momentum-based attacker Rhomaleosaurus aestosalus: The Tidal Torpedo!

[ZCI5250]

 The Genesis 1 Ocean biome sure is beautiful, isn’t it? It’s a shame the oceans are so neglected in vanilla ARK, with most of the creatures in them being hyper-aggressive bite spammers. So, let’s give it a little boost, shall we?

 

ZCI5250 presents:

Rhomaleosaurus aestosalus: the Tidal Torpedo!

 

 

Dossier:

 

Quote

WILD:

There is no animal more specialised for the oceans than Rhomaleosaurus aestosalus. Being playful and inquisitive in nature, Rhomaleos are generally friendly to anything smaller than themselves, so unless you’re a small fish, these reptiles will be neutral to you. Interestingly, Rhomaleos will also utilise the abundant whirlpools to their advantage. These reptiles seem to enjoy riding the currents of whirlpools and launching themselves out at high speed. They can create temporal whirlpools to incapacitate prey and predators alike.

DOMESTICATED:

To gain the trust of a Rhomaleo, one must first spoil it with the finest meat, and then proceed to hitch a ride on its back. Only if a Rhomaleo deems you fit will it allow you to continue riding it. When tamed, Rhomaleo packs serve as devastating offensive mounts should the conditions suit them. It seems the adrenaline rush from riding in a whirlpool allows Rhomaleos to hit even harder than normal too!

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Summary:

Rhomaleosaurus is a Mid-Late game Momentum-Based Attacker that utilises Whirlpools to launch itself long distances or at targets

 

Main gimmicks:

 

Tidesurfing and Vortex Generation:

Both in the wild and when tamed, Rhomaleos can harness the accelerating power of Whirlpools to build up momentum before launching themselves out at high speeds. The buildup of momentum from these whirlpools allows the Rhomaleo to dish out powerful blows, or even just travel long distances quickly. 
If there are no whirlpools in the vicinity, Rhomaleos are able to generate their own temporary Vortexes for a variety of purposes. These vortexes can either be used to trap animals in place for a short period of time, knock back small animals in the water, or even as launch points for the Rhomaleos to fling themselves at high speed.

 

Tiderider Saddle:

The Rhomaleosaurus Tiderider Saddle can be unlocked at level 50 and can be crafted in a fabricator or obtained from Ocean Mission rewards. This saddle includes two Oxygen Tanks on its sides that can supply oxygen to the rider, or be used to create temporary Vortexes. These tanks can be refilled by surfing at the water’s surface for some time, and their capacity scales with the saddle’s quality. The saddle also has a pair of cool handlebars tacked on to help survivors stay on the saddle better. Riders can also expend oxygen from the saddle to initiate assisted swimming, which ignores weight

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Taming:

So, you’ve found yourself a decent Rhomaleosaurus and decide to tame it, but don’t know where to start?
Fortunately for you, these beasts are a relatively simple tame. Just follow this set of instructions and you’ll be cruising the high seas in no time!

 

Step 1: Approach the Rhomaleo

This is the easiest step, as Rhomaleos will not naturally attack you. In fact, if you’re lucky, the Rhomaleo might even swim right up to you out of curiosity! Make sure you have some prime meat at the ready, as you will need it for the next step.


Step 2: Entice the Rhomaleo with Food

Once you have the Rhomaleo’s attention, simply feed it a chunk of meat. It should be distracted enough by the meat for you to sneakily get on its back. Ideally, you want to straddle the Rhomaleo’s neck, as its cranial horns are ideal for gripping onto. 

 

Step 3: Don’t Get Shaken Off

As soon as the Rhomaleo notices you get on its back, it will begin to thrash around violently, trying to buck you off. In the process, the Rhomaleo may even swim straight into whirlpools and shoot themselves around to try to dismount you. Whatever you do, Do Not Let Go, as the Rhomaleo will begin to attack you until you feed it once more.

 

Step 4: Repeat Until Tamed

Congratulations, you have just tamed a Rhomaleosaurus! Now, what can you do with your new tame? Let’s get into it!

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Base Stats:

HP: 600

Stamina: 450

Food: 1200

Weight: 300

Torpor: N/A

 

Moveset & Additional Info:

 

- Primary attack   (,,)  : Bite, base 30 dmg

- Primary attack (In Whirlpool)  (,,) : Dash, dmg scales with momentum

- Secondary attack (,,) : Bubble Wall, no dmg, high knockback

- Secondary attack (hold) (,,) : Ensnaring Vortex, base 5 dmg. Damage over time & traps creature in place for a few seconds

- C //: Creates a Vortex that lasts 15 seconds, behaves like Gen1 Ocean Whirlpools

- (In Whirlpool) Spacebar //: Toggle drifting in Whirlpool

- Ctrl // : Toggle assisted swimming

- Omnidirectional Movement

- Pack buff up to +3

 

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Final Words

Thank you for checking out my submission! The Rhomaleo is one of my oldest ideas (In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s even older than my Darwinopterus!) and I am happy to finally submit it to one of these votes.

All the art (besides the ones credited below) and animations you see in this post was made by me, which took a lot of time!

 

If you enjoyed this submission and want to see Rhomaleo grace the seas of Genesis 1…

Special thanks to Katana for helping me brainstorm and refine ideas for the Rhomaleo, do go check out his Paleoctopus submission too!

Paleoctopus Submission

 

 

Epic awesome cool stuff

Rhomaleosaurus vote sticker by .sav

Rhomaleosaurus art by Drawolf

 

Rhomaleosaurus pixel art by ArkExtreme

Edited October 25, 2025 by ZCI5250
more epic awesome cool stuff and fixed buttons

[ladyteruki]

The art in this submission makes it twice as impressive (I love the throwing up one in particular XD That's sick on so many levels).
Do you see it being able to do bossfights ?

[Katanaa]

RHOMALEOSAURUS MY PLIOSAUR KING GRAAAAAAH!!!!!

[ZCI5250]

@ladyteruki

for sure! ideally it would be able to scale all the way to clearing moeder and the alpha hunting missions

Edited October 11, 2025 by ZCI5250

[ZCI5250]

Had to fix the images rq, some wonky aspect ratio shenanigans

Edited October 11, 2025 by ZCI5250

[Rece]

Woow the art looks amazing!

[Perotripus]

Amazing art

[creamcal]

this is such  a great idea and concept, if it doesn't win somehow plz turn it into a mod i'd pay for it 

[DILONG]

The art goes above and beyond here bravo

[ZCI5250]

18 minutes ago, Ermerus said:

Very nice, but... if it's confined to a single biome, isn't it likely to be secondary? On Genesis, there are only two biomes that can host it... maybe three.

what do you mean by secondary? Also nah rhomaleo is made specifically for the ocean sim. I originally had an antarctopelta i was going to submit for the snow too but decided to just focus on rhom for quality

The vortex generation was added as a way for rhomaleo to be used outside of the genesis sim too, so you can just create your own whirlpools if there are none on the map

Edited October 11, 2025 by ZCI5250

[Flutox]

Question, how do you add so many images to your submission and without losing quality 😭

[ZCI5250]

6 minutes ago, Flutox said:

Question, how do you add so many images to your submission and without losing quality 😭

i uploaded them to postimage, its a good alternative for embedding images now that discord embeds can expire

[PrimalNacho]

Love it it, looks great!  I was thinking that it could synergize with liopleuredon, where  tamed liopleuredon stick around when u have a Rhomaleosaurus.  In turn Rhomaleosaurus receives a 'Mystic Buff' that increases it Damage and Stam by 75%. 

Again, I love this creature and the art goes hard!

[Ermerus]

4 hours ago, ZCI5250 said:

what do you mean by secondary? Also nah rhomaleo is made specifically for the ocean sim. I originally had an antarctopelta i was going to submit for the snow too but decided to just focus on rhom for quality

The vortex generation was added as a way for rhomaleo to be used outside of the genesis sim too, so you can just create your own whirlpools if there are none on the map

Let me explain: if you propose a creature for a map that BASES its entirety on the diversity and hostility of the biomes... and you do it for just one... isn't that a waste? I'd make it more versatile, like with a teak saddle that allows it to fly out of the water, that's it.

[Ermerus]

😑

Edited March 17 by Ermerus

[Xenorachnoide]

I'm always in for an underwater creature, morover, this one seems to be well balanced. Usualy submission depict too powerful or versatile creatures

[Grex255]

This seems cool, I like the idea of the whirlpools being utilized more 

[YvonneAtaro664]

We're doing well with all these ideas, the illustrations are really good bro, especially the one with the domesticated Rhoma on the surface with the survivor vomiting hahahahaha, I hope they make winning combos and the Rhoma is part of it, really.

[Adonis000]

I'd want this to win if i didnt wanna submit my own thing lmao

[Jojosef]

the design is amazing

[ShadowEc1ipse]

I love this, something different and great for ocean traversal while also being a fun combat mount. Hoping this wins

 

[Picklerick12]

This would be such a fun creature to use.

[Scribelord]

Game really needs more Pliosaur representation, it’s a shame the Liopleurodon is so lackluster because Pliosaurs are really cool creatures, this one definitely has my vote

[ZCI5250]

1 hour ago, Scribelord said:

Game really needs more Pliosaur representation, it’s a shame the Liopleurodon is so lackluster because Pliosaurs are really cool creatures, this one definitely has my vote

exactly!!! i ADORE sauropterygia as a whole and its a crying shame that our only two vanilla representatives are a chain chomp (which i love the ark plessie its so ugly its cute) and whatever liop is supposed to be

[ARKExtreme]

On 10/11/2025 at 9:45 AM, ZCI5250 said:

i uploaded them to postimage, its a good alternative for embedding images now that discord embeds can expire

Can you give me a guide on how to insert it with this method? I don't know how, but I'm very need:(