Do got Ark cause of a friend plays it and thought it was cool (still do even after all the deaths I have). So I bought the game in mid 2024. My friend rents a private server so we can PvE as we both not fans of PvP. Well after some health and Aquatica DLC breaking game play in 2025, we came back to Ark. Well since my last adventure in trying to get the Bug (failed horribly, not much helpful tips in fourms) I decided to try again. After another month of failed attempts (a couple were accidentally killing female as we dropped her health) we have finally managed to get our first rhyniognatha. Will tey and break down some helpful tips we did. Note: friend and I are both level 100+ with a lot of resource options avaliable so do take in mind your level, server and abilities when going for a Bug.

To start, I highly suggest you watch RAASCLARK YouTube video on this as this helped us recently.

Most forms told us this: Find male, kill it for the pheromone (if you use a tame to kill it, check its inventory, if not there look on ground where body was for a item cache bag as it be there. Yes we have lost a few cause of the location and not aware tame didnt get the pheromone). Next was find female and drop 10% health (this was the part that caused so much trouble). Next have tame with high drag weight eat pheromone and bam your tame is now carrying a baby as host. Feed tame random food and boom you now have a bug of your own.

Well that was what we were working with and yes we tried video searches but didnt seem to find much help as a few were for Ascended. That was till my friend found the video we used for our tame.

Now here is what we learned that was helpful. First, and I believe its crucial is your base location in relation to where these bug spawn at. Bugs spawn in swamp areas and thankfully 2 of the 3 locations are close to our home base, while the 3rd is close to Green Ob which is a long trek with most tames on the ground. If you are decently located between Redwoods and Green Ob then you should be fine. Incubation time for us was 59min, with food request every 9 min (more on this below).

Now determin tame you want to sacrifice (take into account your level as some dinos saddle levels are high to craft) if this is not an issue then great. Some say use Bronto (big and heavy from start), sone say use Trikes, some say use Giga (if you able to tame them) and some say use Para (as they are common around where bugs are). The thing never mentioned when any form or video say is level up the health points on the tame. This part is very crucial as once tame is host to baby, its food level drops to zero and health drops quick so you risk losing all the work. We used a Rex with health point at 30.1K (breed for boss fights) and it dropped quick but here is what made our experience different, we had a Daeodon with food lvl over 50k (if not familiar, they are medical pigs) and lots of kibbles (just recently discovered best option to regain food levels when healing tames). Try to get tame health over 30k, we think it be somewhere over 45k but with a Daeodon (and its high food lvl) 30k+ it's manageable.

Access to random foods is underestimated across all information. There is no list of foods that it can ask for which I feel is lacking so be prepared to craft things from kibbles to soups to veggies cakes. Make sure you have meats both cooked and raw on the safe side. Also, it can ask for an egg (ours asked for a dino egg we do not currently have tamed, the Carcharodontosaurus but we were able to spawn an egg in via admin).

Now as stated above in most forms it mentioned getting pheromone from male, I suggest finding the bugs and kill them for awhile, gwt a decent stock of the pheromone and also killing some female ones, chance for a good high level to go after once ready ( we did this a few times after failed attempts and to get more pheromones). Here are some helpful gear, craft a basic simple pistol and few stacks of simple bullets (primitive deals 100 damage vs higher level which could kill bug if not careful) have a harpoon launcher and few net rounds ( this came from video we watched and was the game changer. As we have used the net on other tames, never thought of this til video). Now find an open ground near bug and clear of any creature that could get in the way. Once set, prep your sacrifice tame (place pheromone in the tames inventory, DO NOT force feed it till you are 100% ready) if cryo then deploy it, make sure tame is on passive. Now once your tame is in position, get the female bug to you. Once its near you and tame, net the it. Once its netted, you have roughly 50 seconds, shot bug with simple pistol till its health below 100hp. Now force feed tame the pheromone and watch the magic take place (did have to shot bug once in air to get it to pregnant tame) once you see tame say its incubation, now get it home safely, use daeodon for health and feed the tame its request and soon your own bug. Good luck

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