Ankylosaurus

The Ankylosaurus (an-KYE-low-SAWR-us), also referred to as the Ankylo or Anky, is a species of Dinosaur in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Ankylosaurus can be found peacefully wandering around the Island. They will not attack unless provoked, and since they can deal a devastating blow with their tail club if angered, it is best for survivors to leave this beast alone. They have a very low movement speed on land but can move significantly faster in water.

Appearance
Ankylosaurus is a species of medium, quadrupedal herbivore that inhabits the ARKs. Its skin is adorned with a thick coating of spikes, bony plates, osteoderms, and fused bone. The head has plentiful spikes, as well as a beak at the tip of the mouth and enlarged nasals. They are relatively low to the ground with short legs and a low head; they protect themselves by wielding a wicked club on the end of their muscular tails. The only region not covered with body armour is the belly.

KO Strategy
Ankylosaurus is relatively easy to knock out due to its slow movement speed. Even when attacked, the Ankylosaurus is easy to outrun, making nearly any ranged attack effective. The best method to knock it out would be using Tranquilizer Darts or Tranquilizer Arrows, but if neither are available then a simple Slingshot will do the trick but may take longer than a tranquilizer dart or arrow. The Ankylosaurus does not receive increased damage on headshots due to the heavy armor that covers its body.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Ankylosaurus.

General
The Ankylosaurus uses its huge, literally 'bone-crushing' tail to attack its enemies. Its attack can be quite devastating if a survivor is wearing anything weaker than Chitin Armor. It is recommended then to either shoot it with a Ranged Weapon or use a Pike or Spear while circling it.

Strategy
The most successful strategy for killing an Ankylosaurus is to circle it while shooting it with a ranged weapon like a Bow, Crossbow, or any variety of gun. Be prepared for a moderately lengthy battle if you are using low-level weapons.

Weaponry
Ranged weapons are recommended when fighting an Ankylosaurus. These weapons include Bow, Crossbow, Longneck Rifle, and others, though with some persistence a Slingshot will also work. Melee weapons are generally discouraged, though more nimble survivors might have success using Pikes and Swords if they are able to quickly move in and out of its attack range, or even bringing a can work as well.

Dangers
The Ankylosaurus uses its huge tail club as a defensive weapon: this attack has a fairly large range and can deal a respectable amount of damage, so keeping your distance is a must.

Weakness
Much like Carbonemys, your avatar's backwards movement will outpace the dinosaur whilst the player stabs it to death. Be aware that Ankylosaurus does more damage than Carbonemys.

Roles

 * Combatant/Guardian: The Ankylo is an excellent tank due to its high HP, low posture, and compact build. Along with high health for its size, the Ankylo is very powerful with its bite and tail swing attacks, the latter doing the most damage; both of these attacks have great AOE and knockback as well. These two factors can be quite useful when used to take damage from bullets and attack creatures in relatively small spaces where other heavy-built tames can not reach and its slow speed no longer becomes an issue, making them decent base defense dinos as well as decent cave raiding dinos. (Level up and )
 * Transport: While slow, it has a very good base carrying capacity and is quite powerful. One notable thing to mention is that the Ankylo significantly increases its speed when swimming compared to running on land, making movement by or near water sources most optimal for this task. Good for local transport but not recommended for long distance travel unless being transported itself by a flyer or other carrying method. (Level up, , and )
 * Gatherer: The Ankylo excels at gathering as it can harvest most materials(with few exceptions, such as which can not be harvested by it) from trees, to rocks, to bushes. As it is one of the best viable ways of harvesting rocks and ores, the Ankylo is excellent for collecting essential materials such as, , , and . As of patch 256.3 (PC) Ankylos have a 85% weight reduction to raw metal in their inventories, allowing them to carry much more before becoming encumbered. (Level up  and ). It is important to note that the corpse of a  can also be harvested by an Ankylo for huge amounts of valuable materials. They also have the added benefit of being able to be transported by creatures including  or an  for greatly increased capability and mobility. (Level up ) on the Ankylosaurus and (Level up ) on the flyer/carrier. The Ankylo is competent at harvesting large quantities of  as well with its  bite attack, and if the  tail swing attack is hit directly after the bite attack, it can also collect berries with a tail swing. It can even collect  and  in moderate quantities. It can be set to “wander” to harvest resources automatically. This, however, does not seem to work on Mobile.
 * Underwater Miner: Despite being such a heavily built creature, Ankylosaurus is a surprisingly good swimmer and also capable of easily fending off sea predators with its tail club attack, since it can move while swinging its tail, making it more dangerous in the water than on land. Therefore, it can be used to gather from the bottom of the sea while easily fending off most common sea creatures. Leveling up Oxygen also makes it swim much faster. (Level up  and, as well as  and  if desired.)
 * Clearing/ Landscaping: Thanks to its rather large AOE and a little trick that involves using the tail wing attack immediately after using the bite attack in order to clear plants in a large radius, the Ankylo is perhaps the best creature to use when a large area needs to be cleared to make way for buildings, siege-weapons, artillery, war-mounts, battle field, a race track, or any other purpose that would need to involve large swaths of trees and rocks to be chopped down or broken. Because the Ankylo can harvest almost any object in the game, they are perfectly fit for this role.

Weight Reduction
The Ankylosaurus reduces the weight of the following resources by the listed amount while they are in its inventory:

Collectibles

 * Note: Increasing Melee Damage on Ankylosaurus yields more resources per swing; however, it does not increase area of effect as rumored.