The Dreadnoughtus is a colossal sauropod with a taming method that has nothing to do with knockout taming and almost nothing to do with feeding it. You find an element vein, buy one minute of its attention with a single piece of element, and walk it to the vein. Get it to the vein and it does the rest itself.
The numbers
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Taming type | Passive — element vein, no knockout |
| Health | 100,000 |
| Food | 13,500 |
| Weight | 3,000 |
| Melee Damage | 1080 |
| Torpor | 3,250 |
| Preferred food | Element (one piece starts the follow) |
| Found on | Extinction, Astraeos |
Base stats from the official ARK wiki creature data. The method decides the food, and the food is element — but only one piece of it, and only to buy the follow.
The method, in one sentence
Scope out an element vein, feed the Dreadnoughtus a single element so it follows you for about a minute, clear the trees in your path, and lead it to the vein — it starts eating the vein and the taming begins.
That is the whole tame. Everything hard about it is in the execution.
Step by step
- Scope out an element vein before anything else. Preferably an alpha-difficulty vein — lesser veins give reduced taming effectiveness. If you cannot find one, this can mean activating deployed OSDs or distant element veins and then immediately leaving render distance to terminate the event, which gives you a fresh chance at a more conventional vein location. Doing this after a recent meteor shower also keeps the weather from becoming a problem later.
- Approach on a small mount. The Dreadnoughtus becomes hostile to larger tamed creatures, so a Thylacoleo or another small mount is how you get close. Bring a Carcharodontosaurus for the fight later — it is a premier mount for this.
- Feed it element. Feed it element the way you would for a passive tame. That single piece makes it follow you for 1 minute.
- Clear the path. The Dreadnoughtus gets stuck on trees while following, so clear harvestable resources ahead of your route if you can.
- Lead it to the vein. Once it arrives it approaches the vein and starts eating it, which begins the taming process. You will see it roar as energy surges from its neck.
- Bring the heavy hitters now. During the vein-eating stage it will not become hostile to larger tames, so you can deploy a large combat creature from a cryopod, or whistle in one you left some distance away. A powerful mount is essential if you are solo — other tamed creatures will not attack the corrupted creatures that spawn during this stage, even when set to aggressive.
Why the method is what it is
The creatures that break the knockout rule are the ones players search for by name, because the standard trap does not apply to them. This one follows its own rule, and the guides that treat it like a Rex are the ones that waste the attempt.
The three ways this goes wrong
- Using a large mount to approach. Anything bigger than the Dreadnoughtus’s own threat threshold turns the meeting into a fight.
- Leading it through a forest. It gets stuck on trees, and your one minute of follow runs out.
- Turning up without a combat creature. The corrupted spawns during the vein stage ignore your other tames entirely.
A quick checklist
- An alpha-difficulty element vein located in advance.
- A small mount such as a Thylacoleo for the approach.
- Element in hand for the follow.
- A Carcharodontosaurus or equivalent ready for the corrupted spawns.
- A cleared route between the Dreadnoughtus and the vein.
For the stats of the other creatures, see the best tames guide. For the commands to place one in front of you, see the spawn commands guide.