Tusoteuthis

The Tusoteuthis (too-so-too thiss) or simply “Tuso” is an aquatic creature in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Tusoteuthis is found only in very deep water, where it swims about at a slow pace. If it spots the player or a tamed creature, it will begin to move itself towards the player or said creature and attack it. Because of the unique body plan of cephalopods, a Tusoteuthis must turn itself around to strike with its tentacles.

Appearance
A monstrous relative of the vampire squid, Tusoteuthis is the largest aquatic creature on the ARK, and bears a closer resemblance to giant squids, but is much more terrifying than its timid kin. Tusoteuthis has powerful tentacles with hooked suckers, capable of drawing blood and keeping even a Mosasaur from escaping a horrible fate. A parrot-like beak hides in the center of the writhing mass, ripping flesh, shell, and bone into easy-to-swallow bits. Tusoteuthis also possesses the ability to spray an oily ink if it is in danger. Tusoteuthis is a true terror of the deep.

Drops

 * Harvest


 * Guaranteed Special Loot

Taming
The Tusoteuthis introduced two new mechanics to Passive Taming:
 * It will eat up to 50 of an individual food item in a single consumption. Taming Effectiveness is lost per consumption not per item, and is at a reduced rate compared to other tames in any case.
 * It can eat at 90% of its maximum food, regardless of how much Food what it's being fed will restore (factoring the above).

The Taming Affinity (progress) gained for food types other than Black Pearls is only 10% of the value derived by other tames (e.g. 15 from Prime Meat instead of 150), and so at least 10 should be fed at a time to have a comparable taming time to other creatures. Due to the exceptionally low Affinity from individual items, they have been omitted from the table below, which consequently omits and  entirely.

Please ignore the Feeding Interval and Taming Time data (below). Due to being able to eat when at 90% of its maximum Food, the minimum Feeding Interval is 177.5 seconds plus 14 seconds per Food Level.

Note that 50 Black Pearls will still restore up to 1500 Food regardless of the creature's current Food when fed, and so Starve Taming will actually take longer as the full 1500 food will need to deplete per required consumption (compared to allowing 10% to deplete each time).

Strategy

 * Overview
 * The Passive Tame hitbox is the Tusoteuthis' beak, within its tentacles.
 * Similar to Mosasaurus, the Tusoteuthis dislikes shallow water and will de-aggro. WARNING SHALLOW WATER DOES NOT DE-AGGRO TUSO ON MOBLIE JUST SWIM TO SHORE AND RUN
 * Unlike other Passive Tames, Taming Affinity is not reset when the Tusoteuthis takes damage.
 * The Tusoteuthis "Does Not Want To Be Tamed Right Now" unless it has a creature within its clutches.
 * When possible, try to steer the Tusoteuthis away from terrain - it is currently possible for its grab to release creatures/players under the ground.


 * Process
 * The least-likely-to-die distraction available is a high level Carbonemys with a high armor saddle. Another alternative would be to use a Mosasaur (preferably levelled some) with a high armor or Tek saddle on passive. Stimulants may also be required for taming higher level Tusoteuthis, as an unconscious Carbonemys is of no interest to the Tusoteuthis. The lower the durability of the Carbonemys and the higher the dps of the Tusoteuthis: the more Carbonemys that may be required or sacrificed. Other high durability tames also work, but anything that requires oxygen is not recommended. A drowned tame is also of no interest to the Tusoteuthis.
 * Approach the Tusoteuthis while mounted and allow it to grab your creature.
 * Dismount then approach the creature's beak with 50 Black Pearls within your last inventory slot. Be aware of the weight of Black Pearls.
 * Press to Feed.
 * Swim directly up and out of the deep-water zone. You are not able to re-mount while the squid has your creature held.
 * Wait at least 3 minutes, then repeat.

While riderless, the Tusoteuthis will not wait long to let go of your creature - making a team of two the safest option, as the distraction's rider can remain mounted until the creature is fed and then dismount themselves and swim up. If you do attempt to solo tame, flippers are recommended for speedy getaways. Make sure your tame is on passive and set to follow, and if it survives the feeding it will swim up to safety the moment the squid lets go.

An alternative strategy to solo tame the Tusoteuthis by one's self is to be mounted on a Basilosaurus and have multiple other tame/s set to follow the rider and brought to the Tusoteuthis as bait. Basilosaurus is immune to being grappled by the Tusoteuthis's tentacles,and will provide a safe,quick means of escape and/or putting distance between you and the squid between its feeding intervals while the other tame/s serve as the target/s of the squid's aggression,and grapple; allowing the player to begin taming it. Keep in mind that the Tusoteuthis will most often spawn at depths that will cause the Basilosaurus to slowly take damage ,however,a high level Basilosaurus that has had its Health increased sufficiently should be able to tank this damage with no issues what-so-ever.

You may also use your own tamed Tusoteuthis as it cannot be grappled similarly to the Basilosaurus making the process much easier after you have tamed one.

Post-Tame
After taming, its diet remains the same (Black Pearls, Meat and Fish).

However, Tusoteuthis will now eat regular meat and raw fish meat. It does not require black pearls for food when domesticated.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Tusoteuthis. Generally the squid is a very strong enemy, a confrontation should be avoided if you're not sure you can win.

Strategy
A low-level Tuso is no match for a mid-to-strong tamed Plesio or Mosa. A high level one will need a very strong mount with a good saddle or a group of powerful sea dinos to be defeated. Remember that a ridden tame cannot retaliate when within Tuso's tentacles. If you're going for a pack attack, let the squid grab the dino you're riding, as you will be able to watch out for the health and the torpor of your mount and you'll have one more source of damage. When it sprays ink and tries to flee get out of the ink cloud, wait for the blinding effect to end and then easily chase your prey.

You can also use another Tusoteuthis to fight it. Focus mainly on melee damage, with a little health. Swim up to the Tusoteuthis and start attacking it. It will try to grab you, but it is not able to. Keep attacking it until it tries to flee. Because the Tusoteuthis has a wide turning radius, you can keep hitting it as it tries to turn. If it is a lower level, you should be able to kill it before it gets away. If it gets away, follow it. Tamed Tusoteuthis have double the movement speed of wild ones, so you should be able to catch it. As long as the wild squid is near the ground, it will probably run into rocks, where you can kill it.

Another method to kill a Tuso is luring it into an underwater canyon and shooting it from above using a, it will try to attack you but its large hitbox doesn't allow it to turn effectively and it will start to turn around randomly, unable to hit you.

Weaponry
Ranged weapons can work if used while riding a high-level dino. Due to the fast rising of Tuso's health pool, it's advised to use this tactic only on low-level ones.

Dangers
Its high health, good dps, life-draining attacks and grab mechanics make the Tuso a deadly enemy. Living only in the deepest seas, other animals can join the fight and turn the battle into carnage. Try to stay away from the bottom of the sea as the Tuso may drop its prey under the ground, thus killing it.

Although they cannot grab a Basilosaurus with their tentacles, their ink is still effective. Basilo riders should take caution at the end of the battle with them.

Weakness

 * The Tuso is vulnerable to packs of dinos due to its AoE that resembles a long cylinder. This means that it can't attack many enemies at once.
 * the reach of its tenctacles is immense and the damage is great, but the Area it covers with any one attack is actually quite small and somewhat awkward with its collisionbox meaning eels and others can sit inside its "head" with the tuso unable to reach them with its cylinder style reach and also blocked from moving forward.
 * it needs to do a 180 degree turn before attacking anything in front of the direction it's moving

Roles
Aquatic Carrier
 * Using, it is usable as an aquatic carrier (like the Megalosaurus and Kapro) for anything up to the size of a Rex and Mosa, use left click to munch the captured dino or player to death. It cannot grab birds. (It can grab pelagornis, but it can't pull them under the water, not tested with other fliers.)
 * The Tusoteuthis cannot grab creatures on PVE servers. (Unless enabled by Admin)

Aquatic Taming Mount
 * While holding a target, the Tusoteuthis will constantly inflict, until the target is unconscious, making it the cheapest knock-out aquatic taming method.
 * Tusoteuthis inflicts 10 torpor/second regardless of melee damage, target type and target level making it a very slow taming method, but it does so without inflicting any damage and allowing your target to regain health at its usual rate even while it's getting knocked out.
 * it can pick up huge creatures and put them down where you need them to be. But it cannot lift aquatic creatures out of the water or hold land creatures under the water, and it cannot hold unconscious targets but will drop them the second they are fully tranquilized (be careful not to drop them under the terrain or in a rock)
 * This, however, does not work with the Unicorn, as if tried, it will immediately kill one of the rarest creatures in ark.

Passive Oil Creation
 * Tusoteuthis will generate passively in its inventory over time. it stacks with Basilosaurus oil and can be used as a replacement for normal oil, but does have a spoil timer.

Generalised aquatic mount


 * Tusoteuthis cannot be grabbed by other Tusoteuthis, and is not affected by Electrophorus or Cnidaria. It also has reasonable speed, and outstanding damage and health. This overall makes the tuso the perfect creature to traverse the deeps of the ocean with ease and safety.

Harvester
 * The Tusoteuthis' tentacles have a long reach and wide AoE, allowing it to mass-harvest large amounts of resources from aquatic creatures such as AnglerGel and oil from Basilosaurus; it can reach onto the shore to harvest large numbers of penguins, or wipe out entire populations of Trilobites. Due to the length of its tentacles, it can even collect Bio-Toxin from Cnidaria and black pearls from Eurypterids with impunity. It can mass-harvest Ammonite bile as well but not without risk in their case, as it will still catch a dose of the pheremones and be attacked by everything nearby.

Notes/Trivia

 * The dossier was revealed on 08/10/15
 * Tusoteuthis was a Cretaceous relative of the modern Vampire Squid - which is likely the inspiration for its blood-sucking tendencies described in the dossier (although it's worth noting that Vampire Squids don't actually drink blood)
 * It is also important to note that no Vampire Squid, or any cephalopod living or extinct, is known of being capable of feeding through its tentacles; so even if they did drink blood it would be impossible to "drink" with the tentacles as the in-game Tusoteuthis does, as this is impossible feeding behavior for any cephalopod.
 * The Tusoteuthis in the game has larger proportions and is considerably larger than its real 30 foot counterpart.
 * Tusoteuthis was native to the Western Interior Seaway, an ocean that split North America in half during the Late Cretaceous. Despite being comparable in size to modern Giant Squid, it was still far from the top of the local food chain.
 * When the Tusoteuthis performs its ink ability, it creates a smoke screen of ink and increases the of the Tuso by 30% for 8 seconds. Cool down on the ability is 7 seconds.
 * On The Center, Tusoteuthis can rarely spawn in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall under the land bridge connecting Redwoods to the Snowy Grasslands.
 * Tusoteuthis cannot sprint while holding another creature, keep this in mind when using it to transport other friendly tames.
 * The Tusoteuthis on release was originally supposed to be much smaller, but a last minute change was made to make it as it is now.
 * This also makes Tuso to get stuck at certain underwater chokepoints, such as the artifact chamber in The Caverns of Lost Hope.
 * And before the release of Genesis and Moeder, it was the largest aquatic creature.
 * The Tusoteuthis is unable to grab the, and other Tusoteuthis.
 * The Tusoteuthis can be damaged and slowed by but will not force player to dismount.
 * Huge amounts of Tusoteuthis can be found in Ragnarok in the western part of the ocean near the world border.
 * In this area some shipwrecks can be found which were probably attacked by the Tusos, where you may also find Black Pearls.
 * Tusoteuthis is one of the few passive tames that has "Dino does not want to be tamed right now" without the right condition to feed the food, others being . The only non violent tame that shows the "Dino does not want to be tamed right now" is the  mod: ARK Additions Acrocanthosaurus, which in some attempt of giving narcotics will show the "Dino does not want to be tamed right now" text.