Sarco

The Sarcosuchus (SAR-koh-SOO-kiss) also known as the Sarco or Crocodile, is one of the creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Sarcosuchus excubitor is a highly aggressive species and will attack with its massive elongated jaws, like most modern crocodiles. They often lie perfectly still in their river habitats, seeking the perfect moment to ambush their unsuspecting prey. Occasionally, they will scurry onto land to kill prey (including humans). While they lack the health of a Megalodon, they are quicker, have more stamina, and are capable of land-based locomotion. They're always highly alert, and always immensely dangerous. They have even been known to jump on (through) boats.

They are excellent hunters, due to their power and health; in packs, they can take on the famous , which makes them excellent guards as well. Their arsenal includes a variety of attacks, making them dangerous to deal with even with a large dinosaur mount.

Appearance
Sarcosuchus are a very large species of crocodylomorph, exceeding lengths of forty five feet. They have massive skulls for their size, of which end in a large and bulbous nose. They are usually a greenish-brown color, and are covered in dark patches of black. As most modern crocodilians do, Sarcosuchus have spiky osteoderm-lined backs, serving as a defense against competing predators, not excluding other Sarcosuchus. They have long and powerful tails, useful for propelling themselves through the rivers they inhabit.

Drops

 * Harvest


 * Guaranteed Special Loot

Base Stats and Growth
Sarco=

Aberrant Sarco=

KO Strategy
To knock it unconscious, use, , a Wooden Club or the (Not effective on high level creatures). Ranged attacks are best as they keep you out of it's reach until it falls unconscious.

A good strategy for knocking out a Sarco is to first clear out the area of dangerous creatures, then make sure it is on land (they flee extremely quickly in water), and eventually find a tall rock you can stand on and begin firing darts/arrows from.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Sarco.

General
The Sarco lives in the water and in the swamps. Keep this in mind when maneuvering within these environments. If on land, simply avoid these areas. If the Sarco decides to attack it will have to clamber out of the water to get you. Make sure you are prepared to fend if off, or kill/tame it at this time.

Strategy
If engaged in close combat, try to keep behind it. It will have a hard time turning towards you. If engaged in ranged combat, try and find a ledge to stand to take advantage of its low height. If a ledge cannot be found, shoot at it while backpedaling, allowing enough distance for you to have time to reload without it catching you. If your surroundings are completely clear and you are on land, you can walk towards one of its back legs while hitting it with a melee weapon until it falls unconcious or dies.

Weaponry
Use ranged weapons to avoid being hit yourself. It takes next to no effort to outrun a sarco (on land!), so keeping distance is easy. Use ranged weapons to deal damage while kiting/circling the Sarco.

Dangers
Sarcos are agile swimmers and attack faster while in water. Even on land, avoid being grabbed by its jaw as it can perform a crippling death roll.

Weakness
Sarcos are much slower on land, and can easily be outrun so long as you avoid bodies of water. Sarcos also have a poor turning radius and can easily be circled in short-distance combat.

Roles
Terrestrial - The Sarco has no advantages in terrestrial combat other than those granted by its special attacks. It is a fairly slow mount and suffers from a small vertical AOE, so anything above it cannot be hit. The ability to use weapons while mounted on it somewhat offsets this deficiency. Aquatic - The Sarco retains its TLC ability to instantly reverse direction to use its primary attack on targets that are directly behind it. The primary attack has a small but adequate horizontal AOE, and the combination of the two makes it good at handling swarms of smaller creatures like mantas, electrophorus and angler fish. The ability to use weapons while riding it, combined with its speed, also makes it an excellent mount for taming other water creatures.
 * Jack Of All Trades: Especially underwater, the sarco can make an amazing companion and main mount due to its high, , , average and Mobility, it can make a faster and more mobile alternative to the  ( However you'd still have to watch out for pesky  and ), The Sarco was also proven to be an excellent Aberration Land and water mount with it being very common and easy to tame in there.
 * Travel: The Sarco is a fantastic scout thanks to its unmatched maneuverability through land/water and near instant stamina recovery. When swimming, sarcos are very agile and do not require air, making it suitable for long-distance travel. Additionally, flee if they notice a Sarco swimming nearby, allowing the sarco and its rider to roam in hostile waters. On land, it is a decent climber, as it can go up most hills in the game without problem (Level up in Movement Speed and Stamina).
 * Amphibious Mount: The Sarco can walk on land and is quite fast while swimming. This is good for land-locked tribes who aren't close to a body of water, but still want to quickly reach the ocean, as the Island's rivers can be used as "highways" with the Sarco.
 * Diver: The Sarco is one of the best divers on the island due to its ability to rapidly surface and dive; unlike its smaller cousin, the . Sarcos also won't surface when dismounted underwater, even when not on follow. (Level Health, Melee Damage, and Stamina).
 * When riding, look out for the creatures of the deep, as the Sarco isn't great for fighting them—but can still easily outrun them. Bring along an opposite gender Sarco along for a mate boost to make it easier to kill and tank hits from deep sea creatures (excluding the dreaded cnidaria).
 * may also be used to their relatively compact size and high damage making them suited as a better guardian then another Sacro.
 * Battle Mount: General - The Sarco's TLC buffs include faster primary attack speed (approx. 2/sec), the "Death Roll" grab and damage on human-sized and small creatures, a short lunge attack (C key), and the ability to instantly reverse direction to use its primary attack on targets that are directly behind it. (The attack also appears to hit targets to the side as the Sarco reverses.) This at last makes up for its pitiful turning radius and enables the player to battle while standing still. The rider should beware, however, that while the Sarco has decent health and good attack speed, its actual DPS is low because of poor damage-per-attack, and its attacks have a small vertical AOE, making it difficult to fight enemies slightly above you though it can usually damage enemies below you. High-level sarco saddles are fairly common in drops, which helps to offset the Sarco's relatively low health pool and makes it a good early-game water combat mount. It is also possible to use weapons while mounted on the Sarco, allowing a rider to snipe Cnidaria before they can pose a threat. (Level up in Health and Melee Damage).
 * Pack Hunter: In large numbers, the sarco can easily overpower most creatures in the deep. its fast speed/attack rate allows a pack to constantly circle and attack foes, thus even the greatest terrors of ark's oceans can be dispatched with ease. If you're used to swarming creatures with Dimorphodons, perhaps you may fancy yourself a sarco army for the sea.

Grabbable Creatures
The Sarco can use a secondary attack ( on PC) that performs a death roll, a classic move shared by all crocidillians, involving grabbing a victim with its jaws and doing a barrel roll to rip flesh.

Generally, only creatures small enough and that are not aerial or aquatic can be grabbed by the death roll. The following creatures can be grabbed:

Notes/Trivia

 * They are primarily found in and around the island rivers, Sarcosuchus will occasionally spawn around the south spawns.
 * They seem to be, on average, larger than Megalodon.
 * Sarco skin will bounce players and small tames back in contact, including a dead one. When tamed, players can stand on it however.
 * Sarcosuchus likely have salt glands as most modern crocodilians do, considering they thrive in both salt and fresh water.
 * Sarcosuchus is a useful diver due to its fast elevator-like dive and rise action and although it doesn't fit in most underwater caves, it is a much faster alternative to a Megalodon when it comes to reaching the depths of the island.
 * Sarcosuchus have a much faster underwater sprint speed and better mobility than most creatures in the ocean. Because of this, it can easily defeat most ocean predators by attacking while staying behind their mouths. They have a hard time against and, however.
 * Sarcosuchus is almost incapable of killing airborne predators, but makes up for this shortcoming by having a fairly wide frontal attack.
 * has a slightly faster base swim speed than Sarcosuchus, but Sarcosuchus gets a substantially greater benefit from leveling up speed, making Sarcosuchus the faster mount in the long run.
 * Sarcosuchus imperator (the real world equivalent of S. excubitor) had a more gracile snout, and smaller teeth than other crocodilians comparable in size, suggesting that it lived on a diet largely composed of fish, and other aquatic creatures.
 * The name meaning is "Watchman/Guardian Flesh Crocodile"
 * Sarcosuchus received a major update during TLC Phase 2, adding its passive effect of deterring, overhaul on taming (will prefer fish meat over normal meat), mouth-wide grin on idle, ability to stand on the back of a Sarco, and three new attack types:
 * A grab and roll attack, also known as a Death Roll. With smaller creatures the Sarco will be able to grab and roll with them in its mouth while with larger creature it will grab on and spin aggressively.
 * A 180 degree attack wherein it can attack something directly behind itself by swinging it's body around and biting behind itself. *This actually works in any direction, not just 180 degrees.
 * A short lunge attack where it'll be able to lunge forward to take its prey by surprise.
 * Since the TLC Phase 2, the Sarco fits through all Dinosaur Gateways. Before the TLC, a Behemoth Gateway was necessary.
 * It can now sprint in water, before the TLC it can't.
 * Ironically, the real life Sarcosuchus imperator shares the same species name with the game's.
 * The Sarco’s size is more similar to the Kaprosuchus than the Sarco itself; it seems to be 9 meters in the game but should be 13+.
 * The Sarco can reach a specific size in ARK but in real life it never stops growing.