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Community Creature Submission — Mongolarachne (“Burrow Weaver”) Mongolarachne jurassica (Daohugou, Inner Mongolia; mid-Jurassic) is the largest fossil spider known and the reclassified successor to the 2011 “Nephila jurassica” find. Also, Megarachne isn’t a spider—it was reidentified in 2005 as a eurypterid (“sea scorpion”), so we’re using Mongolarachne for paleo accuracy. Target map: Genesis: Part 1 (Bog / Volcanic caves primary; works across all five biomes, other maps dream location REDWOODS). Dossier Wild Few things in this simulation have unnerved me like Mongolarachne. By day it vanishes—pressed flat against pit walls or tree trunks, its setae and pigment shifting to match bark and leaf-litter. By night it stirs: a low-stamina ambusher that saves every ounce of energy for terrifying sprint-lunges. Prey are struck with a rapid, soporific venom; before the victim can rouse, tensile silk has them cinched and winched into a leaf-covered burrow where the spider drains nutrients while keeping its meal in a hunger-deep slumber. (Yes, it’s macabre. Also… effective.) Paleontological note: the name honors Mongolarachne jurassica, the largest known fossil spider from Jurassic China—unlike the misnamed “giant spider” Megarachne, which turned out to be a sea scorpion (eurypterid). National Geographic+3PubMed Central+3HeritageDaily - Archaeology News+3 Domesticated Tamed Mongolarachne are unparalleled tamers and trappers. Tribes use their webbing to drag KO’d targets long distances, while a controlled “fang-latch” maintains torpor and accelerates hunger for faster feeds. Their verticality (tree, wall, and ceiling adhesion) plus chameleon-grade camouflage make them apex ambushers and base sentries—perfect for Bog edges, volcanic shafts, and mission chokepoints. Note of Caution A spider this large can accelerate to tremendous amounts of speed, your only grace if you fall in its pit or find yourself dragged there against your will is a light bright enough to overwhelm its anatomy and nocturnal adaptions, pray your batteries don’t run out, the walls of its burrows are littered with those who did. Core Abilities (Saddle: Bareback, Armor optional) (OPTIONAL for Tamed, Wild will come with pit) Pit Weaver: Burrow, taking time to create a 15 ft deep multi foundation-wide leaf-covered pit with silk-lined walls. Enemies that fall in suffer slowed climb speed and “Snare” stacks. Limit 2 active pits per spider; pits decay over time. Good for guerilla warfare, setting up traps, stealth, base siege. Tow-Truck Silk: Fire a tensile tow line that wraps a target (creature or survivor) already netted/KO’d; drag at slightly reduced speed. These arachnids can drag creatures multiple times their weight but two or more are required for creatures at a rex scale, requiring tribe coordination. Fang-Latch (Alt-Fire at point-blank on KO’d target): Latches to an unconscious creature, maintaining torpor and applying “Nutrient Siphon” (rapid hunger drain; no additional HP damage). Rider moves slowly while latched. Sprint Lunge: Short, explosive burst with a long recovery; high stamina cost; adds big Torpor on hit (scales with spider level). Surface Climber: Stick to trees, cliffs, and ceilings; can “perch” motionless to boost camouflage. Night Veil (Passive): At night or in shadows, gain adaptive camouflage (reduced detect range; slight transparency). Movement breaks the effect above a speed threshold. (OPTIONAL) Silk Ziplines (Utility): Fire two anchors to form a zipline; allies can clip on. Fear of Light (Counterplay): Charge Light (glow pets/lanterns) or the Charge Lantern beam stuns/disrupts Mongolarachne briefly, cancelling camouflage and latch. (Aberration-style light interactions are already canonical.) Ark Wiki Taming – “Photoshock” Non-violent disable: Hit the spider with the high-lumen Charge Light (e.g., Charge Lantern placed or beamed) to overwhelm its senses—locks it in place, twitching. Feed while stunned: Approach and feed Raw Meat / Mutton. Each feed drains battery, so keep spare Charge Batteries ready. If the light drops, you’re the hunted. Roles & Balance Hooks PvE taming assistant: Torpor maintenance + hunger drain = faster clean tames; web-dragging from dangerous zones. Base defense / traps: Pit Weaver + ceiling perches for terrifying intruder control. Traversal / recon: Wall/ceiling adhesion and ziplines for mission routes. Counters: Charge Light, fire, and explosives shred silk; daylight lethargy (slower stamina regen in direct sun). Controls (suggested) LMB: Bite / Torpor Lunge (on sprint). RMB: Silk Shot (tap = web bolt; hold = tow-line). 😄 Fang-Latch on KO’d target (tap again to release). Space: Jump; hold to cling when near climbable surface. Ctrl: Night Veil posture (hold still to deepen camo). Stats Tuning (ASA baseline suggestion) Health: Medium-high Weight: Low-medium (it’s a hunter, not a hauler, balancing its tow to rider weight capacity). Damage: Moderate per hit; torpor scales strongly with sprint lunge. Stamina: Low; big drain on bursts; strong regen in shade/night. Speed: Slow walk, very fast sprint with cooldown. Paleo Notes / Sources Largest known fossil spider: The Daohugou (Inner Mongolia, China) species originally described as Nephila jurassica (Biology Letters, 2011) was later reassigned to a new genus as Mongolarachne jurassica, and is widely cited as the largest fossil spider known. • 2011 announcement (Daohugou, mid-Jurassic ~165 Ma): Biology Letters news summary • Size/record overview: Guinness World Records – Largest fossil spider (Mongolarachne jurassica) • Reassignment to Mongolarachne jurassica & new family (Mongolarachnidae): Selden quote + journal cite to Naturwissenschaften (2013): NCSE write-up with Selden explanation Name history (why “Nephila jurassica” changed): A subsequently found male from the same beds showed features inconsistent with modern Nephila (e.g., male pedipalp morphology), supporting removal to a more basal orbicularian lineage and creation of Mongolarachne (family Mongolarachnidae). See Selden’s summary and citation to Naturwissenschaften 100:1171–1181 (2013) in the NCSE link above. Important correction about “giant spiders”: Do not call Megarachne a giant spider. In 2005, analysis by Selden, Corronca & Hünicken in Biology Letters showed Megarachne servinei is actually a eurypterid (“sea scorpion”), not a spider. • Paper info (Biology Letters, 2005): Royal Society/CONICET record (with summary) • Accessible explainers: National Geographic | WIRED (Bonus cautionary note): A later claim of a “giant” Mongolarachne chaoyangensis fossil (2019) was shown to be a doctored crayfish upon re-examination (fluorescence microscopy). • Paper (Palaeoentomology, 2019): Selden et al. 2019—crayfish hoax • Plain-English summary: EurekAlert! press release Speculative Realism: The largest fossils we’ve found were just the newborns in nursery burrows—implying adults far larger than the record. Wild Burrows: A Prolonged Death From Below The Mongol’s lair is less a den and more a tomb carved by instinct. These burrows plunge fifteen to thirty feet straight down, their entrances disguised beneath layers of debris and silk so thin it moves with the wind. One misplaced step, and a survivor may find the ground vanish beneath them—dropping into a vertical shaft lined with resin-hardened web. The descent alone is enough to maim, but the true horror waits below. The walls shimmer with cocooned bodies—some desiccated, others still twitching—each wrapped in layers of silk that dampen sound and scent alike. During daylight, the Mongol rests suspended on the walls of its pit, motionless but listening, every vibration above mapped in its mind. At night, the burrow comes alive. A tremor here, a heartbeat there, and the predator ascends, dragging the unlucky down into the suffocating dark it calls home. Tensile Grade Web Towing: Prey Dragged To The Depths Once the Mongol Spider’s venom incapacitates its quarry, the true spectacle begins. Its silk—dense, elastic, and tensile enough to tow creatures many times its size—latches and tightens like a living winch. A single spider can drag a thrashing raptor clean off its feet, but when two or more Mongols coordinate, their combined pull rivals that of apex predators. They move with eerie precision, each anchoring lines that converge, constrict, and haul their victim toward the burrow. The ground trembles under the synchronized strain of their threads. Within moments, the prey vanishes beneath the surface, cocooned in the pitch-dark labyrinth below—where silence and silk mark its final resting place. Fang Latch: A Noxious Draining OR New Tame Emerging (no art yet) When a Mongol Spider strikes, its fangs don’t just pierce—they cling. Once latched, serrated grooves along the mandibles lock the bite in place while specialized venom glands begin a dual-phase injection: first, a paralytic to still the victim’s muscles; then a slow-acting corrosive compound that liquefies nutrients from within for a grueling yet sustained feed, and for many their untimely demise. The creature drains its prey not by speed, but by patience, siphoning sustenance through hollow fangs until the body weakens to final stillness. Yet in domesticated cases—should the hunter be used as a tranquilizer and minimal injury is done to the victim mid-drain—the process reverses from deadly to bonding. The same venom that devours nutrients from within can, under precise influence, induce a temporary metabolic boost. The less nutrients the more hunger. Survivors describe incredible results for taming speed due to increased hunger and faster feeds, resulting creatures wake up dazed, half-starved, half-sentient—their loyalty born from the shared threshold between death, dominance, and food. Omnidirectional and Mult surface movement: It Came From above and below with speed (no art) The Mongolarachne doesn’t obey the same rules of movement as its prey—it rewrites them for its own twisted gain. While its lumbering gait might lull an observer into thinking it’s slow, this illusion ends the moment the hunt begins. Beneath its exoskeleton lies a hydraulic network of pressurized hemolymph that allows instantaneous bursts of motion in any direction—forward, backward, vertical, or inverted. It scales sheer cliffs and ceilings as effortlessly as flat ground, its hooked claws anchoring into surfaces other creatures would slide from. When hunting, the Mongol often vanishes above the canopy or ceiling of a cavern, lying motionless until vibrations signal proximity. In a blink, it moves like a weighted spear, legs flaring like a tarantula in an intimidation pose, but for the Mongol it's so its fangs are first and arms can collapse over the prey. The impact alone is enough to stun smaller prey. Survivors who survive that initial strike rarely see the second—the spider lunges again with unnerving precision, using its webs as a tether to drag the poor torpored animal or survivor deep into catacombs of its creation. (Optional) Those threads double as high-tension ziplines, fired from spinnerets with enough force to cross ravines or close distance between targets in seconds. Once anchored, it can sling itself forward, reposition mid-air, or retreat instantly back to its burrow. Its mastery of three-dimensional terrain makes traditional cover meaningless; no cliff, wall, or ceiling guarantees safety. Even more disorienting is its control over tempo. When stalking, the Mongol moves with calculated patience, almost glacial in pace—its silence punctuated only by faint skittering in the dark. But when the chase begins, that stillness erupts into blinding velocity, a blur of limbs and silk that outpaces almost anything on the ARK. For most, the first warning isn’t the sight of it—it’s the sound of the web tightening from above, followed by a shadow that falls faster than fear can form. Wanna catch the vibe and visualize it? Watch the vid below (Real movement will be much faster due to the larger size of the spider) Adaptive Camouflage: Ambushed By Your Surroundings? The Mongol Spider’s most unnerving trait isn’t its size or its silk—it’s the moment you realize you’ve been staring at it all along. Its carapace hosts chromatophores capable of mimicking nearby textures, shifting not just color but surface depth to match stone, bark, or sand with uncanny precision. When still, it becomes indistinguishable from its surroundings—an apex ghillie hunter that breathes as the terrain itself. Once prey enters its perimeter, micro-vibrations silent metamorphosis as pattern and pigment flow like liquid shadow. By the time movement betrays its outline, it’s already in motion—venom glinting, threads ready. Whether hunting or hiding, the Mongol Spider doesn’t blend with the world. It becomes it. Taming: Freeze! (Batteries Not Included) The Mongol Spider’s senses are its greatest weapon—and its only weakness. Evolved for pitch-black hunting, its compound eyes and neural web are hyper-responsive to even minor changes in light or vibration. When confronted with the blinding surge of a charge lantern, the overload hits its nervous system like a lightning strike. Muscles seize, fangs twitch, and the beast freezes mid-motion—locked in a trembling stasis like prey caught in its own headlights. This is the tamer’s window. Keep the beam steady, maintain distance, and don’t let the lantern flicker. The moment the batteries die, the paralysis breaks, and the Mongol reacts with pure instinct—spinning silk faster than sight, wrapping its assailant in a cocoon of regret before they can draw another breath. Counterplay: Weaknesses To Cling To Every apex predator has a gap in their armor—finding it just takes nerve and luck and in the case of this spider, bodies. The Mongolarachnes predatory perfection unravels under three conditions: light, fire, and the unforgiving sun. Charge Light: The same tool used in its taming can halt it mid-lunge. A burst of charge light overloads its optic nerves, stunning the arachnid in twitching paralysis. But the effect is fleeting, especially once domesticated—their nervous systems adapt quickly, leaving only a few precious seconds before they recover. Fire & Explosives: Few things unravel Mongol silk faster than heat. Its webbing, though strong enough to tow entire creatures, combusts into molten strands when exposed to flame or explosives. Fire cuts through its traps, clears burrows (albeit slow), and forces the beast into the open, thrashing blindly to smother the blaze. Sunlight: The great equalizer. Under direct sunlight, the Mongol’s metabolism spikes due to daytime digestion and its resting adaptations as its stamina plummets. Its movements become weightier, its reactions almost dulled, and its instinct is to retreat underground. For survivors daring enough to fight it in daylight, it becomes less a nightmare... until they realize its terrifying speed when cornered Terrifying Anatomy: Design Art Options And Size (Art Cred to Chatpgt, Nano Banana, and Me) Standing nearly level with a Triceratops’ shoulder, and in some cases bigger, the Mongolarachne towers over most predators on the ARK. Each leg spans the length of a grown human, and its body mass alone rivals that of a mid-sized carapace beast. Survivors report the ground vibrating as it moves to rapidly to strike—a warning few live to interpret. While its frame may suggest bulk, every movement is unnervingly precise, a reminder that agility and terror are not mutually exclusive at this scale. + +

Cryodrakon Harasser • Insulator • Ambush Mount • Ice Immunity [Chill out survivors!, Allow me to break the ice and introduce...] Common Name: Cryodrakon Species: Cryodrakon Chione Time: Late Cretaceous Diet: Opportunist Carnivore Temperament: Aggressive Wild: It is strange to see pterosaurs flying in the snow biomes without suffering in these extremely low temperatures. In the beginning, the survivors didn’t believe in the tales about a flying reptile with freezing breath until they saw a feathered group of pterosaurs creating a small snowstorm around a Megaloceros couple, freezing their victims with their freezing water breath. Taming: In order to tame a Cryodrakon, you must first hide from its keen thermal senses by using Fria Curry to obscure your heat signature and confuse it. When approached while in this state, it will start frantically flapping its wings at which point you can feed it Spicy Fish Cake or kibble to restore its strength. Once it consumes the Spicy Fish Cake, the effects of the spicy food will kick in. After flapping its wings, it will release a burst of cold air that pushes you back slightly. You must then run away before it notices you and repeat the process over and over until it is fully tamed. Domesticated: Survivors found a way to domesticate these Frost-breathing creatures. Cryodrakons' favorite foods are Prime Meat, Jerky, and Spicy fish cake. The tribe uses these pterosaurs as a living refrigerator, a substitute for the cryo-fridge, and a flying saddle to blind and raid the enemies’ bases. Height Chart Abilities/Controls Frostbite (Hold leftclick/R2/RT to charge up): The Cryodrakon rears its head back before swinging its head down to inflict a devastating bite upon its target. (at least 50% stronger than basic melee) with a 5-7 second cooldown Ice Peck (Left Click/R2/RT): Relatively quick melee attack with moderate damage Right Click/L2/LT: Blizzard/Snowstorm The Cryodrakon takes to the skies and starts flying in tight, circular loops around a designated area, summoning a swirling blizzard. Every player and creature caught in the vortex is hit with the new "Wind Chilled" effect—reducing movement speed by 50% (as if they just strolled into a snowdrift on a winter day). In addition, players caught in the tempest will be dismounted and frozen, leaving them to reconsider their life choices (or at least their choice of mount). Interrupt: If the Cryodrakon loses 15% or more of its total health during this action, the blizzard is immediately cancelled—because even a frosty storm needs a break when it’s taking a hit. C/R1 /LB: Icicle Feathers. The Cryodrakon hisses and becomes covered in ice Feathers. When active, it increases Frozen Feathers' armor value and inflicts return damage to attackers. It can be used every 15s by both a rider and the AI X/R1+R3/RB+RT: Thermal Vision. The Cryodrakon reveals nearby thermal sources to the player's eyes. Space/X/A: The Cryodrakon starts flying. To land press the same button near the ground. Cryodrakon's feathers The Cryodrakon Chione naturally regenerates Cryodrakon’s feather after it uses or loses one, the regeneration time seems to be around 8 seconds per feather, using this numbers if the Cryo loses all its 15 feathers it will need to wait a total time of 170 seconds (or 2:09 minutes) to regenerate them all. To retrieve a Cryodrakon's feather use the radial wheel, once retrieved it can be used to craft the Cryodrakon's Saddle or to gain +50 increased hypothermal insulation. SADDLE Despite being an Azhdarchid as massive as a Quetzal, the Cryodrakon outflies it, perfect for when you're trying to escape from creatures like Wyverns. This Saddle is designed for maxium comfort for both you and your Cryodrakon, making long journeys a cold air breeze. Instead of having to strap your torch onto the saddle of this Giant Winter King, just light the lantern by your seat and ride on into the night. Passive Turret Mode: The Cryodrakon has a turret mode, allowing its AI to stay in position while it freezing the target Flock Bond: This Cold Pterosaur has a warm heart for its flock, allowing it to increase its damage by 20% to protect its group. Meat Preservation: The Cryodrakon’s Inventory doubles the spoilage time of all kinds of Meat inside the Cryodrakon's inventory, making a total preservation time of x8 the normal time. It also reduces the total weight of the meat by 70%. Minor Immunity to Cryosickness: The Cryodrakon Chione is slightly resistant to Cryosickness from Cryopods, receiving only 60% of the torpor effect and having its stamina reduced by half. Utility Environmental Travel: The Cryodrakon can swiftly traverse cold regions, offering excellent insulation. It is an ideal travel mount for exploring areas with lower temperatures. Insulation: Similar to the Basilosaurus, riding the Cryodrakon provides the player with the Insulation buff, massively increasing the player's Hypothermic and Hyperthermic insulation Mobile Icebox Cryodrakon isn’t just a fierce flyer—it moonlights as a state-of-the-art mobile cryofridge! It can store perishable items in its inventory with a spoil timer equivalent to that of a Refrigerator, even when its cold feathers aren’t active (yes, that’s a cool upgrade at Level up Weight). Not only does it handle your everyday perishables, but it also keeps hard-to-store items like Wyvern Milk and Nameless Venom fresh for an impressively long time compared to a fridge. Cryodrakon's Nest This nest will be a special craftable structure designed for incubating Cryodrakon eggs. Instead of using an incubator, you can hatch them in this nest, which will speed up the incubation process. Gathering and Drops: Raw meat > Raw Fish Meat, Raw Prime Meat, Raw Prime Fish. -Cryodrakon gathers hide, chitin/keratin, and meat from corpses* Cryodrakon Drops: Raw Meat • Raw Prime Meat • Hide • Cryodrakon's Feather