Megalania

This article is about Megalania, not to be confused with Megatherium, Megalosaurus, Megaloceros, Megalodon, or Meganeura

---

	“	The Megalania's climb-anywhere feature is amazing, among the most game-changing Dinos yet added to ARK.	„
		~ Jeremy

Megalania

Dossier Megalania.png

Creature

Group

Reptiles

Diet

Carnivore

Temperament

Territorial

Release Versions

258.0
May 30, 2017

755.0
Jun 19, 2017

509.0
Jun 14, 2017

599.0
Nov 30, 2018

311.74
Jun 11, 2020

678.15
Sep 1, 2021

Variants

• Aberrant Megalania
• VR Megalania

Spawn Command

cheat summon Megalania_Character_BP_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Megalania/Megalania_Character_BP.Megalania_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 35
Variant Aberrant Megalania
cheat summon Megalania_Character_BP_Aberrant_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Megalania/Megalania_Character_BP_Aberrant.Megalania_Character_BP_Aberrant'" 500 0 0 35
Variant Megalania (Gauntlet)
cheat summon Megalania_Character_BP_Gauntlet_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Genesis/Dinos/MissionVariants/Gauntlet/Volcanic/Megalania_Character_BP_Gauntlet.Megalania_Character_BP_Gauntlet'" 500 0 0 35
Variant Megalania (Gauntlet2)
cheat summon Megalania_Character_BP_STA_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Genesis2/Missions/ModularMission/Gauntlet2/STA/Dinos/Megalania_Character_BP_STA.Megalania_Character_BP_STA'" 500 0 0 35
Variant VR Megalania (Maze)
cheat summon Megalania_Character_BP_CorrMaze_C
or
cheat SpawnDino "Blueprint'/Game/Genesis2/Missions/ModularMission/Maze/CorruptedZone/Dinos/Megalania_Character_BP_CorrMaze.Megalania_Character_BP_CorrMaze'" 500 0 0 35

Domestication

Tameable

Rideable

Breedable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Torpor Immune

No

Taming Method

Knockout

Preferred Kibble

Extraordinary Kibble

Preferred Food

Raw Mutton

Equipment

Megalania Saddle (Level 73)

Rider Weaponry

Yes

Data

XP for kill

8 XP

Loot

• Megalania Toxin

Special Loot Chance

100%

Feces Size

Small

Drag Weight

35

Radiation Immune

Yes

Carryable By

• Aberrant Megalosaurus
• Argentavis
• Blood Crystal Wyvern
• Ember Crystal Wyvern
• Fire Wyvern
• Forest Wyvern
• Griffin
• Ice Wyvern
• Karkinos
• Kaprosuchus
• Lightning Wyvern
• Mammoth
• Megalosaurus
• Poison Wyvern
• Pteranodon
• Quetzal
• Tapejara
• Tek Quetzal
• Tropeognathus
• Tropical Crystal Wyvern
• Tusoteuthis
• X-Argentavis
• X-Tapejara

Immobilized By

• Bola
• Bear Trap
• Plant Species Y Trap
• Net Projectile

Can Damage

Thatch
Greenhouse
Wood

Reproduction

Egg

Megalania Egg

Incubation Range

29 - 35 °C / 84 - 95 °F
Egg Incubator: 32 °C / 90 °F

Incubation Time

1h 59m 59.424s

Baby Time

3h 42m 13.333s

Juvenile Time

14h 48m 53.331s

Adolescent Time

18h 31m 6.664s

Total Maturation Time

1d 13h 2m 13.328s

Breeding Interval

18h - 2d

Habitat

• The Island
• The Center
• Scorched Earth
• Ragnarok
• Extinction
• Genesis: Part 1
• Crystal Isles

Colorvision Prota- / Deuteranopia Tritanopia

Common             Rare
  Untameable   Cave

The Megalania (may-ga-lay-nee-a) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. They are giant monitor lizards that lived in Australia during the late Pleistocene epoch and are portrayed in the game as arboreal cave dwellers.

Basic Info

Dossier

This section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena Walker, the author of the dossiers, has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creature.

“

Species

Megalania muruspede

Time

Late Holocene

Diet

Carnivore

Temperament

Aggressive

Wild

Megalania muruspede is among the largest creatures found throughout the Island's complicated cave networks. Reaching up to three meters long, it can traverse vertically up cave walls with little difficulty thanks to its powerful claws. Fortunately, Megalania's size means it is unlikely to sneak up on anyone. Unfortunately for spelunkers, it is an aggressive and dangerous creature nonetheless. Like other Varanidae, Megalania is a venomous creature. Its poison is slow-acting, but will drain the victim's effective strength and health until death unless cured by a rare antidote. That said, the Megalania's prey are usually ripped apart well before they succumb to the poison's long-term effects.

Domesticated

The rare ability of Megalania to effortlessly climb sheer environmental walls makes it a highly sought-after mount. While it is by no means the fastest, strongest, or toughest mount, the manner in which it can effortlessly scale mountains, clamber up barricades, hide in trees or upside-down, ensures it will always have place in any tribe's stables!

„

~ Helena

Behavior

The Megalania is found in many places including caves and caverns across many maps, the Highland Sands of Ragnarok, the volcanic wastes of Genesis and The Trench in the Extinction DLC. It waits on the ceilings and walls silently, ready to pounce on prey below. As is the case with other cavern dwellers, Megalania are neutrally disposed toward other native creatures, like Onyc, Dung Beetle, Mantis, and Megalosaurus. They tend to hide in shadowy recesses of ceilings and walls, making them extremely difficult to spot without assistance of items like a Tek Helmet. Consuming Rare Flowers will cause them to drop from the ceiling and become aggressive. Similar to the Megalosaurus, Megalania are usually only found in limited numbers in a given cave, so while it may be common to find them in the Upper South Cave, for instance, not many live there at any given time. Aside from surprise, they have two additional main weapons- the first being their large mouth full of teeth, the second being a deadly virus-based poison that survivors call Mega Rabies. If bitten, this virus can kill quickly, even if you kill the Megalania itself. On some maps they can also be found roaming the surface. They are far less dangerous in this circumstance: Territorial beasts that are easily spotted, slow to anger, slow of movement and quick to give up a chase- but still pack the same deadly punch as their cave dwelling counterparts if you can’t or won’t get out of their way.

Appearance

The Megalania is a huge lizard resembling a Komodo Dragon. It has a stocky, low-lying build with a powerful tail and a toothy maw, drooling with venom. Despite its size, it is capable of climbing walls like a gecko to sneak up on prey and traverse difficult terrain - a useful adaptation for a massive cave-dweller like it.

Color Scheme and Regions

This section displays the Megalania's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Megalania. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Megalania will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.

This information can be used to alter the Megalania's regions by entering cheat SetTargetDinoColor <ColorRegion> <ColorID> in the cheat console. For instance, cheat SetTargetDinoColor 0 6 would color the Megalania's "main body" magenta.

Region 0:
Main Body

Region 1 is not used
for this Creature.

Region 2 is not used
for this Creature.

Region 3 is not used
for this Creature.

Region 4:
Stripes

Region 5:
Belly

Drops

Harvest

• Raw Meat
• Raw Prime Meat
• Hide

Guaranteed Special Loot

• Megalania Toxin

Base Stats and Growth

Attribute	Base Value	Level Increase		Taming Bonus
		Wild	Tamed	Additive	Multiplicative
Health	480	+96	+5.4%	0.07
Stamina	400	+40	+10%
Oxygen	200	+20	+10%
Food	1500	+150	+10%		15%
Weight	400	+8	+4%
Melee Damage	10 / 16	+0.5 / +0.8	+1.7%	5.6%	15.4%
Movement Speed	100%	N/A	+1%	30%
Torpidity	700	+42	N/A	0.5

• For a comparison of the stats of all creatures, see Base Creature Statistics.
• For an explanation of exactly how the levelup calculation works, see Creature Stats Calculation.

Movement [u/s]	Base Speed			Sprinting Speed			Stamina
	Wild	Tamed1	Tamed2	Wild	Tamed1	Tamed2
Walking	250	?	?	625	500	650	7
Swimming	300	?	?	?	?	?	?

• ¹These are the base speeds of the creature at 100% Movement Speed.
• ²These are the speeds of the creature tamed and non-imprinted.
• For a comparison of the speeds of all creatures, see Base Creature Speeds.

Attack Values

Bite		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		20	450	0	0
Attack Type		Damage	Projectile Values			Torpor Values		Status Effect: Stamina			Status Effect: Torpidity
			Life	Impulse	Radius	Base	Mult	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount
Melee		10

Detach		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		0	0	0	0

Bite (Climbing)		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		20	0	0	0

Claw		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		30	450	0	0
Attack Type		Damage	Projectile Values			Torpor Values		Status Effect: Stamina			Status Effect: Torpidity
			Life	Impulse	Radius	Base	Mult	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount	Duration	Damage Mult	Amount
Melee		16

Bite (Swimming)		Stamina Cost	Attack Range			Description
			Base	Minimum	Activation
		20	0	0	0

Wild Stats Level-up

Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it's emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding stats with an external tool.

Megalania

The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps

Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.

Taming

For general info about domesticating a wild creature see Taming.

KO Strategy

Found on the ceilings of caves, one must look up in order to find this elusive lizard. The easiest method found so far is to fire from the back of a mount and let it take the beating. While downing the Megalania is relatively easy, keeping it down is a feat. The torpor loss is extremely quick and if one is not careful they'll find their potential tame awake and angry within seconds. It eats kibble every 120 food lost.

Taming Food

Level 1					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	3	259	87	44	0:15:21
Raw Mutton	6	306	102	51	0:18:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	11	568	190	95	0:32:58
Raw Prime Meat	7	358	120	60	0:21:01
Cooked Prime Meat	14	726	243	122	0:41:58
Raw Prime Fish Meat	18	464	155	78	0:27:01
Raw Meat	21	1096	367	184	1:03:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	35	937	313	157	0:53:57
Cooked Meat	41	1069	358	179	1:01:31
Raw Fish Meat	52	1359	455	228	1:18:01
Cooked Fish Meat	103	1346	450	225	1:17:16
KO: × 70; × 29; × 8; × 5; × 4; × 2
Torpidity-depletion: 18 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:00:38

Level 30					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	5	453	158	79	0:25:35
Raw Mutton	9	479	167	84	0:27:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	17	921	321	161	0:50:57
Raw Prime Meat	11	590	206	103	0:33:01
Cooked Prime Meat	22	1198	417	209	1:05:56
Raw Prime Fish Meat	28	756	264	132	0:42:01
Raw Meat	33	1808	630	315	1:39:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	55	1545	538	269	1:24:46
Cooked Meat	66	1808	630	315	1:39:01
Raw Fish Meat	82	2251	784	392	2:03:01
Cooked Fish Meat	164	2251	784	392	2:03:01
KO: × 192; × 79; × 22; × 13; × 9; × 5
Torpidity-depletion: 29.91 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:01:04

Level 60					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	6	552	196	98	0:30:42
Raw Mutton	13	708	251	126	0:39:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	23	1271	450	225	1:08:56
Raw Prime Meat	16	877	311	156	0:48:01
Cooked Prime Meat	31	1721	609	305	1:32:54
Raw Prime Fish Meat	38	1047	371	186	0:57:01
Raw Meat	46	2569	909	455	2:18:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	76	2177	770	385	1:57:08
Cooked Meat	91	2541	899	450	2:16:31
Raw Fish Meat	114	3189	1128	564	2:51:01
Cooked Fish Meat	228	3189	1128	564	2:51:01
KO: × 318; × 130; × 36; × 21; × 15; × 8
Torpidity-depletion: 39.02 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:01:21

Level 90					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	8	748	267	134	0:40:56
Raw Mutton	16	883	316	158	0:48:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	29	1622	579	290	1:26:55
Raw Prime Meat	20	1111	397	199	1:00:01
Cooked Prime Meat	39	2191	783	392	1:56:53
Raw Prime Fish Meat	49	1367	488	244	1:13:31
Raw Meat	59	3333	1190	595	2:57:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	98	2840	1014	507	2:31:03
Cooked Meat	117	3304	1180	590	2:55:31
Raw Fish Meat	146	4131	1475	738	3:39:01
Cooked Fish Meat	292	4131	1475	738	3:39:01
KO: × 444; × 182; × 50; × 29; × 21; × 11
Torpidity-depletion: 47.21 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:01:34

Level 120					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	9	848	305	153	0:46:03
Raw Mutton	19	1058	380	190	0:57:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	36	2031	730	365	1:47:53
Raw Prime Meat	24	1345	484	242	1:12:01
Cooked Prime Meat	48	2719	977	489	2:23:51
Raw Prime Fish Meat	60	1689	607	304	1:30:01
Raw Meat	71	4042	1453	727	3:33:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	119	3475	1249	625	3:03:24
Cooked Meat	142	4042	1453	727	3:33:01
Raw Fish Meat	178	5075	1824	912	4:27:01
Cooked Fish Meat	355	5061	1819	910	4:26:16
KO: × 570; × 233; × 64; × 37; × 26; × 13
Torpidity-depletion: 54.85 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:01:43

Level 150					Time
Extraordinary Kibble	11	1046	378	189	0:56:16
Raw Mutton	23	1292	467	234	1:09:01
Cooked Lamb Chop	42	2385	861	431	2:05:52
Raw Prime Meat	28	1580	571	286	1:24:01
Cooked Prime Meat	56	3191	1152	576	2:47:49
Raw Prime Fish Meat	70	1984	716	358	1:45:01
Raw Meat	84	4810	1737	869	4:12:01
Cooked Prime Fish Meat	140	4113	1485	743	3:35:46
Cooked Meat	168	4810	1737	869	4:12:01
Raw Fish Meat	210	6021	2174	1087	5:15:01
Cooked Fish Meat	419	6007	2169	1085	5:14:16
KO: × 696; × 284; × 78; × 45; × 32; × 16
Torpidity-depletion: 62.11 / s, Time until all torpidity is depleted: 00:01:52

Note that the values are for optimal cases, always bring extra supplies!
For a level-dependent count of resources needed, try an external taming calculator.

Ingredients for Extraordinary Kibble: 1 ×  Special Egg, 5 ×  Fiber, 1 ×  Giant Bee Honey, 1 ×  Lazarus Chowder, 10 ×  Mejoberry, 1 ×  Water

Combat

This section describes how to fight against the Megalania.

General

If you can't see them in a cave, they are likely there but not visible. Terrain on walls and ceilings can completely obscure them. You can force them to come out by making them become aggressive by gaining the rage effect, either by having your survivor eat a rare flower or by using a Pachyrhinosaurus's alternate (default C) rage-evoking attack.

By so doing, you can prevent them from springing upon you when you don't expect it. You can force them down from a better distance and more likely engage the battle on your own terms.

Strategy

Use a grappling hook so the Megalania can't reach you and give you the rabies effect

Weaponry

Avoid close range weapons such as the Pike. Getting too close can make the Megalania give you rabies. Use weapons like the Crossbow, Longneck, or Shotgun.

Dangers

The rabies effect can cause health and stamina to drop very quickly.

Weakness

Like the Thylacoleo, shooting it knocks it down from the ceiling. It spawns on the ceilings of caves like a Thylacoleo spawns on a Redwood forest tree and, like the Thylacoleo, it can't climb back up onto the ceiling. Only tamed Megalania can climb on any surface. Use bear traps as well to slow it down.

Utility

Used to move around easier and make exploring easier

Roles

• Climbing walls and ceilings: Megalania has excellent mobility, as it is the one of the only creatures in Ark along with the Rock Drake, and the only creature outside of Aberration that can climb on walls and ceilings, while Thylacoleo can only climb walls vertically, Megalania has the ability to climb them horizontally.
• Mass Infector: The attack of a Megalania can infect a survivor with Rabies, a condition that constantly damages both health and stamina over time. In addition, someone with Rabies can spread it to others around them. An afflicted survivor cannot infect another who is riding the Megalania with that spread that strain of Rabies.
• Cave Crawler: Its ability to traverse many surfaces makes it an almost ideal option for cave exploration, as you can skip most enemies with ease. Although its sub-par melee damage and slow attack may lead to struggled fights, and its turning radius will be troublesome when dealing with Onyc.
• Surface Survivor: Because it is immune to radiation, it can be used as an alternative of the Rock Drake, but it won't be able to detect reapers like the Rock Drake does.
• Damage: It does a pretty decent amount of damage if you handle the tame properly and utilize its Mega Rabies debuff carefully.
• Ambushing Mount: Due to their ability to cling on walls, and the ability to allow you to use ranged weapons while mounted, they make for very good ambush mounts. The last thing most players will expect is to be sniped by a player clinging to a ceiling. Despite what the dossier says, the Megalania can not, unfortunately for beginners, climb trees, prior to what the dossier says.
• Weight: Higher level megalania can easy have over two thousand pounds of weight for carrying resources around base.
• Escape Vehicle: Because of their excellent mobility the megalania can be used to climb rocks, walls, trees and other surfaces that other animals can't access. This is a good way to escape dangers that players run into.

Notes/Trivia

For information pertaining specifically to the real-world Megalania, see the relevant Wikipedia article.

• The Megalania’s climb ability Is possibly inspired by the Giant Komodo Dragons from “Avatar The Last Airbender” live action movie In the scene were the Fire nation uses the Komodo Dragons as mounts and use them to climb the walls of the Water Nation. Dino Dossier was revealed on 12/07/15 on Steam.
• Megalanias do not take fall damage, see Fall Damage for more info.
• The original release of the dossier had diet and temperament switched, resulting in an aggressive diet and a carnivorous temperament. This has since been fixed.
• Megalania is actually no longer a valid genus. The real-life animal is currently known as Varanus priscus after it was concluded Megalania is related to modern day monitor lizards, which belong to the genus Varanus. Despite this, the name "Megalania" is still used to describe the animal as a common name.
• using the jump-key (Space, , ) you can switch between climbing and walking. If you are currently climbing, switching will make you fall off the wall or ceiling.
• It appears the Megalania is unable to access the boss arenas much like flyers to avoid the climbing breaking the fights.
• Cheat-summoned Megalania will be teleported to nearby cliffs and stop moving. If there is no nearby cliff, it will wander and try to attack preys.
• Wild Megalania can't harm wild creatures. This seems to be an error or glitch, because it approaches to potential prey and shows the attack animation. This quirk is also shared by the Griffin
• Megalania was the only climbing mount, until the introduction of Aberration, in which Rock Drake is introduced, another mount that can climb ceiling with additional benefits. However, because of the size and the location where you find it, this makes it the only large-sized climbing mount, while Megalania remains the only medium-sized climbing mount with the Thylacoleo.
• Although an Aberrant Megalania variant exists in the game files and Devkit, they don't spawn on Aberration due to a design choice.
• Monitor Lizards like the Megalania, or Varanus priscus, were most likely solitary animals like other monitor species, given that living species only congregate to breed and hunt and feed in unorganized groups; living monitors tend to not stay near one another as this increases the likelihood of competition and even possible cannibalism. Ark's Megalania seems to be a tad different in this regard, as they often spawn in groups of 2 or greater.
• Megalania's ability to cause Mega Rabies isn't really accurate, as rabies is only found in mammals. however the Dossier seems to state it is a poison rather then a illness which seems to make more sense, disregarding the fact that this "poison" is contagious.

Changelog

Patch	Changes
258.0	Megalania is added to the game
258.2	Fixed Megalania rotation when climbing in certain narrow corridors Fixed attack animation in the water Altered Megalania Kibble recipe to be craftable in Cooking Pot
259.35	Fixed Megalania not being able to climb after server restart
260.0	Added new apex drop, Megalania Toxin
275.0 Aberration Expansion Release	Added Aberrant Megalania, but never implemented spawn locations for the creature on Aberration
275.4	Fixed Megalania not dropping their Megalania Toxin Fixed a bug that allowed climbing creatures like the Megalania to move while Encumbered
291.100	Decreased Megalania Torpor loss by 50%

Gallery

• 
•