Gear recommended for dragon?

[zack_8tack]

So I am going to try and fight the dragon on single player pretty soon and I was wondering if I need better gear to face it. So far I have theri's with around 9k hp and 440% Melee damage with imprints. I still haven't found a saddle bp yet though, I have heard they are super hard to find. I also have a pump shotgun with about 160% damage. Do I need a better saddle? if so where is the best place to get one on the island?

[🦊 Hermit]

Theri saddles mainly come from cave drops...red crates in the land caves, but potentially as early as blue in the underwater caves.

https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Loot_tables/The_Island/Caves

I'm not sure about the theri stats as I used rexes on the dragon, so hopefully someone with theri experience will be able to advise you there. However one thing I couldn't help but notice is you didn't include a yutyranus in your loadout there - is that because you didn't mention it, or because you don't have one?

If the latter, I would seriously recommend getting some good stat yutys and breeding up some stamina-mutated high levels from them. Yutys are absolutely invaluable for any boss fight, as they reduce the damage your tames take, and increase the damage they deal. I would be extremely reluctant to even attempt the dragon without one.

[zack_8tack]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Theri saddles mainly come from cave drops...red crates in the land caves, but potentially as early as blue in the underwater caves.

https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Loot_tables/The_Island/Caves

I'm not sure about the theri stats as I used rexes on the dragon, so hopefully someone with theri experience will be able to advise you there. However one thing I couldn't help but notice is you didn't include a yutyranus in your loadout there - is that because you didn't mention it, or because you don't have one?

If the latter, I would seriously recommend getting some good stat yutys and breeding up some stamina-mutated high levels from them. Yutys are absolutely invaluable for any boss fight, as they reduce the damage your tames take, and increase the damage they deal. I would be extremely reluctant to even attempt the dragon without one.

Well I have a yuty with a lot of stam and a lot of health that i have used for the broodmother and the megapithicus. I have an acendant saddle for it as well so it shouldn't take too much damage during the fight

[DreadCthulhu]

Well, try to keep your yuty out of the dragon's fire breath - that attack does 20% of your health damage, ignoring saddle armor entirely. For your therizinos you are going to want to load them up with as much sweet veggie cakes as you can make, so go tame a bee or two and set some tree taps up if you have not already. Sweet veggie cakes provide a very nice healing boost to herbivores.

Also what difficutly/max wild creature level are you playing at? The stats on your therizinos would be low for official difficulty, but at lower levels might be just fine, especialy since single player bosses are nerfed a lot.

[Plague Phoenix]

Stats seem awfully low, Id be shooting for 20k HP, 400dmg post imprinting/level ups. Thats assuming youre talking Gamma dragon, without veggi cakes

[zack_8tack]

Originally posted by Plague Phoenix:

Stats seem awfully low, Id be shooting for 20k HP, 400dmg post imprinting/level ups. Thats assuming youre talking Gamma dragon, without veggi cakes

Those stats I have are base stats without levels. I am certainly going to level their health and damage higher than that

[zack_8tack]

Originally posted by DreadCthulhu:

Well, try to keep your yuty out of the dragon's fire breath - that attack does 20% of your health damage, ignoring saddle armor entirely. For your therizinos you are going to want to load them up with as much sweet veggie cakes as you can make, so go tame a bee or two and set some tree taps up if you have not already. Sweet veggie cakes provide a very nice healing boost to herbivores.

Also what difficutly/max wild creature level are you playing at? The stats on your therizinos would be low for official difficulty, but at lower levels might be just fine, especialy since single player bosses are nerfed a lot.

I have difficulty offset set to 5 so I can get max levels of 150 on wild Dino’s. Those stats for the theri’s are base stats without added levels

[DreadCthulhu]

Ah, if those are base stats they should be fine then. With upgrades get their health pumped up to 21k or so (that is the sweet spot for cake healing; sweet veggie cakes heal 10% of health, with a cap of 2100 hp) and toss everything else into melee.