What do your unused tames do while you're out there exploring, taming, farming, bossfighting, raiding ? NOTHING : they sit at base, waiting for you. Especially in the absence of cryopods !
...what if there is a creature that gives meaning to the boring lives of all those tames ?
That's where the Heterodont comes in.
Main paleoart : Viergacht on DeviantArt Additional dossier sketches & ability sheet : huge thanks to linnyloaf of the Flat Ark Society
HETERODONT DOSSIER
Quote
Species : Heterodontosaurus lugosi Time : Early Jurassic Diet : Gems, Crystal Temperament : Skittish
WILD
Hidden by the trees, the Heterodont waits for its next prey. You can tell by looking at its dentition that it is somehow the ancestor of vampires ! It will often jump from a tree branch and latch onto an innocent creature only to suck the life out of its flesh.
Thankfully, the Heterodont knows it's way too small to attempt that sort of things with survivors.
If anything, it'll be quite hard to catch, as the little leech is also very fast and easily scared when you approach it. Don't let that deter you, as I've learned the Heterodont is probably one of the most versatile little helpers on the Ark.
DOMESTICATED
Although it was not bad company on my shoulder (if a bit hungry), the Heterodont that was gifted to me appeared to be useful in coordination with my most loyal creatures. It latches itself onto their flesh just like in the wild, but can slowly gather resources that the creature would have gathered outside.
This proves extremely interesting when it comes to creatures not currently in use, sitting at base with nothing to do...
It takes some getting used to, but once you understand that a little bit of feeding and healing can go a long way, you can turn your base into a nice little factory !
You could say its love for resources was the determining factor in understanding how important this homebody can be.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Biome of choice : Fertile lake Harvests/gathers : Nothing on its own Generates : Nothing on its own. But latched onto other creatures... potentially everything ! Drops : Hide, Keratin (small quantities), Raw Meat Rideable : No, it's a shoulder pet Taming method : KO (Gems) Diet : Gems and Crystal Reproduction : Egg layer Key stats : Weight (its small inventory can get full fast, and it'll need to carry Gems to feed on), Oxygen (if you want it to suck on underwater creatures ; see below). Health can be useful in PvP settings, to resist damage while sucking (see below)
~ Taming method
The Heterodont knows very well that you're too smart to be attacked. It will most likely flee when approached, especially with a tool or weapon in your hand (similar to the Sinomacrops). That said, it is very aggressive with wild creatures, and will often latch onto them, sucking on them while they can't do anything about it. And when it's latched onto something, it's impossible to tame !
Its weakness ? Gems. They're a delicacy this little vampire can't resist ! Drop stacks of Gems to the ground (or wait for an earthquake), and you'll see the Heterodont unlatching and trying to steal them : now is your time to bola it before it notices you.
Once tranqed (which can take a while, they're quite resistant to narcotics), its taming efficiency depends on what Gems you feed it (50% for green Gems, 75% for blue Gems, and 100% for red Gems). It tends to require large quantities of Gems, even with good rates.
~ Reproduction
The Heterodont is an egg layer. Two Heterodonts cannot breed if either of them is currently in a Gem condition (see below).
Babies feed on Gems, or Crystal (of which they need larger quantities), and get hungry rather fast.
Given their small size, Heterodont babies tend to die very young if left unmonitored...
BASIC ABILITIES, not dependent on a Gem condition
All the following abilities require no special action or food on your part.
~ Simple combat
Use "Attack my target" to get it to bite a creature, or set it to aggressive.
A tamed Heterodont (upon the condition that it's not on your shoulder) can cause a tiny bit of damage with its bite, worsened by a brief and weak bleeding buff. It's not much, but every bit helps !
Otherwise it's pretty useless in combat.
~ Shoulder pet
Like the Bulbdog, Glowtail, Shinehorn and Featherlight, the Heterodont is also a light pet that will weaken Reapers and Nameless alike !
~ Torpidity vampire
While traveling on your shoulder, the Heterodont latches onto YOU ! Don't get mad, it's a compulsive behavior for the little vampire to suck on your neck...
In this position, it is unable to use its teeth for anything else (like biting), but it will provide you with a Torpidity buff that will slow down the effects of poisons, darts and various narcotics.
If you unlatch it by releasing it from your shoulder, you'll get a short dizzying debuff of a few seconds, so it's best to keep it on you without too many interruptions !
The Heterodont's ability to provide a Torpidity buff without harming anyone is actually also useful to quickly wake up players and creatures alike.
If you need to wake up a tranqed creature for any reason, including a wild one, release the Heterodont from your shoulder while aiming for the player or creature in question. It will latch onto it and speed up the waking up process, faster than Stimulants, and without causing any damage. And just in case you might change your mind, this won't ruin your taming effectiveness, should you decide to unlatch the Heterodont before the creature wakes up !
...Ah, speaking of, that's an important point : if you're doing this on an aggressive wild creature, remember to unlatch the Heterodont before the creature wakes up, to avoid... you know, incidents. The Heterodont's average life expectancy is short enough as it is.
ADVANCED ABILITIES : everything about Gem conditions
The advanced behavior of your Heterodont depends on what type of Gems you feed it.
It will keep consuming said Gems from its inventory both as food AND to remain in that Gem condition.
As such, the Heterodont can be used for only one ability at a time ! There is also a cooldown once a Gem condition ends, before you can feed it a different Gem.
You'll easily see what type of Gem condition the Heterodont is in : its eyes change color according to it.
If you don't wish to use the Heterodont's advanced abilities for a moment, you can simply feed it Crystal. It will (slowly) fill its food also.
Here's a short explanation of each Gem condition :
~ Resource vampire
Gem condition : green Gems
- Use the radial wheel to make your Heterodont latch onto a tamed creature of your choosing
- The Heterodont will start sucking the other creature's health. Make sure to provide healing for your second tame so it can keep being sucked on as long as the Gem condition lasts (a Daeodon seems ideal, for instance)
- In doing so, it generates what the creature would drop if harvested once dead. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- If the creature being latched on is ridden, its health will go down but no resource will be generated, risking death... in vain
- Once it runs out of green Gems in its inventory, the Heterodont will naturally unlatch and the other creature won't need healing anymore
Example : let's say you have an Angler Fish at base, that you're not using at the moment. The Heterodontosaurus latches onto your tamed Angler Fish, and sucks its health. Slowly, this generates the resources you'd normally harvest from a dead Angler Fish... Infinite Angler gel ! Note : this ability does not extend to Element-related resources (Element itself, Element dust, Element shards...)
Gem condition : blue Gems
- Use the radial wheel to make your Heterodont latch onto a tamed creature of your choosing
- The Heterodont will start sucking the other creature's health. Make sure to provide healing for your second tame so it can keep being sucked on as long as the Gem condition lasts (a Daeodon seems ideal, for instance)
- In doing so, it generates what the creature would be gathering if it were in use. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- If the creature being latched on is ridden, its health will go down but no resource will be generated, risking death... in vain
- Once it runs out of green Gems in its inventory, the Heterodont will naturally unlatch and the other creature won't need healing anymore
Example : let's keep the Angler Fish situation. The Heterodontosaurus latches onto it, the Angler Fish loses health slowly, and in exchange the Heterodont starts generating Silica pearls in its inventory, and Black pearls in smaller quantities. Infinite pearls ! Note : this ability does not extend to Element-related resources (Element itself, Element dust, Element shards...).
~ Storage vampire
Gem condition : red Gems
- Release it from your shoulder while aiming for any enemy structure with an inventory. The Heterodont will latch onto that structure, the same way C4 would stick to it.
- The Heterodont will start sucking on that structure, without damaging it
- In doing so, the Heterodont slowly adds to its own inventory a random item or stack of resources that's occupying one of the structure's slots. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- It will keep working on it until the structure's inventory is empty, OR until the structure is destroyed, OR until the Heterodont is out of inventory space itself, OR until the Heterodont is out of Red gems in its own inventory. Whichever comes first !
Example : this is useful in PvP settings, to empty enemy structures without destroying them. It can be a turret, a vault, a generator... It won't help you much against an entire defensive turret wall or chandelier, though ! You can try to use several Heterodonts on several turrets at once, but not everyone will come out of this alive !
In PvE, this ability will exclusively work on your own tribe's structures, and as such has a moderate appeal. PvE survivors will probably enjoy the two other Gem conditions more, but at least they'll save on red Gems ! Note : the Heterodont can still take damage while sucking on structures, so it's up to you to use a Heterodont with high health, and/or to protect it from attacks & bullets.
Also, this ability doesn't extend to tek structures. Cryofridge to be determined.
So, to recap :
UNIQUE PERKS OF THE HETERODONT
- New light shoulder pet ! It's been a while.
- Taming helper and more broadly, torpidity helper.
- In PvE settings, it can produce resources passively.
- In PvP settings, it can replace or complement destroying structures during raids.
- In the absence of Gacha farms, it can somewhat make up for it ! Once Gachas are reintroduced in Extinction, the Heterodont works differently anyway (it requires specific food, and doesn't provide Element at all), so they will complement each other.
- It makes use of tames left behind at base, while you're not riding them, so it gives values to unused creatures. No cryopods ? No problem !
Suggestion
ladyteruki
What do your unused tames do while you're out there exploring, taming, farming, bossfighting, raiding ? NOTHING : they sit at base, waiting for you. Especially in the absence of cryopods !
...what if there is a creature that gives meaning to the boring lives of all those tames ?
That's where the Heterodont comes in.
Main paleoart : Viergacht on DeviantArt
Additional dossier sketches & ability sheet : huge thanks to linnyloaf of the Flat Ark Society
HETERODONT DOSSIER
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Biome of choice : Fertile lake
Harvests/gathers : Nothing on its own
Generates : Nothing on its own. But latched onto other creatures... potentially everything !
Drops : Hide, Keratin (small quantities), Raw Meat
Rideable : No, it's a shoulder pet
Taming method : KO (Gems)
Diet : Gems and Crystal
Reproduction : Egg layer
Key stats : Weight (its small inventory can get full fast, and it'll need to carry Gems to feed on), Oxygen (if you want it to suck on underwater creatures ; see below). Health can be useful in PvP settings, to resist damage while sucking (see below)
~ Taming method
The Heterodont knows very well that you're too smart to be attacked. It will most likely flee when approached, especially with a tool or weapon in your hand (similar to the Sinomacrops). That said, it is very aggressive with wild creatures, and will often latch onto them, sucking on them while they can't do anything about it. And when it's latched onto something, it's impossible to tame !
Its weakness ? Gems. They're a delicacy this little vampire can't resist ! Drop stacks of Gems to the ground (or wait for an earthquake), and you'll see the Heterodont unlatching and trying to steal them : now is your time to bola it before it notices you.
Once tranqed (which can take a while, they're quite resistant to narcotics), its taming efficiency depends on what Gems you feed it (50% for green Gems, 75% for blue Gems, and 100% for red Gems). It tends to require large quantities of Gems, even with good rates.
~ Reproduction
The Heterodont is an egg layer. Two Heterodonts cannot breed if either of them is currently in a Gem condition (see below).
Babies feed on Gems, or Crystal (of which they need larger quantities), and get hungry rather fast.
Given their small size, Heterodont babies tend to die very young if left unmonitored...
BASIC ABILITIES, not dependent on a Gem condition
All the following abilities require no special action or food on your part.
~ Simple combat
Use "Attack my target" to get it to bite a creature, or set it to aggressive.
A tamed Heterodont (upon the condition that it's not on your shoulder) can cause a tiny bit of damage with its bite, worsened by a brief and weak bleeding buff. It's not much, but every bit helps !
Otherwise it's pretty useless in combat.
~ Shoulder pet
Like the Bulbdog, Glowtail, Shinehorn and Featherlight, the Heterodont is also a light pet that will weaken Reapers and Nameless alike !
~ Torpidity vampire
While traveling on your shoulder, the Heterodont latches onto YOU ! Don't get mad, it's a compulsive behavior for the little vampire to suck on your neck...
In this position, it is unable to use its teeth for anything else (like biting), but it will provide you with a Torpidity buff that will slow down the effects of poisons, darts and various narcotics.
If you unlatch it by releasing it from your shoulder, you'll get a short dizzying debuff of a few seconds, so it's best to keep it on you without too many interruptions !
The Heterodont's ability to provide a Torpidity buff without harming anyone is actually also useful to quickly wake up players and creatures alike.
If you need to wake up a tranqed creature for any reason, including a wild one, release the Heterodont from your shoulder while aiming for the player or creature in question. It will latch onto it and speed up the waking up process, faster than Stimulants, and without causing any damage. And just in case you might change your mind, this won't ruin your taming effectiveness, should you decide to unlatch the Heterodont before the creature wakes up !
...Ah, speaking of, that's an important point : if you're doing this on an aggressive wild creature, remember to unlatch the Heterodont before the creature wakes up, to avoid... you know, incidents. The Heterodont's average life expectancy is short enough as it is.
ADVANCED ABILITIES : everything about Gem conditions
The advanced behavior of your Heterodont depends on what type of Gems you feed it.
It will keep consuming said Gems from its inventory both as food AND to remain in that Gem condition.
As such, the Heterodont can be used for only one ability at a time ! There is also a cooldown once a Gem condition ends, before you can feed it a different Gem.
You'll easily see what type of Gem condition the Heterodont is in : its eyes change color according to it.
If you don't wish to use the Heterodont's advanced abilities for a moment, you can simply feed it Crystal. It will (slowly) fill its food also.
Here's a short explanation of each Gem condition :
~ Resource vampire
- Use the radial wheel to make your Heterodont latch onto a tamed creature of your choosing
- The Heterodont will start sucking the other creature's health. Make sure to provide healing for your second tame so it can keep being sucked on as long as the Gem condition lasts (a Daeodon seems ideal, for instance)
- In doing so, it generates what the creature would drop if harvested once dead. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- If the creature being latched on is ridden, its health will go down but no resource will be generated, risking death... in vain
- Once it runs out of green Gems in its inventory, the Heterodont will naturally unlatch and the other creature won't need healing anymore
Example : let's say you have an Angler Fish at base, that you're not using at the moment. The Heterodontosaurus latches onto your tamed Angler Fish, and sucks its health. Slowly, this generates the resources you'd normally harvest from a dead Angler Fish... Infinite Angler gel !
Note : this ability does not extend to Element-related resources (Element itself, Element dust, Element shards...)
- Use the radial wheel to make your Heterodont latch onto a tamed creature of your choosing
- The Heterodont will start sucking the other creature's health. Make sure to provide healing for your second tame so it can keep being sucked on as long as the Gem condition lasts (a Daeodon seems ideal, for instance)
- In doing so, it generates what the creature would be gathering if it were in use. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- If the creature being latched on is ridden, its health will go down but no resource will be generated, risking death... in vain
- Once it runs out of green Gems in its inventory, the Heterodont will naturally unlatch and the other creature won't need healing anymore
Example : let's keep the Angler Fish situation. The Heterodontosaurus latches onto it, the Angler Fish loses health slowly, and in exchange the Heterodont starts generating Silica pearls in its inventory, and Black pearls in smaller quantities. Infinite pearls !
Note : this ability does not extend to Element-related resources (Element itself, Element dust, Element shards...).
~ Storage vampire
- Release it from your shoulder while aiming for any enemy structure with an inventory. The Heterodont will latch onto that structure, the same way C4 would stick to it.
- The Heterodont will start sucking on that structure, without damaging it
- In doing so, the Heterodont slowly adds to its own inventory a random item or stack of resources that's occupying one of the structure's slots. That ability gathers resources at a rather slow pace ; they accumulate in the Heterodont's inventory until full
- It will keep working on it until the structure's inventory is empty, OR until the structure is destroyed, OR until the Heterodont is out of inventory space itself, OR until the Heterodont is out of Red gems in its own inventory. Whichever comes first !
Example : this is useful in PvP settings, to empty enemy structures without destroying them. It can be a turret, a vault, a generator... It won't help you much against an entire defensive turret wall or chandelier, though ! You can try to use several Heterodonts on several turrets at once, but not everyone will come out of this alive !
In PvE, this ability will exclusively work on your own tribe's structures, and as such has a moderate appeal. PvE survivors will probably enjoy the two other Gem conditions more, but at least they'll save on red Gems !
Note : the Heterodont can still take damage while sucking on structures, so it's up to you to use a Heterodont with high health, and/or to protect it from attacks & bullets.
Also, this ability doesn't extend to tek structures. Cryofridge to be determined.
So, to recap :
UNIQUE PERKS OF THE HETERODONT
- New light shoulder pet ! It's been a while.
Edited by ladyteruki- Taming helper and more broadly, torpidity helper.
- In PvE settings, it can produce resources passively.
- In PvP settings, it can replace or complement destroying structures during raids.
- In the absence of Gacha farms, it can somewhat make up for it ! Once Gachas are reintroduced in Extinction, the Heterodont works differently anyway (it requires specific food, and doesn't provide Element at all), so they will complement each other.
- It makes use of tames left behind at base, while you're not riding them, so it gives values to unused creatures.
No cryopods ? No problem !
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