Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
Tips & Strategies
Started a new game with Ascended and got disgusted by all the low level Pteranodon everywhere after looking for decent level ones for days so I settled for a Pelagornis in the meantime… Not a bad bird at all!
When I tamed mine it was a mid-ish level and the stats weren’t the absolute best but it served its purpose well with grabbing a few chief resources I needed and with general scouting on the island. I pumped mainly health, stamina, weight and melee into mine and it’s working out so far so good. It’s alright for fighting off smaller creatures but usually I try to gtfo before it gets too hairy so the bird doesn’t get killed. It’s handy that it can fly, walk on land and swim. It recovers stamina even while moving in the water so it’s nice to constantly be moving whereas you have to find a safe spot to land and rest with other bird mounts. Insta-kills fish like piranhas which is helpful! But please don’t try to fight Megalodon with it, it might not end well lol.
All in all, it’s definitely helpful when you’re starting out. Knocking them out is not the hard part; just simply bola it and tranq it. The hardest part is having enough narcotics to make sure it stays down while you tame it. Prime fish meat and kibble works best and lessens the amount of narcotics to use.
I’ll be content with using this animal until I upgrade to an Argy at some point. It’s a decent substitute for a Pteranodon but it’s not as fast as one and I don’t think it packs a punch with melee all that well.
Hope this helps. Happy taming and good luck everyone!
More Pelagornis Utility Tips
To the people who are annoyed about the fish diet, Pelagornis can float on the water and swim with you on it instead of getting dismounted forcefully like any other flier. They can murder fish that way if you have a few minutes of your time and a good, lively pond or river.
Mine was killed by a Xiph (Ark Additions creature, mod) and she was the best otherwise.. thank you for reading and Midnight also thanks you for taking another one like her! 🪶
Single player uses:
1. Early game travel mount: Pelagornis is slightly slower than pteranodon and has equally bad weight and stamina, but since it can swim you won't immediately get dismounted if it force lands you into the water.
2. Free organic polymer: Pelagornis has the best gathering rate for organic polymer of any dino, set one to aggressive in a cage with mating penguins and air conditioners.
One Pelagornis can get you SO much organic polymer if and only if you kill the non-adult Kairukus. On my rates (2× harvest and 2× resource hp) I got roughly 230 organic polymer from just one juvenile Kairuku. The fact it also has insane weight reduction for the poly makes it optimal, and while you might say "The dangers of the ice biome are on your tail," then remember that a Pelagornis can just sit on water, which is where most ice biome creatures fail due to their immensely slow swimming speed, so you always have a save zone.