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Introducing Spectrovenator! Wild This tough little scavenger is an interesting case. While wild Spectrovenator are mostly docile animals that keep to themselves, when a corpse is nearby, they turn into something fierce. Despite their small stature, they can certainly punch up their weight class. I’ve seen quite a few of these land buzzards fight tooth and nail over any abandoned corpse in the general area. Unlike their larger cousin the Carnotaurus, these guys evolved lacking arms in favor of a spiky-chestplate that they’ll use to throw around anything that dares interrupt their rotting meals. Domesticated Spectros may be tricky to earn the trust of, but can certainly be done, even by newer survivors. Seeing that Spectros tend to lounge around carcasses, and are constantly fighting off any potential thieves, aiding a Spectro in defending its corpse is the key to this animal’s iron heart. Once you do gain the trust of a Spectro though, they prove to be some loyal things. So much in fact, they seem to understand commands from very long distances somehow, and are essentially the perfect scout. Being able to send a stocky but swift lookout to scope out or explore unknown areas without risking your own life is one powerful ability. Not to mention that even if capable of brawling, they can still recover from a tough situation via eating from any nearby carcasses. And I haven’t even mentioned the versatility these handy scouts have, considering I’ve seen tribes utilizing a plethora of harnesses that serve several purposes for varying situations! I’ve seen harness utilities ranging from storage, to armor, to even guns! That said, each saddle seems to have a slot where specimen implants can be placed. Survivor’s Best Friend Spectrovenator is an early-game scout that has a theme that is based around loyalty. Spectrovenator, unlike any existing tame in-game, can be controlled without your survivor actually having to ride it. Instead, you take the POV of the Spectrovenator, and begin playing from there, similar to the Tek Drone in a way. Your survivor will stay in the place where you leave them until you exit scout mode with your Spectro, then you’ll return to your survivor’s POV. This ability allows you to scope out, clear, or explore areas without having to risk your survivor or your must-need items. Extinction is a dangerous map! Being able to scope out the corrupted wastelands, harsh winter Proto-Ark, or the deadly desert Proto-Ark is something that early game players may find difficult, and these perfect scouts may offer a mighty fine solution for this, as well as other needs if need be. This is aided by Spectrovenator’s kit mostly being based around survivability, so don’t fret about your little buddy getting killed with ease too much. This creature is surprisingly tough for its size, stronger than raptor tier for sure. (~400 hp, ~30 damage) Spectro actually benefits through multiple ways as you level up too, so don’t think this guy will be useless once you reach a certain stage, unlike other early game tames. Attacks and Abilities Bite [LMB] - A simple attack where the Spectro bites forward, thrusting it’s sharp chin into its target as well Charge [Hold RMB] - Similar to the Trike’s charge attack, except it can be activated while moving. Hitting something with the charge does high damage, knockback, and a slowdown effect. Tail Spin [C] - The Spectro whips its body around in a 360, dealing knockback and light damage to anything hit. Jump [SPACE] Focus [X] - Focuses on a creature, structure, natural object, or storage container where your crosshair relies, telling you information such as stats, level, or what lies inside. Imagine a cross between a spyglass and magnifying glass. Sense (PASSIVE) - Can tell when creatures are low on health, like a Dire Wolf. Restore (PASSIVE) - Grants a healing effect after biting a corpse, like Argentavis. Drift (PASSIVE) - Similar to Andrewsarchus, Spectro drifts when making sharp turns while running to provide extra mobility and traversing large, tricky wastelands. Harness Up Spectro has several tiers of different “harnesses” that can be unlocked as you level up (These harnesses act similar to Hyaenodon Meat Packs, act as armor, placed in saddle slot, but cannot be ridden.) They’d go in order such as this: Low Level - Pack Harness: This harness is simple, acts as minor armor, heavily increases the weight of Spectrovenator, and gives it smithy properties as well. Mostly intended for transferring resources from one place to another, as well as allowing you to craft stuff on the go (even when in Scout Mode! Don’t ask how Spectro knows how to craft.) Moderate Level - Guard Harness: This harness is a bit more complex, it provides the best armor out of all harnesses, as well as it deals recoil damage to anything that attacks it with this equipped. On top of these, this harness prevents it from being picked up. Someone on their wyvern trying to take your guard dog sky high? No more. High Level - Battering Ram Harness: This harness provides decent armor, and grants the charge attack on Spectro the ability to stun creatures and other survivors, as well as damaging structures. The charge will damage every tier of building, up to Tek. Damage on buildings will vary depending on the grade of the harness. Highest Level - Battlement Harness: This harness provides minor armor, and an automatic machine gun. It does consume ammunition, but this harness provides a weight decrease on all ammunition. Soul Collector Every harness that you can unlock for the Spectrovenator has a slot that you can place any Specimen Implant inside. It can be your own, or someone else’s. Placing a Specimen Implant inside Spectrovenator increases its defense, stamina regeneration, and health regeneration. The effects of these depends on how high of a level/tier the implant placed in the harness is. Higher the tier, stronger the effect. This promotes the idea that a Spectrovenator you own grows stronger as you do, working alongside you. Taming Wild Spectrovenators love corpses, but don’t ACTUALLY eat them in game. They tend to lounge around them, wandering within a certain radius of the corpse. Enter that radius, and it’ll aggro onto you. Leave that radius for a short amount of time and it’ll return to the corpse. (Note that wild Spectrovenators without a claimed corpse are entirely neutral, only attacking if provoked first. You’ll need to bring it to a corpse or bring a corpse to it.) While a Spectro is guarding a corpse, you’ll need to get close to it via Sneaking, Ghillie Armor, or Bug Spray, and feed it a piece of Spoiled Meat. This will activate a sort of “mini-supply drop” event. During this, the Spectro no longer aggros on you, you cannot harm it, and you cannot harvest its claimed corpse anymore. Around the corpse, waves of low tier creatures will spawn (raptors, dilos, compies) around it, and will aggro onto the corpse. As you kill these enemy creatures, the taming progress goes up. For a low level, killing a Dilo and Raptor should be enough for you to earn the Spectro’s loyalty. For a higher level, you’ll need to put in some more elbow grease. The bigger the corpse, the more health it will have and the harder it will be for the enemy creatures to destroy. The more damage you do, the higher the taming effectiveness, so don’t force the Spectro to do all the work for you. In fact, if you fail to protect the corpse, the Spectro will then aggro onto you. Good luck. In Conclusion... Spectrovenator provides scouting like no other, with unlimited range, great survivability, and the ability to keep your survivor safe and sound at your leisure as this loyal scamp scopes for anything that may provide interest to you. Spawns in the Tek City of Extinction for ease and convenience, immersive taming for any level, and benefits for any player, no matter how far into the game you are!

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.

(Massive Shoutout to the user TheCornSnake For his AMAZING suggestion of the weather effects, All credit goes to them. I've gona ahead and changed some of info to have it better fit the game mechanics. Happy Voting everyone!) (Added a Dossier! Sorry if it looks rushed, I have very little exeperience with gimp ^^;) Gorgonopsid Species: Gorgonops tempestomodus Time: Permian Diet: Carnivore Temperament: Weather-dependent Wild While traveling the dunes of the desert, I never once thought I would come face to face with a Gorgonops! The one that I had encountered was far larger than any on the fossil records. Though I was a bit perplexed as to why it didnt attack me outright. It wasnt until I kept a close eye that I noticed it seemed to change behavior depending on the weather condition. Extreme heat agitated it and seemed to gain an increase in power though it calmed down when it chased me towards an Oasis, Electrical storms frightened it and seemed to become even more passive, but sandstorms is where this beast really shined. Its coloration allowed it to seemlessly blend in with the storm itself. Absolutely marvelous! My best advice is to not be around the beast during the strange weather patterns. Curiously, this creature has a pention for hunting down the deadliest creature in the dunes, Deathworms Domesticated Taming a Gorgonops can be a rather finicky endevour. From what other survivors have told me, It can only be tamed during the weather events on this Ark. Strewth! But should you consider yourself lucky to tame one, you will find one of best mounts one could ask for. While tamed, the weather conditions seem to amplify certain aspects of the creature. Heatwaves give it more strength, health, and grant the rider protection from the harsh heat. During a thunderstorm, the beasts speed and stamina are greatly increased, allowing for a fast method of travel across the vast desert dunes. While Sandstorms give this creature the ability to camoflauge with the storm itself, giving both it and its rider the element of surprise on would be attackers. I've seen clever survivors using its scent ability to find Deathworms and Oasis' while out on their travels. Taming Gorgonops can only be tamed during a weather event, and the type of weather determines the method. While Deathworms are its favorite food, Dead or Alive, others types of meat will suffice. Ordinary Weather – Gorgonops is solitary and wont attack unless provoked. Make yourself appear as a worthy challenge by attacking it! It will then respond back with a roar, accepting your invitation. Impress this beast with you skills be they swords, guns, or your own two fists! Heatwave – Gorgonops is irritated and needs to cool down!! If you're fast enough, try leading it to an oasis! Drinking the water will calm it down, allowing you passive feed it deathworm horns and other types of meat Electrical storms – Gorgonops doesn’t like the lightning, it needs comforting! Give the creature some loving pats and feed it treats like raw meat and raw prime. Sandstorm – help Gorgonops fulfil its need to hunt. Should one lure it to Deathworms and aid it in battle, You will find this creature growing more fond of you and may ocassionally ask for treats! These treats will heal the creature and increase taming! Tamed Abilities While riding Gorgonops, the player receives increased heat insulation and reduced water drain, and will also receive no penalty from weather events: so no stamina drain during sandstorms, no damage taken during a heatwave, and can still use electrical weapons (while mounted) during an electrical storm. During normal weather conditions, I envisage Gorgonops to be an upper-middle tier carnivore. It’s main benefits would be the aforementioned passive buffs, as well as a sniff ability which detects buried animals (deathworms) and highlights nearby water sources. The scent ability could definitely be expanded based on other's suggestions. Weather changes gameplay… Heatwave – now more aggressive, Gorgonops has greater damage and health regen, and gains a modified bleed which targets stamina on tamed creatures and water/water regen on players. This is the fighting-form of the creature, and should be approximately equivalent to rex/spino in power. Electrical storm – Speed and stamina are now greatly increased. This is a traversal mode, and with the ability to keep using advanced weapons, might make a good scout. Sandstorm – Gorgonops does not lose stamina and gets a passive detection which highlights nearby creatures (thus alleviating the reduced visibility). It also gets a stealth mode, similar to the rock drake, representing its ability to camouflage itself within the storm. This would make the creature great for stalking and picking off stranded players and tames. However this can seen through things like the Parasaurus creature detection and outline through a Tek Helmet. Aditional notes: -You can breed them -Can you use them for boss fights? Of course you can! -Whats the size of this lad? Well I imagine it being somwhere around the size of a Shadowmane. Possibly be somewhat larger. -Wouldnt this guy be useless on other maps? Not necesarily! Even without its unique abilities Gorgonops can still be a powerhouse should it be included on other maps. -Similar to creatures like the Megatherium, Calicotherium, and Shadowmane, I envision this creature to have unique idle animations and and like the megatherium and shadowmane it can be told to lay down. -If other information needs to referenced for the creature he is the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia.