Taken from the notes of an unknown survivor

For all the time I may spend observing and cataloguing the wildlife of this strange and wondrous place I know I shall never come to an end of it, for I have hardly to turn my head before I chance upon something new. It is clear to me that the animals of this environment must possess adaptations unique to this place, special characteristics that diverge from those of their analogues in Earth’s prehistory. But I have found that there are individuals that possess singular traits— traits whose manifestations are consistent enough to merit being called a type, but that are not bound to any group of conspecifics or even similar species. Whatever the mechanism is by which these animals come to exhibit these bizarre and sometimes downright supernatural characteristics, it is not limited by species, but may affect animals of wildly different and unrelated kinds, seemingly at random. Is it some kind of virus, something that can jump across species, rewriting the DNA of individuals to cause them to develop along its pattern? Or perhaps some kind of freak cryptosporidium, some entity entirely other, that hijacks and augments the bodies of those it inhabits? With the tools at my disposal I may never know, but nothing will stop me guessing…

Watch out for the Enraged, or hunt them down. These dinos have all the dangers of an Alpha, but worse. They cannot be tamed, and they will be tough to conquer— but if you can do it, you (and your chibi) will reap the rewards. (Bigger, stronger, tougher, faster. Enraged kills drop special loot, and kills will count towards chibi XP).

Several times now when I have come up into this part of the forest I have noticed this particular animal. I am sure it noticed me first, and decided I pose no threat, or I would never have seen it at all. It is a megaloceros, a magnificent male, whose most remarkable feature is that he walks around the place at his leisure, and is entirely unmolested. Twice now I have observed him to walk right by a knot of phorusrhacidae, those terror birds, without them even noticing, The area is full of bears; carnotaurus ensures that the life of anything less fast than it is short, and yet this one deer walks sedately as it pleases. Its dark colouration serves to blend it into the shadows, but that can’t be the whole of it. I wonder if it has some unique talent?

Shinobi dinos are especially sneaky. Predators will have to get very close before they will even notice the Shinobi, and if you are careful, you can ride right around a threat without being spotted. (Significantly reduced aggro range for wild dinos. That’s reduced— not none at all! Be careful!)

I can now confirm the actuality of a variant of whose existence I previously knew only through hearsay. I had heard tales of remarkable animals possessed of prodigious strength, far beyond what their size and shape should naturally allow. Well now I have seen such a beast, in the person of a gallimimus in the caravan of a small travelling tribe. When I say ‘in the caravan’, I should rather say it was the caravan, for the entirety of their goods, the whole of their camp was carried on the fragile back of this one gracile blue creature. When I expressed my admiration, the travellers told me that the ability was not entirely singular; they had seen it themselves in one other animal— a hyaenodon, of all things, also with the strength of an animal ten times its size, and also blue, but with no other outward sign to suggest its powerful ability. It is as if the animals are bigger only on the inside.

Fathomless dinos are blue, with nothing else to give away their special strength. Perhaps one of the most useful of the Shiny set, these dinos are bigger on the inside— the weight of anything in their inventory is reduced by 90%.

It is always nice to see an old friend, particularly when they bring with them an irresistible curiosity. I fear I have been inexcusably rude to my guest by being entirely taken with her mount. Hetty has always loved her thylacoleos and I can see why she pursued this one so assiduously. It is a beautiful animal, a striking blue-black, so that it almost resembles a panther, and extremely powerful— as it must be, to have brought Hetty here safely through such a dangerous distance. But in addition to its ability to leap and clamber over the most impossible terrain, this one has a special gift, in that it can run, untiring, all day and all night if it has to. In a couple of days, when they have had time to rest from their journey, she has agreed to a little endurance race— me and Horace, my faithful Iguanodon, against Hetty and Selene. We’ll see who emerges the victor.

Endurant dinos may sport any Shiny colour, but that’s not all. These dinos can sprint indefinitely without losing stamina. (Attacks and any special abilities that would normally drain stamina will still do so.)

What circumstance can have produced this marvel, I wish it would do something for old Behemoth. Today I happened upon a sight. I came over a rise and there, before me, was an equus, calmly burning. I am not making this up, nor am I exaggerating. Its body was sheathed in flames, but these did it no harm. For all that it was on fire, it seemed to be the horse’s natural condition. I tried to catch it— of course I did— and in so doing I feared I might have sealed its fate, for I drove it directly into the path of a sabretooth. The cat pounced— and the horse— exploded.
It was fine. The cat, aflame, fled yowling, and the horse ran off to other pastures. And I, I went home for a stiff drink.

The bodies of Burning dinos are covered in constantly burning flames. These animals are immune to damage from fire, and can, if provoked, let loose with an explosion of fire that damages everything around it. (AoE special attack; default Melee key / Ctrl)

Tales abound of the creatures that walk under the seasonal Blood Moon, dire spectres from some all hallows nightmare story. I have never believed them. But once again, I have been forced to re-examine my beliefs. Taming this beast was beyond difficult. No more than a third of my drugged arrows ever found their mark and even then it took far more than I would have expected… from any normal rex. But this is not a normal rex. He stands, he roars, he hunts and fights savagely, held together by what force I know not, for there is not an ounce of flesh on or in him— not an ounce. He is a walking museum exhibit, a curiosity, an anomaly, a creature entirely bones. Those allosauruses that have had their eyes on Behemoth these last few nights would do well to watch out, or their days are numbered.

You may recognise Skeletal dinos from Fear Evolved. Shiny Skeletals are different. You can tame them, and their unique physiognomy means you will never have to feed them. They don’t breathe either, and they make the ultimate in tidy pets for the fastidious, as they do not poop. Ranged weapons will have lesser effect on them, since most missiles will go right through them.

For all that I have beheld on this island, this is both new and straight out of the stories of my childhood. Much there is here that challenges my scientific understanding, but this— well, I will put it down just as it happened.
As I looked out across the valley towards the sea, I was struck by the serene beauty of a pair of brontosaurus at the edge of the forest where it touches the beach. One of the animals seemed a white beyond ivory, almost an ethereal blue, and I fancied that the moonlight reflecting from its skin made it look like glass— until I realised that the moon was behind it, and the light shone not upon it, but through.
I knew no fear; I had to see it more closely. I rudely roused Behemoth from his flatulent slumbers and we rushed, heedless of the battering we took from the branches and brambles as we hurtled towards the beach where the mighty animals walked, tumbling gracelessly into their presence. One seemed much as any brontosaurus one is likely to meet. But the other was transparent and ethereal as mist. They took as little notice of me and my little steed as brontos ever do, only sparing me a glance as I approached. I reached out to touch the apparition, and my hand passed right through it. I might have watched them all night, but they soon moved off, heading for more dangerous territory where I knew it unwise for me to follow— and where the pair walked, the ground shook with the thunderous footfalls of only one.

Another spooky variant, Spectral dinos wander the Arks, tethered to the world of the living by some arcane energy. These ghostly dinos are transparent and insubstantial, with an eerie spirit glow. They can fall any distance without being hurt, and they walk in complete silence. Instead of pooping, they will gift you with random things channeled from the spirit plane in the form of spectral poop. (Yes, you can walk through them. No, you cannot walk them through walls into other people’s bases to blow up their stuff. Stop that.)

Today I celebrate the arrival of a new companion into my fold. Though it was pity that moved me to catch her, her merits make her more than welcome. I came upon her as I went out to fish, a carbonemys obibimus in the most deplorable state. She was covered with muck, and surrounded by a haze of flies and a stench so thick it choked me. I felt I had to do something for the poor beast, and so, once I had her trust, I took her to the water to bathe away some of the filth, the better to appraise her condition. It came away in gobs, revealing an unusual and strikingly beautiful colouration beneath. So distracted I was by my task I did not hear the approach of the raptors. In an instant they were upon me, but even as I raised my blade the beak of my new friend clamped on the neck of the raptor at my throat and tore him off me. The raptors turned to the turtle— and she tore one of them to bits while the others broke their teeth on her shell. If only she could run as well as she fights, she would have had them all! As it is, my arrows were sufficient to finish the job. The fish get a reprieve today— it’s raptor soup for me, and Celeste shall have a special berry pie all to herself.

Don’t be too quick to judge the Filthy dino. Their awful stench may send you reeling, but if you can tame them, and if you clean them up, they may turn out to be your best friend. (Filthy dinos spawn in with an extra level boost, but you are going to have to work for it. Submerge them fully in water to clean off the stink! Or gíve them a good scrubbing with some Soap, not everyone likes to take a bath!)

What few people there are around me know of my consuming interest in these living curiosities and are quick to bring me tales to pique my interest. I confess I would never have believed this one had I not seen with my own eyes the exploding horse. It is said that far to the south, there is a creature, sounding almost mythical but from whose description I surmise just might be a giganotosaurus, whose body is made entirely of ice. It has, they say, been wreaking havoc, killing everyone and everything that does not flee quickly enough and destroying everything in its path. No one can stop it. They are hoping that I, with my unique insights, might be able to do something.
So, of course, I’m going. If I do not return, I leave these notes for another to find. Take care, survivor, and never close your mind; there is much that is new and shiny out there for us to discover…

Frozen dinos are made of ice! It's ok-- the cold never bothered them anyway. Their low internal temperature allows them to keep perishables fresh as long as a regular refrigerator. They may move a bit more slowly, but they are tough. They will take reduced damage from every attack— except fire. They are especially vulnerable to flame.

The most remarkable thing about living, dynamic systems is that they're always doing something new– changing, adapting, developing in ways you wouldn't expect. And if your simulation is lifelike enough, even it will start doing lifelike things.

Take this, for example. You know all those glitches we've been repairing? Errors, bugs, broken lines in the code that shouldn't even work at all. And yet here is an animal that has somehow taken information from the glitches and used it to transform itself in a new, entirely unexpected way!

Just look at it– an animal partly made of light! It's evolving, right here inside the simulation. And if it can do that, who knows where it might end up?

Shiny! Holographic Dino - HLN-A Dossier 

Community Created Artwork for ARK: Survival Evolved

By: nevcairiel

The most remarkable thing about living, dynamic systems is that they're always doing something new– changing, adapting, developing in ways you wouldn't expect.

Holographic dinos have escaped a simulation and now roam the ARKs. They grant their rider the ability to detect threats, identify their companions, and find precious high-level dinos for taming!

No one who has lived here very long is any stranger to being pounced upon seemingly out of nowhere. And there I was, resting at the little pond above the waterfall, when, seemingly out of nowhere, a Baryonyx pounced upon me— or that, I gather, was its objective, but that’s not what happened. What happened was that it floated, gently, through the air, scrabbling and biting at me all the while, until it floated right over the edge of the fall and down. When I could scrape my jaw up off the ground, I leapt up to see where it went. It was still falling, as if in slow motion— and when it came to the ground, it bounced, once, and then went tearing off after something more accessible than I on the ledge above. What a thing! I followed it as long as I could, observing. It has some kind of natural buoyancy, as if it were only nominally heavier than air, yet it was able to submerge itself in water normally— perhaps some kind of local gravitational anomaly affecting only itself? I do not know, and it has so far evaded me; darkness forces me to call off the hunt. I only hope that it does not blithely float into the maw of something more fearsome than itself before I can catch it.

Lunar Dinos manage to partially defy gravity, and move as if they are on the moon. Jumping and bouncing in low gravity!

A fair few of the creatures of the deep have cultivated the ability to use electricity both defensively and as a means of attack. But air is a poor conductor; one would imagine that the energy it would take to project a jolt of pure electric power into a foe on land would be simply prohibitive. Yet here, it would seem, such bets are off. Today I witnessed a lystrosaurus, one of those endearing little synapsids so common to these hills and so very low on the food chain, put on quite a show. Energy arced and sparked around its body as it moved through the bushes, perhaps as a warning to would-be predators— a warning that went unheeded by three dilophosaurs bent on making a snack of it. When the first one attacked, not only did it receive a shock that knocked it clear back, but electricity jumped in a chain from that one to the other two as well! They ran away in confusion, and I, with the gift of a flower, made a friend of the little beast that saw them off. Sparky shall have his home with me.

Taser Dinos have developed a natural defense mechanism based on electricity, and will periodically shock and stun any attackers.


These dinos have developed a strength in one particular stat, which is more pronounced in their genes then in other dinos, which makes them quite desirable for breeding.

They have a higher chance to roll good values in their favored stat - before taming.

Hardy - Health
Stalwart - Stamina
Inspired - Oxygen
Satiate - Food
Hefty - Weight
Fierce - Melee
Refined - Lower speed, higher everything else

You might think that miraculous translocation to a land populated with a mishmash of extinct creatures from varying epochs might jar the minds of people out of blaming unfortunate occurrences on witchcraft, but apparently not. Today I received a visit from one of my neighbours from over the hill, begging me to come back with him to find a scientific explanation for why everyone and everything that spent any time around a certain corner of their home sickened and died, before certain of my other neighbours lynched the rest of his group. Well, I found the culprit, and I have it with me now— at a safe remove. I am unsure what to do with it. Killing it would be the safest thing, but I cannot bring myself to do so. It is far too interesting.

It was a dilophosaur. One of those ubiquitous little predators had fallen and gotten itself stuck between a rock and the wall of their house, where the ground was littered with the corpses of their domestic dodos. Fortunately they were all too happy to keep their distance and let me work, for getting the animal out took some careful work and some even more careful logistics to get it back here safely, for it is surrounded by some miasmic diffusion that scourges anything around it. It Is difficult to be certain with the tools available to me, but I believe it is radioactive— extremely so. It is very, very dangerous. Just standing near it, I feel as if my innards are turning to gloop. And yet, the dilo itself seems to be free of any disease or impairment.
For now, I have sequestered it some distance from my own holdings, in a stone pen I had constructed as a trap. This I have surrounded with torches and signs warning anyone who might come by away, and Gaunt— that fleshless marvel of a Rex— stands near enough to be ready to dissuade any would-be interlopers. And it is time to get a message off to Hetty, for if she does not herself know, I bet she knows someone who could fashion a hazard suit. I must study this creature further… I feel there must be a way to turn this power to some use. I shall sit with Vanna and think on it.

Radioactive dinos are dangerous, but rewarding. Their radiation pulse boosts the mutation chance of babies by about 5x (does not stack with itself or S+ Mutation Pulse).

To Anyone Who May Have Come Across These Pages, And Who Has Read This Far—

A warning. Should you come across a creature, of any kind, over whose body moves a coruscating iridescence, a hypnotic, animated rainbow goniochronism of strange and singular beauty—

Do not lick it. Just don’t.

Heed my words.

Oh my head.

(Psychotropic is primarily a visual modification, with a few fun gags included. Just beware being bitten by them.)

...

Pygmys are smaller then average, but to offset that disadvantage they are a bit faster, so they can escape more quickly!

Boing!

For days, I thought I was hallucinating. Now that I have made the discovery that explains the weird squeaking sound I’ve been hearing off and on, I think I still might be. There is a pteranodon nearby with an unusual swirling colour pattern, reminiscent of those rubber balls I was so obsessed with collecting as a child. When it lands and walks about on the ground, it squeaks, like a bunch of rubber balls rubbing together. Or like a pteranodon wearing a rubber pteranodon suit. Just now I was sure I head it go ‘boi-oi-oi-oi-oiiing’. What possibly can have led to this development, I have no idea. I shall have to catch it to make further observations… or start a new collection.

While much of the wildlife in this place is bent on trying to make one its dinner— though I can’t fault them that; large toothsome carnivores will be large toothsome carnivores, after all— some of the critters here are hell-bent on trying one’s patience, and almost none so much as those scraggy, under bitten mugger-opossums. The pegomastax. How many times have Behemoth and I been obliged to chase one in order to reclaim some essential piece of kit it had pickpocketed from me? Not nearly so many as they have simply run off with my belongings and vanished. Surely no one could love such a pestiferous little monster. One’s natural instinct would of course be to slaughter them on sight, and that is, indeed, what everyone I’ve met here seems to do, but it is not— could never be— my way. I would assuage my irritation with understanding rather than murder. And so I have chosen to observe them, and to bring a few into my fold. I am very glad I did. Once tamed they are surprisingly companionable, and they often bring me trinkets. One among them is special, so much so that she is always with me now when I work. She is easier on the eyes than the others, her colours silver-grey and gold, but this is not the whole of her distinction. When she is perched upon my shoulder I feel calmer, more focused. Even when I should be fit to drop after a long day I have but to invite her up and it is as if cobwebs clear from my mind. And speaking of cobwebs…
Out in the field, I let Vanna (so I have dubbed her; don’t laugh) have a little run about to rummage through the undergrowth, sure that she would bring me back a treat or two. When she returned, it was with a friend. A lone compsognathus, brilliantly green as an emerald, trotted merrily along with her, and with an offering of a little meat to the tiny beast we were all soon on our way home. And today, the littlest member of the household was quite insistent that I take him with me. He is certainly not short of the bravery for which these animals are known… but did he know where I planned to foray? He may well have, or perhaps Vanna, with her gift of clarity, had a way of knowing and conveying the information, for he has a trick under his scales. I had materials I needed to gather in one of the nearby caves, a place ridden with giant scorpions and spiders. Normally, I take my time over this, careful to avoid them, taking them out from a distance when I can. But I came around a narrow bend and nearly stumbled into a knot of scorpions directly in my path. I was sure I would be stung to death. But my little friend chirruped blithely— and the scorpions took no notice of me whatsoever.
I tiptoed around them. They never stirred, and my fortune did not end there. Whatever Pyrethrin (it seems appropriate to name my little green friend after a natural pesticide found in flowers) was doing, it kept them us from their attention, and I was able to gather what I needed and be back home before lunchtime.

These are singular talents, unusual in that they are powers that appear to extend to me when I have these animals with me. I wonder— I am sure there must be others. I will be keeping my eyes out for them now. For all that a large and powerful creature is a manifest boon in this difficult and dangerous place, even the smallest are not beneath notice. They may be an absolutely invaluable aid.

Shiny Tinies are special variants only available for Shoulder Pets.

• Bolstering - Reduces the weight of items in the player inventory
  
• Hydrating - Reduces water consumption
  
• Invigorating - Slowly restoring your stamina, even when moving or swimming
  
• Luminous - A floating light illuminutes its surroundings
  
• Obscured - You are hidden from wild dinos, greatly reducing aggro range
  
• Pyrethrous - The natural pesticide produced by these Shinies keeps insects away
  
• Revitalizing - Slowly restoring your health
  
• Serene - Pure Serenity allows you to focus your mind on crafting

Shiny features over 50 color sets which all show up as names on Shiny dinos. Some abilities listed above will combine with a random color, some have their own colors.

If you encounter any name not listed here, its likely just its coloring.