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(Sketches by Lapis Lazuli, main art by Jade_317, dossier by me) Common Name: Mastodon Species: Zygolophodon klugcaput Time: Early Miocene Diet: Herbivore Temperament: Short-tempered Wild: "Zygolophodon klugcaput is one of few mammals that can intimidate even Tyrannosaurus. Compared to their relative Mammuthus, mastodons have four, straight tusks, and they're even larger than Paraceratherium. In addition to that, these proboscideans display an incredibly high level of intelligence, being the only creatures of the Ark capable of bonding deeply with closely related species. Despite that, mastodons are solitary and spend most of their time browsing in forests and fending off predators that get too close to their territory." Domesticated: "Gaining a mastodon's trust is a longer, more demanding process than the most common taming method, but also more profound, due to this creature's complex mind. I've seen some tribes teach their mastodons how to use heavy artillery with their trunks. This ability, combined with its size and strength, makes this beast a living tank. Even better: an automatic living tank!" Introduction: Greetings, survivors! I introduce to you the smartest of the herbivores; the Mastodon! The foundational ideas and selling point for this proboscidean include: Role as a late game heavyweight mammal mount with unique abilities Ability to fully utilize heavy artillery mounted on its tusks Mutual buffer with mammoth Big, bulky battle herbivore In The Wild: Mastodon is mostly solitary creature (despite being a proboscidean) so it had to evolve a very bad temper and useful weapons to protect itself from big ARK's predators. It's very aggressive towards survivors, even if they are on a mount. You can sometimes see wild mastodons chasing predators off their territory. Taming Process: In order to tame the mastodon, survivor has to fight with it, but only with a herbivore. Carnivore tames will not work, since only herbivores make the mastodon passive when it loses 75% of its health. When the masto is weakened, the survivor has to enable wandering on the creature that fought it. Mammoths get the best possible effectiveness because playing the drums on the mammoth's back makes the mastodon happier when being tamed. Tamed: After being tamed, mastodon can serve as a powerful war mount, artillery operator or a living, automatic GPS truck! Actions: Tusk attack (LMB): Click: Tusk jab. Very long attack range. High damage. Can destroy corpses but does not yield any resources. Hold (when sprinting): Bulldozing Charge. Mastodon holds its head straight with tusks aimed at the opponent. When sprinting, mastodon is loading a charge bar, and when it finally hits something with full bar loaded, it deals massive damage and strong knockback. Can be used to burst even through TEK walls, mastodon just needs enough space. Trunk grab and throw (RMB): Mastodon uses its trunk to grab a creature (up to 350 drag weight) and can either throw it (C), or place it gently on the ground (RMB again). Can't pick up survivors from the saddles. Can hold creatures even when dismounted. Tusk swing/back leg kick (Space): When looking to the front, mastodon swings its massive tusks from side to side. When looking back, mastodon kicks with one leg and it has the same properties as the tusk swing. Mega Trumpet (Ctrl): Makes a very loud and low pitched trombone-like sound. Can be used when moving. Makes small wild or tamed creatures flee. Bigger dinos (like Rex) become neutral. Doesn't work on anything with a higher drag weight than 600. It just makes them flee, so it doesn’t give the same exact effects as yutyrannus’ roar. Actions (with mounted artillery): Mastodon has a specific slot for artillery in its inventory. It can have only 1 weapon at a time. It can be used both by AI and the riding survivor. In order to aim, move mastodon's head. Artillery can't be destroyed, it's like a part of the saddle. Mastodon CANNOT use the trunk grab ability/bulldozing charge when a weapon is mounted on its tusks. What can be mounted on the mastodon's tusks: Cannon (Cannon ball) Ballista (Spear bolt, Tranq spear bolt, Chain bola) Catapult (Boulder, Jar of Pitch) Rocket turret (Rocket Propelled Grenade) Fire (RMB): Mastodon fires the artillery using its trunk. Deals the same damage as ordinarily placed cannon, ballista, catapult or rocket turret. Projectile switch (R): Mastodon can reload on its own, however it needs guidance on what projectiles it should use. When holding the reload key, you can choose what type of projectile should be used by the mastodon (useful for ballista with 3 different types of ammo). Movement: Mastodon can move sideways and turn around in place. It's almost as fast as rex when sprinting. Passive Abilities: Knockback resistance: Robust body of Zygolophodon klugcaput makes it very hard to push back, just like the brontosaurus. Cold insulation: While not as woolly as the mammoth, mastodon has longer fur which gives any survivor standing next to it additional hypothermal insulation points. 50% weight reduction for artillery ammunition: Self explanatory. Torpor immunity: Torpor can't be raised through external ways (tranq arrows, scorpion stings etc.). That means it can only be knocked out by torpor grenades/traps/basilisk spit etc. Special Abilities: Interspecies herd When the mastodon and any other smaller creatures (can be everything, as long as it's smaller than masto) are raised and imprinted together starting at least from the juvenile stage, in close proximity to each other, they will gain a special "Interspecies Herd" buff after growing up. This buff makes them more powerful and is applied in a similar way to mate boost (combine it with gigantoraptor and create an unstoppable family). It's important to note that this buff works by creating a "herd" when mastodons are growing up with other creatures. Even if there are no "herd members" around when a mastodon is an adult, it still creates a herd with other mastodons. Mammoths also can have that ability (they still need to be growing up with mastodons to unlock this ability). It's important due to one special aspect of this buff I explained later. What the herd buff provides for both mastodon and creature it grown up with: - 10% damage and resistance increase - stamina regeneration speed increase - 50% torpor gain decrease - 15% health regeneration speed increase - Family Avenger Buff: This is a special ability that is unique to mammoths and mastodons that create a herd. It's gained by every mammoth/mastodon in the herd after the opponent deals enough damage to its members. When this happens, both mammoths and mastodons roar and gain the buff. It's a very powerful buff giving +60% resistance increase, 1.75x damage increase and 50% speed boost and stamina regeneration increase until there's no more attackers around for 5 minutes. After the battle, every creature with "Family Avenger buff" becomes sad. Sad mastodons and mammoths are much more vulnerable to damage and also deal much less damage and become a bit slower. The sadness debuff has a timer of around 2 hours, but it can be sped up to 10 minutes when at least 2 trunky friends are put on wandering in close (20 foundations) proximity to each other. The number of mastodons/mammoths doesn't matter when speeding the timer. What the herd buff provides only for creatures (not mastodon itself) that grown up with mastodon: - 15% knockback strength increase - 50% knockback resistance increase What the herd buff provides only for mastodon: - Big Cousin buff Mastodon's Mega Trumpet now increases the power of status effects that mammoths can apply to other dinos. It works by giving a "Big Cousin" buff to a mammoth for 3 minutes. In this time mammoth's status effects are more powerful: - Intimidation Roar now lasts 2x longer and can be applied to everything up to 1000 drag weight - Ready For War drums buff now lasts 2x longer and applies to even unridden dinos Elephant Memory: Zygolophodon possesses a very unique ability to remember the exact location of the place it visited before. This means that it can travel great distances from point A to point B, without the guidance of the survivor (survivor just needs to select the exact coordinates on the map where the mastodon is supposed to go). It works like a land-based version of delivery crate. Sexual dimorphism: Visual: Females have thinner and a little bit shorter tusks. Their chin tusks are also much shorter than in males. Gameplay affecting: Males: - Deal 25% more knockback when using attacks - Are much more likely to pick up smaller creatures when fighting - Deal 15% more damage when charging Females: - Reload artillery 20% faster - Unridden can aim better than (unridden) males Utility and scenarios: PvE: Golem/Karkinos/Titanosaur Tamer: The ability to fully utilize heavy artillery mounted on its tusks can make taming any of these hard headed monsters a lot easier task. Automatic Heavy Transport: While not having the best possible weight stat, it still can lead other tames carrying heavy materials to the base without any survivors, thanks to its elephant memory. Combat Specialist: Very high health pool and good damage with knockback resistance, ability to use artillery and to basically bulldoze through armies of dinos (hold LMB attack) certainly makes zygolophodon a very good battle dino. It can be taken to OSDs, alpha hunting, miniboss killing or boss arena to create madness on the battleground. Taming Assist: Zygolophodon can not only hold smaller creatures in its trunk (even unridden) but also use ballista to fire heavy chain bolas and tranq spear bolts at some bigger dinos, helping to knock them out and tame them much safer and faster. PvP: Tank: External torpor immunity and a lot of health will surely be helpful when raiding an enemy's base, or protecting yours. Artillery Engine: The exceptionally high intelligence of zygolophodon allows it to fully utilize heavy artillery (it can reload, aim and fire it) so because of that, you may not need too many survivors to control every single mastodon; just send an army of them and watch how they create a madness. Just remember to watch out for cannon balls and occasional flying enemy shadowmanes... Additional possible abilities: Ability to grow plant X on its tusks and use it similarly to heavy artillery. Weight reduction on structures in its inventory. Conclusion: Zygolophodon klugcaput is definitely a unique creature. If not by the looks, then by the abilities for sure. ARK has a very small number of proboscideans (only 2) and also not very good amount of battle herbivores. There is a lot of spectacular proboscideans from the past that deserve a place in ARK, but zygolophodon is easily one of the most interesting ones. Being very likely 3rd largest land mammal in history and having the biggest teeth ever. FaQ: Why its common name is mastodon but species name is zygolophodon? It’s because the real world species I based this species on is called “Mammut” borsoni (Mammut is mastodon, just like Mammuthus is mammoth). Since its description it has been attributed to both genera Zygolophodon and Mammut. If it wins, Wildcard will decide what to do with the name so it’s not super important right now. Why only mastodon and mammoth can have the Family Avenging buff? That's because in real life, elephants are very social animals that can create emotional bonds with other herd members and creatures. And they really hate losing their friends. I wanted to add something similar to ARK, because I think emotional intelligence is one of the most characteristic elephant traits that is often overlooked. And yeah, mammoths and mastodons are obviously elephant relatives. Scroll down for awesome artwork Real Life Representation In Game Size Saddle Saddle With Ballista Saddle With Cannon All art above done by TheFictionalLawyer Second dossier (art by Lapis Lazuli) Concept art by Jade_317 (used in the main dossier) Special Thanks To: - TheFictionalLawyer - Lapis Lazuli - Jade_317 - XS Wes - Roberto Turati - JadonWin - YOU, for voting mastodon