Running this one back, because I beat it again. July 2nd 2025, here’s how I beat the dragon on alpha single player settings. Also, it was on Evolved. Not Ascended.

19 theris, 1 yuty. My yuty took almost no damage, but it had 50k health, 3k stam and about 950% melee. All primitive saddles excluding one, which was a 230 theri saddle. My theris had 21.8k health and 1840% melee with 1-3 cakes. 4 theris died, some took almost no damage, some were left on about 4-7k health.

I spent about 40 in game days running the swamp cave for a theri blueprint, and all I got was that one saddle. So I ran it with primitive.

For the caves, I used a bary with 10k health and 1400% melee not imprinted for the swamp cave, 2 imprinted rexes 35k health and 1300% melee for the hard ice cave, a damn good shotgun for the small ice cave, and a 50k health 1200% melee tuso for the hard water cave.

When I loaded into the arena, I had already couraged the theris as you should. I whistled them to the open area, while I stayed on my yuty and shot at the dragon as it flew. It shot a fireball at me, so I moved with my yuty as that damages the rider. Then, it landed quite early. It didn’t even summon its pteras or dimorphs. The dragon landed by the monuments, and I let it walk over to me. It was locked onto my yuty which was terrifying, and it landed one fire attack on it which did about 10k damage alone. Fire damage is insane on the dragon. My theris managed to surround it through some whistling to attack, and then moving to either side before whistling attack again.

It was a scary fight, and I had to be slightly more on top of coursing than I actually was, but I managed it. I was shooting with a shotgun and rifle periodically but I hardly did anything. Should’ve focused on couraging more.

I hope I was able to help you with my second experience. If you want to know what I’d prefer to do better, more veggie cakes probably. 4 each. And I chose to go in with primitive saddles, but if you can, it’s much better to get a better saddle blueprint and crafting skill them all.

Good luck.