Basilisk

The Basilisk is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved's Aberration expansion.

Behavior
It can often be seen by its unusually three-forked tail poking out of the earth as it waits hidden underground for its prey to approach before it can spring out in ambush. It may stay in such a state patiently for days on end, until the opportunity arises to which it will violently burst out of the ground and launch an attack of venomous bites and poisonous spit blasts similar to the poison breath of the. After killing and consuming its prey, it again will quickly dig back into the ground where it waits again in ambush.

Spawns at an uncommon rate in The Portal and rarely in The Edge areas. It can also be found sporadically across most of Aberration.

Appearance
The size of a Basilisk is exceptionally large and is huge compared to its cousin, Ark's. As said in the dossier, it has a 3-pronged forked tail. It is unknown what purpose this very strange appendage serves, though it could be used in sensing vibrations. Like a snake, the whole body is legless and serpentine, covered in many small diamond-shaped scales, but also has other unusual features including many large, spade-like spikes at its lower body and tail region, smaller versions of said spikes at the head and neck, and a serrated and scaly belly; all presumably to aid in digging. The head is draconic in shape and is blunt and sloped at the front. The mouth is full of sharp, pointed teeth as well as 2 longer fangs on the top jaw, and a forked tongue. The eyes are glossy and dead looking. At the back of the head lie a pair of backward facing and long, almost antelope-like horns.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Basilisk.

General
Basilisks will always stay hidden throughout their existence through burrowing. It is possible to tell if one is near when there is a forked tail sticking out of the rubble. Being around a dozen feet away will aggravate them, causing them to emerge.

Strategy
It is ill advised to ever fight a Basilisk alone, so make sure to at least be mounting a decent creature or have good weaponry.

Basilisks are somewhat easy to outrun with most mounts, though don't underestimate their speed. If it is in the way you can kite one over a cliff. They will follow you over and then be out of your way.

Basilisks are not much harder to kill than a. Avoid close range fighting without a as much like, the poison can be negated with a ,  or.

If one must fight without these equipment on, then other strategic measures must be taken to avoid being killed off your mount. If the mount is small, nimble, and quick, you can run and jump around while attacking, avoiding the poison spit. Larger mounts can have their bodies angled towards a poison shot as to prevent it from hitting you.

Weaponry
Utilize ranged weapons such as or a  to deal with Basilisks. Low level Basilisks can be killed with a if you're able to shoot from a safe location; it will require a lot of. Because it can't be knocked down, it is highly discouraged to utilize -inducing ammo and weapons. As the Basilisk' melee attacks induces Torpor, refrain from getting close and using melee weapons, for it can knock you out faster than it can deal damage.

Dangers
As it can bury under the ground and hide with the exception of its forked tail, it can be easy to be suprised by an unsuspected ambush. As they can be found almost anywhere on the map, always keep your guard up if there wasn't a reason to do so on Aberration.

The Basilisk has a poison attack that explodes on impact, dealing massive damage. Much like the a  can negate this. The Basilisk's bite also is venomous and if not careful, a survivor or tame can have their rise and become knocked out. On top of this, they are strong, powerful, and fast with good, , and.

Weakness

 * Basilisks are very slow when turning and have a large turning radius.
 * They are very slow when in water.
 * Due to their long body, it takes them a few seconds to get out of the water completely. This allows dangerous fish more time to attack.
 * Despite being a strong creature, Basilisks take more damage than normal creatures when falling.

Taming
The Basilisk is tamed non-violently, rather than through the use of tranquilizers.

To tame one, the player must use fertilized on Aberration or fertilized  on Genesis: Part 1. Drop them on the ground at or near the Basilisk while it is not burrowed (while it will still eat egg even when aggro'd, chances of it eating are very low even when brought close in its path, and it is best to kite it close and make it lose interest in the player). The Basilisk will "attack" the egg when it is nearby one of them and eat it, gaining taming progress. The ancestry (e.g. the levels of the parents) of each fertilized egg will not affect the taming speed.

If more eggs are required, retreat to a safe location for a long duration, as the rate at which the Basilisk returns to being feedable is very low.

As flying mounts are not available in the maps it exists in, one of such strategy is to utilize a swift mount such as a with high movement speed and lure it over to the fertilized egg as it moves relatively quick once aggravated. If dropping while running, ensure the egg are dropped from your own inventory, for when you drop the egg from the mount's inventory, the Basilisk will still eat the egg when it is not aggravated, but no taming progress will be made.

Another method would be to utilize mounts the Basilisk are not aggravated by, such as, or. Dismount nearby and mount after getting its attention, then kite it into a circle. Do not hit it. Pay close attention to it-the moment it turns its head away from your tame, dismount to the other side and remount to hold aggro.

One can also use a. Hold a passive wild dino, such as a, and aggro the Basilisk. Keep turning in a circle to keep the unfortunate held creature safe, and drop the eggs from your survivor's inventory.

Keep in mind that every time the Basilisk goes to burrow, it will lose taming effectiveness and while holding aggro can suffice, an easier way to prevent this from happening is by building a trap of sorts.

Using structures can involve using Dinosaur Gates and/or Walls with Fence Foundations while leaving a corner gap small enough for the player to escape, but not for the Basilisk to escape. However, it will try to attack the structure to get to the character, so moving around to get its attention of your location and losing it after is required for this strategy to work. Be mindful for its poison spit, however.

By far the easiest way to tame a Basilisk is creating a taming pen with pillars and foundations. The Basilisk can't burrow through foundations so you will never lose taming effectiveness.

The Basilisk loses about 7-8% taming effectiveness every time it burrows. (Needs further testing)

Be careful while taming a Basilisk, as if it is heavily damaged, it will refuse to eat, only when its nearly full health before it will accept the food.

Even when not burrowed, the Basilisk will gradually lose both taming progress and taming effectiveness. One way to prevent this is to continuously keep it aggro either on you, or on a creature(tested on PC version 322.6).

Preferred Food
Once tamed, the Basilisk will consume a standard carnivore diet of, as well as both fertilized and unfertilized.

Basilisks will also eat Fertilized Voidwyrm Eggs, allowing taming on Genesis: Part 2 without having to upload Magmasaur or Rock Drake Eggs

Roles

 * Jack-of-all-trades Mount: The Basilisk has incredibly high, and is faster than all but a few animals, and it is the strongest animal on Aberration short of a or bred , so it can be used as a travel mount, a heavy items transport, and a battle mount all at once, while meeting or exceeding the creatures generally used for just any one of those tasks. It even lacks an  stat, allowing it to remain underwater or underground indefinitely. And thanks to its  inducing bite, it can even be used as a taming assistant. It is not without downsides, however; despite lacking an oxygen stat, it moves and turns very slowly in the water, making it a poor choice for water combat (though a decent one for carrying the fruits of underwater gathering, provided it has an escort). The  is unlocked at a fairly high level. It does not actually climb walls; although it can scale smaller lumps and rocks, it can only reach a certain height, and it is incredibly vulnerable to fall damage. In spite of these downsides, the Basilisk can make for quite the versatile mount.
 * Dino Tamer: The Basilisk's primary attack inflicts equal to 3x the damage dealt applied over a period of 10 seconds, similar to the . This effect does not stack, so to inflict maximum torpor and minimum damage, space your attacks at least 10 seconds apart. As the Basilisk is quite large and can bury or sprint when in trouble, almost anything medium-to-large can be reliably tamed.
 * Long Distance Transport: The Basilisk has one of the highest base carrying capacities of all non- creatures, being only beaten by the which has a base carry weight of 3000 and the  which can level its weight to ridiculous amounts. While the Basilisk's base  is on par with the  the Basilisk's carrying capacity is more than 3x the Giga's making it the best in long distance transport, its  is decent to good, and if levels are pumped into speed, the Basilisk can become faster than most creatures in the game. The Basilisk can even travel underground with a rider; press  to burrow underground (or come up from below, though this happens automatically when stamina runs out); note that the rider will be running out of  as if underwater while underground. It also has the added benefit of 75%  reduction on . As long as vertical terrain and water can be avoided, the Basilisks makes one of the best transporters in the game.
 * Warrior: Alongside the many powerful Aberration creatures, the Basilisk makes for a great fighter in hunting down and destroying enemies. Packed in its humongous snake body are great capabilities in its strong venomous jaws and poisonous spit, great, good , immense , and the ability to burrow under the ground. While most of its attributes are nothing special compared to other combatant mounts, what gives the Basilisk an edge are its poison breath, speed, and digging. Because it has a long turn radius and is vulnerable to attacks from all sides, the Basilisk is best used as a support mount or a rundown specialist that picks off the weak. Similar to the , the Basilisk can shoot volleys of deadly globs of poison at incredible distances. Its digging ability can also be great to use in the case of being able to escape or enter a battle zone unharmed as nothing can reach the snake underground with the exception of explosives. If one plans to stay underground for long periods of time, a , not  is recommended as the survivor will lose  underground without it. (For some reason, while testing, tek will not work underground.)
 * Nameless Hunter: The Basilisk, while its wide turn radius can present a problem when being swarmed by from all sides, has a heavy advantage in its favor when killing these vermin: its poison breath. The Basilisk's poisonous spit is the only attack that can hit directly through Nameless armor, even without chargelight weakening them; whole packs can be taken out in a single blast, depending on the snake's  stats. This makes Basilisks extremely effective in harvesting.
 * Solo Element Vein Salvager: Element Vein solo runners on Extinction are likely familiar with the nuisance of having to bring an and  in a ; long before you're ready to deploy the Argentavis, the Mantis has already been encumbered by the massive amounts of, wasting time and leaving you unable to do anything or defense yourself until the cryo-cooldown wears off. A great way to remove this dilemma is to bring a Basilisk instead of an Argentavis and simply deploy and bury it between enemy waves. This way, the cryo-cooldown will be done by the time the Element is ready for harvest and the Mantis can get to work immediately. In addition to this, the Basilisk's ability to travel underground means the player can safely cross the wastelands back to their base, even during a meteor shower.
 * Note: Be sure the Basilisk is set to passive. Otherwise, the Basilisk will emerge and attempt to attack, which will usually result in it getting itself killed.
 * Genesis mission brute hunter: The Basilisk is highly useful as a hunter mount for Genesis hunt missions. Its high hp, decent speed and high damage allow it to take on most of the brute creatures that the missions require you to kill. Given the proper terrain, you can position yourself at a spot where you can be reached, but still within range to spit poison at enemies. This works exceptionally well considering the Basilisk's poison spit does not receive a damage reduction on alpha level missions
 * Damage: The Basilisk is one of the most dangerous reptiles in the entire franchise; its damage is so powerful that a high-level Basilisk would be able to take on a giga.
 * Travel: Due to it’s high speed and ability to borrow underground, the Basilisk is excellent for travelling underground; it is more certain an underground travel mount.
 * Combatant: The Basilisk has excellent long-range Poison attack that damages enemies and lowers oxygen. Also, it’s bite attack causes them to be rendered unconscious; this has the potential to be a very deadly creature if used properly.
 * Ambush: The Basilisk is an excellent ambusher due to its ability to borrow underground; only explosives can hit you on your Basilisk. The ambush will work on any creature as long as you time it perfectly.

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

Notes/Trivia

 * The torn dossier of the Basilisk was first introduced on November 26, 2017.
 * The scientific name means "Serpent Prince".
 * The Basilisk in mythology has many similarities with its depiction in Ark. However, the Basilisk in Ark cannot kill creatures with its glare like the Basilisk in mythology, though its eyes do look pretty soulless and creepy.
 * TLC 3 added actual eyes to Basilisk's model, which makes the eyes less creepy.
 * The Basilisk, despite being a creature that can dig underground quickly, it does not have any limbs and is forced to effectively, 'swim' in the earth. Especially strange is that it lacks a key characteristic of being smooth to lower friction like real earth 'swimmers' such as the Scincus scincus, or otherwise known as the Sandfish or Common Skink. However, it can be observed that the Basilisk has many adaptations to a digging lifestyle and perhaps its spiky appearance allows a different method of digging. Its eyes are small and glossy, unable to see well so it probably relies on feeling and smell to navigate. Its forked appendage at the end of its tail and big nostrils may assist in sensing its environment. Its face is blunt and triangular, with a sloped forehead, allowing easier penetration into the earth. The numerous flattened spikes that run along much of its body are most likely used to assist in grabbing and cutting into ground, allowing for more maneuverability in a similar way that treads do. Furthermore, at the bottom of the Basilisk lies a sharp and scaly belly that assists in gripping to the soil and rocks. Powered by these spikes and muscular body, it may be enough to realistically validate the Basilisk's digging ability, though it is likely unrealistic as many game mechanics can be.
 * Basilisk shares the same egg-eating taming method as that of . Unlike Titanoboa, however, it also takes in meat as food supply after taming.
 * It is harder to tame Basilisk because, unlike Titanoboa, it burrows itself into the earth when it is not focused on something. They will not eat any nearby Eggs while burrowed.
 * The Basilisk resembles a, with its dragon-like skull and spikes along its body and tail.
 * Although Basilisks are huge, small carnivores like the will still be aggressive to a tamed Basilisk.
 * On the opposite side, however, wild Basilisk ignores large mounts like the and, unless the survivor had already provoked it in the first place.
 * The Basilisk itself is not immune to . Burying will not stop it from taking damage if it has already been affected by radiation.
 * This is rather silly as the Basilisk can be found living perfectly fine in the wild in the Red Zone.
 * Domesticated Basilisks, much like, can damage their rider if using their poison attack at close range.
 * Even when the survivor sets their own resistance to 0 (meaning they take no damage) the Basilisk can still kill the player with it's poisonous spit. It is assumed this is because resistance may just be raising the players armor and the poison spit ignores armor completely. Perhaps that'll explain why it's poison spit bypass 's natural armor; however, it does not bypass 's armor.
 * If your Basilisk's poison breath kills a dinosaur after you dismount, the system will state that the dinosaur was killed by you, and not your mount.
 * Like the and, the Basilisk deals trample damage to smaller creatures; however, it also works on large creatures, and inflicts torpor.
 * The Basilisk has one of the largest turning radius in the entire game, so it is highly recommended to have a saddle ready when you tame it, or you risk the chance of it falling off cliffs. Takes lots of fall damage even from low heights so either avoid heights all together or quickly dismount before hitting the ground. (Now it is replaced by as it has largest turning radius)
 * roar can still induce fear (and courage) at Basilisks buried under.
 * Gets a 75% reduction on carried, same as a.
 * The Basilisk doesn't produce.
 * As of versions 307.2 and 333.13, Basilisks can also be tamed using fertilized, and  (but not of the Crystal Wyverns), allowing them to be tamed both parts of Genesis. It is as effective as the.