Rexes have probably been THE flagship dinosaur for the ARK franchise. Not only was the Rex in ARK 1’s first trailer, they continued the legacy by also putting a Rex hunt into the first Trailer of ARK 2. Since its release Rexes have been used for all heavy duty fighting tasks. This guide will help you to step up your Rex game and become a pro in taming and breeding them.
Rex Roles
The Rexes roles are pretty tightly defined. The Rex is a fighter. In PvE you will use it as a mount for dangerous areas, as a mount for farming meat for your animals and of course as a boss/bossing animal. Everywhere were you need DPS and a tanky friend—the Rex is an ideal choice.
On which maps do Rexes Spawn?
Rexes come in different variants, which also have different spawn behaviour and different spawn locations:
Normal Rex:
The normal Rex spawns on all maps except for Aberration and Genesis 1.
Tek Rex:
The Tek Rex spawns on all maps with the exception of Aberration. On the maps where Rexes and Tek Rexes co-exist, they will share spawn areas and a small percentage of the Rex spawns will then be Tek Rexes.
X-Rex:
The X-Rex only spawns on Genesis 1 in the Volcano-Area.
For more info about the exact spawn areas all Rex variants, check out the ARK-Wiki. It provides spawn maps for all possible Rex spawns in the game.
Rex Taming
Taming a Rex is pretty straight forward and fairly easy. They don’t have a particular high torpor drop and can be left alone while waiting for them to be hungry enough to tame them on one go through starve taming. A Rex should be trapped in the best case. My new favourite Rex trap is by Captain Fatdog on YouTube.
The Rex is a normal knockout tame but has no headshot modifier. So when hitting it with your tranq weapon it will not make a difference where you hit it to get the full amount of torpor per shot. The Rex can’t be trapped with a netgun any more. The Netgun traps everything up to a drag weight of 500 and the Rex has a drag weight of 550.
(Please keep in mind that as soon as you click the play button, YouTube will track your view)
What Taming Food does the Rex require?
This is the list of taming food that you can use on a Rex sorted by high taming progress to low taming progress:
- Exceptional Kibble
- Raw Mutton
- Raw Prime Meat
- Cooked Lamb Chop
- Cooked Prime Meat
- Raw Fish Prime
- Raw Meat
- Cooked Fish Prime
- Cooked Meat
- Raw Fish Meat
- Cooked Fish Meat
How to craft a Rex Saddle?
Once you reach level 74, you can unlock the engram to craft the primitive Rex Saddle with 40 Engram points. If you find a Rex Saddle or a Rex Blueprint before, you can use and craft them before unlocking the primitive version. To craft a primitive Rex Saddle you need the following resources in a smithy:
- 50 Metal Ingots or Scrap Metal Ingots
- 200 Fiber
- 380 Hide
Later in the game you can also unlock the Tek Rex Saddle. This one is unlocked by Alpha Megapithecus, Alpha Manticore, Alpha Rockwell or the Forest Titan. To craft this saddle you need the following resources in a Replicator.
- 1800 Metal Ingots or Scrap Metal Ingots
- 350 Polymer or Polymer substitutes
- 250 Crystal
- 100 Black Pearls
- 40 Element
Which Creature can carry a Rex?
Since the Rex is pretty heavy, the creatures that can carry them are limited. If you want to move the Rex through the air, having it stand on a Quetzal Platform or using a Skiff are the only methods. In the water the Tuso can move a Rex without problems.
Which attacks does the Rex have?
The Rex has two attacks while only one of them does damage and the other one stuns/frightens the target.
Bite attack: The bite attack will have the Rex launch his head forward and do a fairly big bite. It has a decent AOE range as well. The controls for this bite are Left-click on PC, RT for the Xbox and R2 for the PlayStation.
Roar attack: The Rex will roar loudly which will stun lock medium and smaller enemies including players. Flyers will get grounded when roar’ed at. To be stunned by the Rex, the drag weight must be below 200 and the level must be below the level of the Rex. Players can counter this attack with leveling Fortitude. The controls for the roar are Right-click for PC, LT for the Xbox and L2 for the PlayStation.
What do Rexes eat?
The Rex is a carnivore and therefore will only eat meat. All meat variants that can be used for taming the Rex, can also be used for feeding adult and Baby Rexes when growing up. Rexes will also eat Kibble when they are hungry, and it’s the only food provided.
Can Rexes fit through Dino Gateways?
Before the Rex TLC was released, the Rex could fit through a Dino Gateway. Since v260 this has changed and a Rex now requires a Behemoth gate, because its mesh is bigger.
What are good stats to have on a Rex?
Rexes profit most from having more Health and Melee damage therefore those are the two stats you should focus on when levelling or breeding a Rex. Health can even be neglected a little more on official servers because Rexes profit more from more Damage dealing than from having even more life, especially with a good saddle.
How do you breed a Rex for mutations?
Rexes do not require any special treatment when being bred. Two Rexes will produce a fertilized egg when mated and this egg can then be incubated with air cons or with the Incubator from Genesis 2. To raise a Rex from egg to adult, it takes 3 days, 20 hours and 30 minutes on 1x breeding multiplier, while 5h of that alone will be incubating the egg. Unfertilized eggs or fertilized eggs that are not needed any more can be used to craft Exceptional Kibble (yellow).
If you have no idea how breeding or mutating in ARK works, I have this tutorial here that is directed to beginners.
(Please keep in mind that as soon as you click the play button, YouTube will track your view)
Which color regions are used on a Rex?
Here we have to split up between the 3 variants again because they all use different color regions. Color regions start at 0 and end at 5. These are the regions used by the Rex:
Normal Rex:
- Region 0: Body (almost the whole body, sides, head)
- Region 1: Spine (The spine scales)
- Region 3: Highlights (Dots on the sides)
- Region 4: Back (the skin next to the spine scales)
- Region 5: Belly (the whole belly and parts of the chin)
Tek Rex:
- Region 0: Head Main (the face)
- Region 1: Spine (The spine and neck)
- Region 2: Body Main (sides, cheeks, and the legs)
- Region 3: Body Highlights (Lips, Belly)
- Region 4: Internals (Cables under the Tek construct)
- Region 5: Emissives (Blinking lights/LEDs under the metal)
X-Rex:
- Region 0: Body (Sides, head, and legs)
- Region 1: Spine (The spine scales)
- Region 4: Back (Skin next to the scales)
- Region 5: Belly (the whole belly and parts of the chin)
Which bosses can be done with the Rex?
Rexes are very versatile when it comes to Boss fights. Especially fights that require a tanky dinosaur with good DPS will be perfect for the Rex. The Rex looks a little weak at the Broodmother Boss because of the immobilization of her minions, and it also has a hard time fighting the Dragon because as a carnivore it will suffer more than other viable herbivore alternatives.
I hope this guide helped you to acquire a Rex and even start your breeding group. Feel free to check out our other guides as well.
