Snow Owl

The Snow Owl (Sno-Aoul) is one of the Birds in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
The majestic and giant Snow Owl flies around the Snow Dome, occasionally landing to kill an animal or rest. It's an aggressive creature towards nearly everything in sight, and can easily spot any animal in hiding due to its heat vision. Perfectly accustomed to its habitat, it is for sure one of the most powerful predators in the Snow Dome aside from the massive Dire Wolf packs roaming the snowy forests. R-Snow Owls can be found in the Eden zone on Genesis: Part 2.

Appearance
The Snow Owl is a massive owl that prefers to live in very chilly regions. It looks and handles similarly to an Argentavis, though it usually has whiter colors for camouflage, has a thicker body, and a larger tail. Its face is wrapped tightly by tendrils of corrupted element, and its eyes look almost robotic in nature. Its wings are incredibly long, and the ends are usually tipped with a darker color than the body, typically being gray or black, with the legs and head usually matching that color. Crowning the top of its head are four large antennae that give it heat vision capabilities, which through these antennae it can share with its rider.

R-Snow Owls usually come in darker colors and hunt high in the mountains north and south of the Eden zone. These owls have a different pattern, with a smoother texture. They also have a darker blue bio luminescence on their face and feet.

General
They have very high speeds and utilize a dive bomb attack similar to the Griffin. It can also curl up and freeze itself in place, during which time it will heal itself and others around it. However it will not use any special abilities in the wild.

Strategy
A Crossbow or Rifle can be used to kill the snow owl without taking much damage. The owl will attack anything near it relentlessly until it dies, so melee weapons and mounts can also be used.

It should be noted that the Snow Owl takes reduced damage from headshots, so aim for the body.

Weaponry
Use a ranged weapon - a Crossbow, rifle, or compound bow will work perfectly here.

Dangers
Snow Owls are very fast and commonly come in a group of 2 or 3. They take less damage from headshots with ranged weapons as well. If fighting a player with a Snow Owl, they can dive, freeze and heal all at once. Snow Owls have a higher base damage than a Argentavis, and they are also faster. They also are commonly killed by managarmrs and dire wolves, and R-owls tend to wander into larger enemies.

Weakness
It has wide turning radius, much like Griffin, so circling around it can kill or knock it out easier.

KO Strategy
The Snow Owl can be knocked out through the standard Knockout method using Tranq Arrows. However, the Snow Owl may die if arrows are used as the owl has fairly low base health, especially if it has been in a fight. Using a Longneck Rifle with Tranq Darts is advised.

Similar to Argentavis, you can trap it in a taming pen to prevent it from flying away.

The Snow Owl can be fairly hard to tranq (taking 27 tranq darts for a 150), but once unconscious you probably won't need any narcotics. If you don't have enough resources for a trap, you could kite it with a creature such as a Managarmr, or with an Argentavis to carry another player which can shoot the Snow Owl with tranqs.

The Net Projectile can also be used to immobilize the owl for a full minute, which should be long enough to fully tranq it if you have a decent quality crossbow or longneck rifle.

Roles

 * Transport: Much like other flyers, this creature is excellent for getting around the map, due to the Snow Owl's fairly high speed and decent stamina. The speed is enhanced, as it can glide much like a . Also, imprinted Snow Owls have increased movement speed which gives them an even better edge over their flying competitors If you are used to the flying mechanics of a Griffin you will be right at home with the Snow Owl. It is even more useful in dangerous areas such as Sulfur Fields or Ragnarok's Murdersnow, due to the ability to heal the rider while frozen, making the hypo/hyperthermia less of a problem. (Level Weight and Stamina)
 * Carrier: While not as capable of carrying items as the or, the Snow Owl can carry more than a , and is faster than an Argentavis and even a Pteranodon while gliding, Additionally it's speed can be increased from Imprinting. Its enhanced stamina allows it to travel long distances. (Level Stamina and Weight. Health is optional depending on PvP circumstances.)
 * Battle Mount: The Snow Owl has similar combat abilities to the Argentavis, able to be used both as a damage dealer and a Hit and Run while gliding. If the Snow Owl is injured, it can fly away to heal by freezing itself. (Level Health, Damage, and Stamina.)
 * Scout: The Snow Owl has the ability to sense any target with its infrared vision, using default button (Predator Sense). This is useful for PvP if you're chasing enemy survivors through thick foliage and need to retain vision, Additionally while gliding the Snow Owl makes absolutely no noise.
 * Dive-bomber: Like the Griffin, the Snow Owl can dive straight down and swipe targets. Unlike the Griffin though, when diving straight to the ground, all enemies around the point of impact will not be killed, yet slowed for 5 seconds, and giving them damage resistance. The Snow Owl dives completely silently.
 * Support: Using Alt Fire (Default ) the Snow Owl is capable of freezing nearby creatures by holding Alt Fire. This process also heals nearby creatures, which means enemies as well. This lasts 3 seconds after the owl thaws out. When used in mid-air, the Snow Owl will perform an Ice Crash, dropping like a rock and freezing any creature where the owl lands for ~5 seconds. This will consume stamina per creature frozen, potentially exhausting your Snow Owl. Be mindful of when you use this ability. This ability can be paired with tames to deal damage while not taking any.
 * Tame support: The Snow Owl can be a tamer's best friend since it has so many qualities to help with taming. First off, it is the only creature that can heal wild creatures. This is very useful for taming high torpor/low health tames (Gallimimus, Dire Bear) since you can tranquilize them and heal them up if they look like they're about to die, then proceed to knock them out. Secondly, their ice crash ability (freezing in the air) can be useful to even knock Quetzals out of the sky if you land on their backs. This can allow you to conventionally trap it after it hits the ground. (Do note that you have to initiate flight after hitting the back of the Quetzal or you will take heavy fall damage, potentially killing your Snow Owl in one fall if you're not careful.) They can also freeze Gasbags and deflate them, allowing for more damage to be dealt in knocking them out. Lastly, by holding down the ability to freeze you can lock a creature in place to be trapped. You can still place structures while riding on the back of a frozen Snow Owl, allowing you to trap creatures while they're frozen.
 * As for Healing It is the only one that can heal wild herbivores or Passive Carnivores like, by feeding a Carnivore a corpse it can be healed much quicker compared to using a Snow Owl.
 * Healer: The Snow Owl can freeze itself and other Creatures to regenerate health and get a heavy damage resistance (88%), however they cannot do anything while frozen. This costs about 250 stamina per second and heals units for about 40 health per second and can not be improved. This is better for healing smaller creatures.
 * In Patch 286.103, when changing the heal mechanic, it was mentioned that the heal was based on the owl's base health. Individual tests noted that, with 8500 total health, about 60 hp per second could be reached. More testing is needed to be sure if this is how it works.
 * Fertilizer: The Snow Owl spews out ('defecates') which provide 50,000 units of Nitrogen, slightly lower than.
 * Loot Producer: The Snow Owl Pellets are also used as food for the Gacha to obtain valuable loot from
 * Travel: The Snow owl is similar to the Argentavis in terms of speed, but its dive ability gives it an edge over the Argentavis. In addition to this, it is the only flyer who gains speed if imprinted, which gives it an edge over its flying competitors. With great speed and exceptional stamina, it makes for a great traveling companion.
 * Base Infirmary: While not as effective as a, the Snow Owl's healing ability is much cheaper to maintain, as the Daeodon eats food by the troughful when healing. This allows the Snow Owl to function as an early alternative to the Daeodon, healing damaged creatures in the safety of your own base. Make sure you spam the 'Defecate' button while the Snow Owl's Stamina is regenerating, and you can quickly generate many Snow Owl Pellets for use in farming or for Gachas. (Level Health to increase the speed of the healing effect, and Stamina to increase the duration of each heal.)

Notes/Trivia

 * Its scientific name, Bubo chinookus, possibly means "Owl with the Föhn wind" in Latin. The Chinook winds are föhn winds (a type of dry, warm wind that occurs in the downwind side of a mountain range) in the interior West of North America.
 * Wild Snow Owls can't harm wild herbivores, but will still proceed to attack them relentlessly. This is a trait shared by the Griffin and Megalania which some of its abilities is shared from.
 * s could be used at the release of Extinction, but this was unintended and fixed in v286.103.
 * There is a bug when freezing a player immobilized by a : when unfrozen they can move while the Bola effect is still present on them.
 * Prior to v287.100, attacking corpses caused it to receive Rapid Regeneration much like Argentavis.
 * When performing the glide mechanic, if the Snow Owl lifts up right before it's supposed to hit the floor, the Snow Owl will land but still walk at the speed it was flying. If the Snow Owl takes off while walking, its speed will double. This can be used over and over, causing the Snow Owl to be the best flyer to traverse the map and escape threats, and is a trait shared with.
 * By doing the freeze ability whilst on the ground is a viable method for producing s. Be mindful of its however, as constant consumption of Stamina will cause the food to drop.
 * The icon that appears for when it defecates is colored pink, similar to how  is colored pink in a.
 * You can use the Snow Owl's healing ability to keep baby Dinos alive if you run out of food. Healing the baby above the maximum hp it can have at its current maturation percentage is pointless, as the hp will go back down to the maximum it can be.
 * The Snow Owl gives 88% Damage Reduction to a Frozen Ally (Rounded) (Tested without Saddles or outside Damage Reduction sources)
 * The Snow Owl is somewhat similar in basic appearance to the modern Snowy Owl. This may suggest that the Snow Owl is a direct descendant of the Snowy Owl.
 * However, considering that most, if not all of the other Extinction creatures have no obvious ancestors existing in the world today, in addition to the fact that multiple Explorer Notes mention the ARKs and Proto-ARKs directly generating their inhabitants, this may be just a coincidence.
 * With Genesis: Part 1 mentioning how inhabitants inside and outside the Proto-ARKs were mixing with each other, it is uncertain what species of avian birds and owls hybridized with the original snow owl to make the Snow Owl of Extinction.