Compy

The Compsognathus (komp-sog-NAY-thus), or simply Compy, is one of the dinosaurs in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Curious of humans, any Compy will be drawn to one simply by seeing it. Alone, a Compsognathus is not a threat, will not attack, and simply wishes to observe Humans, however, when mate boosted and in larger packs, these little terrors soon become aggressive and will attack anything, especially humans. If hungry enough, they are also prone to eat their fallen pack mates after a fight. The Compy, once tamed, is extremely loyal and loving to its new master, and can travel perched on their shoulder. However, the Compy is smarter (or perhaps simply more picky) than most of the other animals on the island, so to win one's affection during the taming process, Prime Meat is essential.

Appearance
Compsognathus is a diminutive theropod, and perhaps the smallest of the island's many dinosaur species. It has a slim and graceful build with a narrow head on top a snake-like neck and a few large osteoderms running down it's sides and back. A few feathers decorate its head, presumably to impress mates. Lean, quick-moving, and smart, they are common in wetter regions where their primary prey - small reptiles, mammals, and insects - are in abundance. Compsognathus are highly social and are often found in groups; they are known to extend their inquisitiveness to humans when they find them, but curiosity can quickly turn to hostility should the pack grow large enough to pose a threat.

Pack Boost
The Pack Boost is the number of the animals in the Pack.

A "pack" of two Compies will receive a +1 Bonus, which will go up to +8 in a Group of 9 or more Compies. In order to attack the player, at least two Compies must be together.

Further info on the effect needed.

Wild
Wild compies will walk up to and follow players or tamed creatures and remain neutral. However, they attract more Compies, and if more than one are in the same area they will become aggressive and attack.

Strategy
Taming a Compy can be either the easiest, or the most dreadful tame a player can experience. A Compy takes very little to KO, however, they wake up extremely fast and will only eat prime meats during the taming process. Be careful if you have knocked multiple Compies unconscious, as they can quickly and suddenly wake up without warning, giving the others a chance to wake up while you are distracted. Finding a lone Compy or taking a smaller Carnivore to thin out larger packs is best when hunting Compies. If you are wearing, it is easiest to knock them out with 1-3 while they attack you, as they do little to no damage to.

As with all creatures, it will eat the food left in its inventory if hungry, so don't put much more Prime Meat in them as they need, it might get eaten if they are awake.

Using an or a  you can pick the Compy up and put it in a taming bin, this is recommended as you need to get  to tame the compy. Their depletes fast and you will have little time to get  after you have shot it unconscious. When you've got both and, you can simply go into your taming bin and knock it unconscious. Put and  on the compy and watch the  closely.

A Pulmonoscorpius can make knocking out compies insanely easy. Simply walk up to them, sting each animal once, possibly twice depending on the levels involved (though twice is more likely to kill than knock out). Wait a few seconds and they will all fall over, knocked out and ready to be tamed. They will attempt to flee as their torpor increases, so if one flees into grass or bushes, they can be hard to spot if you don’t keep an eye on them, but this should be the only challenge to this method besides the obvious gathering and preservation of prime meats.

is also an effective taming food, and as such, a relatively easy, if slightly circumstantial way for a beginning player to tame these creatures are to locate a compy gang close to a river, then harvest  as they can sometimes drop prime meats. (Be careful, salmon will fight back and defend each other!) once you have acquired the prime fish meat, proceed to attack and knock out the compies. The only requirements for this method are: a spear or other underwater capable weapon (for fishing) a club, and a bit of fortune timing.

General
Compies only attack in groups, giving them a pack boost. It is recommended to back up while attacking to kill them one at a time and avoid being swarmed. If there is only one it will not attack, but you should be careful and prepared for others to show up.

Strategy
Compies are very weak, and even a primitive stone tool will deal with Compies. Group them up before you and use melee weapons with greater range like pikes or spears. As they chase you, they pile onto one another and get caught on each other, allowing you to deal with the one or two in the front. Just make sure you keep moving backwards, or they'll surround you! On a large mount like a or, it is often best to back up while biting or simply run away! Compies can easily swarm and swiftly kill a mount that does not have the HP to deal with the rapid attacks. Any shorter mount with a strong melee damage like a Thylacoleo or a Dire Bear can kill whole packs of Compies in one or two attacks.

Weaponry
Any melee weapon will do, but a longer ranged tool like a pike is recommended as it can keep the small Compies away from you with its knockback, as Compies are more easily affected by it than many other dinos. Compies are also one of the few creatures where a primitive torch can be used very effectively as a weapon against them. While the torch deals direct damage to the targeted animal, the flame lights up any others that crowd too close. This is an easy way to kill an entire group simultaneously.

Dangers
The Compy is really only truly dangerous against unprepared players or players caught unaware when the Compies are in large packs. Often a single Compy will lure other Compies into the area with a call. It is best to kill this single Compy or to knock it out and swiftly depart before they lure others in.

Weakness
Compies will quickly lose interest in a player that has retreated into the water, so it's best to make a hasty retreat into the closest body of water if you find yourself surrounded by a pack.

If you get attacked by a huge pack of Compies it's the best to run away for about 200 meters and then turn around. The Compies will arrive one at a time, allowing you to kill one, heal, and kill the next without danger. Compies are largely affected by knockback.

Roles

 * Backpack: Only half their weight is put on your shoulder, meaning you can carry extra weight (it's better to use a or a  as a back pack since their weight is much higher)
 * Pet: Compies are cute they make a great addition to your in-game households as they eagerly look up to you in a friendly manner.
 * Swarmers: Good to raid a thatch hut in the beach, or to kill small dinos such as a, keep in mind that a is able to kill an entire pack of compies, so don't take the risk.
 * Strong Shoulder Pet: unlike other utility shoulder pets, the best thing you can level up for the compy is which will make it survive longer than other pets.
 * Wild Animal Distractors: Despite being vulnerable to many similar sized animals, they seem to be much more capable against larger, slower animals which pose a much greater threat to humans. Even a single compy can be a valuable companion in hunting larger creatures. They’re fast enough to keep up with many fleeing creatures and damage them, and are surprisingly resilient even against creatures a hundred times their size. Their tiny size and quick movement can out-maneuver even carnivores such as carnos, even low level rexes. The continuous damage typically diverts aggro off players, giving the player ample time to deliver kill or knockout shots with ranged weapons, or escape if the encounter was unplanned. While the Compies typically don’t survive the encounters, if done properly the rewards can be well worth the sacrifice. Important to note, this only works against wild animals, as a tamed creature directed to attack you will not get distracted as easily!

Notes/Trivia

 * First revealed by Jat on Day Five of the Jurassic ARK Event.
 * Dossier revealed on 07/06/15.
 * In real life, Compsognathus was famous as the smallest Dinosaur for decades. However, later discoveries such as were shown to be much smaller.
 * The Compy can be carried on a player's shoulder.
 * Compys gain a pack boost similar to the mate boost other creatures gain. The strength of the boost depends on the number of Compys around it. However, it maxes out at 8.
 * In v224.1 when bred, the fertilized egg was located at the exact position where you tamed the female. This was reported fixed in v224.2. Many are still reporting this to be an issue on the ARK Steam forums, with the egg appearing in random places, likely where the Compy was during a server restart, or where tamed, if newly tamed.
 * Compys currently do not poop (in v224.2) but lay eggs normally.
 * The generic name means "elegant jaw". The specific epithet is a combination of curiosus ("curious"), referring to the Compy's curiosity towards humans, and either sicarius ("murderer"), referring to their high aggression when in packs, or carius (neuter of carior, ultimately from carus, meaning "dear, beloved"), referring to their loyalty and physical closeness when tamed.
 * The Compy is one of the few creatures to have a death animation. The others being the Reaper, Dodorex, and Iceworm/Deathworm.
 * Survivors can tell that the Compy is too small to ride, yet Helena decided to include artwork of a saddle with a "X" to let people know it can't be ridden.

Lore

 * In lore, a Compsogathus killed one of Rockwell's assistants whose name was either Gerald or Gerande. Gerald/Gerande stated survivors were living on an ARK after careful observation of their implants.