Baryonyx

The Baryonyx (bare-ee-ON-iks) is one of the dinosaurs in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
It lives near bodies of water, due to the fact that it eats fish as its main diet. It is also a very good swimmer, sometimes needing to go out into the water to get its prey, however, it is also said that its long claws are for catching prey on land, not just in water.

Despite what the dossier states, a Baryonyx will target any nearby players, mounts or wild creatures, regardless of whether they are on land or in water. While this creature is not the fastest swimming mount (slower than Megalodon during sprint, at base), its ability to temporarily stun creatures (for 10 seconds) with its spin attack can make the Baryonyx an adept aquatic mount or fighter. The stun does not function on very small, dangerous creatures such as Cnidaria, nor very large, dangerous creatures such as Mosasaurs. Unless your target is medium-sized, the targets will only be damaged. Additionally, much like the Kaprosuchus, the Baryonyx will surface in a more diagonal trail rather than a directly vertical path, making it slightly more difficult to escape from Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs.

Appearance
Baryonyx resembles a typical mid-sized carnivorous dinosaur except for its crocodile-like head with serrated teeth and having longer arms with large claws. These features are specially adapted to the animal's diet of fish and other water-dwellers. It looks somewhat like a hybrid of a Kaprosuchus and Spino, and is about the size of a Carnotaurus.

KO Strategy
Survivors should create a trap out of stone structures and a ramp to lead the baryonyx into. If this is not a possibility, use your flyer to navigate to a safe location and begin tranquilizing it.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Baryonyx.

General
The Baryonyx is usually seen along shore lines. It is a highly aggressive predator, and will pursue its prey to death, unless its Torpor gets too high.

Strategy
Killing a Baryonyx on land is rather straightforward, being as frail of a creature as it is. Shooting it from a ledge or hitting it with a will defeat it rather quickly. Attacking it with tamed creatures will finish it off with even less effort.

This changes when in the water. Due to its ability to stun lock creatures when in the water it is highly advised to avoid combating it in its element. Kite the Baryonyx out of the water to finish it off with arrows, bullets, or your tamed creatures. If a sarcosuchus is being led out of a swamp, continue running as right after the sarco is unstunned it can easily dash away.

Weaponry
On land a Baryonyx can be taken out with firearms, melee weapons, and with tamed creatures rather quickly. In water however, it is advised to not engage at all.

Dangers
Baryonyx on land poses as much of a threat as any of the larger carnivores, but it is deadly in the water. Its tail spin will stun lock the player, rendering them unable to surface for air or draw their weapons to defend themselves. Death by drowning is almost certain if it catches you underwater. If you try to catch the Baryonyx with a wyvern or quetzal while it is in water, be careful not to be spotted (an approach from behind is the better option), and stay at a far enough distance from the surface or it may stun your bird and dismount you. (Warning, can be a danger to even moderately equipped players if it is a higher level.)

Weakness
On land, the baryonyx is no more powerful than 1.5 raptors, so it is possible to simply have a mount tank the damage while the rider shoots it down.

Oddly enough unlike other Stuns the 's Jetpack still functions like normal making it a simple tactic of boosting then hovering for the stun's duration.

Roles

 * Aquatic Battle Mount: With a dangerous tail-spin attack that can be used to dismount, and temporarily stun, other players, allowing the rider to attack (only usable while swimming). The Baryonyx also does bonus damage to some river-dwelling creatures such as and . There are certainly other creatures affected as well and tests need to be done on each creature to get an accurate representation. Bonus damage is roughly 20% greater.
 * Starter mount: The Baryonyx can be considered a good upgrade in between the and an  or a . Though being most similar to the the  in tier, it does have some traits that can make it more desirable. Low torpor drop rate, ability to stun many tougher dinos (while swimming), and a fast movement speed in water and on land make the Baryonyx a very viable mount for early game players. They can also be used late game as their lack of  stat and ability to sprint underwater makes them viable to a large amount of players at all levels.
 * Underwater Miner: While not being able to mine on its own; players are able to equip weapons and tools while riding a Baryonyx. Providing access to underwater resources such as and . Since they do not require  and that they have a low buoyancy means a survivor has no concerns about having the Baryonyx rising to the surface.
 * Whale Tamer: Taming a often entails killing the group of  surrounding it. Because of the Baryonyx's ability to stun underwater creatures with its tail spin attack, it can easily stun the Manta group repeatedly and allow the easy killing of them while they are immobilized. There is not a long cooldown for the spin so it can be done repeatedly to keep the Mantas at bay until they have all been dealt with. Beware though of the fact that stun on tamed Baryonyx does not stack, one should stun and then repeatedly bite targets.
 * Island Caver: With the exception of the two ice and ocean caves, Baryonyx can easily reach, freely enter, complete, and exit all other artifact caves on the The Island. Possessing reasonable jumping skills and maneuverability, capable of moving effectively between land and aquatic travel, and the ability to quickly heal while consuming dead fish; a well-bred and strong-saddled Baryonyx makes collecting artifacts for boss battles a breeze. Just remember to bring in a supply of raw fish if the cave lacks to feed from, in the case your Bary needs a brief healing session, and always take into account the standard precautions for caving: spare supplies, such as extra armor, food, water, antidotes, and medical brews, to name a few. The only caves the Baryonyx cannot complete are the ice caves, as it cannot fit through the entrances, and the ocean caves, as  and  swarms present too high of a hazard risk. Likewise, although the Baryonyx can complete the South East Cave, it is filled with deadly pitfalls full of magma, which can quickly kill you, your shoulder mount, and your Baryonyx if you misstep or fail a jump, and fall into one of these pools. While the Baryonyx can easily handle the creatures in this cave, a, with its gliding ability, would be the better choice for dealing with the environmental hazards, although it will likely struggle with the creature swarms compared to the Baryonyx.
 * Hiker: Baryonyx are surprisingly good at crossing terrain and their jump and slim anatomy makes traveling through mountains easier, but a parachute may be needed in case of fall damage.

Tail Spin Attack
This is a list of all the creatures of ARK and how each of them is affected by the Baryonyx's tail spin attack, which can inflict a 10 second stun affect to as well as some other creatures, including the Baryonyx itself. All creatures and survivors that are inflicted with the stun attack in any way will also show an orange-yellow swirly particle effect that can usually be seen around the head region.

Stunned by Tail Spin
The following Creatures are stunned by the Baryonyx's tail spin attack and thus will be unable to move or fight back for 10 seconds, occasionally more:

Slowed by Tail Spin
The following Creatures are not stunned by the Baryonyx's tail spin, as they can still move and attack. Instead, they are only slowed for 10 seconds, occasionally more:

Unaffected by Tail Spin
The following Creatures are not stunned or affected in any way by the Baryonyx's tail spin attack and only receive damage. This does not mean that a rider can't be knocked off by the Baryonyx's tail spin per se, it just means the creature itself cannot be affected:

Note that when the is hit with the Baryonyx tail spin attack, it will not spray ink attracting other creatures as it normally would. This means that the Ammonite can more or less be safely killed and harvested by your tamed Baryonyx without attracting unwanted creatures.

Notes/Trivia

 * Dino Dossier revealed on 08/14/2015.
 * The dossier mentions the ability to recover faster after ingesting fish. Tests have shown that remote using raw fish meat in a Baryonyx restores 7.5 health per fish meat, as opposed to 1.5 when used on other dinosaurs. However it gains no effect from remote using regular raw meat. It will only eat fish meat.
 * will ignore a tamed Baryonyx even if you are riding it. If you attack a Leech, only the surviving Leeches will attack back.
 * Baryonyx's scientific name translates to 'Heavy claw', and Baryonyx's specific name means "Water Lightning".
 * Even though Baryonyx would have definitely used its powerful forearms and claws as its main weapon of choice(hence the name meaning heavy claw), no such attack is available to the in-game Baryonyx, unlike the Spino which does have the ability to use its claws. It can however do a spin attack in the water, stunning creatures usually near its weight class with its tail.
 * Baryonyx cannot swim up and down directly like most aquatic creatures do, but it can if you're holding a weapon.
 * Larger predators ( for example) will ignore a tamed Baryonyx in the water, even if you attack the predator before entering water or attack it in the water. Note that this only applies if the Baryonyx is swimming, not in shallow water(has to be doing the "swimming/floating" animation).
 * The Baryonyx's "tail spin" attack only stuns creatures of comparable size to the Baryonyx - for example, it will not stun a  or a  (both too small), but it will stun a  or . Larger creatures such as the  and  are immune.  Notably,  are immune as well.  can be stunned, but can also in turn can slow and paralyze given enough of time, so it's a careful act to balance. The Baryonyx is vulnerable to both of those creatures' stuns.
 * Incredibly, the Baryonyx in game does not have an stat and thus cannot drown. This blatantly apparent inaccuracy, though arguably a reasonable game choice, is shared by many aquatic tetrapods on the Ark's such as the . A real Baryonyx would likely have been unable to hold its breath for even 30 minutes.
 * Though the dossier's temperament says "Passive to land creatures, but agressive to water-dwellers", the Baryonyx indeed does attack some land creatures, though they usually are small. Regardless of land or water, it still aggros on.
 * Baryonyx is a member of the same family as the, known as the Spinosauridae. Most, if not all of the members of this family were carnviorous theropods with semi-aquatic tendencies, though the amount of adaptations to life in the water differed between species and the degree of which the animals lived their lives in water is debated. It is however almost certain that the Spinosaurus was more adaptated to an aquatic lifestyle than the Baryonyx.
 * Given the Baryonyx's general anatomy and life style, a real one would not be especially fast compared to most land carnivores, as they were geared towards slower terrestrial prey or aquatic prey like fish, not chasing down swift animals. In ARK however, the Baryonyx can sprint and leap faster than the and the, both of which should in theory easily outrun a Baryonyx. In fact, the speed at which one can achieve using its jump can easily make it even faster.
 * Fossils of Baryonyx have been found with the remains of other dinosaurs, meaning that despite being a fish-eating predator, Baryonyx was probably capable of taking on larger land animals, despite the dossier stating it rarely attacks land animals. Some fossil animal remains found to have been eaten by a Baryonyx indicate that the diet of the Baryonyx included large terrestrial animals. Dinosaurs that also lived with and were probably eaten by Baryonyx, like, were still most likely a smaller part of its diet and fish was probably still a main staple food for the animal.
 * Despite it's usually frail and tiny body in-game, it can take on Wild Spinos if the water is deep enough, usually by using the Spino's large turn radius to it's advantage.
 * Baryonyx is one of the few dinosaurs that, despite being rideable, doesn't include a saddle and check mark by it in the notes.
 * Since 316.18 Baryonyx can no longer be immobilized with s or carried by.
 * Though is says you need raw fish meat to tame it, you can also use raw meat, but it will take longer.