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This is Mamenchisaurus, Extinction’s last bastion against the corruption. This powerful creature is one of the strongest tames known, rivaling even the Giga and Charchar in terms of use. Let’s get into her, shall we? Design In real life, the Mamenchisaurus was a large sauropod found in Jurassic China. They had few predators due to their size, and had one of the longest necks known among dinosaurs. On Extinction, they boast a coat of protofeathers on their backs and tails, as well as the element-infused underside shared by Velonasaurs and Managarmr. When empowered by eating a corrupted heart, the spines along its back will glow blue, much like the “good” element color on its and most Extinction creature’s underbellies. Dossier “Common Name: Mamenchi Species: Mamenchisaurus Interfectorem Corruptionis Time: Late Jurassic Diet: Herbivorous Temperament: Defensive” Wild ”The wild and unnatural wastes of Earth are oftentimes too much for any creature, much less any herbivores. and yet? the righteous and gigantic Mamenchisaurus stands tall against the waves of opposition. These huge sauropods use their weight and mighty tails to combat the hordes of corrupted creatures in the wastes, sometimes even fighting Titans and winning! They make a unique use of corrupted nodes and hearts they pick up, turning the former into a tame-enhancing applicant, and the latter into sheer elemental power, the beast being near unstoppable when under its effects.” Domesticated “While not exactly easy to tame, Mamenchisaurus offer immense utility to anyone who can wield its power. It’s among the only creatures I’ve seen fight those Titans and hold its own, meaning that, next to the MEKs, they’re arguably the best creature for taking on those abominations. Earning one’s trust, on the other hand, is a whole ‘nother beast entirely.” Ecology Mamenchisaurus are massive herbivores found wandering the Wastelands of Extinction. Despite being herbivores, they will relentlessly attack and kill hordes of Corrupted Creatures, leaving most other species alone. Due to their immense size, they are rarely, if ever, attacked by predators such as Rexes or Spinos. Taming Mamenchisaurus are tamed strangely. A Wild Juvenile must be found and interacted with to begin the process, as it will follow you after being interacted with. While it is following you, you must kill Corrupted Creatures (Or Titans if it is more convenient for larger tribes) and ensure the Juvenile’s health never drops below 50%. If it does, the Juvenile will become aggressive to you. After enough creatures are slain, the Juvenile will warm up to you and sit down, allowing it to be fed a single Corrupted Heart to tame. The larger the creature slain, the more the taming bar goes up. Abilities Mamenchisaurus offer a wide range of abilities meant to fight off the rampant corruption. For starters, the species passively deals 2x more damage to Corrupted Creatures and Titans, are near impossible to knock back from Titan attacks, and can rotate in place. Their main attack is a directional foot stomp, allowing them to hit all directions around them. Their secondary attack is a neck sweep, giving them far more range than their primary attack. Their third and strongest attack is a charged and targeted tail whip, so precise as to accurately impact corrupted points on Wild Titans and dismount riders. Lastly, Mamenchisaurus can convert Corrupted Nodules into a paste that empowers tames against corrupted creatures, and can consume Corrupted hearts to gain an even further damage boost, enough to also damage metal structures. The main drawbacks of such power is the beast’s terrible speed, high demands for food, lacking attack power against non-corrupted creatures, as well as the substantial cooldowns/recoil that all of its abilities have. Uses ~Mass Gatherer Though not its intended purpose, Mamenchisaurus’s Neck sweep can harvest trees and bushes, gathering immense amounts of wood, thatch, fiber and berries. ~Wave Defender Due to its buffs against corrupted creatures, Mamenchisaurus is a must-have for OSDs or Element Veins. The one catch is due to its large AoEs and damage, the Mamenchisaurus must be placed away from the defended position to avoid it breaking the target itself. ~Raiding/Raid Defense Due to its large health pool and size, Mamenchisaurus can somewhat effectively drain turrets of their ammo, and breaks down defenses due to being able to break Metal structures in its empowered state. On the flip side, Mamenchisaurus can effectively counter raiders using Titans due to its powerful anti-corruption abilities. ~Titan Hunting/Taming Due to its power against Titans and Corrupted Creatures, Mamenchisaurus is best used to fight these gargantuan threats. It can even be used for taming the behemoths due to its targeted tail whip attack. It can easily compete with Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus against any of the Titans, including the King Titan. The one caveat is the creature’s inability to properly attack the Desert Titan when wild, due to the Titan’s tendency to fly high out of reach of most creatures (this can be circumvented by building a large enough platform on a Quetz Platform saddle, much like how one flies a Giga up to the Titan). Notes -I submitted the Mamenchisaurus due to the lack of variety in most community votes. While many different species (some good, some bad) have made it into the top ten, the winners are mostly the large carnivores (Charchar, Fasolasuchus, Gigantoraptor) or flyers (Desmodus, Sinomacrops, Rhyniognatha) and I wanted to introduce something new. Specifically a herbivore, as the last herbivore to be introduced was the Amargasaurus on Lost Island (unless the Andrewsarchus eats berries but I don’t recall it doing so). -The Mamenchisaurus was designed as both a PvP and a PvE tame to appeal to both crowds. While it doesn’t have distinct utilities angled toward either party like the Laeallyenasaura (My last submission), it’s unique abilities make it an valuable tame for late-game Extinction, for both PvE and PvP tribes. -Mamenchisaurus was partially designed to shake up the meta, given its anti-titan abilities and its precise and powerful tail whip. -While titan-opposing dinosaurs have been proposed before, I made mine a sauropod to differentiate itself. -The Mamenchisaurus’s taming method, particularly the feeding of a Corrupted Heart, was meant to dissuade the taming of early-game. -Mamenchisaurus’s main counter would be speedy player-controlled flyers or gliders, which can easily get hits in without being struck themselves. -If targeted right, the Mamenchisaurus’s tail whip can very easily put Managarmrs or Rock Drakes out of commission, swiftly killing the beast or its rider with its immense power.
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Creature design and dossier by Maira, concept art by Wren TLDR: ENDGAME HERBIVORE Aberration bossing alternative to Megalosaurus Very armoured, high damage reduction - optional: reflected damage? High damage tail swipe - optional: broken bone slowing debuff? Massive explosion of charge light as a special move - optional: attack has a time-based cooldown rather than giving Zuul charge stats like a glowpet AoE spinning attack with high knockback, can keep spinning until stamina runs out Not as good as anky at harvesting but can move much faster Optional: When in sunlight (ie on other maps), charge explosion becomes superpowered by the sun and deals fire damage Trying to eat one of these guys is just poor decision making - GIF from Tenor Real Zuul Zuul crurivastator is an Anky cousin famous for being one of the most complete ankylosaurid specimens ever found—the genus "Zuul" was named because the people who discovered it decided its face had a passing resemblance to the demon Zuul from Ghostbusters; and the species "crurivastator" is Latin for "Destroyer of Shins", as this tanky boi is the suspected culprit for the many cracked and shattered leg bones frequently found on carnivore skeletons in the area! source Image from The Guardian 2017 article "Meet Zuul, destroyer of shins - the 75m-year-old 'Ghostbuster' dinosaur" by Hannah Devlin ABERRATION CONCEPT I've always said that ARK lacks endgame herbivores, and I've also frequently bemoaned that Megalosaurus is the exclusive boss meta for Aberration. So my goal was: how could a large herbivore be a viable bossing mount, especially on Aberration? What niche could it fill that no other creature currently occupies? The most important points for the game meta to me were: Radiation immune for boss arena Advantages against Reapers, the main boss mobs AoE ability to deal with being mobbed Special niche - weaponized charge light Just look at those unprotected shins! - Image from Aberration Steam page I decided that Zuul should live in the rad zone, as currently the only radiation immune herbivore (not including glowpets)—Paraceratherium—doesn't spawn in the rad zone! And in speculative biology, I feel it's important to think about what sorts of adaptations a creature might have developed to be specialized for its environment. So after some thought I came up with: Highly armoured defence (so many carnivores) Impervious to Reaper acid blood Doesn't emit charge light (because Seekers) Eats mushrooms So how can it both be super-effective against Reapers, but not emit charge light and get constantly harassed by Seekers? Have it store charge within its body and give it an explosive attack that works like a Charge Lantern! When I asked Wren to draw Zuul and she asked me how it should look, my main request was "its glow pattern should go up its tail as a visual indicator for when the charge attack is ready! Like: boop, boop, boop, boop, BING! READY TO LAUNCH!" I would also suggest that Zuul's charge explosion becomes superpowered when exposed to sunlight, becoming so intense that it sets things on FIRE! That way it's still a powerful tame on other maps. Moreover the tendency in the depths of Aberration is to be ruthlessly mobbed by everything at once. What if it could have an AoE attack to deal with that? Well I've been playing a lot of Genshin Impact lately and I immediately thought of the spinning attack some claymore characters use. Other people thought of Beyblades, and... I don't disagree! F*** everything in particular - GIF from Tenor Finally, one of the most painful things for me when leaving the Green Zone in Aberration those freezing spores, ahhhhh. And Zuul is naturally going to be quite close to the ground, a rider would absolutely get hit by those spores constantly. So I figured, if Zuul was walking around munching on mushrooms, maybe it could protect its rider? Keep your Zuul supplied with Aquatic Mushrooms, and it would be such a messy eater that the spores of the Aquatic Mushrooms it scatters into the air would cancel out those pesky freezing spores! CONCLUSION Spiky pancake boi calmly munching on mushrooms as nearby Reapers with noticeable limps visibly flinch when Zuul looks at them sideways. Rockwell spends his boss fight hip-deep in liquid element, he vehemently denies this is to ensure his shins are inaccessible. __ CREDIT FOR THE DOSSIER ARTWORK goes to the talented Wren (little.wren) who did an amazing job! Thanks also to Mega for getting me started thinking about how Zuul might fit into Aberration! Also, I love speculative biology. Have some additional suggestions? Have some criticisms of Zuul's proposed niche and adaptations? I confess to not be great at game meta and balancing, got some ideas to make Zuul a more balanced creature? I would love to hear them!
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- endgame herbivore
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