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Introducing the Giant Porcupine, or Hystrix Refossa Maximus, ARK's best Endgame Mammalian Herbivore. Once hailing from the Pleistocene, is not bulked up in giant size, ready to dominate the ARK's. General Information: Common Name: Giant Porcupine Species: Hystrix Refossa Maximus Time: Pleistocene Diet: Herbivore Temperament: Defensive Credit for the artwork of this piece goes to my good friend Bryan, I really appreciate it. Wild: I have heard legends of a giant porcupine that roams across the lands of the arks, and with these rodents’ reaching sizes that dwarf some of its primeval neighbors that it inhabits these dangerous lands with. It wasn’t until I saw one of these lumbering beasts in the flesh that my mind changed. Absolutely out scaling its extinct relatives by immeasurable magnitude, the Hystrix Refossa Maximus massive size beats the rugged Stegosaurus in length, while the top of its hind quills exceeded the height of the top of the head of a Tyrannosaurus. It is truly a humbling and flooring thing to see. As far as behavior goes, Hystrix Refossa is constantly chewing and harvesting wood to keep its massive front teeth filed down, and lumbers around the fields of the island mowing down berries and shrubs that grow in abondance. As you can assume, this creature’s defense is unmatched, even beating the spiky Kentrosaurus in defensive powers. Unless near the edge of starvation, even the largest of creatures do not mess with the Hystrix Refossa, knowing that the risk is much less worth than its reward. The Hystrix Refossa has also seemed to have beaten the myth that porcupines cannot shoot its quills. This rodent can fire quills by whipping its torso, and such contortions fling quills, causing much bleed to any creature unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire. Domestication: While I have never done it myself, I have heard legends of the most daring tribes learning to harness the power of this giant rodent to have it as base defense, or offensive raids. Though Hystrix Refossa is domesticated by traditional methods of torpidity, survivors must be careful of the retaliation of this creature. Not only merely touching this beast will impale quills into the body, once the porcupine is filled with enough narcotic projectiles, the Hystrix Refossa can fire these quills laced with the sleepy toxins back at its attackers, increasing the change that a survivor can be stabbed back with its own tranquilizer projectiles, and risking falling asleep in the middle of taming this intense creature. But, once it is finally tamed, its rewards are certainly worth using it as a valuable war asset. Tamed: Once Hystrix Refossa is tamed for a tribe of daring individuals, several uses can be taken place with the use and execution of this creature. Being a rodent, Hystrix is almost as proficient at harvesting wood as its beaver cousins, as well as surprisingly harvesting crystals and gems at very surprising rates. Perhaps its buck teeth and strong jaws chip the crystal away easier than other creatures. On the offensive side, a bite from the Hystrix is extremely painful. Its buck teeth cause major gnashing damage, rivaling even Therizinosaurs in its damage. Along with its foul bite, its quills are a whole other monster. Survivors have figured out a way to train the Hystrix to fire these on command. Unlike the Yi Ling, Hystrix almost never runs out of quills, but like the Yi Ling, the quills can be laced with different materials to experience different effects. The Hystrix is also a naturally intimidating creature. Hystrix can contract its muscles together, forcing the quills to become fully erect, and almost double the appearing size of this creature. If resting quills reach the top of a Tryrannosaurus head, then contracted quills reach heights nearing the Gigonotosaurus, causing intimidations to even some of the most dangerous of creatures. Lastly, if it weren’t enough, this beast can roll at slow speeds if caught in a rough situation. I can only imagine the damage done to the poor souls that intercept a rolling Hystrix. Size comparison of Hystrix Refossa against the in-game "T-rex" EXTRA INFORMATION OF THE HYSTRIX REFOSSA MAXIMUS Diet (In order of taming effectiveness): Wood Stimberry Amarberry, Azuelberry, and Tintoberry Mejoberry All Crops Sweet Vegetable Cake Honey Extraordinary Kibble SADDLE INFORMATION (General Information and Primitive Recipe Requirements) Being such a large sized creature, the Hystrix Refossa can seat 3 riders comfortably. This is obtainable by the main saddle rider, positioned near the top of the porcupines back. This rider is the controller of the creature. The other two seats are positioned on the sides of the creature, one on the left, and one on the right. These side riders are in a prone position, lying flat on a sheet of hide and metal, being protected from the quills. Since these riders being prone, that have 100 percent access to use equipment such as firearms, crossbows, net guns, and any shoulder-positioned equipment, or pistols and flare guns. Recipe: 400 Metal Ingots 350 Hide 75 Fiber 150 Chitin/Keratin 200 Cementing Paste 150 Crystal 75 Silica Pearls HYSTRIX REFOSSA MAXIMUS ABILITY INFORMATION: Bite (Left Click): Using its large incisors, Hystrix can bite with extreme force. While this attack isn’t the fastest attack that creatures possess, it can cause gnash damage and is the highest damage-per-attack of any herbivore base melee in the game. Quill Projectile (Right Click, with directional aiming from visual positioning): Hystrix beats folklore and can fling its quills at opponents. Survivors have learned its ultimate use, and that is to carefully apply certain viscous materials to these quills, then fire the projectiles. These are the materials, and its effects: Narcotics: Taming Leech Blood: Swamp Fever Bio Toxin: Electric Shock Spark Powder + Cementing Paste: Chance to Spark a Flame Clay: Blindness Intimidation Factor (C): Hystrix can contort its muscles to intimidate wild and tamed creatures in a confrontation. Can be very useful in situations where an enemy tribe is raiding, or to cause troublesome creatures to tuck tail and run. Swat (X): Hystrix can use its large mammalian paws to swat away other creatures, while not doing to much damage, it can do knock-back to creatures as large as a Tyrannosaurus. Roll (Space): Though not as fast as a Roll Rat, Hystrix can curl its body into a role, and propel itself downhill, either to escape a confrontation, or to initiate an attack. It can impale creatures upon its impact. Once a roll is initiated, a sheet of glass and metal envelops the controller, but not the two side riders, which can cause disorientation to the side riders if the travel is to long (Think the side riders got hit off their tame by a Microraptor, something similar to that effect) Passive Quill Damage: If any creature was to bite, swipe, or hit Hystrix on the back 80 percent of its body, it is in for a sharp and damaging surprise, being impaled by its 7-foot quills, in some cases. These quills cause bleeding and will stack if the Hystrix is hit by the same creature more than once when the bleed is over. Being impaled by a quill adds a new mechanic to the game. Similar to getting rid of leeches, survivors must pluck these quills off of themselves and their tames. If these quills are not removed, it causes a permanent de-buff the creature or survivors total HP. Once removed, they can regenerate to max health, but also will cause another bleed cycle once removed. HARVESTABLE MATERIALS BY THE HYSTRIX REFOSSA MAXIMUS (In Order of Effectiveness) Wood Crystal (All Types) Gems (All Types) Thatch Fiber Berries (Of all Kinds, except Narcoberry) Narcoberry Porcupine Quills (Harvesting From other Dead Porcupines; passively from itself over time) HARVESTABLE MATERIALS UPON HYSTRIX REFOSSA MAXIMUS DEATH Harvesting a Hystrix Refossa by a player or a tame is not safe. It’s even a risk harvesting it , due to its quills. Though it does less damage if it were alive, those spikes still pack a punch, even after the creature is expired. Raw Meat Raw Prime Meat Porcupine Quills Hide EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT HYSTRIX REFOSSA MAXIMUS Hystrix is naturally a passive creature, just ensure you do not accidentally touch a wild one. If this happens, you will get poked by its quills, then will become aggressive. Hystrix quills do not do damage to one another, but the individual melee damages one another (A porcupine can not hurt another porcupine with its quills, the same way Fire Wyverns can’t damage other Fire Wyverns with its breath attack, but can with bites) Hystrix are not very fast travelers, running slow, but with a surprisingly effective turning radius. Hystrix has the highest base melee of any herbivore in the game, slightly giving an edge to Theris, but have mediocre health and extremely low weight. Hystrix are not fast swimmers at all, and have one of the worst oxygen bars in the game. Hystrix can be picked up by Rhynonathia, Quetzals and wyverns, but doing insane damage to them while being carried, almost making it not worth it. Hystrix drop a new item, called Porcupine Quills. They can be obtained in several ways and have a variety of uses. They can rarely drop of wild Hystrix, obtained most from killing a wild Hystrix, or passively obtained from a tamed one. Once obtained, these quills can be applied to openable surfaces such as crafting stations, storage, or doors. They can also be applied to armour, able to be applied to flak, fur, riot, or chitin armour. Once a dino or another survivor hits someone wearing them, they get the same exact effect as they would if they attacked the Hystrix itself, just at a smaller, less dangerous scale. Hystrix and Theris are now tied in the best herbivores in the game for PvP, or PvE engagements, with these two being front runners for the Dragon boss fight. Being a rodent, Hystrix Refossa NEEDS to have constant wood in its inventory for it to eat and gnaw on. If Hystrix does not have wood/fungal wood/thatch to chew on, its large buck teeth begin to grow, restricting the room it can use its formidable bite. If it has wood to chew, it files its teeth down, and allows access for more room in its jaws to apply incredible pressure to the bite force. Hystrix Refossa is somewhat like the abilities of Yi Ling, but with some differences. The substances that can be applied to Hystrix are needed to craft or find, then apply to Hystrix, which engages in a small quick-time mini-game to apply to the quills, to ensure you do not get impaled. Yi Ling’s feathers are finite and are classified by ability after consumption of the creature but require no mini game to apply. Hystrix will never run out of quills but take very large chunks out of the rodents’ stamina, needing quick breaks. HYSTRIX REFOSSA IN THE REAL WORLD Hystrix Refossa was a species of old-world porcupine that lived in the Pleistocene era, hailing from most regions of Eurasia. Also known as the Giant European Porcupine, it is a direct ancestor of its cousin, the African Crested Porcupines, and the Indian Crested Porcupine, which it is the closest relative to the ladder, who hail from Africa and India, respectfully. (Mind Blowing, huh?). As a matter of fact, Hystrix Refossa is depicted to look almost identical to its two closest relatives, just having a much larger size, being roughly 20 percent larger than the aforementioned relatives.