The BEST tamed creature in the game, by far:

[NerdOutreach]

The Horned Beetle. I mean holy crap this thing is shockingly good. It's charge attack can kill almost all the smaller enemies in the game, and it can solo fight and destroy a bird in just a few seconds (mine is currently level 39, the egg was "common" when I hatched it). It's overpowered to the point of turning the game into a spectator sport; just watch your beetle destroy everything it comes across. The biggest challenge is getting a beetle egg early on - I got mine from an event where I had to fight two of them. I learned very quickly that their attack is impossible to parry, you just have to dodge. They are very hard to kill with early game weapons but man they're so worth it. I love all the tameable creatures in the game but nothing comes close to the Rhino. He's an absolute unit. Get one and watch him annihilate your enemies.

[Nerevar]

wrong. the scorpion was and is still the best tame in the game for combat. its no contest on that one honestly. te horned bettle is basically a discount scorpion.

its main advantage is that you can get it sooner than the scorpion which you cannot get until you pass trough the tunnel.

[Druj]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

wrong. the scorpion was and is still the best tame in the game for combat. its no contest on that one honestly. te horned bettle is basically a discount scorpion.

its main advantage is that you can get it sooner than the scorpion which you cannot get until you pass trough the tunnel.

Care to elaborate?

I have both tames, for me personally the Horned Beetle is the top daddy: he's a tank with a lot of health, does like a billion damage with his charged attack and generally I haven't had any combat issues within zones like the Watchtower with him, in my experience the Scorpion is slower killing stuff but is equally as tanky I think, the only downside is you cannot mount the Horned beetle, yet... ;)

[Herr Morlock]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

wrong. the scorpion was and is still the best tame in the game for combat. its no contest on that one honestly. te horned bettle is basically a discount scorpion.

its main advantage is that you can get it sooner than the scorpion which you cannot get until you pass trough the tunnel.

What you are speaking about is not the Horned beetle, but the Stag beetle, because the Horned beetle can not be caught outside of the desert biome, AFAIK.

So you should compare the actual bug the OP is talking about with your scorpions, otherwise this discussion is senseless.

[J*&Nat]

I got a horned beetle egg from the same world event (the event was near the giant mushrooms). I somehow managed to succesfully protect it during incubation, because I had a base full of like 20 other incubated creatures plus a structure around the incubator to keep it safe) and OH BOY! I started using him before entering the 'Secret Door' and that beast carried me through the entire rest of the game.

It was practically unkillable due to its health, I never had to revive him, he hit up to 4 TIMES during a SINGLE CHARGE doing around 160x4 damage per charge. Thats 600+ damage every 5-10 seconds lol (most tames doing around 60-120 damage). Melting pretty much everything in the game. AND his charges can hit groups of enemies as an AoE for even more efficiency. He also has EXTRA INVENTORY space for frivilous gathering in the field.

And he only costs around 44 points, so you can team him up with whatever other tame(s) you like.

It made enemy encounters a non-issue, the 500 hoots grind trivial in Aether settlement and killed the final boss in like 6-7 charges.

OP is correct Horned Beetle is SSS rank. I am super lucky I found an egg when I did, because it makes the game pace so much nicer compared to the early game where everything is a huge threat. You just explore and conquer all in your path with that ABSOLUTE UNIT by your side. xD