Dinopithecus: Taming, Feeding, Breeding and what to level

Dinopithecus Guide

The Dinopithecus is a gigantic Baboon that has been added to ARK with the Lost island Update. It has been voted in by the Community in July 2021. In the same voting the Carcharodontosaurus came second.

Dinopithecus Role

The Dinopithecus is currently not part of any meta despite having many strengths. The following roles can be filled by the Dinopithecus:

Mount: The Dinopithecus is an incredible mount with a movement pattern similar to the large version of the Ferox. It can run, jump and also climb  any kind of surface – even destroyable trees without problems.

Fighting: The Dinopithecus is a versatile fighting mount. In PvP it is able to deactivate TEK with it’s poop grenades, but it also has a bleed ability that negates armor and can take out the strongest mounts and players.

Cave Mount: The Dinopithecus is also a good mount to take into caves. While it might need to be cryoed at crouch spots, it makes getting around within the caves easier because most threats inside the cave won’t aggro on the Dinopithecus and its rider. It also can climb within the caves and use zip lines.

PvE Helper: Aside from the roles above, the Dinopithecus can also be used within PvE for farming meat, and collecting poop for dung beetles. Its attack will collect poop in an AOE radius around it.

On which maps do Dinopithecus spawn?

The Dinopithecus is exclusive to Lost Island and spawns in the Red Woods there. Due to a bug the Dinopithecus also spawned on Valguero for a limited time but this has been patched, after the issue was discovered.

Spawn area of Dinopithecus on Lost Island
Spawn area of Dinopithecus on Lost Island

The Dinopithecus can be difficult to tame, because the main spawn—the castle in the middle on the island—is a very popular base spot. The base spot will suppress the spawns in the surroundings.

Dinopithecus Taming

The Dinopithecus is no ordinary tame but has a unique taming method that requires a little bit of planning. The by far best taming method is the trap made by Captain Fatdog as presented on YouTube.

Dinopithecus Trap in the entrance of the Redwood Castle
Dinopithecus Trap in the entrance of the Redwood Castle

Dinopithecus Taming Method:

You can only can tame the Alpha animal of a group. A monkey group need to contain at least three adult animals to trigger the alpha mechanic. You need to trap the whole group in a trap like above and then kill the beta animals.

This is to scare the Alpha animal. Once it is scared you need to hurt it so its life is below 85%. As soon as that happens, it will stop being aggressive and then can be tamed passively.

If you decide to go without a trap, make sure to clear the area around the group you chose to use for taming.

Creating your own Dinopithecus group:

If you have a monkey group that contains of several high level animals that you want to tame all, there is a chance that you can create your own monkey group and make each high level animal an alpha.

  1. Find 2 low level monkeys per high level animal you want to tame.
  2. Separate the high level animals and put the two lower level animals to the high level animal.
  3. Leave render distance and then come back
  4. There is a chance that the groups you put together now formed a new group.
  5. Tame the Alpha as stated above.

Will wild Dinopithecus babies grow up so I can tame them later?

Unfortunately no. Dinopithecus have a 40% chance to spawn as a baby/juvenile/adolescent animal. Wild babies will not grow up and stay the age they spawned in. So if you find a good stat, good level baby, there is no reason to wait. You can clear the area of the offspring when taming the adults. They will only use up spawn spot for respawns.

What taming food does the Dinopithecus require?

The Dinopithecus is an Omnivore with a preference to meat. The best foods to tame the Dinopithecus:

  • Exceptional Kibble
  • Raw Mutton
  • Raw Prime Meat
  • Cooked Lamp Chops
  • Cooked Prime Meat
  • Raw Prime Fish Meat
  • Raw Meat
  • Crops
  • Mejoberries
  • Cooked Prime Fish Meat
  • Cooked Meat
  • Berries
  • Raw Fish Meat
  • Cooked Fish Meat

Dinopithecus wearing a helmet instead of a saddle

There is no Dinopithecus saddle. It wears normal helmets instead. This has pros and cons.

The pros are that you can have way more armor on the Dinopithecus than with a regular saddle. This makes the Monkey insanely tanky.

The con is that the helmets can and will break. That requires you to carry several helmets with you when going into a big fight – especially in boss fights because once the helmet is gone, the Dinopithecus is vulnerable.

How does the Dinopithecus Bleed work?

The bleed mechanic of the Dinopithecus is special because you cannot apply bleed directly, but only per command.

When sitting on an Alpha animal (the highest level animal) you press C or the equivalent button on your game pad pointing at an enemy, unridden monkeys of your group will attack the enemy.

You can command up to 9 Dinopithecus. But not everyone can apply bleed.

BattlecryCry

When you whistle the attack, the target gets a 15 second buff called BattlecryCry. The first 5 animals to attack will apply a buff named BattlecryAttack. This attack has a chance to apply bleed. The BattlecryAttack can only be applied within 15 seconds after the initial C-Whistle. So if your animals didn’t apply bleed the first try they won’t be able unless you press C again. The bleed effect lasts 30 seconds and removes 20% of the targets life also bypassing armor. Important to notice that the bleed cannot be applied to bosses. To wrap it up:

  • Whistle C to command unridden Dinopithecus (up to 9)
  • BattlecryCry buff applied to target
  • Unridden monkeys apply BattlecryAttack buff -> 5 stacks
  • These 5 attacks have a chance to apply bleed
  • Once bleed is applied you can’t apply more BattlecryAttacks
  • Bleed (does not stack) lasts 30 seconds and takes 20% of the life
  • Ignores saddle armor

This bleed also stacks with Deinonychus bleed but no other bleed.

How do the Dinopithecus Controls work?

Battlecry command unridden Dinopithecus:

  • C while looking at the target

Ground slam:

  • Right mouse button (more damage from the higher you jump)

Choose projectile (poop, grenade, infested grenade)

  • Ctrl and then radial menu

Base attack, collecting poop:

  • Left mouse button

Throw poop, grenade or infested grenade:

  • Keep pressing X to aim and left-click while X still pressed.

Jump and climb:

  • Space button (the Dinopithecus does not take fall damage)

What’s the difference between the 3 different projectiles?

  • Poop: Slows target, slowly drains life, disables Tek
  • Grenade: Explosive Damage
  • Infested Grenade: Both damages together, Sticky grenade

Dinopitecus Breeding:

Dinopithecus are mammals which means they give life birth and don’t lay eggs. Unlike other creatures in ARK they are unable to have twins or triplets. Babies will eat berries or meat since they are omnivores.

How much life and melee can a max mutated Dinopithecus get?

  • 254 points in Life with an additional 88 level ups will get an imprinted Dinopithecus to 233k life.
  • 254 points in Melee with an additional 88 level ups will get an imprinted Dinopithecus to 4444% melee damage (2k per bite mate boosted against a prim saddle, 3k per slam attack)

Which color regions are on the Dinopithecus?

 

What is the spawn command for the Dinopithecus?

cheat gmsummon "Dinopithecus_Character_BP_C" 150

This will spawn a perfect 225 tamed Dinopithecus. Spawned animal has a 40% chance to be a baby.

 

cheat summon Dinopithecus_Character_BP_C

This will spawn a random wild Dinopithecus. Spawned animal has a 40% chance to be a baby.

 

cheat setbabyage 1

Use this command to turn babies into adults when spawned.

 

TiiaAurora

Tiia is a bilingual Content Creator for the game ARK: Survival Evolved. She has over 12k hours experience in the game and her main interest is the complex breeding mechanic in ARK.

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