Daeodon

The Daeodon (day-o-don) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Travelers of the Ark will typically find Daeodon travelling in packs, devouring anything and everything that gets within sight. Once combat is initiated one or sometimes all of the pack will produce a pheromone effect to buff the health regeneration of friendly creatures. This, boosted by the other wild Daeodon's passive health boost, can make a pack of these creatures a very deadly opponent. It does appear however, if a traveler happens upon a lonely Daeodon, at least upon the traveler hitting the creature, it will run from the fight rather than stick around. The Daeodon is very useful after Boss Arenas to heal your tames, but will consume a very large quantity of food to do so.

Appearance
Daeodon is a large mammal with hunched shoulders and cloven hooves. It has a massive head and long jaws with fearsome tusk like front teeth for tearing both meat and plant matter and rows of molars at the back of the mouth for grinding. With its massive size and nightmarish teeth, it is easy to forget this animal is part of the pig family.

General
Daeodon very rarely travel alone. Groups typically consist of 2-4 individuals with an equal ratio of male to females, making the mate buff a very realistic threat to the survivor. In addition, it is a common sight to see half of the group being a higher level than the other half (i.e. Level 60 male and a Level 10 female).

The winter tundra contains large, and often deadly prey such as. This means that Daeodon will often take advantage of their healing abilities to soak up damage in order to stay alive.

Take these key points into consideration when tackling any Daeodon.

Strategy
Ensure you note the total number of Daeodons in a group before attacking, as well as any other threats that may be lingering nearby (e.g. ).

If attempting to kill, simply stand on a high position and shoot at it, or use a bola to keep it still and attack it with a sword or pike.

When fighting a group of Daeodon, be sure to kill the weaker ones first in order to reduce the efficiency of the healing buff. This will ultimately make fighting against the higher levels a lot easier.

Weaponry
Use shields if attempting to attack it with melee weapons, while crossbows can be used for long range, aiming for its lower jaw counts as a headshot.

Dangers
As they often appear in groups, the player can be very quickly overwhelmed. Furthermore, a larger group means a larger mate and healing buff, resulting in a very quick and inescapable death.

These creatures are also capable of fast speeds.

Weakness
Long range attacks render the Daeodon harmless, particularly if they are alone.

KO Strategy
The Daeodon is an aggressive creature; keep your distance when shooting, Longneck or crossbow is preferred. It can be grabbed by an Argentavis so one player can grab it while the other one at the ground shoots it. If playing solo, trap it inside a small house with the help of an Argentavis or using ramps. It cannot fit through doors so you can stand outside while shooting it safely.

Using a single bola will also give you enough time to bring it down if shot in the head (aim right below the chin)

Similar to the Argentavis, Daeodon's rapid healing ability consumes lots of food, meaning that players can start feeding it immediately if they render it unconscious while it is in the middle of using this ability, as its food meter will be depleted considerably. Keep in mind, however, that the Daeodon has an enormous appetite. If you use mutton, it will require much more of it than other creatures typically do, so be sure you have plenty. It is advised to use lots of Raw Mutton and Preserving Salt when applicable to ensure the best possible taming effectiveness and time. It should also be noted that Daeodons have relatively quick torpor drain, so be sure to come equipped appropriately.

Roles
Post-raid healing: The Daeodon can be used to quickly and easily heal your dinos after a boss fight, allowing you to then raid again. (Level Health and Food) The Daeodon's Passive Healing ability will -when turned on- automatically cause the Daeodon to start its healing ability when an injured and allied dino enters its range. When the allied dino is healed, the Daeodon will stop healing again. (Note: There are reports of this ability not working properly)

While healing, the Daeodon's food level will rapidly drain; be sure to bring it well stocked with food to eat. Keep in mind that the amount of dinos being healed by the Daeodon has a direct impact on the amount of food drained - healing many dinos at once can lead to thousands of food level draining every few seconds. It might be useful to carry some cheap kibble (such as dodo) because it provides more food and can be force-fed without cooldown, unlike meat.

After a boss fight, this is especially helpful to bring dinos back from the brink of death.

The Daeodon recovers food differently than other carnivores. The following table shows its unique food values: *Kibble has no feeding cooldown, so entire stacks can be force-fed in a few seconds

The amount of healing gained per tick of the Daeodon's healing aura is directly linked to the maximum health of the dino being healed. Higher HP dinos will heal more HP per tick.

The daeadon heals at a rate of (target dino's max health)*(0.005) hp/sec. Minimum 10 and max 300 for players; minimum 20 and max 400 for dinos; up to 30 dinos within a range of 2500 units.

Raid healer: Its AOE pulsating Heal makes it valuable for healing your dinos during a raid on a base! (Level Health and Food) (Needs confirmation, daeodon healing should not matter at all in a raid, it is rather used for post-fight healing. ) If you want to give it Food faster use prime meat or kibble.

Base Infirmary: For aesthetics, dedicate a decent sized area in your base to have a building with a daeodon. You can treat the building like the Pokemon center of your base.

Feces Producer: While in active healing mode Daeodon produces a large amount of feces in a short amount of time. Perfect for those who need a large amount of feces to compost into fertilizer. (Though a good kibble farm should produce more than enough byproduct to use with dung beetles...)

Cactus Sap Collector: The Daeodon seems to be a perfect creature to harvest Cactus Sap on Scorched Earth. It can only harvest sap from the low, red-flowered cactus bushes, not the tall saguaro cactus trees.

Notes/Trivia

 * Dino Dossier revealed on 10/04/2016.
 * The dossier says that Daeodon has as many similarities to modern Hippopotamidae as it does to Suina, this sentence refers to how many people call this creature "Hell Pig" even though they're a whole different animal, but still closely related to pigs and hippos; both are members of artiodactyl (even-toed ungulate).
 * Although there was mention of multiple Daeodons receiving a pack bonus to their healing aura, there does not currently seem to be any benefit to multiple Daeodons healing at once.
 * The dossier lists Daeodon as an Omnivore, but as of v257 the Daeodon will only eat meat. All berries and crops provide no food value. In addition, Raw Meat provides only 10 food value upon consumption (but cooked meat provides it 25 food value), nowadays the dossier lists it as Carnivore.
 * The Daeodon has a different scale of foods as the rest of carnivores. The order of food value from worst to best: Raw Fish Meat 5; Raw Meat 10; Cooked Fish Meat 12.5; Cooked Meat, Cooked Prime Fish Meat and Cooked Meat Jerky 25; Cooked Prime Meat, Cooked Lamb Chop and Prime Meat Jerky 50; Superior, Exceptional and extraordinary 85; and basic, simple, regular  96.
 * There is a bug with the Daeodon's healing ability that causes it to constantly heal even when there's nothing to heal. If it ever occurs, just remove its food source and let it starve. Once it reaches zero the ability should stop and you can then give its food back. Until the bug is patched up, it is highly advised to NEVER use it. Otherwise you'll have a lot of food wasted. This can be countered if the daeodon has a saddle, as one can jump on and turn off the healing manually. Disabling passive healing may also fix this bug.
 * On ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, the can only be found in the Dungeons. For use on The Island, it must be killed and revived in order to tame it.
 * Species name means "Eater Dreadful Teeth", that explained its enormous appetite.