Wyvern

The Wyvern (Why-vern) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. This creature can be found on Scorched Earth in The World Scar, on Ragnarok in the Dragonmalte Trench and Wyvern Cave, and on Valguero in The Great Trench. Wyverns can be found in five variations:, , , (only on Ragnarok and Valguero), and  (only on Extinction).

A weaker variant of Poison, Lightning and Fire can spawn after wave 2 in the Gauntlet Missions "Bog Beatdown", "TEKnological Terror" and "Magma Medley Melee" respectively.

Behavior
Extremely aggressive, often found flying around mountainous areas, or the dragon trenches looking for a fight. The only exception is Forest Wyvern, which does not attack at all.

With no rivalry from the Rock Elemental and no natural predators, the Wyverns are considered to be the apex predators of Scorched Earth for their surprising speed and devastating elemental attacks.

Appearance
Wyverns appear very similar to what one would assume to be a stereotypical dragon. There are five different types of wyverns, each with small but distinguishable variations in size, shape and color.

Poison Wyverns generally appear in some hue of green or green-grey, while some cases have them appear in black or purple shades and hues. They have frills on the sides of their face, much like a Dilophosaur. Their head is flatter and wider than the other Wyverns, seeming more Serpent-like. A ragged strip of webbed spines runs down their back. They also possess a snake-like tongue.

Fire Wyverns usually appear in shades of reddish-brown, red, orange, orange-brown, or even just brown. Their wing membrane can often sport a burnished gold color. Their head is probably the most stereo typically dragon-like of all the Wyverns. A row of sharp spines run down their back. A ridge of spikes protrudes like an eyebrow above their eyes. A frill of horns adorn their skull, and they have a cluster of small spikes by their jaw muscle. The tip of their snout hooks like a bird of prey, and they are the only Wyvern that has an Alpha, Forest, and Corrupted form.

Lightning Wyverns can appear in almost any shade of blue or purple. Their wing membrane is either a dark grey/black with paler lightning-shaped streaks or blinding white. They have a very narrow, triangular face and large eyes. Its eyes are set back and it has three pairs of small fins on the side of its face behind the eyes. It also has a central fin rising from the top of its head giving it an Aquatic look. A ragged ribbon of flesh runs down its back.

Ice Wyverns can be light blue/white with the rare possibility of being green and/or black/grey. Their wing membrane is either the same color as the body/its highlights. They somewhat resemble Fire Wyverns but they have a more triangular, beak-like upper jaw and a slightly wider, spiked lower jaw. They are the most birdlike of the Wyverns, possessing a thin snout akin to a beak. They have a pronounced brow with a spike akin to eyebrows over each beady eye along with additional spikes on their heads akin to hair. Ice Wyverns' bodies are covered with spikes, which start on their shoulders, run down the spine, and end at the tail. Ice Wyvern eggs can only be found on Ragnarok and Valguero.

Forest Wyverns appears only in one color: bright red. Much of their appearance evolves from the Fire Wyvern, but are uncharacteristic in that they are both smaller and sport yellow, striking veins which protrude from their yellowish gradient wing membranes.

Drops
Wyvern=


 * Guaranteed Special Loot
 * Wyvern Talon (Scorched Earth):
 * - Dropped by Fire and Corrupted Wyverns
 * - Dropped by Lightning Wyverns
 * - Dropped by Poison Wyverns
 * - Dropped by unconscious female Wyverns (or found in its inventory after rendering unconscious for first time)1 or dead Alpha Wyverns only

1 Milk will vanish from its inventory if not picked up in time before it wakes up, either from inventory or killing it. Corrupted Wyvern=


 * Guaranteed Special Loot


 * Random Special Loot

Base Stats and Growth
Wyvern =

Corrupted Wyvern =

Passive
Breath immunity:

A hidden passive that isn't readily apparent is that each type of Wyvern is immune to the breath attack of its own kind and the status effects they afflict, and in most cases, that immunity is likewise shared by the rider. The only exception to this is the breath of the Poison Wyvern, which will still damage the rider of another Poison Wyvern. The only way for a rider to avoid the damage from a Poison Wyvern's breath is to either equip a Gas Mask, which only mitigates the damage, or a full suit of Hazard Gear, which negates all damage. Wyverns of different types, however, are still vulnerable to the breath attacks and the status effects applied by other types of Wyvern (I.E. a Fire Wyvern's breath will harm a Lightning Wyvern, and vice versa).

Carrying
The Wyvern is capable of carrying the following creatures:

General
The Wyvern, for all intents and purposes, is the quintessential flying dragon. Wyverns have massive wings with the same design mechanisms as bats but the grace and strength of the Condor. However, they also have a very long tail with a nob or fin depending on the Wyvern type; on all the tail acts as ballast and makes them highly maneuverable. The Wyvern in the wild is highly territorial and fierce in defending its perceived territory and its nest. It also has a notably powerful bite; combat with a Wyvern is, quite possibly, the most dangerous challenge you can face short of a boss-level creature. Fighting one is definitely not for the faint of heart and flying a Wyvern is a thrill beyond comparison.

Strategy
Wyverns are extremely difficult to fight due to their mobility and devastating attacks.

Nape of Neck Strategy: You will need a flying mount with decent health and pumped stamina, and melee damage. Focus on the nape of the Wyvern's neck and attack there. When it tries to turn, you turn as well, so it cannot turn around enough to attack you. This is very dangerous due to the high damage output of the Wyvern, but when executed correctly, it is surprisingly effective. A variation of this strategy is to attack its feet from below. This strategy should only be attempted against a single Wyvern at a time!

Chain Bola: Get a with a Platform Saddle and build a Ballista on top, bait a Wyvern with any flying mount to the  and chain it down with the chain bola. Then you can attack it with any Dino so it is easy to kill.

Grappling Hook: Using a grappling hook to latch onto a Wyvern can make a difficult fight much simpler. Once attached, one can either melee the Wyvern with a sword or club/boomerang depending on whether your aim is to kill or knock out or shoot at it with any firearm. A word of warning, though, depending on where you attach, the Wyvern may still be able to attack you with its melee. Also note that other Wyverns can attack you with relative ease, so never adopt this tactic when fighting groups.

Wyverns can also be baited over turrets set to attack wild dinos. This is quite effective as Wyverns are susceptible to same ranged damage modifiers as all other flying dinos.

Wyverns are often be outmatched by their tame counterparts, so fighting fire with fire is never a bad idea, even though two Wyverns of the same type can't damage each other with their special 'breath' attacks.*

* While a Poison Wyvern cannot kill another Poison Wyvern with its poison projectile, it CAN still kill another Poison Wyvern's rider.

Weaponry
The homing missile can lock on to both normal Wyverns and Alpha Wyverns. Also, a Paraceratherium with Chain Bolas and a Ballista can get it on the ground for you to use your firearms, using a guided or normal rocket launcher can be sufficient when you chain bola it.

Dangers
All Wyverns have a different breath attack as follows:

Fire Wyverns use a short-range fire breath which does the most overall damage per attack due to it leaving a DoT effect on whatever the attack hits. This fire has a rather large spread, making it harder to avoid.

Lightning Wyverns have a lightning breath that travels instantly, does an incredible amount of DPS, and hits at a decent range and makes melee attacks nearly impossible as the entire body is affected by this attack (tested by dismounting during the breath attack), making them quite dangerous to fight however in exchange for power it has the smallest spread of the 4 wyverns. Dismounting your lightning wyvern while it is still shooting out its lightning breath can easily kill you.

Poison Wyverns shoot a projectile that leaves a toxic gas cloud which ignores armor (tested on Flak Armor), while extremely dangerous it does not move unlike the other 4 Wyverns but instead could be used as a area control attack limiting safe zones. If the poison projectile explodes too close to the rider, the splash damage can easily kill the rider if the wyvern has most of its points into melee. This is prevented if the rider is wearing an.

Ice Wyverns uses a short-range ice breath attack which deals some damage and also slows whatever it hits. The slowed status effect will last a few seconds - this gives the Ice Wyvern enough time to use the attack again, though Pteranodons might escape by barrel-rolling away. Like that of the Fire Wyvern, the Ice Wyvern's breath has a large spread making it difficult to avoid.

Weakness
Using a, a Wyvern can be immobilized by hitting it with a. Wyverns are also susceptible to the x2.2 Auto Turret damage to dinos modifier, so placing turrets is an effective way to kill groups of Wyverns. When using tamed creatures in combat, one can use the Wyvern's large turn radius as an advantage to avoid its attacks while targeting its wings and lower body. A Wyvern can also be easily killed by a, as they're immune to breath attacks and take reduced damage from physical attacks.

Eggs
Adult Fire, Lightning, Poison and Ice Wyverns cannot be tamed. To acquire a tamed Wyvern, the player must hatch a Fertilized Wyvern Egg, which comes in four varieties:, , , and. These eggs must first be acquired by stealing from the nests of wild Wyverns, after which successive generations of tamed Wyverns can be bred, and traded between tribes. Stealing these eggs is not an easy feat, as the nests are often guarded by large swarms of adults patrolling the nesting grounds; inciting aggression from individuals just by getting too close, and the entire flock will give chase if an egg is successfully taken from a nest. There are many different methods for stealing eggs, most of which involve a flier that is faster than the Wyverns, or a powerful tame that can kill the attacking swarm rather than run from it.

Unlike other tames which get level-boosted after taming, Wyverns do not, and the young hatch as the same level of the parent who laid the egg. To compensate for this, the maximum level of a wild Wyvern is 190. To get the best stats for your baby and establish a high-level breeding project, only the highest leveled eggs should be prioritized. Lower level eggs should still be taken, however, to encourage new eggs to spawn. These lower-leveled eggs do have a use, and aren't just inventory clutter; as they can then be used to make, the finest generalized taming food available.

Once an egg is in your possession, unlike most, Wyvern eggs require a lot of heat to incubate properly: having a temperature range of 80 to 90 °C / 176 to 194 °F. Placing down a large number of any heat-emitting object such as, , or , will work, though this can require constant adjusting to account for changes in temperature as the time of day and the weather alternates (Air Conditionrers specifically provide insulation rather than heat, and enough of them will ensure a stable temperature). Alternatively, the egg can be dropped near a Dimetrodon, which provides an insulation boost dependant on its Damage stat, though in most cases additional heat sources will need to be used alongside the Dimetrodon (though less than if a Dimetrodon is not used). Perhaps the best available option now would be the new Egg Incubator, which can safely store, incubate, and hatch up to 10 Wyvern eggs at a time, though with the condition that you have to manually set the temperature for the machine. Under perfect temperature stability, Wyvern eggs take 5 hours to hatch.

Raising
Newly hatched Wyverns cannot be fed like most other carnivores, and will only start accepting meat once they reach Adolescent age. Though their food drops slowly, as Babies and Juveniles, they will only consume (and may ask for it when imprinting, regardless of age). To acquire the milk you need to feed your hatchlings, you must either kill an Alpha Wyvern (which provides 50 milk), or knock out a wild female Wyvern and harvest it from her inventory while she is still unconscious (this provides 5 milk at a time, but the milk in her inventory is restocked completely once every hour). Doing this is easier said than done, but the process can be made easy with the right equipment or tames.

To kill an Alpha Wyvern, you'll need a very powerful tame with lots of health, damage, and an attack that can easily hit a fast-moving and flying opponent. Alpha Wyverns can easily be identified at a distance by their size and the red glow that surrounds them. To knock out a wild female Wyvern for milking, you will need a Spyglass to identify the gender of a wild Wyvern from a distance. Once a female has been found; draw her attention by triggering her aggression, then lead her to a safe area where you can contain her. Following this, the best option is to bring her down with a Harpoon Launcher loaded with a Net Projectile (Genesis: Part 2), which will ground and lock her in a 1-Minute stun, during which she cannot attack and will be safe to approach. While netted, a cage of 3-4 tightly spaced Stone Dinosaur Gateway can be built to lock her in place even after the net breaks. From here, any various knock-out method you'd like can be used at your leisure.

Wyvern Milk gives 1200 food to the baby Wyvern. A growing baby Wyvern will consume approximately 1 unit of food every 10 seconds, or 360 units of food an hour. This means that one feeding of Wyvern Milk will sustain a baby Wyvern for about 3 hours and 20 minutes. An important detail about newly hatched Wyverns (especially at lower levels) is that even though the maximum food stated in the creature's statistics might be several thousand, the maximum food the baby can actually hold might be less than 1200 (the amount of food one delivers). This means that lower level baby Wyverns will never eat milk on their own, and will have to be force fed until they can actually hold more than 1200 food. As such, it is adviseable to only hatch and raise higher leveled eggs, as higher quality babies with higher food stats are easier to raise, and can contribute their higher stats to breeding projects once they reach adulthood.

If you don't have the resources to gather milk, It's actually possible to raise a baby Wyvern without it (though this can negatively impact imprint quality). Let the Food value drop to zero. At this time, the value for Health will fall and the Torpor will raise. To lower the Torpor, force-feed or. Place a nearby and set it to Passive Healing. This keeps the Health of the baby Wyvern up (or restores it) at the cost of providing the Daeodon with food, as healing makes it very hungry. As an alternative to feeding the Daeodon tons of or Prime Meat that will spoil over time, you can produce a lot of cheap Kibble, such as  made of Dodo eggs, which will provide 90 food and only spoils after 3 days. This strategy is more effective when used with high-level Wyverns and Daeodons because they have higher starting values for Food and Health, thus more reserves before they run out. Alternatively a Snow Owl’s healing ability can be used, but this is more difficult, as the Owl must be ridden to force it to heal, and this can cause timing difficulties with feeding stimulants to the baby.

Breeding
Once you've acquired your first generation of adults, Wyverns of the same type can be bred with one another to produce new eggs (Wyverns of different types cannot interbreed). Keep in mind, although you now have the means to breed continued generations, either super-breed or mutate for higher levels, and you no longer necessarily have to steal from wild nests, raising the generations you have bred in captivity still require milk, and for this: Alpha and wild female Wyverns are needed. Tamed female Wyverns will not produce milk to feed offspring, milk can only come from wild Wyverns. This means that Wyverns should not be bred off of maps they do not spawn in, unless cross-server item transfers are enabled, or your babies are likely to starve (or you can make use of the no-milk method above).

Roles

 * Wood/Thatch/Cactus Sap Collector: They can collect wood, thatch, and cactus sap when landed by pressing . They will collect thatch and cactus sap much more efficiently than wood.
 * War Mount: They are fast, with low stamina-drain comparable to that of an . They are moderately maneuverable, but their breath weapons are devastating. They can also use all their attacks on the ground, as well as being able to sprint while landed. Pressing C while landed performs a knockback that can provide an escape from enemies. For a strong Wyvern with powerful bites and ranged go for Stamina, Melee Damage, Health.
 * Travel: Wyverns are faster than other Scorched Earth flyers and can go farther on their stamina. Beware their large turn radius, however, as they can be difficult to steer until you've had some practice. Also note that a Wyvern on follow and flying does not come low enough to mount, and does not land even when whistled not to follow, so it can be difficult to get one back under control.
 * Hunting Tool: With a bite as strong as a Plesiosaur, powerful special attacks, high meat gathering efficiency and the ability to fly at speeds unmatched by any other flying creature, Wyverns are among the best ways to quickly gather large amounts of,  and a wide variety of Tributes; Wyverns are also the only flying creatures treated as large carnivores, meaning that most of the small and medium-sized aggressive wildlife is prone to ignore them and their riders unless provoked, greatly reducing the nuisance while traveling.
 * Giga Counter: While fighting a giga with one wyvern is dangerous, you can bring friends and lots of wyverns (lightning is recommended but poison can work just not fire and ice) to enrage the giga with the breath attacks.
 * Titan Hunter: Because of their speed and damage, a wyvern can quickly dodge a titan's attacks. Lightning and Poison Wyverns are best used against the Desert titan since it uses only flocks for damage and its lightning is only used against surfaces.  The wyvern can make bombing runs across the titan in any direction.
 * Damage: Wyverns deal large amounts of damage with their bite and breath attacks; they're some of the most powerful flying creatures in the game. While they may not match a for sheer damage output, a Wyvern can be flown across the map and is extremely maneuverable.
 * Transport: Wyverns can carry a decent amount of weight and are quite quick. Using a Wyvern, one might safely and quickly transport people or materials across an Ark.
 * Aerial Attack: Level mainly Melee, some Health and Stamina. They are usually are stronger and deal more damage than other flying mounts. Watch out for people on Tapejaras or holding people on argents with homing rocket launchers. They are great for destroying convoys of quetzals due to the debuffing of minigun turrets. All you need to do is get out of the range of auto turrets if they have them and start blasting. You should usually use a Lightning Wyvern.

Collectibles
Three elemental claws are harvest-able from the Wyvern: the, , and the , from their respective counterparts. Several of each talon plus the three Artifacts of Scorched Earth are used at an obelisk or beacon to summon the Manticore. You'll need 2 for Easy (Gamma), 10 for Medium (Beta), and 20 for Hard (Alpha).

Lore

 * Interestingly enough, in one of his explorer notes, Dahkeya reports that the Wyverns just seemed to appear out of nowhere.
 * From his account and what Helena had discovered about the ARKs on Extinction, one can come to the conclusion that the Wyverns are not a natural species and were originally not even meant to be on the ARKs. As Helena stated, the Overseers of the ARK try to "punish" or "reset" the survivors - considered 'subjects' by Overseers - if they did not do as expected, which is most likely: defeat the Guardian(s) (and challenge the Overseer if necessary), thereby progressing to the next ARK. If this is not done (or if the survivors act out of line like they did on Aberration), the Overseers seem to enact a sort of reset or punishment protocol to wipe out the existing survivors.
 * From what can be gathered, Mantis are likely to have been this original protocol to wipe the city of Nosti and its inhabitants due to how much of a problem their idle behavior was, but when Dahkeya killed all the Mantis by detonating a bomb in their sulfur-filled den, the Overseer likely enforced a stronger protocol or judgement. It was shortly after the Mantis were killed that the very first Wyvern was sighted - a Fire Wyvern. Soon after, the Lightning and Poison varieties also appeared and started leading coordinated attacks on Nosti's citizens. When the Overseer then used its control of the ARK to quite literally swallow the entire city whole in the sand, Wyverns were sent after the only two survivors - Dahkeya and Raia - hounding them consistently and never letting up until Dahkeya sacrificed himself for a distraction so Raia could flee.
 * Strangely, despite being made to kill or punish humans, the Overseer also made them an ideal mount. Perhaps it viewed any survivors who could tame these creatures designed to kill them as 'worthy subjects', but one can only guess.
 * In the Extinction DLC, the reason the ARK either punishes or resets survivors is to preserve its resources when the ARK comes down from orbit. But when Element was at a toxicity level that the ARK can't handle, the ARK remains in orbit and destroys settlements to further preserve its resources for an extended amount of time. The wyverns, and the other fantasy creatures such as the Rock Elementals and Reapers, act as a heavy duty deterrent to prevent any survivor or groups of survivors from consuming too much of the ARK's resources.
 * Strangely, Raia was the first survivor on Scorched Earth to tame and raise wyverns. Based on Helena's and her explorer notes, she raised and tamed 3 wyverns, one of each elemental breath attack (lightning, fire, and poison).
 * Raia notes of it with her own experience when after the destruction of the mantis nest, and when she and the village of Nosti were celebrating so much due to the surplus oil and other materials that the obelisks began to act strange as they were shining abnormally.
 * The wyvern's elemental breath don't do any damage to a Rock Elemental even though Helena's Scorched Earth note #8 describes Raia's lightning wyvern easily tearing through a golem.
 * Using the wyvern's elemental attack along with making a strafe run has devastating effects, but it is difficult to use.
 * In Helena Scorched Earth Explorer Note #16, Helena described how Wali al Aswad (Raia) and her wyverns made a single strafe run that decimated an entire swarm of mantis.

Changelog
Note: For the changelog exclusive to Crystal Wyverns, go to