Hyaenodon

"The Hyaenodon laugh is pretty contagious. You guys will love these puppers, they're so cute."

- Jen

The Hyaenodon is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Hyaenodons are normally skittish if alone, running away when you get too close, unless you are injured. Once in a pack, their behavior massively changes, turning from skittish, to aggressive, and have a fairly big aggravation range.

Their Aggression is mainly dependent on Drag Weight and the type of prey they detect, for example a Lone Survivor will be subject to attacks from the pack. As such a will normally not be attacked by three Hyaenodons and they will flee, however if another one comes along and thus the grouped drag weight is amounted to a higher number than the Direwolf they will start attacking.

A group of two will never attack even if the Drag Weight of the enemy is lower.

Appearance
The Hyaenodon is a vicious, carnivorous pack hunter found in mountains and cold regions. They resemble modern hyenas.

Taming
The Hyaenodon is unable to be tamed through the standard tranquilize-and-feed methods, and must be tamed non-violently.

You do not use any type of food to tame the Hyaenodon. The game will prompt you to pet it every 30 seconds while crouching. However, it must be far enough from the leader in order to receive this prompt. Be sure to stay on top of this, the taming percentage will drop very quickly if you fail to pet within the following seconds.

You can create a taming cage using foundations and ceilings. You use the foundations to anchor the ceilings and make a hollow box in the center. Next add some walls and a ramp to make a more conventional taming trap. Lure the Hyaenodon into the trap and then you can crawl under the ceiling and pet it from there, making it far less likely to detect you. These wild pack Dino’s will spot you if you are not in ghillie armour.

Scaring it will cause it to lose all taming progress due to this both and  are highly recommended in addition if not using a pen or cage of some sorts a  can assist in relocating it should this occur.

Combat
They have low health and can be killed with a sword, a pike, or a tamed Dino; they pose no threat besides when they are in their packs. Usually they run away, though it depends on their pack size.

General
What a Hyaenodon lacks in singular strength, it makes up for in numbers and pack bonuses. Finding a single Hyaenodon in the wild is not likely, but will be easily frightened and begin running away. A small pack of 3 will wait to find easy, already injured prey. A pack of 6+ Hyaenodons will be more willing to attack on sight.

Strategy
Using big AoE attacks from a larger dino is perhaps the easiest way to deal with a pack. On foot, you'll want to find some kind of terrain advantage, a rock or cliff of some sort, to deal with them from safe range.

Weaponry
Ranged combat is advised from a safe location if you need to kill all of them. Accuracy will be critical, as their fast movement makes them hard targets. If all else fails, a pike will be your best friend. Its range, knockback, and rate of attack will benefit compared to the sword, unless a shield is used effectively.

Dangers
Hyaenodons like to swarm opponents with brute force to end a battle quickly. A large pack will still give higher level players something to fear. Be careful, every pack has an Alpha that hits harder than the others.

Hyaenodons will attack unconscious dinos.

Weakness
Hyaenodons have low health and will flee if they're opposed by multiple players with big creatures, or if some of them (especially the pack leader) are killed. They also have a huge turning radius.

A smaller pack will try to flee from Sabertooths of a higher level so you can easily reap them.

Utility
According to the dossier, the Hyaenodon will be capable of healing itself quickly via collecting meat from dead bodies. Additionally it has "saddle bags" craft-able for it, even though you cannot ride it. The bags allow the Hyaenodon to act as a living fridge, increasing the spoil timers of food placed in its inventory. With the saddle bag equipped, most items with a spoil timer last twice as long as they normally would in a creature inventory, 8x longer than the default spoil timer. Placing preserving salt inside a Hyaenodon's inventory which also has a saddle bag, has the potential to increase the spoil timer of applicable items to 16x longer than in a player inventory. Notably wyvern milk and organic polymer are not affected by the saddle bag's special ability.

Roles

 * Guard Dogs: Since Hyaenodons are small, quick, and deal a lot of damage in packs, they make excellent guard animals. You can set them on aggressive to guard a base or use them as a supplement while hunting for great results. (Level up health and damage in packs, and some speed for solo Hyaenodons). A pack of 6-8 level 200+ Hyaenodons can quickly kill a 130+ bronto. (Level Melee Damage and Health)
 * Cave Explorer: Hyaenodons excel at killing creatures found in caves. A pack of mate-boosted, self-healing Hyaenodons can help you fully retrieve an artifact, provided that they don't fall into lava. Additionally, extra food can be stored on them for long expeditions. (Level up health and melee damage)
 * Warpack: Combined with a few other small creatures, a pack of properly trained and higher-level Hyaenodons can take down creatures as big as Paraceratherium and Brontosaurus. (Level Health and Damage)
 * Traveling Pack: Because of their unique Hyaenodon Meatpack, they are almost a necessity for long voyages (especially across large maps like Ragnarok) and can improve your chance of survival, eliminating entirely the possibility of having to make a food stop. Also, other creatures will now have space freed up to carry other things. (Level Weight)
 * Damage: Hyaenodons deal large amounts of damage in small amounts of time and usually even more reliable of a killing machine than the or the.
 * Pet: Due to the Hyaenodon's similar look and sound of a dog, and is basic damn cuteness, it functions well as a pet.
 * Base Defense: Having a pack of Hyaenodons would be the one of the best early game Defences, due to their, Pack bonus, and agility they are a more reliable base defence dinos than other early game creatures such as the  or the.
 * Mutton Transport: The Hyaenodons harvest tons of and, and their  acts like a portable fridge,the Hyaenodon can also be picked up by small flyers such as the  or the  making it one of the best ways to transport Mutton for your dinos.

Notes/Trivia

 * The dossier was revealed on December 1, 2015.
 * In the Radial Menu a Hyaenodon can told to sit down and stand up
 * They can be pet as well seeming to give them an unknown buff/effect of some sorts sporting a orange glow.
 * The size of the Hyaenodons are very varied. It goes from the size close to the Direwolves of the game (Hyaenodon Gigas) to that of a weasel (Hyaenodon microdon). The size of the Ark Survival Evolved Hyaenodon is close to that of the Hyaenodon horridus.
 * In the game, the Hyaenodons look almost the same as hyenas as of now, even if they are not related.
 * The Northernmost sandy beach of The Western Coast (see the spawn map) is the best location to find Hyaenodon. They spawn frequently and in large packs there. The search zone is small and visibility is good.
 * It may be difficult taming a Hyaenodon because of their small size and constant movement. Avoid taming from behind as the tail wagging on the ground counts as a hitbox and will set them off.