Lystrosaurus

"They are like little puppies!"

- Jen

The Lystrosaurus (Liss-tro-sore-us) is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
The Lystrosaurus is passive. It will walk around aimlessly until attacked, at which point it will flee, albeit very slowly. A Lystrosaurus will attack if the player steals its egg.

Appearance
The Lystrosaurus is a stout mammal-like reptile often described as resembling a reptilian pig. Like wild pigs, they are usually seen snuffling the jungle floor for food using two small canine teeth and a small but strong beak. The Lystrosaurus's only true defense is their stealth, being small and quiet makes them incredibly difficult to find.

Taming
Note: Although the DevKit has data for taming with Vegetables, the Lystro doesn't accept these as food.

Taming Strategy
Lystrosaurus is tamed by hand-feeding rather than through the use of tranquilizers. To feed one you will need to place an appropriate food in the far-right slot of your hotbar and get close enough to the creature for the button prompt to appear. Lystrosaurus will take one piece of the food from your inventory and will play an eating animation. You must wait for the creature's hunger to go back down before it can be fed again, a process which takes some time, depending on the level and the food.

Combat
This section describes how to fight against the Lystrosaurus.

General
Killing a Lystrosaurus should be relatively easy and straight forward, comparable to fighting a dodo. Even a level 1 survivor can kill one with ease. Although keep in mind, it will attack if you steal it's egg

Strategy
Keep attacking it until it dies. The Lystrosaurus will attempt to run away, but it is relatively slow, and is easily caught up to.

Weaponry
Any kind of weaponry will do, even your bare hands will do the trick.

Weakness
The Lystrosaurus has low HP and is slow, even when running. It will also not attack you when harmed, it will flee instead.

Dangers
While not a threat themselves, Lystrosaurus will typically share its environment with other carnivores like Dilophosaurs. Lower level players should keep an eye out for potential threats in the area before attacking.

XP Boost
The Lystrosaurus' unique ability allows it to give tamed dinos an experience boost that lasts about 5 minutes. Simply walk up to and pet the Lystrosaurus to enable this buff. It will need to be pet again after the buff fades. For this reason, it's advised to have a Lystrosaurus follow you while you level up your pets. The buff multiplies all XP gains by 1.35.

If you want to use the experience boost with a larger dinosaur, it's recommended to use more than one Lystrosaurus because the buff range will increase with each one. To boost a Bronto put the Lystrosaurus as near as possible to the Bronto's front legs.

Another tactic is to use a Pteranodon to carry the Lystrosaurus.

Perhaps the best way to keep one with your party, however, would be to hit it with a Grappling Hook and reel it in real close.

Roles

 * XP Booster: When pet, a Lystrosaurus will boost XP gains from all nearby allied dinos, including other Lystros.
 * Egg Layer: Lystros lay eggs fairly quickly, which can be eaten, but the eggs can also be made into kibble for taming or for Imprinting.
 * Companion: Lystrosaurus is also just an all around cute companion to have in your base. (Level up Health so it's harder to kill)

Notes/Trivia

 * The dossier was revealed on 08/19/15
 * The Lystrosaurus' name translates to "Shovel Lizard".
 * This creature is small enough to pass, , , and (each including their doors).
 * A Lystrosaurus can be knocked out however it can not be tamed if they are knocked out.
 * The Lystrosaurus family survived the most severe extinction event known, the Permian–Triassic extinction event,