Megalosaurus

The Megalosaurus (MEG-uh-lo-SAWR-us ) is a creature in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Megalosaurus is a fierce predator at night, actively hunting many types of animals. However, during the day it lies down and falls asleep. While a sleeping Megalosaurus can be approached safely, if touched or attacked it will awaken suddenly. If awakened, it will pursue the player for a short distance, although it will move sluggishly and its attacks will be weaker.

On Aberration, be wary, for the Aberrant Megalosaurus will never be in a weaker state, as the twilight of the map never causes it to fall asleep or incur any Sleep Debt.

Appearance
The Megalosaurus is a nocturnal theropod resembling something akin to a smaller version of the Allosaurus. It avoids competition with its fellow large theropods by hunting at night, striking at herbivores or survivors when they are at their most vulnerable. Uniquely among ARK's large carnivorous dinosaurs, it is feathered on the back and top of the head.

Taming
Be careful when taming a Megalosaurus as it will be unable to leave many of the caves where it spawns. With the addition of Cryo tech to all maps, this is less of a problem - make sure to have an empty one with you!

Megalosaurus derive 135 food from their favorite kibble (compared to the standard 80), but still gain the standard amount of progress per kibble eaten (Taming Affinity). This means it takes 40% longer to kibble tame a megalosaurus versus other food types when compared to other tames, at 2.96x the taming speed of raw meat (compared to 5x for other kibble tames). This makes taming with prime meat slightly more time efficient (3x), but kibble is still more effective for bonus levels (Taming Effectiveness).

KO Strategy
Megalosaurus will wake up at the start of each night (approximately 20:30), regardless of its current torpidity. At approximately 52 minutes per day, even a level 1 megalosaurus will wake up at least once without Taming Speed modifiers. As such, the following strategy assumes that the megalosaurus will wake up at least once:
 * The rate of torpor decay makes it unlikely that any narcotics will be required for this tame as, except for low levels, it will wake up at night before its torpor fully depletes and its torpor will be re-filled when the creature is knocked out again.
 * Starve taming is highly recommended for taming the megalosaurus i.e. allowing the creature's hunger to deplete until it is below the target value, and then inserting all the food at once.
 * As of v252.2, the megalosaurus will retain any Taming Affinity (Taming Progress) when it wakes up - however, the contents of its inventory is still lost. Due to Taming Affinity regressing while no food is in an unconscious creature's inventory, you would lose some progress in the brief window after knocking out the creature each time, and you would need to keep at least one piece of food in its inventory for when it wakes up (as removing all food would cause it to start regressing).
 * Due to the need of knocking out a megalosaurus multiple times in combination with being starved (i.e. no health recovery from food), using the longneck rifle and tranquilizer darts is almost mandatory. Any other method will almost certainly kill the creature. Even then, it's exceptionally risky.
 * A megalosaurus that is active during the day will generate "Sleep Deprivation" that, once full, will cause the creature to rapidly generate torpidity. The Sleep Deprivation meter of a wild/enemy megalosaurus can be seen through a magnifying glass. It is possible to "knock out" a megalosaurus simply by keeping it awake during the day until it passes out - allowing non-dart tranquilizing methods, but increasing the tame time due to the creature being awake at night (starving is paused while the creature is awake).
 * An alternative is to use Narcotic Tripwires. After first knocking out the megalosaurus, you can use its maximum torpor to calculate how many trip wires are required to almost knock-it-out the next evening (and even set-up the tripwires while it is asleep). Be sure not to completely knock it out with tripwires, though, as a creature knocked out by the tripwire itself will not starve and is inaccessible.
 * You can also use Enduro Stew to regenerate Megalosaurus health. Be aware though to use it only during starve taming, as force feeding Enduro Stew during normal taming (after it starts eating, and gaining taming affinity) will drastically drop Megalosaurus' taming efficiency. Otherwise, during starve taming each portion of Enduro Stew will restore 1080 hp in total over a 15 minutes, and will not cause taming efficiency drop. That way you can keep knocking out Megalosaus with tranq arrows, rather than tranq darts.
 * There is another possible method to retain health on a Megalosaurus during taming but this is assuming that you are feeding it as you tame it as opposed to starve taming; upon knockout you can remote use a lot of raw meat into the Megalosaurus while its food is full (a stack of 20 raw meat restores 100 health.) This will allow you to restore the Megalosaurus's health in a cheap fashion but as mentioned this is an option only for taming along the way. Remember that remote using prime meat does NOT restore any health, only regular raw meat.
 * There's two arguments for "when is the best time to knock out a megalosaurus":
 * During the day as the megalosaurus is so slow that a player can walk backwards while shooting without being at risk. If knocked out just after dawn, this provides the longest period to begin starving before the first time the megalosaurus wakes up. However, if going the day method, you may as well utilise the Sleep Deprivation mechanic mentioned above.
 * Immediately after night begins, as this provides the longest window to be idle or perform other activities (all night and all day). This method has more risk as the megalosaurus is a swift predator at night.
 * At night, except during the previous day, a trap is constructed around the sleeping megalosaurus with stone door frames, provides a safe way to knock it out and the longest available time period for taming.
 * However, short of leaving it awake all night before knocking it out again in the morning, you will likely be knocking the creature out each night regardless. Short of building a bunker or getting the megalosaurus stuck, one method is to use creatures that permit mounted weaponry, such as a sabertooth or carno, to tank the megalosaurus while you tranquillise it from the mount's back. Make sure your tame is appropriately durable for the level of the megalosaurus, although you have plenty of time during the day to recover.
 * The sabertooth will be subject to the megalosaurus' pick-up attack and, depending on the angle, you may need to dismount to begin shooting. While it has your tame in its mouth, it will not pay any attention to you, but will not let it go until it dies or is knocked out.
 * A waking (i.e. not curled-up) megalosaurus can be picked up by a quetzal. It is possible to lure a megalosaurus out of the cave, and relatively easy (safe) to do so during the day, and from there you can carry the megalosaurus to a taming enclosure or other suitable location.
 * However, be wary of Sleep Deprivation. If the megalosaurus passes out while being held, it will be dropped.

Traps
If one is having trouble taming a Megalosaurus, it may be a good idea to use a trap; however, traps can be expensive if they are not built correctly, be sure you are confident with trapping before attempting to trap a Megalosaurus, as a mistake can lead to a very swift and painful death.
 * If you’re struggling on resources, or if you're simply a low level, you can trap a Megalosaurus using wooden structures by placing Doorways on Fence Foundations, one can also use stone or metal if it can be afforded. Be sure to build the trap in a relatively open area as building near a wall or slope can allow the Megalosaurus to climb out of the trap, this can be prevented however by placing 1-2 more doorways ontop of the pre-existing ones.
 * If one can afford to learn it, the Giant Stone Hatchframe can also be used, however this is more difficult then the previous trap. To setup this trap, you will first need to place a Pillar followed by a Ceiling on top, you then need to lure the Megalosaurus to the structure. As the Megalosaurus approaches the structure, you will need to prepare to place the hatchframe as the Megalosaurus passes through, when the Megalosaurus is in the center of the frame, you’ll need to quickly place it. If preformed correctly the Megalosaurus will be unable to escape. It is not recommended to try this near a slope as it can aid the Megalosaurus in escaping the trap


 * By far the easiest way to trap a Megalosaurus is to make an enclosure out of Pillars with a Dinosaur Gate serving as the dino entrance. Place a Bear Trap in the enclosure and then lure the Megalosaurus into the trap and close the gates. Before attempting this trap, make sure there is enough space for you to squeeze through the pillars without allowing the Megalosaurus to get out as well.
 * Note this only works on aberration. If you want to get more then one Megalosaurus then you should make a enclosure by placing one dinosaur gate and gateway down and make a 2 by 2 square out of fence foundations and doorways with a ramp on 2 of the sides. Totaling to one dinosaur gate and 6 fences with 12 doorways and 4 ramps. All you have to do at that point is use something like a ravager to jump across the 2 by 2 with the megalosaurus following it. Then when it falls in all you have to do is tame it then simply walk it out.

Breeding
While sleeping, a young megalosaurus' food depletes at a rate faster than it autonomously eats to recover the food. Thus, there is a strategy to raising a baby megalosaurus when playing on any of the maps other than aberration:
 * Do NOT hatch a megalosaurus egg during the day, particularly at low levels or poor health/food stats. It may perish before you can claim and open the creature's inventory.
 * Once hatched, set the megalosaurus to Stay Awake. It will inevitably fall unconscious - this is planned. While the unconscious megalosaurus does consume food faster than the awake creature, it is still a fraction of the amount that a sleeping megalosaurus will consume.
 * The creature falling unconscious will not remove you from its inventory. However, the creature regaining consciousness will remove its currently Stay Awake setting.
 * If you do hatch it during the day, you may observe its food constantly being 0. This is due to the speed its food decreases. Due to the intermittent starving, it's health will appear to stagnate (i.e. not mature). This will cause the rapid food consumption to continue even into the night as it recovers the missing values, and it will recover its maximum food faster than its maximum health. Do not be concerned if your megalosaurus wakes up and still appears to be consuming at a fast rate - you can force feed it meat to assist in health recovery.

While awake, the megalosaurus is otherwise a normal baby. On Aberration, can be raised without regard to day/night as this mechanic does not apply (as your megalosaurus will not fall asleep).
 * Oviraptor Kibble provides 135 Food, making it the best food by weight.
 * Using the stasis method (raising the baby in isolation and making sure the location is not rendered) can be employed. Torpor gain due to sleep deprivation appears to be halted while not rendered, meaning there is little risk of increased food consumption versus other babies.

In an unknown update or perhaps unique to Valguero where Megalosaurus do not naturally spawn, it appears that Baby Megalosaurus will stay awake during the day and eat food at a seemingly normal rate without the regular debuffs of being forced to stay awake.

Trick Tactic for new game beginners: Because you can wake it up and it gains torpor from sleep deprivation, it is an easy tame for beginners to tame a difficult creature, but they may need to level up their Health, Stamina and Movement Speed. And you may also need a torch and strong armor (presumably leather may work) to help protect themselves from the megalosaurus bite in case they react a little too late

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Megalosaurus.

General
Megalosaurus can be found inside some of the caves on The Island, The Center, and Scorched Earth. In Ragnarok it can be found above ground in Viking Bay and on slosher slope. On the Aberration map they are found in the lower levels and do not have a sleep/wake cycle. When taming, it is recommended to clear out any other animals inside the cave. Currently only four wild Megalosaurus are on an individual map/server at a time, excluding Aberration. On Aberration the Elemental Vault is a great place to find high level Megalosaurus, just keep in mind that it will be stuck within the caves as there is no land route that connects to the outside. However, you can produce eggs and hatch them outside. During the day, it is a peaceful sleeper, but by night, it is a carrying, mangling, ultimate destroyer, killing machine.

It can also be found on Extinction, in the swamp, in great numbers.

Strategy
If you want to tame a Megalosaurus it’s best to tame them during the day when they are sluggish and a much lesser threat. However, you will need to make sure to KO it again when it is night. No matter what the torpor, the Megalosaurus will wake up once it hits night time.

Weaponry
Bows, Crossbows and Rifles will work against the Megalosaurus. Especially during the day since once their stamina runs dry from Sleep Deprivation they will begin to gain Torpor.

Dangers
By nature the Megalosaurus is an extremely dangerous creature and should not be underestimated. At night, the Megalosaurus has a higher base damage than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, is extremely fast, and can make short work of even the toughest creatures. Even in the wild, the Megalosaurus can pick up players and chomp them to death with ease. While it is weaker during the day, it is not recommended to enter close combat with a Megalosaurus and instead keep a distance and use ranged weapons. The 's lack of a sleep cycle means that at all times, it is in its strongest, most fearsome form, and additional caution should always be taken when confronting the Aberrant form.

Weakness
Groggy Effect:

The Megalosaurus, even if not tamed, will be given the groggy Status Effect, increasing Stamina consumption and decreasing Movement Speed.

Day:

The Megalosaurus sleeps in the day which makes it easy to knock out or kill it. It also is very slow in day so it is easy to get some distance from it.

Night:

You can outrun a rider on a Megalosaurus with a decent mount unless its stamina or speed has been greatly improved. Even since the Megalosaurus is quite fast its stamina drains rather quickly but it can still outrun most low-mid tier creatures. Hard to ambush unwary players as the eyes glow so most people can see it coming unless covered in dense foliage, or unwary players.

Utility
NOTE: When leveling the Megalosaurus for any role, especially as a damage dealer, keep these facts in mind. While not being ridden, tamed Megalosaurus only ever use their secondary grab attack when fighting enemies. The base damage of this secondary attack is scaled down to 1 when a rider is on the saddle, so that it does not one-shot any wild animal that the rider wants the Megalosaurus to pick up. Without a rider on the saddle, the AI version of the secondary attack is more powerful, but only just barely: possessing a very meager base damage of 10. The AI version of the secondary attack, however, is still influenced by damage percentage levels, so investing levels into melee damage will make it stronger. At the same time, unfortunately, if the target the non-ridden Megalosaurus is attacking can be picked up by the secondary attack, it will proceed to use the gnawing bite attack where it chews on its victim while holding it. While this may seem a good thing at first, with the chewing attack having a base damage of 75, there is a catch. The damage dealt by the gnawing attack is not influenced by melee damage level multipliers. It will never deal more damage than 75 points. This means a non-ridden Megalosaurus' relatively pathetic base damage of 10 with its secondary attack is still more powerful when compared to its gnawing attack, rendering it more useful against larger opponents that it can't pick up rather than smaller ones.

With all of this taken into account, the strongest of all tamed Megalosaurus, if there is no rider on its saddle to direct it, becomes one of the weakest creatures in the game in terms of damage potential. If there is a rider on its saddle, however, the tables quickly turn. The base damage of their primary attack, which a rider can force the Megalosaurus to constantly use, is a truly whopping 75; one of the highest of any creature in the game, overtaking the Rex's base damage of 62, and with the addition of a mate boost, out-competing even the likes of the Reaper. In fact, the only non-aquatic tameable creatures that surpass this impressive base damage are Wyverns at 80, Magmasaurs and Rock Elementals at 120, Meks at 200, Giganotosaurus at 400, Titanosaurs at 1,000, and finally the various Titans. This means that although the Megalosaurus may be one of the weakest creatures available, if used correctly, it can also be one of the strongest.

Carrying
The Megalosaurus, along with the Kaprosuchus and the Karkinos, is one of three terrestrial creatures that can grab and carry many other various creatures. Among the terrestrial carriers, the Megalosaurus fills the middle ground between the Kaprosuchus and the Karkinos; able to pick up creatures with a Drag Weight of 150 or less. This is done by using the Megalosaurus' secondary attack, which deals a very tiny base damage of 1 while a rider is on the saddle to direct the Megalosaurus, so that picking up the target has the least possible chance of killing it. While not being ridden, a tamed or wild Megalosaurus will still use this attack, which has an increased base damage of 10 without a rider on the saddle. Once a creature is in the Megalosaurus' jaws, using the secondary attack button a second time will drop the target, while using the primary attack button will cause the Megalosaurus to use its gnawing attack while holding the victim. A Megalosaurus, regardless of it's behavior settings, if it picks up a target on its own, or the rider that directed it to pick it up dismounts, will always proceed to use the gnawing attack until the carried target has been killed. This means if you wish to transport an animal and keep it alive, do not dismount the Megalosaurus until you have found where you wish to let go of the animal. Regardless of whether it is the rider or the AI version of the attack, using the secondary attack to grab and carry a target still deals damage, and will always trigger the victim's fight or flight response. Conversely, the Megalosaurus can only grab and carry wild or enemy creatures, and is incapable of using this ability on ally tamed animals.

Note: The list of carry-able creatures is substantially reduced during the day when the Megalosaurus needs to sleep, with the exclusion of larger flying creatures in particular.
 * Aquatic Creatures
 * Note that moving "aquatic" creatures out of water will instantly kill them.


 * Terrestrial Creatures


 * Note that as of patch 303.1, the, , , and can no longer be picked by the Megalosaurus.
 * Flying Creatures

Roles

 * Night battle mount: The Megalosaurus is weak and very slow during the day and tires out quickly, but at night its stamina and attack levels raise significantly and makes the Megalosaurus a very powerful mount for night raids. Its lock jaw attack will snatch and incapacitate individual enemies, allowing the rider to finish them off with ease.


 * Aberrant Apex Tame : The, unlike its non-aberrant counterpart, does not utilize sleep deprivation when on the Aberration map, and so can remain awake indefinitely (though it will be forced to sleep on other maps if transferred to them). Without this handicap, players can enjoy what is otherwise a superior creature to most other larger theropods. Since the Megalosaurus can be bred, their combat effectiveness rivals Basilisks and Rock Drakes, and their access to a mate boost allows them to compete directly with Reapers. For context, Reapers and non-aberrant Megalosaurus both share a base damage of 75. When the aberrant damage boost of 6% and the mate boost of 33% extra damage is accounted for, the aberrant Megalosaurus has a whopping base damage of roughly 104, one of the highest of any tame. To accompany this impressive base damage, the Megalosaurus has a remarkably fast attack speed, which outpaces the Reaper; allowing it to deal a truly massive amount of damage against opponents in both short and long term engagements. Despite all of these advantages when it comes to raw damage, there are a few downsides about the aberrant Megalosaurus to consider when compared to its larger competitors. All of its rivals have the Megalosaurus beat in terms of mobility and speed, and how effectively they can traverse the Aberration map, though the Megalosaurus still maintains a sharper turning radius than the Basilisk and Reaper, respectively. In terms of attack range, while its smaller size aids in surrounding larger opponents more effectively, the Megalosaurus, due to its smaller size, also has a far shorter attack range, and less knockback against opponents. Likewise caused by its smaller stature, the aberrant Megalosaurus also suffers from the same problem the Basilisk does: it is NOT registered as a large-class creature, and so it is constantly harassed and attacked by creatures in and above its weight class, where larger tames such as the Reaper and Aberrant Spino would be mostly left alone. Though it may be immune to radiation, this simple fact means that the irradiated zones are incredibly dangerous for the Megalosaurus, and due to the threat of Aberrant Purlovia; the rider is under constant threat of being dismounted and killed.


 * Taming Assistant: Because of its ability to clamp onto various animals, it is a great dino to use in cases where you don't have a bola or against creatures that bolas won't work. Warning, as grabbing and holding a wild dino will not prevent it from attacking your mount, and should you dismount to try and shoot tranquilizers at it, your Megalosaurus will begin to attack unless you put it in passive (Not tested). Having a tribe member shoot it while you continue to hold it will lead to a easy tame (It will automatically drop from the Megalosaurus' mouth when it falls unconscious). If solo, you can use it as a transport and capture a potential tame and move to a more secure location before dropping the animal in a taming pen or trap.


 * Drake Egg gatherer: The is one of the most effective mounts for gathering your first . However, you should NEVER, under ANY circumstances bring a Megalosaurus down into the actual trench without a cryopod available, as once it's down there, there's no route up. Instead, use it to kill the drakes within the trench before going down, getting the egg, and heading out.


 * Combatant: The Megalosaurus has very high damage, health, stamina, and decent weight making it a valuable warrior, plus just putting 15 or more points into speed will make it very quick. The only weakness is that its stamina regeneration speed is very slow.

Bugs

 * An unmounted Megalosaurus will only ever use the AI version of its secondary bite attack, the one designed to pick up targets, which has a very small base damage of 10. If the target it is attacking can be picked up, it will use the gnaw attack, which, although it has a base damage of 75, is not influenced by melee damage multipliers, meaning that if the Megalosaurus has a Melee Damage level percentage of 751% or higher, the damage dealt to targets that cannot be picked up will be higher than that of ones that can be. This means, in order to get the most out of a Megalosaurus as a tame, and to access its primary attack, which has a base damage of 75 and is influenced by Melee Damage level multipliers, the Megalosaurus should only ever be used as a ridden tame. If it is not, then even the strongest of Megalosaurus will be at a disadvantage against many an opponent. This bug could be fixed in multiple ways, perhaps the best option being to make the AI version of the secondary attack deal the same base damage of 75 as the primary attack, while keeping the rider version at a base damage of 1.
 * Some animals will be picked up but will not be in the megalosaurus’s mouth, for example; the Pulmonoscorpius. This may be related, however, to the size of the victim's hit box, and could present a difficult challenge to be fixed.
 * The audio for the Megalosaurus' footsteps can become stuck in a tandem state, where it sounds as though there are two or more Megalosaurus walking or running at the same time at a slightly different pace, though there is only one Megalosaurus. It is unknown what causes this bug, nor how to fix it, but It disappears and reappears at random, so the effect is not permanent. It is, however, persistent.
 * The Megalosaurus shares a similar bug to that of the Kaprosuchus; it is unable to grab and hold flying or aquatic creatures on the Playstation 4 version.
 * On the Playstation 4 version, the Megalosaurus never spawns naturally in single-player on The Island or Scorched Earth maps. The aberrant version, however, still spawns in abundance on the Aberration map. The only maps that the normal Megalorsaurus spawns on naturally are The Center, and Ragnarok, which makes it impossible to tame for players who have not yet Ascended on The Island to some degree to tame it, as Ascension of varying levels is required to unlock these maps. In its spawn areas on Ragnarok, it remains rather elusive, as is intended, but on The Center map, due to a bug with the Jungle Cave, the Megalosaurus shares an over-spawn rate along with every other creature that calls the cave home. If you choose to tame a Megalosaurus on The Center for this very reason, be wary, as said over-spawn rate can be significant enough to freeze the frame rate and crash the game by simply being within rendering distance of the cave.
 * In Aberration, despite always being awake, a wild Megalosaurus will never move until being aggroed for the first time. This often leads to them standing in strange locations such as on the side of the cave walls and sometimes even floating in midair! This is assumed to happen because the game thinks the Megalosaurus is sleeping when it is really awake. This bug happens very often in Singleplayer and it could be related with the Stasis mechanic.

Notes/Trivia

 * The dossier was revealed on January 12, 2016
 * Megalosaurus means "Great Lizard" in Latin, and its species name "noctedominus" refer to their role as a nocturnal predator. So, the full translation is "Great Lizard Night Lord"
 * Megalosaurus is the second nocturnal dinosaur confirmed for Ark, with the first being the Troodon.
 * Megalosaurus is the first dinosaur to be described in scientific literature.
 * Megalosaurus are carryable by Quetzals, but Kaprosuchus, another Megalosaurus, and Tusoteuthis can't carry them.
 * They used to be able to be carried by the Quetzal, that has been changed so that it is only carried by the Tusoteuthis changed in patch 303.1.
 * While only spawning in Caves on The Island, The Center and Scorched Earth, wild Megalosaurus can and will spawn in the jungle west of Viking Bay on the map Ragnarok, posing a serious threat to new players. They also spawn freely around Aberration, in both Bioluminescent and Element Region, with no need for sleep in such map. Aberrant Megalosaurus are always in a full state of alertness, but at the same time an easier relief of taming and breeding the babies.
 * Oddly enough, Megalosaurus shares a large amount of it's animations with the Dilophosaurus: its running animation and bite attack being the most noticeable.
 * Curiously, the Megalosaurus cannot pick up a Glowbug, yet it can pickup larger creatures. This may be a bug.
 * Ones spawned in the Tek Cave DO NOT have a Sleep Timer
 * Despite being smaller, they're strong enough to kill a at night time.
 * The Megalosaurus is not often used by most players but however it can fight a or, even with the fear debuff. A level 1 Megalosaurus can kill a level 50.
 * The Megalosaurus is the only tame in the game that, while it is awake, will randomly perform its roaring animation on its own, without commands from a rider or triggering from any aggressors nearby: making its roar a randomized idle animation.