I almost lost my best spino to an alpha carno just now… it was terrifying. My spino(its name is Reaper) ran out of stamina in the middle of the fight. I usually use spinos for killing alphas, but this was a total accident. I ran up to the carno and attacked it before Reaper had regained her stamina, and couldn’t run away. Reaper dealt about 4000 damage and then I slowly got her over to a few stegos which the carno then attacked instead. I ran to the nearest water source and forcefed my spino(she was at 200 hp😣) and went back at the carno and killed it. Super close one. Upgrade that stamina, guys. It’s a lifesaver for you and your precious tame.

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Spinos, similar to Tropical Crystal Wyverns, get a buff when in water. Also, by clicking the L stick for consoles (unsure for keyboard) darn thing stands up and does more damage but is slightly slower.

Also also, better attack speed then Rexes.

Also also also, these things are good. Get one.

Spinos beat rexes in PvP 100% of the time. Go into 2 legged mode, and all in one motion run past the rex, turn around, shove the snout of your spino into the rear of the rex and profit. Because spinos are faster and have a much smaller turning radius, the opposing rex is completely unable to get you out from behind them. I've done this before, they literally cannot shake you no matter how hard they try. Just pump melee and stam and you'll be dropping 20th generation bred rexes effortlessly.

For people who want to tame spinos, do not make the same mistake I made. I decided, "Oh, its gonna be a great idea to tame that male spino and breed, after all its gonna have decent damage". Well I just messed up. I tamed a lvl 3... It was.. WEAK. The damage was 142.1%.

I had learned it after I bred the spinos. I was lucky to even get a baby lvl 20 with good melee. Yet, the moral is to not tame a low lvl spino, the melee results will be terrible. (I killed the Spino after I learned it was weak).

Yet, if you are looking for a good melee damage spino, low lvls arent for you. Please do not make the same mistake I did...

Spinos aren’t necessarily actually better than a rex for a few reasons, and theres some stuff i’ve been reading here that is just flat out wrong. Rexes and spinos are almost equals, with rexes being a bit more combat focused and spinos being better at everything else

Spinos do outdamage a rex IF they stand on 2 legs, tamed unridded spinos will NOT do this. Meaning unless it is being ridden a rex will outdamage a spino in dps

A spino does have greater knockback than a rex, good enough to juggle alot of enemies die to the fast attack speed, rexes can do the same thing but it’s harder and it will not work against creatures too fast.

Spinos get the hydration buff which increases health regen slightly (barely noticeable) damage, and speed. It gets this buff if it touches even a tiny puddle of water. It does not have to go into deep water to get the buff

Rexes do have better health than spinos (and better dps if the spino is on all fours or unridden). Rexes are usually better for bossfights unless theres water in the arena.

Rexes are in general much easier to tame. Spinos are annoyingly hard to trap unless it is a pre built trap. Even then spinos havea much easier time climbing over walls than rexes, the also move much faster and have even less attention span

NOTE: Rexes do not have short attention spans UNLESS you are on a flyer. If you are on a flyer that is landed or on a land mount or even on foot it will follow you just fine. Spinos however would much rather target fish than you, and due to their preference of water leading them away may be difficult as it might lose interest if taken too far from the water, or focus on fish if any are nearby

Standing on a rock can work however once they start running they are fast with the hydration buff, and it is possible to knock them out in the water, meaning they will drown. I highly recommend using a pre built large box trap at least 3 walls high. Alternatively if you dont want to pre build a trap you can use a large beartrap, and a few stone gateways. Place down the beartrap, lead the spino to the trap, and place the gates around him and tranq at your leisure. I recommend the first option however

Another thing is that once knocked out they prefer fish to meat, they also prefer raw prime fish meat to raw mutton or prime meat. This may may it harder or easier depending on your location and environment. On valguero and ragnarok it is easy to get mutton if you have a flyer to quickly bring it back to a tame before it spoils. I usually do this with any large carnivores to save on kibble. But if you already have a capable water mount or have nearby sabertooth salmon available then this will be rather easy as long as you keep its torpor up. Kibble of course also works as always if you have access to it.

Thats about it just a few more side notes

Tamed rexes will not i initiate a roar when entering combat. Only wild rexes do.

Spinos arent nearly as maneuverable as other aquatic creatures in the water, and you may find yourself getting outmaneuvered and bitten in the back alot. Spinos are much better for rivers and lakes than open ocean.

Theres very good reason why rexes are so often used in boss fights rather than spinos. Unless theres water in the arena rexes are almost always a better choice, if not therizinos.

I am not a rex fanboy, i much prefer spinos myself. But i cant stand blatantly wrong information being posted here. Dont get me wrong a spino will absolutely body a rex if it stands up, but because tamed spinos dont do that unless ridden rexes will out damage them, ontop of that rexes absolutely have more health.

Spinos suit a much different role in my opinion, very equal as a battle mount, worse as an army. Far superior as a travel mount. A good high level spino will kill everything outside an alpha rex, or a giga. You may have a hard time against alpha wyverns or high level alpha carnos.

It should also be noted that alpha mosas and alpha squids will, obviously prove to you that they are the kings of the deep by ripping amd tearing your spino a new a**hole.

I’m going to start breeding spinos soon to create a really good traveling tame to take me anywhere. And in my opinion thats what they’re for, traveling while being good protection against anything a same level rex can kill.

Using these beast’s in swamps is the most efficient way of farming meat, first you get a buff helping you in demolishing the hostile Dino’s in the swamp, and while standing on 2 legs it deals even more damage and attacks very fast, allowing it to collect thousands of thousands of Meat

Fully mutated, you can simply FORGET about Giganotosauruses. The mutated spino CRUSHES IT. If you don’t have a spino, GET ONE RIGHT GODDAMN NOW. They deal significant damage, they are semi-aquatic so they are fast underwater and are just godly overall. Oh yeah, I forgot to mansion, THEY ALSO WRECK TITANS.