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I can't draw, and have no friends! (That can draw, I mean. I have some friends.) So I did what everyone else does nowadays, and asked an AI! It actually made something kinda cool: Species: Hoplophoneus Insidiator Time: Eocene Diet: Carnivore Temperament: Cautious Wild: Hoplophoneus Insidiator is a species that has adapted to the nature of this derelict ARK like no other. While many creatures simply have adaptions to let them survive here, Hoplophoneus thrives. While not a true cat, it is the closest to filling that ecological niche in the environment. An ambush predator, it is capable of near physics-defying feats of climbing and leaping in pursuit of its prey, thanks to its emphasized claws for grip, and prehensile tail for balance. It has bioluminescent patterning that allows it to blend in seamlessly with its environment, and as such can be found in various biomes, but is equally hard to spot in all of them. It will modify the colouration of its patterning, or even extinguish the light it produces, to gain a stealth advantage wherever it is. It will then perform a lightning-fast leap, at which point its prey stands little chance of escape. In the few situations it feels threatened, it will exhibit strange, colourful patterns to attempt to confuse and intimidate its foe. It seems particularly cautious around particular species native to this ARK, such as Ravager packs and Basilisks. Domesticated: Hoplophoneus makes for a fine addition to any tribe. A fiercely loyal pet, it seems to gain endurance when ridden by its master. It makes for a supremely speedy mount, and all its abilities seen in the wild can be trained to use on command. Light shows to intimidate would-be attackers, and stealth for hunting, it is suited for the more cautious explorer of these hostile caverns. Its climbing prowess also comes in handy for reaching high ledges, but don't expect it to be able to climb for very long while ridden. It can even use its prehensile tail to carry small creatures, such as light-pets! Attempting to tame a Hoplophoneus via traditional methods is difficult. Its high metabolism renders narcotics weak, but the survivors on this ARK have found other methods. By allowing Hoplophoneus to attempt an ambush on oneself, and dodging at the last second, it will enter an intimidation state, attempting to ward you off with lights while slowly backing away. Keep up with it, pet it, and feed it, and it will start to grow tolerant of you. Just don't back it into a corner, or move too fast, otherwise it may attack. Repeating this a few times will allow you to tame it, and Hoplophoneus tamed this way rather than knocking them out seem to be slightly stronger in battle, likely due to the bond it forms via this process. So I always wanted Aberration to have a predator like this, not just surviving, but thriving. With the lack of Thylas, I feel a stealthier option with a bit less bulk is appropriate for the setting. Camouflage would be paramount to a creature like this, so the ability to change or even extinguish the bioluminescence would not only be cool aesthetically, but offer a tactical advantage. Naturally, being a slimly-built medium-sized carnivore, it would be fast to offset its lower health. As you can figure from the dossier, it also has the ability to use light patterns to intimidate foes, which could apply a short debuff to a charging carnivore or hostile mount. Being a fast climber it could then escape, or it could fight the weakened enemy if you so choose. I wanted a unique taming method, and I like the idea of tricking it and slowly bonding rather than just knocking it out. TL;DR: Kinda like a cat but isn't. Climbs and ambushes from high. Has wacky light show for scaring. Fast, lowish bulk. Can grab small stuff with tail. Oh, and it's based off Hoplophoneus Primaevus, obviously gave it bioluminescence to fit Aberration, and took some other creative liberties. Let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions, bring them on!

Name: Sugar Glider Species: Petaurus breviceps Time: early-mid Miocene period Diet: omnivores Temperament: Ebullient (1863 illustration by John Gould) Aberration can be a difficult map to get started on, it can be difficult to traverse around as it’s terrain varies a lot in height a lot from all the different biomes, from the underground to the surface and everything in between. Early game there isn’t many options besides the use of ziplines or gliding suits, so this idea was to help with early game traversing. I got inspired to suggest the sugar glider when I came across two fan made dossiers by Interface5 and Seria602 which I will include below. I thought it would fit super well into aberration especially and surprised I hadn’t seen them submitted before in any of the other creature submissions. Wild They are commonly known as Sugar Gliders due to their love for sweet and sugary foods such as sap and nectar. There ability glide through the air aid them in reaching their preferred food and evading enemies. These gliders can launch them self from trees enabling them to glide 50 meters or more. They are more active during the night and tend to take shelter during the day in tree hollows. Its size cannot be ignored as it is several times larger than its pint-sized counterpart. They are very social pack animals; it is very unlikely that you would find one alone. Domesticated With them being unable to fly they make up for it with their amazing climbing and gliding abilities which make great to traverse the ark. Besides their amazing locomotion they also can strip bark from the trees allowing them to gather their preferred food sources. Fun facts - sugar gliders are omnivores, their preferred food is sap and nectar however they also eat fruit and insects. - female sugar gliders have a marsupium (pouch) that they use to carry babies. - they are nocturnal. - They are very social animals and tend to live in colonies of up to 10 animals - Sugar gliders can produce four types of sounds under normal circumstances: barking, hissing, crabbing, and hissing or purring, but when threatened they bark to warn others of the dangerous surroundings. - Sugar gliders communicate via their saliva and can make distinctive/unique scents that aid in identifying the hierarchy/territory, these scents can also be used in deterring enemies. thoughts I think a nice idea could be they rest during the day, either curled up on the ground (like shadowmanes) as there a lot larger in sizer to their smaller counterparts or they could sleep latched onto trees? (Like how the Thylacoleo attach to them.) Seeing as they adore all things sweet and sugary, I think they should be able to harvest sap and honey from the trees/hives. Since they are not fighting creatures and lack the ability to fight, maybe their bark could startle dinosaurs for a moment allowing them to run away. Maybe they could be able to care for babies in their pouch but limited to two babies maximum. Taming the idea for taming these, since they adore sweet things, I thought it would be nice if you could passively feed them, I think it could be nice if they would come running up to players holding their preferred foods. (Like a ferox to element) So, the idea is a large sugar glider that is an early game mount. With amazing ability at traversing the ark, a good early glider/climber. A top tier traveling companion! The ability to startle dinos around it so it can make an escape from any danger. it would also have the ability to gather sap/honey. information and images credits; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_glider https://a-z-animals.com/blog/10-incredible-sugar-glider-facts/?from=exit_intent https://a-z-animals.com/animals/sugar-glider/ 1863 illustration by John Gould Intergace_5 and Seria602 for the dossiers

Wild If you ever find odd claw marks rising up the side of a sheer cliff, odds are you have found the path of a Diabolotherium. Unlike their larger cousins, these sloths use their claws to climb sheer surfaces, allowing them to traverse the caves of Aberration with ease. They also have a unique mechanism for descending. Their ultra-dense bones combined with springy joints spread the kinetic energy from falling throughout their bodies, meaning they can safely jump from any height and will simply run it off! Taming Diablos would be a very straightforward to tame, were it not for their habit of hanging from vines and cliff-sides where they are hard to reach. To make matters more frustrating, when on the ground their metabolic rate drops near to zero, so it takes much longer to convince them to eat whatever treats you have brought for them. They are omnivorous, but prefer sweet honey above all! Tamed Diablos are very well rounded. They are built sturdy, can carry a lot of weight, and can traverse up and down the caves of their home with ease. Their fur is unique in that it provides itself a natural defense against radiation, and when sheared and made into a saddle, can protect you as well! Just don't try bringing out the scissors near a wild one, as they can become skittish or even aggressive. They gain a great deal of energy to expel upon landing from a great height, so many survivors use them as raiders to ambush from above. Having seen this in action, it's about as gruesome as you would expect, leaving very little of the unfortunate victim to bury.

Wild: Erlikosaurus is a remarkable creature found within the depths of aberration. It is known to be a neutral creature, attacking only those who attack it, except for, strangely Karkinos, of which it will attack regardless. It has been seen scaling cave walls and even ceilings to get to it's targets, meaning that it is quite difficult to escape when angered. Domesticated: Erlikosaurus is an amazing companion to have whilst exploring the caves of aberration, being able to climb walls and has an intimidation tactic where it dances and makes as much noise as it can to ward off smaller enemies. It's saddle has 2 versions- one version with 4 seats for light pets to keep away nameless that also doubles as a mobile smithy, and another with a charge lantern to destroy nameless. There is something quite peculiar you can do with it too- it wears parts of certain other creatures as trophies. For example when it kills and harvests Karkinos it can wear it's claws and pick up other creatures, or attach the spike on a basilisks tail to it's own and gain a tail swipe attack that does knockback. Things it can wear as trophies- Karkinos claws- to pick up small creatures Basilisk tail spikes- for tail swipe attack that does large damage Sauropod Vertebrae- tail swipe attack, but with less damage and more knockback and aoe Reaper top jaw- 3x damage on it's bite attack Rock drake feathers- can allow Erkilosaurus to camouflage Trike top jaw- makes a charge attack Special armour- made from carbonymys shell, arthro and anky plates, chitin, metal ingots and stego plates for a suit of armour that has 100 points extra protection (like a second saddle) Abilities summed up- Dynamic wall and ceiling climbing- can climb around freely on the walls and ceiling Carrier/ smithy saddle- can carry four light pets at a time to keep away nameless, periodically turns light pets on and off i.e. bulbdog runs out of charge, it turns on shinehorn, doubles as a mobile smithy Charge lantern saddle- normal saddle but has a charge lantern on the side of it's neck Trophy Buff- It can use trophies and creature parts and use them, ie karkinos claws to pick up creatures If you have any suggestions then please let me know!

Disclaimer Hello everyone! This is my first time posting an ark creature for the vote. I now present to you the Eophyllium the Mighty Leaf Insect. Eophyllium is an extinct monotypic genus of the Phasmatodea, a type of insect ancestral to the modern Phylliidae. These insects mimic the shape of leaves for camouflage, with a single species, Eophyllium messelensis Since aberration is a non-flyer map and rich in different types of creatures, I came up with a unique creature that doesn’t exist in ark, yet, which is a camouflaging leaf insect. I got bored of big lizards that can rival gigas with super OP abilities and ark need more diverse and unique, so I came up with a unique creature that can fit very well in the aberration map considering the environment and the creatures that inhabit the biome. Basic Info Common Name: Mighty Leaf Insect Species: Eophyllium Messelensis Time: Eocene Diet: Herbivore Temperament: Aggressive Wild: Eophyllium Messelensis is an oversized leaf insect that has adapted to the harsh environment it lives in. It mostly lives in the fertile region but sometimes can be found in the Bio Luminescence region too. Because of this, the Eophyllium’s adapted to the area and developed new abilities like multi-coloured glowing body to emit some light in darkness using leaf branch like veins and able to climb surface of rocks. Females can’t fly but can camouflage according to the environment. Males have forewings, can camouflage, spread its wings to glide and latch on to surfaces, glowing forewings with leaf branch like veins. Its active camouflage helps it to stalk its enemies or to flee from them undetected. Eophyllium’s strongly dislike nameless and reapers and will become aggressive upon seeing them. Domesticated: Aside from its camouflaged ability, tamed Eophylliums that consumed mushrooms can spread a gas around itself, deals an Area of Effect that damage, immune to radiation, hydration or healing depends on the mushroom consumed. These mighty leaf insects can also switch places with dinos whether it's an ally dino or enemy dino. Riders of Eophylliums can Camouflage to blend with structures along with them. Behaviour: Found mainly in the fertile region and sometimes in the bio-luminescent region. They are not aggressive to humans but will attack if provoked or upon stealing their eggs. They are very aggressive towards rock drakes, reapers and nameless. Eophylliums are very difficult to be spotted and if spotted near the area one must not disturb them at any cost. Females are unable to glide but males can glide using their forewings. Appearance: Eophylliums are large creatures with similar size as the Rock Drakes. Female (multicoloured veins across its body) male (multicoloured veins across its body, forewings and antennas), which emits some light. They can glow in the dark with their leaf branch like veins. In their camouflaged state, one can see them blended with the texture it's in to identify them. They can't glow when they're in their camouflaged state. Females are slightly larger than males. Utility Abilities: Camouflage: [C] - To toggle camouflage on/off Primary Attack: - Upon clicking or holding the left mouse button, Eophylliums will use simple bite that deal decent amount of damage Secondary Attack: Upon clicking or holding the right mouse button, the Eophyllium will uses both hands to rapidly slashes its enemy few times. They can also use weapons such as Stone Pick, Stone Hatchet, Metal Sickle, Wooden Club and sword with its hands to attack its enemy or to farm resources. They can also wield a torch to navigate darkness as their glowing body is not bright enough to emit strong light source. Jump: [Spacebar] - Female Eophylliums can jump from ledges to ledges while males can jump and glide to certain distance using its forewings. Passive - Reduced Fall Damage - Eophylliums takes little to no fall damage. They're able to fall from great heights without sustaining much injury thanks to their strong supporting legs and light weight body. Special Attack: [X] - Upon clicking and holding the “X” button, a round cursor will appear in the middle of the screen which can only be used on dinos. The ability is where the Eophyllium can switch its place with any dino the cursor points at. It can be used to flee from enemy or can be helpful when fighting. Special Attacks and Abilities Mushrooms acts as a boost for the Eophylliums (Mushrooms needed) Special Attack: [Z] - Upon consuming certain mushrooms, Eophylliums create a special gas around itself which have special abilities depends on the mushroom consumed. The mushrooms need to be in the inventory of the leaf insect to use its special abilities. Auric Mushroom Reduces radiation damages and immune to radiation sickness Ascerbic Mushroom Releases narcotic gas that increase topor of enemy dinos ( ifthe enemy dino is near the leaf insect, will increase its topor) Provide immunity to element biome Aquatic Mushroom Releases mist gas that hydrate player and immune to poison Aggeravic Mushroom Creates healing gas that heals player, itself and nearby allied dinos Advantages Regeneration (Aggeravic mushroom) Immune to radiation (Auric mushroom) Narcotic gas that increases topor of enemy dinos (Ascerbic mushroom) Hydration (Aquatic mushroom) Riders of Eophylliums can Camouflage along with them Able to wield weapons with hands for fighting or for farming (using Stone Pick, Stone Hatchet, Metal Sickle, Wooden Club, Sword and Torch) Able to switch places with enemy and allied dinos x 2 for farming Aggeravic, Auric, Ascerbic, Aquatic mushrooms Increased spoil time for mushrooms in inventory (3 hours) Resource gatherer (using Stone Pick, Stone Hatchet, Metal Sickle) - 20% for (Stone, Metal, Obsidian) Can climb wall Males can glide using forewings Egg thief Disadvantages Females unable to fly, only way of escaping is Camouflage or switching places They can only switch places with dinos in a certain radius. If the dino is too far away from their switchable radius, the ability will not work. Switching ability doesn’t work on bosses Despite the aggressiveness, they are slightly weaker than Reapers in combat. Even when camouflaged, nameless and reapers still spots them easily Eophylliums have high DPS but medium health pool, this makes it need to consume a lot more mushrooms during battle. When holding a torch, secondary attack doesn't work. Taming Wild Eophylliums cannot be tamed, to obtain a tamed Eophyllium the player must feed the female Eophyllium mushrooms. The player must put the appropriate mushrooms in the 0 hot bar key and approach a female Eophyllium to feed it. Once fed first time, there will be a process bar above it which will display egg laying duration. Players need to keep feeding it until the bar is full. During each feed, the Eophyllium will play an animation and will release a gas depends on the mushroom consumed. If the players are too close to the female during this time, they will try to hunt you, so it's better to get some distance after feeding each time. After successfully feeding it, the bar will be full, it will play an animation and an egg will be dropped by the female. Once the player gets the egg, the Eophylliums surrounding the area will get alerted and will try to take you down. Upon receiving the egg, the player must hatch it to get a baby Eophyllium. The baby Eophyllium only consumes mushrooms until their juvenile state, after the juvenile state can feed berries and meat. Adults can be mated but there're 2 possibilities. If the player got themself a female Eophyllium, because they are parthenogenetic, which means females can shift between sexual and asexual reproduction. If a raised female hasn't mated with a male before laying eggs, she produces eggs parthenogenetically where the embryos develop from unfertilised eggs, and females give birth to more females. The baby that hatched with asexual reproduction will be the clone of its mother. To obtain a male, the player must successfully get an egg from the wild that gives a male. Drops Forewings (Males) Meat Chitin

Dossier: Glypheoidea better known by survivors as a Crawdad though In terms of size this thing seems to be around 14ft long sporting two large claws on the front that add a few extra feet in length, and even compares to the Karkinos that roam near it and the Cindarias it eats as snacks. Being the ancestor of our modern Crayfish I can see how this thing has adapted to living here, This cave has water everywhere it's the perfect place for these things to thrive, although it's adaptation to living in the element lakes below is rather peculiar. Though those seem to be a bit different in look. Wild: When dealing with them in the wild, they seem harmless in comparison to the Karkinos, until a survivor decides to see how hard the shell is. The massive claws can pack a decent punch, and the many legs underneath can carry it at a decent speed. One survivor tried to kill one while hanging from a climbing pick, until the thing dug its claws into the rock and one by one pull itself closer. In order to kill it Mei Yin ended up knocking it upside down with her Drake and making quick work of its underside. Domestication: Some Survivors have managed to tame these however, using biotoxin to leave it a trail of bread crumbs right into a cannon. After using the cannon on its side to knock it over, it was very quickly knocked unconscious using basic narcotics and fed like any other tame. It still preferred the biotoxin over anything, and even ignored the shocking tranqs we tried previously as it just digested it. After tamed It was quite the useful steed. Not quite as fast as the Rock Drake we use, but quick enough and durable enough to go on extended hunting trips for resources and such. Using the Glow sticks and More Malleable Wood from these trees we managed to construct a mobile home on its back that we could fold up if we needed to move anywhere or climb. The driver had to lie down of course to have enough room, but we did manage to fit a fabricator, smithy and even a vault on the back. Once we got to a good stopping place we just unhooked the latches and let to fold back out into an open crafting station. Note: The peculiar ones we found swimming in element, we finally managed to lure one out, Though it didn’t follow the biotoxin like before it instead was more attracted to our reaper pheromones, once our it would have been the same process as before, until it decided not to get knocked over with one cannon shot, We just couldn't quite hit it hard enough to knock it on its back. We did finally domesticate it after constructing a radiation proof saddle on our other Glypheoidea, we just decided to feed it one of our tames after feeding it a reaper pheromone gland. Upon closer inspection the Elemental Glypheoidea has some larger claws on front, and seems to glow somewhat, being a strong as this thing is we eventually constructed a pill box on its back and mounted a cannon, not a lot of space for crafting but more durable and enclosed. Riding: It would be similar to the Megachelon in the sense that it has 2 basic attacks, 1 Attack using it's claws and another spitting water in front of it, though this uses some of it's water stat. This attack can be changed to be a stun like attack similar to the Voidwyrm by feeding it Biotoxin, both slowing creatures hit by it and creatures relatively close to it. When the Saddle is closed the rider will lay down on it's back while riding and the creature is capable of climbing cliffs similar to the Megalania, by digging it's larger claws in to the rock. Stationary: When not actively moving you can fold the saddle out forming a decently wide platform saddle fitting whatever crafting stations you would like in the slots in the creatures inventory. While in this mode, the creature has half movement speed, and cannot climb. This mode would be useful to accompany survivors near the rock drake nest as a temporary outpost to repair hazmat and or log off, as with a hazard saddle nothing inside is affected by radiation. Similar in design to a Mobile Home that can fold out when you decide not to go anywhere. The Glypheoidea is capable of being a decent combat mount, and the structures attached to the saddle being part of the saddle make them immune to damage, however It's damage would still lack in comparison to the Reaper and Rock Drake on Aberration. Breeding: To breed they must be in water and touching the bottom of whatever source to be able to dig in the mud and make a hole to lay eggs in. If not in a suitable environment, the Female is capable to taking an extended period to hatch the eggs inside her body and give a live birth. It would have half weight on structures, wood, stone, and metal. It would be the first creature that has a water stat that needs instead of a food stat, however It gets water from biotoxin, swimming, and being in range of water, and a slight amount of water gained from fish meat. It's platform saddle would be able to fit everything smaller than an industrial grinder, and a maximum of 5 slots for placeable stations (generator, storage, and crafting) and 1 slot for beds, or seating.) Basic Primitive Saddle: 5 slots, and 1 slot Hazard Sealed Saddle: 3 Slots and 1 Slot, The Hazard Saddle sports a generator at the back side powered by congealed gas balls and protecting any in the base from radiation and water. Cannon Module can be placed using all 3 slots. Image Sources: Wikipedia first image, Elden Ring Wiki Second Image, Youtube Ten Fold Engineering Third Image

Galverpeton is a curious beast, often seen feeding off the charge light provided from glow bugs and charge nodes, these unique reptiles have made their home in the complex tree system of Aberration's blue zone. They are actually quite friendly, but earning one's trust to be your own tame requires giving it a lot of its favorite food, Charge Light. Taming method- Use charge lanterns or light pets with high charge capacity to shine on the Galvero, slowly increasing taming (faster with more sources of light). Another bar begins to fill when light is shined on it, when this bar fills up it will release an Overcharged energy wave that shuts down charge sources in the area, If the charge being used to tame it shuts off, it will rapidly lose progress after just a few seconds. Make sure to time your lantern or pet shut offs to avoid being crippled by the charge emp wave, and keep up your taming progress and you'll have your very own climbing, healing, charge disabling, and energy-spitting friend to help you on aberration! Spawns in Blue Zone, clings to tree branches or ceiling, tamed by hitting it with constant charge light while avoiding light surges that drain active light sources. Size- about trike size, longer but shorter Attacks Headbutt- harvests fungal wood and mushrooms/berries. Charge Up- Rapidly increases charge amount, siphoning charge from nearby sources and increasing speed while channeling. Rapidly heals and regens stamina when near sources of charge light while channeling. Using this skill while charging disables the charge glow, stopping seekers from aggroing and disabling other charge related abilities until activated. (Normal- charge light active, use once to activate charge up, use twice to go dark). Light Surge- Releases a wave of light around it that travels farther the more charge it currently has, the light wave blinds those affected, and deals damage to seekers, reapers, and nameless. Also overcharges things powered by batteries, disabling battery operated devices for 5 seconds. Charge Bolt- Spits out an explosive bolt of charge energy that deals triple damage to nameless and reapers. Cannot damage structures. Charge Healing- Radiates a glow that wards off nameless, attracts seekers, and consumes 10 charge energy every 0.25 seconds to heal 1hp to every ally in range, the heal increases to up to 10hp every 0.25 seconds the longer this ability is held. (Needs very high charge capacity or several light sources to drain to achieve max healing) Toggle climb- Enables or disables climbing Abilities- -Leg membranes negate fall damage and allow fast swimming -Passively charges overtime, consuming some extra food. Can charge up charge batteries in inventory. (And drain them to promote self regen when Charge Up is active) -Good mushroom harvester, has 50% weight reduction for rare mushrooms, fungal wood, and aberrant mushrooms. Also harvests double nameless venom. -Immune to radiation, cnidaria toxin, plant z stun, electrophorus, and reaper caccoon acid. -Moves faster when climbing, and can fit through small gaps about the same height as a raptor. -Has a turret mode, will heal when enemies aren't in range, will fire charge bolts when enemies are in range. Roles- Harvester, ranged combat mount, traveling mount, egg hunter, nameless hunter, healer, charge manipulator, base defender. Weaknesses- head to head combat, fast climbers, flyers, baryonyx, ranged damage, torpidity(has very low torpor), low health scaling, relies on charge light Natural predators- Basilisk, Reaper Queen, Seeker, Baryonyx, Spino, Megalo, Rockdrake, Ravagers

First and foremost, I have to give a huge thanks for Sail for helping me flesh up the concept and for creating the dossier. You’re an amazing help! (link to him will come later) The cavernous terrain of Aberration is filled with slopes and cliffs, making traversal difficult with most creatures. While some creatures have gimmicks used to handle those obstacles, the Rock Drake is the only creature who traverses the terrain with ease. Gigantohyrax is meant to represent an alternative late game travel mount to the Rock Drake, with its own gimmicks and utilities, but not as a superior alternative. This concept takes inspiration from modern hyraxes, amplifying their characteristics to create its own niche in the game, as a travel mount, but also as a support creature. As a travel mount: Though considerably larger than the real animal, the Gigantohyrax won’t be a huge creature by Ark standards, with a size somewhere between the Sabertooth and the Thylacoleo. Like rock hyraxes will have an exceptional climbing ability, capable of quickly traversing near vertical surfaces, sprint on their side and move on zip lines. It may not be able to climb upside down nor glide in the air like a Rock Drake, but it’s faster and more agile than the larger reptile. To assist in climbing, it will also have a good jump and take little-no fall damage in case of a bad step. To further aid in the travels in Aberration, the creature will have a slot in its saddle for a shoulder mount, such as a light pet. The shoulder critter will be treated like a passenger rider, protected from most outside attacks. If a light pet, the rider will also be able to activate and deactivate the light as if it was on their shoulder. Combat wise, Gigantohyrax is not your choice, with low health but decent damage. Its left click attack will be a quick and weak nibble, whose primary use will be to gather berries. The right click attack is a powerful bite using the tusks, but it’s slow, resulting in modest DPS. A common reaction against threats will be escape, and it has an additional trick up its sleeve for that: Pressing “ctrl”, the hyrax will pose a threat display with its tusks, stopping small creatures from attacking for a handful of seconds and giving a window for escape. In addition, the creature will actually benefit from radiation, getting damage resistance and stamina drain reduction as buffs, helping you survive the many threats in the most dangerous part of the underground. Utility as a support mount: Hyraxes can sing, and surprisingly perhaps, actually have complex songs with patterns. In game, Gigantohyrax will have at least two separate songs, which it can switch between at will. The first song is the “Energy” song. This song give allied creatures improved stamina recovery while reducing stamina drain. A more niche use, fit for Aberration, it that the song will also fill up the charge of light pets, allowing them to continue glowing without a break, while also increasing their range. This also applies to light pets on the saddle slot, reducing the reliance of Plant Species Z to avoid getting attacked by a thousand Nameless. The second song is the “Recovery” song. This song heals allied creatures (though considerably worse than Daeodon and Snow Owls) while giving them some damage resistance. More uniquely though, the song will also help creatures “recover” from mating, by speeding up the drain of the mating interval. For example, the cooldown will drop two or three times as fast as it normally would. There could also be a third song, but we were undecided about what it should be. We considered something related to baby maturation or imprinting, but we first need to see what Gigantoraptor brings to the table. Gigantohyrax will only be able to sing while stationary. When moving around, the song will temporarily stop singing until the hyrax stays in place once again. One great advantage about the hyrax is that it could be set to sing while unridden, allowing it to indefinitely buff creatures in its vicinity - especially useful for breeders using the Recovery song. However, while you could have many hyraxes sing the same song next to one another, a creature that will hear different songs at the same time will have their effects nullified. How to obtain? In the wild, Gigantohyrax will be found in the green and blue zones of Aberration. When noticing danger (ie an aggressive creature, a player or a tame), it will run away, going to steep terrain most creatures will be unable to follow it to. However, if a small-medium actually hits one while other hyraxes are around, the escape will turn to attack. The threat will be ganged up by many pairs of tusks, giving a painful lesson to the attacker. However, a player will be able to pacify the creatures by playing drums. When playing the instrument, a hyrax will approach and play a note. The player must play the drums accordingly. If they succeed, the hyrax will allow for a feed before retreating again. Rinse and repeat until taming. To keep Gigantohyrax as a late game tame, it will only accept Extraordinary Kibble as taming food. This is to require players to get Rock Drake eggs beforehand, preventing the cheesing of the trench using the creature before a player gets a Drake themselves.

Metalurax-aberrant salamander The Metalurax would be an incredible addition to the Aberration map, a new and unique amphibian for this amazing setting. Amphibians are scarce in the Ark game, so it would be a perfect addition to this category. With its unique and magnificent characteristics, the Metalurax can be both a shoulder pet and a formidable carnivore, depending on your choice. A creature with such design in the Ark Ascended game would be incredible. Just imagine the level of radioactive glow and the radiant details that this creature would have in Engine 5, it would be truly magnificent. So, that's my cue, and now let's dive into the world of the Metalurax. The Metalurax is a magnificent amphibian that emits an intense glow. It possesses incredibly strong claws, allowing it to climb reasonably well, thanks to its slimy and adhesive substance, rivaling the impressive Rock Drake. The Metalurax has antennas similar to those of the Axolotl, capable of detecting movements, much like the Snow Owl does with its heat vision. Its jaw, during the metamorphosis phase, is incredibly powerful and can also release a radioactive substance, similar to how the Dilophosaur releases its slime. The membranes around the Metalurax's body provide it with highly effective swimming abilities. Although it cannot fly or plant, its climbing ability combined with its ability to cushion falls can be used for locomotion. Dossier: Common Name: Metalurax Species: Ambystoma aberrans Time: unknown Diet: carnivore Temperament: agressive Wild: in the wild, the Metalurax can also pose a significant challenge. Its agility in the water is impressive, allowing it to move with dexterity and speed through the radioactive waters. Now, imagine such a fast creature combined with its radioactive bite ability. It would be a true terror for survivors venturing into the radioactive areas. Killing this wild animal for meat is not a good option, as its body is highly radioactive. Domestication: The process of domesticating the Metalurax in its larval form involves the use of toxins, such as those from Titanoboa or Nameless. However, for a more effective and expedient domestication, it is recommended to create a toxin at the chemistry bench using specific ingredients, including the venom of Nameless and Titanoboa, hallucinogenic mushrooms, a significant amount of narcotics, and a new substance acquired from the Alpha Basilisk—its venom, which can be obtained by killing it. Once you have obtained this substance or the venoms from Titanoboa or Nameless, you must venture into the hostile and radioactive areas where the Metalurax is found. These creatures are rare, usually spawning only one or two at a time. When you encounter them, you must use Reaper pheromones to scare them, as they will attack you relentlessly if you don't. Having used the pheromones, you must chase after them since they will attempt to flee. The most effective way to stop them is by using bolas. After successfully immobilizing the Metalurax, it is crucial to stay close to it to familiarize it with your scent and allow you to approach. At this point, you can feed it the prepared toxins. Once the Metalurax consumes the toxins, the domestication process is complete, and you will have a strong and loyal creature by your side. Domesticated: Once domesticated, you will have an incredible creature. In its larval form, its abilities include: -It can be carried on your back, absorbing and converting the radiation in its surroundings into an intense light that scares nearby animals.- The Metalurax only produces a radioactive sticky substance that can be extracted in its larval form. During the metamorphosis phase, it will not produce a sufficient amount of this substance. Metamorphosis: To undergo metamorphosis, the Metalurax requires the creation of another substance in the chemical bench, using honey, mushrooms, toxins, pheromones from both female and male Metalurax, as well as an element, either in powder or fragment form. Giant Salamander Stage: After injecting the substance into the Metalurax, its transformation process will begin, and it will enter a cocoon stage, evolving into the salamander phase, similar to the growth of a hatchling. Once this transformation is complete, you will have a powerful creature by your side, a true large carnivore, if we can call it that. The abilities of the Metalurax in its adult phase are: With its strong claws and sticky slime, it can climb walls and cushion falls, emerging unscathed from its explorations. Another ability of the Metalurax is the conversion of a small amount of radiation around it into a radioactive slime, similar to the Dilophosaur. When it shoots this slime, it blinds all enemies and inflicts corrosive damage that destroys armor and irradiates its targets. Furthermore, thanks to its radiation absorption, the Metalurax has the ability to camouflage itself, like the Rock Drake and the Shadowmane. However, this ability consumes a lot of energy and is rarely used in combat. The Metalurax's bite is also corrosive, capable of breaking metal structures and causing significant damage to creatures due to the injected radiation. The Metalurax also has antennas that detect movements of nearby creatures. Additionally, the Metalurax can be used for gathering activities as its corrosive slime can break down all metals and rocks in the game. Although the Metalurax in its metamorphosis stage does not emit a light that scares animals around it, its antennas produce a blue light that helps the player see in dark nights in the Aberration. A tail strike can also be added, a powerful move where its radioactive membranes carry a radioactive energy that paralyzes the target, similar to cnidarians. Some additional ideas for the Metalurax: Perhaps a Tek saddle that allows the animal to perform high jumps or glide like the Rock Drake, or that allows it to remain in camouflage for longer periods. Additionally, this saddle could provide a protective shield for the animal. Also, it would be possible to have a wrist-mounted weapon that can be equipped by humans, a weapon capable of releasing the slime produced by the Metalurax in its larval phase. This weapon would shoot slime projectiles forward, corroding everything in the area it hits, making it perfect for targeting animals and corroding them from the inside, easily killing them. The radiation emitted by this slime can also aid in creature taming, as small doses before taming can reduce hunger. However, as useful as it may be, the weapon has its limitations. Due to its high radioactivity, it corrodes the entire weapon and breaks the device. There would be a limit of 10 slime shots per weapon before the weapon is completely corroded and the device breaks. Procreation: For breeding Metalurax, you must have a couple in the metamorphosis phase and take them to the radioactive lake to initiate mating. The female will lay the egg in the water, and you must collect it and take it to a chemical workstation. Adding an element to the egg will ensure that the animal is born in the metamorphosis phase, as without it, the newborn animal will always remain in the larval phase. To hatch the Metalurax egg, you must once again take it to the radioactive water and use some Diplocaulus to incubate it, as air conditioners and incubators seem to malfunction or have no effect on this creature. Size: --------------------------- Credits to Gisselda santos I hope that Wildcard adds this creature or creates one similar to it, that would be incredible. Who wouldn't want a beautiful and cute shining Axolotl in their base? Especially if it's useful? Everyone! So, vote for this creature for the next Ark Ascended creature. If anyone has ideas, I will definitely check them out and add them.

Common Name: Cave otter Species: Lutrinae Caverna Time: Unkown Diet: Piscivore Temperment: Angelic Wild: Lutrinae Caverna is one of the most kind creatures in the caves of Aberration saving small creatures from the creatures that seek to kill. When a Lamprey is in trouble Lutrinae Caverna will save it but with different intentions as once saved it will enter a playful state. From Helena Walkers studies these creatures have rocks embedded into their claws to help with climbing. Though it seems odd for Otters to climb, Cave Otters climb to escape from predators. Once they have climbed to a safe space Lutrinae Caverna makes it self look helpless and then pounces on its predator causing bleed. Domesticated: Once tamed Lutrinae Caverna's instincts to save will be limited to its owner and their tames. Lutrinae Caverna can also provide warmth to its owner and remove leeches by carefully taking them off then playing with them as if they were toys then you can pet them to increase its friendliness to you. To tame a Cave otter first you must have a lamprey attach cling to you, then you must find a Cave Otter. Once the leech is removed and the Otter is playing with it you can feed the otter fish meat. The Cave Otter is a versatile early - mid game tame that has some abilities from the creature that inspired it in the last creature like being immune to stun and insulatiting fur. Its abilities it gained from the Aberrant map was gaining the rocks in its claws allowing it to climb and its unique ability to save creatures from predators. Cave otters are rideable.

Hello Survivors, here is my submission for the Aberration Creature Vote, I have typed all the necessary information here for easy reading, but if you prefer a more traditional approach I have also attached a sample dossier at the end of the post. Enjoy! Dossier: Common Name: Fringe-Limbed Tree Frog (Flying Frog) Species: Ecnomiohyla rabborum Time Period: Modern (Extinct) Diet: Carnivorous Temperament: Aggressive Wild: In my time amongst the crags, cliffs, and overhangs of Aberration, I have come across a much unusual creature. In appearance it is very similar to the old earth gliding tree frog, but if it was given a huge size boost and a much more voracious appetite. These cliff dwelling amphibians will eat anything they can get their mouth around, but they have an unusual way of doing it. Despite being agile, fast, and able to cover great distances through the air, these silent hunters prefer to wait in ambush. They use their sticky feet to cling to the underside of an overhang or the side of a cliff, and when potential prey walks by they use their long, whip-like tongue to grab them and reel them into their jaws, swallowing their prey whole. I've even heard tale of one being seen grappling a full-grown rex. Domestic: Should you or your tribemates be crazy enough to tame such a creature, you will find yourselves in the company of a very useful friend. Once tamed, they can use their tongue to grab enemies and their tames, bringing them in close so that you and your tribemates can make the final blow. They can also use this same attack to grab ahold of wild dinosaurs, bringing them in and holding them still so that they can be knocked out or killed. While they don't have much in the way of teeth, their saliva is acidic in nature, and will consistently injure the enemy or dino that is being held. Much like the rock drake that also calls this ARK home, they are capable of climbing any surface, and of gliding great distances using the webbing in their hands and feet. While they are not found in or around water, they are also superb swimmers, and are capable of utilizing this same grab attack even when submerged. Taming: These slimy critters understand one thing better than any creature I've encountered thus far: food. They are voracious eaters, and in order to befriend one, you'll have to feed it live dinosaurs that have been tamed by you or your tribe, but be careful not to end up as a meal yourself! Once full, it should be relatively familiar with your scent, and will descend from its perch to greet you. At this point you will be able to saddle it up and be on your way! Just be careful that the feeding process is not interrupted by any dinosaurs that haven't been tamed by you or your tribe, as this will only hinder the process. Abilities: - Tongue Grapple: Shoots target with tongue, grabbing them and reeling them into the frogs jaws - Tongue Slap: Instead of grappling, you can choose to have your frog simply slap the target - Acidic Saliva: Once grappled, the target is subject to consistent damage from the frog's saliva, as long as they are grappled. This saliva also melts weapons and armor. - Gliding: Can leap into the air and glide great distances - Climbing: Can climb vertically and upside-down - Rider Weaponry Allowed: Grapple a target with your frog's tongue attack, reel them in, and then attack with your own weapons! - Immune to Fall Damage - 360 Rider View Breeding: Like most amphibians, this creature needs to be in water for breeding, and the eggs must stay underwater throughout the entire incubation process. Once the egg hatches, the baby will be a tadpole, and will need to remain in the water until the juvenile stage, at which point they can be removed from the water and brought onto land to grow. Spawning: In the wild, the flying frog can be found clinging to the walls and cliffs of Aberration, waiting for an unsuspecting, yet tasty, snack. Notes: This creature has wonderful PvP and PvE applications. It has armor melting saliva, great mobility, the ability to grapple both players and tames larger than itself (up to Rex size), it can swim, glide through the air, or simply hop along the ground. The player can use weapons, see in 360 degrees when stationary, and even park their frog for safekeeping on a cliff or a wall before dismounting, if they so choose.

Giant Porcupine – Hystrix Gigantea – taming companion About The Hystrix Gigantea or H. Refossa is an extinct species giant porcupine 20% larger then its closest living relative, lived during the Pleistocene era, 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago, was widespread amongst Eurasia with specimens discovered in Israel, Java and northern Greece. The real world counterparts cannot spit or fire quills, with the species from the Americas being tree climbers, able to jump and swim, and the European species being mostly nocturnal and living in burrows or underground dens. This extinct species will take from both the European and American species along with some typical ark liberties and fancifications. Some quills have been found to have antibiotic properties Length 115cm or 45 inches, upto 40KG Dossier Common name: Giant Porcupine Species: Hystrix Gigantea Time: pleistocene Diet: Herbivore Temperament: Docile Wild Taming the giant porcupine would be a passive tame that would need to be distracted with giant bee honey before the survivor sneaks up behind the giant porcupine to feed its favourite kibble, savaroot or berries once tamed this creature can be carried similar to kairuku and dodos Abiliites Antibiotic Quills A tamed Giant Porcupines quills could be harvested and used for there antibiotic properties, healing Swamp Fever, mega rabies, radiation poisoning but the quills will not be strong enough to provide immunity, thus fitting in below the already established ‘lesser antidote’ which grants immunity for a short time. Taming Companion a tamed one throw down next to an unconscious herbivore (or carnivore?) would be able to rub up against it and heal the herbivore through its antibiotic quills, this would not ruin taming affinity being fed a specific diet of organic polymer and narcoberries/narcotic/biotoxin, a the quills take on a torpor applying ability allowing the tamed Giant Porcupine to be able to keep even the largest of creatures torpor up, no longer do we need to torpor watch an unconscious giga or other fast torpor creature Climbing Mount Much like how the diplocaulus is not a mount unless it is in water, the Giant Porcupine can only be mounted while it is climbing. Simply throw it at a wall then hold onto its tiny saddle handles as it can climb, albeit rather slowly even during earthquakes Base Defence Like a lesser Velenosaur, although unrealistic, this small mount can throw its quills at enemies, and coupled with its ability to deal torpor when fed the correct diet, this works as a ranged base defence creature that can deal fast torpor and knock out any invading player or small mount Scarer Depending on its level a tamed Giant Porcupine can scare off small, to medium and maybe even weaker large sized creatures working as a good mount to carry around with you while on adventures, at the sign of danger, throw this guy down and he will rattle his quills creating fear in the wild creatures similar to a yutyrannus Unique Items Antibiotic Quills – will have a spoil timer and a small stack size and a short cooldown between usage to encourage players who can, to use lesser antidote and he correct armor for the job. Quills (& Blowpipe) – along with antibiotic quills, regular hollow quills can be harvested from a wild corpse or a tamed Giant Porcupine with a sickle, these can be used ina blow pipe or longkneck rifle as tranq darts, to counter the cheaper cost to make (not needing ingots) these tranq quills will spoil In a similar fashion to shocking tranq darts Sources: https://prehistoric-fauna.com/Hystrix-refossa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hystrix_refossa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_porcupine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_World_porcupine

This is another one of my favorite submissions done by someone else. Sovira made the dossier themselves and came up with the original submission. If they do post I would like this post to be subbed off of their post. [Artwork done by Sovira.] Sovira:Hello allies of the Ark! My submission here is a jumping spider species that is said to have lived once between 23 and 15 million years ago, and the excitement of that discovery led to its last name, eureka! I genuinely hope to see Maevia eureka find its way to Ark some day, any support for it is infinitely appreciated, please take a moment to toss it a vote if you would like to see it around in Ark! (This art is from Sovira) These are my thoughts on how Maevia eureka could fit into the world we play in, in a way that reflects real life jumping spiders combined with genetic modifications from other spiders, and how they might fit into Ark in a fun and meaningful way that reflects other creatures of Ark and how important each and every one of these creatures is. I felt that, as Maevia is more of a taming companion, this gives us a different way to tame creatures using a non-harmful method! As it is on just about any map, there are many risks you take while engaging with your targets due to the fact that the Ark can be quite chaotic so having to be weary of your surroundings at all times is one thing, but the larger the creature, the weaker the bola... You may find yourself having to maneuver around an area and keep your targets attention while allowing for your jumper to gather enough venom to ensnare it once again. Habitat - This is a creature that is capable of being added to any map in the game due to its likeliness of living in caves, but also as jumping spiders can be found in so many different environments, there particularly are no limits to where they could be found! Ability - Prey Lure You're out roaming around on your two equus when one of them begins to pick up an irresistible scent coming from a nearby cave wall. Your equus is nibbling on a suspended droplet when you notice the faint glinting coming off the web it's attached to, within an instant a jumper has lunged at your equus covering it with its bola and is quickly wrapping it up in its webbing, but in order to free your companion you need to tear at the webbing, as a few good kicks will send that jumper scurrying up the wall to hide! Ability - Tranq Bola The thought is that jumpers could take the droplets they store and work them into their webbing to create venom-coated webs that could be thrown like a bola. The webs would have a tranquilizing effect whenever touched, thus causing their target to build up torpor and eventually go unconscious. Ability - Latching As a jumping spider, they have outstanding agility and the ability to crawl on walls, but at a more rapid pace, maybe even with the cost of stamina drain for balance! An optional thing I had given thought to was the ability to fully latch onto smaller prey in order to accurately cover the target with their readied net. Ability - Locking On This is the single feature that would make this creature so invaluable, and even possibly make it require a very difficult feat for taming it due to that power, as with the spiders extreme accuracy, it could 'lock onto' a target, and the net cast would be immediate, rendering even jumping managarmrs unable to jump, though I do feel that stamina might be a way to balance this out! Trait - Scary Face This spider was designed in thought with evolving to be able to terrify larger than normal predators, making it an incredibly useful tame for bases, keeping your creatures better protected when having to move them around the map, I imagined it could come with an extra ability to raise its back legs with its abdomen to stay in this stance on the ground, or you could enable an option within the radial menu allowing it to find and hang down from a nearby pole, perhaps even a new item for the spiders and flyers alike, akin to a perch? Trait/Ability - Dance! Jumping spiders in the real world have very little differentiation on sizes between male and female. The idea was that the males would be the ones that allow you to get close enough to tame them, while females will try to kill you if you do this, and when you find a male companion, he has the ability to dance when you find a female, you can engage in this dance, maybe a left/right/up/down type of button combination you have to get right in order for her to find your boy worthy of her prescence, and in the meantime you can shower her with presents of food until she wants your boy to dance for her again, gradually gaining her trust. When a movement is not corrected quickly enough, she would become hostile and attack, and you may have to wait for her to cool off before you can attempt this ritual again! Dossier! If there's one thing I can say about Maevia eureka, you do not want to be caught in its sights! I once witnessed a jumper locking onto its prey with the most incredible accuracy, lunging at it with lightning speed and within the blink of an eye, its prey was being saved as a snack for later. They seem to have the genes of a few other spiders like that of the ogre spider, as it can cast a gathering of its webbing along with a little dab of the venom droplet it keeps stored on its head, working that into its web to create paralytic bolas that seem to render its prey unconscious. I have reason to believe the hairs that grow on its back legs came from the peacock spider, but due to its need for protection, it also uses these 'feathers' as a menacing face that can scare off large predators, I've seen some tribes set up posts that they can hang from around the fronts of their bases. I will say one thing is for certain, though they are nearly the size of a dire bear, they are quite the cuties, especially for being a spider, there is a certain intelligence you can see when you look into their eyes, I just can't place it, but they truly make remarkable companions with the ability to rapidly scale walls, caves, cliffsides and such. By no means are they a beast of burden, however they make up for this with their abilities to constrict or assassinate their targets. Maevia eureka can take down much larger prey with its torpor inducing bola, the net cast, and this makes them remarkable allies for taming other creatures. Though I haven't been able to get close enough to befriend one of the females, the males don't seem to mind me being in a remote vicinity with them as much

This ancient mammal was twice the size of a lion and one of the world's greatest preditors. This creature would have a bowerful bite that inflicts bleed damage. The simbakubwa was a fast and agile creature with great climbing and jumping abilities. My idea for the simbakubwa is that he would have a tracking ability and would be able to tell you what creatures and players with their levels that are within a certain radius of him. He would also be able to track the footprints of targeted players or creatures by using a smelling ability that would last for a certain amount of time. The simbakubwa would spawn in the desert biome. I think the simbakubwa was a fascinating animal and is well deserving of a place in ark.

I will be reposting this for Aberration! Please give me a chance to! I also am currently working on more artwork for this cutie, examples of how it would look in aberration as well, and a proper size comparison profile for it! Bear with me as I work on these, and any future suggestions are always welcome & appreciated! ❤️ {Any comments and votes are majorly appreciated as they both help so much with our submissions! Thank you so much!} Hello allies of the Ark! My submission here is a jumping spider species that is said to have lived once between 23 and 15 million years ago, and the excitement of that discovery led to its last name, eureka! I genuinely hope to see Maevia eureka find its way to Ark some day, any support for it is infinitely appreciated, please take a moment to toss it a vote if you would like to see it around the wilds of Ark! I believe that Scorched Earth would be such a wonderful place for this as well, as caves have so much potential as a habitat for this cutie! This means it really could be in just about any map throughout Ark, and could be an essential travel companion within them! I wanted to fill in some gaps and explain a bit more thoroughly my thoughts on how this fluffy cutie could be an incredible addition to our beloved ark, not just for PVE, but PVP as well! I will try and simplify this and keep it from becoming a bit of a tldr as well. Ability - Cast Nets / Venom Droplet (these go together!) So what I was thinking is, jumpers could collect venom from their fangs using their claws, and gather it on their heads in a droplet, thus being able to quickly apply it when needed, and by applying it I mean as they spin a cast net, they gather some of the venom and it comes off onto the web, applying to it a paralysis / torpor-like effect. Another idea I had and will add onto this is the potential that only females can do this, and the males being more like assassins and their venom being killer, rather than torpor based, as this would create diversity between the two and make the female very valuable for taming, but not render the male nowhere near as useful, though this is left for thought! Ability - Latching As a jumping spider, they have outstanding agility and the ability to crawl on walls, but at a more rapid pace, maybe even with the cost of stamina drain for balance! An optional thing I had given thought to was the ability to fully latch onto smaller prey in order to accurately cover the target with their readied net. Ability - Locking On This is the single feature that would make this creature so invaluable, and even possibly make it require a very difficult feat for taming it due to that power, as with the spiders extreme accuracy, it could 'lock onto' a target, and the net cast would be immediate, rendering even jumping managarmrs unable to jump, though I do feel that stamina might be a way to balance this out! Trait - Scary Face This spider was designed in thought with evolving to be able to terrify larger than normal predators, making it an incredibly useful tame for bases, keeping your creatures better protected when having to move them around the map, I imagined it could come with an extra ability to raise its back legs with its abdomen to stay in this stance on the ground, or you could enable an option within the radial menu allowing it to find and hang down from a nearby pole, perhaps even a new item for the spiders and flyers alike, akin to a perch? Trait/Ability - Dance! The idea was that the males would be the ones that allow you to get close enough to tame them, while females will try to kill you if you do this, and when you find a male companion, he has the ability to dance when you find a female, you can engage in this dance, maybe a left/right/up/down type of button combination you have to get right in order for her to find your boy worthy of her prescence, and in the meantime you can shower her with presents of food until she wants your boy to dance for her again, gradually gaining her trust. When a movement is not corrected quickly enough, she would become hostile and attack, and you may have to wait for her to cool off before you can attempt this ritual again! Radial Menu - Silk or Venom & Potential Personalities! This could be a way to create huge variety in your tames, or even make finding wild ones way more fun, as it would give them a kind of 'personality' in a way, something that makes them unique between each other. There are two ideas in ways this may play out... A) Jumpers would have radial menu options of silk or venom/torpor, where these options could be enhanced with levels placed into them, depending on which one you would like that particular spider to be. B) Jumpers would have radial menu options that would be predetermined prior to the tame, maybe even with different venom types that they could specialize in, including torpor, thus similar with the gacha, creating an extremely fun way for players to want to hunt down high end spiders to see what they have, and if you find a rare one with torpor, you could use that as your taming buddy, or one with extended grapple length, maybe even one with a non-damaging torpor for gentle taming of lower level creatures! The possibilities would be vast with this alone. (This idea was put together from suggestions from the community, credit certainly goes to them in my case!) Dossier! If there's one thing I can say about Maevia eureka, you do not want to be caught in its sights! I once witnessed a jumper locking onto its prey with the most incredible accuracy, lunging at it with lightning speed and within the blink of an eye, its prey was being saved as a snack for later. They seem to have the genes of a few other spiders like that of the ogre spider, as it can cast a gathering of its webbing along with a little dab of the venom droplet it keeps stored on its head, working that into its web to create paralytic bolas that seem to render its prey unconscious. I have reason to believe the hairs that grow on its back legs came from the peacock spider, but due to its need for protection, it also uses these 'feathers' as a menacing face that can scare off large predators, I've seen some tribes set up posts that they can hang from around the fronts of their bases. I will say one thing is for certain, though they are nearly the size of a dire bear, they are quite the cuties, especially for being a spider, there is a certain intelligence you can see when you look into their eyes, I just can't place it, but they truly make remarkable companions with the ability to rapidly scale walls, caves, cliffsides and such. By no means are they a beast of burden, however they make up for this with their abilities to constrict or assassinate their targets. Maevia Eureka can take down much larger prey with its torpor inducing bola, the net cast, and this makes them remarkable allies for taming other creatures. Though I haven't been able to get close enough to befriend one of the females, the males don't seem to mind me being in a remote vicinity with them as much. I would like to add some wonderful suggestions from the community for this, including alternatives as this has dimorphic potential! [ Also seriously a massive thanks to the community, those of you sharing your input and helping with this with voting and even dropping supportive comments, I honestly never thought Maevia could've even made it to the final 20 even! You are genuinely appreciated! ❤️] Overhaul Suggestion I Overall, the creature will be balanced to have low to average stats. It will be a early/mid game creature that focus on taming with possibilities to use in late game thanks to the ability scaling on some stats. Female Rideable, with average health Slow, can walk on walls/ceiling Can't jump except with the locking on ability Cast net and Locking on abilities The net will consume stamina over time. The speed stat, instead of increasing the speed, will increase the drag weight of the creature that can be affected by the net. The max drag weight will be the larger creatures of Ark except Titans/Boss. Scary-face ability (cool ability but optional) Can't induce torpor Behavior in the wild: The female will be aggressive toward unconscious creatures and if attacked directly (not if others spiders are attacked near). If attacked and with no males around, the female will flee. As she is slow, she can use the scary face to evade. This is where the scary face has its purpose. If attacked with males around, the female will use the net on the aggressors to help the males. Behavior tamed: The abilities can be used only while rided. If the rider dismount the spider when using an ability, the ability will stop. Male Shoulder pet, much smaller than the female with low health Fast, can walk on walls/ceiling Can't jump except when using venom ability Dance ability to tame the female and mating The ability can be activated when tamed like light pet. They can't dance on the shoulder. Venom ability The male can jump and bite at a target. The bite inflict very few damage but a lot of torpor over time. The cooldown of the ability will be high to avoid spamming. The melee stat, instead of increasing the damage, will increase the torpor inflicted by the venom ability. Can't cast net nor use the scary face abilities Behavior in the wild: The male will be aggressive toward small creatures and unconscious creatures or if attacked. To attack, it will use only its venom ability until the creature is unconscious. Behavior tamed: The venom ability can be used only while on the shoulder. When the venom ability is used, the male will return to its owner if passive. Spawn in the wild In Scorched earth, this creature can be found in the canyons near the water in group with 0 to 1 female and 1 to 3 males. On the other maps, the creature will spawn in forest in a group with 0 to 1 female and 2 to 5 males. Taming The male is tamed via classic KO method. The female is tamed using a male. To initiate the taming of the female, it should be only 1 female and only 1 male around and the male should dance near the female. When taming the female, the male and the female should dance 1 at a time. It will be your role to stop/start the dancing of the male corresponding to the female state. If both male and female are in the same state (dancing or not dancing), the taming will fail and the female will lock on the male and instantly kill it. The taming process will last a long time (few minutes) until the taming progress reaches 100%. Breeding The mating process will be the same as the taming process. This mean that when you tame a female, she will have eggs immediately. The eggs will not drop on the floor but instead will stay on a poach on the female. It will be like gestating. Roles of the creature with that suggestion Anti-taming in the wild : this creature will attack the unconscious creatures so be careful when taming via KO as this spider can eat the creature you're trying to tame. Early male taming helper : the male will be easier to get and the venom ability will help taming via KO. Solo explorer/tamer : as the male is shoulder pet and the female rideable, both can be used to travel in solo and benefit of the mating boost. The mating boost can help the creature to be more useful against the big danger of Ark. Female disabler in PvE and PvP : with the locking on ability, the female can be used to disable one specific target in a fight. With breeding and scaling of the ability on a stat, it can be used even in late game PvE/PvP while being an average creature. Collection creature : dancing ad mutation are cool. Limitations of the suggestion The male will be weak (low health and low damage for the male). The female will have difficulties to escape (speed cap and have to be close to the target when casting net). A pack of raptor can easily kill a group of spiders in the wild, except if the female has the scary face and can flee. The use of the abilities when tamed always require a player and have a cooldown. So it limit overuse for PvE and PvP. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Overhaul Suggestion II - Another aspect is Weight being the defining factor in what the spider can lasso in. Cast net can go a little further but I think the Weight is a good measuring tool for making sure you can't just tame a low lvl and use it for say egg stealing easily. Cause if the egg is heavy it wouldn't be able to drag it. Could also apply to which creatures it could reel in on whatever animal it might be able too if you gave it that ability for say pulling into jerboas to munch and bodies or loot bags. Doesn't have to do all of these but these are ideas for what the lasso could do besides the grapple, even though the grapple is perfectly fine and I wouldn't mind it just being that either. - Some saddle ideas - Assasin Saddle - A saddle made with silk and lighter materials but reinforced by the sharp fangs of other beasts that turn the extra pair of limbs on the spider into a pair of deadly daggerlike weapons that can be coated with not just it's Venom but a myriad of other substances. If anyone ever played Rogues in World of Warcraft you'll know how this works. These could be narcotic or Venom based, stimulant even for some niche uses like dehydrating enemies or such, and even repurposing the virtually useless Trophies that happen to also be Venoms of specific creatures like Megalania. - Aerial Saddle - This is based off Another dino Idea I didn't get in early enough and will likely be ignored cause it was too late. But this is basically putting a grappling bar on the top of the spider where the saddle would be, and this would grant the female the ability to have allied small fliers (Lymantria, Pelagornis, Rhyniognatha, Tapejara, Pteranodon, Pelagornis, Desmodus) to perch on that bar and then give the spider the ability to use their Stamina and flight to the same effect as a Sinomacrops. I understand this is a crazy idea but I also found it too funny to imagine someone spotting someone using this and seeing a spider with bat wings flying at them out of nowhere. They are of course limited by the fliers Stamina and weight carry, and nothing bigger or stronger than the Desmodus can do this. All superior gliders or carriers like Argies, Griffins or Owls are not usable. I just wanted to share this part cause I thought it was funny and ridiculous but would likely never be considered or used. Parachute Pack Harness - Put onto the male if it sits on your back to help give it armor and could even 'upgrade' the gliding ability. Alpha Variant - Since Scorched actually does not have its own roster of Alpha versions like Aberration does. Wouldn't it be interesting if there was a chance for an Alpha Female spider to spawn somewhere in the map? This could not only give the chance to flesh scorched out more In that area and maybe extend it to another of the their special creatures like the Thorny Dragon or (Rock Golem, nah jk, don't faint) something but it could even drop the upgrades required to make the saddles for it that have weapons by harvesting its trophy, which could be it's fangs. Imagine that. Wielding a bigger spiders fangs as a spider. Putting the saddle behind a progression gate and giving a reason to put more special Alpha types in Scorched. Spool Saddle - This saddle let's your spider store an extra charge of its Cast Net when equipped with it. It could also have a launcher in the back that looks like a net launcher or something or a loom that you can activate kind of like a Tek Saddle's guns to go into an aiming mode. Bareback - I dunno if anyone agrees with me but I think it would be okay to have this Spider Rideable without a saddle merely because moving dinos is annoying and even if you'd get thrown off if you went upright on a wall or upside down like this you could easily position spiders for their scary face on threads like this. Upgradeable Saddle - Of course these are ideas that are separate, and what's to say you shouldn't be able to make a saddle that does at least 2 out of 3 of these things? The Saddle could start off as a simple one allowing you the ability to stay on the spiders back when it's climbing up walls, but then you would need to use its saddle to craft the other versions, or make upgraded versions of the saddle, or it could come equipped with the spools and loom/net launcher in the base version and add either the assassin weapons or the grapple bar. Control Mapping - As for all these abilities, we should put up a theoretical mapping of how they might look at if they will even all fit on say a controller or make a web of your fingers on a Size variant examples Male (Shoulder Pet) Sized between an Icthyornis and a Troodon) Male (Rideable) About the size of an Araneo but a little less spread out so they might appear smaller. Female (Rideable) The size of a Sabertooth or Terrorbird up from a Scorpion. Depends on how big you want them to be. Shoulder Pet (Male Version) Double Space Bar - Works like a Parachute if they have the silk, activates their gliding ability and jumping again cancels it. Crtl - Launches a Cast Net when activated or when toggled and then using left click to aim then shoot at the location of your crosshairs, this could be very useful in hunting, taming and caves as it could immobilize certain creatures like Bat's and other dangerous insects or small creatures, perhaps even stop things like pegos, icthyornis, Troodon, Arthropluera, or Megalania. Rideable (Male version) Left Click - Melee Bite, automatically applies the Venom like an Araneo or Scorpion does. Right Click - Toggle Climbing Spacebar - Hold and charge to jump at the aimed location, can jump from any angle and latches automatically to surfaces that are vertical or upside down. C - Web Mode, use Left Click to cast a net and Right Click to send out a lasso to grapple to the spot, letting you reel yourself up and down with C and X or Shift in order to either drop down or zip up and attach the the surface your lasso is attached to. The Venom droplet is passively built up and must be enabled with the Ammo switch button N to switch between regular and tranq nets. X - Scary Face/Dance - When used the spider will deploy its Scary Face and frighten creatures up to the size of a Carno. When targeting a Wild female spider, the player activates the Dancing mini game and must correctly perform the rhythm directions or letters on the keyboard as they appear like in the fishing mini game before the time runs out, if you make any mistake the female gets angry and attacks you. Rideable (Female Version) Left Click - Same as the male but deals more damage, the female is much stronger. Right Click - Toggle Climbing, is slower on walls than the smaller male is. Spacebar - Same as the male, but can pounce onto prey that has been netted only up to the size of either Raptors, small fliers like the list of ones I showed on the list for the Aerial Saddle or up to Owls, Griffins and Argents maybe with consideration of her size. Pouncing onto fliers could even be a unique mechanic for her where if you hung ou on a wall or dropped onto one from the ceiling you could attempt to bind them in webs and drop them from the sky or just bite them while latched on like a Deinonycyus. C - Same as male, but upon aiming at bodies, creatures small enough or loot bags, can lasso and reel them in to her to either loot or eat. She could also be the only one able to get enough weight to be able to reel in eggs of heavier varieties, by upgrading it you might be able to get a spider that can reel in Wyvern Eggs, but you'd have to sacrifice a lot of points into it over things that might help her out in say survivability or just stamina. This is just a possibility though and a way to limit this ability to only be able to drag in certain things while needing the female to do the bigger and more dangerous jobs. but has the potential to reel in possibly bodies bigger than the male, creatures, or even eggs of the bigger sizes if you put enough points into weight to be able to even latch onto them. X - Same as male, if she has the Scary Face biology even as a female (which I think she would have as the environments of Ark are really extreme) except no dancing. The Scary Face of a Female is able to scare up to Argies and Therizino in size. Overall Look at roles from these abilities. 1 - Bola and Tranq Bola, used to immobilize and knock out smaller creatures. 2 - Cave Exploration, would be extremely useful here, even if you nix the wall Climbing they'd still be able to net creatures that are really dangerous while you handle the ones that aren't. Or even grapple, function as extra grapples, or help tame certain cave creatures if you can shoot from their backs like Megalania. 3 - Low Tier Wall Crawler, the male is faster and has less overall stats while the female is bulkier and slower. Or in the case of a shoulder male and female, the the female is the ridden creature while the male is the supporting Parachute and extra net. 4 - Low Tier Base Defense, by using Scary face the males and females that are Rideable can be suspended from silk threads and placed around a base to scare off small to medium threats, especially argies which are an issue for mountain bases. Would this tame be allowed on Aberration? - No, I don't think so. Because they have not let you have Climbing and flying tames on Ab for a reason, it's supposed to be part of the progression of the map. Even adding Thylas or Deinonychus would severely break this maps balancing which is made to keep it difficult and for you to not just be able to walk past everything by Climbing or gliding to avoid it until you get to the Rock Drakes, have sturdy creatures or use Ravagers and Karkinos to jump around. Which are supposed to go with the deliberate design of rocks and cliffs that is unique to Aberration. I don't know the full list of compatible creature that can transfer to ab or even work since Extinction but I know fliers in general and climbers up until creatures like the Extinction and Gen or Lost Island creatures that dont explicitly fly can possibly get on there (don't know cause didn't try it). I'm not sure about the space whales though. Or the latchers Deinonycyus or Dinopithecus. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Overhaul Suggestion III 1 Grappling fliers ( might have already been thought of and just did not understand it )Maevia can "shoot" globules of webbing and hit fliers, gumming up their wings and making them fall at a decreased amount of fall damage from the wind catching silk (balanced so it isn't punishing). The fliers would be stuck down as though they were net gunned for a slightly less amount of time. Another detail is that the bigger the wings/flier, the more webbing needed to take it down, also depends on what type of wings be it webbed or feathered.2 LatchingMaevia could jump onto targets similar to deinonychus, and could dig into their prey and reposition themselves while staying attached, and possibly even slow down and web dinosaurs they attach to, preemptively webbing their meal.3 Babies, babies, babiesMaevia are spiders, and spider eggs naturally have many young within them. This would be represented by very high chances of triplets and quadruplets, with possibly higher amounts of hatchlings being born at once. And another part of this is that Males are more commonly born than females are.4 Worst date everEven in domestic breeding of Maevia, cannibalism is very common. If a female Maevia isn't impressed by a male, it will attack the male even if both are tamed, and will not stop until it cannot sense the male anymore, and if caught the female will eat the male killing it instantly. Be careful with breeding these hungry ladies. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional Suggestions! Grapple thread ability capable of attaching to eggs, though there would need to be equal risk to this kind of ease of reward. Alternative to the small male jumping spider where it uses the projectile webbing. Silk potentially pulled and slowly generated to spool(s) on their harness/saddle similar to that of a sewing machine, the ability to 'consume/use' this silk that's already been gathered to craft projectile nets in the inventory when the harness/saddle is eqipped. No fall damage due to their weight as well as the hair, another way this could be shown is if they release some webbing to drift lightly as spiders in real life do, possibly even shoot out webbing towards each of their tarsal claws where they stretch it outwards using their legs and somewhat glide downwards like a sled. The ability to lasso targets using their webbing, which could even apply to if it was shoulder-buddy sized. Two counter ideas, megatherium due to their high torpor and size and a weakness to fire perhaps. Alternate idea was added to the second art piece which was later added with the new coloration, where they could have large metal spikes over their front legs which they can jab into targets with applied venom or torpor, possibly even whichever one they did not have, this is an exterior idea I wanted to display with the spool on the side of the harness. This could even just be an idea for another dino in the future, where they could have claws covered in metal and dipped in narcotic. The ability to turn wrapped up smaller creatures into randomized resources over time, similar to the gacha crystals, or maybe even a fertilizer of some kind for a future creature. Another suggestion to add onto the male being a shoulder buddy is making it similar to the Sinomacrops in the manner of how it *hangs on your back*, where you could use it as the grapple or bola as suggested above. Maevia could have a bonus damage type towards enemy spider-kind, araneo and broodmother, reflecting the real life jumping spiders well known specialization for killing other spiders and eating them.