Deathworm

The Deathworm is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved. It is available in the Scorched Earth and Ragnarok DLCs. A variant, the is also available on Ragnarok.

Behaviour
Being a territorial creature, the Deathworm will attack any player who wanders too close to it. When mobile, the Deathworm will move just under the sand, appearing as a small, oscillating sand heap. A provoked, mobile Deathworm will chase players until out of range, and can be quite tenacious in their pursuit.

Once within range, the Deathworm will emerge from the ground to engage in melee combat. It will simply chain melee lunges and will only move while emerged to readjust its attack direction. If the prey attempts to escape, the Deathworm will simply return below the surface to re-enter its mobile phase and pursue the victim until the victim gets far out of range or is killed.

It has a keen hatred for, and  and will shift its attention over any other tamed preys if they are nearby.

Iceworm Male (Variant)
An ice-themed version of the Deathworm, found on Ragnarok inside the Frozen Dungeon. It has a light blue color scheme with white appendages and grey claws.

This variant is also much less powerful, with only 1700 health rather than 20000

Appearance
The ocean of sand surrounding the Scorched Earth is patrolled by the appropriately named Deathworm, a burrowing predatory invertebrate of titanic proportions. Resembling a gigantic worm (or perhaps a leech) with slicing mouthparts and clattering vestigial legs, these blind, nightmarish creatures have excellent hearing and will attack almost anything they detect moving across the dunes, bursting up from below to seize their prey. Due to their extremely territorial nature, very little else is known about Deathworm behavior.

Drops

 * Harvest


 * Random Special Loot

Base Stats and Growth
Deathworm =

Deathworm (Minion)=

General
Deathworm habitats are located all over the map among the large sand dunes.

Strategy
The best strategy is to team up with another survivor, and take turns to distract - and attack.

Using a Wyvern and a Rex, the Rex can draw the Deathworm out and while the Rex is attacking, the Wyvern can land and attack. If the Deathworm dives or begins to target the Wyvern, the Wyvern can fly away until the Deathworm is focused on the Rex again.

The Megatherium's bug-killing abilities are also worth noting as being effective on Deathworms.

If imported, a fully imprinted Giga with its owner on its back will always outpower a Deathworm.

are useful for their Bleed Effect and Agility albeit have rather low health compared to a Deathworm's Damage

Weaponry
A rideable creature is very good to have, as going on foot could risk your life. A high level Rex can fight one Deathworm safely. Wyverns are also good for taking care of a Deathworm due to their high DPS, especially Lightning Wyverns. Just be careful, as Wyverns have a relatively low base health and no armor from a saddle, making them easier for the Deathworm to kill.

Dangers
Deathworms could attack at any time. If you are traveling in the sand dunes along the outskirts of the map, you can sometimes see a sandheap moving around. If you're not on the hunt for Deathworms, you should watch out. Alpha Deathworms are even bigger and stronger than the normal Deathworms. If you are using a large creature to take down a Deathworm, like a Rex or Rock Elemental, they may get stuck on each other, which will prevent your tame from escaping.

Weakness
The Rock Elemental is resistant to all forms of damage except for armor piercing bullets and explosives. Along with its great offensive capabilities, it offers the best protection against a Deathworm. However, it is rather difficult to tame a Rock Elemental. It is recommended to either have 2 high level Elementals or 1-2 High Level Rex(es). Rexes seem to be the best way as they do more DPS than Rock Elementals.

They only spawn at level 1, meaning they always have the same stats, including health and melee damage, hence a fight with them can be well calculated.

Deathworms cannot attack while burrowed allowing for a brief opportunity to apply Bleed with a Thylacoleo without risking damage

Roles

 * Resources: The Deathworms can not be tamed but they do provide bountiful resources like, , , the rare , and.
 * Suprise Attack:
 * Damage:

Notes/Trivia

 * Despite The Deathworms having mouths in the Scorched Earth Cover Art it never shows its mouth in game even when attacking or as a trophy mount/taxidermy.
 * It is also shown with its body mostly above the surface as if its slithering around similarly to a or . However, in game most of its body is always submerged in the ground and will never come out of the ground unless it's diving back into the ground to submerge itself completely.
 * In the Dossier for the Deathworm Helena states that due to a lack of prey, it would be impossible for Deathworms to exist. However, there is the possibility that they are a cannibalistic species and hunt one another when food is scarce, which would explain their biology and why they are untamable as they would be too ferocious to be controlled.
 * While this would seem like a far stretch, there are in fact animals in real life that display such behaviour and cannibalize one another when food is scarce (for example some species of Sharks such as the Hammerhead Shark).
 * Deathworms strangely resembles the Aphrodite Eunice (colloquially known as the Bobbit (t) worm)
 * This creature has striking similarities to an insect called antlion which employs a hunting strategy of creating pitfall traps within the sand to catch insects.
 * There is a small section of the dossier where this creature is referred to as "Lineus" ([Wikipedia:Lineus a genus of nemertine worms]), despite being referred to as "Khorkoi arrakis" in the rest of the dossier.
 * By using Orbit camera mode, one can look underneath the ground and locate Deathworms in the area more easily
 * Besides their horns, Deathworms are the only source of Leech Blood and AnglerGel in Scorched Earth aside from fishing.
 * It is also the only source of Black Pearls aside from the Phoenix, which which will rarely poop out Black Pearls instead of its normal Silica Pearls, though the Deathworm is a much more consistent method of harvesting.
 * The generic name "Khorkhoi" refers to an "Olgoi-Khorkhoi", better known as the [Wikipedia:Mongolian Death Worm Mongolian Death Worm], a cryptozoological creature that terrorizes the Gobi Desert and probably inspired ARK's Deathworm.
 * Unlike its mythological counterpart however it can't use electricity attacks or spew acid at its prey.
 * The term "Arrakis" in the creature's species name might refer to the planet Arrakis, a fictional desert planet pivotal to the events of the well known science fiction series Dune by Frank Herbert. It's worth mentioning that the planet Arrakis is inhabited by massive, carnivorous, burrowing sandworms that bear many similarities to the Deathworm.
 * It's possible to get stuck by the Deathworm as it surfaces to attack, especially when on a larger mount such as a Wyvern. You will be locked in place and unable to escape. Use extreme caution when traveling or even landing on the Outer Sands.
 * A Deathworm can destroy an adobe house in a matter of seconds. Caution is advised if you want to live in the desert surrounding the map.
 * It originally will shift its attention towards nearby tamed, but both and , both tamed from birth, are also mainly targeted by Deathworms due to the similar method as that of Wyverns.
 * Prior to v287.110, Corrupted Deathworms existed on Extinction, it is however unknown as to why they were removed.
 * Do not summon a tamed Deathworm, because after a few minutes, when fighting, will just be stuck in one spot, and unrelentingly attack one spot, so they don't do much.
 * Finding Death Worms can be hard but you can use your orbit cam/selfie cam to look under the mesh as you go over the terrain. Using a Pteranodon and a Giganotosaurus you can easily clear 5-10 horns and hour rotating between the spawn points. There are two spawn points right next to each other on Scorched Earth at approximately 55-90 on the ridge.
 * Deathworms are easily one of the largest creatures in the game with one being around as long as a.
 * On Ragnarok, you can sometimes lure one into the ocean to reveal their massive size, only a tiny portion of which is normally visible.
 * Their underground motion defies physics and quite frankly makes no sense. They travel facing straight downward, very rigid, looking like a giant spike thrust through the sand moving sideways through the ground. Their tail tip sits just below the surface, which causes the small bulge that follows players across the sand, then arch their body around to attack.
 * As of (2020-03-17) Alpha Deathworms do not grant exp to your chibi pets.
 * Although the Death Worm's mythological counterpart Mongolian Death Worm is a land animal that lives in the desert, the Death Worm's other counterpart the real world Bobbit Worm is an aquatic animal that lives in the ocean.
 * Unlike the Mongolian Death Worm that never existed the Bobbit Worm is a animal that is currently still exists to this day.
 * Corrupted Deathworms can still be spawned with a console commands on Extinction.

Lore
Based on research conducted by Helena, the Deathworm acts as a natural barrier to keep animals and humans inside the world which she knew to be a space station posing as a real ecosystem. The Island doesn't have this problem due to it being surrounded by water, which the "Scorched Earth" world lacks. Additionally, the huge population of large predators living in a wasteland devoid of prey confirmed her previous knowledge that her environments were artificial.