Best Way To Level Non-Ridables?

[Daedros]

Best Way To Level Non-Ridables?

So what's the best way to level non-ridable creatures, such as Dimorphodons? I play on a server with 10x Exp rate. I know that the Grinder is pretty good for gaining Exp on ridable dinos, but not sure if that would work for something like a Dimorphodon, which can't be ridden. I know there's something that can be done to gain massive Exp on pets that aren't being ridden, but i haven't exactly pinpointed what it is. I've left a bunch of pets at a Tribemate's base before, and came back a few days later to find them with 100k+ Exp, despite neither me nor my tribemate having ridden them since i left them there. Something he was doing was causing them to gain exp. Anyone have any idea?

[SurvivorBull]

I'm also interested in the answer to this. I will say that I've always had non-rideable creatures kill stuff to help level them up but it would be nice if there was a more efficient way.

[Daedros]

Yeah, the problem with having them kill stuff for Exp though, is that the exp gains seem to be slow, or erratic. I'm not sure if it's splitting up the exp between all the attackers, or if only the pet that got the killing blow receives all the experience. Either way, if you use something that requires a big pack to kill effectively, like Dimorphodons, the exp gain is fairly slow.

[Kimalia]

for dimorphs, as long as you have enough you can just whistle ''attack target'' on the things you want to kill.

[Pommer]

What about just having it sat on your shoulder and use the grinder? Does that work?

[10,000 Jelly Doughnuts]

Use lystros. 

[vanyelxp5]

For the first 20 levels or so, just park them next to Lystros and keep petting them every 5 minutes (Or for added efficiency so there's no gaps in the boosted XP time, have 2 lystros and pet them alternatively every 4 minutes. Buff doesn't stack, but  overlapping the time coverage will ensure maximum XP boosting)

 

After that, kill trikes with them. Not worth a ton of XP, but they'll get you where you're going.

 

If one starts to pull ahead too far for your liking, put it on your shoulder for a little while, and let the flock keep killing. Or, just let it keep going so it can reach max level.

 

Don't try to kill Brontos with them, a single tail swipe could undo all your hard work.

[LadyCrescent]

If it helps at all, I level my hunting packs on T-Rexes in the snow biome. Because the dimorphodons' AI is programmed to attack the body of an opposing dinosaur, the T-Rexes can't really touch them, and they're worth a decent chunk of experience.

Other information: I hunt with a pack of ten to twenty-five, and I start putting them in the air when they reach 600 health / 300% melee. And I command from the back of an eagle (to avoid getting eaten on those aforementioned T-Rex hunts, lol) with a spyglass, and whistle them onto targets.

Beyond that, I'm pretty sure that experience is shared between all dinosaurs who get a shot in on the thing they're killing.

I don't see many other people talking about dimorphodons, but they're my favorite...so I hope that helps out!

[younevergetthis]

Make a tall building with no roof put dimos inside on aggressive and drop stuff in with lystros u can level them pretty quick used to do this to get dimos ready for cave runs

[Daedros]

Yeah, i have 20 Dimorphodons that i use in a hunting pack right now, they all have at least 650 Health and 250% Melee. I have been breeding my best Dimorphodons together to create my "Drones", which all have 1,175 Health and 349.3% Melee before Imprint. I have 6 "Drones" so far but haven't used them in combat yet, still trying to breed the Weight and Food into the next generations. I put all of their Levels into Speed, so not only do they follow me faster, but they can also chase down human prey. The regular Dimorphs all have 220-230% Speed, and are able to keep up with a tamed base speed Quetzal that is "sprinting". They killed someone fleeing on their Quetz the other day.

Last week, i took 20 of the regular Dimorphodons into the Snow Cave (the hard one, with the Lvl 200+ Dire Wolves and Yetis) and they demolished everything in there. I had to pump meat on them every now and then to heal them back up (especially after Yetis, which have a big frontal cone to their attack), but was able to get to the Artifact of the Strong, and back out. Throughout that whole Cave, the Dimorphodons only gained about 1-2 levels, despite killing Lvl 200+ stuff.

[chrisnt64]

Depends on what non-rideable creatures you want to level.

Creatures like compy's, dimorphodons, troodons and other fighting creatures can be levelled by putting them in a pack and setting them on larger dinos, Rexes, spinos, paracers, all give pretty good xp, or just walk along the beach and whistle atack target on any dino you see, this will level them up pretty quickly.

As for dimorphodons, have you tried putting them on your shoulder? I'm not sure but they might get xp if you put them on your shoulder and then use the grinder. I'm guessing your friend had a few lystro's around his base that gave xp boosts to your dinos.

 

[LadyCrescent]

5 hours ago, Daedros said:

Yeah, i have 20 Dimorphodons that i use in a hunting pack right now, they all have at least 650 Health and 250% Melee. I have been breeding my best Dimorphodons together to create my "Drones", which all have 1,175 Health and 349.3% Melee after Imprint. I have 6 "Drones" so far but haven't used them in combat yet, still trying to breed the Weight and Food into the next generations. I put all of their Levels into Speed, so not only do they follow me faster, but they can also chase down human prey. 

How many generations have you bred down so far?

Breeding dimorphodons is pretty much what I do in Ark. I play non-Dedicated...gods bless you people with the stomach for PvP - you're made of sterner stuff than I am!

I'm still a bit depressed that the family trees feature that was implemented wasn't retroactive...it would have been nice to see a year's worth of breeding on Xbox reflected in the lineage for my birds.

I definitely hear you about starting to breed weight into them, I really should do the same. And I would love to start looking at speed too - since Scorched Earth I've moved one of my wyverns to my Island and Center games, and I'd love to take the birds out with my wyverns, but they could never hope to keep pace.

I've really focused health for my bloodlines...because twenty-five birds will tear through nearly anything with a few hundred in melee, but I personally sleep a little better knowing that my birds can tank a few shots if the fight goes on for a while, like on cave trips.

Just aside; I imagine it was tremendously satisfying to see your flock take down a quetzal and it's rider! That's quite an amusing image - I absolutely love to hear stories of my cute little dimorphodons raising hell in PvP! 

[SurvivorBull]

What would be the reason to increase food and weight? Just to perfect them more? Also, do you guys have any tips on keeping track of their health? With even 6 or 7 of them flying around it's hard for me to keep track of them and sometimes I don't even notice them getting bloody. I play on xbox if that makes a difference.

[LadyCrescent]

1 hour ago, SurvivorBull said:

What would be the reason to increase food and weight? 

For, me, I started putting weight on my birds because I noticed that having them out for an extended period of time runs the risk of encumbering a bird if you have them set to collect meat.

One of my scariest moments was bringing my flock in from a hunt up north, and I landed them back in their deploy bay, and did a headcount...and realized I was one bird shy of twenty-five.

One of my girls had gotten encumbered, and with twenty-five to keep track of, I didn't notice that she fell behind. I was very lucky, and found her retracing my flight path, but after that I started putting a few cursory levels into weight.

As for keeping track of the flock's health while they're out, the best advice I have is to be cognizant of how many fights they've been in, and trying to space the fights out to let their health regenerate between fights and before I take my birds out I make sure they all have meat on them.

For things like caves, where the birds are going to be engaged in a lot of combat, I feel like it does come down to preparation beforehand with how you've built the flock - because it's not always going to be practical to stop what you're doing to check each bird. That's why I've bred first and foremost for health.

If anyone knows of a good way to do a bird to bird check, I would love to hear it.

[Daedros]

18 hours ago, LadyCrescent said:

How many generations have you bred down so far?

Breeding dimorphodons is pretty much what I do in Ark. I play non-Dedicated...gods bless you people with the stomach for PvP - you're made of sterner stuff than I am!

I'm still a bit depressed that the family trees feature that was implemented wasn't retroactive...it would have been nice to see a year's worth of breeding on Xbox reflected in the lineage for my birds.

I definitely hear you about starting to breed weight into them, I really should do the same. And I would love to start looking at speed too - since Scorched Earth I've moved one of my wyverns to my Island and Center games, and I'd love to take the birds out with my wyverns, but they could never hope to keep pace.

I've really focused health for my bloodlines...because twenty-five birds will tear through nearly anything with a few hundred in melee, but I personally sleep a little better knowing that my birds can tank a few shots if the fight goes on for a while, like on cave trips.

Just aside; I imagine it was tremendously satisfying to see your flock take down a quetzal and it's rider! That's quite an amusing image - I absolutely love to hear stories of my cute little dimorphodons raising hell in PvP! 

 

So far i've bred 3 generations, with a fourth generation of eggs sitting in my fridge (trying to get 35 points of Weight on those). It's hard finding dinos with 40+ points in non MD stats. I misspoke when i said they had 1,175 Health and 349.3% MD after Imprint, that's actually before Imprint. The before Imprint stats of my third generation of "Drone" Dimorphodons looks like this. The third generation gave me identical triplets.

Drone 4/5/6 (239/Bred)
Health: 1175.1                42
Stamina: 750                  40
Oxygen: 645                   33
Food: 4140                     36
Weight: 81                      31
Melee Damage: 349.3    50*
Speed: 100                     6

So after Imprint, they have 1350+ Health, and 400%+ Melee Damage.

Dimorphodons are particularly nasty in PvP, because they go after the rider of the mount first, and they shred even high end armor.

I tried using a Grinder with Dimorphodons both on my shoulder, and right next to me, and they didn't gain any exp from it. I then tried crafting a crap load of Narcotics in the Chemistry Bench, and once again, they didn't gain any exp from it. I'm still trying to figure out how my tribemate was able to gain a crapload of Exp on some of my pets, even though he never rode them.

[mgnt232]

interesting

[mleii]

While not "quick" or the best I am able to level up dimorphs by having them on neutral sitting on my shoulder and then I go attacking things with the ptera and letting them get in the last shots from my shoulder.  Heck they've even gotten an alpha kill while on my shoulder and steal my XP and the alpha drop and I forget until I look later.  LOL

But the only other way I've seen is mentioned here in the thread.  Create a structure you can drop wilds into from above with dimorphs set to aggressive and following something like a turtle so they go back and not wander off killing things.  It's hard to get the XP leveling even on them since it seems like the only one to get the XP is the one that deals the final blow.

[SurvivorBull]

Those of you that go out often with your flock of dimos, do you prefer them to harvest what they kill or do you disable harvesting on them? I disabled it because I don't like worrying about them becoming encumbered but it's also a pain making sure they have food on all of them.

[LadyCrescent]

15 hours ago, SurvivorBull said:

Those of you that go out often with your flock of dimos, do you prefer them to harvest what they kill or do you disable harvesting on them? I disabled it because I don't like worrying about them becoming encumbered but it's also a pain making sure they have food on all of them.

I have my flock set to harvest...they keep my refrigerators and troughs full when I take them out, but in my experience, it's a good idea to make sure they all have some meat anyway.

It's happened pretty regularly that some of the birds just might not get a bite in on the bodies, even on a long excursion, so I feed them before we leave.

My tip on the matter is to keep them organized...it makes distributing meat (not to mention deploying them, and counting them when you get home) easier. I keep my "team captain" in the front, and then have rows of three down the length of their bay.

Encumbering is always a concern, but more often than not, you'll be okay. If twenty meat is equal to two pounds, putting a couple of levels in weight should be enough to prevent it.

The only time I've had a problem (mentioned above), Ferra encumbered on pelt, because I had been casually wiping out the northern ecosystem on a training trip, and we had been killing mammoths. Pelt is actually heavy...so that's what slowed her down.

 I guess it's a matter of preference...if there's a way to gather meat that you prefer, there's no reason to have them set to harvest. But I use my birds for everything, lol.

I hate the ocean in Ark, because the birds can't come with. ?

[SurvivorBull]

Thanks for your advice. I have been learning about breeding using the dimorphodons and they are a lot of fun. Recently discovered ordering groups as well which has made life much easier.

[OmegaX]

to add onto this question. what if the tame is something like a moschops? do they get bonus xp from gathering since they are pure chickens when it comes  to fighting?

[OmegaX]

Does anyone know of a good strategy to level a moschops? i know you can use a lystrosaur to help it with it's passive xp gain.but is there an active way to get it more xp? does it get bonus xp from harvesting due to it being unable to really fight since it runs away from everything including dodos? any insight or tips will be appreciated.

 

[Ulta]

Nobody in this thread mentioned the golden Hesperornis Egg. Not that it's very efficient...but when fed to non-riddable's they gain +500% experience buff for a short time.

So in theory, if you have a Hesper farm and have a few golden eggs sitting around, feeding them to your non-ridable tame should at least give it a boost when you combine it with everything else people mentioned here.

[Ulta]

Only way I know of is just make it harvest a bunch, since it doesn't fight. Feeding it a Golden Hesperornis egg will increase it's exp gain by 500% as well, so combine that with a newly petted Lystro following it, that might be the best way to level it.

[Snapshot]

21 minutes ago, Ulta said:

Nobody in this thread mentioned the golden Hesperornis Egg. Not that it's very efficient...but when fed to non-riddable's they gain +500% experience buff for a short time.

So in theory, if you have a Hesper farm and have a few golden eggs sitting around, feeding them to your non-ridable tame should at least give it a boost when you combine it with everything else people mentioned here.

It wasn't mentioned in the thread cause the Hesperonis wasn't released. (Thread was made in Feb.)