Ark: Survival Evolved – How to Tame a Dinosaur

If you want to get around the island quickly, and be able to defend against some of the largest carnivores, then you will want to learn how to tame a dinosaur, which will allow you to utilize them as mounts, pets, and even guard animals for your home on the island. In this article we’ll teach you everything you need to know about taming dinosaurs in Ark: Survival Evolved and making them your own.

How to Tame a Dino

The first thing you need to do to tame a dino is gather the materials that you use to tame it. Depending on the type of creature, you’re going to need at least one type of food item. For example, Herbivores like to eat berries and Advanced Crops, whereas Carnivores are more prone to meat items like Raw meat, Cooked Meat, Raw Fish, Cooked Fish, and even Prime meats or Jerky—which can be made by players.

Once you have the food items, it’s time to find your dino. Depending on the type of dino you’re looking for, you may need to travel to other parts of the island in search of it. Depending on the dino you want, you may need to wait until you have better weaponry available to you. For instance, trying to tame a t-rex with nothing but a slingshot probably isn’t going to pay off too well.

Once you have the weapon you need for the animal, you can attack it until it passes out. Be sure not to hit it too much, as this will lower its health, and could kill it. Instead, work to knock it out, and then insert the food that it desires into the animal’s inventory. It will then eat the food, and slowly become tamed so that you can command it and ride it.

Things to keep in mind when taming animals in Ark: Survival Evolved:

The bigger the creature, the longer it will take to tame.

You can use Narcoberries or Narcotics to increase an animal’s Torpor, which controls how long it is knocked out for. Useful for larger beasts that take much longer to tame.

You will need to protect your animal from other creatures, as they’ll still be attacked.

Now that you know more about taming dinosaurs, you can start working towards getting your collection of dinos up. Before you know it you’ll need to know how to build your first house, and be sure to take a look at our guide on how to get food if you’re struggling to stay alive in the early hours of the game. Once you’ve tamed a dinosaur, you can equip it with a saddle and ride it around, which will allow you to travel much quicker around the island.