Dilophosaurus - Forest Dweller Guide

Guide for those who wants to play actively and efficiently their dilos on survival enviroment.

Some Background

The Isle is a game that take scientific accuracy fairly right, so I think is important to have some background on the actual dinosaur on which the playable one is based on.

The dilophosaurus of The Isle is based in one of the two specimens of the Dilophosauridae family, the Dilophosaurus wetherilli.
At about 7 meters (23 ft) in length, with a weight of about 400 kilograms (880 lb), this animal was one of the earliest large predatory dinosaurs, though it was smaller than some later theropods. It was slender and lightly built, and the skull was proportionally large, but delicate.
One of the most unusual things about the Dilophosaurus is that it lived in the early Jurassic period, 190 million to 200 million years ago, not a particularly productive time in terms of the fossil record.
The biggest fabrication in the entire "Jurassic Park" franchise came when that cute, curious little Dilophosaurus sprayed burning venom in the face of Wayne Knight. Not only wasn't the Dilophosaurus poisonous, but also there's no convincing evidence that any dinosaur of the Mesozoic Era deployed poison in its offensive or defensive arsenal. There was briefly some buzz about the feathered dinosaur Sinornithosaurus, but it turned out that this carnivore's "venom sacs" were actually displaced teeth.
Also inaccurate is the fluttering neck crest that the "Jurassic Park" special-effects mavens bestowed on the Dilophosaurus. There's no reason to believe that the Dilophosaurus or any other meat-eating dinosaur possessed such a frill, but since this soft-tissue anatomical feature wouldn't have preserved well in the fossil record, there's room for reasonable doubt.

If you wanna know more about dilos, visit your local library... enough of that... now, say hello to my little friend...

Why go Dilo?

B-But Mckuden... Dilo is too small! I love to facetank anything and bite the air like theres no tomorrow!

Then ask a GM for a Spoon and brag on global about how skilled and powerful you are.

Ok, keep going...

Pros:

• One of the few dinosaurs who can outsmart its opponents
  
• Insane bleed damage
  
• Rules over a whole facet of the game: Night.
  
• Grows moderately fast
  
• 3rd fastest survival carnivore (after carno and utah)
  
• If the hunting is not going well, you can rely on IA
  
• Ok turning ratio and stamina
  
• Good healing (you can go down from stage 3 to 0 in less than 2 minutes)

Cons:

• At daytime you are not very intimidating
  
• Very squishy, healing is useless when you can pretty much get 2-shotted for others adults
  
• Thirst can be an issue if it gets low during the day

Basic guidelines

To start, this guide counts that you know some basics about this game; I wont start to pinpoint every other dinosaur and how they perform compared to you: to be clear, anything except juvies have their fair chance to kill you at day.


First of all, lets get this straight: you are not an apex. This is the most important thing to have in mind, and all ur gameplay are gonna revolve around this.
You are a forest dweller, you dwell forests to survive, and you are pretty good at this. Your size make the camera kinda of convenient for this enviroment, and thats something at your favor, for all big carns have a hard time chasing when you nosedive into the trees. If you hear or see another big carnivore, just turn 180° and run, theres nothing to win, and all your progress to lose.


As soon as you spawn, I recommend you to start traveling to a river, not ponds, so you are gonna need to learn the map a little. Rivers are often less dangerous to survive around, thats because, you cannot see rivers when u smell unlike ponds or big corpses of water that are signaled as blue discs.
Also, theres more area to drink from, you are less vulnerable to an ambush.
A perfect example of this is the spawn point over the hot springs; if u scent for water, you will see all those ponds around, and thats why most people stick around, and its a very dangerous zone indeed. But if u manage to travel west, you will find the northern river way before ur thirst reach critical levels. Relax not, for is a very good place to get carno'd, but way better than sticking to the ponds.

At juvie, you do not stand out, so you will stick to a very basic tactics and luck. You will hunt when around 50% hunger, the rest of the time just go stealth mode, sit under a tree or in a bush.
When trying to go unnoticed remember that is more important to hide your head than ur body, you will be surprise how many people Ive seen hiding their full body in a bush, just to have their heads sticking out with those delicious glowing eyes. You body or tail can very well hide under elevation terrain, or got mistaken for a rock or log.
If you are in a very active area, wait until night to travel and/or drink, your nightvision is fairly good for a juvie, and you do well against them too, so with a little of luck, you will have no problem reaching adult stage.

Ive seen alot of people starving with psittacosaurus broadcasting around. Dont understimate tacos, they are a good amount of food for juvi dilos, and they have saved me a couple of times as adult. Learn its call, and learn to hunt em, is a worthwhile. When I started to play this game, I used to mistake tacos for ambience sounds, it sounded like a crow for me, so imnot surprise others people do it as well.

You came across other juvie? well, the fight is quite easy for you. Anything that can outdamage you cant outmaneuver you, and viceversa. If they manage to get the first hit or two, and/or you are playing bad, you will have a rough time, but you still have a chance.
And that is because your game is called bleed; once you manage to get atleast 1 stack, the game is at your favour. Even at juvie stage your bleed is something to fear, Ive manage to bleed out a giga with just 2 or 3 bites, and then luring him to keep chasing me.

...Run, rexxy, run...

...Is the best you can do for me.

As stated before, theres no record of venomous dinosaurs, yet, the developers actually tried to conciliate this idea buffing the total damage output of dilos bleeds, with the excuse that is actually an active component of dilo's saliva that prevent wounds from coagulating. Presto!

Most people think that combat on this game is quite straight, rock-paper-scissor like, and that is probably true when you have 2 brainiacs facetanking each other and bitting the heck out of the air. But this is not case for dilos, and thats because theres a few mechanics that happens when you try to bleed out somebody.

Remember these things:
-bleed damage output can be enhance with stacks, up to 3
-sitting will heal up part of the bleed damage, but it still happens
-running increase bleed damage

Time and pacience are your best buds here, try to get your bleed running, dont rush to get the 3 stacks, cuz you are gonna make mistakes and thats how you get your tail mauled most of the time. I know this is hard, because our flat bite damage is not that good, even as adult, and at first sight, It would seems that you are not doing any damage at all, dont fall for this, your bleed does tons of damage and its duration makes a good asset for keep chasing your prey once it goes away, due to its speed or just because you dont want to deal with it. Any bite beyond the third and forth is really an unnecesary risk if the prey is fighting back.
If they crouch, just get some distance, they are gonna get the damage output up if they run, this is the best thing they can do. When they sit, just run to them, dont actually go for the engage, for most people will lure you with a fake sit to try to snatch at you, and you are no fool, you play dilos after reading Mckuden's guide.
If you see theres no more bleed animation, just go for a stack or two, at this point you can trade some damage for a fresh corpse.
This fights usually ends with the enemy realizing your bleed is gonna end em more sooner than later, they will just sit and let you stack free, or just stand there, where you can enrapture their tails.

As an adult, forget what you know about juvie fights, the game is turn upside down for you. You can be outmaneuver and outdamaged at the same time, you do not excel neither at velocity nor endurance. But you win an hability that people use hacks to achieve, and that is your matchless night vision.

Nighttime ... your reign of terror.

Your night vision and your bleed damage makes you a total overlord during night. You will be amazed of how many times people will just run infront of you or even towards you.
But still, dont relax, you still leave footsprints and little mistakes can end your reign, for adult dilos are not very durables.

Also, if you are having a hard time navigating at night, I suggest u spend a few spawns as gallimimus and try to learn the map during the day.

Your game at night is hit&run tactics, guerrilla warfare. You have learned how to manage bleed as a juvie, you know what to do; now add the fact that you can see em while they are blindfolded trying to anticipe your actions.
Apex and things like olds paras or trikes are out of your league, but you are a ghostly visage for everyone else. Use the nightshroud at your favour, try to get their backs, and never engage without ambush speed, dont let em sit, and if they do, punish em for that, just remember: you have all the night, and more importantly, NEVER engage facetoface, you cant exchange hits with most of your preys, its a bad trade for you, and usually ends with an impending doom.
Anything from mid tiers carnivores as urself, to fairly big herbs such as adult maias or diablos are in the menu.

You can have a really fun time dealing with packs or herds. Due to your low health pool, you cannot risk to get injured going for the same objetive over and over.
Bite at anything that is not facing you, just dont risk much. Well organized groups will round and get backs together, if they manage to get a good position while their wounded ones heal, you would be better off wandering, or going after IA if your hunger is under 50%.
but most of the time, they will just fall into chaos; I remember chasing alone a herd of 3 or 4 diablos freestacking them when they just sit randomly to try to heal, killed 2 of em quite easy.

Be careful at dusk and dawn, for is dark enough to be annoying, but bright enough to see further than the most effective night vision, that is actually, yours. If you active nightvision and start wandering, theres the possibility that a real threat can see you from far away and chase you to death. Just wait a couple minutes more, when is pitch black, and then claim the isle for yourself.

Of course, aside obvious rules about preys theres some specific things u need to know about some of your most vicious rivals.

Your real enemies.

I started to play dilo because I used to fight alot of em with my carnos, and usually it ends with "Man, that dilo was good, If only he had done X instead of Y, I would be totally dead", and things like that.
The last episode that made me go main dilo was me chasing one of em to a small tree area near herb rock, the trade was at my favour, I just dive between the trees for a bite or two. Then, I tried to go after a extra bite, when suddenly I got stuck on a tree, and before I could realize it, I have this dilo munching at my rears like a total perv. And then is when he did his major mistake, he just stood there trading hits with me. He died quick, and I died not much later due to bleed. I got from stage 1 to death with still 3 stacks on me, and he got me about 6 or 7 bites.

Since then, I have spent tons of dilos lifes fighting anything that came across. And this is the result of my time playing em: Know your league, you play a separate The Isle from apex and big herbs, just dont. If you stick to this, theres only 3 4 players that represents a threat for you:

Scale:
1: Limping Juvenile Psittacosaurus
10: Ambushing Type H-Tyrannosaurus and you have a broken leg.

Carnotaurus
Carnos are the fastest carnivores, and at ambushing, the top speed of the entire game. At nighttime or in forest enviroment you have the upperhand, they accelerate so quick that most carnos that goes after you will hit a tree or even break their legs due to small rocks or elevations, they have a very fragile ankle. They got a buff recently and their damage, health and bleed resist is now way better. Dont engage adults at open field, not even during night. But as a forest dweller, you should have no problem avoiding em. Threat: 5/10


Utahraptors
This is when things get dangerous. Utahs are faster than you, and also more agile. Their turning ratio is very good (even while running), they can jump, have a decent damage, due to the ratio at which they can bite you. And also, if u hear a utah, the probability dictaminates that theres atleast 2 more around.
At daytime they can be a real issue, just avoid em.
Yet, at nighttime they are a very easy meal, and that is because most utahs players like to nest at the most isolated parts of the map and feast on IA all daylong. Its a shame, Im totally confident that The Isle is a game where utahs packs should be a total scourge, and not apex predators. Get the first one or two bites out of ambush, and then play ur style very carefully. Threat: 6/10

Allosaurus
Very good maneuverability and damage, decent stamina. They got a speed nerf recently, so they cannot chase us anymore, yet, their hp pool and resist makes em a formidable enemy for its size. The problem with these kinds of enemies is that you can get the upperhand at ambush, but usually they can afford the initial damage, and then they will just crouch waiting for you to move, u baited and go for a bite, u are half ur ambushing time now, and they go after you, its pretty much gg. I suggest dont hunt an allo unless you are starving, is a high risk game, and also remember that, just like carnos, allos players are usually pack hunters. Threat 7/10

Ceratosaurus
Ceras are barely slower than a dilo, just 2 km/h of difference. They have a good amount of hp and damage for its size, and have a INSANE turning ratio. But what makes em a real threat? well, with its major buffs, alot of people are playing ceras now, and this is a problem, because they are excellent forest dwellers too. This last patch has insert this little bulky tank on our forest, and we are now at danger on our own safe place, so careful from now on, for you are not alone between the trees anymore... Threat 7/10

B-But Mckuden ... I like to play dilos with my friends and we are very good at it!

You again? ... lets see that...

Pack Mentality

So... as a dilo, whats is your posture about packs? well, 3 is a multitude.

Ive tried to play effectively in packs and I must say, dilos playstyle is not very suited for this. And no, 5 or 6 people wandering all over the map looking for IA is not a effective way to play dilos.
If you want to play as packs with ur friends, you should choose other dinos, as allos or utahs, you are gonna be way better, even herbs are fun to play as herd with your friends.

But dilos, nope. All this guide is about concealing, no one should know you are at the area at day, and at night, you hunt mercilessly your prey. And this way of life is kinda hard with a pack; first of all, you should be able to get big game every night or so to keep your pack full, and if is this not happen, you have to rely on IA, which is gonna lead you to open fields or dayhunting.

Also, believe it or not, dilos packs are not that intimidating really. If you reveal yourself, you are asking to be eaten by allos... or others big carnivores... but mostly allos... I hate allos.
When you came across an apex, the fact that you are 6 dilos is really not important. You are only making that giga click 5 times more. And anything else that you can kill, you could perfectly do it with 2 or 3 members.

Couple of dilos is probably the best option here, but only if you have good communication. Stalking and bleeding people are gonna be really easy, and if you didnt get a good night hunting, you can rely on IA within forest area for both of u. Also, most people that would attack you alone, are gonna think it twice if they see 2 of you... except if they are allos... damn allos.

Advance Tactics

Here are some tactics that you can do when you feel more confident about your dilo performance:

• Remember that night is your shroud, but it has a end, try to not be there by the time the sun start to rise. My personal indicators are the flowers and the water surface, If I turn the nv off and I see them with an orange color, I know its time to seek for shelter.
  
• Time your traveling so you get to where you want to be at the start of the night, I usually do this when I know theres a herd or nest nearby. Stay at the forest until dusk, and reach em by night. Most of the time you wouldnt be able to do much, just harass and have a funtime, if theres big predators nearby or if a hatch/juvie got careless you may feast good.
  This image is an example of my gameplay. I have my favourite spot during day to rest, it have a thick forest near water source, and good IA spawn, (Oh and please, dont be THAT guy; if you choose a place near where juvs spawn like me, try to feed on IA primarly, dont be a jerk.) and then at night, I go down to raid some lizards. On this image, the bluish zone represents the zone where you can go to lurk, and then comeback before the nights ends; and the red zone is the farthest distance you can travel while concealed. All at trot, no sprint accounts. I like to go slow and check every tree or bush, also, is more stealthy. (The map was post at reddit for u/MajavaOuo).
  
• Use oros/tacos as bait. Most players dont go after tacos unless they see it, and thats hard at night, so is much preferable if u eat tacos and use oros as bait. dont get it wrong tho, you are gambling here, for a big apex can come after the oro... or even worse... an allo. Anyhow, you can just stay a few meters from that little bud and watch if something dangerous or not get near, not big risk, and very profitable if you have luck.
  
• Use your 1 call as lure. Your broadcasting call is kinda wierd, for is not threatening at all, and most people will get curious at it. When people just stares at your direction, get around and bite that scaly bastard, once you get the first stack or two, they are as good as dead.
  
• Also your call number 2 can be very well mistaken for a broadcasting oro for some people, use this at your favour. You would be surprised if u knew how many people fall for this, get into a bush or open area, and broadcast every 20 seconds or so, just like oros. Dont do it too often, or it will be too obvious. Ive been practicing alot, and I recommend to do, at most, 4 calls. Most people fall at the third of fourth call, if nobody come after is because they probably know is you.
  
• "Oh ♥♥♥♥, the oros got silent... somebody ate it..." how many times did you say or heard this sentence?. Well, if you are too hungry, you can combine bait and lure tactics. Let the oros call 1 or 2 times more, if nobody came, eat it, then 2 call yourself 2 or 3 times more. Remember they are hunting, so be prepared, dont be surprised if crouching dinos shows up.
  
• Dont stay near your kills, you have outstanding night vision, just get far away enough to see it, also you dont need to hide at night, for you can see any threat coming way before they are dangerous.
  
• Use skin system at your favour. We had a very nice palette of colours for our fav dino. We used to have that bright red tone on us, not very favourable at day. But now, our survivality has increase a little due to this new game feature. My personal scheme is diablo 2/ dryo 4/ dryo 3/ dryo 2/ dryo 5.
  
• By mistake or not, maybe u realized that dilos have a fair resistance to breaking its legs. Use this when chased, just dont risk, and try to memorize how far can you fall without regreting your choice, also, rock collision has been improved, so a few dinos will have a rougher time chasing after you.
  While im fighting this carno, I just go to the fall for protection, and I get a few ambushes from there, then go back up as soon as he start chasing me. I go down, and he cant risk to broke his ankles going after me.
  Remember that some dinos turn better when broke, so, dont take the bait, and just run if is something that you cant deal with.
  
• Ive seen this more often on sub or juv rexes, because their turn ratio is really not that good, so you can outmaneuver em quite easy. They will try to:
  A- Stop when chased, so you just run through em and get directly into their hit box.
  B- Alt turn to try to snatch at you. This is no problem, just run to the side they are not turning (you always engage at ambush speed, so this is no problem).
  C- Disengage from the battle, get distance and try to charge at you again. This is the best they can do for you, they let you vanish again into the darkness for free. Just haunt em for the rest of the night.

• Ive seen a few comments on this: yes, yes you can solo apexes or big herbs like adult paras. and you will eventually realize this as your playstyle get smoother. I still think that you should avoid em when u are learning to play dilo. If you feel confident, go for it! the only way to find out if u are prepare enough to solo a giga, is doing it!
  On this one, I got bit once due to a ping pike. Thats why I check'd the connection stats (alt+shift+F) and took a ss.
  

A few considerations

Its all fun and games until you have a bad nighthunting and also theres no IA nearby, cuz you are in a worse position that most carnivores, due to your bad performance during daytime, but hey, its almost the same for all other dinos. If you get a badluck streak, you are pretty much... hmmm... dead.

I dont know if its a bug or intented, but you can fill your thirst meter with just 1 "gulp" when you are at 0%. Is kinda useful when you have to drink during daytime, but I reported it anyways. Now is less frecuent, but still happen.

Bleed is now reworked (again): Now it wont kill you only if u are sitting, this is great great news. Basics gameplay for dilos are back, you can bleed out ur enemy outplaying em, and if they sit, we still retain half of our last buff; a bite force of 100N (down from 200; it used to be 15). Is not that much, but added to our bite speed, we can dish some nice dmg to someone who is trying to heal.

The worst thing now is that night is bright again, it now gets
progressively darker, but even at that 5min pinnacle of "darkness", it is pretty easy to see contourns over water, the vegetation around you, or even the back of ur dino if the moon is shinning.
Im really dissapointed for this, Night its suppose to be the core of the game, not only for dilos, The Isle is suppose to be a horror survival with dinos, but they have delayed humans for so long that most people thinks this is a dino sims or sum like that, and even devs are starting to believe this I fear.
Im not in a hurry for a fix, I think some people enjoy the new night, myself included, but it wont be long until people are gonna start to complaing about gigas running them through a whole field, or the night not being a defense against megapacks or carnivores in general, as it used to be.

And as I said long time ago on this guide, If u take the advantage of night for dilos, the only thing you have left is to make it a cerato-wannabe... and we are just on that track right now. For the last few patches we got a weight, damage, speed and also turning ratio buff.
Dilo is way more dangerous now than when I wrote this guide, so if they manage to fix the night, dilos are gonna be a total beast.
But for now, those stats dont compensate the lack of a darker night. Ive played others dinos these days, and I felt pity for the dilos I came across, specially at day.

People are also asking nighttime to be shorter...

"We could ask the daytime to be shorter, uh? ha ha ha..."

well, imnot very fond of that. I think the day/night relation are ok, at 50/50 just like now.

"... Y-you dont log off at daytime?"

The only way you can learn the map, and not wander aimlessly during night is seeing it at day. And wheres the fun if you just avoid danger in this game? will you just sit and play dino chat room?, then logoff during nighttime?. No, I dont logoff during the day, and shame of you if you do.

"B-But Mckuden... why go only into officials servers?"

Custom servers usually do silly things just to please players; they give away dinos that are obviously not balanced to be played on survival, like acros or spinos, shants or puertas. Also, they usually have rules that are really dumb, like not allowing herbs to chase carnivores, or defend themselves between species, let apex creatures stick together, and my personal favourite, you have to 3 call before attacking someone... ... I get a more balanced experience on officials servers, I mean, C'mon, who wants to play on a server where herbs are handcuff? thats not fun.

Please comment any critics, anything that I miss and how much you hate allos.

...see you at The Isle...

[Mckuden]

Hello guys! thanks you so much for your comments!

@Binahel im actually playing evrima. I main deino, I think it has one of the most unique gameplay rn. Cant wait until the game stabilize enough so I can make a guide about deino gameplay.

[Binahel]

Do ou think you will play on evrima?
@Mckuden

[Swagium]

Just so I don't get harassed by THOSE GUYS this this a joke.

[Swagium]

I think this is a very well made article but...
you insulted allos!

[Agyrn]

Words cannot express how much I loved reading this guide, it was the thing that made me trully love the Goblin that is the Dilo,

thank you for making this and take care!

[Astabolt]

@seantully66

you're playing on Evrima, dilo is in legacy branch

[A.Jackolin potato]

Dilo right now is on the og branch only

[AMOGUS]

a

[seantully66]

I can't even play as a dilophosaurus. Is it dlc? I'm only able to play as a utahraptor, dinosuchus, carnotaurus, stegosaurus, dryosaurus, and ptyranodon. Why can't I play as anything else?

[SacredxKllrC]

good guide, but the whole official server thing i dont get i like the realism in certain servers