Nee help picking a starter dino. (Mostly for protection)

[Raynor]

I've been playing on servers since the game came out so I'm not new to the game in any means. But I want to start playing on SP and I donno what dino(s) I should get 1st. Now before I get into dinos I want to give you an idea of what I'll be doing. I will be playing mostly primitive, max level 100, with difficulty set to max (1) & increased rates\stats to 2-5x. Now I want to spawn 1 or 2 in and tame it. I was thinking of spawning in a level 50, nows here's what I was thinking about.
Dilophosaur, Dimorphodon, Gigantopithecus or Mesopithecus.

Now I know people will say that Mesopithecus & Dimorphodon are useless but I like them and I think having a Dimorphodon to start would help protect me till I can tame something stronger.

[Hex: Oni's Plaything]

If you go with a shoulder mounted creature...go with Dimo. Gigantopithecus would be a great guardian though, and very helpful in getting fiber. I'd have to say Giganto if you want a guardian, or a Dimo if you really want more of a challenge, as a Giganto will be able to protect you from more things.

[eagle_1980]

Best starting dino to get for protection would be the turtle. It's easy to knock 1 out with a slingshot and stones as they are slow, you can keep backtracking as you shoot it in the face. The turtles makes great tanking dinos and you can just collect narcoberries to keep it down. It's a rather quick tame too.

[LucidFlux]

I'd just go with a Raptor. They are easy to get stuck and then shoot in the head. They make good mounts that once leveled up can pretty much kill everything or escape everything. I have a level 170 Raptor and I kill T Rex and Bronto with it.

[the_british_kiwi]

Id get a bear, but they arent out yet, so get the next best thing, the gigantopithicus

[eagle_1980]

Originally posted by LucidFlux:

I'd just go with a Raptor. They are easy to get stuck and then shoot in the head. They make good mounts that once leveled up can pretty much kill everything or escape everything. I have a level 170 Raptor and I kill T Rex and Bronto with it.

Eh, raptors don't have that great of a health pool, not to mention rather low weight. Granted, raptor is great for getting around, but the OP is looking for a dino for protection, hence my suggestion for a turtle.

[VtheInferno]

No one's mentioning a trike? Wtf?

Get a trike as your starter. Easy tame, beats the ♥♥♥♥ outta pretty much everything if leveled correctly. For the longest back in my noob days, I was running around with two trikes. Unstoppable. Rexes, spinos, brontos, raptors, blah blah blah, they died. Trike.

[Puri]

Mesopithecus does hardly do damage at all, and cannot carry that much.
Dilos are fine, but they are slow, tend to get stuck on every single rock and will only attack one target at once (which is a problem in the early stages with insects) and are also bad mules.
Dimos obviously don't stuck, but still will only attack one target at once and can hardly carry things.
Gigantopithecus play in a completely different league. They have a strong aoe attack, and can even be ridden without a saddle. But they cannot be (legally) tamed until you are 30. If you spawn and forcetame the gorilla, you won't have to worry about wild dinos (except alphas and giganotosaurus) at all - you might quickly lose the drive to play the game.

In my opinion a very good starter dino that you even don't have to spawn in and can get legally (especially with 5x settings) are trikes. They are easy to knock out as they tend to get stuck in trees and stones. They follow better than dilos, they have a frontal aoe with knockback and can carry quite a bunch. Tame two at once - male and female to get the mate boosted bonus - and you will be fine.

[VtheInferno]

Originally posted by Puri:

Mesopithecus does hardly do damage at all, and cannot carry that much.
Dilos are fine, but they are slow, tend to get stuck on every single rock and will only attack one target at once (which is a problem in the early stages with insects) and are also bad mules.
Dimos obviously don't stuck, but still will only attack one target at once and can hardly carry things.
Gigantopithecus play in a completely different league. They have a strong aoe attack, and can even be ridden without a saddle. But they cannot be (legally) tamed until you are 30. If you spawn and forcetame the gorilla, you won't have to worry about wild dinos (except alphas and giganotosaurus) at all - you might quickly lose the drive to play the game.

In my opinion a very good starter dino that you even don't have to spawn in and can get legally (especially with 5x settings) are trikes. They are easy to knock out as they tend to get stuck in trees and stones. They follow better than dilos, they have a frontal aoe with knockback and can carry quite a bunch. Tame two at once - male and female to get the mate boosted bonus - and you will be fine.

^ Gets it.

[Raynor]

Originally posted by the_british_kiwi:

Id get a bear, but they arent out yet, so get the next best thing, the gigantopithicus

Agreed! I would get a bear too hands down. I can't wait for then to add then.

[Hex: Oni's Plaything]

I didn't mention a trike because the OP listed a few creature they were looking at. If they hadn't listed any, I would've said Trike or turtle. Though my first was a Dilo, had a Dilo army.

[Paganizer]

Trike or Ape.

[Yergius]

From the list you've specified - gigantopithecus. Unmountable dinos suck at defending, because you can die before they'll be able to deal with a threat :). And while you're on mount, all damage goes to it, and none to rider (except from dimos, but those are peaceful unless you provoke them).

Still, taming that monkey is a pain (and not sure if it is doable before 30lvl), so my vote is for trike. Tough, great knockback, berry gatherer (with saddle ofc), most friendly thing to low levels :). Good knockback timing can even help to deal with alphas, at least raptors. Pretty tricky though, but doable.

[bubblywums]

Of your list I would say Dimo would be a good starting companion without ruining the early Ark experience too much. But after that, you should try to tame a carno. They are great tames, better than raptors and way easier to tame than a rex.

[Raynor]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think I'll go with Dimorphodon and a Trike or Ape.

[SNOWPOWDERITA]

Originally posted by eagle_1980:

Originally posted by LucidFlux:

I'd just go with a Raptor. They are easy to get stuck and then shoot in the head. They make good mounts that once leveled up can pretty much kill everything or escape everything. I have a level 170 Raptor and I kill T Rex and Bronto with it.

Eh, raptors don't have that great of a health pool, not to mention rather low weight. Granted, raptor is great for getting around, but the OP is looking for a dino for protection, hence my suggestion for a turtle.

how are turtle at collecting berries??
Couse i'd go with raptor and trike, those are perfect to start crafting narcotics (raptor meat, trike narcoberry), and then tame bigger dinos, and trike is also good for carrying resources ;)
Tourtle are cooler that trikes tho, so if they are good berries collector i could think about taming one.