Minmi, The MENACING Tumbleweed Herd!

[QuesoTheCheese]

Dossier

 

As an Ankylosaurid fan, ARK has much to offer, this is a simple concept for an early game that aims to grant fun instead of many combat-focused creatures we usually get. We only have one Ankylosaurid, let’s make it two! 

 

Common Name : Minmi 

Species : Minmi paravertebra

Time : Early Cretaceous 

Diet : Herbivore

Temperament : Neutral

 

Wild

Wearing your desert cloth armor and riding along your trustworthy Thorny Dragon in order to have some shade under the blazing hot rays of sun hitting your face you can see nothing but dunes, neverending dunes of the dead landscape of Scorched Earth. Usually these types of voyages are only interrupted by a few Mantis, or a Death Worm if you’re unlucky, but this time it’s something different. You can spot a wild tumbleweed rolling in the distance, pretty normal stuff… until you realize that’s no tumbleweed after closer inspection, that is a.. rolling ankylosaurid? Suddenly your Thorny Dragon begins to take damage, A Purlovia attacking? No, you turn to see a pair of spiky shells sticking out from the ground, only to pop up revealing themselves to be more of the same ankylosaurids you saw rolling in the distance. 

Minmis are herd critters, working together to annoy, protect and defend themselves from predators. Able to burrow and stick their spiky bodies from the sand giving anyone unfortunate enough to step on them a light bleed effect from the cuts of their spikes, and being able to roll like Rollrats or like those tumbleweeds in wild west movies. They aren’t really passive 

 

Domesticated

When domesticated, a Minmi herd would be the perfect asset of destruction… on a small scale. Although not very hard-hitting dinosaurs, Minmi would definitely help as a protection critter, fending off dinosaurs as large as a Rex with the help of their spiked backs. When ordered to burrow, the Minmis would dig underground like a Basilisk, Rollrat, even those pesky Purlovias, and only the shell would stick up, working as a spiked wall, but on the floor. Additionally, the Minmis could be able to roll like tumbleweeds in wind west movies, gaining speed the longer they go until crashing with something, then running away as fast they could as they would be more effective in hit & run scenarios.

 

Potential Base Stats and Spawning:

Personally, I don’t know which stats could be good for a critter like this, so I’ll leave it for the developers, or anyone in the replies that like to give it some good stats! Do have in mind, these could be good transport creatures but they are more like dogs with spiked backs so yeah.. up to you.

Spawning on the other hand, Minmis could spawn around water wells, or oasis, but would be constantly moving, sometimes being stuck in the middle of the sand dunes. A typical Minmi herd could be around 4 to 6, but in rare cases 7 or 8 could spawn, increasing the difficulty of taming however.

 

Taming

Taming one Minmi wouldn’t work, in fact it would be harder than taming all of the herd at once. The taming process would be through passive means, sneaking up to the alpha (usually a Minmi with the typical alpha aura many of the other creatures in ARK has), and giving it berries or crops from the last slot in the inventory bar, however the taming process would require you to have variety in the berries and crops you take as every time you give it something it might want something else next time (but you could simply give it one type of berry and you could tame it no problem but the taming effectiveness would be reduced to about the 70%). Once you tame the alpha you would automatically tame the rest of the herd granting you your own tumbleweed army!

 

Abilities and Controls

• “Attack This” Whistle: Your typical command to attack something, the Minmis would rush over the target and whack it with their tails giving a slight knockback effect.
• “Spike Wall, Active!” Whistle: Another type of whistle or command you can give your Minmi, the entire herd (or a singular Minmi if you want) will burrow on the ground, with their backs sticking out of the ground making an invisible wall that no predator would like to pass through.. except a Giga or something of that magnitude, due to the bleed and slowness effect it gives after walking through them.
• “Minmis, Roll Out!” Whistle: Similar to the first whistle, the Minmi herd would charge at the target through rolling like a Rollrat would, only this time it's a herd of very angry and bloodthirsty Ankylosaurids with a murderous intent to destroy your kneecaps! Will stun for half a second each time a Minmi hits you or your dinosaur. Has a cooldown of 20 seconds.