taming 💫IRRITATOR: Your taming companion and torpor enhancer of choice !💫 +VIDEO

[IIvan]

 

Irritator, a tamer's best friend!
(ALL ART + DOSSIER BY ME)

IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING YOU
CAN WATCH MY VIDEO THAT EXPLAINS
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
HERE!

Don't forget, you can vote multiple times !

 

DOSSIER:

Wild:
Irritator seems to have adapted very well to many environments with enough humidity. So far it has been spotted in all parts of the bog, the black lakes of the volcano, the underwater cubes deep in the ocean and even some lunar caves. Being quite small in a world of giants and preferring to be left alone to it's fishing, Irritator generally won't attack unless you get too close. Despite the abundance of much bigger and dangerous threats, none dare to approach Irritator. This is due to a special mucus covering it's entire body, causing skin irritation and a weakening of the immune system to anyone hit.

Domesticated:
Once tamed, Irritator becomes a very valuable asset serving as both an excellent traveling mount and taming companion. Armed with it's mucus, even the sturdiest of foes will eventually succumb to torpor. Irritator can open it's jaw wide enough to swallow larger fish whole, giving it a regenerative boost.








Concept of Volcanic and Oceanic variants of Irritator



A SHORT SUMMARY OF IRRITATOR:

Irritator is Baryonix's slightly shorter and weaker Brazilian cousin, it’s design revolves around weakening opponents to torpor and other status effects with it's special mucus afflicting you with the irritated effect. This ability makes it a very useful companion when it comes to knocking out X variants of dinos or sturdier foes. You’ll have to watch out though, because if you do get hit by Irritator, everything else around you becomes much more dangerous. This same mucus can be crafted into an anti-irritant that reduces the potency of status effects when applied to an ally. In addition to that, it is designed to be a very comfortable and speedy traveling mount (both on land and water) that has a reduced agro range, making it perfect for exploring in the early game. It’s saddle allows you to freely look behind you when holding a weapon, making it easier to shoot at your targets no matter where you’re facing. It can also eat fish whole to regenerate health fast so you can go right back to exploring or store them indefinitely in fish baskets.

WILD ENCOUNTER:

In the wild, Irritator is pretty easy to spot with those flashy colors venomous animals are known for. You can find it almost everywhere in Genesis part 1 as stated in the dossier. Although it won't attack you unless you get too close, it's agro range is slightly bigger than that of a Direbear. If you get hit by Irritator you will have to be very cautious of your surroundings for the duration of the irritation. During that time, all those nasty torpor inducing critters of the bog, the gas clouds of the volcano and the eels/jellyfishes of the ocean will be much more lethal. Thankfully, Irritator is easy to avoid, just watch out not to hit one during one of your meat runs. The goal is to introduce a threat that makes the game more thrilling while giving survivors a chance to avoid it if they don’t want to deal with it to make it less annoying.



TAMING:

Even though that mucus is handy when it comes to discouraging predators from attacking it, it is... well.. it is pretty stinky. That's probably why Irritator seems to be very fond of the smell of rare flowers, which have a pacifying effect on it. This allows you to come closer and feed it with a fish corpse (just like otters) to tame it. Just watch out in case there are any critters in the area, we all know what eating rare flowers does, good luck !



DOMESTICATED:

Ablilities/Controls:
Passive : Hydration bonus
Passive : Irritating mucus
Custom Item: Anti-irritant 
Saddle : 360° rotation
Left click : Regular bite (Slightly less damage than Baryonyx)
Right click : Tail slap (No damage, decent knockback)
Ctrl : Gulp
Space : Jump



 

Early game traveling mount:

In the early game, Irritator is designed to be very comfortable as a traveling mount. We all know how dangerous Genesis part 1 is, however most creatures around Irritator's size prefer to leave it alone. In addition to barely getting noticed, Irritator gets the same hydration bonus as Spinosaurus (increases its melee damage by 15%, movement speed by 20%, and health regeneration by 25%) making it almost as speedy as Ceratosaurus as long as there is water around. If you find yourself to be in a dangerous situation where you are stuck between multiple enemies, you can perform a tail slap to push them away, allowing you to escape.



Irritated status effect:

Let’s be honest, once you gat a Bloodstalker you’ll probably prefer using it for travel, so what else can Irritator do to make it worth using in the late game? Well, it's main gimmick, the mucus covering its entire body, causing a weakening of the immune system and skin IRRITation (guess where that idea came from lol). Being covered in such a substance makes Irritator resistant to most status effects and even immune to some.

Hitting a creature will apply the irritated effect making them weak to status effects and especially to torpor. This will make taming a whole lot faster, saving you a bunch of tranqs, allowing you to go on a taming spree. This is even more important on Genesis part 1 as X-dinos take 250% reduced damage in the wild making them very hard to knock out. If you are afraid to kill a potential tame target with your bite, just slap it with your tail to reapply the debuff without damaging it.

However Irritator's ability to make dinos weak to torpor isn't exclusive to traditional knockout tames. For example, if you want to tame a high level Karkinos, you'll need a canon because a regular catapult turret will kill it. Well, no more ! The irritated debuff works like a multiplier on the torpor stat! This means that no matter the source of the torpor, it will get multiplied when afflicted. This reduces the risk of you killing a creature when trying to knock it out as well as making things like the electric prod viable due to it’s high base torpor value. This can be applied to other creatures that you can't knock out the old fashioned way. Imagine how much faster you could bring down creatures such as Fasolasuchus, Yi Ling, Karkinos, Rock Golems, Titanosaurs...



Anti-Irritant:





Turns out, Irritator's natural resistance to status effects isn't limited to itself ! Irritator will passively produce a new item in it's inventory, the Irritator mucus. Consuming it straight away will just give you the irritated debuff (duh), however you will have access to the crafting recipe of anti-irritant exclusively in Irritator's inventory. This craft requires the mucus, a few rare flowers, an antidote and some honey, consuming it grants status resistance for approximately 20 seconds. It's obviously not as effective as wyvern milk, but doesn't require much effort to obtain. Stockpiling it won't necessarily be easy as the mucus production itself isn't very fast.

If you feel like going out exploring, but need something stronger than Irritator, you can bring at least a piece of it's utility with you without completely invalidating Irritator itself. A creature will automatically consume anti-irritant whenever afflicted with a one of the more dangerous status effects like the jellyfish stun, bleed or burn. If you've prepared for long enough you should have enough to last you through a bossfight. This can be pretty handy when it comes to stuff like Moeder bossfight or maybe a potential hunt mission where you have to fight a brute Deinosuchus that bleeds you to death. Of course this can be used against the Dragon or Manticore, but Genesis part 1 is still the focus of this submission.



Saddle:

Even with such a powerful tool, shooting tranqs from the back of your dino might not be for everyone, that's where the saddle comes in. In addition to being quite agile, Irritator has a rotating saddle that allows you to turn in 360° and shoot behind you (unlockable at level 32). Considering how easy it is to get good weapons with missions, you won't need to rely too much on RNG to drop a good rifle/crossbow to accompany you in your taming adventures. Hopefully, this will make it comfortable enough.



Gulping:

Now, there's one last feature about Irritator to make it even more viable on foot, and it's it's ability to swallow fish whole ! Paleontologists have discovered that Irritator might have had the ability to open it's mouth extremely wide, just like a pelican would, to swallow fish whole. Pressing your crouch key will perform this gulp and successfully eating a fish will grant Irritator a regenerative boost. In addition to it's hydration buff, this will give it the ability to stay on the battlefield for even longer, so no more need to forcefeed your dino for 10 minutes before you go out again. This way, the bog and the ocean become even easier to explore, while keeping regions without fish like the lunar biome and the volcano harder, preserving the core biome progression.

Additionally, if you have a fish basket in your Irritator's inventory, holding alt while gulping will put the fish in the fish basket where it will stay preserved for an unlimited period of time (imagine how handy that might be once we get Shadowmanes in Genesis part 2!). You can also forcefeed a full fish basket to your Irritator to give it the regenerative boost whenever you want. Just watch out as if your Irritator's health gets too low, it will automatically consume a fish basket.

Depending on how much they rework missions, this gulping ability might become a very fast way to complete fishing missions.



WHY VOTE IRRITATOR FOR GEN 1 ?

Irritator is designed to give you a whole new way of playing the game. As a wild danger it’ll force you to watch out for the many sources of status effects in the biomes of Gen1. Once tamed, Irritator will serve as an early game traveling mount on land and in water, without getting agroed too much. This is especially important on a map like Gen 1 where one of the starter biomes is literally a swamp. Irritator is also the key to make taming X variants easier with it’s synergy with torpor. Considering the fact that getting good quality weapons will be more consistent on this map, it’s saddle is made to make shooting from it easier. Irritator might not be a heavy hitter like Magmasaurs, and is not as fast as a Blodstalker (like most creatures) but it has found a niche that hasn't been exploited enough in Ark, that of a taming companion.

If you like Irri, don't hesitate to vote or even share if you're feeling seduced by it's design ! Every vote counts and it makes me genuinely so happy that so many people like my idea ! 

GOOD LUCK TO ALL SUBMITTERS !
If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment and give advise, this is my first submission.

SHOUTOUT TO TULLIMONSTRUM  AND SAIVODUS!
TWO VERY COOL LITTLE CRITTERS THAT BRINGS LIFE
TO THE LUNAR BIOME AND OCEAN, GO CHEK THEM OUT

Art by SAV ~

Edited October 22, 2025 by IIvan

[LaughingGhost96]

Yes! I love this and I wish you luck, you have my vote!

[IIvan]

Thanks ! 

[Apisnundinae]

I genuinely love this design it's awesome 😆

[nelljismaximus]

Amazing !!

[tokyolol11]

Love the art and the concept, would like this to be added in the game

[Atronist]

its genuinely really interesting and unique. Would 100% be running around on this constantly

Edited October 11, 2025 by Atronist

[Flopsgamer]

[DrDyers]

Definitely supporting this one! Amazing design and amazing addition to the game!!

[TravisMichael]

IMO, this creature would’ve been perfect for Aberration. You could’ve made its saddle a mobile smithy, given that Abb is the only map to not have a creature with that function. If it loses this vote, you should submit it to Garuga and get it modded. Just about every creature he mods gets added to the base game.

[AmanaTishala]

Aw I love the stinky fella! I want to give it pretty flowers! 

[LittleSpicyOreos]

Just wanted to say this is some gorgeous art and I think the coolest version of this creature I've seen submitted! Best of luck!

[IIvan]

8 hours ago, TravisMichael said:

IMO, this creature would’ve been perfect for Aberration. You could’ve made its saddle a mobile smithy, given that Abb is the only map to not have a creature with that function. If it loses this vote, you should submit it to Garuga and get it modded. Just about every creature he mods gets added to the base game.

Originally I wanted to submit deincheirus for abb but someone posted their concept for it before me (the votes start between 2:00-3:00 am here in EU), then I wanted to submit irri for Val but I missed the vote, so here I am !

[Nikka]

I like the design! The concept is interesting too.

[DoStrano]

Banger

[ameliemsid]

Wow, it's georgeous !

[Dineau]

Well Deinocheirus will eventually be c in base game with all ark additions creatures

[IIvan]

22 minutes ago, Dineau said:

Well Deinocheirus will eventually be c in base game with all ark additions creatures

That's why I switched to Irritator

[Xenorachnoide]

Cool design, maybe make the tail swap only a knockback attack without damage which can apply the irritation effect, this way it's even more taming orriented

[IIvan]

Good idea, I'll update the concept a bit more during the week

[PrimalNacho]

This is a bit out of left field, but consider this:

 

Irritator and Diplocaulus Synergy

Although most creatures tend to avoid the Irritator, the Diplocaulus seems entirely unbothered by it. In fact, I’ve witnessed survivors approach — and even successfully domesticate — Irritators while riding on the back of a Diplocaulus!

Upon closer study, I’ve concluded that the Diplocaulus not only ignores the Irritator’s protective mucus, but actually seems to enjoy it. Disgusting!

Some survivors even claim that feeding a Diplocaulus a mixture of Irritator mucus and Bio Toxin causes it to secrete a unique paste said to repel even the most electrifying of foes. I haven’t tested this bizarre theory myself... yet.

 

Edit: I had not noticed the Anti Irritant item.  

 

Edited October 14, 2025 by PrimalNacho

[IIvan]

25 minutes ago, PrimalNacho said:

This is a bit out of left field, but consider this:

 

Irritator and Diplocaulus Synergy

Although most creatures tend to avoid the Irritator, the Diplocaulus seems entirely unbothered by it. In fact, I’ve witnessed survivors approach — and even successfully domesticate — Irritators while riding on the back of a Diplocaulus!

Upon closer study, I’ve concluded that the Diplocaulus not only ignores the Irritator’s protective mucus, but actually seems to enjoy it. Disgusting!

Some survivors even claim that feeding a Diplocaulus a mixture of Irritator mucus and Bio Toxin causes it to secrete a unique paste said to repel even the most electrifying of foes. I haven’t tested this bizarre theory myself... yet.

 

Edit: I had not noticed the Anti Irritant item.  

 

yup i added it a few hours ago, still a cool idea, i like it !

 

Edited October 14, 2025 by IIvan

[Alsrem]

This looks sick! if my Oxalaia concept doesnt make it, you got my number 1 vote!

[WhataBeginner]

I was thinking yesterday about additional spinosaurids!

 

[Arkreator]

I love your concept ! Good work.