I can't seem to get 'Keratin'

[Riesenwald]

I started playing ARK again two days ago, and I'm now playing on the map 'The Center'. I wanted to tame that a 'Pteranodon', and I need chitin and keratin. I was able to obtain chitin, but not keratin. I already killed 'Triceratops', and that slow blue and red turtle like dinosaur with a long neck, but still couldn't obtain any keratin.

When I started playing ark two days ago, I found chitin, and I dropped it, because I thought it was useless. But it was a big mistake. So how do I find 'Trilobites' as well on the center map? Much appreciated, and thx.

[Dragoness]

If you're playing singleplayer, maybe adjust your harvest amounts if you're getting literally nothing.

Otherwise, on a new character and vanilla settings, harvesting keratin with a stone tool will take a long time. This is on purpose, for balance. You wanna get a metal tool/Dino to harvest with ASAP.

If you have a metal tool/decent Lvl Dino meant to harvest it, definitely fix harvest rate if you're harvesting next to none.

As for Trilobites, I've noticed the spawning is iffy on any map other than The Island, but for the most part, venture into the semi-deeper water off of your typical beach and you'll find 'em. Usually near a sand bar/drop-off.

[.]

You dont need both to make the saddle,its chitin and/or keratin

[Brax]

Make a raft and go to the skull island in the southeast, you'll find cave critters there along with good amounts of metal obsidian and crystal

[crimsondrac]

If you are near a swamp, you can go bug hunting. Dragonflies have chitin as well as the ants. Keratin is not quite as common as Chitin but it can still be found on large animals with horns, spikes or fangs.

[Tschaiga]

Chitin: insects/triolobites with pickaxt

Keratin: also pickaxt all dinos with horns like carno, trike, stego, turtle and a lot of more

When you have any questions to ark add me i can help you :)

Ps: i have 4500h in ark

[ZorTheCruel]

If you can, tame a sabertooth. They harvest Keratin and Chitin extremely well from corpses. Pteranodon saddle engram tooltip in game says only Keratin, but it is really Keratin or Chitin either one. So kill things with horns, spikes or fangs, and turtles (for Keratin), and anything bug-like or that has an exoskeleton for chitin (like scorpions, the dragonflies, flying and non-flying ants, etc.)

I love The Center map, but since the redwoods was released after the map was already made, they inserted the Redwoods way down at the bottom of the map. Makes it not very accessible early game. (redwoods is great for bugs and things that give Chitin) For the Center, you are probably better off checking along the beaches looking for Turtles, trikes, stegos, and if you are lucky, some trilobytes. Turtles are the best ones for getting the most Keratin early game.

My advice for The Center would possibly change based on what part of the map you have made your home for now. My advice above is for the easier starting locations, along the southern or eastern beaches of the mainland, or the beaches of the two big islands off the eastern coast.

[Riesenwald]

Originally posted by ZorTheCruel:

If you can, tame a sabertooth. They harvest Keratin and Chitin extremely well from corpses. Pteranodon saddle engram tooltip in game says only Keratin, but it is really Keratin or Chitin either one. So kill things with horns, spikes or fangs, and turtles (for Keratin), and anything bug-like or that has an exoskeleton for chitin (like scorpions, the dragonflies, flying and non-flying ants, etc.)

I love The Center map, but since the redwoods was released after the map was already made, they inserted the Redwoods way down at the bottom of the map. Makes it not very accessible early game. (redwoods is great for bugs and things that give Chitin) For the Center, you are probably better off checking along the beaches looking for Turtles, trikes, stegos, and if you are lucky, some trilobytes. Turtles are the best ones for getting the most Keratin early game.

My advice for The Center would possibly change based on what part of the map you have made your home for now. My advice above is for the easier starting locations, along the southern or eastern beaches of the mainland, or the beaches of the two big islands off the eastern coast.

Nice, thx. I tried killing turtles, but they didn't give me keratin at all. They only gave me meat and hide. Maybe I'm using the wrong tools? I tried using a metal pickaxe, and axe.

[Brax]

Originally posted by DanielVox:

I tried using a metal pickaxe, and axe.

pickaxe for meat, hatchet for hide/chitin/keratin

[ZorTheCruel]

This is he wiki page for Keratin, it lists the creatures that have it and the best creatures and tools for harvesting it:
https://ark.gamepedia.com/Keratin

Metal tools are best, I prefer using a metal hatchet where possible.(when i am wanting to collect hide or chitin or Keratin)

Seems odd that you get no keratin at all with a metal tool on turtle corpses. That should be the most lucrative early game option. Are you playing with any mods that might mess with the drops or turtles? If you are playing in Primitive Plus mode, it drastically changes drops and how things work.