The Ultimate Giga Slayer

[OverTheTopMC]

Despite what many will tell you, the Giga of ARK is not unkillable. Leveled correctly, theoretically, any creature is capable of killing the beast, at least in a large pack. Yet, technicalities aside, ideally the Giga can only be brought down with the use of some strong tames. But, which of these 'strong' dinos and creatures are the best at defeating the Giga?

DISCLAIMER: This analysis does not include the Titanosaur, for it is not practical due to its fixed spawning level, fixed number of spawns, difficulty to tame over other creatures listed in this analysis, and the inability to heal. There are other reasons, but need I go on?

• The Tank
  • Damage is second priority when in battle against the Giga. Despite the recent onslaught of nerfs on the Giga, the savage still deals a ton of damage, thus health is definitely important in the fight. However, any given tame can only have so much health, so the main course of action is not the amount of health. It is the mitigation of the loss of health. This basically means the measures needed to reduce the amount of damage the "ultimate Giga slayer" takes when facing the juggernaut, and there are several ways to achieve this.
    • Saddle armor - If the "ultimate Giga slayer" can sport a saddle (SPOILER ALERT: my pick does), a primitive or stock version will not do the tame any justice against the Giga. Ideally, the saddle needs to be available in beacon drops in order to acquire better versions, at minimum "Apprentice" or "Journeyman". The strongest creature with an available saddle within a beacon drop is the Mosa, with Ascendant saddles available within underwater loot drops.
    • Imprinting defense - The Mosa lacks one key ability to mitigate damage from the Giga: the ability to breed. Land dinos and creatures are the only specimens able to produce infants, which can be imprinted upon and gain a defense bonus (as long as the player who imprinted is riding said creature). Specifically, a 30% damage reduction from attacks. Coupled with a saddle, this can be quite formidable against a wild Giga.
    • Passive defense - So far, spare the Dunkleosteus, one dino has been given a passive damage reduction buff: the Allosaurus. When one of the Allos is made the "alpha" of the pack, the highest level of the gender, they receive a 25% damage resistance buff. Along with a saddle, and assuming the dino is bred and the respective imprinter is aboard the Allo, this is extremely formidable against the Giga.

 

• The Strike
  • After damage mitigation has been dealt with, damage output is definitely a must in Giga battles. However, this does not technically warrant a dino with the highest base damage, yet this does not not exclude this candidate as the "ultimate Giga slayer". Allow me to explain with these criteria.
    • Imprinting damage - On the topic of imprinting again, when the imprinter is riding the dino or creature imprinted, the creature receives not only the aforementioned damage mitigation buff, they also receive a 30% damage increase to their base melee. Due to underwater breeding non-existent currently and the exclusion of the Titanosaur, the Rex is probably the most likely choice for this. However, the alpha Allo of an Allosaurus pack possesses a main bleed attack, similar to the "Gnashed" effect of the Giga. Coupled with the bonus from the imprinting and the alpha buff, the Allo seems just as dangerous, if not more, to the Giga than the Rex.
    • Speed of attack - The amount of damage dealt is important, yet a dino or creature that deals a great amount of damage quickly is nearly unstoppable. The Spino is an extremely fast attacker, one of the fastest in the game, and at the cost of damage brings about outstanding DPS, area of effect, and knockback. Coupled with imprinting, the Spino might have the Rex, the Allo, and the Mosa beat.

 

• The Flee
  • As a bit of a disclaimer, this analysis is not tested information, and the details stated might fail completely if acted upon. However, if this does prove the case, there is always the option of a tactical retreat. In this scenario, some fleeing dinos are definitely better than others.
    • Base movement speed - Of the aforementioned three land "ultimate Giga slayers" (the Spino, the Allo, and the Rex), the Allosaurus is the fastest of the trio, voiding the Mosa being the fastest of the listed creatures. A close second to the Allo is the Carno, with the Rex and the Spino trailing behind respectively.
    • Other flight options - If the battle begins to favor the Giga noticeably, a ditch is definitely in order, either riding away on a fast flyer (Pteranodon or Quetzal) or on an even faster land dino (Gallimimus, Diplodocus, Procoptodon, etc.). Alternatively, if you are near water, an escape Ichthy, for example, is not a horrible idea.

Conclusion: As mentioned before, the previously mentioned information is untested, and could all possibly be false in terms of battling wild Gigas. In addition, this does not in any way assist in combat against tamed Gigas. Despite their nerfs once tamed, they are still just as, if not more, devastating than wild ones. However, these points, I find, are considerable to creating an army capable of defeating pesky Gigas near your base or around an area you plan to build in, for example. So, what is the "ultimate Giga slayer". I would say it is the Allosaurus, and I cannot wait to begin the "Allo Armada" once they are added to Xbox ARK, in the hopes of overpowering Gigas. Yet, what do you think is the "ultimate Giga slayer"? If you're still reading this, that is. You must have quite the amount of time on your hands, eh?

[Riddell1984]

I agree with your analysis and can't wait for the allo  to come to xbox one.

To have an army of bred allos with the imprint buff and alpha buff active coupled with the gnash effect. I can see how five high leveled allos would on paper clearly cause a lot of damage very quickly with the speed to stay at the rear of the giga avoiding it's damage aoe.

I tried once with three 150 + rexes. They didn't survive. I was upset and just avoid them now. 

To me gigas are a menace. But totally awesome aswell.

[Joebl0w13]

25 minutes ago, OverTheTopMC said:

The Mosa lacks one key ability to mitigate damage from the Giga: the ability to breed.

And the ability to walk on land. : )

[Joebl0w13]

27 minutes ago, OverTheTopMC said:

what do you think is the "ultimate Giga slayer"?

The ocean. 

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

Tamed giga dies to good imprinted rex with ascendant saddle (I've witnessed), especially in groups of 3 to 4, high level giga (at least with good melee as other stats don't seem to change much, would still kill good breed rex. And I have personally killed a low lvl tamed giga with a 100% imprinted spino with journey saddle and 500 melee/5k health.. (all tamed gigas, wild ones are still stupid strong but don't kill you as fast but I've never killed a wild giga without drowning it)

[MultiKore]

So uh, whats the point in killing gigas? I have drowned plenty and killed one myself recently with a river and a minigun turret on a quetz. I was awarded with around 4k xp, 27 meat and 30 hide. The xp was nice but the amount of bullets was not. Killing one on land with a minigun; being incredibly hard because of their desire to run up beneath the quetz way far below the turrets targeting range and their flee mechanic where by if they can't hit you for (i think 10 seconds) they will flee in the opposite direction, due to their run speed this is one of most sucessful escape choices and foiled many a tame or kill.

As well as the previously mentioned hurdles you need to overcome, based on my calculations it would take 533 bullets HITTING a giga to kill it. Thats A LOT of bullets and more than half a minigun turret can hold, not only that it also requires 2 people as constantly switching back and forth from moving the quetz to firing the minigun takes alot of time.

Have you tried to kill any gigas with your methods? I'm not entirely sure if saddle armor or any kind of damage mitigation will work on their bleed. You have 1 minute 30 seconds to kill a wild Giga if the bleed is not reduced by mitigation or saddle armor, and thats without even factoring in the up to 1600+ damage a 150 giga can do with each hit, or the enrage mechanic if you do too much damage to them in a short amount of time.

Taking in to consideration all of the things I mentioned above it is really NOT WORTH killing wild gigas, their loot table is the equivalent of a wild carno(meat, hide, berries and maybe some prime) and the XP they give you can easily be gained by killing a high level alpha(Raptor/Carno) with a low level tamed rex. I have killed alpha raptors/carnos with my 50 rex(80 with bonus levels) with 10k health and whatever melee damage she had. I have since got my own Gigas of varying levels and even a level 20 tame has no issues with alpha Carno's or Raptors. I just recently killed an 110 Alpha Raptor with one of my gigas and i recieved 2k xp for it, my giga recieved 3 levels and I got WAY MORE prime meat than you will ever get off any wild giga. I also didnt risk losing any of my tames, barely lost any health on my giga and could go on to kill as many Alphas as i could find to get WAY more xp than you get off killing one wild Giga.

 

TLDR; Not worth it!

[DHoffman24]

In your analysis, I think your forgetting one thing, the player with a Giga, if they are alpha, will be breeding gigas to get a super one, and once they do that and have it imprinted and a better saddle they are pretty unkillable. My tribe leader has several gigas and his newest one is 100%imprint and can easily 1v1 a Titan, so I believe that a very well bred Giga is unkillable.

[Riddell1984]

44 minutes ago, DHoffman24 said:

In your analysis, I think your forgetting one thing, the player with a Giga, if they are alpha, will be breeding gigas to get a super one, and once they do that and have it imprinted and a better saddle they are pretty unkillable. My tribe leader has several gigas and his newest one is 100%imprint and can easily 1v1 a Titan, so I believe that a very well bred Giga is unkillable.

Out of curiosity what ate the stats like on his giga. 

I havnt botheredbreeding and imprinting on any yet

[DHoffman24]

17 hours ago, Riddell1984 said:

Out of curiosity what ate the stats like on his giga. 

I havnt botheredbreeding and imprinting on any yet

44k health 

250 melee

150 speed

and the rest of the stats I don't remember 

[d1nk]

38 minutes ago, DHoffman24 said:

44k health 

250 melee

150 speed

and the rest of the stats I don't remember 

It wouldn't be 150 speed, more like 120. Just imprinted a few and 100 gets speed to 120

[DHoffman24]

29 minutes ago, d1nk said:

It wouldn't be 150 speed, more like 120. Just imprinted a few and 100 gets speed to 120

We had boosted speed stat it's like our 4th or 5th gen Giga 

[sal]

1 hour ago, DHoffman24 said:

We had boosted speed stat it's like our 4th or 5th gen Giga 

How is that possible? 

Imprinting wont change the base stats for further breeding and movement is alsways 100% initially? 

[Tatsu86]

Want to know what a good Giga killer is, a good Pteranodon. Yup, not joking, a french tribe killed a neighboring tribe's 2 gigas using about 5+ high level birds barrel rolling them to death. That and the idiots were dumb enough to keep them on Neutral & kite it's angry self out into a river on the Center & kill it as it just span around in circles. Not deep water, not enough to get it swimming, but they eventually got the one, then the other they whistled passive & tried to engage them, they killed it even faster.

[DHoffman24]

11 hours ago, sal said:

How is that possible? 

Imprinting wont change the base stats for further breeding and movement is alsways 100% initially? 

I'm an idiot your right

[NukeZX]

I don't think ppl are mostly complaining about tamed gigas, but NPC ones that gets agroed on your base while you're offline. (or online, too)

A tamed giga, well, not too worried, but if someone kites a higher level NPC giga to your base, then it's Defcon 1 mode and "oooooooshoot".

[Riddell1984]

On Saturday, August 13, 2016 at 5:51 PM, sal said:

How is that possible? 

Imprinting wont change the base stats for further breeding and movement is alsways 100% initially? 

I have a quetz that tamed at 136 movement speed. Now a lot of his offspring have that as well.  So I breed off him all the time. 

One of his offspring once fully imprinted and leveled up ended up with movement speed at 400 and something movement speed. About 75 more than the original.

So now I am confused. Can you breed for higher movement stats or not. If you can't I don't see the point in breeding them anymore. I play single player.

[Joebl0w13]

5 hours ago, Riddell1984 said:

I have a quetz that tamed at 136 movement speed. Now a lot of his offspring have that as well.  So I breed off him all the time. 

One of his offspring once fully imprinted and leveled up ended up with movement speed at 400 and something movement speed. About 75 more than the original.

So now I am confused. Can you breed for higher movement stats or not. If you can't I don't see the point in breeding them anymore. I play single player.

No you cannot breed for higher movement. And the bonus from imprinting doesn't calculate into breeding as well it's just a one time bonus for you and that Dino. 

[Mystalias]

Lot of creatures tame/breed out with a different movement speed than what you see in the wild stats.  It seems there is a different stat table for player owned creatures. Like trikes and bears start with 222, Quetz with 136, etc...

[Joebl0w13]

39 minutes ago, Mystalias said:

Lot of creatures tame/breed out with a different movement speed than what you see in the wild stats.  It seems there is a different stat table for player owned creatures. Like trikes and bears start with 222, Quetz with 136, etc...

Yes a quetz starts at 136. Always, no way to breed it higher.

[Riddell1984]

13 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

Yes a quetz starts at 136. Always, no way to breed it higher.

So as soon as you tame a quetz it gets 136 but stays there unless you level it up. 

So what stats can be increased through breeding. Not including the imprint bonus.

Or are the base stats of a Dino for breeding purposes whatever they are when the maturation process is finished and they become adults.

I've been breeding quetz for weeks now and am on my third generation but have successfully imprinted 100 % on seven quetz  now. I was only breeding them to increase there movement speed stat. 

I'm baffled is there breeding guide for statistical improvement anywhere.

[Joebl0w13]

There are many good breeding guides out there. 

Every stat can be increased except for speed. The base stats on the dino are what you see right when the egg hatches. That way you can kill it if you don't like the stats.