Brontosaurus Basics
Before you set out to tame a Brontosaurus, you should consider what you’re getting into and what you can gain from your efforts.
Bronto Utility
A Brontosaurus might seem basic at first glance, but it can fulfill many roles for any play style.
Base Defense: A Brontosaurus isn’t fast, but it can pack a punch when it has to fight other survivors or tames. If you post a few Brontosaurus guards with the correct settings so that they engage with those who infringe on your base, you’ll have a hard-hitting defense that will make attackers sweat.Tank: If you need something to take damage from aggressive creatures or weaponry, the Bronto can handle it. It has a vast health pool and can take a lot of damage, especially if you use multiple tames at once.Traveling Base: You can equip a platform saddle on the Bronto to create a traveling base. You won’t get anywhere fast, but you will have more mobility than a standard base.Harvesting: A Bronto is great at harvesting Berries, Plant Species X Seeds, and Thatch. If you need any of these and have a tamed Bronto nearby, hop on and stock up. Transport: While a Brontosaurus isn’t very fast, it can handle a very full, heavy inventory – meaning you need to make fewer trips. If you’re going through hazardous terrain, check to ensure it isn’t too weighed down to move and that you have some dangerous guards to help ensure its safety. Building Assistance: If you’re tired of cutting down trees to build, let the Bronto have a turn. Use its AOE action to remove everything in the area, leaving a clear space for you to make your base.
The Brontosaurus also lays an Extra Large Egg, which you can store to use in kibble recipes for future tames.
Finding a Bronto
While they aren’t the most common spawns, look in grassy areas and sea-level locations to find Brontos. They don’t generally fit well into forests or narrow spaces. I’ve rarely seen them in incredibly harsh environments with lava or other natural dangers. Check out starter areas to find a Bronto that meets your needs. Consider the coloring and level before deciding which you want to tame.
How to Tame a Brontosaurus in ARK?
Once you understand just how valuable a tamed Bronto can be, it’s natural to want to run out and tame one. However, a successful taming process starts by preparing and knowing what you’ll face.
Preparing for The Hunt
To prepare for the hunt, decide how you want to attack the Bronto. There are a few different methods that experienced tamers use to bring them down.
Skip the melee weapons because the Bronto has a knockback attack that will send you flying. Stock up on a Crossbow or Longneck Rifle with Tranq Arrows or Tranq Darts, depending. I prefer using the Rifle and Darts because they work quicker, but it all comes down to what you can access.My favorite strategy is to have a friend lift me with their flying mount and then hover above the Bronto. Once you’re in place and sure you’re out of its range, just keep shooting until it goes unconscious. You can also create a stone or metal safety room to shelter you from the dinosaur. You won’t be hit as long as you’re inside – though a Bronto can damage many structures.
Choose the method you want to use before you start because each requires different preparations. Make sure you have your weapon of choice and enough Tranq to knock it out, no matter how you want to tame it. Decide whether you want to run and kite, fly over the Bronto, or make a building to hide in. If you’re going to attack it head-on, prepare some good armor to keep yourself safe. If you want to fly, make sure a friend with an appropriate mount is available. To prepare a shooting room, gather the pieces needed to complete it before you go out on the hunt.
Knocking It Out
The most challenging part of knocking out the Bronto is making sure it falls unconscious in a safe location. An unconscious Brontosaurus looks a lot like food to roaming predators who will aggress on the dinosaur and eat it before it wakes up. You can draw the Bronto to a safe location with a fast mount or flyer. Just make sure you keep attacking it so that it follows you until it reaches a safe enough place where you can finish the process and knock it out. For example, you may want to move it to a more starter-friendly area with fewer dangerous beasts. Or you may need to move it to a room you prepared for your own safety. Once it’s in the right spot, start shooting, and don’t stop until it passes out. If you can’t find a safe enough location near a Bronto you want to tame, bring guards that can fight off any aggressive dinosaurs in the area until your new tame wakes.
Taming Food
The Brontosaurus prefers Exceptional Kibble but will also eat most berries – though it likes the Mejoberry. You can also feed it Fresh Barley, Fresh Wheat, Soybeans, or Dried Wheat if you play on a server with Primitive Plus enabled. Using Exceptional Kibble is your best bet because it will make the taming process go significantly faster than any other option. For example, a level 150 Bronto fed Exceptional Kibble will take just over 34 minutes to tame. If you provided Fresh Barley, it would take a bit more than four hours and 15 minutes. If you fed it Dried Wheat, it would take more than eight hours.
Exceptional Kibble Recipe
Exception Kibble isn’t too hard to make as long as you have the right ingredients. It requires:
An Extra Large egg can come from any creature that lays this type. 5 Fibers, a common resource in any starter zone on most ARK maps.10 Mejoberries1 Rare Flower1 Water1 Focal Chil
The Focal Chili is a recipe you must make on its own before you can make Exceptional Kibble. To do so: Now you have all the ingredients for the Exceptional Kibble. Add each to a Cooking Pot or Industrial Cooker, light the fire, and wait for the Exceptional Kibble to craft.
Taming the Bronto
To tame the Bronto, knock it out and then let it eat taming food until it wakes. As soon as you see the taming pop-up, you want to input the new name and the options you wish for your tamed dinosaur to use.
Options for Your Tamed Bronto
Most settings are only necessary because they let the Bronto do things like mate or gather. You can adjust and readjust these as you see fit without danger. However, you must change the tamed dinosaur aggression settings as soon as you’ve tamed your Bronto. Choose the one that best works for your purposes but remember that even a tame as strong as a Bronto can die.
Passive Flee: It means the dinosaur won’t attack and will run away until it isn’t in danger. Passive: It means it won’t move or attack if engaged. Anything can kill the Bronto like this with no defense. Do not use this setting without a specific purpose.Neutral: It means the Bronto won’t attack unless someone in its tribe or a structure that belongs to the tribe is attacked.Attack Your Target: It makes the Bronto attack anything you, your allies, allied creatures, or turrets do.Aggressive: It means that the Bronto attacks anything that isn’t an ally. This setting isn’t generally the best option because people can aggro your tame and move it away from your base.
Choose your aggression settings wisely, even before you start directing the dinosaur home.
How to Care for a Tamed Brontosaurus?
There isn’t much to do once you have a Brontosaurus. Keep it away from other creatures that could damage it, add berries to its inventory, and ensure it’s always on the right aggression settings for its intended purpose. Your tame should be happy and healthy if you do that.
Saddle Options for Tamed Brontosaurus
The two saddle options for a Brontosaurus are the Bronto Saddle and the Platform Saddle. The Bronto Saddle adds 20 armor to your tame. You can create them once you unlock the engram at level 63 or find them in Red Supply Drops. It requires 350 hides, 185 fibers, and 40 metal ingots. The Bronto Platform saddle adds 25 armor and unlocks at level 82. It requires 550 hides, 325 fibers, 125 silica pearls, 90 metal ingots, and 45 cementing paste. With this saddle, you can build a mobile base by building structures right on the platform. Builder beware: if the Bronto dies, everything on it will be damaged and likely destroyed.
Brontosaurus Leveling Options
The points you get when your Brontosaurus gains a level should be assigned strategically. Since there aren’t many points, it’s best to try and put them where they will be the most useful.
For transport, add points to speed and stamina. If you’re going to use it as a pack mule, put them in carrying weight.Add points to damage, stamina, health, or speed for a fighter. It depends on where you will have them stationed and how much damage you anticipate them taking.For a gatherer, train weight, stamina, and movement speed. Movement speed is less critical if you’re going to gather or AOE clear land nearer your base and more important if you intend to take long journeys for these.
