Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
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(Mobile) So this is going to be unpopular but I'll say my thoughts: The direbear is not a tame I would recommend. At least not on high lvs. Reasons:
1. It's not that easy to take down and tame, it's got a high amount of torpor, high torpor drain and extreme topor/health ratio. If you play on any difficulty higher than lv 30s and wield a bow/crossbow, chances are you'll kill the bear before it falls asleep. I'm assuming you're relying on rocks and high cliffs for knockout because if you use a tame to bait the bear chances are it'll be heavily injured or worse by the time the bear starts fleeing. Plus, the redwoods isn't exactly the most friendly zone for taming, especially when you're taming something that literally every carnivore aggros on.
2. It's not as useful as some may say. (Again, mobile.) It has good damage, health, dps and speed, but they're nothing special. At low lv a wild theriz can three-shot a direbear at the same lv, at higher lvs Direbears are too difficult to tame early on without tranq darts or tox arrows. By the time you acquire a good longneck (tribute from strong artifact should be quickest) and unlock tranq darts, you should already be able to move on to tame therizs and spinos, who are more efficient specialists that can do everything a direbear can. (Theriz for health, flowers, and fiber. Spino for meat, travel and dps)
3. It's small. It has a somewhat small attack range, but it's body registration is large, large enough to prevent access to most caves. (nope cryopod isn't a thing on mobile) You may get stuck between rocks or trees while traveling, and large carnivores can easily damage you before you get in range to attack them.
It does have a saving grace in the form of its considerable weight. The closest midgame creature I can think of is the notoriously slow argentavis, and the direbear can act as a far quicker and more combat ready mount than the bird. However, most often argentavis is only used either for its weight reduction or alongside an ankylo. Neither of which the direbear can beat. So, yeah. If the direbear had, say 20% less torpor, none of these would be an issue, and it would be one of the best tames in game no joke. But because of its high torpor and (relatively) low health, it's really not necessary or even rewarding to tame.
