Doedicurus

The Doedicurus (Dee-di-KOOR-uhs ), also known as the Doed or Doedic, is one of the Mammals in ARK: Survival Evolved. The Doedicurus is a valuable work animal and is excellent at gathering.

Behavior
Doedicurus is a defensive creature that will attack when provoked. After taking a significant amount of damage they will roll into a protected shell, which reduces the damage they receive significantly. They uncurl after regenerating enough health to feel safe, and there is the possibility for a player to find themselves being chased by a vengeful Doedicurus unless they can get out of the creature's territory quick enough or simply make it lose interest.

A Doedicurus will only roll into a protected shell once it has lost 2/3 of its health.

Once tamed, the Doedicurus can curl up into a ball while being ridden and roll forward. When set to wander, the Doedicurus will autonomously gather stone from nearby rocks until it reaches 50% weight.

Appearance
Similar to an armadillo in appearance, the size of the Doedicurus is fairly small, being about 3–4 meters long and 1–2 meters high. But this size should not hinder its capability in battle, due to its thick outer shell and spike covered, club-like tail, the Doedicurus can be a tough target for even the larger animals on the island. Similar to the  for protection, it is one of the most armored animals on the island, being able to keep itself safe from packs of s. A blue coloration exists, but it is rare.

Taming Food
Doedicurus prefer any of the (,, , and ) over berries when being tamed. These crops are all equally preferred, so any one will do. If no advanced crops are available, the creature prefers over other berries. Doedicurus take a very long amount of time to tame with Mejo or normal, so try to invest in Regular kibble if possible.

KO Strategy
Due to their high torpor stat, Doedicurus are hard to knock out and can withstand a large number of Tranquilizer Arrows. They take 90% reduced torpor and damage when they are curled up in their protective shell and not moving. Using a and s will knock it down with little risk of the Doedicurus curling up, making for an easy tame. A viable knockout strategy involves backpedalling away from the Doedicurus while continuing to unleash your tranq method.

Primitive Strategy

If you do not have access to a and can only use a bow or crossbow, simply back peddle as you fire arrows at the Doedicurus' head. Once it curls up, stop firing and wait for it to uncurl. The torpor will go down slightly but not enough to make it impossible to knock out. Just wait for the uncurl and repeat.

Frog Strategy
Using a high-level has some advantages if the creature is alone. One, you can save your valuable arrows and darts for more difficult targets. Two, you can lick it before it hits you and simply jump over its horizontal tail swing like a jump-rope, even landing behind it, just make sure you don't land within range of another attack. Using the basically infinite torpor-inducing attacks of the Beelzebufo, you can afford to keep hitting it after it curls up when your tranqs would be mostly wasted.

When you see a lot of blood on the Doedicurus, you should start only using the primary attack as it does less damage so you won't kill it. Let the poison work by only licking your target once every 10 seconds or so, as the poison effect only stacks twice.

Equus Strategy
Use the alternate attack of the Equus to kick backwards into the Doedicurus, then dart forwards to avoid the tail swipe. The Doedicurus will follow until it starts to feel the torpor, when it will run away. Gallop in front of it and kick it repeatedly. If the Equus runs out of stamina, run a short distance away to recover. If the Doedi curls into a ball, the Equus can continue to kick; be mindful of blood as with the frog above. This works particularly well on Ragnarok where Doedis and Equus spawn in close proximity.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Doedicurus.

General
Since Doedicurus have the ability to curl up into an armored ball, hunting it is not very lucrative at lower levels. It provides a good amount of, , and once killed, so at higher levels it is more rewarding.

Strategy
Using tranq darts before attacking can render low and medium level Doedicurus unconscious rather easily, and once unconscious the kill is easy. Another strategy is to move in, attack, and run away until it uncurls. This can be time-consuming, however, and is not advised. Another strategy is if near a body of water aggro it and kite it into it into the water. Once in the water, if you can get it to curl up in a ball it will drown itself.

Weaponry
Even a proves near useless once the Doedicurus has curled into its protective shell, so most weapons are ineffective. Using a and s seem to be the most effective way of killing it, as an unconscious Doedicurus cannot roll into a ball.

They don't roll into a ball because of torpor. Tranq them will only cause them to flee just like other creatures.

Dangers
Almost all Doedicurus curl into a ball directly after an attack, but rarely they have been seen to attack. Their spiked tails pack quite a punch, and an angry Doedicurus is not to be trifled with in close combat.

Weakness
Tranquilizing and then killing a Doedicurus is most definitely the quickest and most effective means of defeating it.

It will also drown if it curls in the water since it will sink below the surface and stay enrolled till it suffocates.

Roles

 * Travel: The Doedicurus can make an excellent all-terrain mount due to their roll ability and surprisingly fast swim speed. (Level Speed, Stamina, and some Oxygen)
 * Gatherer: Amazing for gathering materials, the Doedicurus has the ability to destroy rocks and harvest a large amount of stone and sand. The Doedicurus also has a 75% weight reduction on stone, meaning it can carry much more than most creatures. The Doedicurus can also gather obsidian, however it cannot gather metal. (Level Melee Damage and Weight)
 * River Scraper: Placing a Doedicurus or two on the front of your raft and "plowing" through streambeds with rocks in them will gain you an enormous amount of stone while moving, and ignoring the Doedicurus' burden. (Level Melee Damage)
 * Similarly, a Doedicurus being carried by an Argy or Quetz will auto-harvest any stones you bring it close to, allowing you to harvest stone anywhere with an easy escape from most predators.
 * Tank: A decent tank with high health and very good base damage and AOE, the Doedicurus can make a good war mount. Can chase prey with the rolling ability (Level Health, Melee Damage, and Stamina slightly).
 * Cave Mount: Doedicurus is an excellent mount for traveling through caverns. It's heavy damage will easily repel a lot of dangerous animals. Just be careful against taking on swarms of Araneos, Pulmonoscorpius, Arthropleura, and Onycs as they will drain your health and increase torpor rapidly. Unless you're close to leaving the cave, rest for some time till you regain strength and proceed.
 * Transport:
 * Damage:
 * Combatant:

Protective Shell
Doedicurus will curl up when its health drops below 1/3 of its max. They will ignore follow commands while curled up; riding a Doedicurus is the only way to overrule its desire to hide.

When curled up, they take 90% reduced torpor and damage and will not move. Turrets will NOT stop shooting at a Doedicurus if it is curled up.

Rolling
While riding a Doedicurus, Press 'Alt Fire' to roll instead of run. When you are rolling, you are unable to toggle running. You are still able to turn. Rolling depletes stamina.

Press 'Alt Fire' again to stop rolling.

Press to roll on Xbox.

Press to roll on PS4.

Collectibles
The Doedicurus gathers stone autonomously while on wander or if left parked next to a suitable rock. It also has this ability while being carried, allowing for a safer and more mobile method of resource collection. It is recommended that an Argentavis be used for their superior mobility and carrying capacity.

In Scorched Earth, a Doedicurus is useful to gather a lot of.

The Doedicurus can also gather from the shiny black obsidian rocks. However, there are two types of these rocks that you can't distinguish visually, one will give obsidian the other will not. Mostly you will find the second.

Weight Reduction
The Doedicurus reduces the weight of the following resources by the listed amount while they are in its inventory:

Notes/Trivia

 * Dino Dossier revealed on 07/08/2015.
 * Doedicurus can roll up into a ball and roll around, even with a rider on its back., similar to the Roll Rat.
 * The ability to change direction previously only existed as a mission-variant of Doedicurus with Genesis: Part 1 release, and was officially added as a feature in 316.19
 * If using Aberrant Doedicurus to harvest on the Aberration map, be mindful it is not immune to radiation and you will need to feed it Mushroom Brew every 120 seconds to keep it from suffering from radiation exposure when in irradiated areas of the map.
 * The full name of the Doedicurus custosaxum translates to "Pestle-tailed stone warden", likely a reference to its use in gathering stone and defensive capabilities.
 * Doedicurus belongs to a group of armadillo-like mammals known as Glyptodonts which were native to South America during the Pleistocene and went extinct about 11,000 years ago.
 * The Doedicurus can use its melee attack while being carried by a Quetzal.
 * The Doedicurus can autonomously gather stone, while being carried by an Argentavis. To do so, simply pick up the Doed with your Argy and hover close to harvestable rock nodes. Note that the Doedi CANNOT be on follow for this to happen.
 * Any Doedicurus that has rolled into a defensive ball will not uncurl if it finds itself under water and will swiftly drown. Players with access to a Quetzal will likely find this the quickest method of killing unwanted low level spawns.
 * Blue Doedicurus can rarely spawn in the wild. This, together with their ability to roll into a ball and charge their enemies, is possibly a reference to the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, a blue hedgehog whose signature attack is to roll into a ball to charge at enemies.
 * Doedicurus can still be knocked out when curled up, although it receives significantly less torpor.
 * Doedicurus has a secondary bite attack that can only be used when swimming.
 * During maturation, a young Doedicurus will occasionally curl up since it may not be at full health until it is older. It cannot move in this state until it uncurls from gaining more health, and will not be able to go for a walk during imprinting.
 * Baby Doedicurus will curl up after taking any sort of damage.