Dodo

"Dodo Tossing, Sport of Champions!"

- Jeremy

The Dodo is one of the creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. They are docile, flightless birds found in beaches and grasslands.

Behavior
Dodos aimlessly waddle about the beaches, hills and forests of the island, moving with little speed. When a Dodo is attacked, it will not fight back. Instead, it and any nearby Dodos will attempt to flee, although their slow movement speed usually makes them easy prey. Anything from a cluster of Compies to a single Spino will attack it and win unanimously. Even if the player takes an egg from a wild Dodo, it will not attack. Dodos will also occasionally get stuck on driftwood on beaches. In the early release of Ark, Dodos would attack the attacking player in retaliation. In ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, they will occasionally defend themselves by attacking or if their egg is stolen.

Appearance
A flightless species of pigeon, the dodo is easily identifiable by its large beak and stout, round body. Dodos vary in many colors, including purple, brown, red, and black.

Drops
In ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile:


 * (as a reward for completing a Pursuit)
 * (as a random drop on the ground by tamed Dodos of at least 1.56x size)

In Primitive+:

KO Strategy
Dodos are easy to tame, you can easily knock them out with your fists or by using a to the head. A will also work. It is advised to not use anything other than the Wooden Club, Sling Shot, or Fists to knock out the Dodos as anything else will have a higher chance of killing the Dodo.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Dodo.

General
The dodo is a very small bird that makes chirping noises as it strolls throughout the beach. Once attacked, it will attempt to flee. However, they may peck at you at random times, dealing 5 damage. They can easily be killed with any weapon or dinosaur.

Strategy
Aiming for the head will triple the damage, causing the Dodo to be killed fairly quickly, if not instantly. Otherwise, aiming for the body will work. A single chomp by most carnivorous mounts (or a strike from a powerful herbivore) can kill them right away.

When hunting for dodos, throw a at their head to kill them in one hit. Use any sufficient weapon that will kill them in one hit to prevent other dodos from running away.

Weaponry
Fists can do the job, but a in the head will almost always kill a Dodo in 1 shot. A (suggested if the player has not unlocked or have the materials for any type of ), or a  will finish off a dodo fairly quickly. Use a mount if you have one for an instant kill in most cases. Anything as strong or stronger than a in terms of damage will kill a Dodo in 1 hit. But wasting arrows or spears on a Dodo is not advised.

Dangers
It will run away from you at a fairly slow rate in an attempt to flee. If there are any carnivores nearby, be wary of them such carnivores like Raptors and Dilphosaurus spawn on the beach, otherwise the Dodo is an easy meal. The Dodo bird is not a danger. Killing them can be easily accomplished with your fists, and they only do about 5 damage per attack. But be wary that it's predators (Including the Apex Predator, but not ocean predators, Dimetrodon, Meganeura, or Lunar Biome creatures, Archaeopteryx, Amphibians, Oviraptor, Compy, Bosses, and Corrupted Creatures, plus ground brutes but not ocean brutes.) can simply rush towards you if it is in the aggro range from you.

Weakness
The dodo's weakness is literally everything, The Dodo's primary weakness is its unwillingness to fight back (not the case on ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, as it will occasionally defend itself if it is being attacked or if it's egg is stolen). The head is extremely easy to target, and as with most creatures, the most vulnerable body-part to damage. A thrown or  in its head will usually take it down in one or two shots (but it is not advised to waste those resources on Dodos). Another weakness of the dodo is its speed. It moves so slowly, that an encumbered, injured beginner could easily keep pace with it.

Roles
Despite what is stated in the dossier, there are in fact many reasons why a Dodo should be considered as a worthy tame. Their broad utility is really quite surprising for such a simple, and early-on animal in gameplay, and they can continue to provide a positive result for your play-through experience even into the later stages of the game.


 * Livestock: Under the right conditions, Dodos can make surprisingly effective livestock for various domestic needs, landing them a permanent role as a farm animal if you're so inclined to keep and care for them.
 * Egg Stock: Female Dodos, wild or tamed, possess a unique egg laying mechanic; having a random chance to lay an egg any time they poop rather than at specifically timed intervals like other creatures. While they can do so on their own, there are other factors that also influence egg production. Females require the presence of at least one male nearby to provide them with a mate-boost before they will begin to produce eggs at an acceptable rate. Following the addition of a male Dodo, an Oviraptor can be added into the mix and set to wander to further boost egg production. By laying mass quantities of eggs, female Dodos can provide a constant source of food for players and tames like the Oviraptor and Titanoboa, without having to kill the bird. Likewise, this steady supply of Dodo eggs can be used to mass-produce Basic Kibble.
 * Meat Stock: Dodos provide an easy source of meat, and though their standard Raw Meat production can easily be outpaced by going hunting, the humble Dodo at home should not be overlooked, as with a little creativity; they can produce some amazing results. While adults are worth what would be considered a paltry sum of normal Raw Meat, younger Dodos are worth a very surprising amount of Raw Prime Meat. Coupled with their easy hatching requirements, short breeding intervals, and swift maturation speed, a flock of Dodos can easily be bred and exploited for a large sum of Prime cuts. For the highest yield chance, wait until the Dodo hatchling reaches its Juvenile age before slaughtering. For increased Prime yields, make use of an Ichthyornis' special passive ability that increases Prime meat chance from its kills, and combine that with a Chainsaw; the higher the quality of the saw, the better. If the victim Dodo of the Ichthyornis is a tamed, unclaimed adult, it must be set to Passive mode for the Ichthyornis to finish it off. (Note: due to certain updates and server settings, damaging unclaimed and harvesting younger animals for resources has become much harder to pull off, but is still possible with the right settings: PvP mode MUST be enabled)
 * Hide Stock: While not as useful as late-game Hide gathering techniques, Dodos provide a vital source of of the good stuff in early stages of gameplay, allowing newer players to better establish themselves with beds, armor, and other essentials. If you are in the later stages of gameplay and find yourself with a surplus of Dodos you need to cull, and happen to be low on Hide, unclaiming and killing the surplus with a Therizinosaur's bite attack will ensure a decent harvest of Hide afterwards. (Note: just as with the Meat Stock role, damaging and harvesting unclaimed tamed Dodos requires PvP mode to be enabled)
 * Snackrifice: If sufficiently super-bred and mutant-bred to the max official level of 450, Dodos make perhaps the easiest and most readily available, and least costly, nightly sacrifice for the use of taming Troodon. For the Troodon's safety, make sure your Dodo's Health and Damage stats are as abysmally low as possible, while trash stats like Food and Oxygen are the ones that have been heavily bred and mutated. Provided these requirements have been met, a level 150 wild Troodon can be tamed in as few as 45 to 50 Dodos.
 * Beast of Burden: While not capable of holding a great amount of Weight, Dodos make up for this by being able to hold onto a decent quantity of items in their inventory. They provide an excellent means of hanging on to any random items a survivor might want to keep early on in gameplay, and before storage boxes become available as a furnishing. Unlike their wooden storage counterparts however, Dodos can be picked up and moved if you feel you need to move your base location or adjust your build layout, which can happen quite often in early gameplay.
 * Tactical Warfare: While the notion of actually using a Dodo in a combat situation may at first seem laughable on the surface, they can actually fill many unique and surprising roles on the field of battle. Whether for the prospective raider, aspiring explorer, or staunch base defender; the Dodo can become a useful tool in anyone's creative arsenal.
 * Target Practice: While Target Dummies provide a more reliable and long-term method of testing DPS, a Dodo functions well as the poor man's substitute, provided you pump levels into their health stat. If accidentally killed, they still provide a reward in the form of meat and hide.
 * PVP Meat Shield: While you can't normally hold a Dodo and a firearm at the same time, you can if you were to select the weapon and then immediately pick up a Dodo. This will result in you holding a Dodo with a weapon equipped at the same time where you can freely shoot an enemy with your torso being protected by the Dodo (do note that you will not be able to see where you are aiming in first person and will be slowed down). Level Health for the Dodo to tank as many bullets as possible.
 * Turret Tester: Most certainly a suicide mission, as many of the Dodo's warfare roles are, Dodos can be used at range with whistle commands to map out the radius of enemy turrets prior to the actual assault on the base, and maybe even discover blind spots leading to the walls where enemy builders got sloppy. Alternatively, by unclaiming an owned Dodo of your own, they can be used to test the range and line of sight of your own turrets.
 * Walking Bomb: C4 can be attached to a Dodo in large quantities and the Dodo can be set to wander, then air dropped into an enemy tribe's base. If the dodo is attacked by aggressively defending dinos, the C4 goes off and kills it, same with any player that attempts to melee the Dodo. If the dodo is shot and killed, you simply have to Detonate. If nobody stops the Dodo, you can detonate it at your leisure.
 * Defense Probe: Similar to testing turrets, Dodos can be used as a means of triggering enemy traps, on land or water, sacrificing themselves for your own safety. For marine defenses, they swim remarkably quickly on the water's surface, and can be used to test enemy aquatics safely from a distance, though with mixed results. Aside from detonating explosives, setting off tripwires, or triggering bear traps, when paired with a Direwolf to sniff them out, a Dodo can be used to lure buried enemies to the surface: exposing Purlovia, Basilisks, and Reapers. If these threats are set to neutral or passive and won't easily reveal themselves, C4 can be attached to the dodo, and with the Direwolf pinpointing the exact location of the buried enemy, the Dodo can be positioned directly atop the threat and detonated to force it out of hiding. If the enemy minefield happens to be in range of their turrets, turret-soakers like the Carbonemys or Rock Elemental can be used to bleed the turrets dry before the Dodo squad is sent in.
 * Breach Alarm: Setting a Dodo on aggressive and placing it in your base makes for a good alarm; as any raiders or wild predators that make it into your base will have to kill it as a result, thus alarming you on your screen while on trips away from home. Be mindful, however, that their low torpidity and drag weight allows them to be easily knocked out or immobilized by players instead, effectively disabling the alarm. For best results and extra assurance, pair with the best living alarm: a Parasaur.
 * Indoor Guard: likewise, dodos and other small tames can wander the inside areas of your base, and in enough numbers set to aggressive can provide a small surprise and delay for any unwelcome intruders in an environment where it’s not quite as easy to simply mow them all down. As a bonus effect this can double as an egg farm by compressing many dodos into a small area. If you've done the work to have them at your disposal, Troodon and their paralyzing bite works wonders alongside the Dodo for this role.
 * Distraction: While seemingly an unimportant task, any predator that is eating your little flock of Dodos is not eating you. Whistle them to attack your target, run away, and tame a new flock. Good tactic for new players just getting their bearings
 * ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile Utility: Dodos can preform quite different roles on the mobile version than they can in the standard game.
 * Cultivator: In ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, a Dodo of 2.6x size or larger can be equipped with a which gives it the ability to harvest  from foliage.
 * Raider: In ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile, a Dodo of 3.0x size or larger can be equipped with a which gives it the ability to destroy any structure tier and if the dodo is over 3.47x it can be used to stun mid sized dinos.

Notes/Trivia

 * In the dossier it says they are oblivious, but in real life, the island they lived on, Mauritius (found in the Indian Ocean), had no natural predators so they didn't know how to react to a hunter hence resulting in their death due to various factors : overhunting by the first Dutch settlers, pests like rats, which were accidentally brought on the Island by the first Dutch, would destroy the single egg laid and natural hazards also contributed to their downfall from one of the once most abundant animals to an extinct species.
 * Their walking speed is terrible which makes it hard to move them around, most of them can't outrun players with only 100% speed. However, they have a decent swim speed which can be used to cover larger distances quicker.
 * Since the v241, The best way to move them is to pick them up in your hands and toss them, but you can't hold a tool or weapons while doing so.
 * In ARK: Fear Evolved, there is a zombie variant of the dodo that spawn near the DodoRex. This Zombie version is more aggressive and will attack the player.
 * Dodos serve as the main mascot of ARK: Survival Evolved and appear on artwork and holiday events (most prominent ex: DodoRex)
 * The Dodo is a vector of the Swamp Fever and Mega Rabies.
 * Dodos are very easy to tame and their eggs are used to make kibble for both the Pteranodon and Ichthyosaurus, this gives young survivors/tribes easy access to quick flight and aquatic travel. Such access to both natural resources and supply beacons greatly increases one's capabilities. Even the strongest of tribes may begin with the simple Dodo!
 * Despite not having a favored kibble when taming, like other creatures Dodos are no exception when imprinting. They occasionally desire one of the Kibbles from the imprinting kibble list as their 'Comfort Food'.
 * If dodos are bred to extensive numbers it can cause server-performance issues.
 * Despite not being able to lay down while holding a Dodo, you can pick one up while laying down and your character will be holding them through the floor.
 * As of v1.1.16 (the Dodo TLC for ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile), Dodos can be bred for varying sizes. Tamed Dodos will randomly drop on the ground which can be used to craft various items (the Dodos must be tamed after v1.1.16).
 * Dodos of 1.56x size or larger drop.
 * Dodos of 0.8x size or larger cannot be shoulder mounted.
 * Dodos of 1.4x size or larger cannot be picked up.
 * Dodos of 2.4x size or larger can be ridden.
 * Dodos of 1.86x size or larger will get a "Rage" buff that enables them to deal double damage and gain double speed when they are whistled to attack a target. They also receive an Alpha glow.
 * Dodos of 3.47x size are able to perform a "smash" where they will slam themselves onto the ground and stun any Creatures in the area.
 * 0.6x size is the minimum Dodo size.
 * 3.5x size is the maximum Dodo size.
 * Dodos of 2.0x size and above have a maturation speed of about 3 days.
 * Dodos of 3.0x size and above have a maturation speed of about a week.
 * Dodos may gain or lose up to .1x size when bred, though it is possible to get a size mutation, and Dodos may gain or lose up to .4x size.
 * Real Dodos were a social bird that lived in flocks, Ark's Dodos can be found together but they can also be found alone.
 * Dodos used to sometimes attack the player that was attacking them in the early release version.
 * Dodos make decent beginner's melee guardians. A pack of 10-15 can kill a Raptor easily. (Level Health and Damage)
 * Along with, is the only Chibi-Pet to not have an oversized head.
 * Since Eggcellent Adventure Chibi-Dodo must wear any hat (e.g. Chibi-Easter Chick or Chibi-Deal With It Dodo) to not have an oversized head.