Diplodocus

"It's not aggressive, it's trying to cuddle you. Feed it and it will be your friend."

- Jen

The Diplodocus (dih-PLOD-uh-kus) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. They are a large, remarkably long tailed sauropod from the Jurassic's North America and lived in grasslands and deserts. In the game, they are common in those biomes as well as the Redwoods and are incapable of dealing any damage.

Behavior
These animals wander the warmer areas of the island, keeping more in the trees as opposed to the beach loving Brontos. A friendly and playful animal, Diplodocus will often nuzzle animals in friendly manner. While this nuzzle does no damage, it does have knockback, and could potentially knock you off a cliff. They are surprisingly fast and very persistent with their games, refusing to stop even when their “toys” try to flee, stab, shoot, or start eating them.

Fortunately for the Diplodocus, they’re large enough and have tough enough skin that only the larger and more determined predators even bother with them. Even many humans don’t bother them much in comparison to other creatures, posing no direct threat and being just enough of an annoyance to take down where many won’t bother to do so on a whim. Some survivors will even come to their aid, their size and tough hide providing a convenient distraction for those tribes seeking a top predator. Without these bits of luck however, the Diplodocus simply wouldn’t stand much of a chance.

Appearance
Despite being enormous animals, they are by far the smallest of the three sauropods that roam the Island. At first glance, the Diplodocus resembles its close relative the Brontosaurus, but further observation reveals differences. The Diplodocus is very long with a whip-like tail and a low-slung body in contrast to the raised head and larger body of the Brontosaurus. It also has a smaller head with large pointy teeth sticking out for tearing vegetation to swallow as well as many small spikes along its back, shoulders, and hips.

Drops

 * Harvest


 * Guaranteed Special Loot

Base Stats and Growth
Although the Diplodocus does no damage the following table lists a value under. This value is greater than zero because it is also - or in this case only - used for the knock back impulse.

Passive Tame
Note: Although the DevKit has data for taming with Vegetables, the Diplodocus doesn't accept these as food for passive taming.

KO Strategy
Diplodocus is able to be both traditionally knockout tamed or passive tamed. If you attract its attention, it will try to push you away, which deals no direct damage (indirectly: fall damage or being pushed into hostile creatures).

There is no need to take any exact caution with the Diplodocus in terms of passive taming. Even if "aggro'd", granted its vocalization when it notices the player and the voices it makes when "attacking", it is simply trying to be friendly, by nudging the player. The only concern to this is that the knockback might deal fall damage. If taming near uneven terrain, you might want to use a more careful approach, such as traditional passive taming, to avoid it noticing you. By standing near its front legs at the base of its neck or under its belly, you can actually stay out of the range of its nudging. However, it is perfectly fine to have some fun and play with the Diplodocus by letting it bounce you around, as it will not affect taming effectiveness so long as you don't hit it, and make sure as you "play" to get close enough at times to make sure you can feed the Diplodocus again. It is most likely the easiest of all passive tames, and in this unique "playing with a dinosaur to tame it and bond with it" aspect, the most fun tame. This "playing with the Diplodocus" taming method is also useful for moving it away from predators which could attack it, and leading it to a safer spot where the tame can be easier.

Standing under it, just behind its front legs will cause it to try and hit you continually, without actually managing it, making it completely stationary and unable to move you. Easy for non-violent tame. However, it should be noted that the time interval between the first and second feeding is very long while every other time is much shorter.

Should you wish to avoid being bounced around you can use a Ghillie Suit to decrease the chance of it noticing you. You can also stay within the area where it can't hit you, behind and underneath it.

Additionally, you can use a grappling hook to stop the knockback at a certain distance. (Or just pull yourself so close you don't get knocked back at all.)

Combat
The Diplodocus is NOT a good battle mount for solo/small tribes, its attack does 0 damage but can do a large amount of knock back. The target is not even aggroed from this attack. If a large tribe is using this Dino it needs an escort or multiple well armed players on the many seats in the saddle. If you can get a whole row of people on one side of the seats, all equipped with pump action shotguns this Dino becomes a deadly mount. It is great for large tribes to use as effectively an Anti Air mount. With several players with guns on this Dino it will destroy flyers, and it is too big to be picked up by even a quetzal. If you are riding this Dino and are being attacked try to face the attacker and use the attack's knock back to launch the attacker away and quickly do a U turn and sprint away. Overall this Dino without an escort or armed players riding it, could compete as the worst battle mount in the game, but if it is armed with players it is a formidable battle mount.

General
Killing it, if that's actually what you want to do, poses no difficulty; Diplodocus can "attack" the player but its attacks are, uniquely, purely defensive and it does no damage, and the knockback is barely an inconvenience unless the player has been careless and approached the Diplo with his or her back to a cliff or to other, more dangerous enemies.

Strategy
Try to hurt it, without getting pushed back from Diplodocus. It does no damage, but you could fall to your doom if pushed off the wrong spot. Try to stay under its belly, as it cannot push you back.

Weaponry
Every ranged weapon made for fighting and most dinosaurs are usable for killing them. if you used the aforementioned strategy of staying under its belly, weapons as basic as a Stone Pick can work.

Dangers
Being pushed off of a cliff or mountainside, or thrown into an area with hostile, stronger creatures.

Weakness
It cannot do any damage to other dinos or players, so the only way it can damage anything is if it manages to throw it off of a cliff. It may also throw players and tames into hostile dinos.

Roles

 * Transport: The Diplodocus saddle can carry up to ten passengers and one driver. This alongside of its decent movement speed and reduced stamina usage enables the Diplodocus to be an efficient transportation mount (level up in speed, weight, and a bit of stamina).
 * Battle Mount: While Diplodocus is not able to deal any damage it has a higher throwback than other tames. It may take effort but it's more than capable of fighting at mountains and cliff sides where enemies can be tossed far off. Another effective method of fighting predators with Diplodocus is simply to walk into other herbivores and aggro them into fighting for you.
 * Land Battle Ship: With the saddle capable of carrying armed passengers, having people fire weapons while riding the Diplodocus could be a good way of pvp combat. Although, is also capable of doing this with a platform saddle (Level up Health, Speed, and Stamina).
 * Base Clearer: Useful for peacefully clearing bases of potentially destructive dinos that fall in, such as s (Level Health).
 * Egg Layer: Eggs are used to make or alternatively the eggs can be fed to unconscious  to tame them or simply used as food.
 * However this can be replaced with smaller and more compact Egg Layers such as and  later on.
 * Knockback Tank: Players can hide underneath a tamed Diplodocus and fire ranged weapons at melee enemies without having to worry about being hit. This is especially useful for taming because the Diplodocus can protect players without causing damage to the potential tame.
 * Cargo Hauler: A Diplodocus trades off combat capability for extra speed compared to other cargo tames such as the saurus or saurus. It is a cheap and expendable early game cargo transport, or a fast cargo runner later on once properly defended with tames that can keep up. Like its bigger cousin, the Diplodocus knocks over trees that would trap smaller tames such as the or, making boulders and cliffs the only significant hazard to navigation (level up Weight and Speed). Only the largest predators are known to attack Diplodocus, making them surprisingly safe for land travel, particularly across swamps.
 * Gatherer: The Diplodocus' attack area, weight capacity, and ease of taming make it an excellent early game alternative to a bronto for gathering large amounts of thatch and berries, with the added benefit of not aggravating nearby wildlife.
 * Scout: Diplodocus' high speed for it's size and health pool make for a decent scout, especially towards cliffs and mountains.

Notes/Trivia

 * The Dossier was released on 10/26/15
 * Its specific name means "Island Chieftain"
 * In contrast to the Dossier, the real Diplodocus was longer than the real, although it was the lighter of the two.
 * Diplodocus along with the are one of the few creatures incapable of directly dealing damage.
 * Due to this it is virtually attacked by any predator often leading to smaller creatures being endlessly nudged in a fruitless attempt to kill it.
 * The Diplodocus can actually deal damage to smaller insects (titanomyrma, meganeura, trilobites...) If this is your only tame, it's best to be cautious around Meganeuras as they will drain your tame's stamina. No stamina means not being able to outrun danger. Meganeuras will also merge into the Diplodocus, making it difficult to kill them without draining your tame's health. Such a situation away from a decent tame will result in that tame's death.
 * Opposing Diplodocus during Missions such as Survive the ARK uses the tail swing to attack instead like the.
 * The Diplodocus is a good early game source of . Since its attack does no damage, it can be killed by pretty much anything.
 * For the same reasons above, it's one of the easiest wild creatures to take eggs from next to the s which don't get aggressive at all.
 * For unknown reasons the Diplodocus is not able to be transported by or Platform Saddle. So you should tame them close to where you need them or use a, at least on The Center
 * It were originally planned that the saddle for the creature was going to have three seats. But the idea was later changed to the.
 * Diplodocus is one of the dinosaurs that doesn't have a collar with a check mark by it in the notes.
 * Diplodocus is the only dinosaur that can be tamed by both passive and knockout methods.
 * Diplodocus are one of the two creature that has more than one ways of taming other than breeding (Passive Taming and Knockout Taming), others being (Passive Taming and Raise Taming).
 * Real Diplodocus lived in large herds and coexisted in Jurassic grasslands hills alongside and, as well as carnivores like . Unlike the oblivious, docile depiction in the game, real Diplodocus would have fought back mercilessly to any predator that dared hunt them. Instead of using their stiff necks they would brandish their whip like tails, strong enough to break bones. Hunting a Diplodocus would have required precision and care, cutting off one member from the rest of the herd and attacking it by the legs. Considering the danger of being stomped on or thrown back, hunting this animal was dangerous and may cost predators their lives.