Tapejara

The Tapejara (Tap-a-har-uh) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Found living around cliffs, tall redwood forests, and other largely vertical environments, Tapejara passively flies across the landscape, rarely venturing too far from the ground. Much like Pteranodon, Tapejara will occasionally land on the ground for short periods of time before taking off again. Tapejara will flee at any sign of danger, even if one is simply approached by a player without attacking it.

Appearance
As a mid-sized pterosaur, Tapejara looks somewhat similar to a Pteranodon, and as a result is sometimes mistaken as one from a distance. However, there are several differences between the two, most notably that Tapejara is much larger than Pteranodon, with skin flaps directly connecting the wings to the feet, giving the wings an odd, stubby appearance even though they are in fact very large. Another notable feature of Tapejara is a large, somewhat crest-like sensory organ on top of its head, which allows Tapejara to finely maintain balance and literally fly circles around other, more cumbersome flyers.

KO Strategy

 * Ice wyvern strategy: This is mostly for those pesky tapejara that tend to fly so high they never come down. Get an, have it set to follow and a with some shocking tranq darts. Use the ice wyvern's ice breath to slow it down mid-air then hop off your  really quick. You can stand on it without worrying about falling off. (remember to have it set to follow or else it may try to land) and unload a dart into the tapejara. Rinse and repeat. Be wary of the possibility that the ice breath might kill it.


 * Tapejara are skittish, and run away when you approach them or attack them. Using a to keep them down while you shoot tranquilizers into them is a very effective method. To effectively hit it with the bola without the risk of it fleeing, equip yourself with, so you can sneak up on them to around 5 meters.


 * It may be impossible to knock out a high-level tapejara within the time of a single . If it breaks out of the first and a second  isn't in place, it'll flee and be very hard to catch. Another approach is to have pillars, ceilings, and walls in your shortcut hotbar; once the tapejara is hit with a, instead of tranquilizing it, use the  time to quickly build a "trap" around it by placing a pillar on one side, ceilings above it, another pillar down from the other ceiling, then walls hanging from the ceilings all around. This may take some practice to position the trap parts correctly so the tapejara doesn't glitch out of it, but if it works, you can tranquilize the tapejara at your leisure, and already have some minimal protection around it once it's unconscious to protect it during taming. Demolish the trap when you're done.
 * Be careful not to scare it in the air because once they get to a certain height they take a considerable amount of time to land again.
 * Another, much easier alternative is to use the above method however on a pteranodon while consuming . This applies the same effect as the strategy, however is much easier and less clunky. You should then be easily able to lure it into a suitable cage and knock it out without the trouble of it running away or getting eaten by wild predators, assuming you have enough flowers that is.
 * To add to the above method, using a while consuming a couple rare flowers, you can kite the tapejara. Once there's a bit of distance between you, you can hop off the  and throw a  at it. This is an easy method as the  is very easy to hit with the tapejara coming directly at you. Once 'd, tranq until out. A high level tapejara can take more than one round of  + tranq shots, so just rinse and repeat.
 * Another method is to obtain a and equip it with a . The ' lunge attack can make quick work of the Tapejara's  without having to get close enough to scare it initially. However, if the ' melee damage is too high, then you may run the risk of killing the Tapejara, so use caution.
 * Using a small, fast mount that allows you to hold weapons, such as s, and s, you can sprint up to it with  in hand and trap it before it can fly away, just be sure to have the  already swinging before sprinting at it.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Tapejara.

General
Tapejara is completely passive and will often flee before a player has an opportunity to get close.

But with one or more riders the tapejara is a serious threat. they can latch on to walls and shoot you down, have a saddle to reduce damage, can pick you up, and can have a tek saddle to shoot plasma bullets. With a rider, the danger is similar to that of a tropeognathus but with a ability to hit harder as the tek saddle can shoot at a faster rate. A tapejara can fly at almost the same speed as a raptor and has no turn radius so overall while wild ones can be fought head on, its best to avoid a tamed tapejara with a rider.

Strategy
For a Wild Tapejara, either chase it down on a pteranodon, or bola it to the ground below. Use of rare flower to avoid escaping is recommended.

Weaponry
Generally a bola to bring it down and some tranquilizer rounds will do the trick if you're trying to tame one. In combat, simply immobilize it, or keep pace and inflict enough damage.

Dangers
Wild Tapejara pose no real threat. However, when tamed the creature becomes a large, mobile, powerful adversary. With a fairly large AoE with its attack, a tamed one doesn't have to get too close to kill you.

Weakness
No specific weakness other than the fact it can be ensnared using a Bola. However, in a PVP setting, Tapejara cannot attack when mounted on a cliff, and its stamina regenerates fairly slowly. Tire out an enemy tapejara and you'll easily be able to kill it, minding the riders on its back, of course.

Flying

 * To rise and lower the Tapejara when airborne in an elevator-styled fashion use and  or . Useful for quickly maneuvering around enemies.
 * Roar or taunt while on the ground by pressing or.
 * Xbox has no way to do a proper elevator-climb; the closest one you can do is to look straight up or down and press the left-stick back or forward, respectively. PS4 Can descend with the R directional button but also must look at the ground while pressing the L Directional button towards your body to ascend.
 * Simply fly next to any vertical surface and press Spacebar to latch on.
 * One can latch onto a vertical surface 'upside-down' (with the Tapejara's face facing the ground) by backing up into the surface while pressing the land-button . This is useful for shooting at ground targets near shear cliffs while lacking passengers, as the default mounted/landed view for the rider of a clinging Tapejara is only in one direction; towards the Tapejara's face. This feature was revealed by Jeremy Stieglitz via twitter on September 19, 2016.

Roles

 * Multi-passenger Transport: The Tapejara is capable of carrying a rider and two passengers on its saddle (not including the ability for other flyers to carry people in their talons).
 * Warbird: The front and rear passengers are able to fire their weapons at enemies. Its extreme maneuverability and ability to cling to walls makes it especially versatile in combat. Works well in combat itself, as the Tapejara's attack has a downwards, and fairly large AoE. This allows you to circle enemies while attacking them at a safe range.
 * Taming Mount: The Tapejara's ability to strafe, fly backwards, and have tribemates shooting from the saddle is useful in taming a variety of airborne creatures. Can be used both on fleeing creatures such as other Tapejaras and Quetzals, as well as aggressive creatures like Argentavis and possibly even Wyverns.
 * Construction Tool: The Tapejara's ability to hover or move in any direction by small increments (use C to descend and X to ascend) makes it very useful when constructing buildings, especially tall ones. Place building parts in your hotbar, fly into position, place a piece, then move to place the next. For instance, dropping many pillars or ladders from a high point can be done by placing one, pressing C to drop a bit, placing the next, and so on. If the tapejara's movements are too big, weighing it down can make it even easier to position yourself precisely.
 * Wyvern Egg Stealer: While its carry weight starts off relatively low, the supreme maneuverability and ability to latch vertical and ceiling surfaces to regain stamina allows it to be highly effective in raiding Wyvern nests. Given the Wyverns large turn radius, a skilled Tapejara flyer can dodge attacks with fair ease. Leveling Weight, Health, and Stamina can make it a star player in egg theft, if not as a carrier then as a decoy when with other Tribe members.
 * Taxi: By enabling the public seating option of the Tapejara, even survivors outside of a tribe can mount the passenger seats, allowing for public transportation without needing a platform saddle.
 * Travel: The Tapejara is a Fast flyer, while not being as fast as The, but it's still Faster than The ,  without gliding and.
 * Transport: The Tapejara has more weight than the and the  making it probably one of the best Transport Mounts
 * Tek Beast: The Tapejara Has a which can shoot and gives a lot of Armor, is also the first Flyer with a, The others being the  and Astrodelphis.

Carry-able Creatures
The Tapejara is capable of carrying the following creatures:

Note: Although it is not listed on the table, the, when small, can be picked by the Tapejara.

Notes/Trivia

 * The dossier was revealed on 6/8/16.
 * Despite being a carnivore in the game, Tapejara and its relatives are sometimes thought to have been frugivores in real life.
 * Despite being so large, Tapejara can be ensnared using a Bola, or else it will be too difficult to tame.
 * You can't hold weapons if you riding the Tapejara. However, if you sit at the front seat or the back seat you can hold weapons. As well if your Tapejara is latched onto something. Because of this, the Tapejara is very useful for early taming hard creatures such as the Quetzalcoatlus, Griffins, and possibly even a low level Giganotosaurus (not tested yet).
 * The Tapejara, Astrodelphis, are the only flyers to have a , well the Tapejara is available on other maps while the  is only available on Genesis: Part 1 and the Astrodelphis on Genesis: Part 2.
 * It is one of the three flying creatures currently capable of flying backwards as well as strafing left and right, the others being the Griffin and Tropeognathus
 * The dossier claims that the Tapejara can be equipped with a dual rider saddle, when ingame the saddle can hold three players. This is allegedly because the two rider saddle 'looked stupid' according to the Devs.
 * It might be a bug, but Tapejara on Scorched Earth won't lose stamina when hanging onto a vertical surface during a sandstorm. This allows you to ride out the storm in relative safety.
 * If you kill something while the Tapejara is latched onto a wall, the game says that the Tapejara killed it, not you.
 * The name "Tapejara Imperator" translates into "Emperor Old Being"
 * Tapejara's species name, imperator, is shared in real-life with Tupandactylus, a pterosaur closely related to Tapejara that was originally classified as a species of said genus. Most reconstructions of Tapejara, including ARK's, are actually based on Tupandactylus
 * Tapejara's relative Tupandactylus is becoming well known thanks to Primal Carnage Extinction.
 * A glitch in the mobile version of ARK makes it so when taking off, your Tapejara’s saddle disappears for a moment.
 * Another glitch in the mobile version of ARK occurs when you land in water while riding the Tapejara. Instead of forcing you off like the other fliers, the Tapejara will constantly walk forward on top of the water WITH the rider still on the saddle. This continues until the tapejara has reached land, where the rider will be able to regain control of the Tapejara.
 * Press X to cancel landing after pressing space to land with the Tapejara. Unlike other flyers, pointing up and pressing forward will not cancel the landing
 * When whistled to follow, entering the two additional spots of the saddle will allow Tapejara to restore energy.
 * A frustrating glitch is when you try to latch on a tree but the tapejara does a 180* turn and falls off.
 * The tropeognathus is actually a reskin of a tapejara. They both have the same sound, walk/fly/bite animation, both can fly in all directions, and both can shoot. But the abilities of the dinos are different, The tropeo is faster with the jetpack boost and can grind items and the tapejara can stick on walls and have 3 riders.