Gigantopithecus

The Gigantopithecus (jy-gan-toe-pith-i-kus) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Gigantopithecus wander around the forests of the island, eating berries off of bushes. They are naturally peaceful creatures, but will fight back if attacked or if a player or tamed creature makes physical contact with them. Gigantopithecus normally spawn as individuals and are fairly spread out, so it is rare to see groups of them in the wild. While they mainly inhabit forests, they tend to wander quite far and can sometimes be found on beaches or near rivers and mountains.

Yeti (Variant)
With the introduction of the Snow Cave in Patch 237, a variant of Gigantopithecus spawns inside called the Yeti. They are untamable apes that only spawn inside the snow cave at levels up to 350. These apes are vicious, terrifying creatures that will decimate any adventurers hoping to step foot inside. Stay clear from them, or use extremely powerful guns and weaponry to slaughter them before they get their powerful hands on you!

Appearance
The Gigantopithecus is a close relative of the modern orangutan. However, it stands upright like a man but slightly taller, giving it a strong resemblance to Bigfoot or the yeti.

Taming Strategies
Similar to the Ichthyosaurus, Gigantopithecus is tamed by hand-feeding rather than through the use of tranquilizers. To feed one you will need to be level 30, then place an appropriate food in the far-right slot of your hotbar and get close enough to the creature for the button prompt to appear. Gigantopithecus will take one piece of the food from your inventory and will play an eating animation. You must wait for the creature's hunger to go back down before it can be fed again, a process which takes some time, depending on the level and the food (see tables).

If you come into physical contact with Gigantopithecus while you are trying to feed it, the creature will attack. You must get out of its line of sight in order for it to calm back down and be feed-able again. Your taming progress will not be reset if the creature attacks you, but you will lose taming effectiveness if you fight back.

Be careful when approaching Gigantopithecus while feeding, as it will randomly change directions or stop, causing you to run into it. It is better to approach it from behind while it's standing still, since the creature usually doesn't turn all the way around while wandering. Or you can crouch up to it and feed it that way as it will not attack you when you're crouched.

It is best to bring a flying mount in case you need to run away, since they can easily be flown above the Gigantopithecus and it will give up the chase a lot quicker than on the ground. If a flying mount is not available, fast ground mounts such as a Raptor are decent alternatives.

Simple
Another method is to trap the Gigantopithecus in a 1x1 room with no roof or a hatchframe. You can then feed it from above without having to worry about bumping into it or having it wander off, and wild carnivores will have a tougher time getting to it.

Advanced
The Gigantopithecus can also be trapped directly on spot so the camera has never to be moved during the process.

For this, it requires one foundation (Just even floor will not suffice), two fence foundations and five door frames. On the foundation, one fence foundations needs to be placed directly on the edge of it, and the second one should be snapped to the other one so it lays diagonally on the foundation. Now the foundation is separated in two triangles, and note that the triangles are of different sizes, and the bigger one will be the potential taming spot. Now it requires door frames on each but one side (So the Gigantopithecus can be lured into the box). After you have lured the Gigantopithecus into the box, close the last open side, and now it will walk around in the box (Aggressive or not), and you just have to keep one door frame projected at the diagonal fence foundation and place it as soon as possible. After it is placed, the Gigantopithecus barely has any possibility to move left.

When hand feeding him now, it is important to not stay on the foundation because then you have high risk of enraging it. It is advised to stay on the ground next to it and crouch, then it can be fed without any problems.

Building material
It is advised to use stone because it can easily become enraged by accident, but with enough care, wooden structures will also suffice (Thatch won't because it will be broken in the process of luring it in the box and losing aggro).

Luring into the box
Since dropping it in the box with a flying mount is pretty hard and only possible with a Quetzal or Argentavis, it is much easier to lure it into it. For this, leave one side of the box open at first and place a doorframe on the opposite side. Then, after getting its attention, you just run into the box, wait until it is close enough to actually enter it, and then just leave through the door frame (It cant pass through it) and close the opposite side with a spare wall.

Losing aggro
To lose its aggro, just travel vertically till the skybox is reached and instantly return. Horizontal travel to lose its interest is discouraged because it can cause the teleporting bug, which lets it exit the box (If this happens or not is dependent on the exact placement of the box), or may even let it despawn.

Sometimes, it may be still enraged and attacking the box when returning. In this case, you need to replace all wall/door structures it is attacking.

Using a Quetzal
To tame the Gigantopithecus using the Quetzal method, it requires 2 people. The first person needs to carry the Gigantopithecus with the Quetzal, and hover close the ground. While it's been carried, the Gigantopithecus can be fed, and is less likely to retaliate against the tamer. If the feeder gets too close, it will still throw a punch, but it wont affect the tame or aggro it. The Quetzal might slide around over time, so the Quetzal rider only has to adjust its position every now and then. Along with feeding the Quetzal food/stimberries to keep it flying. Alternative, on PC, the player riding the Quetzal can hold X to prevent it from moving in the air, thus allowing it to keep the Gigantopithecus completely still.

Human Tossing
When sitting on a Gigantopithecus and pressing the alt-fire button (default: right click), it will grab the survivor with the blue crosshair appearing in front of the HUD. It will toss him/her forward upon clicking again. This can be used to get over walls without destroying them. Be careful as this does cause the Gigantopithecus to melee attack directly in front of it, damaging anything or anyone in the established path.

If you have the Glider Suit, this can give you an excellent bit of elevation to glide around and get a good view. The Gigantopithicus can easily follow you when gliding, if you know what you're doing. As well, if you deploy the parachute, it will carry you forwards for an incredible distance, faster than most animals can run, the downside being you won't have your Gigantopithicus to defend you when you finally land.

They are an excellent mount for gaining an acrobatic advantage if you know what you're doing.Also fun fact when tamed the fiber gathering/pickup attack does torpor to enemies and wild dinos so it can be used to knock players out for an easy kill.

Roles

 * Tank: Excellent tank due to its high HP and ability to wear any type of helmet. (Level up in Health and Damage)
 * Damage: Very good AOE, damage scaling and knockback. The knockback has also been known to push back a Brontosaurus slightly. (Level up in Damage, Health and Speed slightly)
 * Armor killer: Damages through player's armor easily much like Arthropleura in Pvp. (Level up in Damage, Health and Speed slightly)
 * Transport: Decent base carrying capacity but nothing absurd. Good base speed, similar to a player without any speed upgrades and can travel up and down ziplines like the ravager. (Level up in Speed, Stamina, and Weight)
 * Shoulder Carrier: Ability to carry shoulder pets (Such as Charge Light Dino, Jerboa, Microraptor etc...) with good base speed. (Level up in Speed, Stamina, and Weight)
 * To pick up a shoulder pet on XBOX use LB + Right Stick, same to throw the shoulder pet
 * Gatherer: Can gather fiber, thatch, wood, and a decent amount of berries. Can gather fiber passively when not ridden–will gather fiber from plants in its vicinity, otherwise turn on ability to wander to gather fiber continuously. Use  (RB on Xbox)to gather fiber while ridden. (Level up in Damage, Weight, and Stamina)
 * Travel:
 * Guardian:
 * Battle Mount:
 * Combatant:
 * Defender:
 * Hiker: Gigantopithecus may outmatch Pulmonoscorpius and Beelzebufo for hiking. They can climb the steepest surfaces with relative ease.
 * Underwater Mount: Can be a decent and powerful underwater mount, it's high damage and AoE can clear out large swarms of mantas and repel annoying ichthys from pushing you around and blocking pathways. (Level Oxygen, Damage, and Health)
 * Caving: Arguably the best mount you can travel through in caves. Small enough yet deal significant damage and can run fast enough to avoid fights. Should you get caught up in the lakes you can swim to safety.

Carry-able Creatures
The Gigantopithecus is capable of carrying the following shoulder-mounts, in addition to a human rider:

Both, and  will attack (or pickpocket, in Pegomastax's case) the opposing survivor if thrown towards them in PvP-enabled server.

will do the same thing as it does for survivors when thrown towards fish.

Can only pick when small. Also, when a small Ferox is carried, it will glitch and appear between the two Gigantopithecus' feet.


 * Controls
 * Hold C to pick up.
 * Tap/Hold C to aim and throw.
 * Tap X to drop.
 * Click Right Stick/Bumper simultaneously.

The Gigantopithecus can only target tribe-owned creatures, and cannot be used to pick up wild or enemy variants.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Gigantopithecus.

General
The Gigantopithecus has fairly good health and attack, since it is passive until you get too close it is easy to avoid if you don't think you can handle it.

Strategy
Gigantopithecus has a good amount of knockback, this can be used to your advantage if you're using ranged weaponry and have fairly good armor or health. Keep walking backwards while attacking it with ranged attacks, and if it hits you use the knockback to give yourself more distance to keep attacking them.

Weaponry
Using a quetzal to pick up the gigantopithecus can be an effective way to easily kill it.

Dangers
A Wild Gigantopithecus Is known to be passive, but if you bump into it as you try to feed it berries to Tame it, it will attack you so careful not to get too close when taming. If it agros you simply run away until it stops chasing, taming progress will not be lost. If you attack it, it will not stop chasing and tame is likely to be ruined. Given the added ability to tear through armor, it is best not to attempt taming with equipment that are expensive to repair.

Weakness
Gigantopithecus' weakness is its strength. Gigantopithecus is known to knock you back on hit so if you survive you have a chance to run away. Once you are far enough the Gigantopithecus will ignore you and you can once again retry to tame it if so wish.

Notes/Trivia

 * Gigantopithecus means "giant ape" in Greek.
 * First known creature to harvest fiber.
 * In Single Player maps, exiting then reentering the game causes the Gigantopithecus to lose its hostility, which can make taming them much safer.
 * Relic Gigantopithecus are one theory for sightings of large, hairy primates (Sasquatch, Yeti, etc.).
 * This may have influenced the appearance of Ark's Gigantopithecus since it was thought to postured more like a gorilla in real life.
 * This is also evidenced by its spawncode name being bigfoot.
 * According to some scientists, Gigantopithecus was nearly 10 feet tall and thus the biggest ape that ever lived. Therefore, it would have weighed more than 500 kilograms, comparable to a full-grown polar bear.


 * Dossier revealed on 06/24/2015.
 * Its full name Gigantopithecus fibrarator translates into "fiber gatherer giant ape", referring to its use as a fiber collector.
 * Gigantopithecus received a major update for TLC Phase 1 on February 20, 2018 with an appearance overhaul, ability to jump and climb on zip lines (but not jump between like ), throws like, their attacks can break armor easier and can carry shoulder pets. They are also introduced in Aberration on the same day.
 * As of 8/25/2018 The Fresh Coffee Fruit in the ARK Primitive+ Ragnarok does not working on the Steam/PC version of the game, when taming the Gigantopithecus. However, testing some other items the Cane Sugar does work as well as the obvious Mejoberries.
 * When the level 40 survivor cap was placed on taming the Gigantopithecus, there was an intent to eventually introduce a mechanic that would allow the leveling of a non-violent taming skill. However, this was never implemented for some unknown reason.
 * The Western Jungles in the island are more likely habitats that Gigantopithecus would live in. Additionally, real Gigantopithecus lived in large herds and families while ARK's version are solitary. This would make taming them considerably more difficult since touching them may lead to all turning against you.