Otter

The Otter is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Otters spend most of their life in the water, darting rapidly around without wandering too far from their origin. They target fish, from which they can harvest raw fish, silica pearls and black pearls. They can harvest meat from dead corpses too but, after taming, they only eat fish.

Appearance
The otter is a very small animal, easily overlooked, and clearly resembling the modern otter. Their short, lustrous fur is brown, and when on land they move with a distinctive loping gait.

General
The Otter is a friendly creature and will attempt to flee when attacked, so be ready for a small chase.

Strategy
Because of its low health, even a can make quick work of an Otter.

Dangers
The Otter poses essentially no dangers to even a low-level survivor, but its decent speed in water can quickly lead a survivor into a more dangerous area.

Weakness
Very low HP, can be easily killed by s or swarms of.

Taming
The Otter is passively tamed in a manner similar to the. Fish must be killed, and their corpses dragged to the Otter. While still holding the fish, press to feed the fish to the Otter.

Larger fish, and fish killed by the, provide a higher taming percentage per fish.

If having trouble relocating the Otter you can merely track it using your Taming List.

In ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, the Otter is passively tamed using or. When taming on land the taming effectiveness is lower and the taming bar drops in between feeding.


 * Argy Fishing: It is possible for an to pick up an otter right out of the water, provided the otter is close to the surface and the  doesn't touch the water. Simply fly on the waters surface, grab the Desired otter and bring it to land. If the Otter is in the 's Talons, drop the Otter and pick it up with the beak. You can then land, and the Otter will remain stationary for you to bring fish to. Additionally, if Ally Looking is enabled, the  will lean the Otter towards you.
 * Lasso Fishing: If said Otter tends to stay deep under the water surface for an Argentavis to grab a and an  can reel it back to shore where it can then be put into the bird's beak.


 * Grappling Hook: You can use a Grappling Hook with a Crossbow to reel in the Otter for an easy tame


 * Honey Baiting: Perhaps the easiest method for people that play solo is to harvest honey (by hand or a depending on your comfort level and situation) and equip it to the last slot on your hot bar like you would if you were taming a Roll Rat. Next, go near the shoreline (or wherever the Otter you want is), press zero to deposit a honey glob onto the ground with a spoil timer of 45 seconds - this will attract any and all Otters in a radius (similar to that of a ) to the honey even straight out of the water; be aware that s and other wild creatures (requires further testing) will also be attracted to the glob and may eat the honey or pose a threat to the survivor or the Otters. To take it one step farther you could leave a trail of Honey globs leading into a taming pen, then you can kill and drag fish at your leisure without worry of having to track down or lose the Otter to carnivores.

After being Tamed the Otter will only eat Fish Meat.

Roles

 * Early Hunter: The relative ease of taming an Otter can provide early survivors with a reliable food source as the Otter retrieves fish for them to cook, staving off hunger until better food sources can be acquired.
 * Pearl Collector: The Otter's ability to collect and rarely  from fish can provide early survivors - and even advanced survivors with no ocean presence - limited access to these resources until survivors have the ability to go diving for large concentrations themselves. However, as they have a limited  supply, leaving them on aggressive, even if following a creature out of water, can cause them to drown if a large fish spawn occurs, or they get trapped behind or under something under water. This severely limits their use as an automatic gatherer of any resource. (Level )
 * Tip: Keep them away from s and, their low health makes them easy to be killed. Kill fish by yourself and make them gather the corpses. Otters can work in a team with ( brings fish, otter collects (prime) fish); however the otter seem to not collect pearls in this case.
 * Alternatively the Otter can guarded by a or any other herbivore for that matter set to aggressive (Carnivores will harvest the fish) take care and note that the Guard will attack anything even the normally peaceful  risking both the Guardian and Otter's lives and the Excess Raw Fish can encumber the Otter possibly drowning if left unchecked.
 * Portable Insulation: Like the, the Otter provides a stacking insulation effect to nearby survivors. Unlike the , however, the Otter can be carried around on a survivor's shoulder, which allows a passive insulation bonus while out and about. Leveling the Otter's increases the amount of insulation provided, granting approximately 75-82 hypothermic insulation and 34-38 hyperthermic insulation per 100% melee damage (converted to per-100% for readability; the actual value increases per %).   Equation for Insulation is Hypo .753X+6.88, Hyper .347X+2.81.  Aberrant Otter equation for insulation is Hypo ,8x-.075, Hyper .37x-.483.  Insulation drops to 0 at .5 foundations.


 * Artifact Transporter: Since the Otter's introduction at ARK's launch, it has been able to store as many of the same as its weight allows*; despite the fact that no other creature, including players, in ARK can hold more than one of the same type of Artifact. This is a feature, not a bug.  This is not applicable to ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile as the creature can not carry Artifacts.


 * Companion/Pet: Because of their all around cuteness, Otters are a popular pet among survivors, especially with the ability to put a hat on them.


 * Backpack: Only half their weight is put on your shoulder, meaning you can carry extra weight (Level Weight).


 * Wingman: The Otter will attack opponents from your shoulder if they are within melee range. Although the damage isn't much, the extra hits could mean the difference between life and death for the survivor. (Level Melee Damage)