To tame a dinosaur in ARK, either feed it while it is conscious (passive taming) or knock it unconscious with a tranquilizer and place its preferred food in its inventory (knock-out taming). Bring more food than the displayed estimate, carry the right protection, and check whether you are playing ARK: Survival Evolved or ARK: Survival Ascended before relying on a number from a guide. Taming values, creatures and even button prompts can change between versions and patches.
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For a first success, start with a low-risk creature such as a Lystrosaurus or Parasaur. Leave Giganotosaurus for a prepared, late-game operation: one beginner guide reports needing more than 50 Shocking Tranq Darts and hours of unconscious feeding. The practical route is to learn the two taming methods on forgiving animals, then move to mounts and specialist creatures.
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Taming converts a wild creature into an ally you can command, ride (when a saddle is available), use for hauling or fighting, and breed. The game does not use one universal interaction. Every species has a preferred food and a taming method, and the same species can require different quantities or times when server settings, level, map or game version changes.
ARK’s two basic methods are:
| Method | What you do | Typical use | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passive taming | Approach a conscious animal, place its preferred food in the interaction slot, and repeat when it asks for another feeding. | Often used for gentle herbivores, including the Lystrosaurus example described by TheGamer. | The animal can wander, flee or be killed while you wait between feedings. |
| Knock-out taming | Use a tranquilizer weapon and ammunition to raise torpor, wait for the creature to fall unconscious, then put food in its inventory while keeping it unconscious. | Used for many combat, utility and mount creatures. | Too much damage can kill the target; too little protection can let predators or players interrupt the process. |
Herbivores are often passive according to the ARK Fandom taming overview, but “herbivore” is not a guarantee. Confirm the individual creature’s method and food before you begin.
#1 Best Overall
- Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame, train, ride and breed the 100+ dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground Build your character's strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems
- Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover ARK's true purpose
- Build a fire or shelter, then craft customizable clothing & armors to help protect against damage and extreme temperatures on your way to unlocking advanced technologies and equipment
- Chop down trees and mine metal and other precious resources to build massive multi-leveled structures composed of complex snap-linked parts
Choose a sensible first target
A low-level animal usually saves time and resources compared with the highest-level specimen. That does not mean every low-level tame is disposable: it lets you practise positioning, feeding and protection without risking a large stockpile of ammunition. Once the process is familiar, you can invest in a better-stat animal.
| Creature | What beginner sources say | Method and supplies reported | Useful role | Time and danger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lystrosaurus | TheGamer describes it as easy to tame and not very dangerous. | No knock-out is needed in that guide; feed mejoberries. | A low-pressure tutorial for learning passive feeding. | Generally a short, low-risk first attempt, although exact duration depends on settings and level. |
| Parasaur | Ultahost calls it a strong choice for a new player. | Check the creature’s current entry for its exact food and method; the cited recommendation does not give a universal quantity. | An early general-purpose companion and a practical step up from a purely harmless animal. | Lower risk than apex predators; protect it during the waiting period. |
| Dodo | TheGamer says Dodos function like mobile chests that increase carrying capacity. | Use the current creature-specific food and method shown in your version. | Extra carrying capacity close to home or on short gathering trips. | Low wild danger, but its small health pool makes accidental damage a concern. |
| Trike | Ultahost recommends approaching through dense foliage and applying repeated sedative doses until it drops. | Knock-out tame; bring a tranquilizer option and the Trike’s preferred food. | A sturdier early companion once you can safely control a knock-out. | More dangerous to approach than a Lystrosaurus; isolate it before firing. |
| Pteranodon | EarlyGuides recommends an early tame for mobility. | That guide lists Raw Meat and Tranq Arrows. | Early aerial travel and scouting after you have the appropriate saddle and a safe landing plan. | Requires a knock-out setup and protection while unconscious; flight does not remove the need for careful feeding. |
| Giganotosaurus | EarlyGuides mentions it as a starting build, which conflicts with the other beginner advice. | More than 50 Shocking Tranq Darts and hours of unconscious feeding are reported for the example. | Late-game power rather than a tutorial animal. | Extremely resource-intensive and unsafe as a first tame; postpone it. |
The table deliberately leaves some quantities unspecified. Taming calculators and guides can disagree across ARK: Survival Evolved, ARK: Survival Ascended and server multipliers, so a number without a version and setting is not a reliable promise.
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1. Confirm your game and server settings
Look at the title screen or server information and identify whether you are playing the original ARK: Survival Evolved or ARK: Survival Ascended. Then note whether the server uses boosted taming, food-drain or resource settings. A guide written for one edition can give the wrong food count, torpor window or creature availability for the other.
2. Identify the exact food
Dododex lists preferred food for individual creatures. Use the entry for the species and level you are targeting, and carry spare portions rather than the exact estimate. A creature can eat more than expected if settings differ, if the guide assumes a different food quality, or if the animal’s level is higher than the example.
Rank #2
- Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
- Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety, and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game
- Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
- Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes, and styles
- Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout
3. Pack the correct taming kit
- Passive tame: the preferred food, a few extra stacks, armour or clothing appropriate to the biome, and a way to deter nearby predators.
- Knock-out tame: preferred food, a tranquilizer weapon and ammunition. Dododex’s beginner guidance gives tranq arrows, tranq darts and a slingshot as examples.
- Either method: a bed or sleeping bag nearby, tools for clearing brush, and enough supplies to survive the wait. Do not begin a long tame with your inventory already full of unrelated loot.
4. Pick the location before touching the animal
A beach or a cleared patch near your base is easier to defend than dense terrain full of predators. If the target is wandering toward danger, guide it to a safer area before starting. Do not assume that a creature that was harmless a minute ago will remain safe once you have invested food and ammunition.
5. Decide whether the level is worth the cost
For practice, choose a lower-level target. For a mount or breeding project, you may decide that a higher level justifies the additional food and time. Make that decision before you fire a tranq weapon: abandoning a partially completed tame wastes supplies and can leave an injured animal in a dangerous location.
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Passive taming: the step-by-step method
Passive taming is the least equipment-heavy approach, but it demands patience and positioning. The animal remains awake, so you are managing its attention and surroundings rather than its torpor.
- Place the food in your last hotbar slot. This makes the interaction predictable and prevents an accidental attack or tool swing.
- Approach from a safe angle. Move slowly, avoid jumping into the animal, and keep a clear retreat path. If the species is nervous, wait until it stops moving instead of chasing it.
- Feed only when the interaction prompt appears. Press the feed key once, then back away. Repeated inputs can waste food or trigger an unwanted action.
- Watch the animal rather than the inventory alone. Passive tames usually require a delay before the next feeding. Follow at a distance, keeping the creature in sight without body-blocking it.
- Repeat until the taming bar is complete. If the animal enters combat, is damaged or wanders too far, secure the area before continuing. The Lystrosaurus example uses mejoberries and does not require a knock-out.
- Protect the finished tame immediately. Rename it, whistle it to a safe spot and place it inside a basic enclosure if predators are nearby.
Passive-taming mistakes to avoid
- Starting with only the exact food count shown by a calculator.
- Feeding while standing between the animal and a cliff, river or predator.
- Attacking a nearby threat with a weapon that can hit the target.
- Leaving the area to gather resources and returning after the animal has wandered or died.
Knock-out taming: the step-by-step method
Knock-out taming has two separate jobs: safely create a knockout, then keep the animal unconscious long enough for it to eat. Treat them as different phases.
Rank #3
- Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
- Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game. Run too far and not only will you be exhausted, but you will also quickly get hungry and thirsty. Weather effects are based on real-world climates, and so you'll need to hide out from rain and snow, while making the most of sunny days
- Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
- Gather Resources, Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes and style of everything from the walls of your home, to your character's armor, weapons and more
- Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout. Make your way to the final boss and figure out why you've been dropped into this Jurassic-era experience
Phase 1: isolate and control the target
- Scout the surroundings. Remove or lure away predators, and choose a place where the target cannot run into water, lava or a cliff. Dense foliage can help conceal an approach; Ultahost specifically suggests it for a Trike.
- Prepare a retreat route. Put a bed or sleeping bag nearby, but not so close that a hostile creature can destroy it while you work. Keep spare ammunition in a box or on a mount outside the fight.
- Use the appropriate tranquilizer weapon. Tranq arrows, tranq darts and a slingshot are beginner examples cited by Dododex. Fire deliberately and allow the torpor effect to build rather than emptying every shot at once.
- Stop when the animal collapses. Continuing to attack an unconscious creature causes damage without helping the taming process and can kill it.
Phase 2: feed and maintain the knockout
- Open the unconscious creature’s inventory. Put its preferred food inside. Do not consume the food yourself by mistake.
- Stay nearby and watch both health and torpor. The animal must remain unconscious while it eats. If torpor falls too far, use the appropriate torpor-restoring item available in your version; never rely on an unverified conversion such as “one narcotic equals eight Narcoberries.” That ratio appears in an unattributed search summary and should not be treated as a rule.
- Defend without hitting the target. Kill predators from an angle that keeps stray swings and projectiles away from the unconscious animal. A simple wall or temporary enclosure can be safer than fighting in the open.
- Keep the food supply topped up. The creature may consume food slowly. Extra portions prevent a long trip back to base from interrupting the tame.
- Wait for the taming bar to finish. Do not leave just because the first food item disappeared. The process can take minutes or hours depending on species, level and settings.
- Secure the new tame. Once it stands, whistle it away from danger, assign it a behavior you understand, and make or acquire its saddle before taking it into a fight.
Example: taming a Trike
A Trike is a useful lesson in knock-out control. Approach through cover, separate it from other aggressive animals, and apply sedative shots while keeping enough distance to retreat. When it falls, place the correct food in its inventory and protect the site. The exact number of shots and the waiting time are not universal; they change with level, weapon quality and server settings.
Example: taming a Pteranodon
EarlyGuides identifies Raw Meat and Tranq Arrows for its Pteranodon example and recommends the creature for early mobility. Land it in a clear area before beginning. A flying animal can drift or take off if the setup is poor, and an unfinished tame is especially vulnerable on an exposed beach. Confirm the current saddle requirement and food quantity for your edition before committing.
Why Giganotosaurus is not a beginner tame
One source presents Giganotosaurus as a starting build, but that recommendation conflicts with the broader beginner guidance. The same EarlyGuides material reports a requirement of more than 50 Shocking Tranq Darts and hours of unconscious feeding. Those costs are only part of the problem: the target is dangerous to approach, difficult to isolate and expensive to replace if it dies.
Use a Giganotosaurus as a long-term project after you already have secure storage, a defended taming pen, reliable tranquilizer production and a way to keep other players or predators away. Treat the “50-plus darts” and “hours” figures as an example from that guide, not a universal calculator result for every level or server.
Rank #4
- Capture and Tame Dinosaurs: Discover over 100 different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures on the island, finding ways to tame them into useful additions for your tribe's dino herd
- Survive Above All: Hunger, thirst, basic safety, and protecting yourself from the weather are all part of the game
- Harvest, Hunt and Build: Cut down trees and turn them into a basic home, which you can quickly expand into a Jurassic estate. Hunt for meat, scavenge for plants (or start your own garden!)
- Customize Everything: An extensive crafting system invites you to mix and match materials scavenged from the island, while also modifying the colors, textures, shapes, and styles
- Explore the Island: Solve the mystery of The ARK as you explore this massive island, discovering Explorer's Notebooks (filled with clues!) throughout
Make a tame faster without gambling the animal
- Bring surplus food first. Running out forces a risky trip during the most vulnerable part of the process.
- Use a lower-level practice animal. The ARK Fandom taming guidance notes that beginners can save time and resources this way.
- Clear threats before feeding. Every interruption can cost health, food or the entire tame.
- Separate targets. If several creatures are clustered together, lure the one you want to a quiet spot so a stray hit does not start a group fight.
- Do not chase a fleeing animal blindly. Reposition, wait for it to settle, or abandon the attempt if the terrain becomes unsafe.
- Use a pen only when it improves control. A poorly built trap can block your shots, crush the animal or leave an opening for predators. Test the exit before beginning a valuable tame.
- Record your own server settings. A short note of taming speed, food drain and creature level saves repeated trial and error on a private server.
Troubleshooting a failed or stalled tame
The taming bar is not moving
Check that the animal is eating the food you supplied, that it is the correct species entry, and that it has not been damaged or placed in combat. Passive tames require a wait between feedings; knock-out tames can sit with food in their inventory before the next bite.
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The creature wakes up
The knockout phase ended before feeding was complete. The usual causes are insufficient torpor, too much time spent away, or a mismatch between the guide and your version or settings. Secure a safer site, carry the right torpor-management items and use a current creature-specific calculator before trying again.
The target dies during the knockout
Stop firing once it collapses and avoid area attacks near its body. If it died before the inventory was loaded, the food and ammunition are lost; change your firing rhythm or weapon choice for the next attempt.
A passive tame keeps running away
Clear the area, stop pursuing it and let it settle. Approach from behind cover with the food ready. If the location is unsafe, move to another target rather than forcing a chase toward predators or water.
The tame is attacked while unconscious
Kill the attacker from a safe angle, repair or expand the enclosure, and keep a spare food supply nearby. On a multiplayer server, ask teammates to guard the perimeter rather than crowding the unconscious animal.
A guide’s number does not match your game
Check the edition, platform, creature level, server multipliers and guide date. ARK: Survival Evolved and ARK: Survival Ascended do not share every creature, patch or value, and community guides sometimes disagree even when they describe the same species.
ARK: Survival Evolved versus Survival Ascended
Always verify the edition before following a taming tutorial. ASA receives separate client and platform updates, while ASE guides can refer to older creatures, costs or interface behavior. A number copied from one edition should be labelled with that edition rather than presented as an ARK-wide rule.
For current ASA context, the official community-forum listings show client version 94.7 on PC and 94.4 on Xbox, both dated September 30, 2026, in connection with the “Fantastic Tames Season 1” event and the Cerberax tame. Those version notices do not by themselves establish a universal change to every creature’s food or torpor values; use the platform-specific changelog when a patch is involved.
Recent examples of patch-sensitive taming information
- Gloon: A report on update 1.078.036 says the crouch requirement for taming was removed and additional HUD text was added during Wild Gloon taming in ASA. If your interface still asks for crouching, confirm the installed update and platform.
- Osedax: A third-party write-up claims the required creature count fell by about 30%, with a larger reduction at lower levels. That change is not verified against official notes, so do not plan a tame around it without checking the current game.
- Therizinosaurus: Studio Wildcard community posts discuss planned harvesting-role changes for tamed Therizinos. “Planned” does not mean live; read the current patch notes before choosing one for a specific resource job.
- Original ARK on Switch: A wiki snippet lists patch 624.0 with taming-cost changes for Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus, but the ship date is unverified. Treat the snippet as a lead to verify, not as a guaranteed value for every Switch installation.
The official ARK Community Forums maintain separate PC, Xbox, PlayStation and server changelog threads. The ARK Discord and ARK Wiki patch notes are useful secondary checks when a creature behaves differently after an update.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesA first-tame plan you can follow
- Choose a forgiving objective: a Lystrosaurus for passive-feeding practice, a Parasaur as an early general companion, or a Dodo for extra carrying capacity.
- Look up the exact food and method: use the current Dododex entry and confirm it matches your edition and server settings.
- Collect spares: preferred food plus a tranquilizer weapon and ammunition if the target needs a knock-out.
- Prepare the site: clear predators, place a bed or sleeping bag and create a retreat route.
- Perform the correct method: feed a conscious animal only when prompted, or stop shooting as soon as a knock-out target collapses.
- Guard the waiting period: keep the animal safe, maintain torpor when required and do not leave for a long resource run.
- Secure the result: whistle the tame home, store it safely and learn its behavior before risking it in combat.
- Move up gradually: try a Trike or Pteranodon after the basics, and reserve Giganotosaurus for a late-game operation.
Bottom line
The reliable beginner strategy is simple: start small, bring the right food, and match your equipment to the taming method. Passive taming teaches patience with little gear; knock-out taming adds tranquilizer control, torpor management and perimeter defense. Lystrosaurus, Parasaur and Dodo are sensible first projects, while Trike and Pteranodon introduce more demanding but useful roles. Check whether you are on Survival Evolved or Survival Ascended before trusting any number, and verify patch-sensitive behavior in the current official changelog.
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