Sabertooth

The Smilodon, or simply Sabertooth, is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
These large cats are mostly common around mountains and survive well in cold surroundings. As they are highly aggressive they will immediately try to pounce at you once you come in their sights. As they inhabit most of the "higher level" areas, it is best to avoid them until you are able to fend for yourself. They mostly walk in pairs but can in rare cases be found in groups of up to six. Those that spawn closer to the shorelines (mostly near beaches around the mountains) will tend to spawn alone, though sometimes come in pairs. This comes in handy if you are thinking about taming one, but you should still proceed with caution, as they spawn near the most dangerous environments. Once one does appear it will start attacking almost anything nearby, usually resulting in their demise. Packs can often be found and are a decimating force on both other mountain wildlife and unequipped players.

Appearance
The Saber appears as a large cat with well-developed forelimbs and exceptionally long canines. The differences between it and its cousins in the fossil records are that it sports a longer, panther-like tail, its snout is seemingly shorter, and its head is more hunched to the ground. The ears are pointy like that of house cats. The fur on its head, upper torso, shoulders, and back is thicker and longer than the rest of its fur, which is textured with tiger-like stripes, although these stripes are often very difficult to see on the wild cats. The eyes are lime green with appropriately cat-like pupils. The nose is pink and panther-like. The snout also has noticeable whiskers. They are also usually quite dark in color, commonly found in very dark grays and browns as well as pure black. A light colored sabertooth is rare and should be treasured. All together, they are less Sabertooth Tiger, the popular name for their fossil counterpart, and more Sabertooth Panther, with the only real similarity being their massive fangs. Otherwise they seem to be totally different species from their prehistoric namesake based on the current understanding of the species.

KO Strategy
After you knock out a Sabertooth, be aware that there are usually at least 3 or 5 that travel in packs. However, if you are lucky you can pick one off on its own.

They can be picked up by a Quetzal or Argentavis, making it easy to separate one from a pack and put it in a small box with windows to shoot arrows through. However, if you find one by itself you can also just bola it and tame it right there.

When taming a Sabertooth in the mountains, make it aggro you, then run past it uphill. Depending on the steepness of the slope, it may get caught trying to follow you. When you notice that it has stopped running, you can then easily shoot it with tranq arrows.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Sabertooth.

General
Sabertooths are fast creatures that are capable of getting the jump on you if you don't see them coming. If you encounter a pack, try to get them stuck or get up to a higher spot and pick them off one by one.

Strategy
Get to higher ground and shoot at the Saber, or use a and hit the back of it with a melee weapon.

Weaponry
Bolas are very effective with only a few sabertooths. Long range weapons are very effective. If fighting only one or a few, use melee weapons on the back of a restrained saber tooth, so they don’t attack, but the max damage is applied for easy killing.

Dangers
Sabertooths usually travel in packs. If you encounter one you are likely to encounter its 2-5 friends as well. Keep this in mind. If you encounter them on a mountainside be careful not to end up downhill of them. They have a significant knockback and can easily send you flying down the mountain to your demise. Their high speed makes them difficult to flee from.

Weakness
Head shots do 3x damage so aim for the head. They are also susceptible to bolas and bear traps, so use those to your advantage.

Roles
The sabertooth shares many roles and traits with the Raptor, so for comparison, with animals of the same level they have slightly higher health and weight stats, while being slightly slower, but this disadvantage quickly disappears with any sort of weight burden. In addition, they have better harvesting abilities. The one major downside is they tend to live in more dangerous environments than raptors, making them much less accessible and difficult to protect during the taming process.


 * Early Game Jack Of All Trades: Especially on Scorched Earth, the Sabertooth was proven to be an excellent Early Game companion. Being harder to tame than a, it's not as fast, but the sabertooth's stats are better in every way, from to , Farming Capability, and cool look
 * Scout: Very good base Speed and Stamina, also has the capacity to jump over rocks and other obstacles, as well as sprint-jump to increase overall speed. It also does not have to worry as much about fall damage since Sabertooths take reduced fall damage. While not boasting the best carrying capacity, the Sabertooth can carry slightly more weight than a, thus making the Sabertooth a slightly better pack animal. (Level Weight, Speed, and Stamina)
 * Battle Mount:Though not boasting the raw power of either the or the, the Sabertooth is a relatively quick attacker and has a good base damage compared to other small predators. Unlike many dinos, it can easily outrun stronger opponents in case the fight turns out badly. (Level Damage, Health, Stamina and Speed slightly)
 * Hunter: Excellent, , , and / farming capability. (Level Damage, Health and Stamina slightly)
 * Travel: High, and , the Sabertooth is with no doubt one of the best land travelling mounts.
 * Transport:
 * Cave Mount: Their small size makes them excellent for cave hunts. (Level Damage, Health, Stamina and Speed slightly)
 * Escape Vehicle: Although a deadly animal that can handle it's self well in a fight Sabertooths also have great speed, this speed can be used to escape threats by outrunning enemies that outnumber or are more powerful than players and their mount.

Notes/Trivia

 * While some believe that the Sabertooth is faster than the (despite what the dossier says), they are indeed slower when not carrying a load. Not only does a mounted Sabertooth only walk by default unless sprinting, but an unburdened  will outrun them with ease. It is important to note that the base  capacity of the Sabertooth is 200 vs the 150 for a . This causes a Sabertooth to move faster than a  under certain loads, because of their ability to carry more  (and ultimately a rider) before becoming slowed due to encumbrance. It can also sprint jump to catch up with s very easily, but this will quickly deplete . So which one is fastest in the field will depend on the conditions.
 * Smilodon means "knife tooth", brutalis means "cruel"
 * The Smilodon in the game have long tails similar to modern big cats such as tigers and leopards. In real life, Smilodon and other Saber-toothed cats have very short tails like those of bobcats or lynxes.
 * The Sabertooth is the first creature to ever receive a complete overhaul in its appearance.
 * In the alpha version of the game, the Sabertooth shared the same pain sounds with.
 * One of the unnamed humanoid Creatures from the ARK 2 trailer appears to be wearing some sort of mask with a Sabertooth-like Skull adorned with feathers, people often mistaken them as a 's Skull despite the Shadowmane has razor shark-like fangs while Sabertooths have smooth fangs.