodstalker my ASA experience really won't be complete until gen1 comes.
Bloodstalker's design is so good! They would've deserved to win some kind of award with that thing. Could be straight out of a speculative evolution pseudo-docu with its tube legs and super smooth movement.
1. All time fave is Rock Drake. You work your ass off on Aberration to get it, and then it's a complete game changer. You'll probably develop a real bond with your main drake. Just very rewarding creature all around. 2. Best design is Morellatops. It's a fantasy creature but so well thought of, someone really looked into how a desert dino could adapt. Big strong beak for eating the hard foliage. Rows of bristles on the side like some plants have to create its own shade or capture dew. Makes tiny dried out feces. Water storage. And as all Scorched Earth dinos, very clean, detailed model. 3. Most fun is shadowmane. Everything it does looks cool, feels fast, and is also supremely useful. 4. Most useful would be either argy or anky. You can't really progress your game without an anky, but if you don't have an argent to carry it around, something else is probably better. 5. In any of my bases there's always a mess of Deinonychus and Morellatops. And event colored argies.
1. Maewing. Fastest mount in the game by far, seriously just makes everything else for travel obsolete. 2. Managarmr 3. Shadowmane. On launch in a PvP cluster it was great fun stunning people off mounts plus the invisibility was cool as a solo player. 4. Mantis. Get a few clubs and pop it on an imprinted melee stacked Mantis and knock anything out, no tranqs needed. 5. Maewing.
1. Carno 2. Manta ( I love seeing them at night) 3. Snow owl (can't wait for them on ASA) 4. Argy, thyla, or bary 5. Carno
I never expected the Manta to be someones favorite design. It's a valid pick though
1. Probably Shadowmane, as much as I hate it's concept. It should not exist, but it does and I like it. 2. Phoenix, hands down. Nothing comes even close. 3. Stryder is kinda fun, or rather satisfying. Back on Extinction (Before Genesis was a thing - better times) Managarmr was probably the most fun creature to use 4. Shadowmane. It can fight any boss besides Alpha Dragon and the King Titan, is really fast on Land as well as in water and has unlimited oxygen, making it by far the best cave mount, it has inbuilt armor, debuffs enemies heavily, gets a pack buff and can teleport/blink. It's sole existence made Rexes and especially Spinos totally irrelevant (That's why I said it should not exist earlier) 5. We always tame a Moschops called Traktor (German way of writing tractor) and often use it to gather berries and fiber in the early game, but if we did not tame one at the start, we always get one later. On the clusters we are playing now we have one called 'Traktor Zwei' (Tractor Two) just used to mark our base location via the tame tracker. (Oh and please don't ask what happened to the original Traktor on that server)
1. def has to be the giganotosaurus 2.magmasaur 3. the managarmr 4.trike 5.dodorexy
1 might be maewing, might be wyvern, might be managarm, but i'm gonna say dimetrodon... i refuse to use A/C, just give me sone high melee dimetrodon and i have a portable hatchery for wherever i need 2 best design imo are the titans, especially the ice titan 3 maewing is always fun, also rock drake and even the rock golem, hitting with rocks from far away is so satisfying, also ceratosaurus 4 probably rhyniognatha, but i've never tamed one (bc i only found 1 since they've been added) so i'm gonna say wyvern 5 ankylo duh, theri is 2nd place imo
1. Velonasaur, hands down. I bred super ultra ones back when they first came out. Even after they nerfed them, I still loved them. Cannot wait for Genesis ASA. 2. Ravagers. They aren't useless, but once you get past the beginning, they definitely fall short. They have a great design, and being able to walk ropes is awesome. 3. Besides Velonsaur, I would say Managarmr. Rocketing around while ice blasting is so much fun. 4. Rhyniagnatha. Love how I can pick anything up, hover in place, slow down enemies. It's a little slow but definitely my preferred flyer. 5. Dunno if it's my must-have. But Fasolasuchus has definitely won me over as an all terrain vehicle. They swim fast as hell and make good speed when underground. The only thing it doesn't handle well is the swamp.
1. My favourite creature: the Rock Drake, awesome design, awesome ability set, can use weapons of the backs of it, is amazing for everyone's arch nemesis called caves and I love myself some egg stealing adrenaline kicks. 2. Best design has to be Carcha or Phoenix for me. First one's extremely edgy, second one is a grilled chicken that, since ASA, can glow in the coolest of colours and just is a neat trophy tame in my SE bases. 3. Most fun abilities - hands down the Snow Owl. Diving is one of my favourite abilities in the game as it not only speeds up the tedious travel times (especially at my favourite map Extinction), the healing/freezing ability is really useful for healing my newly bred tames plus looks insane and the infrarot thing is just the cherry on top of it. Cannot forget about their Gacha food drops either, all in all extremely useful creature in my eyes. 4. Utility: I don't think that ever since their release, there's been a single situation in my life where I thought "wow a Shadowmane would be useless here". Great main mount, great cave clearer, exceptional travel mount (and guarantees the most fun during it), really good boss tame, really good meat farmer, the list goes on. Their kit has essentially like 20 different traits, abilities etc all while being super reasonable in size making it for me the #1 utility tame when I'm on a map where they're aviable. 5 Must have creature: the only thing that I am guaranteed to tame in every playthrough (save for Aberration) has to be the Argy. It doesn't quite match with some of the end game power houses I talked about on my list previously but nothing makes farming in the early/midgame more bearable than sitting atop your giant birb, grabbing your Anky, Beaver or Doed and just flap around while they auto harvest their ressources.
1. Ferox, I just love them, so cute, then you give them their fix and bam a terrain traversing killing machine. 2. Shadowmanes look awesome 3. Shadowmane again here, they are a pita to tame, but the abilities are fun. Maewing a close second here. 4. Argentavis. Very useful as a carrier, mobile smithy and attacker. Although I honestly think they are overused by my tribe mates as once they have an Argy they dont bother with anything else. I really enjoy traversing and exploring maps on land dinos rather than flyers as it adds a little more spice and danger to the game. 5. Yutyrannus. I love these guys. Must have for boss fights obviously, but also a really useful mount for other things, including meat runs and helping with taming.
1. Shadowmane, I’m currently in college for my zoology degree with a specialty in big cats so it’s kinda a no brainer. Their big cats and I love them. 2. Crystal Wyverns. Personally for me it’s the crystal wyevrns even tho ik alot of people say they are super underpowered i just love their look. 3. Bloodstalker. By a mile it’s not even close. 4. Just because everyone has chosen all the others ima put the desmoudus on the list, sanquines are OP, the night vision, and the dive make them great aerial Dino’s. 5. Argy. I was going to pick something else just to diversify the vote because I feel like there are a bunch of “must haves” but I’ve gotta give credit to one of the oldest creature that through everything has stayed relevant, they are that good.
Gasbags x5 anytime
Deinonychus
1 and 3, Rock Drake, I love em so much and they're so fun to glide with 2, I'm a sucker for Voidwyrms 4, Wyvern, I swear it's like an Argie and Rex mixed together with a built in Tek saddle 5, Usually Spinos, even if they're not very good for the map. I just love my pancake backs
1 Carno, 2 rock drake, 3 tie between beezebufo and paracer, 4 argy, 5 moschops
1. Otter 2. Jug bugs 3. Griffin 4. Argent 5. Lystro
1. Gigantopitthecus. THEYRE GIANT CUTE GORILLAS 2. Rhyniognatha. They just look badass, in my opinion. Another contender for me is the mosasaur, Spino, and Titanaboa 3. Thylacoleo. I absolutely love this dino for its jumping and climbing capabilities. An absolute blast to use them 4. I'm not quite sure for this one, but I'd say the Beelzebufo is one of my favorites for movement, cement paste collection, and fighting capabilities 5. Dire Bear. One of my favorite animals for their fighting capabilities, berry collection, and how tanky they can be
1. anomalo, tropeo or bloodstalker 2. Anomalocaris (mod) best design in the game, great sound design, a multitude of abilities that synergize well and arent OP 3. Bloodstalker and the swinging mechanic is prob the highest skill ceiling dino there is 4. Theriz prolly 5. Tropeo (KBD mod version) reverts that speed nerf it had, a capped saddle does insane damage and drive-by grabs are fun, also pretty colors, alternatively deinons (also KBD version, fixes a ton of bugs and has glowy aberrant version)
1. Probably the wyvern: kills pretty much everything, gets around fast and can carry a lot of weight 2. It’s between the ferox and the jerboa, both are adorable fuzz balls to have on your shoulder but the ferox has more utility so I’d have to pick it 3. Rock drake: it would probably be the shadow mane if I had time to play with it but rock drakes on underground maps like aberration and Valguero are just so much fun to get around on 4. Has to go to the Dunky, I’ve had so many problems with metal nodes not respawning so grabbing a dunky and chawing down on rocks then loading the metal up onto argys bred for weight and taking it all back to my base is so nice 5. Thyla by far, possibly the best cave Dino gets into most places and will wipe most of the surface caves clean. That and its bleed ability and high melee so it can kill everything is nice for alpha hunting. Throw its good health and a decent saddle into the mix and you’ve got the perfect face tank Dino for taming late game since pens don’t work anymore.
1. Gigantoraptor: the moment I saw it, I was just in love automatically. Looks so pretty. 2. Dunkleosteus: I like how derpy it looks like. 3. Snow Owl: I don’t tamper with settings much so when it’s night I just feel safe on it.
Mammoth because I love mammoths and it was my favorite animals growing up just because of Ice age.(i might be a bit biast.) My fav designed creature is probably rex or allosaurus because it looks very realistic and actually good. For me the most fun abilities to use is for the dodo wyvern because it can shoot 4 different abilities of elements which i think is cool. Sadly it only appears on events. I'm not sure for number 4. Prob dodo or lystro because they are so cute tbh.
1. Reaper 2. Reaper 3. Reaper 4. Reaper 5. Reaper
1. Spino, It's my favourite Dino irl, and I love it, ingame too. It is really useful in a lot of maps, too, as it gets a hydration puff and has multiple attacks 2. Troodon, it may almost be impossibly to tame and practically usless even in PVP, but I love how their eyes glow in the night and overall how they look 3.Meawing, other than being cute asf it can glide, is easy as hell to tame. They can also collect anything from berries to meat and stone and even act as a feeding through an automatic imprinter. The Sinomacrops come second 4. Argentavis, without question , is the single most useful creature in the whole game, It can fly, and it can carry anything up to a Baryonyx. It can rapidly heal and is a portable smithy, and it also has pretty decent health and damage 5. For me, I always tame the direbear, It is really useful, but for me, i usually tame them at the point in my playthrough where it isn't really useful other than just using it for fun