Animal Taming

[BlekLitenin]

Which animal in the entire game should I tame that would be the most beneficial to me.  My friends have given me suggestions but I'd like ur opinion

[redniwediS]

That depends on what stage of the game you're currently at.  I always suggest people start with a scorpion, as they are rather tanky, are easy to feed, have a fairly early saddle, and after the saddle they can assist with taming almost any creature in the game.

They won't help you gather resources or anything, but you can't tame a much better combat pet as a fresh spawn.

[iby102]

The top picks for lots of people tend to be Trike, Raptor and Scorpion as their early tames. Of course these aren't the only choices they're just generally the easiest and most beneficial to you. Trikes are great to tame other creatures and thus are generally most people's first tames, Raptors can help with covering large distances at a faster pace and also for defending yourself and Scorpions, as @redniwediS said, they are quite general in their use and will be useful for a long period of the game. TL;DR Trike or Scorpion  

[Middie]

Tamed a parasaur as a test. Success. 2 minutes later...It died thanks to a sabretooth . Lesson learned!

[OurGrid]

I was just about to say....

Go for a Sabre! I was so sick of being eaten by them we got up high and ambushed the next one - still have him! They are fantastic guardians, good mounts and loyal companions.

On more than one occasion they have jumped clear over our heads to attack something we never saw coming!

[Eps]

I'm just throw this in here (Although it's already pretty well covered);

Get a Herbivore first. Carnivores are sometimes a bit hard to feed with  Raw Meat when you are low level without dino help. (If I'm playing with friends, we kill each other cut cut our bodies up for free meats)

Trikes do great because they collect sooo many berries you and your tames will never go hungry. Not to mention you get stacks of narco berries to help taming and Trikes are tanks! After getting a low level trike you can easily get meat and tame a few dilos or other carnivores to help. A Saber would be really beneficial.

[Medusa]

 

It really depends on how far you have progressed in the game, and for what purpose you need it (fast travel, tank, attack, gathering specific resources, hunting etc.)

My favorite dinos throughout my earlier levels till now:

• Raptor   (Travel, great attack as an earlier mount)
• Trike   (Harvesting, great starter mount and tank)
• Pteranodon   (Easily obtainable at earlier levels, fast flyer)
• Sarco   (Fast base swimspeed of 1000, great to scout around the island)
• Ankylo   (The harvesting machine, collects most resources)
• Sabertooth   (Great hunter/scout, great damage)
• Argentavis   (Great for transporting items, till you can acquire a Quetzal)
• Rex   (Great tank/damage and hunter)
• Quetzal   (Air Base, transports dinos/items, defense/turrets)

 

[HighFlyer15]

I'll add my personal favorite as well, the Beelzebufo  
Very fast and easy tame with a very low-level saddle at 25. You'll be able to traverse any terrain and huge gaps near instantly with its amazing jumping ability. Getting to drops faster than any other tame, apart from flyers, which is first granted at Lvl 35 with the Pteranodon.
Great speed underwater, so you'll easily escape any threat you might encounter if you're near any form of river/swamp/beach and you can easily outswim Megalodons, so getting to Herbivore island for metal is a breeze early on(if you don't dare move inland for metal).
It also has decent weight capacity for its size.
It will even help you tame future creatures with it torpor dealing tongue. It will take some kiting and jumping for larger creatures, but it works great for building up your early egg farms, as Dodos, Dilos, Scorpions and Raptors easily go down to the mighty tongue.
Also the ability to make cementing paste from bugs is invaluable!
It can even help you take down Alphas. Attack them/Get their attention and jump onto a rock they can't traverse and from there you can hit them with your tongue and keep them interested in you. Easy access to high-level items like Journeyman or Mastercraft.

If I were to name the most useful creature on the entire island I'd pick the Beelzebufo.
If someone offered me a high-level Rex or a high-level Frog, I'd pick the frog every time  

[Munkky]

I'd say the Phiomia is a decent starting mount. They can't really defend you in a battle, but they don't take long to tame, they can harvest a little bit of wood and thatch, and the Phiomia Saddle is the first saddle engram you get levelling up (at level 5). Also, once you move on to stronger mounts, you can keep the Phiomia around to produce poop for fertilizer when you're growing crops (seriously, if you feed a Phiomia nothing but Stim Berries it produces like a million medium-sized poops at once. It's hilarious). As you progress to mid-game, I'd advise you tame a Triceratops because they're better in fights and can harvest more wood and thatch.

If you want something that can hold its own in a fight with another Dinosaur, I recommend taming a Raptor. Like the Phiomia they don't take long to tame, but they're a lot faster and can do a decent amount of damage. The Dilophosaurus and Pulmonoscorpius are also good fighters for early-game because they're both venomous and do Torpor damage to attacking Dinos. It may be worth taming about four or five of each of these three, a mixture of males and females, because A) a bunch of them together will mate-boost some of them and make their attacks stronger, and B) they'll lay eggs so you can make Kibbles for quicker tames (the Raptor egg Kibble is for Mammoths, the Dilo egg Kibble is for Ankylosaurus, Doedicurus and Pachycephalosaurus, and the Scorpion egg Kibble is for T-Rex and Beelzebufo).

For resource gatherers, the Doedicurus gathers a lot of stone, the Ankylosaurus gathers a lot of flint and metal, the Gigantopithecus gathers a lot of fiber, and the Sabertooth gathers a lot of keratin and chitin from carcasses, so all four of those are worth having. The Sabertooth is also a good mid-game battle mount, even though it's slower than the Raptor. The Pteranodon is a good flying mount to start with because it's fast, but the Argentavis is better overall because it can do more damage.

For late-game, I'd say the best Dinos to have are the T-Rex (does a lot of damage and gets a lot of meat from carcasses), the Spinosaurus (about as strong as the T-Rex with the added bonus of being a good swimmer), the Mammoth (gathers more wood, thatch and berries than the Triceratops) and the Quetzalcoatlus (able to carry a lot of stuff and doesn't use much stamina while flying, so it's great for getting around the island).

[Kit]

Would agree with the Beelzebufo. Anything that can help you tame other dinos (with its torpor tongue) and help you get away in a pinch is well worth the tame. Not to mention being able to kill pesky bugs with ease and turn them into cementing paste is invaluable. Saddle is fairly easy to make as well

[Lustmoerder]

I have played this game for around 1700 hours and can tell you my personal preference which has worked well for me as of late as well as why.

This last time around, I tamed as follows:

1. 2 Dodos (mated pair kept in my wood house) These are fast and easy to tame and keep berries/meat fresh longer to take some of the pressure off of gathering fast for the next dino.  Eggs are a bonus for a max level ptera as soon as you have a saddle.

2. 1 low-level Trike - this is a berry gatherer and you want one and a saddle ASAP.  It can help you kill easy stuff and start cranking out narcotics for the next animals.

3. By now you have tranq arrows, narcotics.  From here you have a number of choices.  My personal preference is to make a raft to trap a dire wolf on and to sail the coast to the southern part of the snow biome on west coast.  I try to pick out a lone wolf and lure him onto the mobile taming pen.  I then sail out of the cold to stop freezing to death and tranq/tame the wolf.  Note that this can also be a raptor but wolf outclasses it so hard if you can manage to snag one.

Now you have a ready source of berries, hide, meat (prime and normal), pelts.  The next considerations are the following:

1. Cementing paste - get a frog and farm swamp bugs (DON'T HIT THE DIMOS IN THE PROCESS)

2. Metal - use all of those berries to get an anky

3. Stone - get a Doed 

4. Flight - get a ptera with those dodo eggs

Please note that for any of these, you can go the kibble route.  Anky and Doed take dilo kibble which is pretty fast to get.  Frogs take scorpion kibble which is not overly taxing to get but when starting fresh I usually just get low level gatherers to get me on my feet and comfortable and then start on kibble farming, etc. (Baby steps...)

After this it is personal preference depending on your needs and goals.  Many dinos gather needed resources.  Others serve purposes like packing goods, transport, defense, attack, etc.  These are awesome to pick up but the above is my preference for getting me through the low levels and ready to launch into more serious play.

[Rickyh24]

Thanks for the tips. I haven't tamed anything yet but I will follow your guide. 

[redniwediS]

5 minutes ago, Darmaniac said:

and how do you tranquilized this scorpion when youre new to the game ? its quite hard and he will get tranquilized and dead.

At level 5 you unlock the slingshot, which is more than enough to knock out a scorpion with it's default movement speed.

[MarioMan9112]

Best animal if your starting out in my opinion is the trike, it can be used to gather berries in bulk and if used right againt weaker type dinos can provide lots of hide and meat which are both very beneficial to getting further in the game.

[Rickyh24]

Is there a step by step guide to taming anywhere? 

[Medusa]

2 minutes ago, Rickyh24 said:

Is there a step by step guide to taming anywhere? 

There are a few great guides.

The one below lists most tamable creatures, and if you click on each dino's name, you will get even more detailed info.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Taming

[Zcrumb]

2 hours ago, Medusa said:

There are a few great guides.

The one below lists most tamable creatures, and if you click on each dino's name, you will get even more detailed info.

http://ark.gamepedia.com/Taming

If you are new to the game read the referenced wiki thoroughly, it will help with all aspects of the game.

My favorite tame is a carno, not to be attempted until you have some experience, but I love their horns and once leveled up can take on almost any wild dino. I have not fought the giga or alpha rex yet.They are a bit slow but good for protecting and patrolling around your base.

[Jen]

Lustmoerder has some really great tips!

When I start out I like to get a raptor and trike as soon as possible, and a carno soon after. Carnos make amazing early game protection even if you can't ride them because their saddle is a higher level engram. Once you've got a trike for berries and some dinos for protection in case a bigger dino comes along, you're pretty much set.  Then you can grind out narcotics and get an ankylo for metal, doed for stone, and eventually mammoth for wood. Add an argent for transporting goods and allowing flight. 

[renisjebus]

When I first started - I started with dilos. I got a pack of them to help protect me. From there I moved to things like a raptors and then a trike.