Taming a dinosaur in ARK: Survival Evolved is an essential step in the gameplay. Your dino friends can help you move around, hunt and can protect you when you need help. Pteranodon is one of the first and easiest dinos to tame. And have I mentioned that it can fly? There are a few steps in taming a pteranodon so here’s what does pteranodon eat and how to tame it in ARK.
Required Materials and Equipment for Taming
Taming a dino may require a bit of patience and preparation. How much of both you need depends on the level of the pteranodon you are taming. In my case, I was taming a lvl 2 pteranodon while myself being lvl 20. Just make sure to make a few extras of everything for safety.
Here are the key tools/items needed for the taming process. The higher the level of a dino the more advanced equipment is recommended to use:
- Wooden Club/Slingshot/Tranquilizer arrows/Tranquilizer darts
- Bola
- Food
- Narcoberries/Narcotic/Bio-toxin
Wooden Club and Bola are the level 8 and 9 engrams. You will need 12 points total to unlock both. You will need food that will be covered in the next section and narcoberries that can be collected from bushes.
There is a handy table on ARK Fandom that features all the required resources and their amount. From the hits, you need to land to knock the dinosaur out to the time that will take to complete the taming process. The numbers and times there are a bit exaggerated but are great for reference if you want a bit detailed breakdown.
What Does Pteranodon Eat?
You will have to feed the pteranodon in order to tame it and there is a big variety of what kind of food to use. This is all the food that the pteranodon will like (from the most effective one to the least):
- Regular Kibble
- Raw Mutton
- Cooked Lamb Chop
- Raw Prime Meat
- Cooked Prime Meat
- Raw Prime Fish Meat
- Raw Meat
- Cooked Prime Fish Meat
- Cooked Meat
- Raw Fish Meat
Effectiveness basically means that the higher the food is up the list, the faster the dinosaur will be tamed. Kibbles are always the most effective food to give dinos but only if you give them the one they like, others will have zero to no effect.
But for the early level pteranodons, just regular raw meat will do just fine. On the other hand, if you are going for more high-level dinos consider acquiring more advanced foods. It saves you quite a bit of time and resources.
How to Tame Pteranodon
Pteranodons spend most of their time flying but eventually, they have to take a break and land. Wait until one lands and trap it by spinning and throwing a bola at it. Now that it’s immobilized take your club and smack the dino in the head a few times to knock it out. Or use any other equipment that can knock the dino unconscious. Don’t worry, you will not kill the dino, the club is made exactly for knocking animals out.
It can take around 10-15 club hits to knock the pteranodon out. It will then fall on the ground unconscious. Access its inventory and put the food and narcoberries there. Pteranodon will occasionally wake up and eat some of the food that will progress the taming bar. You can use narcoberries yourself from the dino’s inventory to extend its unconscious state.
It can take a little while, I had to wait about 5-7 minutes for the taming to be complete. But it varies depending on the dino’s level. As soon as it’s tamed you will be offered to name your new companion. You will be able to change it later if you wish.
Controlling the Dino and Flying
Controlling the dino is quite easy. Hold “E” to access its action menu when close to it. You can access its inventory and configure behavior settings. When you are away from it hold “T” to access the menu for the remote control options.
Since the pteranodons can fly, you can ride and fly them as well. To fly this guy you will need a saddle. Unfortunately, its engram only unlocks on level 38. Once you reach that level you can craft the saddle from x230 fiber, x125 hide, and x75 Chitin, Keratin, or Shell Fragment. You can also attach a torch to the saddle to see better at night. In mid-game having aerial transport is quite handy but in the early stages of the game, it’s not that important, so don’t stress it out too much.
