Leech

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

Behavior
Leeches lurk in the water, waiting for tames or survivors to pass by whereupon they leap gleefully and attach themselves to their victim.

Diseased Leech (Variant)
The  Diseased Leech is a variant of the  distinguished by its red and orange color scheme as well as its name in the HUD. It transmits Swamp Fever, which can be cured with. The carcass of the Diseased Leech can also be harvested for significantly more than its normal variant.

Appearance


 One of the most revolting creatures that inhabits the island is Haementeria laetus, a leech that grows as long as a man's arm. A blood parasite, the soft-bodied creature actively seeks out hosts in the swamps it calls home, propelling itself with fluttering fins and latching on with a mouth full of sharp rasping teeth.

In the wild, leeches are the primary vector for a debilitating disease commonly known as swamp fever.

Drops
* The Diseased Leech drops significantly more Leech Blood than its normal variant.

Base Stats and Growth
The Diseased Leech has the same values except of Health, which is 120.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Leech.

General

 * To get rid of a leech that is already hanging on your body you need fire, e.g. a or a . Jump into the burning fire for a short time, the leech will then disappear. Dying and removing the leech off your corpse also works. Keep in mind, however, that sometimes the leech you see on your screen actually lives on your mount. Go back to your mount and remove it manually.
 * If you see a leech approaching and wish to kill it, a few long ranged attacks should do the trick. Even simple stone arrows will stop it dead in its tracks. Be aware that it can still jump towards you from a distance larger than you may expect, so keeping a slight distance is advised. Keeping it at a distance with a spear or similar weapons could work as well, but a longer ranged weapon is more highly advised, as you are not required to get as close and risk the leech attatching on to you.
 * To remove a leech from a creature, press and hold the Use key (E by default) and select remove leech from the menu that appears.
 * There is a diseased variant of this creature (Diseased Leech). You can cure the disease by consuming.

Strategy

 * will make you invisible to all leeches even if you touch them. If you attack them, however, they will still be aggressive.
 * Travel well-mounted; you need something tall enough to keep you out of the water and large enough that you stay standing on its back when dismounted. This way you can remove leeches from your mount without having to expose yourself to them.
 * If your mount needs an escort in the swamps, use a flock of flyers; ground-bound escorts are likely to be leeched without you noticing, and if you do notice, you will have to step entirely off your mount to remove them, potentially exposing yourself to other leeches.
 * Keep your eyes peeled; use your mount's attacks to 'plow the road' in front of you as you navigate the swamps in the hopes of killing leeches before they latch on.
 * If you see a leech from far enough away, attack it with ranged weapons to kill it before it has a chance to latch on; once they do, it will not be possible to harvest them even if you remove them.
 * At present, all mounts are immune to Swamp Fever; only humans and Dodos can catch it.
 * Leeches don't attack or attach themselves to tamed Beezlebufos and any other mounts native to the swamp, making them great for hunting Leeches.

Weaponry

 * The leech does not require any serious weapons to kill, although killing it before it reaches melee range is valuable; try to finish it with ranged weapons or, failing that, hold it at a distance with spear or pike.

Dangers

 * Make sure to bring a friend with you, or stay out of its attack range with a tall mount. If the leeches latch onto you, another player is the fastest way to remove it; if it's attached to your mount, you can remove it yourself.
 * When they attach onto you, you wont regenerate stamina, and you will lose health slowly. Make sure to use that remaining stamina to get to a safe place fast.
 * Leeches are often found in areas that contain other dangerous enemies. Beware they don't weaken you at a fatal moment.
 * You can use campfire to remove the leech by standing on the fire.

Weakness

 * As it is harmless unless entering melee range, ranged weapons are ideal.

Taming
Leeches can be 'tamed' using. However, as they lack the required intelligence, they will not return once they have latched onto someone or something.

Roles

 * Pet: Leeches can add life to your base with a pond or an aquarium
 * Bait: Leeches drop leech blood when harvested this blood can be used to catch Coelacanth s, Sabertooth Salmon s and Piranha s.
 * War: Due to the ability to carry diseases one of these can affect a dodo then the dodo could be dropped into an enemy base to infect the base with disease assisting with a raid.

Notes/Trivia

 * Dino Dossier was revealed on 02/08/16 on Steam.
 * The Leech's genus, Haementeria, refers to a modern genus of leeches which includes the Amazon Giant Leech, which can grow up to 17 inches.
 * On The Center, Leeches are more commonly found in deep water that the player can submerge him or herself in.
 * When going into certain waters while raining a swarm of Leeches will come after you. Which will allow you to obtain large amounts of Meat, Chitin, Leech blood and Silica Pearls.
 * Despite being the go-to cure for, there are a few other ways to cure it. Consuming  will cure you, but it will also take 50 health away. Transferring from any server to Scorched Earth will also cure you.
 * A maximum of 6 leeches can latch onto you and your dinos. The rest will bite you and your dinos to death.
 * Harvesting leeches with the will get you hundreds of chitin.
 * Real Leeches lay eggs however Ark's Leeches do not.
 * When real Leeches give birth they put themselves and their eggs into cocoon.
 * Leech do not produce
 * The Leech along with the, , , and , all became tamable with the introduced in Aberration.
 * Real leeches have multiple tiny eyespots to help them see.
 * Unlike most creatures, real leeches don't have gills or lungs, instead, they breathe by absorbing oxygen through their skin. They can breathe on land and in water.
 * Originally proposed by /u/Coloumbia in 2015 on Reddit.com/r/playark
 * Tamed leeches do not have an inventory or any way for the player to feed them.