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Wild: The Elephant Bird is a majestic sight to behold. Gentle and serene, these giants are solitary and ignore everything around them. However, they seem to become highly agitated and territorial around a member of the same species and gender. They also seem to show a particular aggression towards Terror Birds. If an Elephant Bird does become aggressive you have only a few seconds, as it raises its tail feathers in a display of aggression, to run as far as you can. Though large, its powerful legs help it move great distances very quickly, closing most gaps before you know what hit you. Domesticated: Its descent health, weight, and damage allow for a good all-around tame. The real strength comes with being able to run for long periods of time before needing to rest. With a multipurpose saddle that acts as a smithy and preserving bin with two seats, tribe members can be away from base for long periods of time. The trump card is a guttural trumpet call that causes all surrounding herbivores to be aggressive towards its target. This allows a fight to be either tipped in its favor or enough of a distraction to get out of dodge. Blurb: This is the all-terrain scout transport of Ark. Everything I’ve drafted is built around making it the best one possible. You’re not going to be fighting gigas with it, but it will easily take on anything its size or smaller. The Elephant bird is designed for travel and survival on the road, that’s the general concept. Spawn: Either Sunken Forest or Desert Taming: Elephant birds are omnivorous and while they mostly eat plants because of availability they love a good buggy meal. Bring any dead bug creature (arthro, scorpion, ant, araneo, etc) and it will gobble it up and become your best friend. The bigger the drag weight, the better the effectiveness. Also, make sure there are no other Elephant birds of the same gender or terror birds near by. Saddle: For travel and helping to make this creature really shine I think it needs a highly specialized saddle. My initial thought was smithy plus preserving bin. Could also make an argument for either swapping preserving bin for mortar and pestle or having all three. Abilities: High Stamina This creature can run at high speeds for long periods of time. While this may seem op, remember this isn’t a flier so it is restrained to the terrain and all creatures in its way. It can’t fly and land above all dangers. Well-rounded stats Again, you’re not meant to win any competitions with the stats that come out of this thing, but the idea is to be able to be adept at general survivability. Whether that’s having just enough speed and health to get away when confronted with a larger enemy or having just enough damage that anything smaller shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Tail Feather Flair This one is the lowest on my list of things. I thought of it because of the images of ostriches puffing themselves up for mating and intimidation. Was thinking could be a buff giver for speed. Again, the idea being either that you can attack quicker and therefore gain damage for smaller foes or have that little edge to quickly boots away for a few seconds from something bigger that would normally either match or outpace you. Trumpet Call The final trick up the survivability sleeve. You run around two rexes, or a rex and a spino, or two spinos, or a carcha or giga, or an enemy tribe. Now, you’ve got no choice but to give yourself enough space to run. So, you use the trumpet call and immediately all herbivores in the area begin attacking your target. Unless you get lucky and pull in a bunch of high-level trikes and stegos you’re not gonna get much firepower, but what you will get are meat shields. Now you puff your feathers, get that speed boost, and immediately turn and run the other way pouring one out for your new fallen brothers on your way. Closing thoughts: I wouldn’t take a fresh tame one on one with a wild 150 rex, but if you’ve got two, then your odds are good. And even if you can’t take your enemy, you’ve got all the tricks to make it so you never have to. Survivability and scouting are the names of the game.

Irl laophis is an extinct genus of large viper, it existed in Greece during the pliocene period. They got to roughly 3-4m in length and 26kg in weight. For in game purposes the snake would defenetly have to be made much larger (perhaps slightly larger then the current titanoboa) and instead of being spesifically a viper, i imagane it as more of a hybrid between many diffrent species of venomous snakes. This would include things like cobras, rattle snakes, other vipers and most importantly flying snakes. This is more or less the idea behind the creature, taking unique traits from many diffrent modern snake species and combinging them into a single highly mobile, high dmg, all round tame Dossier: "Wild Boasting many features found in all kinds of snakes, laophis is problably one of the most desirable creatures in the ark. It spends most of it's time hiding at the base of large rocks, mountains and such. Waiting for it's preffered prey to walk by. Once it does laophis will launch it's head towards it and deliver a bite full of venom, which takes effect almost immediately. Laophis is capable of delivering leathal doses of venom in a single bite, but it takes time for it to produce such ammounts which makes them almost skittish when confronted by another predator. Suprisingly, instead of using the rattle at the end of it's tail as a warning, it actualy seems to lure certain creatures closer. Presumably due to the fleshy structure on it resembeling food. Still a laophis rearing up and showing off it's cobra like frill is more then enough to deter most smaller threats. Domesticated Perhaps the snake's most suprising feature is it's ability to climb, leap and most shocking of all, glide. A behavior rarley observed in wild laophis, but utilised to it's full potential by survivors. Once on a high perch laophis can launch itself in a certain direction and almost identical to modern flying snakes, it can propel itself a great distance, all whilst carrying a survivor on it's back." The ability to climb and jump would tie in extremly well with gliding. I can imagane laophis climbing up redwood trees and vertical surfaces perhaps similar to a megalania or thyla, while also having a regular and a charged (mainly vertical) jump (for a refrence imagane it jumping as sort of a goofy snake spring coil). The gliding ability is based on flying snakes, in game imagane the snake almost like a thyla pouncing of a tree and then massivly extending the distance travelled by slithering in the air, with the ability to turn mid air to some extent. The lure ability is based on the spider-tailed horned viper, which has an arachnid mimicking structure at the end of it's tail. Since laophis is suposed to lure herbivores and carnivores alike, perhaps a structure resembling a leaf or even a chunk of meat would be more appropriate for it. Abilities: Venom: similar to an amargasaur's spikes, venom is almost like an additional stat that the snake produces on it's own. Venom inducing attacks will use up diffrent ammounts of the avalible venom stat (depending on the attack) which is displayed next to the hotbar (once again like an amarga's spikes). Venom deals damage over time depending on the snake's own melee dmg % (which scales up to a certain %). -(LBM) Primary bite attack: basic bite with no additional effects -(Hold LBM) venom bite: laophis launches at a select target delivering a great ammount of venom. Deals both heavy base and venom dmg, but uses most of the venom stat -(RBM) Stance change: laophis rears up, from this stance it can perform it's ranged abilities: -(LBM in stance) Venom spit, laophis delivers a lesser ammount of venom in a long range cobra-like spit. Uses significatly less venom then venom bite, but deals less damage as well -(C in stance) intimidation: laophis uses it's frill and roars to intimidate smaller threats -(C) rattle lure: laophis uses it's rattle to get any creature not curently hostile closer to it. -Heat vision: identical to the snow owl, can be turned on in a menu similar to desmodus -(Space) jump: a vertical jump that takes laophis high above the ground, can be held down to increase distance. -(Hold space) gliding/climbing: when in the air laophis can intitate a glide, imagane it as a slithering slow fall, exept laophis can travel forward at incredible speeds loosing minimal height, though not being able to gain it either. While also being able to turn mid air. Laophis can climb vertical surfaces similar to a thyla gameplay wise, but in a simialr fashion to how many modern

Thanks for actually clicking on this post! I designed Megalictis with making use of Aberration's unique environment and features in mind, and it would stand out among the other Aberration creatures due to its use of Aberration's environment to its advantage. The following segment is just a dossier, so if you want to get straight to the abilities and the art I made, just scroll past it if it's too long for you to read. It would mainly be a jack of all trades mount, as well as possibly acting as a bossfighter depending on how strong wildcard would make it. It would be somewhat comparable to a rock drake in my vision in terms of size and utility, but be much stronger in terms of health and melee. =============================================================================================================================== Name: Megalictis Species: Megalictis Ferox Time: Miocene Diet: Omnivore Temperament: Aggressive Wild: Within the giant cave systems of the ARK, I was surprised to find Megalictis Ferox present alongside many of the fascinating creatures native to this strange place. The Megalictis present within the ARK seem to have become much larger, more aggressive, and more adaptable than their prehistoric counterparts. Their claws are perfectly adapted for digging through even the hardest terrain, and shredding the rock solid armor of foes. It seems to have developed larger ears, capable of folding over its face to protect itself. The outside of the ear has become tough and durable, allowing for its ears to do a good job of keeping its face safe. It seems to have what I first thought was a horn, but after closer inspection, seems to be whiskers fused together to form one extremely powerful sensory organ. On its back, it has 2 secondary coats of fur that are far more rough than the fur on the rest of its body. Megalictis Ferox can be found everywhere on the Ark, from the safer areas higher up, to the freezing spore infested areas in the middle, and even the highly radioactive area all the way at the bottom. They are extremely aggressive towards other large creatures that dwell the land, though they don't seem to mind Karkinos and Spinosaurus. Out of all the creatures on the Ark, Megalictis seems to show high levels of aggression towards the Basilisk. If the two meet, they'll attack each other, and won't stop until one of them dies. With how uncommon Basilisks are, Megalictis may have some hand in their low numbers. Typically, Basilisks and Megalictis will destroy each other's dens or nests and eat each other's offspring on sight. Megalictis seems to be highly resistant or even immune to Basilisk venom, and ignore it as they fold their ears and charge toward their serpentine foes. Alongside this, Megalictis are extremely aggressive towards Nameless and Seekers. Megalictis Ferox usually have large colonies of glowbug larvae within them, that allow it to harness charge for its own benefit. Usually, alongside the larvae are spores, though different populations of Megalictis from each biome have different spores present, and seem to have adapted to housing their respective spore. They each seem to have their own style of combat based on what they house in their fur alongside the larvae. With all of this in mind, It's recommended to stay far away from this monstrous mustelid. Taming: In my travels, I've met a tribe who have managed to domesticate Megalictis Ferox. From what they've told me, it seems Megalicitis Ferox must be engaged in combat. Once it gets low, it will burrow to avoid getting killed. From there, one must approach where it is buried, and disturb the ground. They usually just tap the ground. The Megalicitis will stick its head out, and from there, it seems they use a mixture of Rockwell's medical brews and prime meat. One may also attempt to pet the Megalictis, to further get it to trust them. Domesticated: Megalictis Ferox is an extremely valuable tame for any survivor within the caves, as its digging capabilities are unrivaled. With a specially designed saddle that adds reinforcements to its claws, it can dig up walls at high speed and even damage metallic structures. Megalictis is capable of easily tanking hits with its saddle armor and its secondary fur coats, and combined with their eagerness to battle, makes them perfect for fighting off the most dangerous foes on the ARK. Their sensory "horns" are extremely effective at locating prey, and can detect other creatures and their movements through the ground, allowing them to know the location of enemies through walls. The glowbug larvae present in their fur allow them to be of use to survivors wanting to combat nameless and reapers, allowing them to provide excellent defense against them. The charge seems to be absorbed into the Megalictis's body, and allows it to enhance its previous abilities, and its the spores of its native environment allow it to fill a variety of uses. ==================================================================================================================== Overview: Megalictis would be able to find Basilisks and Alpha Basilisk with ease via their movements through the ground. Perhaps it could increase drop rates of tribute items from creatures it kills. Megalictis would come in different breeds. One native to each zone with their own spore effect (Hallucinogenic, Freezing, and Radioactive spores) Megalictis can burrow through the ground with a tight turn radius, and even burrow up and down walls. Saddle protects rider from environment and suffocation. Megalictis can detect enemies and their movements through walls using its sensory "horn" Megalictis has protection with its back coats, which grow from around the shoulders and go over the main coat, like a cape. Megalictis can fold its ears over its face to protect it from enemy attacks Immunity to Basilisk breath attack, as well as stun and other debuffs. Glowbug larvae present in its fur allow it to use charge to enhance its capabilities, being able to leap long distances with its charge and release a charge powered blast. Emits charge like a glow pet in charged mode. Hallucinogenic spores, freezing spores, and radioactive spores can get stuck in its fur coat allowing it to use them for itself Hallucinogenic spores seem to enrage Megalictis, allowing it to use an AOE earthquake that can knock climbing creatures off of walls and stunning small creatures that are close to it. Freezing spores allow it to slow enemies and drain their health Radioactive spores allows it to release a wave that destroys incoming projectiles and damages enemies. Perhaps Megalictis could use its powerful claws to shred obsidian and other difficult to obtain resources. This could allow it to focus less on being used for combat and more for harvesting and utility. Megalictis would be a mid-late game creature, and it could fit in the progression as a useful jack of all trades mount before getting drakes, and still be useful past getting them. ============================================================================================================================== Concept Art: ============================================================================================================================== The art was made by me, I know it's pretty trash, but it was the best I could do. Its large foldable ears and "horn" are based off of Baragon, a kaiju present in a few Godzilla movies (though he was originally from his own movie before Toho decided to shove him in Godzilla, much like many other early monsters they've made like Mothra and Rodan). It's use of charge bugs in its fur is inspired by Zinogre from Monster Hunter, which uses thunderbugs in its fur to generate electricity which it uses in combat. I really wanted to have it make use of the environmental effects from the map, as I feel they could be used to a bigger extent than the map originally did, as the spores are minor effects that screw you over earlier on or if you aren't paying attention. I also like the idea of having a creature be symbiotic with the larvae of glowbugs, and make use of their charge to power itself up. Please vote for Megalictis if you want a giant murderous badger with charge abilities in the game. Don't really have much else to say, but it'd be pretty damn cool.